The kitchen is the heart of the home. There will never be a day in your life when you don't enter the kitchen for some reason. It is where groceries go in and delicious pizzas and finger licking butter chicken comes out. The kitchen is where the children first learn to be of some service. It's also where you hone your cooking skills by trying new recipes.

The design of the modern kitchen has created an evolution in function that has made the kitchen a place of entertainment. An open kitchen is a place for socializing and hanging out with friends and families. This helps families spend more time together. You can keep an eye on your daughter while you cook. Your spouse can perch herself on the counter and regale you with tales from her workplace, you can share a bottle of wine with your friends as you cook.

Being such an important part of the home, it's important that home sellers make the kitchen attractive to prospective buyers. Here are some home staging tips to make your kitchen spark more attention from prospective buyers.

You want to make your kitchen radiate a fresh 'feel'. Buyers should want to stay a while longer in your kitchen. Although the process of staging your kitchen may warrant a few inconveniences, it's usually worth it because an attractive kitchen will sell your home faster than any other thing you do to prepare your home.

1. Make it sparkling clean. Obviously, buyers won't be able to imagine themselves in your home if your home has a dirty kitchen. The neater your kitchen looks, the better. From kitchen windows, to rugs, to stoves and dishes, make sure that everything shines. Hiring a professional cleaning company might be worth the cost.

2. Apply fresh paint. A quick and easy way to make your kitchen appear fresh is putting fresh paint on walls. Let the colors used complement colors of cabinets and drawers to bring out cohesiveness.

3. Use energy efficient lighting. Another relatively inexpensive tweak to make your kitchen feel fresh and new is updating lighting with energy efficient and bright ones.

4. Update kitchen hardware. Buyers love a kitchen with updated fixtures. Don't leave your kitchen with old kitchen faucets and outdated lighting fixtures. Inexpensive, simple updates like garbage disposal, stainless steel appliances, faucets and cabinet hardware can make your kitchen appear new and attractive to prospective buyers. You can also go a step further by adding some pizazz to your countertops. You can put in decorative canisters, herbs, bowl of fruit, new cookbooks and new tea towels, etc.

5. Declutter. Decluttering may be the hardest part of staging a kitchen for sale. Your kitchen should no longer reflect you, but it should give potential buyers a chance to use their imagination. The easiest way to start the process of decluttering is to completely clear off your counters, then only put selected decorative items to fill in and soften the corners of a long expanse of countertop.

An ugly kitchen can make the home sit on the market for long. Staging your kitchen right might require some effort and inconvenience but if the property is priced right and looks fantastic, you should only have to be inconvenienced a very short time.

Asian investors are the largest group snapping up foreign property according to research. But in which cities are they investing? And why?

As more people's attention is being drawn to real estate as an asset class, a larger number of people are seeking out foreign property. 2017 saw a large number of Asian investors enter the market sweeping up properties from the US to Canada straight to France. Recently, contrary to expectations, their attention is being drawn to residential and commercial properties in London, UK.

Propertywire's first quarter of 2018 stats https://www.propertywire.com/news/global-news/londons-commercial-property-market-top-draw-international-buyers/ reveal that overall about 5.6 billion pounds of foreign money was invested in London, with Asian investors contributing about 4.4 billion pounds or 65% of the total investments. The next highest was Hong Kong at 5 billion with Paris following from behind at 1.9 billion pounds.

If you're looking to invest in real estate, one of the major factors you would need to consider is liquidity. Based on liquidity, these are the top performing cities for cross-border real estate investing in 2018. This is indirectly influenced by population growth, employment growth and usually followed by an increase in home values or strong rental yield. 

•   New York, USA: Brooklyn and Manhattan are two of New York's favorite hot spots for foreign real estate investors. The activity of Chinese, Russian and Middle Eastern real estate investors, paying cash on high-end properties has consistently driven New York City’s real estate price upwards. With a population growth that hasn't slowed down, New York City real estate not only offers liquidity but stability for real estate investors.

•   London, UK: Despite Brexit, London leads the way as a favorite for foreign real estate capital. In the aftermath of Brexit, the attention to both London's commercial and residential real estate has been largely driven by a weaker pound and more affordable housing. Foreign real estate activity in London is largely funded by equity funds, institutional investments, and private capital. Units in the mid-range segments have been most popular among buyers. Presently, though, the government is setting tax constraints on foreign real estate investing as the cost of home ownership increases.

