Conceptualizing The GO Zone And How To Profit From It

By Mikey Backybacksac

Learning to take advantage of the GO zone will be something that one will want to do when it comes to real estate investment opportunities down in the Gulf Coast area. The Gulf Opportunity Zone, which was created after Hurricane Katrina slammed the area in late August of 2005, is more formally known as the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, and is aimed at assisting economic recovery in the region.

By now, most everyone is familiar with how Hurricane Katrina struck the coastal states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana extremely hard in late August of 2005. Ever since, those three states have been working hard to return themselves to a healthy economic state, but the need to divert much in the way of resources to the rebuilding effort is hampering their activities.

Understanding this, the Congress passed a number of laws and pieces of legislation that were aimed at bringing relief to the region, in particular through the actions contained in this Act. It is considered by many investors to be an extremely powerful recovery tool that is filled with economic incentives for these Gulf states to recover from the effects of Katrina.

In total, the incentives contained within the Act have created an environment where unparalleled investment opportunity has been made available for those willing to invest in the zone. Of course, a number of time frames exist and anyone wishing to invest in the region needs to keep that in mind if they wish to take advantage of all of the economic incentives offered in the Act.

Currently, the federal government is allowing those who wish to invest in certain property opportunities in the zone to benefit greatly from relaxed depreciation rules. Specifically, normal depreciation can be speeded up in the first year to 50% of the cost that was invested along with the normal depreciation. This bonus has created a set of powerful economic incentives.

Additionally, the Act has made it possible for a number of other incentives to be extended for those who choose to go down and invest. For example, a five-year net operating loss carryback has been created and businesses investing in certain types of properties can carry a net operating loss Ford for up to 15 years if desired. This is an extremely powerful economic incentive.

Anyone who is interested in exploring their investment opportunities, including those who wish to invest in residential real estate properties, down in the zone can find one of several excellent businesses that exist for the purpose of helping match up investors with likely properties. Additionally, these businesses will also work to educate investors so that they may take maximum advantage.

This opportunity to find a quality residential property existing in the Gulf economic zone is probably one of the best attractions when it comes to the GO Zone. Remember; always take the time to educate one's self about these opportunities before jumping into any sort of investing or commitment. Still, given the powerful incentives, the attraction and potential return are very high. - 23208

About the Author:

Perhaps you know about the GO Zone-the part of New Orleans hit hardest by Katrina by Hurricane Katrina? An awful situation is being turned around by those who make a GO Zone investment-they're getting relief and incentives to run their businesses in the area. Want to learn more?

Getting Info From Your Tenant

By Cody Scholberg

So, it's here. The day has finally come where you are in charge of the building. You are the landlord. And, your first task is to collect your tenant's information. You need to be able to contact them.

The first and most important thing to remember is that you must smile. Always, always smile.

Collecting information is usually a painless procedure, so there is little to worry about. Keep yourself under control. Know that you are in charge, but don't be a jerk about it. You need to be sure to be firm, but fair and friendly as well.

Stand erect, and speak with confidence. If you lack confidence or are easily intimidated, you will get trampled upon in this business; tenants will they can walk all over you, and, rest assured, they will. So, even if you are a coward, make sure you do not come off as one.

Everybody likes to follow a knowledgeable leader who has things under control. You want your tenants to trust and rely on you; act as if they can. Oh, and be sure to smile.

Asking them for their information is easy. Just ask them. That is all there is to it. Sometimes, you will have a tenant who seems very suspicious, as if he thinks you have some ulterior motive for getting his information. For these paranoid types, gently explain the reasons why you need their information. They should understand.

You can ask them if they would like to be told about a creep outside their window or a fire when asking for their cell phone numbers or work numbers.

Tell them that you need their social security numbers so that you can tell the credit agencies about their on-time payments. This helps you, too, because you will wan to check their credit. You must check their reliability. Be sure to smile, too.

Suspicious tenants should be told that the information given to you is confidential, and also tell them that you will do everything you can to ensure nobody else gets a hold of their info.

If you simply cannot get the information out of the tenant, then stop. Do not worry about it. There are some battles in life you should pick to fight, and this is not one of them.

Get their information from elsewhere; ask the previous landlord, check with the city, etc. You will be able to gather the rest of their information without much effort from other sources.

After you have their information, be sure you store it in a safe place. That was easy, right? - 23208

About the Author:

Cody Scholberg, an expert on landlording, writes for the Commercial Property Management Guide, an excellent source of landlording information. Check out this checklist for choosing good tenants.

Starting Out at Forex: Forex Investment Funds

By Bart Icles

The foreign exchange market is one the most popular trading venues wherein you can reap high returns on your investments, and you can also expect large losses. This is mainly the reason why traders need to educate themselves with all the basics of foreign exchange trading before they place any of their forex investments at risk. Even the smallest forex investment can mean the biggest losses if you do not give yourself enough time to learn and understand the various concepts associated with this form of trading.

Many new investors tend to place their forex investment at great risk because they often fail to appreciate the value of having a good background of what the foreign exchange market is. They fail to understand that their lack of experience can be compensated by proper training. Those who are able to appreciate this fact often find it easier to deal the different changes that happen in the forex exchange market. If you are new to the forex trading market and are quite unsure of how to successfully reap higher returns, then you might want to look into forex investment funds.

A foreign exchange investment fund is a pool of investments from several investors. In this manner, when the investment is able to generate gains, the proceeds are split among those who placed assets into the fund. In the same manner, when the trend goes against the trade, losses are also split among the investors. Foreign exchange investment funds often offer higher leverage than banks, and can therefore deliver more money compared with other investment options.

