Community Home InfoHomes And Gardens

You probably won’t find too many people who actually enjoy the process of moving. There are those who seem to be moving all the time and just grin and bear it. Then there are others who after moving once or twice decide that the whole process has convinced them to stay put for a while! It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve moved, it’s likely you’re going to be dreading the next move as much as the last. The only thing to make your move slightly more bearable is to enforce an organized system. It may seem like some extra effort but you are really saving yourself a great deal of time and stress by staying organized.

1. The first thing you need to do is DE-CLUTTER. Get rid of any and all unnecessary items. It may be time to donate some clothes to a thrift store. When it comes to the kitchen, it might be time to get rid of the second blender you’ve never used or the extra china that has been collecting dust for 10 years.  Remember that the more you get rid of, the less you have to pack. Keep in mind the space you will have at your new location whether it be one of the condos in Austin or a larger home.
2. A great tip for staying organized is to figure out the order you will go in when packing up rooms. Make a list of this. The best thing to pack first is decorations since you don’t really need them.  Pack anything that is an “extra” and then work from there. The kitchen and bathroom are usually the last things you want to pack up. Another idea is to keep meals simple in the last week before you move that way you can slowly pack up kitchen things as you won’t need as much.
3. Remember to label each and every box with where it goes, a brief description of what is in it and whether it is fragile or not.
4. Go to your new Austin condo or wherever your new home is and place a label over each room that coordinates with the label on the box. For example: the box labeled office goes into the room with the label “office” over the door. This will make the unpacking process much easier. 

As a follow up to a previous article on this site covering international real estate investing in general, in this article I focus in on buying property in Nicaragua.   I’m going to keep things short and to the point. Effectively what you will be receiving is a download of what I have learned after almost a decade of living and investing in Nicaragua. I’ve operated as a real estate agent with a major brokerage firm, as an independent investor and as an investment analyst preparing market analysis reports for major developers.  So if you want a shortcut to becoming better at investing in Nicaragua real estate I’d advise you to read my bullet list below.

• As there is no multiple listing service in Nicaragua you’re going to have to do a lot of homework to determine market value for properties you are interested in.  Find lots of sources of information including from mainstream press – like this New York Times article for example.
• Real estate agents in Nicaragua are not required to have any specific qualifications or experience. Although there are some regulations that cover these factors, they are not generally implemented.
• All closing documentation will be written in Spanish and that includes your property deed.
• Not all areas of the country have been officially mapped and matched with property registry numbers. This makes it of particular importance to always get a registered property plan as part of your purchasing process.
• Title insurance is not a requirement when you close on a property in Nicaragua. Having said that I always recommend it has a prudent step that will ensure that you are protected from any new legal issues that can emerge down the line.
• Over the years I’ve seen far too many examples of people making emotional purchases in Nicaragua. They tend to forget investment fundamentals and get carried away with the idea of owning property here. Try to use your head as well as your heart.
• Before you purchase find out about water and electricity supply. Bear in mind that some parts of the country are quite dry and may suffer water shortages at certain times of year.
• Although different types of title are available in Nicaragua, it’s far safer to buy freehold fee simple title in other forms such as posession title or leasehold title.
• If you are buying off plan from a developer make sure that he or she has a track record of building in the country. Make sure also that all relevant planning permissions and building permits are available.
• I’ll end with one of the most important pieces of advice which is to only buy what you can actually see in front of you. As Nicaragua is a developing country your real estate agent will bombard you with information about new roads, new airports, perhaps even a major hotel brand coming into the area or improvements in electricity and water. Although these may well come down the line, it’s always tricky to determine the timing.  So it makes sense to only proceed if you are happy with the property in its current state of development.

There have been a lot of people that have lost a lot of money in this recent crisis. Some real estate investors have had to file bankruptcy because their losses were so unsurmountable and the economy so flaky that they felt like they had no choice but to give up.

The first step to maximizing your potential to make money investing in real estate is to (at least at the beginning) stick to your local market. Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t expand, but understand that real estate is highly local. For example, while some markets have tanked (Florida, Nevada), others are seemingly unaffected and prices just keep shooting up (New York City).

So you should definitely know how your local area of choice is doing. Are sales accelerating or slowing down? Are investors trying to get in or out? How’s the population growth: are people moving in or out? Is there a new plant opening in the area; are there lots of businesses to provide a vibrant job market?

These will help you be better equipped to assess other variables such as how long do the houses stay on the market and whether or not there have been any foreclosures in the area. As you well know, foreclosures really bring down the value of the entire neighborhood.

While we’re at it, you should pay attention to inventory levels. A low inventory suggests that houses are not staying for long on the market or that there isn’t much mobility. A high inventory might mean that people are moving out of the area or that the market hasn’t caught up to the influx of people who are moving into the area because of that new business opening soon.

As you can see, one set of figures taken by itself will not give you the detailed picture that you need to make sound investment decisions. You need to take a look at the whole picture, otherwise you might make some very expensive mistakes.