Posts tagged: financial assistance

Why to invest in South Florida Luxury Real Estate

large real estateSouth Florida is amongst the strongest luxury real estate markets worldwide. Alongside with NY and London,this is the perfect spot for wealthy investors to run business and the reasons are simple; low taxes,the central hub for international business, strong population growth, diverse cultural offerings,and high quality of life continually improving, among others.

South Florida is one of the most populated states in America and one of the wealthiest economies in the world, occupying a GDP leading position in the United States.Definitely the best place whether you want to own a luxury home or invest in real estate property.

Investing in a South Florida luxury real estate also means high returns as its prices are always soaring and regardless of any market variables, there will always be people willing to go high-end. Renting is another option if you don’t want to get rid of your property; whether you rent short term or long term, South Florida enjoys a strong rental market with high demand and good yields.

What is even more appealing is the variety of state-of-the-art properties you have access to in the luxury housing market. World-renowned developers and architects have devoted to constructing an overwhelming portfolio that includes features normally found in luxury resorts and 5-star hotels. Here’s a short list you may want to check out:

Continuum South Beach

Continuum South Beachis beautifully located in the southern tip of Miami. This is a two-tower condominium with resort-like amenities, services and fixtures that will provide owners the lifestyle they always dreamed of. The sophistication of the towers is evident just by entering the imposing two-story lobby and the unparalleled resort-like amenities, services, and fixtures this residential masterpiece has to offer. Prices can range from $975,000 to $15 M

South Pointe

South Pointe condominium prides itself with a convenient “SoFi” or “South of Fifth Street” location, dazzling views, and condominiums ranging from 850 to 1,270 square feet. The building offers a cozy café to get the day started a business center where you can impress your clients. Of course, the swimming pool and spa, billiard room and spa are not to miss. A residence in South Pointe starts at $849,000.

Auberge Fort Lauderdale

This is an exclusive new residential construction set on 4.6 acres with 450 feet of Fort Lauderdale oceanfront. The lavish tower features astriking oceanfront frontage and expansive terraces with ocean and city views.One of the prime features in the building is the upgraded spa services it offers. Find units at $2.5 M.

Murano at Portofino

With panoramic ocean, bay and city views, this luxurious tower has got it all, and is one of the most stylish bay front properties in the South Beach area of Miami Beach. This opulent condominium affords a private Bay Side Beach Club and on-point amenities for residents to delight in, including 2 heated lagoon pools a sport club and a luxury spa giving it an all-round exclusive feel that’s yours to keep. You can find units starting at $825,000.

Apogee

This residential masterpiece offers 67 exclusive residences set right on the waterfront in the elite area of South Beach in Miami Beachoffers 67 exclusive residences set right on the waterfront and it pampers it residents with only four residences per floor, each with flow-through design plus water and city views, a state-of the art spa to Take a break from your daily routine, and an infinity-edge pool overlooking the water, among others. Units start at 8.5 M

Loan Options Available if You Have Less Than Perfect Credit

loan approvalMost people will encounter a time in their lives where they fall short on cash and need to borrow to cover their expenses. If you have a savings established you simply have to make a quick withdrawal. However, if you have no savings set up for emergencies and your credit is less than perfect you may think that you have no options. Luckily there are lenders willing to loan money to people who have a lower credit score, as well as other options available.

Short Term Loans

When you think of short-term loans, you may think that the only one you will qualify for is a very high-interest payday loan. Thankfully, there are payday loan alternatives. There are online lenders who offer low-monthly installment loans to people with less than perfect credit. And, unlike a payday loan, you have several different repayment options.

Title Loans

If you own your vehicle, there are lenders who are willing to use your car as collateral against a loan. Depending on the Blue Book value, this type of loan can give you access to more money than a short-term loan.

401K

If your company has a 401k plan and you are a contributor, you can borrow up to 50 percent of the vested amount. Since you are borrowing the money from you, the chances for a quick approval are very good. The best part about this type of loan is that while you will pay interest, you pay it back to you.

Pension

While you should never touch a retirement fund. If an emergency arises and you need the cash to prevent losing your home or your vehicle, and the company you work for allows it can give you access to a lot of cash in a lump sum. If you are less than 59.5-years old there is an additional fee of 10 percent plus the 20 percent withheld for the IRS.

Borrowing from Family

If you don’t have a savings account, a 401K or a pension that you can withdraw from, you can see if a family member is willing to give you a loan. If someone in your family does front you a loan, remember to treat it the same as you would any other lender. Come to an agreement before accepting the loan and then stick to it. It’s very easy to put a family member on the back burner and pay other bills first. Make every effort to repay per the terms agreed on and if you should have a rough month contact them and advise them when the next payment will be. This way you’ll stay on good terms should you need their help in the future.

