Saving cash on your business travel

If your work involves a lot of travelling, and you are not lucky enough to have an unlimited expense account, then you will most likely want to keep your outgoings to a minimum if you are to get the most, financially, from your road bound endeavours. Here are some tips to help you save money on your travels:

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Real Estate Short Sale

A real estate short sale takes place when the sales price is less than the amount of all the liens against the property. It is not just the original lender who may be foreclosing. It would include anyone who has place a lien on the property such as a home equity loan or line of credit loan.

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All about Online Payday Loans

You will be well aware of the fact that getting a payday loan is not a very easy task. You will have to step into the payday loan offering firm several times before you can get the cash in your hand. This scenario was there before a coupla months. With the introduction of the online payday loans, things have changed a lot these days.

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Financial Crisis - Dynamics and Causes

A financial crisis seems to occur with fairly regular intervals. Here you can read about the characteristics of an financial crisis and the reasons why such an event occurs.

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Waiting periods when you join your South African medical scheme.

This article explains the waiting periods that may be applied when you join a South African medical scheme.

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South African medical schemes the late joiner penalty

The Medical Schemes Act makes provision for late - joiner penalties to be applied to members (of medical schemes) over the age of 35, who have not belonged to a medical scheme for two years or longer immediately prior to applying for membership.

Depending on the number of years they have not belonged to a medical scheme, an additional penalty fee (worked out as a percentage of the contribution) will be added to the member's contribution.

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Is Medical Aid too expensive for you?

Gives you another option if you find that medical aid coverage is simply too expensive for you.

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Can’t Pay the Bond? This is how you can save your property and avoid repossession

It is sad see that there are many property investors and home owners that can’t pay their bonds  due to the recent interest rate increases. To add to the trauma, many have refinanced properties to the extent that getting a quick sale in the open market is close to impossible as there is no equity left to make the deal attractive to another investor.

Here are some options, where to go next to save your properties or home.

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Increase Your Profits with Prepaid Electricity Metering

Metering of electricity with secondary prepaid electricity meters is an excellent way for property investors, landlords and letting agents to avoid the risk of having to pay electricity utility bills, when tenants don't pay.

However, feedback from the field shows that prepaid electricity meters also have other benefits. Customers who have installed prepaid electricity meters, in their rental units, are telling www.PrepaidMeters.co.za that one of the interesting benefits of using prepaid meters is that they are directly reducing their tenant turnover.

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Property Investors Unfortunately, I have some bad news for you

By the day tenants are gaining unfair advantage!

"How long did you think you would get away with it?"

"I don’t know what you are talking about….”

This is a quote from a conversation that was relaid to me. It took place between a property investor and his tenant.

I won’t bore you with the whole story, but I will tell you what happened in short, and it is suggested to read carefully as it may happen to you.
A new property investor bought a house with cottage as an investment. Shortly after talking transfer he placed a tenant. For a few months everything was fine, then he got a frantic call from his tenant.

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Residential Lease Agreements and Huur gaat voor koop

When it comes to letting, it's amazing how many property investors unknowingly take on obligations without ever knowing that they have done so. It happens in away that is so accidental, so transparent that in many cases tenants come and tenants go without either party ever knowing that this was the case.

How does this happen? In our law we have a provision that states that ‘Lease goes before sale’, better known as “Huur gaat voor koop”. Which means that when a leased premises is sold before the lease of a current tenant has expired, the tenant may in terms of the huur gaat voor koop rule remain in occupation of the premises until the lease expires.

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Property Investors Need to Keep up with their Tenants!!

In today’s information age anyone can find anything they ever want on the Internet. There is no lack of information, by far, there is excess more often than not. In today’s world mothers arrive at the doctors rooms with 50 pages of data, printed from the internet, of what can be wrong with their child. There only reason for a visit to the doctor is to confirmation what they think they already know is wrong. This may not be such a good practice, but it is no joke. From doctors to property investors and tenants, anyone can find out anything about everything. For landlords this means that tenants today also have information at their fingertips and property investors must take heed to that, or else!

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Negative Gearing for Property Investors

The term negative gearing is not very widely used in South Africa, in fact if you Google it you will find mostly Australian domain’s at time of writing. Though the term is not widely used, we found it is extensively employed as an investing strategy and often with little knowledge of its’ meaning and consequences.

In this article, we will look at negative gearing as part of property gearing and try to best explain what it is and how negative gearing affects property investments. Negative gearing, generally speaking, is an investment strategy. However, just like with any other strategy, it can be good or extremely risky, if one doesn’t know what it entails.

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Buying Land to Build Upon

Building a home from scratch will involve buying off-plan or owner-building.  When buying off-plan you purchase a property from a developer who provides you will a selection of plans from which to choose. As an owner-builder, you apply for authorisation to build on the stand you like from the NHBRC. Once approved you apply for a home loan from your bank.

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Bank Repossessions - Advice To Help Avoid Repossession of your Home

Repossession of a home or other property is the last thing anyone wants. It's one of the most feared situations every property owner hopes they will never face. Having a property repossessed is an extremely stressful experience and can have negative effects on future financial circumstances. This article provides some tips on what to do when faced with possible repossession.

Under the terms and conditions of all bank mortgage agreements it states that a property may be repossessed if repayments are not kept up-to-date. This means that the bank has the right to issue repossession proceedings if mortgage payments fall behind. Lenders take different actions at various stages, as a result the period of arrears permitted varies. Lenders will most certainly contact you in writing within 60-days and will, on average, take action within three months if no attempt to make payment is made.

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Prepaid Electricity Meters Minimize Risk

Collecting revenues for electricity used by tenants can lead to complications for landlords, body corporates and managing agents alike. In some cases, tenants regularly neglect to pay their electricity bill or refuse to do so when they feel that their consumption is not as high as the amount they are being billed for.

Whether the dispute arises because of neglect, or a feeling of injustice, collection of arrears in such cases is a problem. Legally, the electricity supply may not be disconnected, so tenants continue to enjoy the benefits of electricity and easily build up an arrears. Landlords have no choice but to pay on behalf of the tenant or face disconnection and reconnection fees. In some cases matters may remain unresolved for an extended period of time. While the landlord tries to collect the arrears from a tenant, the utility company tries to collect arrears from the landlord and so a domino-effect of legal proceedings ensue.

For landlords, body corporates and managing agents, the solution to avoiding this problem is to install a secondary, Prepaid Electricity Meter from www.PrepaidMeters.co.za . The secondary Prepaid Electricity Meter is privately owned and provides a cost-effective solution with equitable benefits to both tenants and landlords.

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How to Select a Good Managing Agent?

Even though all agents provide similar services, there are a few checkpoints you can use to ensure that you are engaging in a business relationship with a good and responsible agent.

This article is the second article in a two part series. In this article we will explore some checkpoints in selecting a good managing agent. Then we will summarize when it may be a good decision to hire a managing agent and when not.

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