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.

The best markets for rental rate returns for investors are highlighted in a new report

The best markets for rental rate returns for investors are highlighted in a new report

A new report ranks the markets with the best, and worst, potential returns on residential rental properties that real estate investors can expect, according to RealtyTrac. The study also shows the most affordable, and least affordable markets, from a renter's perspective. Too, the residential rental property analysis report from RealtyTrac for ...
Home price appreciation slows year over year in 65 percent of metro areas

Home price appreciation slows year over year in 65 percent of metro areas

Annual home price appreciation in February slowed, compared to a year ago, in 60 of the 92 metros of 500,000 or more population analyzed in a new report from RealtyTrac. “While still significant at 33 percent, the average discount buyers are realizing on distressed homes has been shrinking over the ...
Rise in home prices led by Denver, Dallas and Miami new report says

Rise in home prices led by Denver, Dallas and Miami new report says

Home prices continued their rise across the country over the last 12 months, however, monthly data reveal slowing increases and seasonal weakness, according to the latest release of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index report for January. The index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, recorded a 4.5% annual gain in ...
Pending home sales jumped in February says Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors

Pending home sales jump in February led by the Midwest and West

Pending home sales in February increased to their highest level since June 2013 as sizeable gains in the Midwest and West offset smaller declines in the Northeast and South, according to a release from the National Association of Realtors. The number of contracts to buy, called the pending home sales ...
Texas cities top new list of best markets for real estate investment

Texas cities top new list of best markets for real estate investment

Texas cities top a new list for best markets for real estate investment, according to a new release from Local Market Monitor and HomeVestors. "The Top 10 markets for real estate investment all have a common thread: a fast growing economy, which means more jobs and more renters," Ingo Winzer, ...
Climbing housing prices have renters feeling the squeeze

Climbing housing costs have renters feeling the squeeze in many parts of the country

The gap between rental costs and household income is widening to unsustainable levels in many parts of the country, and the situation could worsen unless new home construction meaningfully rises, according to a release of new research by the National Association of Realtors. NAR reviewed data on income growth, housing ...
The millennial generation represents the largest group of home buyers in new study

Millennials represent the largest share of recent home buyers, new study says

The millennial generation represented the largest share of recent buyers, despite the economic and financial challenges young adults have faced since the recession, according to a release from the National Association of Realtors. The 2015 National Association of Realtors Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study, found that an overwhelming majority ...
Foreclosures down 33 percent in the past year according to CoreLogic

Foreclosure inventory down 33 percent in the past year

Foreclosure inventory declined 33 percent year over year according to the latest research in a release from CoreLogic. "Job growth and home-value appreciation have worked to push the serious delinquency rate to the lowest since mid-2008 and foreclosures down by one-third from a year ago," Frank Nothaft, chief economist at ...
Doug Duncan chief economist for Fannie Mae says consumers are not yet ready to move on housing

Consumer confidence toward homeownership continuing to grow, new study says

Most consumers expect home rental prices to continue to rise in the next year, but 43 percent still think it is too difficult to get a mortgage, according to a release of the Fannie Mae February 2015 National Housing Survey. "Continuing improvements in consumer attitudes in this month's National Housing ...
David Blitzer

Home prices up moderately in the West, but housing recovery continues to falter new study says

San Francisco, Denver and Miami were the strongest, but overall nine cities reported monthly home price increases in the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price data for December 2014, according to a release from PRNewswire. The 10-city composite gained 4.3% year-over-year, up from 4.2% in November. The 20-city composite gained 4.5% year-over-year, ...
HomeVestors announces top performing franchisees for 2014

Winners of HomeVestors 2014 top performance awards for franchisees announced

HomeVestors, with more than 540 franchises in 42 states,  has announced the accomplishments of franchisees with top performance award for the 12-month ranking period in 2014 in a release. HomeVestors franchises bought 5,000 houses with a total sales volume of $474,000,000. HomeVestors is the number one buyer of houses in ...
Sam Khater deputy chief economist for CoreLogic

Completed foreclosures continue to decline, new study says

Completed foreclosures continued to decline in December 2014 to 39,000 for the month, down 5 percent from November and down almost 14 percent year-over-year,  according to a a release of a new study from CoreLogic. The 12-month sum of completed foreclosures for 2014, at 563,294, is at its lowest point ...
5 red flags to help you avoid becoming a victim of real estate investment fraud

