The Real Estate Investments in West Europe, that president Bush called Old Europe in one of his speeches, registered a boom in the times of Marshall Plan, when Old Europe had to be rebuilt. But that plan wasn't accepted by East European Countries because at that time, these countries were left in soviet zone. After the fall of the soviet empire and the entrance of east European countries in European Union, new plans to rebuild the New Europe are catching contour. As in the first case, when after the WWII the whole West Europe had to be rebuilt, and the capitals were first reconstructed, now, in East Europe, after the Cold War, the whole part of the continent needs to begin a new development, and the Capital Cities will have the first place and the most attention in development.

The other towns and the rest of regions in these countries will follow closely after. Speaking about the last country that was admitted in Europe Union, Romania, and it's capital, Bucharest, is to say that already, the developing of its economy has began after the fall in the last 17 years. Bucharest already has 2 Million people and is continuing to grow, people coming here from the rest of the country, looking for jobs. Known as Little Paris between the two World Wars, Bucharest has remained too little for people who live in.

It’s nice to think that a tenant who rents a property would treat that property as their own, but as you can image this is rarely the case. A lot of people who rent a car for instance will mistreat or even abuse it, claiming “oh, it’s just a rental”. There are just way to many stories of a tenant’s that move in and totally destroy rental property. What can you do as a landlord? Simple, build your rental like a tank. You need your rental to stand up to the extra abuse of a tenant. Most landlords will typically use the cheapest material available in an effort to save money but this is usually a costly mistake.

All rental properties should use high quality materials that are built to last. This includes such items as floor tile, carpet, paint, light bulbs, smoke detectors, and many more. Most of the time you will find that higher priced material will stand up to abuse and last much longer than so called “economical” materials. There is floor tile for instance that is designed to last one year, five years, 10 years and all the way up to a lifetime guarantee. The cost of re-tiling a floor is far greater than the extra cost of good tiles. In the end if you use good, tough and high quality materials, you will save money and have a much nicer property to boot. You can purchase smoke detectors with a 10 year battery, lifetime light-bulbs and many other products to last an extra long time or even a lifetime.

You will find that using high quality materials and products will really cut down on the work and maintenance calls as well. When a tenant moves out, pay attention to the repairs or replacement of items that need to be made. Next time you stay in a hotel, look around at what material they use in their rooms. You will often find low pile carpet, heavy duty doors, ceramic tile floors and many other tough, high quality items.

As a landlord you will almost always have to deal with both roach and rodent problems. However, there are good solutions to handling these common landlord problems as well. Go online and locate professional exterminating products. There are products that eliminate roach problem for at least one year, this is much longer than any exterminating spray.

Getting a handle on these common landlord problems will make your job as a landlord much easier and go much smoother. Whenever you have a maintenance call, think about how you can prevent that problem from ever happing again. Don’t allow the same problem to happen again and again, this is what will drive a landlord crazy. Take care of your rental and it will take care of you year after year.

Getting rich in real estate is a lot of work and a full-time job. As a full-time professional real estate investor, I get a little upset when I see late-night television show commercials touting just how easy it is to make a huge amount of cash, part-time as a new real estate investor.

It's just not true.

While you can make large amounts of cash as a real estate investor, it does take an investment of time to learn the business and your market and having some cash to spend on marketing or holding cause sure helps.

While there are methods for generating large amounts of cash quickly in real estate (like wholesaling and flipping), I generally recommend people get rich slowly with real estate investing by becoming a long-term buy rants and hold investor.

In fact, you can become very, very rich in real estate working part-time. By investing a little time, each weekend looking at potential long-term rental properties, making smart offers on them and building a portfolio for passive income.

"But I can't stand my job! How long before I can quit?"

Well that depends on how aggressively you start building your portfolio and just how much income you need to generate from your real estate investments.

If you combine building a long-term real estate investment portfolio with the occasional "buy, fix and flip" house, you can probably quit your job relatively quickly.

While I have done my share of "buy, fix and flips", at this stage in my investment career, I tend to buy and hold.

Unless you're familiar with irregular income like a sales job, the stress is of relying on "buy, fix and flip" income is often too much for most people to bear.

If you have a good job now with the good income, it is my opinion, that you might be better served keeping the job and doing your investing part time. That way, you'll still have money coming in to put food on the table, gas in the car, and clothes on your children's backs while you build your fortune in real estate.

If you are investing in property or are looking to then you want to see your assets rise in value.

The problem is that many people are going to lose on their property investments unless they take action now, as property prices fall and could fall a long way from current levels.

Don’t listen to the estate agents and optimists prices look set to crash further

With interest rates up, people are starter mortgages shifting to higher rates, a glut of empty building and people already sitting on loses and you the complete recipe for big falls.

Its not all bad news though! You can still protect the value of your investment or any other property you have.

Here is the action you can take to hold the value of your investment property and make some money as well.

1. Lock in the value of your property at current levels

There are companies who will for a small fee lock in the value of your property at current levels so that if prices fall you do not lose out.

You have effectively locked in your current value and if prices fall further you are covered as you can sell at the lock in price.

