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A rental property can provide you with a steady stream of income each month and allow you to invest in something that might later go up in value, too. While buying a rental property is an appealing way to invest, you should be aware of the potential costs and the work required once you have a tenant in place. With that in mind, consider your costs, potential income, and the amount of work you’re willing to put into property management before you take the plunge and invest.

Will You Make Any Money?

When you purchase a rental property, you have some built-in costs—the mortgage, taxes, property management costs, and more. When these are accounted for, can you charge a reasonable rent and still make money?

This point matters most to those who need a functional, operational rental and monthly income to cover the cost of the investment. If you are buying a property simply to enjoy an increase in value over time, you may not be as concerned about monthly income.

If you need money to pay the bills, though, then you should determine what the proposed rental will cost you annually (with a cushion). You will then need to charge tenants to break even, or better yet, earn a profit.

A look at your local real estate market should give you a good idea of what the home or property you are considering rents for. If it is already a rented property, then the owner should be able to provide you with concrete details about income and costs.

How Will You Buy the Property?

If you are buying a single property home for investment purposes, a conventional mortgage can be used, but if you are investing in a multi-family property, you’ll need a commercial loan. Commercial loans work differently than regular mortgages, so you’ll need to understand how they work and know what to expect from the process.

You should determine what amount you’ll need to put down and how much the home will cost you each month—you’ll need these figures to determine if the rental ROI will be where you need it to be, too. If the mortgage and property costs are going to have too much of an impact on your budget, it may be better to wait until you save up some additional funds to serve as a cushion, just in case a tenant fails to pay or an extensive repair is needed.

Do You Want to Be a Property Manager?

Investing in property is just the start; to generate cash, your rental will need to have some tenants. You need to decide if the everyday tasks associated with owning a rental unit are right for you. It’s okay if they are not—you can hire a dedicated property manager—but you should be aware that any rental property that has tenants will need an investment of time and money. Here are two basic options:

DIY: When you take this approach, you handle the work of finding and retaining tenants yourself; you are also responsible for repairs, maintenance, and other issues. When a toilet overflows in the middle of the night, when the tenant in 2A can’t get along with 2B, or when a rental home is unexpectedly vacated, you’ll be the one to take the phone call and clean up the mess.

Hire a Manager: A business or individual can manage the property for you and field those late-night phone calls. They can also help find qualified tenants, fix what goes wrong, and serve as an intermediary between you and your tenants. Property managers do cost money, but they free up your time and allow you to focus on your own life and investments.

You’ll need to determine which management approach works best for you before you invest in a rental property.

Learning more about the potential risks and considerations of buying a rental property can help you make the best possible investment and ensure you get the ROI you need from your purchase.

Author Bio 

Patrick Freeze is the President of Bay Management Group, which manages about 4,000 units in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The company is overseeing more than $700 million worth of real estate as of October 1st, 2018.

Do you know what would happen to your money, property and possessions if you died without making a will? For most of us, writing will content isn’t high on our list of priorities. But if you knew what could happen when you die without making a will, you would realise that it could be one of the most important things you ever do.

Dying without leaving a will – which is known as dying intestate – has some very serious consequences, which all too often, people are unaware of. The intestacy laws which exist in the UK determine what happens to a person’s estate when they die intestate. These are strict rules which dictate who may inherit from a person in the absence of a will. And they may not operate in quite the way you assume they would.

The rules on who can inherit from you if you die without leaving a will, all depend on your marital status. What applies to a single person, doesn’t apply to a married person, and doesn’t also apply to those who are in a relationship, but not married. The following is what happens to your estate when you die without a will:

Some things you should know about intestacy

When you die without leaving a will behind, the only thing you can be guaranteed is that the laws of intestacy take effect. Intestacy just means you died without making a will.

