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Slovakia: An Overseas Property Investment Story of the Future

Jan 27

Posted by admin in Real Estate

Overseas property investors looking for the next emerging market should investigate Slovakia. The world bank in 2005 stated that Slovakia had the fastest transforming business economy and the trend is set to continue.

About Slovakia

Slovakia landlocked republic in Central Europe bounded by the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, and by Austria. Slovakia is modern European country with a deep rural tradition. Geographically, it is primarily a mountainous country with numerous winter activities. Bratislava is its capital and largest city.

Buying property in Slovakia an overseas property opportunity.

Overseas property investors looking for the next emerging market should investigate Slovakia. The world bank in 2005 stated that Slovakia had the fastest transforming business economy and the trend is set to continue.

Overseas buyers welcome in Slovakia

Slovakia lifted all restrictions on property acquisition on 1 May 2004. All foreign nationals can acquire real estate or land in Slovakia directly, without having to set up a company and have a local legal signatory. The minimum amount of equity required is generally 30% of the purchase price. Alternatively, you can use the equity in your existing property or simply arrange a loan at home.

Where to buy in Slovakia

Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital and largest city, is one of the rare places offering you exceptional capital growth potential AND increase in rental income at the same time. Quaint and jovial with a surprisingly rich cultural life, Bratislava is a capital city without the usual congestion. The High Tatras are a magnificent range of European mountains (only second to the Alps in elevation) dotted with villages with deep peasant traditions.

How to buy property in Slovakia.

Once you found your Slovakian property be prepared to part with a deposit of 10%. This is required by the buyer to start the buying process. A pre purchase agreement is signed by both parties. A surveyor will complete a report and provide this to the seller’s solicitor who will then prepare a contract of sale. It is important to have any agreement signed translated. The title deeds are then transferred to you after a period of about 4 weeks. Agents? fees are between 1.5 and 3 percent.

Slovakian Climate

Slovakia has a continental climate, with four distinct seasons. Winters are typically cold and dry, while summers tend to be hot and humid. The average daily temperature range in Bratislava is -3? to 2? C (27? to 36? F) in January and 16? to 26? C (61? to 79? F) in July; temperatures tend to be cooler in the mountains. Bratislava receives an average of about 650 mm (about 26 in) of precipitation annually. In areas of high altitude, snow is often present for as many as 130 days each year.

Travelling to Slovakia

Depending on the country you come from and the reason you come to Slovakia for, you may need an ID card, a passport or even a visa in order to enter Slovakia.

Citizens of the European Union should be able to travel with their ID card only. Contact embassy of the Slovak Republic in your country for more information.

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When Things Go Wrong

Oct 10

Posted by admin in Real Estate

Some say home inspectors are inconsistent because their reports identify some minor problems but not others. The minor details that are identified were probably discovered while looking for more significant items, and were noted simply as a courtesy. The intent of the inspection is not to find the $100 detail… it is to find the $1000 items. Some problems can only be discovered by living in a house. For example, some shower stalls leak when people are in the shower, but do not leak when you simply turn on the tap. If there are no clues of a past problem, one cannot presume that the inspector should predict a future problem.

The main source of dissatisfaction often comes from comments made by contractors, whose opinions may differ from that of the home inspector. Don\’t be surprised when three roofers all say the roof needs replacement when the home inspector said that, with some minor repairs, the roof would last a few more years. While the inspector\’s advice might represent the most prudent thing to do, many contractors are reluctant to undertake repairs. This is because of the \”Last Man In Theory\”. The roofing company fears that if they are the last people to work on the roof, they will be blamed if the roof leaks, regardless of whether the leak is their fault or not. They might not want to do a minor repair with high liability when they could re-roof the entire house for more money and reduce the likelihood of a call-back. This is understandable.

