Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 12:24 am. 0 comments
More and more people are getting into holiday home letting or just buying a holiday home for their own private use and when thought has been given to going into buying a second property and you go about it the correct way it can be a great investment. However for it to work out you have to understand what you are getting into and get the very best advice regarding finance.
You do have to decide if the holiday home property is going to be just for your pleasure or if you are going to be letting it - this will make a difference to the mortgage and the mortgage lender and also to the holiday home finance specialist who is going to be searching around for your finance.
The majority of holiday home mortgages will only give up to a maximum of 80% of the total value of your holiday property but it is possible to get a 100% mortgage in some cases. Also, the majority of lenders will ask that the minimum value for the property is around £80,000. As holiday home finance is such a complicated matter and there is much at stake, going with a specialist provider is by the far the most sensible way to go when looking for finance.
Even those who understand the basics of mortgages can benefit from the advice a specialist can give. Taking the steps into the holiday home arena whether it is as a business venture or for your own enjoyment can be a gamble, but you improve your chances of getting off on the best footing and getting the best possible deal if you go with a specialist broker. As with any type of mortgage it is essential that you check out the small print and key facts of any holiday home finance mortgage the specialist finds for you before actually going ahead with the deal.
Sean Horton is a Director of Holiday Let Mortgages which offers UK residents the finance to buy a UK based holiday home. The site offers information about Holiday home finance, and second property mortgages.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 11:55 am. 0 comments
Property finance can be rather complicated, especially if you don’t understand the basics of home loans. Before signing that contract, you should do adequate research in order to find the best possible mortgage finance available in South Africa.
Buy versus Rent
Although renting a property often seems simpler than buying, the fact remains that at the end of the day you don’t own the property. Renting has the benefit of mobility should your career or lifestyle demand it, but as a lessee, you have minimal rights and most of the time you are at the mercy of an unscrupulous landlord.
In South Africa the property market has seen a lot of changes over the past few years, and indeed the property finance market has undergone many ups and downs in this time too, but there has been consistent growth overall in property values.
Therefore investing in a property rather than just renting it will, in the long-run, make more financial sense.
How a home loan works
A very basic definition of a home loan is that it is a financial loan from an established institution in order for you to purchase a house.
When your home loan or bond has been approved, the balance owed for the purchased house is paid by the lending institution directly to the seller. This holds you liable to pay the home loan provider according to the contract’s installment agreement. The installments may fluctuate according to variable interest rates. What you need to acquire is a loan package that has the best interest plan for you.
The bank will hold onto the deed to your property until the bond has been paid in full. During this period you cannot alienate the house, which means that you cannot change any of the conditions stipulated in your contract including renting out the property or undertaking major alterations without consulting the bank first.
Equity affects your alienable rights over the property. In other words, until the whole the mortgage is paid in full, you cannot be granted full equity, but can only alienate a portion of the property estimated to the value of the equity you have accumulated.
In South Africa, the major banks offer a variety of home loan options. You need to ascertain which one of these will best suit your financial needs by educating yourself about the pros and cons of each of the options available.
The four major types of home loans are:
- Variable interest rate home loans;
- Fixed interest rate home loans;
- Capped interest rate home loans; and
- Reducing interest rate home loans.
Mortgage Evolution
There are also different ways of going about applying for a bond. You can either decide to do all the work yourself, or you could use a mortgage broker or take advantage of the next step in mortgage evolution - an online mortgage originator.
If you decide to apply for your home loan independently, you’ll have to approach each loan institution to which you’d like to apply for different quotations and information. This process can be quite tedious and you’d have to approach several banks so that you can suss out the most suitable option for you.
Another option is to utilise the expertise of a mortgage broker. They’ll apply on your behalf to the banks, and will then be able to give you a list of options and offers. You can then choose the option you feel would be best suited to your needs.
The last option, and definitely the easiest way to apply for property finance is through an online mortgage originator. Mortgage originators are giving the power back to the average investor and it is definitely affecting the way home loans are processed in South Africa.
An online mortgage originator allows you to sit in the comfort of your own home while getting the mortgage process started. The mortgage originator will submit your application to all the home loan institutions in South Africa on your behalf. Apart from applying for home loans on your behalf, a mortgage originator would also be doing the negotiations with the different loan institutions on your behalf, securing you a better interest rate.
All you have to do is fill in application form after which the mortgage originator will start the process and negotiate the best available rates, leaving you to select the most suitable home loan option for you.
