Darin Garman, CCIM - Top 3 Commercial Real Estate Investors Time Management Strategies

One of the questions I get asked a lot from clients is how do I manage multiple real estate deals projects all at once? "How to Succeed in Commercial Real Estate?" Here are some specific strategies for you to consider:

a) Who to spend time with?

You need to consider spending BUSINESS TIME on only those who are going to contribute to your bottom line and goal achievement. All else needs to get put into the "we'll get back to you" pile. It is easy to get locked up with people that do nothing but take up your time. Don't do it.
I constantly have people wanting to meet with me, talk with me, etc. that don't contribute to the achievement of my goals they get put on the bottom of the pile and sometimes I never get back to them.

b) Keeping away from time vampires.

Time vampires are those that call you, come into your office, and tell you the "whole story" constantly. You need to politely tell these people "adios". You ever notice that you have those days where you have a lot of activity and by the end of the day you really have not gotten anything done? Time vampires are the main reason why.

c) Having a clear objective in the first place.

What are your goals, your objectives?? Where do you want to end up? How do you plan on getting there? Without a plan you will be spinning your wheels and the cash flow and value of your will suffer because of it.

So, there you go. We did not reinvent anything today, but it is surprising how the use of your time is tied to your income and the results you want.

From Darin Garman, CCIM:

If you have not taken advantage of my special limited time 2 month complimentary "test drive" of the Commercial Investment Property Owners Association, here is another opportunity to see what you have been missing...

How to Succeed in Commercial Real Estate

Real Estate Property Management: Is There a Tenant in the House

You?re about to take the plunge and buy your first investment property. Should you buy something that you can live in, something you can develop and sell on, or should you buy a designated rental property? If you are going to choose the last option then you need to do your homework first. There are different types of tenancies and every one of them should be handled differently. If you do decide to opt for rental property investment then check out the property investment forum at http://www.singingpig.co.uk/articles.aspx#propertyInvestment
to find out more. It may be more complicated than you think. So before you make your final bid, or put your money on the table, you should ask where there is a tenant in the house.

Some properties that are sold at auction already have sitting tenants. Real estate property management is not for the beginner. To begin with you would need a substantial sum of money behind you if you have set your mind on rental property investment. Then, if you still think you are up for real estate property management you need to do your homework. The property investment forum will give you some insight on what you need to know. For a start rental property investment is not the same as other investments, real estate property management can be a big headache for the uninitiated. The market changes from day to day so what works for one person at a certain point may not work for you at another. You should make sure that your finances are such that they can support you through a period when property market prices go down rather than up.

So you take the plunge and you?re now in the business of real estate property management. You need to make sure that you?ve done your cash flow forecasts because you have to have sufficient funds for property maintenance. Landlords who don?t carry out proper maintenance not only upset their tenants, they could fall foul of the law and find themselves in a worse financial position. Rental property investment may be a good proposition if the place is empty when you buy it because sitting tenants may have a regulated tenancy which means that you could find yourself getting less than the market rental rate. This where the property investment forum can be really helpful because it gives a breakdown of the different types of tenancies.

Sometimes people are anxious to make money in property development but are not fully prepared for all the hard work that needs doing or the problems they may encounter. You shouldn?t be too quick to give up the day job. As this article has already pointed out the property investment market is not static and unless you have some money to fall back on you could find yourself in a lot of trouble. When it comes to rental property, as contributors to the property investment forum point out, if the property has sitting tenants then you will not make the money you might have anticipated. You may see tenants as your bread and butter but sometimes they are more of an expense than an investment.

Julie-Ann Amos is an international professional freelance writer/author and consultant, writing for www.singingpig.co.uk. She recommends their property investment forum at http://www.singingpig.co.uk/articles.aspx#propertyInvestment. For more information on her writing services visit www.exquisitewriting.com

Asset Management As A Tool In Beating The Odds

Asset Management seems like some arcane science practiced by brilliant experts at first glance. Although the expertise of most money managers may be outstanding, the techniques of asset management are available to any investor. The whole idea behind asset management is to create some kind of stability in an investment portfolio that can protect the investor, to a certain degree, from market volatility. Market volatility is only a problem because, try as we may, we humans cannot predict the future. Any investment software or tracking method can only offer approximations of what the market might do in the future.

