A year ago, it was only cheaper to buy in 40 out of 50 towns.

As the banking industry, rocked by the financial crisis, has tightened lending criteria on mortgages and demanded bigger deposits, it has left many more would-be first-time buyers stuck on the sidelines.

This has forced many more people to rent rather than buy, and spurred landlords to cash in on the rising demand and charge tenants more.

Average rents have been on the rise for most of 2010 and 2011.

Meanwhile the UK bank rate has been pinned down to 0.5 per cent for nearly three years, keeping mortgage repayments exceptionally cheap for those already on the property ladder.

Swansea, Plymouth and Bournemouth are the only three locations included in the study where renting works out cheaper than buying a property, according to the study by property website Zoopla.

Milton Keynes was named as the place where buying a home was the most cost-effective compared with renting, with renting being 36% more expensive than owning, leaving renters typically £2,436 a year worse off.

In London, renting is 31% more expensive than the cost of ownership, leaving renters paying £6,888 annually on average compared with owners.

Nicholas Leeming, business development director at Zoopla.co.uk, said: ‘The shortage of financing, especially for first-time buyers, has pushed demand for rental property through the roof.

‘But for those lucky enough to be in a position to get a mortgage, there may never be a better time to buy.’

However, any rise in interest rates or a fully-blown second credit crunch  could rapidly and dramatically alter the affordability of UK property, sending mortgage repayments soaring for new borrowers in particular.

Markets currently predict no rise in the UK base rate until 2015 but the best rates on mortgage trackers have risen in recent months in reaction to the worsening situation in the eurozone, which threatens another banking crisis.

Britain’s record low interest rates has been largely only of benefit to those already sitting on substantial amounts of equity in their homes and therefore able to offer up the typical 25 per cent to 40 per cent deposits needed to get the best deals when remortgaging.

For some, they have enjoyed dirt-cheap credit even without substantial equity. If they took one of the overly generous deals on offer in the credit boom – mortgages that track the base rate with only a slim premium were not uncommon – they might today still be paying between 0.5 per cent and 1.0 per cent.

And those who borrowed from Nationwide Building Society before the spring of 2009 continue to benefit from the lender’s pledge to only charge 2 per cent above base rate, leaving hundreds of thousands of borrowers paying just 2.5 per cent.

Nationwide’s standard variable rate for customers who have joined it since then is 3.99 per cent.

Zoopla based its research on buying a two-bedroom flat paying a rate of 5 per cent but taking an ‘interest-only’ deal, which is significantly cheaper than a ‘repayment deal’, and offering no deposit. It says these were the best assumptions to give a fair comparison for the real cost of finance.

I am not sure how accurate that statistic is, but there does appear to be some truth in that statement and it does capture my attention, as I am sure it has many others looking to enter the real estate game as a means of wealth creation.

Perhaps you’re considering buying your first rental property as an investment. You’ve read books by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, attended a few seminars, and are now ready to take the plunge. Or perhaps you’re the seasoned investor looking to diversify your portfolio or leverage the equity on an existing home. Either way here are a few things to consider.

Eligible properties:

• Maximum four units if multi-family

• Purchases, new construction, and existing properties

Non-eligible properties:

• Rooming houses

• Time share units

• Rental pools

• Commercial/industrial zoned properties.

Other Details:

• Purchase with as little as 20 per cent down payment.

• Refinance up to 80 per cent of the property’s current value.

• Eligible for a line of credit with interest-only payments based on reduced loan-to-value.

• Corporate entities eligible with personal guarantee.

• Amortization up to 30 years.

An experienced mortgage professional that has worked with rental properties before can assist with determining the right structure for this endeavor.

Of course, there are other items to consider as well, such as if you manage the property on your own or if you hire a professional management company.

The variable costs involved to maintain the property (maintenance, vacancy contingency, etc.) should also be considered.

Additionally, if you are considering becoming a landlord, you will want to know your rights and the rights of your tenants

Russ’ story is one amazing success story—from working in a slaughter house, earning $5 an hour; he successfully became one of America’s youngest millionaires. By the age of twenty seven, he already owned millions worth of properties. But how did Russ Whitney become one of the youngest American millionaires? Here’s his story.

Russ Whitney was born on November 18, 1955, in a small town in Long Island. He was raised by his dad and aunt. They moved to Queens, New York when Russ was still very young and he grew up there. Russ dropped out of high school. He got married and to earn a living, he worked at a slaughterhouse. But Russ wanted more from the life he was living. He strived to learn more ways to earn money.

