You Are an Investor (Whether You Know It Or Not!) - Tips For Becoming a Better One!
By Kate Babkova

We are all investors in some way! You may not consider yourself an investor, but for better or for worse, you are one! Some of you invest in academic education, some in stocks, some in mutual funds, some in rims on your cars; you get my point here - the list can go on and on. Whether we do it consciously or subconsciously, we all do it. But how do we know when we are investing? Well, the most simplistic definition of "investing" is converting your money into "things" that will allow you to convert it back into money at a later date! In some cases MORE money, in some cases LESS money and in some cases you'll get back what you've put in!

I think it goes without saying, but ideally we all want to get more money out of our investments! In this article I will cover some valuable tips for you to use when you are making your next investment!

1. Be aware!

Lets face it, when we are conscious of our decisions we are a lot more likely to make a better choice! So next time when you are "investing" your money with hopes to get it back at a later date, stop. Now ask yourself "Am I investing my money? Or "am I spending my money?" When you ask your self this question, you automatically become aware of what it is exactly that you are doing. Now you'll have a clearer vision of what your actions, and the end result will potentially look like! Of course our emotional expectations may not always meet our actual end result, but the point is for you to become aware of your initial action and think! This is SO simple, we can ALL do it.

2. Price is what you pay, value is what you get!

Price is the amount of money you are expected or required to pay (in some circumstances this is an unpleasant experience - which of course can happen after a bad investment). Value on the other hand is worth, importance or usefulness of something. An important thing to remember is that when you are consciously investing your money with hopes to get more money later, the value should ALWAYS be greater than the price you pay! This is one of the most important factors in making a good investment!

For example, when we buy a new car, we "invest" our money because we will later sell the car and get (some) money back! But how do we know that our value is greater than the price we pay? Well, we know that if we buy a NEW car, you will lose 10% of its value as soon as you drive off the parking lot! This is our number one single indicator that tells us when we sell the car, we will receive LESS than what we've initially invested. This makes it a money losing investment! So how do we find investments that carry more value than the price we pay?!

It's not as simple as A-B-C that's for sure, because if it was, I am sure we would all be doing it! But what I can tell you is that we have to look for good deals!! Good deals are the definition of value exceeding price! And the only way to do this is through research of the subject and knowing the market! That's how we spot good deals!!

When I was looking for a new car I knew I wanted a hybrid because gas prices were on the rise and at the time I would have rather got another pair of shoes than overpay for gas to get to my job (which I didn't always love!). So I knew that paying $30000 for a new hybrid car would not give me more value for the price (I could get a waaaaay cheaper car). But I also knew that if I found a good deal, then I would definitely get my monies worth and more! For a few weeks I was searching on a used car website looking at prices vs. the year vs. the kilometers. After a while I had a pretty good idea of what the fair market value of the car I needed was. Now, all I had to do was find that car for WAY below FMV and I had a deal! It didn't happen over night, but I ended up finding exactly what I wanted for $7000 BELOW FMV!

3 years later, I could sell my car and still make an extra $4000 (because I would sell it for more than what I paid for it!!! This is also known as built in equity!!!

I use this principal when I invest in real estate to build my wealth, and it worked yesterday, works today and will work tomorrow!

When your value is greater than the price you pay, you got a money making deal!

3. Who you should invest your money with?

Let me ask you this, do you know anyone who goes to their job without particularly "loving" what they do, yet they do it anyways because they get a decent pay cheque? Do you know anyone who has a hobby that they love, and just happen to get paid for it? Now, do you think that people who have hobbies AND get paid to do them will FAR outperform those that just go to their job to collect a pay cheque? I think so!

The point I am trying to make here is that when you are consciously and consistently trusting someone to invest your money, consider the following: Are they willing to help you make money before they make a cent (or charge you commission)? This will truly show if making YOU money drives them or collecting a pay cheque drives them.

