With umemployment hovering at its highest levels in decades, many people are concerned about job security and tired of living with the risk of receiving a pink slip with little or no warning. How can an individual replace their annual salary?  One option may be to consider the billboard business.

What is the billboard business?
A billboard owner effectively rents land, builds a billboard structure, and then rents the advertising space. Profit represents the difference between the ad revenue and the cost of operation such as the rent for land and the cost to install and light the ad. The industry is very old and, in the U.S., has been in continual operation since the 1850s.

Who else is doing it?
The billboard business is very lucrative. There are many individuals in the U.S. that own billboards, ranging from one unit to thousands of units.Ted Turner’s empire started with a stake in a billboard company in Atlanta. John Kluge is another billionaire billboard veteran, and there are several others in the Forbes 400.

How does it work?
The billboard industry is effectively regulated by the government, which designates where billboards can be built along the nation’s highways. City streets fall under a different set of local ordinances. Your job is to find legal locations to build a billboard once you have learned the rules. The other part of your job is to negotiate an acceptable ground lease with the landowner on these legal locations.  Then you determine the size and height to build the sign and, after construction, you rent the advertising space on the sign – normally on a one year lease.  Alternatively, you can flip the ground lease by selling the rights to a large billboard company without even building the sign.

So how can you make $100,000 a year doing that?
The billboard business has several niches. Wooden signs in emerging marketings is one of the best areas to focus on right now. These structures cost approximately $6,000 to build and generate $3,000 or more per year in net income. If you want to make $100,000 per year, you’ll need to build 30 signs in your spare time.  There are individuals who have amassed a hundred or more of these type of billboards in their spare time. All it takes is the effort to learn how to do it and then to find the sites.

Of course, you determine how much effort you’re willing to put in. If you are not trying to replace your day job income, you could build just a few to pay for your kid’s college or leave them a nice legacy.

How fast can I start doing this?
As fast as you can learn how to do it. Step one is to learn the ordinances in your state. Also, you may have to get a license from the state. Normally there is no test or school required, just the payment of a small fee.

Conclusion
If you want to replace an income of up to $100,000, or just build a profitable hobby business, you need to investigate the billboard business. It’s been a winner for thousands of Americans for over a century.

About Frank Rolfe

Frank Rolfe became the one of the largest private billboard operators in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He eventually sold his billboard empire to a public company 14 years later and is now sharing his expertise to anyone interested in getting involved with outdoor billboards.

Rolfe is the author of the Billboard Home Study Course, which teaches you the secrets of building a successful outdoor billboard business. For more information, go to http://www.outdoorbillboardsecrets.com.

Technorati Tags: how to make money with outdoor billboards, make money with outdoor billboards, outdoor billboard business

A home mortgage was known as “the most essential investment a person ever makes” for decades. Then the housing crisis arrived and long overstayed its welcome. Home prices dropped a ton from what they were. In the last 15 years, home sales have not been this low. Deflation concerns are going up because of falling home prices. Investing in homes is a bad decision, as outlined by a Federal Reserve official. One financial expert advises that when it comes to housing, individuals shouldn’t confuse an expense with an investment.

Why is housing a bad investment to make?

Some think, including experts in real estate, there will never be as much wealth in real estate as there was at the end of the 20th century. The New York Times reports that the inventory of homes for sale may soon rise to a 12 month supply — twice the level of a healthy housing market. Home values are dropping, although 30 percent was already lost. This is because sellers are trying desperately to get buyers. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told the Times it will need 20 years to recoup $ 6 trillion in housing wealth lost since 2005. Then you’ve to add inflation to the mix. That means home values may never catch up.

Living expense for housing

When assuming a house is an investment, one is making a huge personal finance mistake. This is the opinion of Charlie Farrell from CBS Money Watch. Think about a house as a living cost. It is just like purchasing a car, says Farrell. A house is just like a car in that it is a depreciating asset. The home will fall apart. The only way to avoid this is to pump money into it constantly. Economists say in the next 20 years home values will only keep up with inflation. A home will return the money an owner puts in each month, but will not multiply the investment in the mortgage. More money will be put to the home than is received out of it when it comes to the maintenance and taxes on it.