There is more to the \”Last Man In Theory\”. It suggests that it is human nature for homeowners to believe the last bit of \”expert\” advice they receive, even if it is contrary to previous advice. Home inspectors unfortunately find themselves in the position of \”first man in\” and consequently it is their advice which is often disbelieved.

\”I can\’t believe you had this house inspected, and they didn\’t find this problem.\”

There are several reasons for apparent oversights:

1. Home inspectors are generalists, not specialists. The heating contractor may have more heating expertise than the average home inspector. This is because home inspectors are also expected to have cooling, plumbing, roofing, structural and electrical expertise.

2. When a problem manifests itself, it is very easy to have 20/20 hindsight. Anybody can say that the basement is wet when there\’s 2 inches of water on the floor. Predicting basement dampness is a different story.

3. If the home inspector spent half an hour under the kitchen sink or 45 minutes disassembling the furnace, s/he could find more problems, too… but the inspection might take a few days, and would cost considerably more.

Food For Thought:

A home inspection is designed to better one\’s odds. It is not designed to totally eliminate all risk. A home inspection should not be considered an insurance policy.

The premium than an insurance company would have to charge for a policy with no deductible, no limit and an indefinite policy period would be considerably more than the average fee for a home inspection. It would also not include the value added by the inspection.

Gil Strachan is a professional home inspector, representing Electrospec Home Inspection Services in east-central Ontario, Canada since 1994. Visit http://www.allaroundthehouse.com to learn more about home inspections.

Writen By : Gil Strachan

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Watch For The Price Points

Oct 6

Posted by admin in Finance, Investing, Real Estate

Have you ever noticed how many prices aren\’t round figures?

Many shops use the tactic of ?9995, rather than ?10,000, as it sounds a lot less, even thought it\’s only a fiver less.

The daft thing is that people are taken in by this and once they\’ve heard the first figure, they don\’t always take account of the rest of the number.

Marks

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Don\’t Fight The Market

Oct 5

Posted by admin in Real Estate

I was watching a film the other day and one of the comments that really hit home was \’Don\’t fight the market\’.

Some of you may know the film \’Rogue Trader\’, which was based on the story of a futures trader in Singapore. The main character, Nick Leeson, was trying to manipulate the market, to his own advantage. Initially, his plan worked, but as time went on, the market moved away from him.

Instead of realising this, he attempted to recoup his losses by doubling his stakes, in the hope that his profits would double and therefore repay his losses.

Unfortunately, the market continued to move against him and his losses mounted to the point where he lost over ?300 million, causing the failure of one of the oldest banks in the UK.

In short, he was trying to fight the market forces, rather than learning how to make money in a rising, falling or static market.

In a way, most property investors are gambling on the future prices of the housing market.

At the moment, there\’s a lot of talk about the UK housing market and people have spoken of falls over the next year.

This has scared a lot of people and many are waiting for the market to re-adjust before spending their hard earned cash, preferring to hold their assets in other forms, like shares or bank deposit accounts.

Like any market, house prices are governed by the simple laws of supply and demand.

If more people want to sell than there are buyers, then prices will tend to fall.

Conversely, if there are more buyers than sellers, prices will tend to rise.

However, people become so short sighted that they fail to see the bigger picture.

If the market continues to fall, or is said to be falling, property will be cheaper to purchase and demand for rental properties will increase. (people tend to delay purchase until the market has bottomed out)

For investors this is great news, as you can get substantial discounts if you\’re prepared to move quickly.

If the market continues to fall, the answer is to keep the property until the market recovers, you just need to make sure that the rent covers the mortgage.

If the market is static, there tend to be more properties for sale, as people are more likely to find willing buyers and also be able to find property to move to.

For investors, they know what they will need to pay to buy a house and what they will receive in rent.

Given that there will be more properties on the market, they can afford to be more choosy and either pick the best, or those with motivated sellers.

If the market is rising, the investor knows that the value of their purchase will rise.

The real issue is that in Western society, we seem to have a short span of attention.

