How To Know if Real Estate Investing Is Right for You

Investing opportunities are sometimes hard to come by. Other times, an investment opportunity will scream out directly in your face. This is often the case for real estate investors when they look back on their decision to get into the property market.

Why should you buy into real estate?

Real estate is one of the fastest growing asset classes among retail investors, yet high net worth individuals have known of the power that real estate imbues a portfolio with for many generations. At a minimum, real estate holdings provide homeowners with a reliably growing bottom line valuation, as well as the vehicle for creating healthy dividend profits in the short term.

Many early-phase investors are wary of venturing out away from the shallows of the stock market, but real estate operates in much the same way that shares do. The only significant differences between the two are the increased buy-in price and the physical ownership of a property versus the quasi-intangible nature of company stock (or stock in an ETF, mutual, or index fund that’s another order of magnitude removed).

Fortunately, there are a number of mid-stream avenues that allow wary investors to dip their toes into the property market without shouldering the expanded risk of buying an individual property themselves.

REITs and other real estate funds are great ways to test the market.

The real estate market is a fundamentally versatile one. Investment firms like Yieldstreet, Blackrock, and others offer structured real estate funds to their clients in an effort to provide the same kind of quality dividend that a direct property owner might see as a return on their investment. The difference is that REIT owners don’t share in the same level of risk. Every investment opportunity contains some measure of risk; without it, there would be no profit. However, many first time property buyers find that risks are everywhere if you don’t carefully contain the sources of these profit-killing issues.

Tenants might refuse to pay rent, a property could require extensive unforeseen repair work that forces you to sell at a loss, or a pipe might burst, creating an emergency maintenance requirement that saps your monthly or yearly maintenance fund for the home. Any number of issues can plague a real estate investor.

Yet, fund owners, like those invested in Yieldstreet funds, are able to eliminate these direct threats to their profit. They do this by purchasing shares of a fund, blending hundreds or thousands of properties into one aggregated dividend producer (and smoothing out the individual knocks to profitability along the way). Yieldstreet is perhaps one of the best out there for blended residential and commercial property management.

Yieldstreet offers the Prism Fund as its shining contribution to investors looking for the ultimate in alternative investing opportunities. For more on Yieldstreet or the Yieldstreet Prism Fund, read a few reviews and Yieldstreet complaints.

Invest directly for increased profitability.

While a REIT can give you access to minimum risk, the real investing opportunity that gets property investors excited happens away from the stock market or fund network. Investing directly in property is the only way to see the lion’s share of returns.

However, there are some important considerations to make when going this route. You will need to work with local technicians in order to build solid relationships for maintenance requests. Building relationships with Fresno plumbing companies, or electricians working in the Fresno area, will help you keep your tenants happy and your costs low. Maintenance providers love working with landlords because they know that a good service will result in repeat business.

Building a solid business partnership with these service providers will help you get the repair work you need in a hurry and at a favorable price that will keep the returns pumping in.

Related:
Top Trends in Home Renovations

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September 4, 2020

Entrepreneurship Advice From Investment Legend Mark Wiseman

When it comes to finding success as an entrepreneur, there are a lot of factors to keep in mind. Entrepreneurs are constantly juggling a variety of priorities, from managing day-to-day operations to thinking big about the future and the places they can take themselves and their business. As such, it never hurts to have a little bit of mentorship in order to clarify your goals and what you want to achieve in life.

While it’s always possible to connect with other entrepreneurs via social networking websites such as LinkedIn, sometimes it’s just as important to hear a few key thoughts and philosophies from someone else who’s found a great deal of success. Mark Wiseman is one such individual to turn to for wisdom about running a business. Known as an investment legend for his work as the Global Head of Active Equities and for managing a swath of strategic priorities around the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and other private equity fund investments, Wiseman has plenty to share with entrepreneurs who’re just starting out or have a few years under the belt. Here are two key pieces of advice as distilled from Wiseman’s impressive career and track record of successes.

Don’t make short-term decisions. Take the long view.

One of the most pivotal philosophies espoused by Mark Wiseman is to take the long view. While this is predominantly in association with thinking about your investment strategy from a long-term investing approach, his ideas about time frames are just as applicable to other areas of business, too. To quote Wiseman directly, “If you look at a chart of the Dow Jones over 100 years you don’t see any volatility.” Taking solace in the Dow’s upward trajectory over the past century allows investors to focus on their end goal instead of making knee-jerk reactions to the 24-hour news cycle, which can be particularly dangerous during a pandemic.

So, how do you take Wiseman’s investment advice and apply it to your entrepreneurship? The answer is simple: don’t make short-term decisions. True, because of the pandemic, it may make more financial sense in the current moment to furlough staff members or decrease your output, but how does that set you up for success six or twelve months from now when the pandemic is over? Employees will remember your lack of loyalty and new job applicants may steer clear of your business after seeing how you handled the pandemic. Similarly, by scaling back your output, customers may have forgotten about you or moved on to another business instead of counting on you. By taking a longer view and thinking months (or even years!) in advance, you can avoid these costly mistakes.

Make goals—and stick to them.

Part of being able to stay focused on your long-term goals the way that Wiseman advocates is to clearly identify your priorities and stick to them. In Mr. Wiseman’s world of investments, that involves defining clear needs, like making sure that your social workers’ pension plan doesn’t run out of money. When it comes to making those goals as an entrepreneur, you’ll want to substitute Wiseman’s Canada pension plan for another priority of your own business—like increasing sales, launching a new product, or redesigning your website.

