Atlanta: Best Place for Value Vacation in 2007
Posted: Wednesday, February 28th, 2007, 12:36 pm EST
Category: Real Estate News
Georgia on your mind? Well it should be. Atlanta tops the list because of its deep discounts (81), affordable entertainment and wide variety of quality hotels (68). Atlanta is home to some of the country’s largest cultural institutions. Enjoy these great bargains:
The World of Coca-Cola Tour (free to $9)
CNN Studio Tour, a behind-the-scenes look at the 24-hour news service ($9 to $12)
Centennial Olympic Park, an open-air park where the 1996 Olympic Games were held (free)
TripAdvisor has a detailed list of things to do in Atlanta.
The Hotwire Travel Value Index ranks the 50 most-visited places* in the U.S. for visitor value. Each destination is scored in three categories (on a 100-point scale):
- Low rates on air, rental car and hotel
- Discounts on air, rental car and hotel
- Affordable entertainment and overall appeal
Take a look at how the top 10 destinations scored in each category:
| Top 10 Leisure Markets | Travel Value Index | Discount Rating | Low Price Rating | Affordable Entertainment Rating |
| 1. Atlanta, GA | 100 | 81 | 62 | 68 |
| 2. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX | 96 | 74 | 64 | 65 |
| 3. Raleigh-Durham, NC | 93 | 79 | 79 | 29 |
| 4. Orlando-Daytona Beach, FL | 92 | 30 | 80 | 85 |
| 5. Kansas City, MO | 88 | 47 | 100 | 24 |
| 6. Denver, CO | 82 | 37 | 71 | 75 |
| 7. Los Angeles, CA | 82 | 50 | 46 | 100 |
| 8. Chicago, IL | 80 | 74 | 54 | 53 |
| 9. Cleveland, OH | 79 | 66 | 81 | 16 |
| 10. Washington, DC | 78 | 60 | 50 | 74 |
Mapwing.com for Virtual Tours
Posted: Tuesday, February 27th, 2007, 7:37 pm EST
Category: Tips, Tools & Tech
I stumbled across an interesting alternative for creating Virtual Tours today. Mapwing.com enables anyone to build, share, and explore virtual tours online and for free. Mapwing turns digital photos into interactive tours that include a placed or drawn map, images, and comments. Finished virtual tours can be embedded into blogs or other Web sites.
This could be a very useful tool for commercial brokers (and residential Realtors). It only took me about 30 minutes to photograph, scan, and create a tour online of my Maxsell Real Estate office building.
I created this tour using the free version, but they do offer enhanced features for a yearly fee of $39 or even more features for $15/tour (still a great savings for Realtors using other services). I’d be curious of feedback from other agents and the real estate buying public.
Resources: Mapwing Press Release, Mapwing Website
Big Business brings Money and People to Atlanta
Posted: Sunday, February 25th, 2007, 12:38 pm EST
Category: Real Estate News
Michael Wright of Home in ATL has an interesting take on why people are moving to Metro Atlanta…because Big Business is here.
Many BIG businesses call Atlanta home - so should you! When big businesses call a city home, it is for a reason - there are good neighborhoods and an economy to support them.
Here are a few Fortune 500 companies calling Atlanta Home:
- The Home Depot
- United Parcel Service
- The Coca-Cola Company
- BellSouth
- Delta Air Lines
- The Southern Company
- Sun Trust Banks
These companies contribute significantly to the states economy.
Resource: Michael Wright of ATLagent.com
No More Taxes in Georgia!
Posted: Friday, February 23rd, 2007, 2:16 pm EST
Category: Georgia Real Estate
Mitch Seabaugh, a Republican from Sharpsburg, has introduced a constitutional amendment that would eliminate state ad valorem taxes, corporate taxes and personal income taxes in favor of a higher state sales tax on goods and services. Called the Georgia One Tax, it could be on the ballots for voters in 2008 and be effective Jan. 1, 2010.
Baiscally, this is a State version of a fair tax plan, similar to John Linder’s FairTax proposal. Although Linder’s FairTax proposal would tax goods and services at 23 percent — a proposal he’s been trying to get passed for seven years — Seabaugh’s One Tax would not exceed 6.5 percent. Currently, the state sales tax is 4 percent. The move to cap the tax at that level, Seabaugh said, would be a "revenue neutral" plan and would not add any additional money to state coffers.
State Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, who helped Seabaugh with the plan, says the proposal is nothing new, as several states don’t have income taxes. Other states that do not have income taxes are Florida and Tennessee.
I am a huge fan of the Georgia One Tax, as well as Linder’s national FairTax plan.
I encourage you all to visit FairTax.org and become involved in improving our federal tax system. On the website you will read these reasons for switching to the FairTax plan:
* Abolishes the IRS
* Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
* Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
* Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
* Allows American products to compete fairly
* Reimburses the tax on purchases of basic necessities
* Enables retirees to keep their entire pension
* Enables workers to keep their entire paycheck
I would also like to point out that this type of tax will garner tax dollars from those who currently do not pay federal taxes at all, such as:
* Illegal Immigrants
* Black Market Sellers (drugs, sex, etc…)
* Law Breakers who just skip out on taxes
* Unreported Income now gets taxed when it is spent
Resource: Atlanta Business Chronicle: State version of fair tax plan
5 Reasons Real Estate Invesmtent is more Comfortable than Stocks
Posted: Thursday, February 22nd, 2007, 1:13 pm EST
Category: Real Estate News
Main Street is better than Wall Street
Jason Hartman, Founder & President, Platinum Properties Investor Network has a good breakdown of the 5 Comfort Factors that make real estate investing more attractive than the stock market. They are…
COMFORT FACTOR #1: Tax benefits
Most of the tax benefits associated with investing in real estate are fairly straightforward. To summarize, sell stock in which you have a gain and you’ll be paying taxes - there’s just no way around it. But sell appreciated property and if you do it right, you can defer your tax indefinitely.
COMFORT FACTOR #2: Cash flow
Most stock market investors will pay 100 percent of the share price for a stock (investors who don’t mind the risk of margin calls can buy many stocks for 50 percent down), while real estate investors typically need to put down only five to 10 percent with no risk of margin calls.
COMFORT FACTOR #3: Risk management and control
For decades, real estate has been the most reliable and dramatic wealth generator for millions of people - and despite the slump experienced in some recently booming areas, many parts of the country continue to experience price appreciation. Real estate markets with steady, solid growth present little risk to mortgage lenders, so it makes sense for them to loan money to investors on attractive terms. Not only does it make sense, but they are actually anxious to loan it to you. Although stock investments have potential for lucrative returns, they are unfortunately afflicted with volatility and suffer unpredictably sharp price fluctuations that often have nothing to do with the quality of the company or the competence of its management.
COMFORT FACTOR #4: Leverage & appreciation
Housing is a universal need and with labor and building materials becoming more costly and populations on the rise, real estate prices have nowhere to go but up in certain markets over the long term. With mortgages on sale at the lowest interest rates in the past 40 years, it makes sense to invest in real estate. To simplify, investing $10,000 in residential real estate with leverage versus a $10,000 investment in the S&P 500, results in residential real estate solidly outperforming the S&P 500 - not counting the tax benefits of real estate.
COMFORT FACTOR #5: Early mortgage payoff
Rent a property for greater than the sum of the monthly expenses and you’ve got positive cash flow. Use the income to enhance your lifestyle, pay off debt, or re-invest in additional properties. This is when Rent-to-Value (RV) Ratio™ becomes critical - a quick, rule of thumb evaluation technique that can instantly determine whether a property makes good investment sense. The ideal RV Ratio is 0.7 percent - anything below 0.5 percent would be considered an unwise investment decision. For example, considering a $200,000 house in Texas that rents for $1400/month (RV equals 0.7 percent). Renting the property for as low as $1000 would still result in an acceptable RV Ratio of 0.5 percent. By comparison, a $500,000 property in Southern California may rent for $1500/month, generating a 0.3 percent RV ratio. By selecting properties that make sense from the start, cash flow can be maximized. Even by using a similar ratio for stocks, the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, choosing a stock that appears to make sense will not necessarily produce as predictable and reliable an outcome.
Click here for a complete review of why Main Street is better than Wall Street.
