There is little doubt that the technology that surrounds us today is helping us to make decisions more quickly, with more accuracy. Technology helps in the gathering of data, and also in its interpretation. There are software applications for virtually every business you can name, and choices are numerous.   (more…)

A business owner knows that as the world changes around them, they need to adapt. All too often, good, solid businesses are forced to shut operations because they were unable to adapt to changing business situations. The current economic crisis has bought with it a whole host of new dimensions to the world of property investment.  

For a landlord, these changes can be viewed as problems. On the other hand, they can also be viewed as opportunities…

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The current global economic crisis presents trying times for all of us. It is an especially trying time for landlords, with property prices in the United Kingdom falling towards 2003 levels, thus reducing the value of your portfolio by significant percentages in a short period of time.

But these tough economic conditions also present the watchful and serious property investor with an opportunity to buy property at incredibly discounted rates.

How do you make the best of the current situation?
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A landlord often has the unenviable task of having to collect money that is owed to him; money that, for some reason or other, just doesn’t seem to be coming in.

This is an extremely frustrating task for you, not to mention stressful. And since you deal with people everyday, you don’t want to take a hard-line approach and offend hassle-free tenants who pay their rent on time.

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As a property owner, you understand that it’s value is not a self-assured item, and it needs investment and care to retain and enhance it over the years.

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As a landlord, you operate as any other business owner would, and you face the same challenges.

In fact, in some ways the rental business is more complicated because of the way the cash flow works. Monthly cash inflow (the rent) and outflows (taxes, other expenditures) are all happening at different times. In such a scenario, calculating whether your property is making you a profit is not a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation.

And the task becomes even more complicated when you manage multiple properties.

Most importantly, it becomes time consuming.

On the other hand, this information can help you make crucial investment decisions, with the confidence that you’ve got all your numbers in place.

What’s the answer?

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One of the questions I used to dread answering when purchasing a new property or re-financing an existing one was “what other mortgage and loans do you have?” This is such a time consuming question as it normally involves having to sift through lots of mortgage related paperwork for each property to give them the details that they need.
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As your portfolio grows, the more rents you receive. Tracking them can become more and more of an issue, especially if you are charging similar rents across different properties.

Here are two ways that any landlord can overcome the problem of receiving identical rents for different properties:
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