With the exception of the last few years, property has generally increased in value so much that there is a general belief that you just can't lose with property investment. This impression is underlined by the growth of property clubs, where you pay to invest in newbuild and off-plan properties bought at a discount. Such clubs tend to be heavily advertised and appeal to people's greed and laziness by suggesting that you can become a property millionaire in no time, for little or no money down, and whether the market is rising or not.
The truth is that you can lose, but even so, property does historically come good most of the time - eventually. Also, investors in property can now, quite literally, have the whole wide world in their hands - or in their portfolios. It is now possible to invest in property in most countries in the world, so that your property portfolio can look as international as you like. Nowadays, anybody can be an international investor and financier! Anybody can swagger around brandishing an impressive-looking international property portfolio!
So why do I believe that property, in general, makes a good type of investment?
In the first place, everybody understands property, simply because everybody has to have a roof over their heads. Everybody also understands that home occupiers have to pay rent or a mortgage in order to continue living there. It is also self-evident that even when fully owned and mortgage-free, there are continuing costs attached to living in a home.
This is knowledge that we all have. By contrast, you have to be quite financially sophisticated to understand how equities and other aspects of the money markets work. You also have to be numerate and actually enjoy number-crunching. Successful people are doing sums in their heads the whole time; it is second nature to them. But few ordinary people really understand how and why stock markets crash, or how the stock market performance in, say, Japan, can intimately affect other stock exchanges around the world.
Few people, too, readily understand futures, hedge funds or derivatives. You have to be quite deeply interested in money and all its ramifications to be able to play money markets. It is a mindset which not all of us have. Yet everybody knows what estate agents and letting agents do.
Then, historically, at least, property is solid and substantial and far less liable than equities to stock market fluctuations, to crashes and recoveries. Obviously house prices fluctuate, but there has rarely, if ever, been a complete crash. One reason for this is that all real estate is built on land which will never go away. A further reason for the dependability of property is that everybody needs a home, whereas we can manage without a car, foreign travel, the latest electronic gadgetry, if we have to.
Then, there is almost always a shortage of housing. And while house prices can go up and down, there is always going to be some value in land. By contrast, the entire value of an equity can be wiped out, in a severe downturn of the market, performance in the High Street. And there is little the individual shareholder can do about this, except to buy and sell at the right time.
When you invest in stocks and shares, you may have very little control over whether their value rises or falls. To take a famous example, when former jeweler retailer Gerald Ratner made his notorious remark at a City dinner that his sherry decanters were 'crap', £500 million was immediately wiped off the value of Ratner shares, with the result that many shareholders lost very large sums indeed, through no fault of their own,
But even if somebody calls your house 'crap' - as 'specialists' on TV home design programs often come perilously close to doing - it is still unlikely to lose all its value.
One way to invest in property is through tax liens. Investing in tax lien certificates is becoming more popular, especially within the current economy. If you currently invest in property but aren't using this investment vehicle you should definitely look into it.
Monday 8 March 2010
Selecting The Right Kitchen Appliances For Your Needs
The best way to equip a kitchen from scratch is to look at your cooking preferences and then determine what is important; which pieces of equipments best suit your practical needs rather than your aesthetic aspirations for the latest country kitchen designs. Once you have the first couple of pieces of the jigsaw fitting together, the myriad of decisions involved can often have a direct bearing on each other, and others will start to fall into place much easier.. Start with what is vitally important and always buy the best quality you can afford.
Whether, having weighed up the advantages of all your kitchen design ideas and options, you decide to have your kitchen redesigned or merely revamped, and once you have agreed on the layout, you will need to budget carefully for your new kitchen furniture and equipment. And while cabinets and work surfaces are obviously important, new appliances must be given priority as they can devour a large part of your available funds.
Appliances
The cooking zone is usually the most important area of the kitchen and your first big decision will be whether to combine cooking rings and oven or to separate the two appliances. Most cooks prefer a gas stove which offers fast and flexible heat: the rings may be combined with wok burners, which is practical if you enjoy cooking Chinese food. Deep-fryers or barbecue grills are other options to consider, but are only worthwhile if you are going to use them regularly. Integrating a stove into a central island unit is becoming increasingly popular as there is space on three sides to prepare food and often seating too, underlining the cooking-eating connection. If gas is not available, opt for halogen, the most responsive of the electric options.
Conversely, it is electricity that offers the best choice in oven-cooking methods. You can buy either single or double built-in ovens and a large household may require the latter, although a single oven and separate microwave might give you greater scope. A microwave is invaluable, both for defrosting, and for providing instant meals for reluctant cooks. When looking at ovens, ensure that the grill is efficient: one with a dual circuit is best so that half the grill area can be used on occasion rather than the entire roof of the oven.
An eye-level grill is convenient; so too a self-cleaning facility; and good interior lighting, of course, in order to be able to check on your food's progress at a glance. You can also buy multi-function ovens, which combine a fan-assisted heat function - best for roasting meat - with a radiant heat function, which is better for baking successful pastry and cakes.
You may want to situate all the various cooking functions together and many top-of-the-line stoves today are custom-made, offering you a choice of ovens, a mixture of gas and electric rings, chargrllls, griddles and hot plates. Big commercial stoves designed for professional catering kitchens are worth considering too, particularly if you are planning an unfitted kitchen, as they are freestanding. They produce more heat than most domestic stoves so they require good air circulation in the kitchen - and preferably a dueled extractor hood that covers the entire top.