For instance, when you give your money to your financial advisor and he/she invests it in a mutual fund, he/she gets paid no matter what! Their earnings do not depend on your investment success! This would worry me. What if my investments crash, who is accountable? YOU! That's right, and your FA gets paid to invest it for better or for worse. Doesn't seem so fair, does it? They are making money at YOUR risk!

It makes more sense to invest with someone who doesn't make a cent until YOU do! Then YOUR success becomes their ultimate goal and priority!!!


I hope that this article has shed some light on your investments. For more information on successful investment strategies please visithttp://www.jvforprofits.com


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kate_Babkova

Whitby, Ontario Is a Beautiful Place for Real Estate Investing
By Kate Babkova

Whitby is still a blossoming community and one of the major economic centres in the Durham Region. Located approximately 30 minutes east of Toronto, it is a viable option for many commuters. Whitby provides a small town atmosphere, with the sophistication and amenities of a large urban centre.

Whitby has two charming downtown areas (Whitby and Brooklin) offering a wide variety of restaurants, shops and entertainment facilities. There are over 470 businesses located in Downtown Whitby alone. The seasonal Farmer's Market is an attractive feature where shoppers are able to purchase local produce, vegetables, honey, meats and baked goods and support the local economy.

Port Whitby Marina is located on one of the finest natural harbours on Lake Ontario. Operated by the town with year round services, the marina is surrounded by an array of trails, beaches, parklands and great restaurants. Port Whitby is an Eco-Friendly Award Winner and ranks in the top 5% of eco-rated facilities in Ontario (2003, 2006, 2009).

Visitors and residents of Whitby can enjoy state-of-the-art recreational complexes, 125 parks and thousands of total acreage dedicated to parklands, two provincially significant conservation areas (Heber Down and Lynde Shores), and over 60km of multi-purpose trails. Whitby's fabulous recreational complexes include Canada's largest municipally owned and operated recreation facility, Iroquois Park Sports Centre. The centre includes six areans, two swimming pools, elite athletic training facilities, six tennis courts, five baseball diamonds, a soccer pitch, licensed restaurant, banquet facilities and more!

Arts and culture contribute significantly to the high quality of life in Whitby. Throughout the year, there are arts and cultural events that integrate music, art, theatre and activities for all ages. Many residents and visitors enjoy the Station Gallery for art exhibitions and the Whitby Courthouse Theatre for local theatrical performances.

The biggest draw that will keep people moving to Whitby is that it remains a relatively affordable place to live in the GTA. There are still good quality homes in great areas for between $275k and $350k, which is unlike the majority of the GTA where average detached home prices are well over $500,000 as of September, 2012 (Halton Region $689k, Peel Region $578k, York Region $737k, Toronto $781k).

Enjoying all of the amenities around the GTA, yet the living costs are nearly 50% lower makes Whitby a very appealing place to live.

According to Stats Canada, Whitby grew by 9.7% between 2006 and 2011 vs. Ontario which only grew by 5.7% in that same timeframe 
Unemployment Rate: 2012 2011 
Whitby 7.3% 8.3%

MLS Avg. price (detached): Q3 2012 Q3 2011 
Whitby $424,900 $381,220

Avg. # of MLS Listings (detached): Q3 2012 Q3 2011 
Whitby 222 177

Avg. Days on Market (detached): Q3 2012 Q3 2011 
Whitby 22 24

Vacancy rates: 2012 2011 2010 
Whitby <1% <1% 1.5%

Vacancy rates across the GTA have remained below 4.5% since 1971. This is due to the immigration rate increasing rental demand. Whitby's vacancy rate has fallen below 1% over the last year.

Housing Sales (detached): Q3 2012 Q3 2011 
Whitby 335K 230K

From 1998-2011 Whitby grew by 48.82% and is expected to continue growing largely due to the fact that the GTA is an entry point for new immigrants to Canada. The projected population of Whitby in 2017 is 143,767, which shows a 17% growth from 2011.

