For seasoned investors, what I’m about to tell you is nothing new, but often comes a surprise for newer investors.  In general, cash cow properties will not be prettiest property on the block, but running a successful real estate portfolio comes down to at least covering the monthly and unforeseen expenses.  “Aligator” properties as we call them, or negative cash flow properties take from investors bank account every month, opposed to contributing to it.  Some investors, are fine with this due to future appreciation, or because they plan to use the property as a vacation home.  This is commonly seen in higher priced markets such as California or New York.

For the average investor, a portfolio that produces a consitant negative cash flow, could inhibit their desired lifestyle, or even cause forecloses.  This is a problem that is currently plauging our country after so many homeowners lost significant value in their real estate portoflios.  The average investor is not able to take a 20% or more decline on their real estate portfolio and continue to make high mortgage payments on properties commanding lower rental amounts.  Do not make the mistake of buying a property on emotion opposed to the numbers and later regret your decision.  It generally takes a lot of good decisions to build wealth, but one poor decision can destroy a lot of wealth.

So how can real estate investors best protect themselves from getting into an alligator property?  The Lucrative Investor team has several measures and approaches it uses when analzying prospective deals.  One of the pillars that we use is price to rent ratio.  In general, if a property is priced at $150,000, we ideally want the property to command at least $1,300 to $1,400 a month in rent.  Investors in an ideal world would have a 1 to 1 price to rent ratio, where their property would command $1,500 a month in rent or more.  This is one general figure that indicates a strong factor for positive monthly cash flow.

Monthly expenses will make or break your prospective deal.  We pull our monthly numbers by acting as a renter our self.  What are comparable rents on craigslist for the area?  What is the average quotes from 3 to 5 property management companies that are located locally (we act as a renter opposed to a prospective owner because these companies want your business and often tell you what you want to hear opposed to the reality).  Beyond what the rental rate is, what will it cost to insure the property?  This can also be done by calling 3 to 5 insurance companies with an address and obtaining a written quote.  The same principal applies to taxes.  Call the assors office and figure out the property trends and taxes for the few previous years.

Conducting the proper due diligence will take some time, but it is time well spent to prevent yourself from adding an alligator property.  Once you have all of your numbers accurately estimated, simply run the math and decide if you can live with these monthly numbers and build a nice buffer account for any unforeseen expenses.

Evaluating real estate is pretty simple in principal and fairly stable and safe if the correct procedures are taken to calculate the cash flow.  After the first few times it will become easy to you and allow you to assemble a strong real estate portfolio that meets your desired cash flow needs.

So if a single family home rents better and usually commands more in rent, why not buy single family homes every time?  Well, unless significant down payments are made, single family homes do not tend to cash flow as strong as mutli family due to higher price per square foot.  Also, in general single family homes command a lot more hands on attention than multi-family investments.

The Lucrative Investor team has had a lot of experience with investors and single family homes, which has been positive for the investor, but also negative.  The hands on investor who is very selective and hires the right property management company (if they do not live near by, which is usually the case) can do very well for themselves and enjoy the monthly cash flow.  Investors who are too busy, or do not want to be hands on in the process usually do not do very well.  Many investors have had to learn the hard way that hoping quality renters come and stay does not work!

Successful single family home owners have learned that good tenant relationships and up keep of their property will help lead to a profitable endeavor.  There is a fine balance between making an investment property too nice and not getting a return on your money, but also having a low rent place that will be difficult to lease in a competitive market.  The best way we have found when evaluating a rental property is to put yourself in the tenants shoes.  Sounds like common sense, but often investors will chose better home amenities or lower priced properties because they think it will cash flow better, instead of purchasing a property for more money where they would actually want to live.

When purchased correctly, single family homes can be a great way to build wealth and a cash flowing real estate portfolio.  The key to success is to fully evaluate your prospective property and compare it to other rental properties in the market to ensure that your property will be a desirable rental and also attract the type of tenant that you feel comfortable working with.