One of the key concepts of asset management is diversification. Diversification between types of investments, such as stocks and bonds, as well as diversification across a number of industries and countries can offer a buffer against volatility in any one investment, industry or country.

For the individual investor, this aspect of asset management can cause some confusion. The first question that comes to mind is; How much diversification is enough to offer protection against volatility? There is no easy answer to that question. The individual investor realizes that they don't have billions of dollars to work with like the mutual funds do. As a result, the investor has to limit their purchases.

The best approach is to educate yourself about the risks and rewards of each investment and sector. The next step is to select a basket of investments that are best suited to your risk tolerance as well as your investment goals. Also realize that as your portfolio grows, you can diversify more. Remember that the aim is to select good quality investments, but also to protect your capital as well.

Diversification within a sector can also offer protection against volatility. For example, in the consumer sector, investing in a supermarket chain that sells to basic consumer needs could be complimented by investment in a more diversified, higher end supermarket chain that situates itself in upscale neighborhoods. In this case, one would expect the high-end company to have higher profits, but in an economic slowdown, the basic supermarket chain might see less of a contraction. If possible, viewing data about how one performed in comparison to the other during past economic contractions may give a hint of future possibilities.

The speculative view of investing, whereby an individual hopes to make a large amount of money quickly, tends to be at odds with the diversification model of investing and asset management. There are two reasons for this; the first is that speculative investing is high risk, where as the diversified approach tries to limit risk and secondly, the concept of asset management aims at protecting capital, thereby ensuring survival and long term profits. One of the predictable outcomes for many speculative investors is to run out of capital and be forced out of the market.

There are three components to a realistic goal in investing; the first is a accurate idea of what can be earned through a particular kind of investment; the second is to know what you want to earn through investing; and the third is to decide when you will abandon an investment that is falling in value. All three of these issues call for some study and thought. It's easy to make an unrealistic judgment in this area. Once again this is where careful asset management can help you. If you are diversified, a mistake on a single investment won't be as devastating as it would be where there is only one investment.

The whole idea behind asset management is to give the investor the best possible chance of survival, which in turn will offer the best odds of ultimately succeeding in achieving their investment goals. Nobody can predict what the markets will actually do, but if you have a system that will protect your capital and keep you in the game longer, your odds of winning will improve.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Asset Management

Asset Management

Asset marketing is the process of dividing a portfolio into major asset categories such as cash, stocks, real estate, or bonds. In doing this there are three main strategies which are:

1.? Strategic Asset Allocation
2.? Tactical Asset Allocation
3.? Market Timing

Strategic asset allocation:

This focuses on designing a portfolio of investments that is suitable for your needs and sticking with that allocation through all market conditions.? Once an asset marketing to stocks, bond, real estate, and cash is set, it remains in place for a long period of time.? Due to the market always moving up and down a strategic asset allocation will get off target over time.? It is suggested that an investor should put their portfolios back on track with the original target mix from time to time, this is called re-balancing.? Re-balancing keeps a portfolio in line with an investor's goals and objectives, and helps control investment risk.

Tactical asset marketing:

Tactical asset marketing involved forecasting asset-class returns and increasing or decreasing commitment to an asset class based on the forecast.? Return predictions may be a function of fundamental variables, for example economic variables, technical variables, forecast of inflation, recent price trends, earnings or interest-rate forecasts, or a combination of several variables.? A tactical asset allocation is mainly based on these predictions.? Tactical Asset Marketing is also known as Active Portfolio Management.

Market timing:

This is tactical asset marketing taken to the extreme.? It involves forecasting asset returns and making "all or none' asset-class bets.? A market timing strategy may start the year 100 percent in Treasury bonds and end the year 100 percent in stocks.

No on likes losing money, and no one likes to be out of a bull market.? Market timing solves both of these problems. Although some investors may believe that there are strategies that will allow them to successfully weave into and out of the markets, the facts show that few people actually do so, and those people may be lucky rather than good.? Market timing is not recommended by the professionals.
No one knows which of these three will work well.? But the best bet is to keep a well-balanced multi-asset-class portfolio that maintains a strategic allocation over time.

Raj Selvaraj is an expert in finanical matters. He has worked many years in the Finance business. He has written many articles on finanical matters and his latest article on asset management can be found on www.managementasset.org

Digital Asset Management Software

If your business relies on digital files for its day-to-day operations, then you should definitely invest in quality digital asset management software ? designed to let you track, organize and retrieve important documents, images and other digital files easily.

