Articles

Ready to get your read on? Dive into the article archive to help you build wealth through real estate investing. We feature top subject matter experts exploring every facet of the industry.

Articles

Ready to get your read on? Dive into the article archive to help you build wealth through real estate investing. We feature top subject matter experts exploring every facet of the industry.

Keep Your Real Estate New Year Resolution

Keep Your 2017 Real Estate Resolutions

As we make our New Year resolutions and move to achieve those resolutions, many of us have already failed. And here we are only in January. There are a lot of data sources and numbers vary, but it is said that normally only about 8 percent of people’s New Year’s ...
Ben Carson Explains Plans for HUD

Ben Carson Explains Plans for HUD

Former republican presidential candidate and HUD Secretary-Designate Ben Carson told the Senate Banking Committee last week he wants to run the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in order to “heal America’s divisiveness.” He went on to say political division, racial conflict, and class warfare are “ripping this country ...
What Trump's VA Secretary Pick Could Mean for Housing

What Trump’s VA Secretary Pick Could Mean for Housing

Last week, president-elect Donald Trump revealed that he will replace sitting Veterans Affairs, VA,  secretary Bob McDonald when he takes office. McDonald has held the position since 2014 and is the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble. He is a republican who was appointed by President Obama and enjoys the ...
Economists Says Cincinnati is "Insulated" from Trump Administration

Economist Says Cincinnati is “Insulated” from Trump Administration

Despite her insistence that her city, Cincinnati, is “insulated” from the national economy thanks to its diversity, Julie Heath, the director of the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center, said recently that she is worried about the city’s economy. Heath said some of the proposals that the incoming presidential administration has ...
One-to-One with Matt Neisser: How Private Lending Works for Investors

One-to-One with Matt Neisser: How Private Lending Works for Investors

LendingOne helps real estate investors across the country secure the financing they need to build bigger, more profitable portfolios. The direct private real estate lender, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, provides bridge loans for fix-and-flip deals, as well as longer-term financing for properties that investors hold onto for years. Curious ...
Ohio city Proposes Rental Regulation

Proposed One-Bedroom-Per-Adult Rental Regulation Creates Uproar in Ohio

An Ohio city council has proposed a rule that will have far-reaching effects on renters and landlords and that could infringe on their civil and private property rights. Brunswick, Ohio, city officials recently proposed that all adult renters in the municipal area would have to have their own bedrooms in ...
Luxury Rental Markets

Is It ‘The End’ for the Luxury Rental Market?

If you own luxury rental properties and have been enjoying the hefty monthly cash flow that they can generate, you may need to prepare yourself for a dock in pay. According to the Wall Street Journal, you could find yourself cutting rents and offering concessions to either keep tenants in ...
3 Reasons to Run Away from IRA-Held Real Estate

3 Reasons to Run Away from IRA-Held Real Estate

Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) were created to protect investors and enable them to engage in different types of investing that might not be considered entirely “the norm.” Not surprisingly, this includes real estate, historically one of the safest, simplest, and strongest types of investments not usually included in your options ...
Arizona AirBnB

Open Playing Field in Arizona for Airbnb

| Kathy Fettke | Article | Operations
Arizona is blazing a new trail for the future of short-term rentals. As cities across the nation restrict or even ban the renting of properties on a short-term basis, a new Arizona law allows them anywhere in the state, without limits. The bill was passed by Arizona state lawmakers in ...
Foreclosure Rates Down

U.S. Foreclosure Activity Drops To 10-Year Low

ATTOM Data Solutions' just-released the Year-End 2016 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report shows foreclosure filings down 14 percent from 2015 to the lowest level since 2006. Foreclosure filings, default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions were reported on 933,045 U.S. properties in 2016, down 14 percent from 2015 to the lowest ...
Property Value

Home Value Perception Reverses Course

A gap between appraisals and owner estimates has widened for the first time in six months, according to a report released in January 2017. Quicken Loans’ National Home Price Perception Index shows appraised values were 1.33 percent lower than homeowners estimated in December 2016. Home values fell 1.19 percent in ...
Homes in Minority Neighborhoods Twice as Likely to be Underwater

Homes in Minority Neighborhoods Twice as Likely to be Underwater

A new analysis shows different effects of negative equity on racial groups in the United States. The Zillow analysis shows 20 percent of homeowners in predominately African American communities were underwater in Q3 2016, nearly double the national rate of 10.9 percent. In half of the largest U.S. metros, homeowners ...
Hottest Single-Family Markets