Under the rules of intestacy, it is usually only a spouse who can inherit from you. If you do not have a spouse at the time of your death, then children, parents, siblings and a few other relatives are entitled to your money but the order in which they inherit is strictly determined by law, and is laid out below. If no surviving relatives can be found, including distant relatives, the government takes possession of your estate.

Whilst under the laws of intestacy your property might be shared to your relatives, it might not be in the way you would have done it, or to relatives you would not have chosen. It’s important to understand how the law would divide up your estate if you were to die without making a will. It is also especially important to understand how dying intestate affects a surviving partner if you are in a relationship, but not married.

Here are some of the most common scenarios:

INTESTACY AS A SINGLE, UNMARRIED PERSON

If you are unmarried and have no children, your money is automatically given to your parents, if they survive you, along with all of your property. In cases where both of your parents are no longer alive at the time of your death, your siblings are next in line to receive the proceeds of your estate. This also includes any half-siblings.

The money or property will be divided among them in equal parts, no matter how many beneficiaries there are. If you are not survived by parents, siblings or children of your siblings, then your mother’s closest relatives get half of the money or property, while the closest surviving relatives from your father’s side get the other half.

The last condition to this is that if you die and are survived by children, then the entirety of your money and estate goes to your children. All will have an equal share of your money and property. If they are no longer alive, then your inheritance would be passed to any surviving children that they had (your grandchildren). If you had two or more children, and one dies before you, and that child has a child or children, then the children of your child, as well as your other surviving children get the money, divided equally between them.

INTESTACY AS A MARRIED PERSON

Married partners or civil partners inherit everything you leave under the rules of intestacy, if your estate is worth up to £250,000. Note however that this only applies if you were actually married or in a civil partnership at the time of death. That means that divorced ex-partners have no rights to inherit from you under the rules of intestacy.

If however, there are surviving children and your estate is valued at more than £250,000, then your spouse or civil partner will inherit the first £250,000 of your estate, and all of your personal property and possessions, and half of the value of the remaining estate. The other half of your remaining estate after the first £250,000 has been taken out, goes to your children, divided equally between them.

INTESTACY FOR AN UNMARRIED PERSON IN A RELATIONSHIP

Most of the laws of intestacy have no provision for those who are unmarried, no matter how long they have been together, and no matter whether they have children together or not.

It should be noted however, that in the case of jointly-owned property, if both partners owned property or a bank account together then the remaining partner would automatically become the sole owner of the home or money that was previously jointly owned.

Despite this, it can be particularly distressing and heartbreaking for grieving partners to discover that they have no share or access to their partner’s money or possessions, when it is too late to do anything about it.

Writing a will is the easiest way to prevent this circumstance from occurring. Writing a will allows you to name whoever you like to inherit from you and ensure that your loved ones are taken care of after your death in the way you would like.

The importance of having a will cannot be understated. It allows you to take control of your estate and ensure that those you most wish to benefit from your estate after your death will be able to do so, without having to fight for it in the courts. Making a will is easy and needn’t cost a lot of money. Seek advice from a solicitor or professional will writing service if you don’t feel confident drafting your own will, as they are the experts when it comes to ensuring your final wishes become legally binding.

No matter what kind of business you run or which industry you operate in, there are always opportunities for you to save money. But for too many businesses, saving money quickly becomes a punishment game where employees and middle management shoulder the blame for systemic weaknesses in the way a business operates. Reducing costs and maximizing profitability should always be a concern for a modern business.

Here are some simple ways that you and your business can reduce your expenditures and ensure that you are keeping as much of what you earn as you can.

Get Smart With Your Marketing

A common mistake made by many businesses is to think that their marketing is a problem best solved by throwing enough money at it. In fact, you can utilize many of the most effective marketing methods out there without having a huge amount of money to spend on it.

Viral content, for example, can explode in popularity and become self-sustaining. If many of the viewers of your marketing are then showing it to their friends, they are doing your job for you. The best part is that you only need to pay for the creation of the initial content. Your audience will do the rest.

