[SIZE="3"]This article is looking at another crucial part of The Google System that we use here at Tycoon Towers - Google Calender. Calenders have been around for 1000’s of years and are still used worldwide, but Google Calender takes calenders to a whole new level - allowing you to systemise and streamline your property business to spend the time doing the deals, not trying to remember all the little admin tasks. With Google Calender there are no more scraps of paper with ‘Things To Do’ scrawled at the top and no more time spent trying to remember ‘that other important task I was supposed to do today’. Here are some of the main benefits and ways that you can use Google Calender to streamline your business: [B]1. Online - Log in from anywhere at any time[/B] .Google Calender is a cloud based calender that is stored online. What this means is that you can log into your calender from anywhere with an internet connection and start using your calender immediately - this means that you can view and edit yours and your teams schedule from anywhere in the world [B]2. One log in - Use all The Google System at once.[/B] With Google Calender you can use the same log in details as your GoogleMail and GoogleDocs accounts. This means you only have one log in and one password to remember - at the start of the day you can log in once and you are ready to start doing the property deals! What’s also great about The Google System is that everything interlinks with each other - for example your calender will automatically remind you via email of important upcoming events - you can even RSVP from your email! [B]3. ‘Share’ your calenders - Let others see what your schedule is.[/B] One of the massive benefits of Google Calender is its ‘share-ability’. You can share some or all of your calenders with other people in your team - this means that anyone else can schedule and choose meeting times to suit you (this works well if you outsource your admin to a PA who manages your schedule. When working in teams you can all view and edit each others calenders and see and schedule tasks for each other (e.g. you can schedule tasks for your finder) [B]4. Instant reminders - Stop remembering to do things and run on autopilot.[/B] Once you have scheduled in tasks for you and your team you can create custom reminders for everyone. What this means is you can create a ‘Pop Up Reminder’ to pop up on your screen 10 mins before the task should start (you can also get it to send you an email as a reminder). This means your business can run on autopilot and you no longer need to chase people up and remember key things to do- let the system do it for you [B]5. Colour code - Create multiple calenders with different colours.[/B] Once you have your Google Calender account you can create multiple calenders for different parts of your business and your life, and colour code them for your own ease. An example of how you can use this for your property business is a Property Deal Trader, for example- each deal going through can have its own colour coded calender with scheduled deal specific things to do for each member of the team. [B]6. It’s FREE and easy to use - Don't spend money on expensive, complicated calender software.[/B] The majority of the starter level Google System is free to use, there is no contracts and no fees to pay whatsoever. All of the Google system is easy to use and user friendly - just play around with it. Only when you start using really advanced features of The Google System (and you don’t even need to get this unless you are a large established business) do you start getting complex. [U]How to get started with Google Calender.[/U] Step 1. Go to [url]www.google.com/calendar[/url] and create your Google account (or log in with you existing Google account) Step 2. Start playing around with it. Add some events and experiment around with the settings - start using Google Calender today![/SIZE] [SIZE="4"][I]Let us know how you get on and what uses you have found for your Google Calender! :) - Email us at [email]support@property-system.com[/email] [/I][/SIZE]

[B]How to manage your properties.[/B] The difference between a good property investor and a great property investor is the systems they have in place to manage their properties. The management is the key area, as this is how the investments will continue to come in. Therefore how you set-up these systems and implement can be crucial to your growth in the future. The first part in which you must focus your attention on is your tenants. A landlords dream is to have a tenant who is neat, tidy, pays the rent on time and stays in a long term arrangement. Of course given the current climate of the rental market you should have a wealth of potential tenants. If you are finding the tenant yourself you should absolutely do all the proper checks and receive all of their references. Do not take their word for it or the word of the referencer, even if they are a close friend. Renting a property is not a favour it is a business. An ideal situation that can arise is while discussing with a potential tenant is to visit their current place of residence, not only does this give you a wonderful chance to inspect how they treat the house and their standards of living, but it also gives you the chance to inspect them as people. You are ultimately reliant on them as people to uphold their agreement to pay the rent and through personal experience a polite and courteous person is more likely to be responsible. Another difficulty that many landlords face is finding a reliable and high quality tradesman. One way of doing this is talk to existing local contacts to get recommendations. An advantage of doing this is that you will eventually amass a big library of potential tradesman. If however you wish to establish some new contacts one tip would be to place an advertisement in a local church/temple, while less populated than previous times still can be the hub of a community. What is also worth noting is that you should never rely on a single tradesman. Having two or more and letting them know about the others is preferable because then they know that you have options and thus will always be motivated to do a higher degree of work in the hope of attaining more future business from you. Further to this what can be an issue is when finding a high quality tradesman, is that they are remarkably busy (always take this a good sign). One way of alleviating this is when employing a high quality builder is to pay them as soon as possible (even the same day), this places the vivid impression of a reliable customer in the mind of the tradesman, and when given the choice in the future between you and another landlord who takes his time paying who do you think the tradesman will choose? As your portfolio grows what is then the best way to manage your properties is to use a computerised system either through a dedicated software system or through a digital calender such as google calender. This way you can set it once and then leave it, thus easing any potential issues of forgetting and such. Eventually though it is probably best practice to hire a property manager through a letting agents. When having numerous properties the sheer number of minor issues (boiler breaking, windows wont open etc etc), becomes a full time job in itself. Having someone dedicated to this can save you an enormous amount of time. This time can then be reinvested in finding more below market value properties. This also gives you the chance to diversify your portfolio by researching properties in different cities and then contacting another local letting agents to manage them. By utilising this method not only will give you this more time but it becomes an excellent networking opportunity and allows you to build more and more contacts.

[B]Comparing Yields[/B] The definition of a yield is the ratio of the annual generated income divided by the amount that you have invested. So as a simple example if you had £100, 000 stored away in a bank account at 1% interest you would receive £1000 per annum. (This is a quick approximation as the actual yield will depend on how the payments are scheduled - weekly/monthly and so forth, which will still be relatively close to 1% but for ease of reading we will approximate at 1%.) In comparison to other investments areas, property can be seen as having a low yield rate, as you are of course relieant on the rental income to cover not only any mortgage payments but also any other expenditure like the repair costs. In addition to this is the comparatively quick riches of the stock market which can yield a much higher rate in a shorter amount of time. The difference between these two firstly is the risk. The stock market is notoriously volatile, whereas the house market always shows a long-term upward growth. That is not to say that you shouldn't invest in stocks (you should - diversifying your income is the best way to achieve financial freedom), the point is that these high yields can be achieved but at what risk? The other differing point that property has in comparison to other types of investment is that you are investing in an asset. This means that the actual value of your investment can increase by the end of the year. Now given the current market this is probably not going to be your primary concern ... initially. However over the long term this will be key to your portfolio. You can also depreciate the value of the content within the house. This helps to decrease the amount of insurance you as a landlord may pay.
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