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 One That Got Away—A Sweet Deal Gone Bad
You learn just as much—sometimes even more—from a failed deal as from a successful one. So today, we bring you the story of “one that got away.” Unfortunate, but an interesting story nonetheless, which I tell in Episode 23 of my video series “Real Estate Deal Talk.” Story time! The ...
Real Estate Investing is Not All Black-and-White. Success is in the Gray Zone
To the outside observer, real estate investing may look fairly black-and-white. But it’s actually more complicated than that. There is a gray zone that both constitutes the reason real estate investors exist and is the area in which those investors provide their greatest value. Let me explain what I mean, ...
Home Flipping Increases 20 Percent In Q1 2016 to a 2-Year High
Home flipping activity increased 20 percent to a two-year high in Q1 2016, according to new figures from RealtyTrac. scr The national housing data provider’s just-released Q1 2016 U.S. Home Flipping Report shows that 6.6 percent (43,740) of all single-family home and condo sales in the first quarter of 2016 ...
The part-time real estate investor is suddenly in demand
When I look at the successful part-time investors — and I draw on my own experience here in Dallas where I started as a part-time investor — I see them succeed when they treat it like a business. It is not a hobby or get-rich-quick solution, and it’s not a ...
How to Select the Best Home Improvements to Increase Resale Value
It’s tough to know which home improvement projects are worth your time when the ultimate goal is to increase your return on the investment (ROI). Many home upgrades cost more to complete with supplies and labor than they recoup. According to Remodeling Magazine, on average, only 64.4 percent of home ...
Homeownership More Profitable for Single Men Than Single Women, According to New RealtyTrac Analysis
An analysis by leading housing data provider RealtyTrac shows that homes owned by single men on average are valued 10 percent more and have appreciated $10,112 (16 percent) more since purchase than homes owned by single women. The analysis covered more than 2.1 million single-family homes nationwide owned by either ...
Getting the most bang for your rehabbing buck
It seems like with all the TV shows out there nowadays, everybody has heard the term “fix-and-flip.” But what does that really mean, and will that be a viable strategy for you as an investor? Very simply, fix-and-flip involves buying a property at a discounted cost, renovating (or fixing) it, ...
Website identifies location of more than 300 natural gas underground storage facilities
Leading housing data provider RealtyTrac, through its pre-diligence website, www.HomeDisclosure.com, has identified the locations of more than 300 natural gas underground storage facilities across the county. Investors and consumers alike can now use HomeDisclosure.com to find out if a home they’re interested in buying or renting is near any one ...
This is a terrible house, so why am I excited? Profit, baby!
I love this deal! We are under contract for this house for $60,000. As you can see in the video for Real Estate Deal Talk Episode 22, it is in terrible condition. So why am I excited? Because of what’s going on across the street. That is a one-story, three-bedroom, ...
Passive Investing in Active Value-Add Real Estate
Many of the most interesting real estate investment opportunities involve “value-add” situations—renovation or redevelopment projects that aim at repositioning a property to a higher price point. The value-add strategy is often considered to have medium to high risk, but the returns can be potentially high as well. The Different Approaches ...
Start with What You Have: Beginning to Invest in Real Estate
Are you one of those would-be investors sitting on the sidelines because you think you may not necessarily be qualified enough, you may not necessarily know enough and you may not necessarily be strong enough financially to invest in real estate right now? I was there once. Let me tell ...
Vacant ‘Zombie’ Foreclosures Decrease 30 Percent In Second Quarter 2016 Compared To A Year Ago
RealtyTrac’s just-released Q2 2016 U.S. Residential Property Vacancy and Zombie Foreclosure Report shows nearly 1.4 million (1,398,046) U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) representing 1.6 percent of all residential properties were vacant as of May 2016, up 2.7 percent from the previous quarter when 1,361,628 U.S. residential properties were ...
Key to a Great Team: Hire Slowly and Fire Quickly
When you realize someone on your team is a bad fit or you otherwise need to cut ties with them, how do you do that? One word: Quickly! That conclusion is the result of a lot of heartache I have endured—but also have learned from—in hiring and firing over 20 ...
Sometimes After You Run the Numbers, You Need to Run Away From the Deal
There are times when you think you’ve hit on a great deal, only to discover the numbers just don’t add up. In Episode 18 of “Real Estate Deal Talk,” I’ll show you a good example. I’m absolutely not excited about the outcome of our work and our calculations, but I ...
RealtyTrac Reports Q1 2016 U.S. Home Loan Originations Down 8 Percent From A Year Ago
RealtyTrac’s Q1 2016 U.S. Residential Property Loan Origination Report shows 1.4 million (1,415,511) loans were originated on U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) in the first quarter of 2016, down 12 percent from the previous quarter and down 8 percent from a year ago to the lowest level since ...
Do You Want to Start a Part-Time or Weekend Business? Real Estate Investing Could Be the Answer
For those individuals who have a full-time career but are looking either for a little extra income or ultimately a whole new career, real estate investing could be the answer. Maybe I am even a little late to the party with this topic. There is so much excitement around real ...
Before it was Cool: Crowdfunding with Ignite Funding
The term “crowdfunding” did not exist in the American vocabulary prior to 2011. Over its first five years in existence, $34 billion in contributions has been reached, carving out a whole new industry-driven 100% by investors presented with the opportunity to rethink the lending industry. Additionally, crowdfunding for real estate ...
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work, and it Starts With a ‘Magic Question’
You know what really ticks me off about most of the investors I deal with? (And I’m putting that nicely, believe me!) And I speak to a lot of investors on a daily basis, from all over the world—from the East Coast, West Coast, the UK, Canada, Australia and Asia ...
RealtyTrac’s Q1 2016 U.S. Home Equity and Underwater Report estimates that less than 1 percent of all seriously underwater properties nationwide potentially qualify for principal loan forgiveness under a new mortgage modification program introduced in April by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees government-backed loan agencies Fannie Mae and ...
Apartment Outlook For Investors in 2016 is Rosy, But Watch Out For the Thorns
Apartment rents have been rising for six years, which is great news for investors. Most economists expect 2016 to be another strong year. Some caution is warranted, though, as developer interest is now acute and certain sectors soon may be seeing supply increases that outpace demand. According to real estate ...
Top 10 Trends in a Banner Year for Real Estate Investors
2016 is proving to be another banner year for real estate investors, with a continued short supply of homes to live in and even shorter supply of the most highly sought after single-family rentals, investors indeed have continued to find advantages to investing in real estate. Real estate is, of ...
Want to Buy More Houses? Provide More Solutions.
There’s one thing that we as investors often forget when dealing with distressed sellers. And that is: it is never about the house. Rather, it’s about the situation of that seller and the solution that you as a real estate investor can provide. It’s an important message to keep ...
Realty Trac 2015 Year-End Foreclosure Report
Data provider RealtyTrac’s Year-End 2015 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report shows foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions—were reported on 1,083,572 of the nation’s properties in 2015, down 3 percent from 2014 and down 62 percent from the peak of 2,871,891 properties with foreclosure filings in 2010. The nearly 1.1 ...
Our outlook for 2016 varies dramatically by market and price point in Southern California. At a high level, there are three major markets on the upswing, one is holding its own, and two are showing signs of slowing. Markets on the Upswing: Stronger Momentum San Diego Major indicators are trending ...
Repair and remodeling spending grew five percent-plus last year, just as we predicted. On Jan. 4, the Census Bureau announced a significant revision to its residential improvement spending estimates due to a calculation error. Based on our knowledge of the market, we are not surprised by the direction of the ...