The statistics shown as well as some more in depth indicators reveal that the Whitby real estate market is on the verge of a boom. We can see the population steadily increasing, which leads to stronger growth in rental levels as there is less supply to meet demand. Typically vacancy rates can have large swings, but in the GTA this just isn't the case. Immigration continues to drive the vacancy rates down as new immigrants tend to rent before they buy. In Ontario we also have a rent-controlled environment, so we don't see too many large swings in average rents. Instead we have a slow steady climb. The unemployment rate has been going down in the last couple years, which helps to make purchasing homes more affordable. This will put upward pressure on house prices. Housing prices have been on a steady rise since 1996 largely due to the demographic drivers in Whitby and the GTA. We will continue to search for starter family homes to invest in throughout Whitby as the fundamentals show a continuing increase in house prices in the coming years.

Settlement in Whitby dates back to 1855, but it wasn't until 1836 that a downtown business centre was truly established. Whitby's biggest asset has always been its natural harbour on Lake Ontario, from which grain from the northern farmland was first shipped in 1833. Soon after a road was built from Whitby Harbour to Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay to bring trade and settlement through the harbour to and from the north. A railway was also built in the 1870s connecting Whitby with Lindsay. Whitby is now the seat of government in the Durham Region. It is commonly considered to be part of the GTA, although it really belongs to the greater Oshawa Metropolitan Area. Residents of Whitby commute to various other GTA communities, although General Motors Canada in Oshawa is a major employer for all areas of the Durham Region. Whitby also features a steel mill operated by Gerdau Ameristeel, Sobeys operates a retail support centre, and there is also a major Liquor Control Board of Ontario warehouse. Other major employers include Patheon (pharmaceutical manufacturer), Johnson Controls, Lear Corporation and Mcgraw-Hill Ryerson.

Specifically, occupations in Whitby Breakout:

27% Sales/Service 
22% Business, Finance, Admin 
13% Trades and Transport 
13% Management 
14% Education, Government, Social Sciences 
7% Health

We project Whitby home prices to continue its steady rise for years to come, particularly in North Whitby. The 407 extension has begun and once complete it will cut commuting time drastically. Commuters with offices based in other regions of the GTA will be more willing to move to Whitby for its affordability and shortened commute.

Whitby has a very bright future ahead as more people will soon discover its convenience and affordability.


To learn more, visit http://www.jvforprofits.com


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kate_Babkova

Hi Fellow Investors, 

First and foremost, we’d like to welcome you to our very first blog entry!

I hope you all had a very happy and tummy filling Thanksgiving this past weekend!

We want to share with you a story that happened to us last week. We think its pretty interesting, and most of all pretty alarming.

For those of you who don’t know us very well a quick introduction is a must =)

We Buy Houses 911 is a fairly young company, we established ourselves in July of 2012, my name is Kate and my partner’s name is Sandy. With huge passion for this business and industry we embarked on the challenging path to our success! With continuing education, fantastic mentors, role models and local REI clubs we feel empowered and grateful for our local REI community. We cant wait to continue our growth. 

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention about what we do! We actively market for motivated sellers to find properties under market value in the Durham Region (Ajax and Whitby, to be precise). We wholesale properties at the moment, but are also working towards bigger-long-term projects!

So without further ado... Here is the story:

Last week we received a call from one of the “investors” we had previously contacted about one of our properties. This time though, he was calling us to see if we had any interest in taking on his proposed deal or passing it on to our pool of investors.

From our initial, rather short conversation, the deal sounded pretty appealing:

• Commercial Real Estate Deal: Convenience Store FMV $90,000, Wholesale $30,000
• Turn Around time 3-4 months
• We go on title for this deal 
• He does all the work and organizes financing 
• Closing will take place before November 1st, 2012
• We require a refundable $6000 deposit fee 
• We get paid $10,000 (plus get back our $6000) on November 1st, 2012

Here is the tricky part, we must act FAST and also this is a commercial deal (to which we have no previous experience at all!). 

