As our parents age, we are forced to make some tough choices regarding their living arrangements.  Not all options fit our requirements, our lifestyle, our parents’ needs, or our financial ability to pay for the arrangements.  If you decide, for now, that the best arrangement is for your mother or father to come live in your home, then you’ve got another thing to think about - making your house a safe place for him or her. 

1.    If your parent is disabled, you have to pay extra attention to the layout of your home and making things as accessible as possible for them.  There are some specific areas of your home you should take a close look at and do everything you can.

2.    The entrance to your home needs to be as safe as possible.  If you have steps, you may need to put a ramp over the top for the parent in a wheelchair or the parent who has hip problems and can’t lift her foot high enough to negotiate steps.  Make sure a handrail is available, firmly attached and not wobbly.  Check to see if the door is easy to open or if you need to oil the hinges or shave the frame to make it easier to open and close.

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When it comes time to sell your Caribbean vacation home, for whatever reason, you want to sell it quick and you want to sell it for as much money as you can.  You may be fortunate and you’re putting your house up for sale in a seller’s market, but even doing the bare minimum of staging can net you a bigger sale.  If you’re selling in a buyer’s market, that means it’s important to stage your house so it stands out as an extra special house.

Tip # 1: Know Who Your Potential Buyers Are!

Staging a house means setting it up to appeal to buyers.  Know who your potential buyers are - young families, retirees, young professionals with no kids, etc.  This is the first step.  You can’t set up your house to appeal to everyone, so know who will be looking at your house and gear your staging for them.  If you don’t know, look to you and your neighbors’ lifestyles.  Are you a 20 something professional and your vacation home is an urban condo near a bike path?  Or is your neighborhood filled with gated-community Caribbean homes, families with young children and playgrounds?  These are big clues.  If you’re still unsure, ask a real estate agent for their input.

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One question I have when I watch my favorite home show on TV is “Why wait until you’re going to sell to increase the value of your home?”  Why not improve it and make it pleasing to you while you’re still living there?  Upgrading your home makes you feel good about living there.  Plus, it’s a lot less expensive to make small changes to your existing home than to buy a new one.

1.   Evaluate & Assess What Needs To Be Done

Before you can decide what to tackle first, you must take a walk around the inside and outside of your home and look at it with fresh eyes.  Take in details and think about the little things you can change that won’t take a ton of work or money, but can have an impact.

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Good News for anyone who wants to buy a Caribbean home.  If you are worried  that your budget cannot handle soaring real estate prices, then read on. There are things you can do to stretch your buying power. With the help of your   real estate agent – and these 4 tips – you can become a savvy Caribbean home buyer without breaking your budget.

1. Make sure to get pre-approved for your home loan. This means, fill out a loan application and go through the process of securing financing. That way, when you’re ready to seriously evaluate   real estate, you’ll know exactly how much home you can afford. And you can prove to a seller that your offer is sincere.  There are many local Caribbean lenders that offer attractive financing options to local and non-local buyers.

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Step #1 - Set your plan: Figure out what your long term real estate goals are (aka retirement and wealth building) and figure out what your short term needs are with regard to making money in real estate. Then, set up the proper entities and put the plan in place.  

Step #2 - Determine what your target market will be: You cannot be all things to all real estate markets. If foreclosures appeal to you, start investing in the foreclosure market. If you want to be a landlord, look to out of state owners to focus your real estate marketing efforts.

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1.    Don’t sell too soon. One of the most common mistakes made by real estate investors is that they turn over properties too soon.  It is completely natural to want to take advantage of a hot market. However, in an area where the market goes through fairly regular cycles, investors often generate more cash at the time of sale when they hold onto the property for a year or two in order to take advantage of tax benefits while waiting for the market to hit its true high point.  This is particularly advantageous when the property was purchased with non-traditional financing that requires minimal payments for the first several years of the loans.

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Real estate investing is a topic that many people wonder about. The earning potential of a smart investor is extremely high, because unlike nearly every other type of investment, real estate does not typically decrease in value.  When you are looking for a way to ensure your security for the future, or to build a retirement portfolio, real estate is a good vehicle to use. Here are 6 things that you might want to know about real estate investing.

1.    Budget your time wisely. If your intention is to purchase a home and restore, repair or remodel it in a short period of time before re-selling the property, you need to pay attention to the time that the work on the property is taking.  The problem that many first time investors run into with house-flipping is that they did not expect the work to take so long.  When delays occur, and mortgage payments are accumulating in addition to the cost of materials and labor it can definitely make for a stressful situation.  Be realistic with estimates, and always have cash at the ready should you encounter an unexpected expense.

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If you are looking for a way to make some cash with a minimal investment, Caribbean real estate may be the answer you’ve been waiting for.

Caribbean real estate investments give you much more than just somewhere to ‘stash cash’; they give you the ability to continuously increase the value of your investments to an almost unlimited level. Before you get started, here are 3 things to keep in mind about Caribbean real estate investing:

Excellent Caribbean Real Estate Investment Opportunities

1.    Research potential properties before purchasing them. When buying a rental property, there are several key features that you should be looking for. The first is sustainability.  Is the property in solid condition and is it going to stay that way with minimal upkeep?  The second is the location.  Yes, location is extremely important for most rental properties.  You need to ensure that your tenants can get to where they need to go and that the property is near commonly used retailers and service providers.  The third is the average income of the area.  This is different from physical location, because you should keep in mind that a high rent area is definitely a better location than a low rent area. And, in high rent areas location is often less of a concern than in low rent areas.

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Pitfall Number 1: Don’t Overpay!

The whole point in investing is to find properties that are a great bargain. How does one find out what is undervalued versus overvalued? Without getting into technical details, the bottom line is you need experience and/or good advice. Yes much like shopping for anything else, real estate is essentially one of the highest ticket items in the shopping center of life. It’s advisable to stick with one market as a starting point, perhaps your favorite Caribbean vacation destination, since you may be most familiar with real estate and possibilities on that island. Through your experience and asking the right questions, you will eventually have a feel for the pulse of the market you are looking at, and of course identify what is considered a good buy.

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The civil notary plays a central role in real estate transactions on Curacao.  A Civil Notary is a public officer that is appointed by the federal government until he or she reaches the age of 65.  As a public officer, the civil notary is obliged to perform services for everyone.  Therefore, in all transactions, the civil notary is neutral and must represent the best interests of the seller and the buyer. more…