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.

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Stay Out of Desperation Mode to be a Successful Investor

Among the many things I’ve learned in my 10-plus years as a real estate investor in Dallas is that desperation creates regrets, and motivation creates results. That is at the root of the concept of acting like a buyer versus thinking like a professional buyer—or looking to buy versus recognizing ...
Is Yours Among These Spooktacular ZIP Codes?

Is Yours Among These Spooktacular ZIP Codes?

With the holiday of haunt right around the corner, ATTOM Data Solutions decided to look at properties where the haunting may hit too close to home for neighbors and potential buyers. More than 40,000 single-family homes nationwide are vacant and have a homeowner who is now deceased, according to an ...
Forward Thinking

Forward Thinking

The constant flurry of news about the housing market has been consistently upbeat the past few years, as home prices increased, wages took a historic jump in 2015 and the market worked through the foreclosures left over from the Great Recession. “A lot of the data looks very healthy, and ...
Sharing the Wealth

Sharing the Wealth

| Teresa Bitler | Article | Profiles
Investing in real estate can change your life. Just ask Kathy Fettke, who started by renting out rooms in her own home when her husband, Rich Fettke, was diagnosed with cancer. She now has a diversified portfolio of single-family homes and commercial real estate throughout the country. Most people would ...
Get Into the Flow: Find the Deals

Get Into the Flow: Find the Deals

I hear it every day from clients and partners, and at conferences: “My real estate business would be growing faster if I could just find the deals!” Our companies work for people just like you. Our clients include thousands of real estate investors and agents in markets all over the world ...
Leading Question

Leading Question

Before we can assess the question, “Why isn’t my real estate investor website generating leads?” we have to determine a few things about your website. One of the most important things for any real estate investor to have is a website that covers all of your information—location, contact information, other ...
Taking Control

Taking Control

Have you ever gotten your retirement account statement, thrown it on your desk and never opened it? That was our dilemma month after month. Finally, we were so frustrated by the ups and mostly downs of the “Wall Street Casino” that we started doing our own research and came across ...
Why Deals Go Bust

Why Deals Go Bust

Recently, I attended a real estate conference where I was able to chat with other real estate investors. We introduced ourselves and what we specialized in. I told them that I invest in mobile homes. Many of them said, “Oh really, I did that once. I won’t do that again!” ...
Turnkey Tips

Turnkey Tips

What’s the secret to succeeding with turnkey investment properties? We asked Sean Tarpenning, owner of US Real Estate Equity Builder (USREEB). His company has been sourcing and managing turnkey properties in Kansas City’s urban core and suburbs since late 2014, and it’s expanding to two other metros. In a typical ...
To Rent or To Resell?

To Rent or To Resell?

As the U.S. real estate market continues to recover from the financial crisis of the mid-2000s, there has been a noticeable flow of capital moving back into residential investment opportunities. From the fix-and-flip model to the long-term rental/hold strategy, we’ve seen a steady return to real estate as a more ...
Note-Taking

Note-Taking

Scott Carson, founder of We Close Notes, never intended to invest in nonperforming notes despite previously working as a mortgage broker and a financial adviser. Like so many others investing in real estate, he started purchasing properties and transitioned into short sales. But a phone call to a bank to ...
Within Reach

Within Reach

| James Hart | Article | Profiles
Time for a little myth-busting: You don’t have to be an institutional investor to succeed in the world of commercial real estate. The Kansas City-based Block Real Estate Services and its affiliate, Block Funds, are opening doors to investment opportunities that many individual investors would otherwise have a hard time ...
With a Little Help

With a Little Help

Rodney Pike knew from the start that he loved making real estate a reality for others, thanks to his longtime association with Habitat for Humanity and experience in the construction sector. When he decided to start making his own real estate dreams reality, however, “I just didn’t have all the ...
Dallas-Fort Worth: Ensuring Economic Diversity

Dallas-Fort Worth: Ensuring Economic Diversity

The Dallas-Fort Worth area undeniably relies heavily on the oil industry for its economic health and well-being, but regional and state policy-makers have spent more than a decade designing programs, incentives and policies to ensure that the local area continues to grow and evolve regardless of gas prices. Here are ...
The 'Moat Theory'

The ‘Moat Theory’

For the longest time, I thought financial freedom was only for the wealthy. But everything changed for me after I read this sentence: Financial freedom happens when your wants and needs are exceeded by your passive income. The minute I read that statement, it spoke to me. It said there ...
Good, Better, Best

Good, Better, Best

Flipping real estate requires access to capital. Most investors fall into one of two categories: investor/deal sponsor or lender/gap funder. Regardless of which side of the coin you are on, it is important to understand the various options available when using financing. The last thing you want to adopt is ...
Seasonal Safety

Seasonal Safety

I have a cornucopia of memories of holiday family gatherings. Many begin with me standing on the thawed porch near twilight at my aunt’s and uncle’s house. Their gift for hospitality extends to details that often go unnoticed: the walks are always cleared, driveways empty so we have places to ...
Debt Financing and 1031 Exchanges

Debt Financing and 1031 Exchanges

The fundamental rule of all 1031 exchanges is: In order to defer all income tax liability, you must trade: 1. equal or up in value (minus direct selling costs) and 2. equal or up in equity. The IRS reasoning behind this rule is that you, as seller, usually receive two benefits ...
Only the Strong Survive

Only the Strong Survive

Think landlording is simple? Think again! It’s not for the fainthearted, and it’s certainly not for those who aren’t prepared! This isn’t to say that it’s not worth it. It can be. Rental properties are in demand—something that’s only expected to grow over the next 15 years. Renters are on ...
A Virtual Revolution?

A Virtual Revolution?

In today’s fast-paced world where friends, family and colleagues are no more than a Snapchat away, where you can deposit a check via smartphone instead of visiting the bank, it is not surprising that more and more investors are looking to the internet for investment opportunities. Increasingly, individuals are seeking ...
Rehab

More than Makeup

The “lipstick on a pig” model is all but dead. Gone are the days of investors purchasing a house, putting in new carpet and paint and waiting a short period of time for the price to appreciate. For a house flipper, competition is increasing, and you need to make sure ...
Adding It All Up

Adding It All Up

Open any browser window to any news outlet of just about any persuasion and the headlines will scream at you: The Bust is Coming! The Next Housing Crisis! Read the coverage associated with these headlines and you’ll learn that the “new” housing crisis is composed of two separate but entwined ...
The Entrepreneur Corner: Lifelong Process

The Entrepreneur Corner: Lifelong Process

| Ben Rao | Article | Operations
From the time I was a kid, I knew I was an entrepreneur, always selling something to the other kids or coming up with solutions for problems. For a time, I worked in the corporate world, then in 1997 I left behind those comforts, and I haven’t worked for another ...
Real Value in Serving RVs

Real Value in Serving RVs

| Pete Reeb | Article | Single Family
The RV industry is on pace for a record number of shipments this year. The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) estimates more than 400,000 RVs will be delivered in 2016. That includes travel trailers, fifth-wheel trailers, truck campers, folding camper trailers and motor homes. About 9 million RVs are now ...
Now You See It

Now You See It

True to its name, Infobrij seeks to bridge the information gap by providing all people involved in investments the transparency they need to complete successful deals. The company, based in South Coast Metro in Southern California, at first kept its technology platform “under lock and key by invitation only” and ...