Over the internet, it can be difficult to decide who to trust when it comes to learning about trading and investing. Your investments are the goal to your financial success and so you should definitely spend some time to find out exactly what you’re getting yourself into when you decide to invest. You should never invest blindly, with little knowledge of the market, or by going on the opinion of one person.

Forex Training Courses are important if you are looking into getting into trading foreign currency. With the right training and coursework, you can take something that seems as complicated as trading currency and even futures contracts and turn it into something you can excel in.

The Training Academy has been the most trusted name in professional trader education since 1997 and along with online courses offered by the company, it also offers on location training and courses. This is different than most training courses because many places that offer online classes are simply that, just online classes. With several locations throughout the country and worldwide, the Training Academy can offer in-person help to any students who may ask for it.

When looking around the internet, you may find plenty of places to get Forex trading information or find companies that have courses and training for all kinds of investing, but who would you rather pay; the company that has a proven track record or one that offers classes only online?

Services Section: – We’re proud to announce the launch of the Business Services section where we can offer consulting, marketing and public relation services starting at only $20. Get the same results and experience of larger firm for a fraction of the cost.

Chris Offers:
Webmasters can get a complete Website Overhaul Analysis(Complete Site Structure, SEO, and Marketing Analysis of (1) website) for only $99.

Business & Website Consulting – $35 per hour
Business & Website Marketing Consulting – $35 per hour
Business & Website Marketing Services – $35 per hour

Jennifer Offers:
Marketing Services – Starting at $20 per hour
Public Relations Services including Press Releases
Writing Services

Special First Time Bonus:
For a limited time all orders received before Sept 15 will save an additional 25% off when mentioning ad code: Anniversary. For customers with orders totaling over $100(after applied coupons) may elect to receive a free Promotional Ad.

Visit the Services section of our website for more information at http://www.thelucrativeinvestor.com/services/.

What you can learn from this ebook

We’ve spent a lot of time cruising the websites of brokerage companies and we sympathize with you wholeheartedly. Many of the websites just don’t flow in a logical manner. Some are short and sweet, packed with great information about the company’s products and services. Others spend many pages saying virtually nothing that will help an investor make a decision about which broker is right for him. And one discovery we did make-from the number of pages we had to search to summarize the cost of doing business with them was that the majority of brokerage sites really want you to work hard to ferret out their commissions and fees!

In this report, we have selected 20 firms that offer an array of products for investors at any experience level, several of whom offer both Web-based and software-based trading.

1. The banks are really in survival mode, but they will never admit it.

I recently switched banks. Every single bank I walked into told me they were in good shape. Wow. In an economy that caused some people to commit suicide, every bank in Maryland was in good shape? Amazing! I did a little research and I found out that all but one were lying through their window bars. I started with Wachovia. The account management official told me that Wachovia was in great shape and ahead of the game. (I researched that claim and found out they had recently obtained a bank in the west coast that came with millions of dollars worth of sub prime mortgages and were currently in negotiations with Wells Fargo before collapsing.)

I walked into First Mariner Bank, local to Maryland, and found one teller who was bored out of her mind playing pin-the-tail-on-my-text-messages, so I walked right back out. When I walked into Provident Bank, also local here, there were boxes on desks and I was told they were bought by M&T Bank, also a local bank and sponsor of the Baltimore Ravens. The courtesy Ravens stadium blanket they give you for starting a checking and savings account is folded up in my dresser at home. I was so impressed there I switched my business accounts over too.

2. This is only the beginning of inflated fees.

If you are anything like me, you have gotten more notices than ever from your bank, often included in your statement envelope, about “changes to your account.” Those changes are fees, my friends. The fee you pay for an overdraft is likely at least $35. If you are part of the majority of bank clientele, you are flirting with $40. It is likely that your free account has been changed to “basic”, which secretly comes with fees. Your savings account fee for a low balance has changed from $3 to $5, or, like my last bank, from $11 to $15. (Now you see why I decided to leave.)

3. Interest rates change constantly.

If you are anything like the majority of consumers, the interest rate on your savings account has gone down, and any adjustable rate loan you are paying has adjusted you into poverty. Whether or not you have done anything wrong, you can have impeccible credit and one day receive a notice that your APR has gone from, say, 12% to 27% and your only option is to cancel the card and pay it off at the old rate. (President Obama has begun to rally against unfairly changing rates.)

4. If you’re not a student, your bank doesn’t care.

College campuses are a gold mine for banks. Some students have the option of getting student IDs that double as debit cards, courtesy of bank that is really hoping a few plastic spenders will have a few overdraft fees. Do you spend responsibly? Was your last overdraft 22 years ago when they called it “bouncing a check?” Your bank hates you. You make them a maximum of 3% of the money you put in your savings account and nothing on your checking account because they cannot invest it and have to leave it available to cover checks. You aren’t even worth the free checks anymore.

5. In debt? The courts will not help you.

Have you ever signed an “arbitration agreement?” I signed one a couple of years ago when I took out a small loan. What it does it mean? Well, it means you cannot sue, for any reason. If they raise your rates, charge you early, or do anything, you must see their arbitration mediator that is in their pocket. Even identity theft victims find themselves subject to arbitration agreements that make their situation three times worse than a stolen identity. You can find a lawyer, but you will be reduced comic relief that lightened his day.

6. Your bank is more excited about your trip to London than you are.

If you use a foreign ATM, your bank alone (not counting the foreign bank) will charge you upwards of $7 for a foreign currency transaction and using a competitor’s ATM. Visa and Mastercard charge 1% of the transaction for converting currency. Check and see if any of your cards, for instance, Capital One, waives the foreign currency fee. Also check and see if your bank has an agreement with a foreign bank it has good relations with to waive customary fees.

7. For all the fine print, banks sure leave a lot of things out. Everything you should really know is nowhere to be found.

Banks hand you all sorts of meaningless paperwork with lots of fine print. The Government Accountability Office sent investigators around to many banks to test their information disclosure. One-third of them failed the test, leaving out information altogether or informing the person after ten minutes and with a little prodding. More than half did not disclose information on their websites or brochures. Consumers just have no idea what they are signing up for until two years later when they are at home receiving letters that make them use four-letter words.

8. Your money is better off anywhere else, maybe even under your mattress.

Banks offer savings accounts, CDs, IRAs — all sorts of ways to invest your money. Unfortunately, most savings accounts offer no more than .5% interest. Even in this economy, you can find places as high as 3% to put your money. I wouldn’t mind multiplying my interest by five, would you?

9. When it comes to banks, smaller is better.

I am part of a small bank. After five years with a semi-national bank and a year with a regional bank, I decided that smaller banks were the right way to go due to more personalized service, lower fees, and higher interest rates. I was right. Even though larger, nationalized banks have more convenience and more ATMs to choose from, they make 54% of their revenue from fees while smaller banks make 28%. Also with low overhead, they can offer higher interest rates for interest baring accounts and lower maintenance and problematic fees. Somehow with low fees and higher interest rates, my bank still has enough money to sponsor the Baltimore Ravens — so much so that the Ravens’ stadium is named M&T Bank Stadium.

10. Your online account information is probably inaccurate.

If you are like me, you used your bank card to buy gas, sent two checks out in the mail and deposited a check in your account, all of which are currently pending. With a good online account system, that gas purchase is holding for $1.00 and will only show the true amount when it posts. Let’s say your balance before those transactions is $1,219.48. (I’m making these figures up.) You just bought $45.28 of gas for your Ford Expedition at Exxon. You went to Wal-Mart and bought $62.48 worth of hair care products, office supplies and clothing. You stopped at the post office and sent out a $65.72 cell phone payment and an $800 payment for rent. Before arriving at home, you deposited a $600 check. You just checked your bank information online like you do every couple of days and it said you have $1,218.48 in the bank. You liked how that looked so you bought a $350 Pez dispenser on eBay.

Oops. Your gas held for $1.00 if you’re lucky. If you keep your checkbook accurate, you know that your balance before the deposit, which will probably post last, was $246.00 and you wouldn’t have bought that pez dispenser until the deposit cleared. You will likely overdraw and a $38 fee will come out of that deposit when it posts, leaving you only with $458. It is a good idea to check your online statement, daily if possible, to safeguard yourself from identity theft, but keep your checkbook accurate and spend from that balance, not your online balance.

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Stay tuned, we will have many new features coming in the next few weeks.

I have to say, though, I don’t quite understand the appeal of Twitter. Around the internet people are saying that they use Twitter to “network” and it’s “like an instant messaging/Myspace.” But, with Myspace and Facebook both having update boxes now where you can keep “tabs” on your friends, Twitter seems obsolete.

So my question is, do you use it? If so, why?

I don’t know if it could get worse for some, but we’re going to be optimistic!

Goodbye 2008, here’s to 2009!

We want to wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday season filled with plenty of cookies and happy memories…even in these hard financial and economical times.

Merry Christmas!

Now, I thought this was a little odd at first, I mean office supplies and poultry aren’t exactly what I would call complimentary products. Then I thought, well I guess almost everyone eats turkey around the holidays. My husband’s family will eat turkey for no occasion at all, my family only eats it on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So, if you’re going to be spending the money at Office Depot online, here’s the link for the turkey coupon. Happy Holidays from Lucrative Investing!

Turkey Coupon from Office Depot

For the most part I put people on a safe path towards a desired yearly return with an acceptable risk level based on their comfort level and financial goals. However, I am constantly reminding people that investing is about profiting, so why are they limiting themselves to just one market. Everyone knows something: a hobby, a trade, a skill, a way of life. However, not many people have the confidence to pursue this type of investment. Alternative as it might be, sometimes the best investment for people is not the stock market, but in a carefully laid out investment in themselves.

It’s no secret that one of the most profitable investments is starting a business. There’s an old saying “Those with wealth invest, those with knowledge create.” People usually find themselves on either end of the spectrum, some even in the middle. The point is, why are you not investing in one of the best vehicles for your dollar?

The sad fact is that most people either do not have the drive to motivate themselves to start a business or lack the knowledge in the field of business they wish to enter. True, starting a business can be a daunting task, capable of sucking away most of your time. Estimates range that a new business owner’s weekly workload can average around 50-70hrs, leaving little time for social events or anything else that is not properly time managed correctly. This leads to the fact that 80% of new businesses fail within their first year of operation.

If 80% of new businesses fail in their first year, then why is it a good investment? Simple, one net worth can grow tax deferred (or tax free in some cases) a multiple of times within a very short period of time. It’s like picking a stock at $1, and having it go to $20, but you’re in control of how high it can go. Most businesses fail due to poor planning, time constraints, or even a business owner trying to tackle everything on their own and not having enough time to effectively handle even one part of their business correctly. Stress, financial strain, legal matters, taxes, employees, are among other things that can bog down a business in the beginning.

With most investments, more reward means more risk, but with a business, the risk is usually limited because you control it. You decide each move, each play, and as such control the outcome of your investment return; the trade off is that you must make each decision not someone else. With a business, you are trading the ability to make more by correctly leveraging off of yourself and other people (employees), versus making a limited or lesser amount by “correctly” selecting the best company to “invest” in. Too often people have gotten burned in the market because even though they did the correct due diligence on a company and found a sound investment, the market “reacted” differently than what made fundamental sense. The end result is a loss when you should have had a win. With a business, you decide, because the health (net worth) of your business is directly related to the fundamental factors affecting it, not by the rapid selling of trust funds, or liquidating board’s members with enormous option packages to cash in.

Just remember that if done correctly, starting a new business can become a well oil-machine. Providing a continual net worth increase and making your every dream become a reality, being only limited by our drive and imagination. The wealth that can be ascertained with a business is comparable by few other investments making it a worthwhile venture to consider.

With many professionals calling a bottom today, casual investors should now be investing for the long haul and not the quick rally. As always pigs get slaughtered and right now all the streets look red.