Author Bio
PropertyGenie is affiliated with ooba, a provider of home loans and mortgage finance in South Africa, offering you property finance without any complications.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 11:16 am. 0 comments
If you have started your Forex trading training you may initially have a challenge with understanding how orders are placed. I remember when I first started reading about the Forex and practicing in a demo account, it took me a while to understand how stops and limits worked in relation to price.
This article sets out the main rules governing the placement of orders with a free graphic download in the resource box at the end which you can keep on your desktop and refer to at anytime until the rules have ’sunk in’. You will find this lesson extremely important if you are in the early stages of your forex trading training.
Here are the basics:
1. In each currency pair, the first currency is the base currency which you either buy or sell. For example, in the case of EUR/USD, if you believe the euro is going to strengthen against the US dollar you would place a BUY order (go long). If you believe the dollar will strengthen against the euro, you would place a SELL order (go short) for the EUR/USD currency pair.
2. In your dealing station you will notice two prices quoted for each currency pair, a BID price and an ASK price. The difference in the two prices is known as the pip spread the dealer takes from every trade. For the major currency pairs this can be between 3-5 pips.
NOTE: When you place a BUY order you will enter the trade at the ASK price. When you place a SELL order you will enter the trade at the BID price.
3. There are two types of orders you can use to enter a trade:
A market order is an order to buy or sell at the market price the moment you enter the trade by clicking your mouse button.
An entry order is an order to buy or sell when the market price reaches a certain target or level you anticipate from your technical analysis.
Note: Avoid market orders as they seldom give you the best entry point unless you really understand the market. An entry order allows you time to analyze key price levels and set the order to be executed only if price pulls back or reaches that level. This way you enter the trade at an optimum level.
Stops and Limits
Once you have calculated your trade and anticipated how far you think price will go, you need to enter a limit order so the trade will automatically exit at that profit level. In the case of a buy order, your limit will be set above the entry price. In the case of a sell order, your limit will be set below the entry price.
For your protection you then need to set a stop order. If price goes against you your trade will exit at a loss according to the number of pips you have calculated that you can afford to lose taking into account your equity. In the case of a buy order, your stop would be below the entry price. If the case of a sell order, your stop would be above the entry price.
As part of your Forex trading training, it is important to get very familiar with the software you are provided with from your online broker. Practice, practice, practice, making entry orders, and setting the entry price and the stop and limit levels.
It is easy in the early days of Forex trading training to get mixed up with direction. You may wish to place an entry order to sell (go short) and inadvertently put a buy order in instead only to get a shock when you see a minus figure under the pip column steadily growing.
The details explained above are available in a graphic you can keep on your desktop and refer to at any time you are trading. Just go to the link in the resource box below and get a copy.
Then as part of your daily Forex trading training, refer to it each time you place a trade in your demo account until your understanding of the rules of order entry, bid and ask price, stops and limits, come automatically without thinking.
You will be laying a solid foundation for more advanced Forex trading training steps so you can concentrate your mental energies on price and chart analysis rather than being sidetracked by confusion over basic order rules.
The powerful 200 EMA strategy - easy for newer traders:
http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/Advisor/200EMA-forex-strategy.htm
For a free candle & chart pattern recognition reference tool click here:
http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/Candle-Chart-Patterns
For the best free economic calendars plus a free pivot point calculator and Fibonacci calculator click here:
http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/tools.html
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 7:23 pm. 0 comments
Ways to make money online are invented every day, and there are more and more of them. Some of them can help you make a lot of money, some of them make money by themselves and some of them just take the money away from you. The systems that they use are very different, and there are some that are problematic, but a lot of them can help you make a lot of money, and some of them help you make easy money.
The Forex system currency trading is based on the international currency exchange trade. This means, that the base of the system are the different currencies. The trade is based on the fluctuations of the values of currencies. In the system, you can buy and sell national currencies, and make money because the value of the currencies varies.
Because it is an online system that means that you can make the money online for 24/7. The international exchange just does not stop when the sun goes down in your country, but it goes on during the whole night when you sleep. Or when you should sleep. Or when the other stock exchanges are closed. It also means, that you can make money whenever it suits you, not just when the market is open. If the graveyard shift is the time when you would like to work and make money, you can because the Forex system currency trading is open all the time.
This way you can also use some websites next to your regular work, because you can still go to your job and work there, then after you get home and take care of your family, you can work on the site, while you have your own peace and time to work. So getting some extra money next to your job does not have to obstruct your regular life, and can be easy for you.