He read many books and he took courses which offered ways to make money fast. Most of these “quick money” schemes didn’t work for Russ but he kept on trying. His life began to take a different turn when he read a book about real estate. That was the start of a new life for him and his wife.

By the age of twenty, he invested in what would be his first real estate property. He made money from that venture but he didn’t stop there. He invested wisely on more properties. When he turned 23 years old, he decided to quit his slaughter house job. Most of his friend and relatives didn’t think this was a wise idea, and advised him not to go through with it. But nor his friends or his family were able to stop him. He just knew that his passion as well as career lies in investing in various properties.

By the age of twenty-five, he moved his family—his wife and two children—to Florida. This was a wise move as the Cape Coral market was starting to significantly move up. He decided to start over. And in just 18 months, he managed to take his $1,000 investment and turn it into $4.7 million. It was this venture that led him to develop his own, unique system of investing. He has written books about the system and most of them are bestsellers. His bestselling books are Building Wealth, Millionaire Real Estate Mentor, and The Millionaire Real Estate Mindset. He also developed some of the most popular home study courses such as Starting from Zero and the Building Wealth System.

The other day a friend of mine approached me excitedly, saying, “I found the house of my dreams. It’s in foreclosure and the bank will sell it to me for a great price.”

“How good is the price?” I asked.

“Just before the real estate market crashed, the seller was asking $780,000 for the property. Today, I can buy it from the bank for $215,000. What do you think?” she asked.

“How would I know?” I replied. “All you’ve given me is the price.”

“Yes!” she squealed. “Now my husband and I can afford it.”

“Only cheap people buy on price,” I replied. “Just because something is cheap doesn’t mean it’s worth the cost.”

I then explained to her one of my most basic money principles: I buy value. I will pay more for value. If I don’t like the price, I simply pass. If the seller wants to sell, he will come back with a better price. I let him tell me what he will accept. I know some people love to haggle; personally, I don’t. If a person wants to sell, they will sell. If I feel what I am buying is of value, I’ll pay the price. Value rather than price has made me rich.

Against my advice, my friend sought financing for her “dream” home.

Fortunately, the bank turned her down. The house was on a busy street in a deteriorating neighborhood. The high school four blocks away was one of the most dangerous schools in the city. Her son and daughter would either have to go to private school or take karate lessons. She is now looking for a cheaper house to buy and has asked her father, who is retired, for help with the down payment. If her past is a crystal ball to her future, she will likely always be cheap and poor, even though she is a good, kind, educated, hard-working person.

My Point of View

What follows are some thoughts on why my friend will probably never get ahead financially — especially in this market.

1. She and her husband have college degrees but zero financial education. Even worse, neither plans to attend any investment classes. Choosing to remain financially uneducated has caused them to miss out on the greatest bull and bear markets in history. As my rich dad often said, “What you don’t know keeps you poor.”

2. She is too emotional. In the world of money and investing, you must learn to control your emotions. When you think about it, three of our biggest financial decisions in life are made at times of peak emotional excitement: deciding to get married, buying a home, and having kids.

My dad often said, “High emotions, low intelligence.” To be rich, you need to see the good and the bad, the short- and long-term consequences of your decisions. Obviously, this is easier said than done, but it’s key to building wealth.

3. She doesn’t know the difference between advice from rich people and advice from sales people. Most people get their financial advice from the latter — people who profit even if you lose. One reason why financial education is so important is because it helps you know the difference between good and bad advice.

As the current crisis demonstrates, our schools teach very little about money management. Millions of people are living in fear because they followed conventional wisdom: Go to school, get a job, work hard, save money, buy a house, get out of debt, and invest for the long term in a well-diversified portfolio of mutual funds. Many people who followed this financial prescription are not sleeping at night. They need a new plan. Had they sought out a little financial education, they might not be entangled in this mess.

The Carver County Sheriff’s Office reports that the multitalented, multiplatinum Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has fallen behind $368,382 on the mortgage to his 20-acre former manse in Chanhassen, the Minneapolis suburb that he’s called home since 1980. A sheriff’s auction is set for May 13.

Has Prince been paying property tax like it’s 1999?