One way to align all of your staff members with these strategic priorities is to adopt an OKR framework for doing business. OKR stands for “objectives and key results” and provides a clear way for thinking about, identifying, and achieving your goals by defining what success looks like in purely black-and-white terms. Work Board offers a software platform that makes creating, sharing, and collaborating on your OKRs super simple, complete with powerful analytic tools that make it easier than ever to measure your success. If you’re an entrepreneur that geeks out over business processes and technology that makes your team more productive, OKR software is something that can help you implement Wiseman’s philosophies in a concrete way.

[…]
Why Tesla Stock Continues to Rise on Wall Street
Growing Your Property Investment Portfolio: Ways to Build a Passive Income

June 3, 2020July 29, 2020

Wall Street and the Gig Economy

Wall-Street-and-the-Gig-Economy The past few years have seen a major rise in a new industry: the gig economy. People are empowered to be self-employed with easy access to jobs like Uber, Lyft, Door Dash, and Postmates, providing an opportunity to work for yourself and create your own schedule.

This is an appealing prospect for many Americans who face hurdles when trying to access other job opportunities throughout the country. It is also an opportunity for those who are unable to commit to a full-time or regular working-hour schedule.

Wall Street and the gig economy haven’t always gotten along. In fact, the relationship between the two can be described as rocky. But for most of 2020, the gig economy has been one of the very few industries to remain strong and even see a rise in stock prices. Does this change major stockholders’ views on the gig economy? What does the future of the gig economy look like?

Gig Companies Vs. Gig Workers

One major reason why Wall Street is typically sour on the idea of the gig economy is because of the ways that the companies can get away with treating their workers. Individual contractors who are a part of gig jobs rarely get paid any benefits, insurance, or protections, and end up spending more money to fuel their own cars than they can save up, making gig jobs meaningless efforts.

A few years ago, Wall Street Journal reported on the new standards being placed on huge gig economy corporations such as Uber and Postmates. While some gig companies have been slow to adapt to new workplace changes, they have proven to pass the test of time as they are now some of the few companies making a profit in our post-pandemic world.

Gig Impact on Economy Cannot Be Denied

Since 2017, Wall Street has come a long way in recognizing the benefits and usefulness of gig workers and the gig economy And since the release of the federal relief stimulus package in April, the status of independent contractors has changed forever.

Previously, gig workers would never expect to receive unemployment benefits or any form of federal aid, since they are classified as independent contractors under a 1099 instead of employees under a W2. Without a W2, workers cannot get benefits and must pay self-employment taxes each year. Wall Street Mastermind goes in much deeper about how the gig economy is starting to change the world and what investors on wall street might be looking for to get more exposure from this market.

The stimulus package and allowance of federal unemployment help has put gig workers on the same level as employees and professionals, cementing the gig economy’s place in society and even on Wall Street. Gig company stocks continue to rise, especially those involved in food and grocery delivery services.

Without gig workers, life in quarantine would be nearly impossible. Now, there is an app for just about anything you need, from food delivery to virtual medical help. While many people are still slow to accept the necessity and value of gig economies and the gig worker, it is undeniable that this industry is currently one of the strongest on the market.

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April 24, 2020August 1, 2020

Why Tesla Stock Continues to Rise on Wall Street

The first quarter of 2020 has seen some volatile activity in the way market trends are swinging back and forth. But there are a few companies who seem to be almost immune to the peaks and valleys that are showing up more frequently than ever on Wall Street these days. One such company, Tesla, is currently on its 7th-session winning streak on the market.

The stock market has seen huge disruptions due to COVID-19, but Tesla remains in a great position to bounce back stronger than ever once the crisis is behind us. As of April 14th, 2020, Tesla stocks were up by 56%.

Tesla’s Wall Street Activity

Even Wall Street veterans are cautious about Tesla’s continual rise in value across its shares. This is largely due to the fact that Tesla is an international company, with production facilities in countries that are allowing businesses to re-open amid virus concerns. One such factory in Shanghai, which is actually being defined as a gigafactory, has been reopened. If you’re loving all this news about wall street, you should visit Sam Shiah Wall Street online prep course to learn more about how you can get in on the action.

Tesla is going through what financial pros call “wildly speculative trading”, and it is becoming harder and harder to predict what’s going to happen to Tesla day after day. In fact, they reached almost $1,000 per share at one point before their stock prices went back down a little bit. But consistently, Tesla has been on the rise.

Tesla Got Short Squeezed

Since Tesla had such a stellar quarter at the end of last year, it boosted them well into 2020, which is clearly reflected by rising stock prices. Every financial analyst on top of the company also predicted an even bigger increase in prices, causing a short squeeze. Suddenly, everyone was buying back their shares, but this only increased the demand for Tesla stock.

Because of this short squeeze, Tesla shares rose higher in value because of the higher demand coupled with less availability. This doesn’t mean that Tesla is without concerns, however.

Due to the coronavirus, it is possible that the planned release of the new Model 3 will be delayed across several countries, which financial analysts are suspecting will cause a bit of a downturn in stock prices. But as of right now, shares are still rising in value.

Thank Credit Suisse

The Wall Street Journal notes that Credit Suisse is responsible for Tesla’s rise in stock popularity despite the unavoidable crash caused by COVID-19. Credit Suisse offered Tesla a big of an upgrade, putting the company in a much better place to emerge from the global pandemic unscathed when compared with other auto manufacturers.

These are the latest gains in Tesla’s Wall Street activity, putting rising stock prices at that magical 56%.

Should You Invest in Tesla Stock?

With the market as volatile as it is right now, it’s difficult to say whether an investment in Tesla will do you good in both the short-term or the long-term. In fact, this is such a popular question that, when typing “Should I” into Google, one of the autocompleted answers comes up as, “Should I sell Tesla stock?”.

As of right now, it’s clear that Tesla is on a hot streak, and it might be a good idea to get in on the game. Despite the murky waters the Wall Street market has found itself in, there are companies like Tesla that are still finding success and finding ways to rise in value and popularity.