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.
Starter Home Inventory Continues to Dry Up
The supply of U.S. starter home inventory has dropped off 12.1 percent since a year prior. The steepest year-to-year decline in three years, according to the latest Trulia Inventory and Price Watch. And if first-time buyers are able to find a house they like, it will consume about 38.5 percent ...
Experts Doubt Airbnb-Style Services Hurt Housing Inventory
Do short-term-rental services like Airbnb and HomeAway make it harder for average renters to find affordable housing? Zillow decided to ask housing experts. According to the new Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey, most of them don’t believe short-term rentals are the root of the inventory shortage. Only about 5 percent ...
Understanding Second-Lien Loans
Second-lien loans differ from mezzanine debt and preferred equity in several respects; each has different sets of rights. Preferred equity, for example, should not be subject to bankruptcy concerns, as it is not debt. And both preferred equity and mezzanine debt generally take over the manager’s control rights as a ...
Eviction Moratorium for the Holidays
Fannie Mae announced it will suspend evictions of foreclosed single-family properties for the holiday season. Eviction suspensions will start Dec. 19, 2016, and continue through Jan. 2, 2017, for single-family residences and 2-to 4-unit properties. During this time the eviction administrative proceedings may continue, but families will be able to ...
Just Who Is Treasury Pick Steven Mnuchin?
How much do you know about President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Cabinet nominee Steven Mnuchin? Senate confirmation will put former Wall Street insider Mnuchin at the helm of the Treasury Department. As chief, he would be in charge of the nation's finances, policy, banking regulations and the IRS. His name would ...
A specific appendix for tiny houses will be part of the 2018 International Residential code. This will allow people to receive a Certificate of Occupancy for their tiny house to meet provisions of the adopted code appendix. A two-thirds majority vote was needed on public comment RB168-16 passing the final ...
Trulia’s American Dream Survey Reveals 2017 Insights
Renewed Republican optimism. Fewer Millennials believing homeownership is part of their American Dream. And the Sunshine state, Florida, dominating the housing market’s “to watch” list for 2017. These are just a few items revealed in Trulia’s American Dream Survey, with results published in the company’s annual 2017 Housing Outlook Report ...
Do You Have a Real Estate Investor Mindset?
Do you have the right mindset to succeed as a real estate investor? I wish I could give you one simple silver bullet answer to that question. I wish it were that simple, but it’s not. There are many different traits or characteristics, I believe, that enable somebody to be successful ...
Home-Flipping Cools Off in Q3 2016
U.S. home-flipping activity decreased in the third quarter of 2016, after hitting a six-year high in the previous quarter, according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions. ATTOM Data Solutions is the parent company of RealtyTrac and curator of the nation’s largest fused property database. The Q3 2016 Home ...
Little Movement in Pending Home Sales
Pending home sales — deals involving existing homes where the contract has been signed, but the transaction hasn’t closed—were up slightly in October, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index was up 0.1 percent on a monthly basis, and 1.8 percent higher than October ...
Fewer Purchase Loans, More Refi in Q3
Home loan originations were down about 2 percent in the third quarter compared to the second, though up 1 percent compared to a year earlier. The value of the loans was bigger, too—$502 billion, 8 percent higher than the same timeframe in 2015. If you dig deeper into the numbers, ...
New Single-Family Home Sales Down
Sales of new single-family homes—which had been trending up since 2015—dipped 1.9 percent in October, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The NAHB’s report was based on data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. “Though slightly down from last month, ...
As more and more homebuyers look to parents and other sources for the lump sums required to make a down payment on a new home, the idea of down-payment assistance is becoming more familiar in the housing sector. However, any time that assistance goes undocumented with the mortgage lender, you’re ...
Good Times for Sellers … Won’t Last Forever
It’s an amazing time for sellers, but the momentum is expected to shift to buyers by 2018 or 2019, according to a Zillow survey of housing experts. In October, the median U.S. home value of $191,200 was up 6.2 percent compared to a year earlier, thanks partly to a 6 percent ...
A Facebook Face-Off About Housing
Facebook doesn’t shy away from a problem, even one as big as California’s affordable housing crisis. The social media giant recently announced that it would begin combatting its home state’s massive lack of affordable housing squarely in the most expensive metro area in the country, San Jose, where the median ...
Will Trump Really Dismantle Dodd-Frank?
As the Trump presidency takes hold, the debate over Dodd-Frank is growing. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to dismantle the banking reform act. Fed Chief Janet Yellen has promised to defend it. Congress has the power to change it. And, the battle has already begun. The House just passed an ...
Trump Taps Carson for HUD Secretary Position
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated retired neurosurgeon, outspoken Obamacare opponent and former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson for the position of U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). By tapping Carson for the position, Trump diverges once again from the “norm” of appointing individuals with bureaucratic experience in government ...
Rental Vacancy Increase in October 2016
Morningstar Credit Ratings has recently published its Single-Family Rental Performance Report for November 2016 showing vacancies increased to 5.2 percent in October while transactions worked through the summer’s increased lease expirations. Rental properties backing single-family rental securitizations increased by 4.4 percent from prior contractual rents. They are now below the ...
Let Professionals Handle the Commercial Property Caretaking
The backbone of any commercial property is strong property management. If you have recently purchased a commercial building or have a building that you have owned for a while, there comes a time when you must truly consider hiring a professional property manager to skillfully guide the property through its ...
FHA Loan Limits Increase—For Now
In response to rising home prices nationwide, the Federal Housing Administration has raised loan limits for 2017. So if you have been or will be looking to buy a home, you may be able to qualify for an FHA loan next year a bit easier than you could this year ...
6 Ideas to Prep for Trump’s New Tax Plan
With Donald Trump in the White house, big changes are coming for taxpayers. New tax policies are still a moving target, but there are some things you can do now, to reduce your 2016 taxes, and prepare for 2017. Disclaimer: I am not a tax accountant. Any tax tips mentioned here ...
Save by Buying Property in Winter Months
If you’re willing to buy when the weather is frightful, your real estate investment deals could be quite delightful. So delightful, in fact, you might save as much as $50,000 or nearly $100,000 in certain locales. According to online real estate management and investment firm HomeUnion, the national square-footage price ...
Will You Be Paying Back-Overtime in 2017?
If your real estate investing business has any salaried employees, you could find yourself paying them some serious back-overtime in 2017 if a recently blocked Labor Department ruling is overturned in the New Year. Late last month, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an injunction against ...
U.S. Home Refi Originations Increase
ATTOM Data Solutions’ newly released U.S. Residential Property Loan Origination Report for Q3 2016 shows more than 1.9 million loans – 1,919,180 – were originated on U.S. residential properties. This is down 2 percent from the previous quarter and up less than 1 percent from last year. Purchase originations were ...
Position Your Deal for Best Exit
And we’ve made it! This is the last installment of our special multi-part video mini-series sharing the steps that will help you dominate your deals. To recap, previously we covered your investment personality, exit strategy, how to find deals in your market & how to evaluate them and also how ...