According to the foreclosure notice in the Chaska Herald, His Paisleyness bought the property in 1994 for $605,000. But you won’t find him mixing tracks there these days; he leveled the place in 2005, leaving only the tennis court and gatehouse. The property is currently valued at $1.15 million.

Prince’s publicist denies the report. USA Today quotes a local legal firm as saying there is “a decent likelihood” that The Artist will send The Payment before The Auction.

Given that Prince coughed up $1.3 million last year in current and delinquent property taxes on 14 parcels in Chanhassen, it would indeed seem unlikely that MLCKP would let the place go for a song.

But it’s a sign o’ the times that even well-heeled celebrities have been drawn into the foreclosure undertow. A host of them have run afoul of the taxman lately as well.

What’s the takeaway? Three words: Pay. Your. Bills.

Yes, there’s a whole alternate reality, a dark marketplace out there that wants you to believe that it’s more complicated than that.

But it isn’t. To avoid foreclosure, pay your bills.

And when it comes to home mortgages and living beyond your means, don’t party like it’s 1999.

Now excuse me, I have to get back to “Little Red Corvette.”

Below are six tips for getting the best deals.

1. Work rental websites. Looking for an apartment in a large rental community? Start with Rent.com, says Allison Atsiknoudas, CEO of Rentometer.com, a site where you can analyze and compare rent prices. But if you’re looking for a unit owned by a smaller apartment company or a condo unit being leased by the owner, start out on Craigslist.org, she says.

HotPads.com features rental and for-sale home listings from 400 partners, including multiple-listing services and brokerage companies. Cazoodle.com pulls listings from nearly 10,000 websites, including newspaper classifieds, online forums and individual property management sites.

2. Spread the word. Sometimes you can get into a great apartment through word of mouth before it hits the market, Ms. Atsiknoudas says. So tell friends and family members that you’re looking for a place.

3. Consider a single-family home. Homeowners may be renting out their condos and houses because they’re having difficulty selling them in this market, says Douglas Pope, co-founder of HotPads. These properties are often priced lower than other rentals, partly because they may not come with the same level of amenities and owners may be more motivated to get their places rented.

4. Look beyond rentals. With the housing market still weak, ask home sellers if they’d be willing to rent instead.

5. Compare rents. After finding a place you’re interested in, look for comparable rentals to make sure its rent price is competitive. HotPads.com shows how rentals compare with others in the area. Rentometer.com analyzes how a particular rent compares with others in the neighborhood.

6. Flaunt good credit. If you have good credit, mention that to the landlord, Ms. Atsiknoudas says. It may help you stand out against other possible renters.

Sarah Newsome recently graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia. On top of paying back her student loans, she also now has about $7,250 in credit card debt after signing up for an advanced Rich Dad real estate investment course.

She waited a week to ask for a refund, missing the company’s three-day refund window. Still, she thinks she should get a full refund because she never attended a class. On top of that, when she tried to use the course software that was supposed to identify potential investment opportunities, she said, she didn’t find any local properties in the database.

She had paid $500 to attend an initial three-day Rich Dad seminar last summer. It seemed legitimate enough, she said. After all, it was associated with the best-selling book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. And on the first day, she did learn some things about real estate.

“The second day, though, they had us do certain things that when we look back now look fishy,” she said. “Slowly it turned into this gigantic sales pitch.”

During a break, they asked students to call their credit card companies to increase their limits to $10,000 as a supposed lesson in negotiating. They wouldn’t learn until later that $10,000 also happened to be the cost of the cheapest Rich Dad advanced classes that the company tried to sell them on during days two and three, she said.

“Looking back now, I feel really silly,” Newsome said of her decision to sign up for the course. “You think of yourself as an intelligent person. How could I fall for something like that?

“But it was a really powerful experience where you let your guard down.”

A 75-year-old retired teacher in Springfield also got caught up in the excitement and put down $35,000 for a Rich Dad real estate class in 2008. She later sued the company and hopes to recoup her money.

The classes are “unfairly overpriced, of minimal value, difficult and expensive to attend, poorly presented and of little substance,” the suit says.

James May, senior legal officer for Tigrent, the Cape Coral. Fla.-based company that is licensed to run the Rich Dad seminars, said the company “religiously” honored its three-day refund policy. Beyond that, he said, students can get a refund if they are dissatisfied after attending the classes. But the student has to attend all of those classes to get the refund.

“We try to do right by the student,” he said. “We try to look at each on a case-by-case basis.”