Take on a Part-Time Job

If you find that you are having trouble making ends meet often, you may need to find a way to bring in more money each month. If you have a talent, you can sell items or services to fill in the gap until you reduce your overhead. If not, you may need to consider taking on a second job for a while to get you on your feet.

Hard times can happen to anyone. Maybe you lost your overtime or you have extra expenses like school or medical bills. Whatever the reason, there are many ways to dig out from under and get on an even platform. If your monthly expenses are very high, look at your bills and see where you can make cuts, even for the short-term. For instance, if you have a large cable bill, go to basic service. Also, if you eat out often, reduce it to once a month as a treat, brown bag your lunch for work and use coupons when going food shopping. By pulling in your belt, you will have the money you need to cover your expenses and work towards improving your credit score.

Why it Pays to Have Your Fingers in Many Pies When You’re Self Employed

freelance moneyThere are so many great benefits of being self employed. Flexible hours, you can work from wherever you want and there’s no superiors to answer to. You can really fit your work around your life, instead of trying to fit your life around rigid work hours. However there is a downside, self employment work can be unreliable and unlike regular employment you don’t have a set paycheck that lands in your bank each month. Things can be a little up and down, which is why it’s so worth having a number of different options available to you for earning money. If you’re having a slow month, you can always pick up one of the others. Here are some ideas.

Run a Business

For most self employed people, their main focus will be running some kind of business. You could be baking cakes, making clothes, buying and selling things online or something else completely. Either way, this is a great way to make money when you work for yourself. However you could experiences peaks and troughs with your profits throughout the year, and if you’re having a quiet few weeks or months, you could earn extra money with the following methods.

Start a Blog

It takes time to build a blog, but if you start one up and publish regular content (even once a week) it will grow. Later down the line, your blog can be a real cash cow- sponsors generally pay well to have their content or links posted on your site and so it can be a quick and easy way to earn some extra money. Plus you can link your blog to your main business, and use it as a promotional tool as well. Blogging brings with it all kinds of opportunities, and so it’s well worth setting one up, even if it’s not your main source of income.

Freelance

It’s always worth signing up to a freelance site, that way if your business or blog is slow you can pick up some extra work. There’s almost always work available, and you can work on it any time you’re free to boost your bank balance. Whether you’re a writer, app or website designer, illustrator or something else completely, your skills will be needed online and freelancing gives you the ability to earn cash from home in a legitimate way.

Stocks and Trading

If you’re interested in finances then chances are you’ve took a keep interest in crypto currency over the last few months. While Bitcoin is still the one you hear most about, there are lots of others that can give you opportunity to earn well. Look at these Ethereum facts for example. While there’s always an element of risk when it comes to investing, as long as you’re smart about it it can be a good way to secure yourself some extra cash.

Don’t risk a slow financial month leaving you in the lurch. When you have bills to pay and other expenses to cover, when you’re self employed it pays to have your fingers in many pies. That way, you can always make up the necessary amount each month in your bank.

Put Your Customers At The Front Of Everything You Do

business customersIf you do absolutely everything with your customers best interest at heart, then you can’t really go wrong can you. Well, hypothetically you can’t, but we all know how awkward customers can be sometimes. They have to be among the most hardest of people to please in the entire world. But how true is that statement. Is it that they are hard to please, or is it due to the fact we aren’t doing enough to please them. Whilst a lot of business owners wouldn’t like to admit it, money is always at the forefront of their minds. Everything a business does is money orientated, even if some like to sugar coat it as caring for the customer. Think of typical adverts such as ‘Tailor made phone contracts designed with you in mind’. No, they’re not designed with the customer in mind, they’re designed to make the most money. So, if you know you’re guilty of this we’re here to change you. Putting the customers at the front of everything you do will completely transform your business, and here’s how you can do it.

Your Website

Your website plays a crucial role in the happiness of your customers, and happiness always equals more sales. Now we’re in an era where most people chose to go to the internet to buy pretty much everything. The internet is now even better than the local supermarket that might be a two minute drive down the road. It just makes everything so much easier, so you better believe that the majority of your sales are going to be coming through your website. So, the more effort you put into it, the better you’re going to be in terms of customer happiness. One thing to think about doing is having a UX agency help to upgrade, or even design you a whole new website. UX is a user experience based website. It puts the customer at first and helps to improve things such as the ease of use, and the ordering process to better suit your customers needs. They have expert knowledge to make sure that the customer is always pleased when using your website. The second thing you need to think about doing is actually getting your website out there for customers to notice. The best thing to do here would be to use a marketing agency to set up the best strategy for your website and business. Different strategies work better for different companies, so going it alone isn’t always the best thing to do.

