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Posts Tagged ‘Rental Property’

Advantages of Rental Property Investment

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

With so many advantages to owning rental property, as well as property management, more and more people are taking advantage of this investment. One of the major advantages to owning rental property is that when you make this type of investment purchase, you have a tangible asset, as compared with other types of investments such as stocks and bonds. It is easier to understand the true value and worth of your asset when you can actually see it. Additionally, the regular rental income that you receive is easily measurable, and you can usually expect it to continue for a long time.

Some people are concerned about investing their hard earned money into financial systems; however, in order to grow your wealth and asset base, you generally need to spend money. Real estate investing is a great solution. The stock market is known to be quite fickle, with frequent fluctuations. On the contrary, real estate tends to stay fairly strong, even when the investment market weakens somewhat. One of the reasons that real estate continues to be a good investment even in a weaker economy is that the weaker economy often prevents many people from being able to obtain a mortgage-creating a larger group of renters to choose from, since they still need a safe and comfortable place to live.

Rental property can produce a regular income, which is a huge advantage for many people. Although you do need to deduct the mortgage payment from your total income as well as maintenance and repair expenses, the property can often produce a steady stream of income for you. Real estate can appreciate in value, depending on the market. Over time, many properties will become worth more, though this is not necessarily a guarantee but is dependent on many factors, including location, type of property, age of property, upkeep and other factors. Choosing to invest in a stable area will increase the odds that your property will appreciate in value. Leverage refers to the ability to purchase rental property using money that is borrowed. When you can borrow the money, you can afford to invest more because you only have to put down a percentage of the total cost. Because the property itself will secure the debt, and the rental income will cover the mortgage and tax costs, you stand to make larger profits.

Rental Properties Offer Tax Advantage

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Rental property is a growing industry. People are starting to realize that this is a great way to earn and aside from that, there are favorable tax advantages that investors can benefit from. As you may already know, a rental property is an investment property rather than a residential estate. Thus, it’s tax computation is different. Since having the property rented is a business, you will treat the income generated from it as your gross income, any expenses you incurred, which is related to running the business shall be deducted. If you think about it, there are several expenses that you can deduct from the gross income, among those are the interest on mortgage, cleaning and maintenance, insurance, advertising for tenants and depreciation.

Property depreciation is one of the common tax advantages that you can benefit from. This is taken from the gross income annually, thus representing significant savings for the family. However, this is not always a good thing because depreciation will be considered when you sell the property. You will not be generating much from the sale if you have huge amount of depreciation each year. However, if you want to earn more from rebates, then this may sound like a good idea.

Another thing that you can benefit from when you have a rental property is the expenses for home improvements. Remember, any amount that you use for the investment property or for the operation of the business is deductible. This means more tax rebates for you. However, you have to bear in mind that you cannot just apply for rebates after you have painted the walls or changed the carpets. There are certain changes you need to do for the property, which does not entitle you to a rebate. You can discuss this with your accountant before you apply.

Another common tax advantage that property owners enjoy is the investments made in relation with running the business. An example would be the premiums paid for insurance. It is most likely that you will need insurance for the property for fortuitous events such as fire and other forms of accidents. This is not the only related investment you will make though. There are other fees such as regular payments for the homeowners association as well as some legal charges. These may result from services that real estate professionals have rendered.