But the company hasn’t had a stellar track record. The Better Business Bureau gives it an “F” rating for not responding to all the complaints against it. Over the last three years, there have been 83 complaints about the seminars — 15 of which Tigrent has not responded to and 4 of which remain unresolved.

“Some of the complaints have indicated high-pressure sales,” said Karen Nalven, president of the BBB of West Florida. “And we’ve seen that some people weren’t happy with the furthering education classes that they were promised.”

She recommends that consumers who sign up for these kind of seminars take the time to understand the terms and conditions of the contracts beforehand.

“That’s a good way to safeguard your money instead of getting that refund afterward and feeling like you have to buy something under pressure,” she said.

May of Tigrent blamed the poor BBB rating on the company’s predecessor — Whitney Information Network. That company reached a settlement with the Florida attorney general back in 2008 in which it agreed to refund more than $1 million to dissatisfied customers who complained that it engaged in deceptive advertising and misleading business practices.

Ever since the company reformulated under the name of Tigrent in the fall of 2009, it has been more diligent in responding to customer complaints, May said.

“The new management has a new way of doing things,” he said. “We have a new focus on customer satisfaction.”

Robert Kiyosaki’s books saved me from a life of struggle during my retirement age. His message was that you have to have passive income from either a business or an investment. I had a business at the time (sole proprietor, not really a business) and thought okay now I need to invest in real estate like Robert Kiyosaki. That was a life changing decision.

Everything he said made sense. Buy property based on cash flow not on appreciation. I started reading everything I could on real estate investing and decided a condo or small single family home make sense as investments.

Reason #2

His books provided a solution for financing our first investment property. The first challenge was where will the down payment come from? Fortunately my boyfriend/now husband had paid off our home so there was equity available to use for down payments. The next step was to research the rental market in the area we were going to invest in. This information is available on the internet. (See rentometer.com) You can also go into the city department of economic development and see what is going to happen in the future in the area you are considering.

Reason #3

He described how he found his investment property in his neighborhood which made me more aware of what was going on in my neighborhood. I found our first rental in the neighborhood where we live. I passed the house everyday and it did not sell. This was strange since the rest of the homes in the area were selling pretty swiftly. Six months later that home was still for sale so I decided it must be mine. We closed on the property one month later. That home turned out to be the best single rental we had.

Reason #4

His books taught me how to evaluate property to determine if it is a good investment for me. We had to calculate the cash flow of the property before we purchased it. The important to remember is you do not want to use your money to pay off your mortgage. You want the tenants to pay for it. So, I know you are asking yourself “how do I know what the cash flow is?” The information below gives you the basic calculations that you will need to make a decision to buy a property.

Purchase Price: $100,000

Monthly Rent (income): $1,000

Monthly Expenses:

Water $50

Electricity $0

Trash $0

Homeowner’s Association Dues $120

Repairs $100

Landscaping $50

Snow Removal $0

Anything else $100

Total Monthly Expenses $420

Remaining Cash to Pay Debt $580

Debt: Principle, Interest, Taxes $575

Cash Flow $5

Okay, the cash flow is $5.00. It looks like a pittance, which it is. You would need to be able to raise the rent to $1,200 per month. Then you would be making $205 per month. That is cash flow. The cool thing is the renter is paying off your mortgage and taxes and you can deduct the taxes, interest, and expenses from your income tax. Oh Yeah and you are allowed to deduct depreciation. What a gonga!

Back to why I love Robert Kiyosaki. If he had not written his books, had his seminars, etc. we would not have had the guts to venture into the real estate investment arena. We would not own a mobile home park with 17 homes (we own them all) that will be free and clear in three years. At that point all of the income comes to us for our retirement.

We are now working on a business venture of direct sales of internet marketing training so that we can buy more real estate. My husband says he is going to buy a really big park this time.

If you are lost and are not sure where to turn read Robert Kiyosaki’s books you cannot go wrong if you follow his advice.

Thank you Robert Kiyosaki!