So try the Forex system currency trading websites, and try to get as much money from the currency exchange market as you can.
For more information about Forex System Currency Trading, feel free to visit us at: http://www.currency-trading-zone.com/Forex-System-Currency-Trading.html
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 6:54 pm. 0 comments
There was a time when online forex trading was limited mostly to banks and big financial institutions and they were the ones benefiting from it. But times changed and the availability of internet and online forex trading made it accessible to thousands of individuals, brokers, brokerage firms, banks and governments. Now, the benefit is for anyone to reap who deals in it.
This mind boggling increase in online forex trading was brought by a lot of factors. One can trade round the clock irrespective of geographical location and that has been the single most important factor contributing to its exponential growth. Estimates claim that the daily transactions have scaled almost two-trillion dollars! In addition to this, there are a number of other factors.
A trader is gets to trade in different currencies in different markets all at once. It is all because of web based Forex trading. What has this done is that it has allowed the infusion of a lot of liquidity and flexibility in online forex trading. What is more, a trader can easily access quotes and make trades in real time with online Forex transactions.
The biggest benefit of online forex trading is that it has done away with bulls and bears. So, this is the only market without any bulls and bears. Value or ratio of value of the currency or the direction of its movement has relatively no overall impact on the world of online Forex trading. To make it more simple; any trader can buy and sell at the same time in different currencies without any problems.
Another defining feature of online forex trading is its transparency. Nothing is hidden. It is comparatively easier to spot trends and decide the best time to sell or purchase. This is possible because all the information is there in real time from all over the globe.
Everything is out there for anyone and everyone to look at. Online forex trading involves no hidden costs, no exchange fees, no commission and nothing like that. All of this has made online forex trading very easy.
Another remarkable feature of online forex trading is the speed with which everything happens. There is nothing like delays here. You need virtually seconds to execute any trade and to fill and confirm it. All the information is provided by brokers and trading companies in real time and that is really crucial for making important decisions.
I would like to end this discussion by giving a look at the flip side of online forex trading. It might seem the best way to put your money but not everyone who invested money in online forex trading made money. There are reasons behind it.
Online forex trading is in reality risky where split second decisions are needed which could make or mar your investment. It is therefore essential for anyone who is interested in this field to understand it well before making any decision.
Paul Bryant is a successful and experienced Forex trader and also the webmaster for http://www.investawise.com, bringing you all the latest Forex news, reviews and advice.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 12:22 am. 0 comments
It’s really nice to be able to trade forex and have a life too. You know, I hate being glued to the screen; I just can’t do it. So, I developed a way to trading in just 10 minutes a day.
It’s nothing revolutionary, and it combines nicely with my philosophy that brokers eat scalpers. Here’s what I do.
1) Open daily charts for each of the currencies that I want to trade. Let’s say I want to trade the four majors and USD/CAN. So I open up those five charts.
2) Next I setup the indicators that I want on each chart.
3) Then I save everything as a template. That way when I open my charting program, it’s all there. I don’t have to re-open the currencies. I don’t have to put the indicators back on there. It’s all ready to go.
4) Then just once a day (usually in the evening) I open my charting package and tab through the charts. It’ only takes a simple glance to see if there is a trade developing. If there’s a trading, I enter it.
5) That’s it!
I’ve also does this setup with the 4 hour charts. The only difference is that I check the charts more that once per day (maybe three times).
People wiser than I have said that the easiest money in forex is on the daily. If you’ve been scalping, you might want to crossover and have a look that this style of trading. (It’s also far less stressful that other forms of trading.)
Do you want to learn more about how I trade? I have just completed my brand new guide, “Forex Trading - What Finally Worked For Me”.
Download it free here: Forex Trading
Nathan Pennington is a forex trader and the author of Winning Forex Trading -THE Definitive Guide
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 9:27 pm. 0 comments
Trading in currency can be incredibly rewarding. It can also be very risky. In fact, most Forex traders lose their trading capital in the first few years. There are of course many reasons for so many traders losing their money. Among the numerous causes for these losses the number one reason is a lack of planning. That’s right, poor planning has led more traders to consistently lose their funding. The good news is that there is an answer: Developing winning Forex strategies. That is where this article comes in. Let’s take a look, at a trading strategy if used properly will help you make more money than you ever dreamed possible.
This strategy is based on a popular technical analysis tool known as the Simple Moving Average or SAM. It is set on the twelve period SMA. Keep in mind that every period is fifteen minutes.
