New concept in home sales

Posted by Lorraine Ross on February 6, 2008

PropertyHome have recently released a new concept in home buying and selling.  This amazing technology does not simply list properties for buyers to search through and select, but allows potential sellers to search for potential buyers and tenants (and over 50,000 of them lisetd, at that!)  This means that sellers don’t just create their regular South Africa Property Listings, they can be proactive in getting the details of people that have registered their interest in properties like the one you have to sell. 

Of course this represents a huge benefit to buyers as well!  Rather than having to scroll through the traditional listings of properties, and having the check and re-check just to see if anyhting new has been listed, they can simply register and wait for the seller to come to them!  This is a huge leap forward in the paradigm of property sales!

All kinds of sellers are welcome on the site, from Real Estate Home for Sale by Owner right through to property developers and regular folks who just want to list their South Africa Houses for Sale.

Of course the “standard” functionality is still available and you can look through the listings just as you would on a regular real estate website.  Currently, there is a promotion on for sellers, so if you are in the market for selling a property in South Africa, you can get a listing here for free for 3 months!  This is more than enough time to see the value of this great and innovative service.

Why is Real Estate a safe investment

Posted by Lorraine Ross on February 6, 2008

At least since the last half of the 20th century, real estate has experienced a high rate of growth for investors. Unlike some other types of instruments, real estate is a safe investment and thus is quite popular with investors. It’s quite easy to see why real estate is a safe investment when you look around at the market in general. Real estate is one of the few investment instruments that you can depend upon to increase in value.

Unlike securities, it doesn’t change from day to day nor do you run the risk of losing all the money you have invested during a market crash. That doesn’t mean that real estate investors have never seen a depressed market because when you look at the late 70s and early 80s when interest rates on mortgages were at an all-time high of 18 to 22 percent, there was a definite decline in the rate of growth within the real estate market. This decline in property values was the direct result of a decrease in buyers—people just couldn’t afford mortgages with interest rates on mortgages higher than what they were paying on credit cards.

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How to invest in Real Estate

Posted by Lorraine Ross on February 6, 2008

Real estate is one of the fastest growing investment markets in the world today. Those who invest in real estate can expect a long-term return on their money if they purchase the right property. It’s important to learn how to know what move to make and when to make it. The key to investing in real estate and making a success of it means knowing when to make an offer and how to determine the best price to offer.

Many investors look for properties that are in foreclosure or the homeowners have begun to fall behind on their mortgage payments and want to avoid foreclosure. In these cases, the investor will usually pay the mortgage up to date, assume the mortgage, and may give the homeowner a small stipend to allow him to move his family into another house or apartment. With this method, the investor has to come up with very little cash, and the homeowner walks away from his home without harming his credit.

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