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.
Our Industry Needs Real Thought Leaders, Not More Gurus
A quote that applies to our industry "You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you." —John Bunyan I have always been of the opinion that if you help others get where they want to go, you will ultimately arrive at your ...
How to Deal with a Mold Problem in Your Rental Property
Mold spores are all around us. That’s a fact of life. A small portion of the human population is allergic to some mold spore varieties. Unfortunately, those with mold allergies are typically allergic to the type of mold you might find growing in your rental property. While only a small portion of the ...
That Bargain-Priced Mobile Home Just Could Be Your Big-Time Investment
Don’t you love getting a good deal? When shopping for real estate, nobody wants to pay full price. As buyers looking for a bargain, we start with distressed properties, hoping to flip the property for a good profit spread. Seeing a substantial profit made over the original cost of the ...
Local Governments Dictate Housing Growth
New home construction has been growing slowly and unevenly across the country, partially due to increasing difficulty getting projects approved and financially viable. CNBC just did a 3-minute feature on what I consider to be the poster child for difficult approvals: Sea Summit in San Clemente, California. We have worked ...
Want to Buy More Houses? Then Sell More Solutions
Successful real estate investors—whether part-time, full-time or transitioning into full-time—know that while they are in the business to buy houses, their success is really dependent on their ability to sell. And what a successful real estate investor is selling is a solution to the fear that so many sellers have ...
Where You Buy Is More Important Than What You Buy
Folks, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: “You’re not a tree; you can move.” These are the words of one of my greatest mentors, Jimmy Napier from Chipley, Florida. In the 1980s I attended several of Jimmy’s seminars, often combined with appearances by John Schwaub, Pete Fortunato ...
Fun in the Sun PLUS Potential Investment Profits—the Best Bargain Beach Towns for Summer ’16
Beach towns have their obvious attraction for those seeking relaxation or fun in the sun, but they also can offer some great investment opportunities. With that in mind, leading national housing date provider RealtyTrac has just released a special report ranking the best bargain beach towns for summer 2016 based ...
HomeUnion Report Show NYC, San Francisco Top Most Expensive Places for Renters-By-Choice
Not a surprise to regular observers of the market, New York City and San Francisco top the list of most expensive locations for renters-by-choice, as ranked in a new report by the online real estate investment management firm HomeUnion. For its list of the most expensive places for renters-by-choice, the ...
Why the ‘Fast Nickel’ is Better than the ‘Slow Dime’
Volume vs. velocity is a metaphor that I’ll admit I didn’t know, understand or appreciate when I started out as part-time real estate investor over 10 years ago. But as I’ve continued to expand and grow my investing business to the full-time endeavor it is now as a HomeVestors franchise ...
How To ‘Quantify’ the Quality of Different Rental Houses
Just as with the stock market, there are different levels of quality in investment properties. This is true with apartments, office buildings, industrial warehouses, and it is true with rental houses. Many brokers and investors qualify a property as A, B, or C. I use that same technique when I evaluate rental ...
Retiree Trends Bear Watching by Investors
Only 10 years ago, 2.2 million people were turning 65 each year. That number has surged to 3.5 million this year and will grow to 4.2 million in 2025! Tomorrow’s retirees will completely transform the housing industry. While a majority own their homes, many also indicate renting is in their ...
Small Two/One Property Holds Several Options for a Broad-Thinking Investor
From the archives of my video series, Real Estate Deal Talk, Episode 19 focuses on a home near Glenwood Park, a really nice neighborhood with a really nice park. The property in question is an 800-square-foot, two-bedroom/one-bathroom rental, currently occupied that we are looking at purchasing and expanding. It looks ...
It’s Not Where—But What—You Buy That Matters
Today’s lesson is a valuable one that I learned early on as a real estate investor in Dallas, Texas. And it is simply to remember that it’s not where you buy that matters, as much as it’s what you buy. Many investors—whether you’re a part-time investor, a weekend investor, or ...
U.S. Foreclosure Activity Down Less Than 1 Percent in May
U.S. foreclosure activity in May 2016 was down from a year ago for the eighth consecutive month and continuing to run below 2006 average monthly levels, according to a new report from leading national data provider RealtyTrac. There were 100,841 properties with foreclosure filings in May, virtually unchanged from the ...
Associate With the Best, So You Can Be the Best
Today, I want to address a question that I get a lot: Is it important to your business success that you have a mentor? From my standpoint, mates, the answer is “Yes.” And, “No.” Let me explain: Absolutely, you want to associate yourself with successful people of good character and ...
Technology for Your Real Estate Business
In this blog post – from episode 25 of my video series “Real Estate Deal Talk”– I would like to share a little bit of insight about using technology as a tool to help you invest in real estate. Among the best tools that I have found: Podio and Zapier ...
Real estate investors often start small—a single-family home investment or a small apartment, office or retail building—before leveraging that early experience into multiple properties and a larger portfolio. The move up from new property investor to a seasoned property investor level can require training in the “school of hard knocks.” ...
2016 Think Realty Awards of Distinction
Humanitarian of the Year: An individual of highest integrity, standards and principle who not only excels in the real estate investing industry but selflessly contributes to the betterment of the world at large. Andy Williams, Recon Realty 214-306-4598 Recon Realty is a veteran- focused private real estate investment firm specializing in ...
There’s a natural tendency for investors to think more like home appraisers than home inspectors when evaluating a property, and it makes sense—you need to know how much you can expect to sell for when the time comes. But you can miss issues that affect your bottom line when you ...
In previous articles, I have discussed how to estimate effective gross income and operating expenses. With those figures at hand, we can now estimate our property’s net operating income (NOI). NOI is calculated as follows: Gross Scheduled Rents (+) Other Income (-) Vacancy Allowance = Effective Gross Rent (-) Operating Expenses = ...
In his best seller, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey provides seven concepts to guide the reader toward self-mastery and business success. The general theme of the book is that, in order to achieve success in one’s life, certain habits should be implemented. A successful life can ...
School’s out now, and one of the best parts of summer, I think, are the cookouts. Some of the best memories I have with friends and family have come from these get-togethers. A key part of our mission at Affinity Loss Prevention Services (ALPS) is to deliver seasonally relevant information ...
It’s your first time flipping a house, and it’s almost ready. Now what? That’s a question we hear a lot. While our business model is mostly wholesale properties, we will flip six or eight houses a year and have learned you have to start marketing the properties even before the ...
Digital Indispensable Tools are Today’s Classifieds
Long gone are the days when renters checked the classifieds. Today, landlords need a professional online presence to attract a steady flow of applicants and keep vacancy time to a minimum. Here several experts share what features matter most for this key marketing tool. WRITE LIKE A REALTOR Do renters ...
When Andy Williams returned from four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he faced a tough transition. “I was in an anti-terrorism team,” he recalls. When he returned to civilian life, he managed and expanded the real estate portfolio he had begun to build from overseas while he was in ...