This is how it is played: At the point in which the currency crosses above the twelve period SMA, it should be regarded as a clear signal to buy at the market.
The opposite reaction signals a move also. Below the twelve period SMA: Once the currency does this it is a clear signal to “Stop and Reverse,” This is also referred to as the SAR. Another way of explaining this move is to short the move and liquidate the long position.
Then nice thing about this move is you are always in a move whether long or short on the position. This is a very profitable trade.
Many Forex traders will accumulate trading strategies that are winners. But the problem is that they never use these strategies. A trader should always have a reason for getting in a trade. You can make an incredible amount of money with currency trading. But you will have an incredibly difficult time trying to do so without help. This strategy provided can make a real difference in terms of consistent gains.
Get an Objective Review of the Most Popular Forex Trading Software Programs. Forex Trading System Review is the place to visit.
See What Forex Trading Software REALLY Works! forex-trading-system-review.com is the place to visit.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 9:13 am. 0 comments
Day trading is basically the buying and selling of stocks over a relatively short period of time, sometimes minutes. It was once only available to floor traders and investment banks but now the Internet has made day trading accessible to anyone with a computer system. There is good money to be made (and lost) using this method.
As an example, a day trader might buy 1000 shares of stock A at 10:00 as the price begins to move upwards on good news, then sell it at 10:04 when the stock price has risen (for example, by $0.50). The day trader would make $500 profit, less his commission which with today’s low commission rates of around $30 or less per trade, that’s a nice $440 or better, excluding taxes.
Day trading usually follows one of two approaches, either beating the spread or attempting to catch short term trends. The spread is the difference between what is being offered for a stock (the bid) and the price being asked for the stock (the ask). With spread trading, you attempt to buy at the ‘bid’ and sell at the ‘ask’ as many times as possible. Spread traders can make hundreds of this type of trade every day.
ECNs or Electronic Communication Networks are a recent development. They are completely electronic exchanges with very low commissions and very fast execution of orders. As a method of encouraging traders to use their networks, some ECNs offer incentives in the form of a rebate. In some cases, this can allow a day trader to make money simply from buying and selling a stock at the same price.
Day trading can be very profitable if you get it right, but you need to research as much as possible and take advantage of the free simulation software that is available for you to practice with before you take the plunge. Remember, day trading isn’t for the faint hearted!
To find out more about day trading software, take a look at my Day Trading Blog
Practice before you dive in with free simulation software at my Day Trading Blog
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 11:26 pm. 0 comments
There has been a lot of debate over the years as to whether or not gold is worth investing your money in. Some make the claim that it makes an excellent hedge against inflation; others might say that you can use it as a quick fix for some extra cash. And then there are some that invest in it when the economy is bad because they feel if everything crashes, at least their gold will still carry some value.
So what is it? Is gold a good investment?
Well- let’s define “investment” first; really, it should be categorized into a couple of different perspectives. We either invest with a long term approach, or we invest with a short term, turn a quick profit approach. In this article, we’ll explore both the short term and long term approaches to using gold as an investment.
Before we consider the above, let’s look at how gold has been performing throughout the years and use that data to consider the question.
First, if we were to take all of the years that gold’s worth has been calculated up to the present, we would find that gold has improved in value at about 2% annually. In the last 50 years, things have been a little bit better, as gold has been increasing at about 4% annually. So would it be a good long term investment? Doubt it… most good index funds (something that might follow the S&P 500, for example) have been increasing on average at 12% annually in those same years. Do your research- you’ll find the same data.
Here’s another interesting thing: if you would have bought a bunch of gold back in 1983, you would have purchased it for roughly $510 per ounce. Thinking that it might be “a good hedge against inflation,” you hold that investment for the next 20 years or so. By the end of 2005, if you were to have attempted to sell that same gold, you would have made literally NOTHING! That’s right- in December of 2005, gold was being sold at $515 per ounce!
If you take inflation running at about 3% into account, you’d have found that gold would have lost you a substantial amount of money.
Is good a good investment? Considering the numbers, it wouldn’t be good long term.
How about gold as a short term investment? Currently, gold is being traded for roughly $875 per ounce! In the last several years, it’s been increasing at an astounding rate! So now would be a good time to buy, right? Absolutely not! It’s only been in the last few years that it’s really gained any ground; if you look into history, anytime gold begins to look up, it ends up taking a hard fall. If you would have bought gold in the last couple of years, now might be a good time to sell it!