•    Hong Kong, China: In 2017, Hong Kong was named the "most luxurious" prime housing market for the second year running by Christie's real estate https://www.christiesrealestate.com/eng/sales/hkg . Hong Kong's housing market has shown little cooling with 4.4 billion pounds of foreign money spent by foreign investors in 2018 first quarter. The heated market in Hong Kong, as experts pinpointed, is a major reason for increased residential housing prices all through China.

•    Paris, France: The French economy is seeing a boom with the number of foreign investment activity reaching a 10 year high last year. The French economy exceeded expectations with a 2.2% growth, a large number of jobs created and strong real estate activity. Also with fairly stable mortgage rates, many investors are picking up properties in Paris and Bordeaux. Beyond 2018, analysts speculate the South of France will experience a strong housing demand.

•    Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles may soon replace Hong Kong as the no 1 most expensive city for expats. Currently, the average price of a luxury property in Los Angeles is $2.5 million. With population growth, increasing disposable income and a thriving tech sector, Los Angeles real estate offer stability and liquidity for investors. However, housing is in short supply. A situation leading to soaring house prices. With population growth and a great economy, Los Angeles is a great option for single-family investors seeking high rental yield.

I’ve always been intrigued by the way surfers ride across the waves. The surfer waits long for a little sign, puts his gear in motion, gets into position near the peak and glides through with a small wave, trying to catch the big wave before it breaks. It’s a really risky game, requires a lot of patience. But he trusts his calculations, stays perpendicular to the upcoming waves and there he goes, riding the wave. Successful real estate investors have learnt to move like the surfer.

They have figured out that the best investment strategy as a real estate investor is to simply be on the lookout. That is, open your ears and eyes to the possibilities available to you. A lot of real estate investors built their real estate empires by being informed and proactive when they spotted opportunities. How do you adopt this same strategy and generate wealth by spotting hot real estate markets?

Yea, it’s true. Too much information may be disadvantageous in some cases. All you need may be a stroke of intuition. Alas some real estate investors fall into the trap of making ‘educated guesses’ and filling their heads with too much details. Eventually, what could appear to be a ‘hot property’ ends out being a deal turned sour. Looks may be deceiving. But you need to look at the obvious signs and trust your instinct at the same time to ride the big wave of global property investing.

IDENTIFYING AREAS OF GROWTH

1. Gentrification.

These areas may have had poor reputation in the past, but now they are seeing homeowners moving in and changing the suburban landscape. Are there a number of renovation and improvement projects going on? Are new homes being built? Which means developers are turning their focus to that area. Are new cafes or retailers opening up? Most importantly, compare house pricing for a period of 2-3 years, if prices have grown steadily, look at the demographics. An increasing number of young residents with decent incomes is a strong indication that a suburb is about to gentrify.

2. Look for the ripple effect.

If you cannot afford to buy in a hot real estate market (you may have missed the mark this time), you may still be able to shop in the area by checking the surrounding suburbs. This takes time, so you need to know what phase, the local real estate market cycle is in. This will help maximize your chances of riding the wave of growth. How to analyze real estate market cycles.

3. Examine supply and demand

The relationship between supply and demand for property in an area is a key factor in price growth. If there is no more capacity to build in the suburb, but demand continues to grow, prices are likely to rise.

TIPS FOR FINDING HIGH DEMAND AND LOW SUPPLY AREAS.

·        Look for areas where rental performance is increasing. This indicates that an area is popular with tenants. When tenants become owners, they also tend to buy in the same area they are renting;

·        Look at the demographics of people moving in the area. For instance, suburbs where median age is around 35 or so tend to gentrify faster as these demographics tend to have better incomes and can thus afford to buy or rent more expensive properties;

·        Look for areas with increasing population. The population itself is not enough to boost prices, but when combined with other indicators such as increased incomes and low supply, this is a good indication that real estate prices will grow in the area.

·        Look for large ongoing infrastructure projects. This is a good indicator that the area is likely to see an increase in demand for housing as workers gather in search of employment. Projects that have already begun are preferable, as project pledges can fall through with changes in government and as budget priorities change.

Yes, you can be the one sitting on the next hot property. All it takes is a little knowledge, research and intuition.