Understand & Invest in Real Estate

Severance taxes are not income taxes and should not be treated as such. Find out about severance tax issues with help from an attorney in this free video clip.

After a person has died you may have to sell their home at auction. Sell a home at auction after someone has died with help from an attorney in this free video clip.

There are many common questions that people have in regards to the phenomenon of house flipping. Get answers to the top ten questions regarding flipping houses with help from a real estate…

When giving an appraisal on a piece of property you want to make sure you look for all the right things. Give an appraisal with help from a real estate professional in this free video clip.

Settling an estate can be a long and messy affair, and an executor is entitled to monetary compensation for the considerable time and effort that goes into it. If you’re named as executor of an…

Vornado makes whole room heaters and personal heaters, both which run on your home’s electricity. Unlike some other room heaters, Vornado heaters have a fan to circulate the warm air around your…

The investment strategy for distressed real estate is a very specific one that yields some interesting results. Find out about the investment strategy for distressed real estate with help from a real…

Reconciled market value in real estate is one number that you're not going to want to forget. Find out about reconciled market value in real estate with help from a real estate professional in this…

When you're a buyer, one thing you should be on the lookout for is a good cap rate. Find out what a good cap rate for a buyer is with help from the manager at an independent investment advisory firm…

The amenities included in a home or real estate purchase can often influence the final decision of a prospective buyer. Arizona's year-round hot temperatures have resulted in a high incidence of…

Real estate investments generally require some number crunching to assess their profitability. To succeed, investors must understand four calculations, beginning with the capitalization rate, which…

Investors and companies commonly use cost ratios to assess risk and measure efficiency, productivity and value. Using their internal data, companies can measure the effectiveness of their operational…

To qualify for a loan to purchase land, you must typically have sufficient earned income and a satisfactory credit score. In most cases, you also must provide the lender with a minimum amount of money…

When manufacturers produce more than one product in the same manufacturing process, identifying which costs to allocate to each product can present some challenges for accountants. Managerial…

Investors purchase real estate to generate attractive rates of return on capital, to hedge against inflation or to increase their income. They can invest in real estate directly through personal…

One of the most stressful things about bankruptcy can be the potential loss of personal items such as automobiles, primary residences or other types of property. In certain bankruptcy situations, you…

When you use a loan to purchase a home, the lender wants to make sure the property value is equal to or exceeds the purchase price. Loaning too much money on property is bad business for the lender…

Net worth, which is sometimes referred to as a “balance” or “equity,” is an overall value that is derived from subtracting a company's liabilities from its assets. Net worth is…

Millions of Americans play state and national lottery games each day. Some of these jackpots are worth hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars. Winners of these big jackpots often have the…

Your home router's connection rate determines the fastest possible speed for users to download data from the Internet and is set to the preferred level by default to maintain a steady connection and…

A negative amortizing loan is generally a big red flag in a business's accounting records -- both for the entity that owes the loan, as their debt is increasing, and for the company that lends it, as…

A change of decoration can help brighten an area of your home, and flowers are a nice decorative element. Hanging flowers will create a colorful overhead canopy in a room or gazebo for a party or…

Real estate is owned by holding the title to the property. The title is more than a piece of paper; it determines how the property can be transferred to another person. Sole ownership of a house means…

Selling investment properties can cause you to incur taxes on the profit. The federal government allows you to defer the taxes owed to a later date by "exchanging" properties or, more…

Investing in fixed annuities is a complex and challenging process for both new and experienced investors. When evaluating this type of investment, investors should always read the prospectus for the…

One way to avoid foreclosure is to sign a deed in lieu of foreclosure, also known as a “deed in lieu.” When you sign a deed in lieu on a second home or vacation property, you might be…

Many different ways exist to report a company’s financial information. GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, is an accounting method required by the Securities and Exchange…

All life insurance policies have a face value. Term life policies have only a face value. A permanent life policy, on the other hand, can have both a cash surrender value and a face value. The amounts…

There are two conventional ways companies find capital: debt or equity. However, there are other ways, including selling assets. A sale leaseback transaction is one of those types of transactions. A…

When you sell a real estate investment property, you must calculate your capital gain, which typically results when you sell a property for more than its adjusted basis. The adjusted basis consists of…

A buyer who finances a real estate purchase receives two important items at closing. The first is the deed, which is the legal document that transfers ownership of the property from the seller to the…

GAAP is the acronym for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. GAAP is primarily followed by U.S. companies and is often referred to as “book accounting.” Tax is used to refer to tax…

Flipping a house, or buying a house for a low price and then reselling it shortly thereafter for a profit, comes with several tax ramifications. How much tax you pay when you flip a house is based on…

A resident alien is a green card holder. A nonresident alien is a visa holder, here on work or education visa permits. It is more challenging for a nonresident alien to obtain or refinance a home loan…

A real estate investment broker has a license to manage his own real estate business. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies the title as simply real estate broker. Brokers’…

When you fall behind on the mortgage payments for your investment property, you may face foreclosure and the consequences it brings. Not only will foreclosure damage your credit, but it will also put…

An effective positioning statement is an extremely valuable element of a company's market positioning strategy, in which it outlines its offering to each market segment. The statement specifically…

In personal finance, individual wealth is often measured in terms of the total value of the cash and property you own. The term "personal asset" describes cash and the things you own that…

Many investors create supplemental income by investing in real estate. You can generate short-term income by purchasing and then selling properties for profit. You can also generate long-term income…

A real estate investment earns you money in two ways. Appreciation is the increase in the property's value over time, so that you can eventually sell it for more than you paid. Cash flow is income…

If you are unemployed, you likely spend more time looking for work than worrying about tax planning. However, there are a number of tax issues for the unemployed that you should consider to assure…

Given the cost of houses, your home probably represents a substantial portion of your total assets. Because of this, you need to think of your house as an investment as well as a home. Find out the…

The cap rate is one of the three main ways to value real estate. Many factors can affect the cap rate including interest rates, inflation and the property valuation. A cap rate can also be affected by…

Real estate appraisals and tax appraisals of real estate both involve estimating a monetary value for real property, often a house and its lot. The purposes of the two appraisals are quite different,…

When two or more people own real estate and their deed gives them no right to survivorship, they hold the property as tenants in common. Under Ohio law, when each owner dies, his share of the property…

In a strong economy, many people have a positive net worth at the end of their lives and have some assets distributed to the heirs. However, the rising cost of living and a down economy have continued…

As many as 54 million Americans were living with disabilities in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation. Of those, 70 percent were unemployed,…

A warranty deed is a type of real estate deed with a level of protection for the buyer. Deeds are a type of contract, and in Tennessee common law, as in other states, every contract needs…

What a firm has on its books regarding the value of its assets very rarely bears a close relationship to the firm’s market value. Book value is driven by accounting conventions, which do not…

After the excitement of winning the lottery wears off, you have to decide which payment option to take. When you win a large lottery payout, you typically have the option of choosing a lump-sum…