We have become so used to having everything on demand that people become impatient after a very short space of time.

I\’m as impatient as the next man, probably more, but we have to realise that some things take time. We don\’t expect a baby to talk after a few months, yet we look at the UK property market and investments on a monthly basis.

Anyone who invests in property should do so with the medium to long term in mind. We\’ve all seen the TV programmes with people trying to make a profit in 3 months, when really we should be looking at a minimum of between 3 and 5 years.

So if you\’re looking at something that should grow over 5 years, whay are we so fixated on the value after 3,6,9 or 12 months?

If you take a snapshot of the property market, there will be periods when it falls, but they usually follow periods of high growth. Even now, the annual average for the Uk housing market is 16.8% growth, and that\’s with 3 months of decline. Source – Halifax

However the real question is whether you want to buy when everyone else is buying, or would you rather cherry pick the deals when no-one else is buying?

Whatever you do, don\’t tell the popular press what kind of deals are out there, as it will give the game away!

Peter Stanley is an experienced property investor, who spent over 15 years working in the Finance industry, before finally seeing the light and changing from a part time to a full time property investor.

He spends his time showing people just how simple it is to invest in property from coaching them through the process, to offering a full property sourcing service.

For more information on Peter and investing in property, see http://www.propertymadesimple.com

Writen By : Peter Stanley

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Reasons Why Clients Back Out Of A Home Offer

Jun 29

Posted by admin in Finance, Real Estate

In the event the customer withdraws from home purchase, the earnest money deposit might still have to be returned if there is no contingency included within the contract that the client will exercise. When the seller agrees to the offer of the client and deposited the earnest money, the agreement becomes a legally binding contract. From this point the customer has an obligation to complete the purchase of property. But, the contract must outline any and each plausible reasons for which the contract will be cancelled officially.

One amongst the reasons home buyers back out of an offer has one thing to do with the home inspection report and its content. As a buyer, you would like to make sure the protection of your family in case the property has serious damages which may affect your family’s security and the property’s structural integrity. The contract should be dependent upon the results of the house inspection. The content of the home inspection report sometimes indicates the damages and flaws that can’t be visible during the particular visit to the home. You would possibly be extremely concerned with details, however solely a professional will apprehend the necessary areas to check throughout the inspection. In case safety and structural integrity becomes an issue, this will have negative impact on the agreement and consumers will use those as reasons to withdraw from home purchase.

If the inspection report shows the costs of repair would need a substantial quantity of money, patrons may lose interest in the property. Consumers can also back out of an offer to a home if the owner declines to repair any serious issues that appeared on the inspection or if the owner does not wish to negotiate after the result of the home inspection. If each parties can not compromise, it’s more doubtless that the deal is dead.

Others back out of an offer because of problems in financing. It is essential to get pre-approved for a mortgage loan to secure financing. But, you have to make sure that there’s a financing contingency if you’ve not obtained mortgage pre-approval. This will allow you to get your deposit back when you back out of the offer.

Generally the buyer discovers that the house has many liens or encumbrances when making the offer and this would be another reason to back out of the offer. The title company can typically provide you the knowledge whether or not the house has tax issues and loan liabilities. See to it that the contract has an out clause in case any of those potential issues surface at some point. Making sure of this will offer you protection and avoid losing the money you deposited.

You will lose your earnest money if you are trying to back out of an offer on a home while not a legitimate reason. Much worse, the seller can sue you to cover the expenses he/she incurred after you withdraw from the home purchase. Create positive you cowl yourself through contingencies within the contract thus when one thing comes up during the home purchase you’ve got legitimate reasons that you can use to back out of an offer on a home.

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Simple Guide On Getting Your Security Deposit Back

Jun 10

Posted by admin in Real Estate

Among the most commonly contested arguments between a landlord and a tenant is the security deposit when you progress from a rental property. The security deposit may be a certain quantity of cash left with the landlord when a tenant moves in to guarantee that the tenant can not damage or otherwise wash up the landlord’s property. When the tenant moves out, the landlord can examine the property and verify if the security deposit will be returned in full, or partially, or not at all. This is primarily based on how well the property was taken cared of.

