A Complete Primer On Real Estate Investing
A Complete Primer On Real Estate Investing
Real estate refers to any kind of real property that exists, whether owned by individuals or by governments. Real estate includes a lot of different things, including such things as agricultural land, development land, industrial land, vacant land, strip malls, swamps, offshore rigs, office buildings, hotels, motels, apartments, recreational lands, structures, etc. Real estate also includes any improvements made to the real estate, such as buildings, roads, bridges, etc. Below are a few examples of what constitutes real estate, as well as some of the basic terms used in the industry.
Real estate includes all the tangible personal property that is owned by an individual, individually or collectively, whether it is built upon or attached to another type of property. Real estate can also be loosely defined as the portion of a parcel of landowner’s property that is not used for any other purposes. Real estate is land consisting of the buildings and/or land on it, and its underlying natural resources like water, minerals or vegetation; immovable personal property of this kind; and an interest in or guaranteed by real property.
Within the broad classification of real estate, there are many subcategories, including: single-family residences, multi-unit dwellings, condominiums, townhouses, mobile homes, manufactured mobile homes, manufactured housing, land trust deed, land contracts, land ownership within partnerships, partnership interest, the partnership rent, vacant land, farmland, agricultural land, etc. Within these broad categories, there are even more specific types of property. For example, there are urban residential properties, suburban residential properties, commercial properties, industrial properties, agricultural land, cattle land, deer and elk hunting properties, etc. Real estate also includes a great deal of financial terminology that is used in the industry. For instance, there are financing terms like mortgage, leasehold improvements, tax lien, commercial real estate loans, bank loans, residential mortgages, FHA loans, and others. In addition, there are many different legal considerations.
While residential real estate investment typically takes up the bulk of your investing portfolio, it is important to keep in mind that it can be divided into two main categories. The first category of residential real estate is the raw land. These properties generally consist of large tracts of uncultivated land, where farms and ranches are located. Some examples of these would be vast expanses of land left unoccupied because of the lack of buyers, abandoned buildings and other forms of economic abandonment, like the former towns of America prior to the growth of the cities.
The second main category of real estate investment property is the man-madereal property. This includes all the infrastructure and equipment required for the production of a product. Some examples of man made real estate products include apartment buildings, office buildings, retail malls, retail strip malls, warehouses, manufacturing plants, and fiber optic wire harness manufacturing lines. The advantage to this type of real estate is that the land can be turned into virtually anything you want.
The third main category of residential real estate is commercial real estate. This involves developing the land for either business or office buildings. Some examples of commercial property would be apartment buildings, shopping malls, office buildings, industrial centers, and other structures used for business.