After discussing this with my partner Sandy and considering the fact that this is not our area of expertise, we were still pretty intrigued to find out more details about this “fantastic, no risk, fast money opportunity” (as per the “investor”).

We contacted him that same evening to let him know that we would consider it once we see the business plan, financial records of this existing business, market comps. Mainly what we wanted was a proper JV proposal. A rather standard request from a potential JV partner (in our experience). This was the exact response we received: “This deal was too good and we had to act fast, I didn’t have time for due diligence, but anyway, we got another investor for this deal already!” - Red Flag #1 No Due Diligence!?

Hmm alright, maybe we are over-thinking this? But not having any sort of due diligence on a commercial (or any) deal for that matter is a little strange to us!
Next day, that same investor called us for an urgent last minute meeting, to talk about another deal that came up! We dropped everything we were doing to have this lunch meeting. Mostly because we were curious to see what this fuss was all about.

After an hour and 15 minutes of this meeting we walked away rather confused, trying to put together what we just talked about. Here is what we were told:

• Any real estate deal is a money making deal
• He goes through five deals a day and closes on one of them 
• There are plenty of deals, just hard to find JV’s to go on title
• He does all types of investments (from debt consolidation, to Rent to Own to Rentals, etc.)
• Does deals anywhere in Ontario
• Doesn’t believe in long term investments
• Hamilton, ON is a bad place to invest
• His business card said he was a Mortgage Broker
• During the meeting he never mentioned anything about the deal he promised us and deflected every question possible!

Red Flag #2 - Jack of all trades, master of none!

They don’t say “The more you learn the more you earn” for nothing! 

Referring to some of the biggest investors in Real Estate in Canada, some of the most respected educators in Real Estate and our mentors we saw some pretty big contradictions in what he was saying to us:

• There is way more money in the world to invest than there are deals!
• Even our mentors who have been investing for 10 years or more try to close on one deal per MONTH, not one per DAY!
• “Hamilton has been named the top city in Canada to invest in.” ~ R.E.I.N. 
• Professional investors invest for positive cash flow 

Just to name a few...

Only 20 minutes after our meeting we received another urgent call from this investor telling us he had a fantastic residential opportunity but once again, we MUST act FAST!

When I asked him “Why is this a good deal?” he said “because you will get $10,000 for going on title”. When I asked what will happen at closing he said “he didn’t care, maybe he’ll rent it”, When I asked what the average rent in the area was, he said “$2600”, and when I asked about comps in the area, he said “they were about the same as the house.”

Needless to say, at this point we weren’t even considering working with this individual (on any deals), but we were still curious to investigate what his plan was!

Here is the funny part, this “amazing deal”, was actually the most expensive property on the street (in fact, 35% OVER Fair Market Value), the rents in the area were not higher than $1600/month on a comparable property and essentially, the promised $10,000 at closing was nothing more than a lucratively worded discount on a ridiculously over priced property that we would be stuck with! Also (as if this isn't enough!) his license as a Mortgage Broker was actually expired! - Red Flag #3 Expired Mortgage Broker License 
& Red Flag #4 Completely Ridiculous "Deal"

As pretty new real estate investors we were floored! Was he trying to take advantage of us? Was he trying to scam us? Or was he just a lousy "investor" trying to make ends meet?

We really don’t know, but what we do know, is that if it wasn’t for our fantastic team, mentors and our Real Estate Education, we could have been in a pretty big dill pickle of a situation!

We wanted to share this experience with our REAL Estate Investors, and any NEW eager investors out there, so you know what kind of people to avoid! Only work with people you are truly comfortable with!

Thanks for taking your time to read our first entry!

Feels good to be loved!

Until next time, 

~Kate Babkova~
 We Buy Houses 911.