But what about now? Should you buy it? Well… you decide. Typically, I like to buy low and sell high; don’t we all? So… with gold being as high as it is, the worst decision you could make would be to buy it. Don’t touch it!
So, in short, is gold a good investment? Absolutely NOT! Stay away from it.
Trever Shipp, the author, works as an online business consultant, student, husband, and business owner. Follow his personal finance blog and see how he and his family take finances by the horns and steer them to success.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 10:30 pm. 0 comments
Besting: Better Nesting - an improvement in quality of housing with additional features and benefits. Amenity rich options that afford luxury and levels of comfort or pampering that reach beyond traditional housing.
Future Primary Residence: A second home today, that may or may not generate some rental income, but its primary purchase was for future personal use as a retirement residence. FPR is different from a traditional second home in that it is being interviewed and mentored for the day it becomes a full time home.
Cottage: The home you dream of being at while you are in the office. If home is where your heart is, your heart is up at the cottage, by the lake, overlooking the valley, next to the town, deep in the woods, perched on a bluff with the most incredible sunsets and sunrises from your hammock.
Pied a terre: If your dream home is in a vibrant city centre, with the vibe of culture at your doorsteps, then a pied a terre may be in your future. Typically a small, basic housing style - Besting suggests these properties are getting more luxurious in amenities and services.
Traditional Condominium: A cottage with less maintenance and a gardener who trims and weeds while you are back at the office. Legally a condominium is an ownership interest in a block of air, from painted wall to painted wall, and a right to use common areas owned by you and the other condo association owners. This is a form of ’shared ownership’.
Condo Resort Residence: A condo within a luxury resort, where you get a gardener plus pool boys, valet, and hotel amenities. Condo resort residences are typically not rented as part of the hotel rental program and are often in a separated area from traditional hotel or resort guests.
Condo Hotel: A condo resort residence within a hotel, rented nightly by the hotel management team while you are back at the office. Looks and feels like a condo, with multiple rooms, typically larger than 600 square feet, all amenities and services of the hotel.
Hotel Condo: Legally a condo within a commercial hotel, looks and feels like a hotel room or suite. Typically smaller than 600 square feet and does not have a kitchen. Often used as a pied Terre, a shorter stay vacation or second home, or a base camp for luxury living. Comes equipped with hotel rental program when you are back at the office or in your other hotel condo getaway locations.
Deeded Timeshare: Shared real or deeded real estate ownership and use rights of real property for a specific period of time. Often in vacation or resort markets. Most often refers to 1/52 share or 1 week of ownership rights. When sold as 1/52 share, the real estate value is often diluted by as much as 50% - i.e. a furnished $250,000 whole ownership condominium, which is converting and sold as timeshare will be sold at $9,600 per week ($9,600 x 52 = $500,000). As much as 50% of the retail cost of a timeshare covers sales, marketing and management expenses, because timeshare is more than real estate ownership it is a lifestyle product. $10 billion in timeshare was sold in 2006, up from $8.6 billion in 2005, this is a booming market.
Un-deeded “Points” Timeshare: Same as deeded timeshare, except the consumer receives a ‘right to use’ a property for a specific, typically long-term, period of time - i.e. 1 week of use for the next 10 years.
Vacation Clubs: Functions similar to a timeshare, club management buy timeshare interests from several resorts and then offers this time to club members. Club members do not get property deeds, but they do enjoy large discounts on vacation housing costs. Clubs are growing in popularity.
Fractional Ownership: Timeshare in bigger slices of ownership, and therefore more real estate at a value closer to whole ownership pricing. Fractional is typically ¼ to 1/13 share of deeded real property ownership. Fractional owners get a deeded ownership interest in a particular condo unit or property, when they come for their use time, this is solely the unit they use. ‘Why buy a whole pie if you only want a piece?’
40,000 households own fractional real estate, this is only 1% of the top earning households, fractional is poised for substantial growth.
Non-Traditional Fractional (NTF): Fractional shares smaller than 1/13 to 1/26 share. Bigger shares than timeshare, smaller than traditional fractional, 3.5 weeks or 2 weeks of use. NTF is often found in private residence club structures.
Private Residence Club: Fractional ownership in a resort project, with a deed to a particular condo, but with the right to use any available condo in the resort or a number of resorts within the club association.
Bob Waun is the author of a new book on this trend called: “Besting” http://www.betternesting.com . He is CEO of Vacation Finance, America’s First Second-Home Lender and a leader in the resort and second home industries.