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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.

HomeVestors announces top performing franchisees for 2014

Winners of HomeVestors 2014 top performance awards for franchisees announced

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Lawrence Fassler | Article | Operations
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Kevin Guz | Article | Fundamentals, Operations
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Larry Arth | Article, Market & