Category Archives: Uncategorized

Can I really invest in real estate with no money down?

Posted on by

Real estate is a great long-term investment, especially income producing real estate. The problem most people have when it comes to getting into real estate investments is acquiring the money to purchase real estate. The most common approach is to apply for a mortgage. The problem with this method is that the down payment can be substantial. For example a $100,000 home may need a down payment of 20% or $20,000. However, there are some strategies that can be used to purchase real estate with no money down. Assigning contracts, wholesaling real estate, and leasing with an option to buy are a few of the strategies possible.

Assigning contracts can be accomplished by placing an offer on a house and write up a contract on the property between you the buyer, and the seller of the home. Next you locate an investor who will be willing to purchase the property, so you assign the contract to the investor. The key here is to assign the contract for a sales price greater than what you negotiated with the buyer. So far example, you negotiate $100,000 offer to purchase with the buyer, and you negotiate an assignment of the contract to the investor for $110,000. At closing you will receive a check for $10,000.

Wholesaling property can be done if you have access to a hard money lender. The key here is to purchase the property at a discount. For example a $100,000 property you should offer to purchase for $70,000 or less. The hard money lender will supply 100% of the money to purchase and any fix up cost. Then you turn around and sell the property or refinance for a better rate and lease the property out.

The final strategy is leasing with an option to buy. What you do here is you negotiate a lease with an option to purchase with a homeowner, and then you turn around and sublease the home to a renter giving him an option to buy the property in 12-24 months on average.

So yes, you can invest in real estate with no money down.

Expats to vote today.

Posted on by

Thousands of South Africans across the globe will have the chance to cast their vote today. Their votes will be counted together with those cast on 22 April, the date of the national elections.

The right expats have to vote was a matter hotly contested over the last few months, eventually they were granted the right to vote and many people celebrated the victory. This election is said to be the most important since the 1994 election when South Africa held its first democratic election, this is due to a number of reasons one of which is to see whether or not there is any real opposition to the ruling ANC who in the past has enjoyed landslide victories.

The months preceding the election were also marred by controversy over the charges against Jacob Zuma, ANC party president, being reinstated and then dismissed a number of times. We also saw former President Thabo Mbeki ousted under a cloud of suspicion and replaced by current President Kgalema Motlanthe.

The election has unfortunately also seen alot of violence most markedly in Kwazulu Natal where ANC and IFP supporters often clash. Hopefully this will be the last election where people lose their lives due to their political opinion.

Whatever the outcome of the election may it be a peaceful transition and a further step forward in uniting our country.

Mboweni sceptical about growth in 2009.

Posted on by

Reserve Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni, has been reported as saying that he disagrees with Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and that he is of the opinion that the South African economy will take a longer time to recover from the current slowdown.

Trevor Manuel expects the economy to show some signs of improvement by the end of the year, while Mr Mboweni said on Tuesday that South Africa is likely to suffer under poor economic performance for a further three to five years. He did however also say that inflation was improving due to decreasing upward pressure on prices but that consumers should know that that did not mean there would be a rate cut every month.

Even the wealthy are starting to suffer in the current economic climate, many citizens are being forced to sell their luxury properties because they are now unable to pay their bond. Very wealthy areas were previously not afflicted with stress related selling but Rael Levitt, CEO of Auction Alliance, has reported that properties from areas such as Franschhoek, Clifton, Sandhurst and Umhlanga are now coming under the hammer and fetching only bargain basement prices.

The South African property market and other sectors will continue to suffer for a significant period of time and according to Mr Mboweni whichever party wins the upcoming elections the new government will have little room to manoeuvre and they would have to adhere to the decisions made at the G20 summit meeting last week.

Lets all hope Mr Mboweni is wrong and that we will in fact start to show some recovery before the end of the year.

Zille not letting go.

Posted on by

Helen Zille, leader of the DA, has filed an urgent application with the Pretoria High Court in an effort to get a review of yesterdays decision by the NPA to drop all charges against ANC party president Jacob Zuma.

Zille has inferred that the decision to drop the charges was due to political pressure from the ruling party and not based on the evidence they were presented with. The NPA’s stance is that they dropped the charges because the case against Mr Zuma was ultimately flawed due to the former head of the Scorpions Leonard McCarthy’s unprofessional conduct concerning the case.

The NPA quoted excerpts of recorded conversations that highlighted Leonard McCarthy’s apparent misconduct. Many were also concerned that former President Thabo Mbeki had been involved in some kind on interference but the NPA clearly stated that they had found no evidence in this regard.

The DA and other opposition parties are not going to let this be forgotten any time soon and are calling for Zuma to come forward and offer himself up for cross examination and legal proceedings. They have said that the dismissal of the charges does not amount to an acquittal and Zuma should want to clear his name in light of the fact that he will most likely be the next President of South Africa.

We will have to wait and see how this latest development plays out.

Zuma v NPA: Zuma off the hook.

Posted on by

The NPA has announced its decision to drop charges against ANC party president Jacob Zuma. The charges related to fraud,corruption, racketeering and money-laundering and were complicated by alleged interference by former President Thabo Mbeki.

The case had been in the pipeline for eight years and is being reported as being the most expensive legal battle in South Africa’s history. With the NPA’s decision to drop the charges they will have to explain to the South African public and all opposition parties why taxpayers’ money was spent on the case if it was going to be dropped two weeks before the National Elections.

The DA, the ANC’s most prominent opposition, said that if the charges against Mr Zuma were dropped they would not let the matter rest and would pursue it until he had his day in court. We are probably about to witness political mudslinging between two parties the likes of which we have never seen.

Many ordinary South Africans are staunch Jacob Zuma fans and saw the charges as a last ditch effort by the opposition to gain the upper hand in the coming elections, others said that if he were innocent he should have no problem with going to court and proving it.

This has been one of the most convoluted political stories in the history of our country, the arms deal, Schabir Shaik, Thabo Mbeki stepping down as President and charges that were dropped and re-instated numerous times. Hopefully we are watching the dying moments of something that will probably never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.

Eskom expected to apply for a 34% tariff increase.

Posted on by

A few weeks ago we were all worried that Eskom would kick us in the pants again with a massive price increase for the year to come. An 88% increase had been rumoured much to the dismay of the already suffering South African public, fortunately it seems as though the company has reassessed its position.

The current increase Eskom is expected to apply for is 34%, they will present their case to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa and await their decision. An increase of 34% is not to be scoffed at though especially in these tough economic times where people stand the chance of losing their jobs everyday. Even what is viewed as a relatively small increase by comparison will still be an unwelcome knock on household budgets around the country.

The lower figure is probably due to Eskom taking into account the current economic climate and the fact that the country is expected to show minimal, if any, growth this year. Eskom is saying that an 88% increase would have enabled it to to expand and improve on service delivery while the smaller increase will merely allow it to cover operating costs.

With the property market only expected to begin a recovery at the end of the year once the rate cuts have begun to impact the country’s finances, it seems that other sectors are in the same boat. Hopefully Eskom can make do with a 34% increase and allow consumers to get away with a smaller bite out of their budget.

What do you think? Will Eskom apply for only a 34% increase?

G20 summit feels the fury of protesters.

Posted on by

The latest G20 summit is taking place in London today but it has not been a smooth ride so far. Protesters broke the windows of banks lining the street while accusing world leaders of implementing policies that further enrich the wealthy and abandon the poor. Many of these protesters are in police custody this morning for their part in the protests that started a few days ago.

The protesters are marching in support of having a more transparent and democratic financial rescue plan that will counteract the effects of the global recession most countries are a part of. Their greatest concern is job creation, Britain and the US have slashed millions of jobs since the crisis began leaving many families with no income and no way to cover their monthly expenses.

Topics on the summits agenda are finding ways to aid business and households recover financially and how to prevent one economy’s tough times from affecting the rest of the world again. Hopefully we see some positive results that will assist not only business but also the man on the street.

Eskom delays revealing it's tariff increase.

Posted on by

Homeowners may be in for another shocking surprise when Eskom eventually reveals it’s price increase application to Nersa (National Energy Regulator of South Africa).

It has delayed it’s application and is saying that it is because of factors such as the magnitude of the world financial crisis and the approval by Cabinet of the Electricity Pricing Policy. According to Eskom these factors were not fully taken into account and the company now feels a review of their application is in order.

Last year homeowners felt the punch when some ended up paying almost double for their electricity after a monumental price increase by Eskom that was implemented to generate funds to improve on service delivery. After just being an accepted fact of life for decades that was generally ignored by the consumer Eskom has been in the headlines innumerable times in last three years. Unfortunately most of the attention was negative.

South Africa was spoiled by having a cheap electricity that was readily available from a company we could mostly ignore. While that is probably a selfish statement I bet most South Africans yearn for the days where we couldn’t remember the name of the company providing our electricity.

Hopefully the delay does not mean another huge price increase, many homeowners just can’t afford it.

Make money with FIFA 2010 accommodation.

Posted on by

Some people feel if you have not yet made any money out of the FIFA 2010 World Cup you are too late and have missed the boat. It may however be to your advantage to do some investigating.

All you have to do is google ’2010 accommodation’ and have a look at what other people are offering.There are some reputable companies that will advertise your property for you, thereby making the process a bit easier for you. Check them out as far as you can and ensure you get regular updates on any possible bookings and proof of everything. While they will probably make getting a booking easier it is still up to you to check up on them and make sure your interests are protected because at some point you may no longer be able to get a booking if they have done their job poorly.

Alternatively you could advertise your property yourself. You will need to research where and how it would be best to advertise the accommodation you have on offer, the Internet will be a very important component of this as most bookings will be from people coming from either overseas or out of town. Advertising your property on the Internet will make it visible to the whole world.

Many tourists coming to South Africa will be looking for the more inexpensive options due to the current global financial climate. They will be looking for value for money and are likely going to be very interested in guest houses and self catering accommodation. While the world is in a certain amount of financial turmoil things are expected to go ahead full force when it comes to 2010 as ticket sales are remaining steady. A chief executive of a local organising committee, Danny Jordaan, said in February that even if ticket sales only achieved 60% that it would be fine. FIFA has settled on a modest proviso of 60% sales because they are aware of the global financial crisis.

Matches are to be held in Cape Town, Durban, Nelspruit, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Polokwane, Rustenburg, and Pretoria. Those cities will see a great demand for accommodation but also the surrounding cities and towns. Some tourists may decide to book into a guesthouse in one city for the duration of the matches and fly to the matches not being played in the city they are staying in. Most people will probably chop and change a bit between cities though as it may work out to be a bit more practical for them.

Prices currently being advertised on the web are for 2009 and the beginning of 2010 (before the World cup starts) so you need to do a bit of research if you want to know what your competitors will be charging. It is an opportunity to make quite a bit of money if it is done correctly.

What do you think? Is 2010 going to bring in alot of money for South Africa?

Happy New Year South Africa!

Posted on by

After a year of such intrigue and turmoil around the world I am looking forward to 2009.Things can get worse or ,you never know, they may get better.

There are many obstacles facing South Africans this year,rising unemployment, the shaky property outlook and the possibility of further political confusion and in-fighting.

But we as South Africans are resilient people and have overcome many great obstacles in our colourful history.We have faced issues such as racism,inequality of different forms, and the entire developed world basically turning it’s back on us during the Apartheid era.

We have survived all this and are becoming better as a country every day that passes.Look forward to the new year with hope and optimism and look for ways that you can improve the things that worry you on your own as well.

Happy New Year South Africa!