Always Be Cutting

No matter what your business is or how much of a stickler you are for efficiency, we can all but guarantee that there are some cost-cutting measures that you could take. Even small savings add up over time, so always be on the lookout for cost-cutting opportunities.

When you need new supplies, small or large, make sure that you shop around for options. For example, if you are renovating or upgrading part of your business and need some more space, it often makes more sense to use steel buildings, rather than renting expensive real estate. Through businesses like Armstrong Steel, you can buy prefabricated steel versions of most buildings. You can look here for more information about the buildings they offer and how much they will cost per square foot.

Reconsider Your Real Estate

This one very much depends on the kind of business you are in, but some people have little choice about where they work. However, for many people, a change in location can mean some pretty significant savings.

If you run a retail business or a business where the customers come to your premises, you will obviously need to think carefully before making any drastic decisions. But, regardless of the business you run, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that this is something beyond your control – it rarely is.

Once you start looking for ways of reducing your overheads and cutting costs, you may well find yourself going from thinking that your business is already operating efficiently to having a whole binder full of potential new cost-cutting measures. Don’t just make this a one-off thing that you do in response to unfavorable financial conditions. Instead, make cost-cutting a core component of your corporate ethos and encourage workers at all levels of your business to get involved.

It used to be that graduating students with large amounts of student loan debt were told to forget purchasing a home until after they’d paid down their debt. Still others were told to wait until they’d built up years of work history, delaying the initial purchase of a home for years. Today, however, more and more millennials are finding it possible to qualify for a mortgage while paying off student loan debt. How?

They Have Good Credit

Credit scores range anywhere from 350 to 850, with anything below 600 considered a poor score. Most mortgage lending programs, even those that are federally funded for first-time buyers, look for scores of at least 620. Those with excellent credit, above about 750, will stand an even higher chance of securing a mortgage with student loan debt.

If your credit score may be an issue, follow these steps to move toward improving it:

● Check your score – you can’t fix your score unless you know what it is. Examine your report and notify the credit bureau of any errors immediately.

● Address any delinquencies – it’s important you address delinquencies immediately. If possible, pay the account off entirely.

● Set up auto-pay – setting up auto-pay features for all your debts will ensure each payment is made on time. Building a lengthening history of paying every debt on time each month makes you much more attractive to lenders.

● Avoid applying for new credit that may go unused – applications are typically a ding on your credit, so even if you don’t intend to use the upper limits of a new card, it may hurt your score.

● Don’t close paid accounts – credit cards you’ve paid off can positively affect your credit score. If you are not using all of your available credit, open, empty credit cards can be helpful.

They Have a Lower Debt-to-Income Ratio

Debt-to-income (DTI) ratio is calculated as your monthly debt payments compared to your monthly income. If you are paying off a student loan in addition to credit card debt, you’ll need a relatively high monthly income to offset the amount of debt you’re carrying. Lenders will focus on your debt-to-income ratio to determine if you can afford another debt – your mortgage – in addition to what you’re already carrying. Paying off credit cards or student loans and maximizing your earning potential can help on both fronts.

You can also consider consolidating debt with a personal loan. If you have a great deal of credit card debt, you likely have a variety of higher interest rates. A personal loan is a stable debt rather than revolving debt like a credit card, and reflects positively on your credit history. You’ll likely receive a lower rate in addition to freeing up available credit.

They’ve Secured Employment in Their Field

Lenders will consider your employment history to determine if you have the steady income required to continue to make mortgage payments. If you’ve recently graduated, you may not have the recommended two years of steady employment. However, underwriters will often consider a move from college straight into gainful employment in your chosen field a substitute for part of your employment history.

They’ve Refinanced or Restructured Student Loans

When lenders look at your debt-to-income ratio, student loans are among the debts they’ll consider. If your payments are unwieldy, consider applying for an income-driven repayment plan through the U.S. Department of Education. These plans consider your income and often provide a lower payment than the typical graduated repayment program. If your income increases, you can increase your repayment to ensure you continue to pay down your loans.