5 red flags to help you avoid becoming a victim of real estate investment fraud

| Think Realty | Article | Operations
A caution on real estate investment scams, typically spread by word-of-mouth, has been issued in a release by The Florida Office of Financial Regulation. “Real estate investment scams typically spread by word-of-mouth and require consumers to invest large sums of money in investment properties. This type of scam promises a ...
5 red flags to help you avoid becoming a victim of real estate investment fraud

5 red flags to help you avoid becoming a victim of real estate investment fraud

A caution on real estate investment scams, typically spread by word-of-mouth, has been issued in a release by The Florida Office of Financial Regulation. “Real estate investment scams typically spread by word-of-mouth and require consumers to invest large sums of money in investment properties. This type of scam promises a ...
Brad Long, president of apartments.com, renters will not pay more despite increasing rental rates

Renters say they will not spend more on rent despite increasing rental rates

While rents continue to rise around the country, the rate of growth is slowly decreasing. According to CoStar, the real estate industry's leading provider of information, analytics and online marketplaces, the average cost of rent nationwide increased by 0.64 percent to $1,194 a month in the fourth quarter of 2014—down ...
This house is one of three properties north of Seattle that Lawrence invested in using peer-to-peer lending or crowdfunding blog by Lawrence Fassler

How crowdfunding, or peer-to-peer lending, can help the active real estate investor

In my last article, I talked with you about how crowdfunding, or the use of peer-to-peer marketplaces, is beginning to change the way accredited real estate  investors can participate in real estate projects. Peer-to-peer marketplaces, and crowdfunding,  also affect how regular real estate investors can get financing for their own ...
Mortgage rates remain unchanged in latest Bankrate survey

Mortgage rates remain steady, but worry over increase remains

Mortgage rates were little changed, with the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate holding at 3.80 percent, according to a release of Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.30 discount and origination points. The survey is complemented by Bankrate's weekly Rate Trend Index, in which ...
Texas housing has second best year in 2014

Second best year on record in 2014 for Texas real estate

The Texas housing market closed out 2014 with one of the highest fourth-quarter single-family home sales volumes in Texas real estate history, according to a release from the Texas Association of Realtors. "A dip in mortgage interest rates below four percent in the last half of 2014 created an ideal ...
Doug Duncan chief economist for Fannie Mae says consumers are not yet ready to move on housing

Economy will drag housing upward in 2015 says Fannie Mae

Driven by strengthening private domestic demand, economic growth is expected to accelerate modestly this year and drag last year's unspectacular housing activity upward, according to a release by  Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research (ESR) Group. The economy is expected to climb to 3.1 percent in 2015, up from the ...
Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, says more low-end homes will come on the market in 2015.

Many lower-end sellers now in a position to put homes on the market

Many homeowners in the bottom third of their markets are finally in a position to sell, just in time for Millennials to enter the housing market in greater numbers in 2015, Zillow Real Estate Market reports predicts in the release. Homes in the bottom third of home values bottomed out ...
Affinity Enterprise Group

Affinity Media Group acquires Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

Affinity Media Services (AMS), a division of real estate investment market leader Affinity Enterprises Group (AEG), announced Friday that it has entered into an asset purchase agreement with NEXZUS Publishing Group, the publisher of Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine, PREI Investor Review Series and The Invaluable Investor Study; and promoter ...
3 steps to overcoming fear in purchasing your first real estate investment property

3 steps to overcoming fear in buying your first investment property

Many times people thinking about buying their first investment property are anxious or scared. So how do you overcome the fear factor? I guarantee there are many people out there who put down on their resolutions and goals for 2015 that they want to buy their first investment property. You ...
Rick Sharga of Auction.com says real estate investors more likely to flip when buying at auction

Flipping slightly edges out buy-to-rent investing when buying at auction new study says

A new study shows a slight inclination for real estate investors to lean toward flipping rather than buying to rent, although investor intent varies by the type of auction and the investor's individual profile and business model. The nationwide survey of real estate investors bidding on properties at auction in ...
10 current trends real estate investors need to know blog by Larry Arth

10 current trends real estate investors need to know about

Real estate is like anything else that is cyclical in nature, with trends always changing. Over the years I have learned what is important to watch for, not just for today but also what is coming down the pipeline, sort of like having a dashboard perspective of the investing arena ...
7 ways to keep the tenants you already have

Rehabs, gurus and tenants: the top 5 real estate investing blogs of 2014

Here are the top 5 real estate investing blogs of 2014 as selected by the users of our website:   The 7 best renovations for your rental properties The two biggest variables in rental property ownership are dealing with vacancies and how long it takes you or yourproperty manager to ...