In the first quarter, 30 homes in Clark County, which encompasses the Las Vegas Strip and surrounding residential areas, with mortgages exceeding $1 million were repossessed by banks or bought by third parties in foreclosure sales. That’s up from 20 homes a year earlier, according to ForeclosureRadar, a company that tracks defaults. Short sales, in which the bank agrees to accept less than the loan balance, and bank-owned properties accounted for about three-quarters of all home sales in the period, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

About 100 homes in the county are listed for $3 million or more, a five-year supply at the current sales pace. One listing with Zanganeh’s firm, Luxe Estates Collection, is a never-occupied, bank-owned mansion overlooking a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus in The Ridges, a community west of Las Vegas. The asking price is $3 million for the 8,550-square-foot house, which was repossessed in 2010 and had a $3.2 million mortgage from the Community Bank of Nevada, a lender seized by regulators in August 2009. Zanganeh is also handling a seven-bedroom home with a panoramic view of the Strip. Nicolas Cage, the Oscar-winning star of Leaving Las Vegas, paid $8.5 million for the house in 2006. It went into foreclosure in December 2009. The next owner, who property records show paid $4.2 million, has put the house on the market for $7.9 million — an “unrealistic” price, according to Zanganeh.

In Nevada, 23 percent of delinquent borrowers said they “strategically defaulted,” or walked away from their homes by choice rather than necessity, according to a January report by the Nevada Association of Realtors. “It’s folks that feel the hopelessness of it all,” says Rob Wigton, chief executive officer of the state association. “They’ve rolled the dice and lost.” The population of Clark County has fallen by about 16,000 from its estimated high of 1.97 million in 2008, according to the government-funded Nevada State Demographer.

Las Vegas home values have plunged 58 percent since the 2006 peak, the most of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Prices fell 7.4 percent in March from a year earlier, to a median $125,950, the Las Vegas Realtors reported on Apr. 8. Almost 70 percent of Las Vegas area homeowners with mortgages were underwater at the end of 2010, meaning they owed more than the value of the property, according to CoreLogic, a real estate information company. Among cities with a population of more than 200,000, Las Vegas has led the nation in the pace of foreclosure actions since November 2009, with one of every 31 homes being subject to a filing in the first quarter of this year, RealtyTrac, an information provider, reported on Apr. 14.

About 20 percent of Las Vegas homeowners seeking short sales owe at least $750,000, according to Jamie Cogburn, a Las Vegas plaintiff’s attorney who says he has handled 350 such sales and is working on 200 more. One of his clients is a doctor with a home now valued at about half its $1 million mortgage. The doctor earns enough to save for a 20 percent down payment on his next home within a few months at current prices, he says. “People with a higher income can go buy another house,” Cogburn says. “You’ve got to cut your losses at some point, just like with a stock.”

The bottom line: Las Vegas has 100 homes for sale with asking prices of $3 million or more, many of which have been foreclosed on by lenders

It seems lately that I am getting more and more emails from well known “gurus” that are promoting someone else all together! I have to tell you that since I am in this business and have my own real estate club – I know exactly what they are up to and I think it stinks to high heaven.

It’s only about the money baby. It’s never about them caring about you so much that they “don’t want you to miss this opportunity to see/hear ‘their good friend’…blah blah blah.” That’s just malarkey! The biggest culprits of these shenanigans seem to be those who have the biggest rip-offs to sell. Yes – believe it or not there are gurus out there selling overpriced junk as “educational product”. There I said it! (I hope I don’t wake up with a horse head in my bed tomorrow.)

Do you think these selling wizards care about you spending your hard earned money on their product and being successful? I really don’t. I think they care about selling us as much expensive product as possible with absolutely no care as to whether it’s good or beneficial to us. And – the worst thing is that some of these Gurus are not even real estate investors themselves. Sure some might have been at one time (some of them not at all!) – but from what I gather – many of them don’t seem to be working real investors. They are just speakers and product pushers.

Personally, I have made the choice to never buy another product from someone who is not a real estate investor NOW. Sure there are a couple of old timers who used to be major players in SFR who are now just too rich to do these types of deals anymore. Ten years ago – I did their trainings. That was back in the good ‘ol days of when you paid for a boot camp and it was just that – a pitch free/no selling/ strictly education boot camp. Those seem to be few and far between these days don’t they? Now you go to a $5000 boot camp and you still get a pitch fest when you are there! This is so bad… (Don’t get me started.)

Now don’t get me wrong – I think it is extremely important for investors to have continuing education and training! Heck I probably spend about 10-15K a year for my own continuing education. And I understand everyone needs to make a buck… but for gods sake… do we really need to buy a new product every month from a Guru that we already spent good money with – and it’s not even his product that he is hawking? I should say not!

Over kill, information overload, and over the top…. Give me a cotton pickin’ break por favor!