Professional management: You work with your adviser to build your investment plan and determine your asset allocation. When it's time to put your plan into action, you rely on a professional manager to pick the investments, monitor your portfolio and rebalance as required. This is like taking a chauffeur-driven car. You choose where to get on and off and you can also pick the route, but the actual driving and day-to-day maintenance is done by someone else.
Many predicted that the 'Eastern Eight' - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia, on entry to the EU would contribute to the biggest property boom Europe has experienced in at least the last 10 years. While investor interest in the new Europe countries is significant, particularly among the Irish, British and Germans, prices are not rising at alarming rates and to some extent over saturation of the market by investors has meant that rental yields are not as high as they might be.
In our own investing program.... Before we accept someone for a lease-option deal we have them interviewed by our friendly loan broker. He gives us thumbs up or thumbs down on whether our prospective buyers has a chance to qualify for a mortgage loan during the next 12 to 24 months.