In a booming market with prices rising or if you are a homeowner not intending to move then the above is not attractive but if you have investment property and need to protect value then these schemes offer peace of mind and excellent value for money.

For a small premium you’re protected against crashing prices and the companies who offer these schemes offer highly competitive premiums.

If prices fall you can sell a property and buy and equivalent one at a lower price and make a profit or hold and know your value is locked in.

Other ways to protect include:

2. Diversity

Buy in different areas to spread your risk and consider overseas property investment.

For example, many overseas markets are booming particularly Central America where Costa Rica has been and continues to give 30% annual returns or more.

Property is cheap, it’s only 2 hours away and investment property here offers lucrative rental returns as well as capital growth.

Throw in easy purchasing, low property tax and a friendly safe country and its no wonder it’s a favorite destination for Americans and other foreign nationals

3. Improve

Improvements to investment property should always increase the value more than the improvement costs themselves.

Having an on going improvement scheme is good as you will constantly be improving the value for less than the cost.

So there you have it 3 ways to protect and make money on your investment properties that will all ensure that as prices keep falling you be able to weather the storm.

There are many insurance companies that offer landlords peace of mind. These policies will guarantee you receive the rent you are expecting from your property regardless of your tenants’ personal circumstances, ability or willingness to pay the rent.

Personally, I don’t believe on credit-checking tenants. All letting agents insist that you do this, but I disagree. Credit checks costs between £17.50 - £94.00, depending on what service you require. For me, it is advisable to have this check for only certain types of tenant and areas.

If your property is in high demand area, it is worth credit-checking because the tenant is paying all the rent and you can be choosy. This ensures that you get the best tenant. Most of these tenant can pay the whole year rent upfront! I would suggest you ask for employer’s reference as well to make sure he is what he say he is.

If the property is in a low demand area, you cannot be choosy. Most people will fail a credit check - even a chartered accountant I know who earns £250,000 per annum on his rental business alone have a default that he is currently investigating from 18 months ago for £4.89, which renders his credit check as a failure. A credit check is computer generated based on a person’s past circumstances but it doesn’t guarantee a best tenant. It is very important to get employer’s reference. A £4.89 default does not make a person uncreditworthy at all.

Do not be afraid to ask. How much is his earnings and then compare that earnings to the rent you are charging. If the monthly rent is approximately 1/3 of their monthly income, then he can probably afford it. There are many reasons that a person can pass a credit check but still end up on these:

* He lost his job. Things happen and this is inevitable.
* Divorce or separation issues. Circumstances change and people change. It will be very difficult for them to keep their commitments and that is why they default.
* Overspent and misbudgeted. Tenants sometimes are indulging themselves on luxury holidays and stuff. I usually ask them prior to the signing of the Tenancy Agreement if they have any idea of all the costs in running a household, has he got a supportive family to be guarantors for the rent and has he got a permanent or temporary job.

Asking key questions is a must. When you ask for an employer’s reference, demand that it should be written on an official letterhead. This will give you the details of his company address and the contact person. I then go online or dial an information directory to obtain the confirmation of all the details on the reference. I double-check that all the details (i.e. address, telephone numbers) are correct. I will call that person who issued the reference letter and do some checks on my prospective tenant. Beware of fake reference letters and false documents! When you do credit-checking, ask your tenant’s approval first to cover your back and he is aware you know what you're doing.

So, you have decided to start investing in real estate and you are wondering whether to flip properties. Maybe you've attended a real estate investment seminar and pre-seminar on flipping properties. Maybe you've seen a television program about how easy it is for people to make $30,000 or more flipping properties. Maybe you saw an article in your newspaper about the flipping property craze.

Well, step back and think it through before you go out and put your first house under contract.

First, flipping properties can be very profitable. You really can make up to $30,000 or more buying a property, doing some rehab and then reselling it for a huge profit.

Is it easy money? No.

Flipping houses is work. It takes hard work to find an exceptionally good deal. It takes knowledge of your market. It takes knowledge of rehabbing. It takes knowledge of the house selling process. It requires holding money and it usually takes longer than you thought it would. That 3 month time frame you had in mind will probably be more like 6 months unless you've done a lot of fix and flips before.

You know the upside of flipping properties: relatively quick cash, but consider also the downsides.

What if during the 3 to 6 months you are working on the house you see a significant change in your market? What if prices down 5, 10 or 15% during that time frame? You need to be prepared for that.

What if you significantly under estimate repairs? What if a $10,000 projected repair budget turns into a $35,000 budget instead? If you had decided to do a deal with a solid $25,000 in profit, but your budget for repairs is suddenly $25,000 higher, then you are working for free.

Also, once you sell a house, you stop making money on the house. With rental property, your tenant pays most, if not all, of the expenses on the property while you continue to profit from income on the house from rents especially as they go up over time, tax incentives from depreciation on the house, equity build-up as the loan is paid down and appreciation from the rise in values over time.

In summary, while flipping properties can be a good way to generate large chunks of cash, it is not easy money. Furthermore, it should be considered speculation and not real estate investing. Long term real estate investing in rental property gives you long term benefits from the property.