Determining Property Price

The first arduous step in selling a property is determining the value of your property. This valuation or range affects the property price that you put up in listing agreement. Depending on the real estate market in the town or city you live in, you can expect to profit from the property either more than the property value or slightly bit less. A broker can easily estimate the price for you. Here are a few tips to determine the property price:

Browse Real Estate Listings

Browse real estate listings for homes that are similar to yours in size, age and construction. You can find these listings in newspapers, community magazines, classified publications, trade magazines and national multiple listing services online. Pay close attention to the listing prices and obtain a close guesstimate of your property price.

Check with the Local Tax Assessor

Tax assessors provide and maintain online databases of property value assessments within a community. You can get these documents within the country office.

Use Online Tools

A number of web-based applications help you determine what the price of your home should be. These websites use tools where you simply input the physical address of the home, the city, and the state in which you are located. The system then searches thousands of public records and databases to determine a quick estimate of your home's value. Remember that the figures presented by the system are just an estimate and many factors affect the worth of the property.

Hire an Appraiser

An appraiser can easily do the job for you. Simply hire an appraiser to determine the actual value of a piece of property.

List with an Agent

Consider listing with an agent. You and the agent can mutually set a listing price for your house. The agent will have some solid experience for homes that were recently sold in your neighborhood. 

Difference between a Land Contract and a Mortgage

Land contract

Land Contract

In a land contract a person makes payments on a property with the intention of owing the land only once the property is paid for. Regular short-term installment agreement is made between the owner and the buyer. An agreed upon amount is paid for a specific period of time. The title of the deed is not transferred unless the property is paid off.  But in a mortgage payment continues on with the same amount for a specific time, such as 15 or 30 years.

Benefits of a Land Contract

It happens that a new business is trying to buy up a land but does not have enough history for a bank to lend the money. No credit history or a self employment is assumed as obstacles in obtaining a mortgage. However, in a land contract the seller may have requirements such as a higher down payment or larger monthly payments than you would find with a traditional mortgage. In a land contract, there are no closing costs or money put in escrow. Property inspections are not required as well. The lender takes care of all the legal issues relating to transfer of property. Hire a professional to handle all the work for you.

Disadvantages of Obtaining a Contract over a Mortgage

In most land contracts it’s must to pay the balance owned by the end of the period. If you don’t have the money your only option is to extend the contract longer until you could afford to pay it off, but not all sellers want to be obligated for a lengthy amount of time. 

Real Estate Quotes

Don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait.
- T. Harv Eker

In a real estate man's eye, the most expensive part of the city is where he has a house to sell.
- Will Rogers

Never fall in love with real estate.
- Richard Warnick

Don't stretch yourself too much with a mortgage. Buy within your means.. it's not worth the sleepless nights.
- Sarah Beeny

The best investment on earth is earth.
- Louis Glickman

Your House is not an asset, it is a liability.
- Robert Kiyosaki

It's tangible, it's solid, it's beautiful. It's artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate.
- Donald Trump

Your House is not an asset, it is a liability.
- Robert Kiyosaki

Work to Commence in Dubai's World Islands

The World Islands, Dubai

Construction of a large resort complex known as “The Heart of Europe” is soon to be begun on the artificial archipelago of various small islands called as World Islands. The project will consist of a complex of luxury hotels and villas encompassing six small islands. It will complete at the end of 2016. The project will feature classic German, Spanish and Italian architecture. The project's cost is estimated to be more than $800 million.

The artificial archipelago is made up of more than 200 islands in the shape of world map. They are located 4.0 kilometers (2.5mi) off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. All the projects on the islands were cancelled due to 2008 real estate crisis. But now with the development of The Heart of Europe, it is expected that other developers will be encouraged to begin work on more islands, analysts say.

  

Nakeel Announces New Projects at Palm Islands

Nakeel, the top constructing and leading developers of Dubai expect to have nine hotel projects under development by 2016. These will be part of new projects that Nakheel plans to reveal this year, which includes homes, retail and leisure locations. The sales value will be 6 billion dirhams ($1.63 billion) to 8 billion dirhams, Bloomberg reports .According to the plan four new hotels will be built on Deira Island, located on its palm island. The company also plans four other developments across the rest of the city, Chairman Ali Rashed Lootah said at a news conference.

Dubai Palm Island

"We are seriously thinking of expanding in hospitality, which goes along with the vision of the Dubai government of trying to build enough facilities," Lootah said. "By 2016, we will have nine hotels and more to be announced."

Due to Dubai's real estate bubble bust Nakeel came under a severe financial crisis but was rescued by a government’s bailout in 2009. Earlier this month the developer announced it plans to pay AED6.8billion ($1.9 billion) of its debt one year ahead of schedule. 

Dubai’s Waterfront

Dubai's Waterfront

DubaiWaterfront was expected to become the world’s largest waterfront and man-made development.  The project consists of collection of canals and artificial archipelago. Occupying the last remaining Persian Gulf coastline of Dubai, it will add 70 kilometers to Dubai's coastline and encompass an area of 1.4 billion square feet of water and land developments. The artificial man-made island will include commercial, residential, resort and amenity areas thus providing world’s top notch destination for visitors, residential, businesses. It is built by worlds largest privately held real estate developers Nakheel – constructors of Palm Islands. The shape of the waterfront will resemble the Islamic symbol, the star and cresent. Dubai waterfront is planned to consist of 10 key areas including Madinat Al Arab, expected to become the new downtown and central business district of Dubai.

High residential Values in Dubai

Burj Al-Arab, Dubai

Due to the increasing property values, speculations concerning about a bubble burst in the near future. It was observed that the average capital values of residential property inDubai were 53% higher in third quarter of 2013. Although capital values haven’t reached the peak as in 2008 but are far better than in 2009.

"The vibrancy in the residential market has resulted in growing confidence in the real estate sector," Steve Morgan, head of Cluttons Middle East, said in the report. "But we believe concerns of the market overheating are still overly negative, especially given that despite the recent gains, average residential values remain well below the market peak."

Property values in Dubai have been increasing, causing concern among analysts of a bubble repeat in the city. For this purpose Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates have taken measures and issued rules to cool the market and put a stop to the repeating property boom-and-bust cycle. Mortgages valued at less than 5 million dirhams ($1.4 million) will be capped at 75 percent for foreigners buying their first home, while financing will be limited to 60 percent for foreigners buying a second home. For a sustainable pace of growth, The Dubai Land Department also doubled the property registration fees from 2 percent to 4 percent.

Future growth in values remains uncertain; but the market is viewed as more sustainable than ever.
"Although the long term effect remains to be seen, short term indicators show that recent regulation appears to be stemming further sharp increases in property prices," Mr. Morgan said. "Rather than being fuelled by 'fly-by dealers', current demand is primarily being driven by a growing population and rising employment levels." 

The Palm Jumeirah

The Dubai Palm Islands are the most amazing project of Dubai. These artificial archipelagos are named Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali, and Palm Deira. Palm Jumeirah is the smallest of the three. It is a manmade island in the shape of gigantic palm tree and extends 6.5 km into the Arabian Gulf Sea, creating an extra 78 km of waterfront property to Dubai coastline. Its construction was started in 2001. The island consists of a trunk, a crown with 16 fronds and a surrounding crescent where the world famous Atlantis resort is now situated. The crown is connected to the main Island by a bridge and the crescent is connected to the top of the palm by an underground sea tunnel. The overall area of the palm island can be considered approximately larger than 800 football pitches thus doubling the length of Dubai coastline.

The purpose of the construction is to increase Dubai’s tourism by providing a one-of-a-kind tourist destination overflowing with contemporary world-class hotels, upscale services and facilities and hundreds of more miles of Dubai beaches all in a world unique to anything anyone has ever seen before.

The project almost took over 4 years to complete and now acts as the dream home to nearly 10,000 people. The island is divided into themed hotels, resorts, apartment buildings, luxury villas (Signature Villas, Garden Homes and Canal Cove Town Homes) and many retail outlets.

Dubai World Sells Atlantis Resort

The Atlantis Hotel, Dubai

With the purpose to raise funds for repayments after a $25 billion restructuring plan was created two years ago; a state-owned group Dubai World sold its Atlantis resort to state-owned Investment Corp (ICD) of Dubai.

ICD purchased the resort, which sits at the head of the emirate's palm-tree shaped island, from Istithmar World, for an undisclosed amount.

"Our acquisition of an asset that is a major contributor to the domestic tourist industry is in line with our overall strategy to support long-term sustainable growth for Dubai," Khalifa Al Daboos, deputy chief executive officer of ICD, said in a statement.

Dubai World came under a debt during the property market crash in the emirate. They are repaying $4.4 billion in May 2015 as part of the debt. To raise funds for the dept The Atlantis sale is the second disposal by Dubai World, after selling the British logistics warehouse developer Gazeley in the summer. Its next plan is to sell The Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.

At Night, The Atlantis Dubai

Why Live in Dubai Marina?

Dubai Marina is a self-contained lively high-rise district home to residential apartments, serviced apartments and hotel towers offering an array of entertainment venues and restaurants. The  is a waterfront lifestyle destination complete with marinas, beaches and promenades (JBR Walk) along the sea and its 3.6 km man-made canal (Marina Walk), snaking through its midst. It has its own metro station, Dubai Marina Mall for a spot of retail shopping, Waitrose supermarket and cinema and Gourmet Tower restaurants. Amenities and facilities are scattered across Dubai Marina. Conveniences like stores, gyms, beauty parlors and spas, restaurants, cafés and large numbers of hotels contribute to nightly entertainment options. Dubai Marina offers a vibrant community offering a sociable lifestyle with over 150 towers to choose residency from. Properties available at Dubai Marina are with good rental and sales deals.