Write down every single scratch and chips you come across. Nothing is just too small, as a result of this you allow the owner to charge you for this stuff if you do not write them down. Be very detailed and even take some pictures if you can.

When checking the property, be certain that you check the things that aren’t obvious. Check the heating and cooling function. Ensure that the vents are working. Make certain that the faucets and toilets work properly. All of these things are vital not solely when you move in, but also when you leave and get your security deposit back.

Be completely sure that you put a date on the list, and talk about it with your landlord. You’ll need to be certain that the landlord agrees with all the things listed, which need to sign as well. Once you have yours and your landlord’s signature, then need to create copies. Give one copy to the owner, and you retain the original. This manner you and landlord enter into legal contract. No matter happens, don’t lose this list. You’ll need it when most once you move out and it could prevent losing money in the end.

If you follow these basic steps to obtaining your security deposit back, then you ought to not have any real troubles when you move out. This can be assuming after all, that you did not do any more harm to the property. Build sure that you and the owner do your final walk through the house before you truly leave the property as well.

Usually disputes arise regarding issues that happened once you moved out. By doing a final walk through and getting your landlord’s signature saying the property is in fine condition, you are protecting your security deposit. It’s perpetually better to keep the forms mentioned above for the next 3 years.

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Is Rent-To-Own Beneficial?

Jun 5

Posted by admin in Investing, Real Estate

In the real estate market today, rent to own has become typically common. Often it suggests that you are to rent or lease a property for an amount of time with one addition: you can opt to buy the house or property you are renting. If you are searching for a brand new home, this deal might give you several benefits. Assume of it in this manner, a rent to own can surely work for you since whenever you opt to purchase the property, you’re already settled in it and you are need not spend additional money on moving costs. You’ll consider the money spent on the rent as your monthly investment to a home that may soon be yours and therefore the deed can be in your name.

Several house owners and real estate investors have started providing rent to purchase opportunities and in the past year, there was a considerable increase in this area.

You’ll see a lot of signs in front of either homes that state that you may “lease to buy” or “rent to own” the home. Now, you may be wondering if this can be something that can work for you. A lease to own may have many structure options, most contain these sorts of things:

- A rent credit is sometimes applied towards the purchase price, only if you exercise your choice to buy the home. The Rent Credits aren’t actual money in a bank account, however it’s a fund essential in lessening the purchase price or for use for the prices of closing.

- In this kind of rental agreement, you would be paying the rent simply like all normal rent. All the standard items are applicable, like fees for late payments and failure to pay may result in an eviction.

- You’ll have an option payment. This is often conjointly referred to as the down payment, an upfront fee to the owner or the caretaker of the property. This payment is credited to the purchase price of the property and in most cases, non-refundable in case you do not exercise your option to purchase the house.

- Option price is the purchase value of the property. This will be stated within the lease agreement between you and the owner of the property.

The Benefits of a Rent to Own for You:

1. The average monthly payment and down payment is lower compared to different types of owner financing. Additionally, you are don’t have the responsibilities of ownership till you bring your own financing.

2. Choosing a rent to own home could be a ton easier than different sorts of owner financing. There are several rent to buy options out there since they’re easier to structure and understand. Most rent to own terms has a minimum of 12 months, 24 months and some as long as 48 months. This should be enough time for you to have your credit issues resolved.

3. During a lease to own, you’re not obliged to purchase the property, keep in mind that this is often an option available to you should you want to purchase the home you are renting. In most situations, this will be helpful for you. Rather than throwing rent out the window, it is preferable to get rental credits and a locked in purchase price. This can be conjointly a sensible investment and you and your family is assured of owning the property rather than looking for elsewhere to live when the term expires.

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