How to Get the Best Professional Advice about Your Property Investments

Property investment is complex. It’s also a special type of investment where market research and professional advice are critically important. There are a lot of issues to consider in any property purchase, including tax, return on investment (ROI) and often some serious problem solving. The best approach to property investment is to take the long view.

Investment methodologies- The key to success

As with many types of investment, it’s not just what you invest in that matters. It’s how you invest. The key elements in investment are:

1.   Realism- Keeping your feet firmly on the ground and using your resources effectively. This includes making sure you can deliver on your own ideas about investment, like holding properties to maximize returns, earning income from your investments, and covering costs.
2.   Planning- The strategic element. This involves defining and setting goals and developing your methodologies and resources to achieve them. Planning is based on realism.
3.   Support services- The best supports for professional property investors are a range of services from:

• Professional investment analysts
• Lawyers
• Building professionals and inspectors
• Accountants
• Credit providers

If this list looks at first glance like just a list of costs for investors, you may be surprised to hear that these people are actually your built-in risk managers, backing up a realistic approach to property investment. When you buy an investment property and make a major financial commitment, you don’t want to be guessing about anything. All of them have a vested interest in providing their services, and they want their client’s investment to be viable. The property investment advice you get from these people is people is strictly professional, case-specific and business-based. Major investors use these sources regularly to investigate the issues related to their investments.

Getting the advice and information sources you need

Depending on the nature of your investments, finances and other issues, you’ll need to source your advice systematically.

The best options are:

• Specialist property investment advice- You’ll require a service which can give you market research advice, a working “property accumulation analysis” (a comprehensive, up to date cost breakdown) and appropriate market and statistical analyses and data. This information is absolutely critical, and doesn’t usually show up in the on-market sites.

• Legal advice- The basic rule with all forms of property investing is “Keep your eyes open and look for legal issues”. You’ll need a reliable property lawyer with a good track record who can set you up for buying investment property.

• Onsite advice- Building inspectors and Master Builders are the no-nonsense, value-for-money approach to onsite evaluations. They can find in seconds issues lay people don’t even suspect. These people are particularly valuable when looking at high end property investments.

• Credit providers- The unacknowledged saviors of many investors, credit providers are excellent risk managers for both themselves and their clients. If your credit provider doesn’t like an investment, there’ll be a good reason. Don’t assume the credit provider is just being obstructive. They’re not. They’re saying “no” to making some money for themselves, and you need to know why.

Check out the advice you get, and the logic behind it. It’s an education in itself, and it routinely saves property investors from serious mistakes.

Author Bio: Tom Mallet is an Australian freelance writer and journalist. He writes extensively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s published more than 500 articles about various topics.

Some Inconvenient Facts

Mr. President: Do you really think you are riding high with the rate of unemployment standing at a whopping 8.5 percent?

8.5 percent! Wow!!

Perhaps we should take a real good look at the real numbers.

The rate of unemployment was 7.8 percent when you took office, and look how much money you have spent since then trying to improve it. Remember that before you took office our deficit was about $400 billion. Now it’s well over a trillion — $1.5 trillion, more or less, and the national debt totals $15 trillion. Can you even begin to count to 15 trillion, much less deal with that number?

Moreover, as of December there were 6 million fewer jobs than there were in December 2007. You know, when the younger George Bush was president. Oh, and by the way, using the best-case scenario, Mr. Obama, you will end up 4 million short at the end of this year.

By the way, let’s not forget that the Congress was controlled by your party from January 2007 to January 2011. And they held the purse strings!

There are also 170,000 fewer people looking for jobs now, and 42,000 of the new jobs end up being temporary jobs during the Christmas season only.

Also while you are touting the unemployment numbers remember that they are national numbers and elections, even though they are national, really take place at the state level; there, Mr. President, it doesn’t look so good.

Let’s look at the unemployment numbers in some key states:

Florida: 10 percent

Ohio: 8.5 percent

Pennsylvania: 7.9 percent

Michigan: 9.85 percent

Do those numbers worry you, Mr.President? They should. Let’s look at some more, shall we?

In Illinois, your home state, the unemployment rate stands at 10 percent. In Nevada, it is 13 percent. And California, the Bluest of the Blue, it is at 11.3 percent. Do you really think you can’t be beaten with numbers like that?

Even Ron Paul‘s chances of winning the White House look good against these numbers!

Republicans need to take a good look at these numbers and run against them, not against each other, and if they do they will win.

Remember, it really is the economy, stupid, and when that’s faltering nothing else matters.

Oh! And let’s not forget that unemployment in the black community is at a whopping 15.8 percent — that is a full point higher than when you took office. Do you expect that black voters will ignore the damage you’ve done to the economy and to them?

Fat chance.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com, or e-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.  ©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.

Tips for Government Teleworkers

In our era of smart technology devices, employees are able to access important company information anywhere and anytime.

Smart employers are taking advantage of the trend. They’re saving big on office space and other costs by letting more of their employees work from home.

The idea is so sensible that even the feds are catching on. That’s why Congress passed the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. Of course, agencies require new laws, rules and hours of bureaucratic analysis before they attempt to implement anything as sensible as “teleworking.”

Here are some tips for federal employees.

I have been teleworking for years (I’m writing this column from an office in my country home). I wear blue jeans or running clothes every day. I save a fortune on dry cleaning.

I never waste precious personal time in rush-hour traffic. I roll out of bed and get right to work — and sneak afternoon naps to keep mentally sharp.

While there are lots of upsides to teleworking, there are some downsides.

For starters, it’s much more difficult to participate in office politics — of particular importance in the government sector, where licking boots is the key to career advancement.

In the private sector, you can get by for years by producing items of actual value — items that help your organization reduce costs or increase sales and profits.

But in the public sector, where there are no profits and the goal is to increase annual funding, many teleworkers will need to produce even lengthier reports to demonstrate tangible evidence that they are “working.”

Then again, in the very near future, there might be particular benefits unique to government teleworkers.

Any fool with basic math skills can see America is headed for a cliff. Government growth and spending continue to soar, whereas the private economy is barely growing at all. It’s only a matter of time before even the federal government begins to cut employees.

But what safer place to be a government employee than under your desk in your own home office?

When the federal government finally begins to cut, it will be the invisible federal teleworker, who produces no reports and never phones into the office, who will sustain his career through retirement — as large centralized governments, such as ours, aren’t much good at keeping track of people or things.

It’s true you are likely to get bored hiding in your home over the years — isolation is one of the greatest threats to the well-being of a federal teleworker — but I have some tips for that, too.

If you get lonely, consider getting a pet. Dogs require a lot of attention and frequent walks.

Depending on your access to federal credit cards or lines of credit, you might be able to find a way to pay for an assistant, so you will at least have someone to play checkers with.

Or you can try, as I did, to hire a 24-year-old Swedish nanny — though, regrettably, the nanny agency assured me I needed to be a family.

In any event, surveys show that most federal agencies are way behind schedule as they establish frameworks to implement their government-mandated telework policies.

Still, I hope my tips will be of some assistance.

©2012 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, a freelance writer is also a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800 696 7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.

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Colbert and Stewart For A Better America In America

Political satire, from the time of Aristophanes through the not-always-safe-for-work (and oft hysterical) programming produced by Seth McFarlane, has played an important role in shaping political thought throughout the ages.

In a time when the ombudsman of The New York Times has to ask whether journalists should report actual facts or just relay what they are according to the likes of Rick Santorum and his sweater vest, it has become essential. That is why what Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are doing with their “Super PAC” is not only extremely funny, but actually a public service at this point in our country’s democratic experiment.

Right now, Colbert, or should I say Stewart (because coordination would be illegal now wouldn’t it), is running ads in South Carolina through Colbert’s Super PAC, “Americans For A Better Tomorrow-Tomorrow,” using every device possible–short of playing flash-card memory games with Rick Perry–to show how unbelievably absurd our whole system has become (even claiming Stephen Colbert is Herman Cain–a nice touch).

They have exploited the very same loophole used by Richy Richs such as the infamous clean-air hating Koch Brothers, Newt Gingrich’s sugar-daddy Sheldon Adelson and most of those on Mitt Romney‘s Verizon Wireless Friends & Family plan, to give large and unregulated sums of money, or speech, to candidates, or corporations (transitive property: If candidates are people and people are corporations, well then, candidates are corporations. Somewhere Mr. Bender, my 6th grade math teacher, is pretty psyched I remember this).

There is a word we used to use for this thing where corporations gave you large sums of money and you then voted in favor of their interests. It almost rhymes with library. Which is why during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, the last time when trusts ran the joint like they owned it, legislation was passed to rid us of this scourge on our society.

The Tillman Act of 1907 was one example. It banned corporations and nationally chartered (Interstate) banks from making direct financial contributions to candidates for federal office. States such as Texas went further prohibiting corporate giving to political parties.

You don’t believe me? Just ask Tom Delay’s impending ankle bracelet or potential bunkmate Killer.

But then came the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, overthrowing 100 years of legal precedent and cogent thinking by making an already corrupt system resemble a poker game at Jack Abramoff’s place. And that is why we so desperately need Colbert and Stewart, because sometimes you just have to fight farce with farce.

By running, and participating in this charade our campaign finance system has become, they’re able to go beyond the funny and necessary critique they have provided of America’s politics and political press to playing a starring role in exposing its silliness. In ways that are not always clear to people who have bills to pay and no time to watch every move in our corporate-political lambada, Stewart and Colbert can bring clarity to the issue of how easily corporations can manipulate our political process in our post-Citizens United world.

They can “be business partners” but still claim there is no coordination. They can run ads in states like South Carolina, only limited by the moolah they raise–and these ads can say almost anything. Colbert can even run for office, as he is in South Carolina, while all this is taking place (and receiving a healthy 13 percent in one GOP primary poll, again showing how money = name recognition = polling numbers, no matter who it is).

You really can’t make this stuff up–although if you did Mitt Romney could probably hide any paperwork in the Caymans for you.

A whole lot more people are going to be exposed to the auction our politics has become because of this–and perhaps that will help eventually lead to a Constitutional Amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s ill-considered and ill-informed decision.

In the meantime, as Colbert himself said, “With your help and with possibly the help of some outside group that I am not coordinating with, we can explore taking this country back.”

© Copyright 2012 Cliff Schecter, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com.  Cliff Schecter is the President of Libertas, LLC, a progressive public relations firm, and the author of the 2008 bestseller The Real McCain. Email Cliff at cliffschecter@gmail.com.  This column has been edited by the author. Representations of fact and opinions are solely those of the author.

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The Emperor Barack

Much like one of his predecessors, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barack Obama has all but declared war on the United States Supreme Court.

It will be remembered that in 1937 FDR was angry over the high court’s refusal to put a stamp of approval on much of his New Deal agenda, and sought to bend the court to his will by adding new members to the existing court membership.

Contemptuously calling the court’s members a collection of “nine old men,” FDR sought to “pack” the high court with up to six additional members more likely to do his bidding. The proposal lost steam and, thankfully, failed.

Mr. Obama has not gone quite that far — yet. But he’s getting close. Like most U.S. presidents who chafe under the high court’s authority to rule on the constitutionality of aspects of their agendas, Obama is unhappy with the court’s failure to recognize the divinity of his proposals, if not that of his personhood.

Too bad. As we are often reminded, “Into each life some rain must fall.”

Thanks to the high court, Mr. Obama has been much in need of an umbrella of late. The president’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was correctly overruled in a case involving religious freedom. The court clearly stated that the First Amendment protects churches in their decisions regarding workers with religious duties, a “ministerial exception” to employment-discrimination laws. This exception had already been supported by lower courts and many states.

Tragically for Mr. Obama and his vastly elevated ego, choirs of angels singing of the glories of his agenda cannot be heard. Despite the frantic efforts of his captive media to tune them in, the president remains a mere mortal, subject to all the slings and arrows that always target any holder of high office.

Soon the issue before the court will be Mr. Obama’s health care program, rammed through Congress despite the widespread opinion that it was, and remains, nothing short of an opening to national socialized medicine. A ruling is expected by early July.

The question is whether the Constitution’s Commerce Clause can be stretched beyond recognition to reach into everyone’s pocketbook with the Obamacare mandate. We pray that the Supreme Court will put the question to rest with an emphatic rejection.

The notorious failings of Britain’s socialized medicine have not failed to diminish the hopes and plans of our own fans of socialized everything — of a government so big and so powerful that nothing can resist its meddlesome reach.

That is a lesson Barack Hussein Obama has yet to learn. If he doesn’t learn his lesson by July, he will certainly learn it in November.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com, or e-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. ©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.

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