Digital asset management software has long been a necessity for industries such as digital photography, graphic design, advertising and publishing. Newer versions have features that are relevant to other types of businesses and more and more industries are jumping on the bandwagon.

Among the converts are document-rich organizations that seek to modernize their filing systems. Digital asset management software, although best known for their ability to quickly track image files, now also track and retrieve documents and other frequently-used Microsoft Office files. The software usually captures all of the data/text in the file and then records them into the database. A user can type in keywords or phrases and be led to relevant documents. It also works on PowerPoint and Excel documents, among. Users can also create customized catalogs for their files and cross-reference files in several catalogs. This digital asset management software is so effective that many businesses are migrating from the traditional filing cabinets to these e-files.

What?s more, most digital asset management software is affordable even to smaller businesses. There are single-user versions that go for less than $100, and it only costs $50 more to upgrade to a professional version. Business packages are also affordable at about $2,800 including license. These packages already include servers, multiple user accounts and constant manufacturer support. There are even free online demo versions available to hesitant buyers. These demos have limited functionalities, but business owners who want to try the product out before purchasing find them very useful.

Asset Management Software provides detailed information on Asset Management Software, Digital Asset Management Software, Inventory Asset Management Software, Fixed Asset Management Software and more. Asset Management Software is affliated with Free Project Management Software

Property Management Software as an ASP

It used to be that in order to manage your properties, be it apartments, mobile homes, or office space, each of the managers would have to store the data on their own machines either on software built for that purpose or with an assortment of personal databases and/or spreadsheets. In order for a central office to be able to view that information or do any sort of reporting, the individual managers would have to mail a floppy disk to the central office, or, as things became more advanced, email or ftp that information. IT Managers hoped that the property managers were backing up their software in case of computer crashes, but never actually knowing if that was occurring or if the backups were valid. Among the other problems that were sure to occur in these scenarios were differing versions of the software, being tied down to a specific operating system, being tied down to a specific computer (the one with the installation), and difficulty correcting problems in the data from a remote location.

I talk about those things as if they are archaic when, in fact, many companies still rely upon these decentralized programs and databases and outdated methods to manage their properties.

Recently, however, companies that wrote these personal solutions have begun to develop centralized solutions based on web servers. And they are not the only ones. Intense competition from Internet startups with savvy web developers backed by knowledgeable property managers and property management companies have appeared, sometimes overnight.

Is it worth it to try one of these out? What does it buy you?

Whether you go with a proven player in the property management software market or a program written by a fledgling company, moving to an Application Service Provider (ASP) most likely provides you with the following important concepts. This list is by no means all-inclusive.

Centralized Data and Software

With data in one location, you can ensure backups happen on all of the properties as many times as you deem necessary. You no longer have to worry about whether your managers are backing up data.

With data in one location, you can run reports on all of the properties at the same time without waiting for managers to mail or email you their data. You can even view these reports with real-time data.

All of your manager?s machines are always running the most up-to-date version, and the ASP doesn?t have to take time building and testing the patches to make sure they patch the program properly on all supported operating systems. They can just make and test the changes on their own servers, and move those changes to where the property managers themselves can use the modifications.

Data fixes do not require the data to be zipped up and sent to the programming company, nor do they require access into your computers or networks.

Versatility and Convenience

No more are the days when you have to buy the Windows version, the Mac version, or, if you are especially daring, trying to get the version of the software to work with the flavor of Unix or Linux that you have selected. If done properly, property management software will run on any of the more popular web browsers on any environment you choose.

You no longer need to bring the computer with you that has the installation on it. You can access your properties from any library, school, Internet caf?, home, or work location at which you find yourself, as long as you have a connection to the Internet.

Cost

How many property managers honestly want to pay a team of IT professionals to manage all of the software and its upgrades at all of their properties?

There is really no need to keep using antiquated alternatives. If the convenience of easy access from anywhere using any web browser doesn?t provide enough of an incentive, the easy and less expensive management and real-time statistics and reporting should. Take a look at some of the choices in online property management software today, and see how easy managing your properties can be.

David Hickenbotham is a professional writer and programmer. He develops property management software for Resident Map.