Investing in anything can be a gamble and there are as many dollars lost as are made with poor portfolio management - sometimes it's said that success depends on being able to
out-anticipate the professional anticipators.
There's no such thing as a risk-free investment - whatever the publicity and hype say. Generally, the greater the claim, the greater the risk and the promises of fast returns are the ones
that are most likely to be dubious but, with good and careful methodology, there are some sound investment opportunities around - Real Estate in Florida is one of the best of them.
Florida is a dynamically growing state and real estate is in demand. The weather is more attractive than almost anywhere else in America - especially for people with leisure time to fill.
So, it's vacationers and retirees who're heading for cities like Miami, Tampa and Orlando in droves.
The population Nationally is, in fact, ageing and the numbers retiring are at their greatest and those numbers are likely to carry on growing for the foreseeable future. Thus, investing
in Real Estate that's going to be in demand from these people has to look like a good proposition.
In the case of the retirees, this may well be their only home but there are enormous numbers of vacationers from the North, Canada and South America.
In the UK there have been whole TV series dedicated to the subject of vacation homes and the English along with the Germans and some other Europeans are buying second homes in Florida for
their own use and to let while they're not there themselves.
Florida has issues going for it for working people too - tax exemptions on dwellings and a cost of living index generally below the national average make the state a prime target - that's
without the better publicised but less objective considerations of climate, accessibility and leisure facilities.
Sound investment (in any category) needs to take
advantage of the fluctuations in the market - buying at the troughs and selling at the peaks is the target but not even the experts can prophesy with any accuracy when they're going to
occur. With real estate in Florida, those peaks and troughs are pretty well minimised - the market is in more-or-less continuous growth so anybody investing in Real Estate now is almost
certain to be able to reap a worthwhile premium at any time. Even then, there are ways to maximise on the
opportunities.
New build is usually going to mature in value faster then older property and, in Florida, new build is thriving with thousands of starts every year. For those with the facility and
know-how, buying an older property in poor condition and renovating can be highly profitable.
Some developers build on minimal budgets and need to sell their output very quickly to maintain their cash-flow. To do this, they'll often pre-sell - that is, they'll take reservations on
what they're building before construction is through - usually at heavy discounts. An investor with funds available or a suitable credit line can take advantage of those discounts and
take a substantial share of the profit the builder was going to make.
The abundance of people-friendly directives coupled with the high employment projections for the year 2005 further reiterate that if real estate is the agenda then Florida is the place to
head for.
SHANE VANDERLEELIE
http://tampa-bay-realestate.line.us