Another solution that can lower your monthly payments is refinancing your student loans. Loans refinanced through banks or other institutions typically carry lower interest rates and lower monthly payments than the original federal loans. As with other loans, you’ll need to consider your creditworthiness, income, and debt-to-income ratio.

They’ve Qualified for Down Payment Assistance

Though the traditional down payment is 20% or more, several programs exist to reduce your down payment in order to speed up the homebuying process for those with student loan and other debt. For example, FHA loans by the Federal Housing Authority offer a much lower percentage – 3.5% for those with credit scores in the 600s and above, and 10% for those in the 500s. HomeReady loans targeted at first-time home buyers offer even lower down payment terms of around 3%.

Find a lender that works with these and other first-time home buyer and down payment assistance programs. Many lenders do not offer zero down payment, but still offer a variety of other loan types that could meet your needs. Obviously, if you have the means to provide a 20% down payment, you’ll lower the principal on your loan, but these assistance programs can put buying your first home within your grasp.

Today’s millennials with student debt are qualifying for mortgages, and chances are, you can too. Overall, pay close attention to your credit score and making your payments on time. Keep your other debt low, and ask your lender about assistance programs that may be available to you. Finally, if you’re in the market for a home, get pre-approved first to see just how much home you can afford. Then, if you find the home of your dreams, you’ll know you can move forward, even while you’re paying off your student loan debt.

Information is provided by Sammamish Mortgage, a Premiere Mortgage Company in Pacific Northwest including WA, ID, OR, CO.

There are several retirees who are of the opinion that they won’t be able to obtain a loan just because they don’t get a salary any longer. Although it is true that it can be tougher to qualify for loans during retirement, yet it is not at all impossible. You must have been saving in your retirement accounts like your Roth IRA or 401(k) accounts but something that you should avoid is borrowing from these accounts. This can have an adverse impact on your savings and also on the income that you fall back on during your retirement. There are several kinds of online loans and offline ones which can save you from a financial setback even during retirement. Read on to know more on this.

Borrowing during retirement – How do you qualify?

When you’re self-funded, lenders will typically decide the monthly income utilizing 2 different procedures which are as follows:

• Asset depletion: In this technique, the lender will subtract the down payment from the entire and sum total of the value of your fiscal assets and then take 70% of the remainder amount and then divide by 360 months.
• Drawdown of assets: The regular monthly amount that you withdraw from your retirement accounts in the form of income will be taken into account.

Retiree loan borrowing options

Secured loans are still easier to borrow as you can set collateral against the loan but as long as unsecured loans are concerned, they’re tough for a retiree to borrow as there is no collateral to assure timely payment and hence the interest rates will also be pretty high. Here are few loan options combining secured and unsecured.

MORTGAGE LOAN

The most common kind of secured loan is definitely a home loan which carries your home as collateral. However, the income of the retiree is a major setback, more so when most of your income comes from savings or investment earnings.

CASH-OUT REFINANCE LOAN

When you refinance your existing loan with an amount that is more than what you owe and less than the value of your home, this is called cash-out refinance loan. The extra amount that you make is the secured cash loan. This will also extend the time that it take to repay your mortgage loan.

DEBT CONSOLIDATION LOAN

As the name suggests, a debt consolidation loan is only designed to consolidate debt. It is more like refinancing your current debt. This will mean paying off the debt throughout a longer period of time with lower payments. The new interest rate that you pay may be lower than your present rate or may not be.

PAYDAY LOANS

Anyone including retirees can qualify for unsecured short term loans like payday loans. You may check out websites like www.PaydayMe.com to get short term loans during an emergency when you’re sure that money will come in again with which you can repay the existing payday loan on time.

Therefore, when you’re a retiree who is thinking of ways in which you can fund your emergencies, you can take into account the above mentioned options.