Your Products

The better your products, the happier your customers. It is a no brainer really, but something a lot of businesses seem to struggle with for some reason. Market research is one of the best ways to make sure you’re always on the right track. It will give you access to vital information such as what your customers like and dislike about your products, and what they expect to see from you. Take the feedback onboard and make sure you’re always improving upon their advice. Our main advice would be to make sure you’re not cutting any corners. We understand you’re in the game to try and make as much money as possible, but poor quality products aren’t going to get you very far, no matter how much money you’ve saved making them. What the people want is high quality, long lasting, and even unique products if you can achieve something like that. It might be worth having a sneak at what your competitors are doing, and how they’re making their products or services so you can have a little inspiration.

Your Sales Strategy

This is where so many business go wrong. A good sales strategy isn’t one that is aggressive and has the aim of reaching out to as many customers as possible. A successful sales strategy is one that waits for the customers to come to it. The last thing you should be doing is things such as cold calling to try and get sales. Nothing will anger your customers more. Gentle sales techniques such as offers and discounts will help to naturally draw the customers in. You can then work your magic either face to face, or over the phone or email. Never be too aggressive, and never try and oversell a product to your customers. Make it sound exciting, but never pressure. There are plenty of guides on the internet that will help you to improve your sales strategy.

Your Customer Service

Bad customer service is being too pushy with things such as sales, as we’ve already discuessed. But something even worse than that is the poor customer service you can give when a customer is actually trying to purchase a product or your service. You should always be polite, attentive, and make sure you’re giving the customer everything they want, obviously within reason. It isn’t just you that needs to nail this, your employees do to. As a business owner we would hope that you already know what is required when it comes to customer interaction, but your employees might not always be so clued up. They’re often the reason why you’ll be getting complaints in the first place. Make sure you hold regular training days and reviews to make sure they’re always giving customer service to the highest standard.

Beat Your Competitors

Finally, if you want to keep your customers at the front of everything you do, you first need to make sure you’ve got the customers. Always stay one step ahead of your competitors, and don’t be afraid to take a few sneaky ideas from them to improve your own business. Make sure you’re checking out their faults, and use them as your own strengths. Just like customers talk about your own business, they’ll talk about your competitors too. This can easily be found online, and it can easily be used to your advantage. Marketing is another good way to make sure you’re always in the limelight with potential customers, therefore keeping you one step ahead of competitors.

The Fatal Mistakes that Will Kill Real Estate Profits

estate profitsInvesting in real estate is a sure thing, right? It’s really easy isn’t it Wrong and wrong again. Sure, if you are good at it, investing in real estate can be a very safe investment, but it is by no means a sure thing, and it can be pretty tough going if you aren’t prepared for it.

That being said, you shouldn’t be put off from such an investment because investing in property can often be the safest option. What you should do is avoid making the following fatal mistakes that will kill your real estate profits and make your life more difficult than it needs to be:

Not Casting a Wide Enough Net

The worst thing you can do when investing in real estate is not spending enough time looking at enough properties. If you’re too eager to get started and you just throw all of your money at the first promising property you find, you’ll probably end up with fewer returns and more problems that you would have if only you’d taken your time.

Choosing a Property Because You Love It

It might seem like buying a property because you love it is anything but a mistake and that might be true if you plan to live in it yourself, but if you’re buying it as an investment, you need to put your serious hat on and choose your property because it’s being sold at a good price, it’s in a neighborhood that’s up-and-coming, and you can actually make some money from it. Sure, if you love it, that’s a bonus, but it should never be the sole reason that you buy.

Thinking Your On Flip or Flop

Flip or Flop is undoubtedly entertaining TV, but if you think that your property investment project will be just like the ones on the show – you’ll buy at a ridiculously low price, renovate the building to an amazingly high standard in a ridiculously short period of time and sell it on for a ridiculous price, you’re in for some major disappointment. Although that kind of stuff can and does happen, it’s uncommon, and unless you’re a skilled investor with lots of construction skills and lots of time and money, your journey is likely to be a lot more slow and steady.

Not Using a Property Management Company

Property management from Opulent Real Estate Group takes all of the hard work out of your hands and ensures that you can find good tenants quickly and that any repairs or issues are solved quickly, usually with very little input for you. A lot of real estate investors think they can manage their portfolio by themselves to save a little money, but it soon becomes evident that they are out of their depth and things can go south quickly. Don’t let that be you and hire a property management company.

Not Doing Your Due-Diligence

It should go without saying, but you must do every check it is possible to do before you buy a property. If you don’t do that, you might be surprised (and not in a good way) by damp, bad neighbors, a new development that sees the value of your property plummet and so on!

Avoid these fatal mistakes and a decent real estate investment profit you are likely to make!