Winter’s Hottest Single-Family Markets

Orlando, Palm Beach County, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, Florida; and Dallas, Texas, top Ten-X’s just-released list of the top wintertime single-family housing markets. The winter’s hottest single-family markets each demonstrate a vigorous combination of consistently strong demand, home price appreciation and economic and demographic growth. The Top Single-Family Housing Markets ...
Ohio Bans Plywood Usage on Vacant Homes

Ohio Bans Plywood Usage on Vacant Homes

Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s signing of H.B. 463 on Jan. 4, 2017, makes Ohio the first state to outlaw the use of plywood to cover windows on vacant residential homes. “This is a significant advancement for those engaged in the battle against neighborhood blight in Ohio,” said Robert Klein, founder ...
Voice-Controlled Properties Trending in 2017

Voice-Controlled Properties Trending in 2017

Voice control is set to be the next smart-home amenity home buyers cannot live without. If the idea of just speaking to your house and asking it to lock doors, turn off lights, or activate the security system makes you think a little bit of “The Jetsons” and then get ...
Don’t Let Bedbugs Kill Your Real Estate Deals

Don’t Let Bedbugs Kill Your Real Estate Deals

Only a decade ago, bedbugs were virtually unheard of in the United States. While many homeowners had probably heard the saying “Don’t let the bedbugs bite,” the majority were largely unconcerned with the reality of such instruction. Today, however, nearly everyone knows someone who has experienced issues with a bedbug ...
(c) Can Stock Photo / devon

2016 Tax Changes for Real Estate?

Donald Trump and the Republican majorities are coming into office with plans to change the U.S. tax code. It’s not clear, however, how real estate might fare under some of the changes being discussed. Earlier Blueprint Now Ready for Launch A sweeping platform for overhauling most of U.S. tax laws ...
3D Printing to Distrupt Construction Industry within 3 Years

3D Printing to Disrupt Construction Industry Within 3 Years

The future of home construction is on the verge of what could be a huge transformation. 3D printing technologies are advancing rapidly for the construction of homes and other buildings. And according to some ambitious entrepreneurs, we may see widespread use of that technology in the not-too-distant future! One of ...
Oakland Warehouse Landlord May Face Murder Charges

Oakland Warehouse Landlord May Face Murder Charges

| Kathy Fettke | Article | Operations
The tragic warehouse fire that killed 36 people in Oakland on Dec. 2, 2016, should never have happened. The building was never fit for habitation. The first lawsuit has been filed against the landlord and eight other defendants, all of whom may face murder charges. This is going to be ...
Buying versus Renting ATTOM Data Solutions

Buying More Affordable than Renting

Buying a home is more affordable than renting in 66 percent of U.S. housing markets analyzed in the 2017 Rental Affordability Report issued by ATTOM Data Solutions, parent company of RealtyTrac. The analysis incorporated recently released fair market rent data for 2017 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban ...
Hacker

Are You ‘Helping’ Hackers Scam Your Clients?

Are you unwittingly helping hackers scam your clients? More and more real estate professionals are reporting that their clients are finding themselves victims of hacking and identity theft, thanks to real estate transactions. Hackers have discovered that breaking into a single real estate professional’s email account yields a treasure trove ...
Truth or Comfort? Real Estate Market Bubbles

Truth or Comfort? Real Estate Market Bubbles

| John Trautman | Article | Operations
Truth or comfort? Which do you prefer? Several years ago, someone I respected very much asked this question to a group of real estate investors. We were surprised. Why should we have to choose? Real estate was going well, so we had the comfort of great investments and the truth ...
Housing Credit Index Shows Movement

Housing Credit Index Shows Movement

The Housing Credit Index, which measures new loan risk, has seen some decreases in the latest HCI National Overview by CoreLogic. Among the highlights of the Q3 2016 report: New loan risk, as measured by the HCI, is down year over year and compared to 2001 The share of home ...
Your Property, Tenants and Drugs

Your Property, Tenants and Drugs

This excerpt is part of the article “Don’t Let Drugs Cook Your Investment Property” by BreAnn Stephenson of Affinity Loss Prevention Services. It can be found in the December 2017 issue of Think Realty Magazine. The editors of Think Realty hope you find this information useful and hope this will ...
Multi-Plan Approach

Multi-Plan Approach

Real estate investors are exposed daily to an ever-changing market. Sometimes these changes are favorable, and sometimes they are detrimental. The only certainties related to the real estate market are that it will change and that investors should expect the unexpected. Given this fact, doesn’t it make sense that investors ...