If gleaming industrial steel is not your style, there are colorful enamel stoves on the market, fired by gas, electricity, oil or solid fuel that may be more appropriate.
Particularly in keeping for a traditional or country look, this type of stove comes into its own where there is no main gas supply, as it often generates enough heat to warm a kitchen and can usually be adapted to run a water-heating function too. Made in cast iron and designed so that heat comes from all sides of the oven, they have a reputation for turning out good bread and juicy joints of meat.
Before you set your heart on a big brute of a stove make sure that installing it will not present insurmountable problems - either because of its sheer size or to weight. And an industrial stove may not be a wise choice if you have children because the doors can get dangerously hot. Domestic models are often fitted with stay-cool systems to keep doors at a low temperature when the oven is hot.
Even If you have a dishwasher, it Is worth having a double or even triple sink as well - to let you wash up, rinse and prepare food all at the same time. Large kitchens with a central island may even have space for an extra small sink specifically for food preparation. A waste-disposal unit will require a second sink, fitted with curved waste pipes to avoid blockages and a reasonable water pressure to flush away rubbish. Good-quality mixer taps will control both the temperature and flow of the water, but it is worth remembering, as you survey what is available, that simple taps of streamlined design are the easiest to keep clean, particularly if the local water produces chalky deposits, and that taps with no washers or ceramic discs will avoid a lime-scale build-up if the water is hard.
Get inspiration from some of the latest living room designs and ideas being created by top interior designers. If you're looking for living room design ideas, or creative tips and ideas for any other room in the house, check out these free design tips right now.
Whether, having weighed up the advantages of all your kitchen design ideas and options, you decide to have your kitchen redesigned or merely revamped, and once you have agreed on the layout, you will need to budget carefully for your new kitchen furniture and equipment. And while cabinets and work surfaces are obviously important, new appliances must be given priority as they can devour a large part of your available funds.
Appliances
The cooking zone is usually the most important area of the kitchen and your first big decision will be whether to combine cooking rings and oven or to separate the two appliances. Most cooks prefer a gas stove which offers fast and flexible heat: the rings may be combined with wok burners, which is practical if you enjoy cooking Chinese food. Deep-fryers or barbecue grills are other options to consider, but are only worthwhile if you are going to use them regularly. Integrating a stove into a central island unit is becoming increasingly popular as there is space on three sides to prepare food and often seating too, underlining the cooking-eating connection. If gas is not available, opt for halogen, the most responsive of the electric options.
Conversely, it is electricity that offers the best choice in oven-cooking methods. You can buy either single or double built-in ovens and a large household may require the latter, although a single oven and separate microwave might give you greater scope. A microwave is invaluable, both for defrosting, and for providing instant meals for reluctant cooks. When looking at ovens, ensure that the grill is efficient: one with a dual circuit is best so that half the grill area can be used on occasion rather than the entire roof of the oven.
An eye-level grill is convenient; so too a self-cleaning facility; and good interior lighting, of course, in order to be able to check on your food's progress at a glance. You can also buy multi-function ovens, which combine a fan-assisted heat function - best for roasting meat - with a radiant heat function, which is better for baking successful pastry and cakes.
You may want to situate all the various cooking functions together and many top-of-the-line stoves today are custom-made, offering you a choice of ovens, a mixture of gas and electric rings, chargrllls, griddles and hot plates. Big commercial stoves designed for professional catering kitchens are worth considering too, particularly if you are planning an unfitted kitchen, as they are freestanding. They produce more heat than most domestic stoves so they require good air circulation in the kitchen - and preferably a dueled extractor hood that covers the entire top.
If gleaming industrial steel is not your style, there are colorful enamel stoves on the market, fired by gas, electricity, oil or solid fuel that may be more appropriate.
Particularly in keeping for a traditional or country look, this type of stove comes into its own where there is no main gas supply, as it often generates enough heat to warm a kitchen and can usually be adapted to run a water-heating function too. Made in cast iron and designed so that heat comes from all sides of the oven, they have a reputation for turning out good bread and juicy joints of meat.
Before you set your heart on a big brute of a stove make sure that installing it will not present insurmountable problems - either because of its sheer size or to weight. And an industrial stove may not be a wise choice if you have children because the doors can get dangerously hot. Domestic models are often fitted with stay-cool systems to keep doors at a low temperature when the oven is hot.
Even If you have a dishwasher, it Is worth having a double or even triple sink as well - to let you wash up, rinse and prepare food all at the same time. Large kitchens with a central island may even have space for an extra small sink specifically for food preparation. A waste-disposal unit will require a second sink, fitted with curved waste pipes to avoid blockages and a reasonable water pressure to flush away rubbish. Good-quality mixer taps will control both the temperature and flow of the water, but it is worth remembering, as you survey what is available, that simple taps of streamlined design are the easiest to keep clean, particularly if the local water produces chalky deposits, and that taps with no washers or ceramic discs will avoid a lime-scale build-up if the water is hard.
Get inspiration from some of the latest living room designs and ideas being created by top interior designers. If you're looking for living room design ideas, or creative tips and ideas for any other room in the house, check out these free design tips right now.
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