subject: Real Estate News: The Economy Indicator [print this page] So what does real estate mean? Well, it means land and everything attached to it. It may be undeveloped land, houses, offices, stores, factories, sheds, buildings, etc. The residential, commercial and industrial sectors together comprise the real estate. The first term, Residential real estate, is used when the property is used for residential purposes. When the property is used for business-related activities, it is called as Commercial Real Estate. Examples are shops, offices, farms, restaurants, gas stations, malls, etc. When the real estate property is used for manufacturing and production purposes, it is an Industrial Real estate.
A person given license by his state or province to appear on behalf of his client that may be either a buyer or a seller for a real estate deal is referred to as a real estate agent. In exchange for services rendered, he gets a pre-specified commission for the transaction.
Before conducting any real estate transaction, market analysis is extremely important. Here, the real estate agents co-ordinate with the buyers and sellers to respectively confirm property values prior to issuing purchase orders and to establish listing prices of properties. For this, thorough inspection of recently-sold properties that have similar features and that are in the same areas is done and the prices are compared with those currently listed for arriving at estimates of values of properties for transactions.
Property investment is generally done in order to reap benefits in the form of profits; as a means of generating income. If one invests in real estates, he hopes to get returns via rental income or sale of the property. He may also wish to fix the property; furnish it and then sell it at a high profit. When the real estate prices rise, the property investor posts gains due to the enhanced values. If he has developed many apartments and rented them all out, the money collected as rent covers the mortgage note. And when the property is paid off, the rent is used by the buyer as his income.
Property investing in locations of prime areas; where there is easy accessibility to shopping areas, daily necessities, malls, hospitals, etc. offers better potential profits. Land investments can involve investing in open land that will be later taken over by developers for the purpose of conversion into houses with requisite amenities. Afterwards, the value of this property increases on account of the amenities and if it is in a preferred and developed area, the investor stands to benefit from appreciation in its value. The gains will be more if the land supply is limited because the investor can then command a higher price.
The economic situation of a nation starts looking good when its real estate sector looks promising. This is when investments can reap good harvests. Careful research in the market like trends, growth, location, population in the vicinity and other necessary factors will help real estate investments bring in good profits.