Getting a mortgage for yourself

After the housing bubble occurred, the U.S. housing market turned out to be the worst place to keep money as an investment. This is explained by Thomas Hoeing, president of Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. During testimony at a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee’s oversight and investigations subcommittee, he said “If the American people are looking at the housing market to be their investment opportunity, I think they’re making a mistake.”. With a 4.5 percent loan interest rate, Linda Stern thinks that it might be a good idea to get a home and have others pay for it with rent, although she admits Hoenig is right. Stern works at CBS Money Watch as well. Paying rent for 30 years returns nothing. With a mortgage, there’s a house at the end of the tunnel. At least it is something at the end.

Discover more details on this subject

CBS Money Watch

moneywatch.bnet.com/retirement-planning/blog/retirement-roadmap/housing-dont-confuse-an-expense-with-an-investment/3376/

CBS Money Watch

moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/blog/daily-money/is-housing-still-a-good-investment/1259/

Technorati Tags: federal reserve, home mortgage, housing crisis, housing investment

Effective for FHA loans for which the case number is assigned on or after October 4, 2010 the Upfront Mortgage Insurance will decrease from 2.25 to 1.00 (100 basis points) on most FHA insured loans except Home Equity Conversion (HECM – “reverse mortgage”). Chances are you have heard this or some version of it but until yesterday, September 1, 2010, it was not in writing in the official form from HUD.

When are FHA case numbers assigned?

Case numbers must be assigned prior to ordering third party services such as the appraisal. Appraisals are not ordered until there is a fully executed sales agreement in the lender’s possession. The lender orders the FHA case number and assigns it to the loan application where it becomes permanent record.

Monthly Mortgage Insurance also changing.

With UFMIP going down MMIP is heading up. Much more dangerous to the industry because it impacts monthly payment and thus debt-to-income ration (DTI). Currently on loans of over 95% the MIP is .55% annually and from 95% and lower it is .50% annually. Effective October 4, 2010 those numbers will be .85% and .90% which results in an increased monthly payment.

Contrary to some reports there has been no notification of change in the amount of closing contributions by the seller which can be contributed to cover closing costs which is 6% and has not (yet) changed. The buyer must contribute 3.5% of their own money but it can be a gift.

This information applies to 203b and 203k loans.

Examples – top row is now, second row is after 10/4 and the $43.39 is the monthly payment increase:

Image Wikipedia Commons

Over these few years many have known that property investment is the ideal method to earn more money. If you would one to learn more about this accurately, there is a truck load of conjecture and also advices you can get from different people around the world, but there are still some basic information that you can learn of if you are eager about this matter. Now, this article is talking a little about the property investment industry that you are so interested in, and you will be put through some basic advice that will prove more than valuable as you come face to face with properties locally and internationally, and this might apply more when you expand your investment to the global market. Learning about this subject would not be too too detailed and exhuasting in this article but the way you learn would affect the things that you need to know regarding this subject.

There are same kinds of ideals we can understand from property. For one thing, some of the properties out there would allow you to buy them at a cheaper price if you speculate and throw your money its way during the build stage. It is rather dangerous to risk when the open sale is unexpected and no people is buying the place, but for the case of Singapore, it seldom occurs because there is a high demand and lack of land together with the pricing of the property which always follow certain trends for a few years. This is one of the things that you really need to know about when concerning yourself with the property industry. The other thing is that while location is important, you need to know what the location means to you and how it is going to benefit you in the long run. Affluent locations might present the problem of low fluctuating house prices, which means that sometimes, the price of the property that you are buying might not increase as much, as say, one that is within the middling areas of Singapore.

Now these are some the advice that you are going to need when you are concerned with the property investment industry, and of course, it does not stop here, where you are going to need to source your own source points of advice and guidance, and also, it is a good idea if you can familiarise yourself with the property law of the country that you are going to do business in, as it will help you to avoid some disasters, and even make more money.

Technorati Tags: investing in properties, Modern Times Property Investment, property investment