Real Estate Investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Real Estate Investment - Essay Example Once the situation changes the other way (as it always does), the higher rates of interest in Italy will become predominant & the boom in real estate may receive a setback. There are also several instances wherein the seller turns out to be a fraud, who goes absconding after having got the reservation money. The situation is particularly precarious in the case of costly deals where 20-30% amounts to a large amount of money. Therefore, proper verification of the credentials of the other party is a must in order to thwart such occurrences. It is absolutely true to say that a dollar invested today would have an enhanced worth say three years down the line. But, this case is true provided other factors remain fairly constant. For example, if the political situation or the law & order scenario of an area is not alright or gets worse at any time between these years, then concerns among the buyers or financiers would ultimately work towards the education in the value of the property. In worse cases, the property may become useless such as I the instance of war or ethnic strife. As Italy has been a fairly peaceful nation, this fear is not supposed to dampen the spirits of investors. But nevertheless, one must always take this aspect into consideration at the time of investment planning.The interest rates in Italy hover in the range of around 2%, which is a bit more than that in the US. Therefore, it is advised that anyone desirous of seeking a mortgage especially for costlier properties, conduct an efficient forecast abut h is/her repayment options in order to avoid problems in the future. In spite of the boom in real estate in Italy, homeowners generally buy their property as something to live in rather than regard it as a form of investment. Therefore, when the need arises for selling that property especially after long periods of stay, the property value is set to fetch much lesser than the prevailing market due to any factors such as the age of the property, the amount of wear & tear, the forecast of the repairing costs that need to be undertaken by the buyer in advance etc. Another major disadvantage of investing in homes in Italy is that the majority of the mortgages are based on variable rates and as such, these interest rates keep changing fro area to area or company to company in particular. Therefore, the buyer may end up paying more while seeking a mortgage loan fro one company while there could be others offering it at reduced rates. Thus, this calls for a sense of responsibility on the part of the buyer to have an idea of the interest rates charged by the different mortgage companies. There is also an increasing trend towards direct purchasing through the phone or Internet. There have been instances in the past wherein investors have been duped by phony agents who pose as the real owners of a property or act as mediators. The reason has been attributed to the fault on the part of the investor to verify the authenticity of the property or it sellers. In most cases, the investor does not even inspect the site that is proposed to be purchased. The only solution is to verify the property & its seller either by himself or through trusted representatives, usually one's lawyers.In the case of a seller or in case the