When it comes to education in and around the New Orleans metro area, most people will agree that the St. Tammany Parish school district is a force to be reckoned with.
When it comes to deciding on a place to call home, the educational offerings of a community are very important to most who either have a family already or are preparing to begin a family of their own. For this reason, Mandeville, Louisiana real estate has a lot to offer the average family as does the Covington, Louisiana real estate.
New Orleans may have a few more cultural offerings and museums than the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, but it cannot compete with the school systems on the north side of the lake. If you are looking for the best in education for your children, you truly will find the best that Louisiana has to offer within St. Tammany Parish schools.
If education alone isn’t enough incentive to consider Mandeville real estate or Covington property, you can still expose your children to the museums and galleries of New Orleans for the price of a little time and a short drive across the Causeway (plus admission of course and lunch would probably be a good idea). There are plenty of ways to supplement your child’s educational growth and cultural exposure while living on the North Shore.
The North Shore puts families in homes that are in an excellent school district that has a strong emphasis on success. This is the goal that most parents have for their children. You want your children to be the best they can be at whatever future they pursue.
More importantly you want them to have an educational foundation upon which to build those futures. They will definitely receive that and so much more in the St. Tammany public schools.
Aside from a reputation of excellence in education, the St. Tammany school system also offers a foundation that goes beyond math, science, and literature and extends into real life applications, social skills, social studies, and training so that your children can become solid community leaders as they grow and mature.
Setting the stage for the future is the primary goal of the school district and you should make living in Mandeville, Covington, or Slidell, a priority when searching for your home. The Mandeville real estate market offers many selections for homes in all sizes and price ranges to help you achieve your goals of living in this excellent school district and providing a safe, secure, and successful start for your children.
Covington, Louisiana real estate also offers a wide range of living options for those families that choose to make education a priority. Covington, Mandeville, and Slidell offer several attractive opportunities for community participation, volunteerism, and family focused activities. You certainly don’t want to miss out on the other things the area has to offer. Enrich your lifestyle with the multitude of parks, sports opportunities for children, and outdoor festivals, such as the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival, or the annual Mandeville Seafood Festival.
If you make a commitment to finding a home and purchasing Covington or Mandeville, Louisiana real estate, you just may find that you truly feel as though you are coming home.

The real estate market can differ all over the country. In many places housing prices are falling while in others they are staying steady or even rising. Although the housing market seems bleak in many places the market is cyclical and bound to change in the future. The Louisiana real estate market is currently holding strong in most areas including the popular Baton Rouge as well as in the Covington and Mandeville areas.
In Baton Rouge, the spring and summer of 2008 found more buyers than sellers. Houses were generally on the market for 2 to 3 months and market conditions remained strong. There was a good supply of homes in various price ranges. The average home was listed at $200,000 and sold for about 95 percent of the asking price. Most sellers did not receive multiple offers, however.
Most buyers in the Baton Rouge area this season were repeat buyers rather than first time home owners. The overall market conditions were stronger in Baton Rouge than many other areas although overall activity and growth grew less than 5 percent over last year.
The communities of Covington and Mandeville near New Orleans also experienced steady real estate sales this season. There were more buyers than sellers here as well, although most sellers did not receive more than a few offers for their homes. Homes in the Covington and Mandeville areas were generally on the market for a few months before they sold and homes priced below $300,000 sold faster than those priced above.
Most homeowners got between 90 and 95 percent of their asking price. The market in this area grew slightly more than in the Baton Rouge area from last year with average growth of about 12 percent. The greatest activity was in single family homes with the average price about $275,000.
Louisiana real estate has remained active this year although other areas of the country have not fared as well. Most sellers were able to find buyers within a few months and received an offer within 90 percent of their asking price. Although not as active as the market has been in the past, Louisiana sellers were able to find buyers within a reasonable amount of time.
The future of Louisiana real estate looks positive and is on the right track to pick up in the future. Sellers can expect for activity to increase and buyers can expect more competition in the near future as the real estate market continues to recover.

Corporations

Corporations are a legal entity owned one or more shareholders. They can be private or public like Ford, Microsoft, Federal Express, etc.

As a real estate investor, you can create your own private or closely held corporation by filing articles of incorporation and bylaws with the appropriate state agency.

Requirements for incorporation will vary from state to state.

The primary advantage (among others) is limited liability for share holders. Since the owners of a corporation actually own stock and not the real estate, the most shareholders can lose is their equity investment.

The disadvantage of a corporation relates to initial expenses:

It costs money to have an attorney draw up the organizational documents. There are also costs to cover extensive reporting requirements at state and federal levels for maintaining corporate status. If these requirements aren’t meant or if there’s lack of capitalization, creditors or lien holders can seek personal liability from individual shareholders.

There are two types of corporations:

C corporations One advantage of this type of corporation is that it has continuity (it continues in the event a shareholder dies). It has two disadvantages: The major disadvantage of a C corporation is that it’s taxed twice–once when the business makes a profit and then a second time when those profits are distributed to shareholders. Another disadvantage is that if the corporation has losses, it has to carry them over to the next tax year because the shareholders can’t use C corporation losses on their personal returns. S corporations This type of corporation has the advantage of avoiding double taxation by passing all tax liabilities onto shareholders. As such, S corporations are only taxed once.

However, they’re seldom used in real estate ownership because their primary disadvantage is that the liquidation of an S corporation is a taxable event. This means that even if the shareholders agree to an equitable distribution of assets, the Internal Revenue Service will consider the liquidation as taxable. The shareholders will then be forced to pay capital gains taxes and possibly sell some of the assets.

In addition, there’s the issue of material participation. This is an IRS term that indicates whether an investor worked and was involved in a business activity on a regular basis. It has a series of tests to determine material participation which affects the tax benefits you may or may not receive.

Generally speaking, incorporation is an expensive choice for holding real estate assets if you’re an average real estate investor. You must be willing to pay for the professional, legal and accounting advice not only at the beginning but also on a continual basis. These expenses can mount up. You also have to deal with the hassle of ongoing technical requirements and the possible expensive possibility of double taxation.

Key Point: Know your investment objectives and state and federal laws concerning title holding; then, select the form that best meets your investment needs. Do seek out the services of an attorney first.

Jack Sternberg