There are lots of foreign exchange investment funds out there and they all offer different levels of yields. To help you determine which funds to put your money into, there are some factors that you will need to take note of. A sustainable yield would approximately be between 10% and 20%. If a fund offers higher yields, you might want to think twice about putting your money on it because this would also mean higher risk.

You should also keep yourself from being carried away by ambition. You must be able to compare different forex investment funds based on services offered, legality, performance, support, and many others. Doing so will help you much in determining whether or not it is advisable to invest on such funds. It would also help to put small investments on different funds at first, before you finally decide to make a sizable investment on a certain fund. - 23208

About the Author:

Forex investment team starts with a desire to learn and a drive to become a great trader. Learning the best forex trading software takes dedication and a good teacher. But once you learn how to trade and do so successfully your life will change and you have options and financial resources you never had before.

Forex Trading Clarified In A Easy To Understand Manner

By Tom K Kearns

Forex trading is becoming increasingly popular. Chances are you have heard of it but do not understand what it is or how it works. Or perhaps you have considered trying you r hand at Forex trading but have been a bit hesitant. It is a good idea to have a basic understanding of the principles behind Forex trading before getting involved in investing this way.

This method of investing can be compared to the practice of trading baseball cards. Many of us may have done this as a child and in fact there are certainly many adults that still trade baseball cards. The chances of being successful with baseball card trading are greater than the chances of success with Forex trading.

Forex trading uses the same principles but involves the exchanging of foreign currencies rather than the exchange of one ball player for another. These principles will help you to understand how Forex trading works. In baseball card trading you want to trade the card that will provide you with a profit when you resell it. Forex trading works the same way.

Of course trading money sounds risky. But it actually is rather simple and there is no minimum that you need to involve unlike many other methods of investing. So the risk can be greatly reduced. You also are not limited to the time of the day that you can trade. Forex trading can be conducted 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday.

This method of trading can be very exciting and does not depend on the strength of the economy of the country you are residing in. However you should keep in mind that you should never overextend yourself beyond what you can comfortably afford.

To explain this in a little more detail you imagine you want to trade dollars for Euros because you feel the value of the euro is increasing while the strength of the dollar is diminishing. You elect to trade 150 dollars for 100 Euros. Then you monitor the strength of the dollar versus the euro and when you are satisfied that the euro has strengthened in comparison to the dollar you trade back the Euros for the dollars. Only now you get'0 dollars for the 100 Euros. You have made a profit of $30 or 20%.

To understand this better let's consider a scenario. Let's say you purchase 150 Euros with 200 dollars. You will need to hold onto the Euros for a reasonable length of time. When you feel the value of the euro has gone up in comparison to the dollar you will want to sell the euro. If the value of the euro is 220 compared to the 150 dollars then you have witnessed an increase in value of 20 Euros or 10 % of your original investment.

This sample only reflects the way Forex trading works and does not attempt to imply that this is the amount that you may be able to profit. However a 20% profit is not unheard of. This is much greater than the profit that is available with most investments. While this explanation has greatly simplified the process this provides a general understanding of how Forex trading works. Remember to trade reasonably and to only trade what you can afford to lose. Of course you never intend to lose but keeping this rule in mind will help you from getting greedy and losing the farm. - 23208

About the Author:

To learn more about Automated Forex Trading Systems or to choose a signal provider at Zulutrade visit http://www.automatedforextradingsystems.com .

Commodity Mutual Funds

By Ahmad Hassam

A mutual fund is a fund managed by an investment professional on behalf of the fund investors. Now, mutual funds by law are constrained to follow conservative trading methods. Mutual funds cannot engage themselves in such sophisticated and risky trading techniques like arbitrage trades, long short strategies and distressed asset investing.

There are many different mutual funds like stock funds, bond funds, currency funds and even country specific mutual funds. But there are a number of mutual funds that specialize in investing in commodities or commodity related products. If you want to have a low risk investment in commodities than you should think about buying shares of a commodity mutual fund.

Now some of these commodity mutual funds invest in derivates based on commodities such as futures contracts and options based on futures contracts traded on the major exchanges in New York, Chicago and so on.

Other commodity mutual funds may invest in companies that process these raw commodities such as energy companies and mining companies. So how can you invest in these commodity mutual funds? After doing your research on these commodity mutual funds, you can select one that you consider to fit your investment objectives, simply write a check and purchase the shares of that commodity mutual fund either through your broker or directly through the fund providers.

Now I said, after doing your research. The first step in your research should be to compile a list of questions like what is the fund's investment objective, what securities does the fund invest in, who manages the fund, what kind of strategy does the fund uses, what type of people invest in this fund, what are the risks involved in investing in this fund, what is the funds track record, what is the funds fees and expenses and so on.

Once you have your list of questions, see if the fund prospectus answers these questions satisfactorily. The good thing is that most of the mutual funds send their fund prospectus free! Now the two main commodity mutual funds are the PIMCO Commodity Real Return Strategy Fund and the Oppenhiemer Real Asset Fund. Now PIMCO Commodity Real Return Strategy Fund (PCRAX) is the largest commodity mutual fund in the market with $12 Billion of assets under its management. PCRAX tries to mimic the performance of Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index by investing directly in commodity linked instruments like futures contracts, forwards contracts and options on futures.

When you talk of mutual funds than you talk about Morningstar ratings of that mutual fund! Morningstar also have got a five star rating system that can be really helpful to you in picking the best commodity mutual fund. Now as always Morningstar website is a very good resource for doing your research on commodity mutual funds. It can give you a lot of information about these commodity mutual funds such as the latest news, updates, load charges, expense ratios and other useful key data. - 23208

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading !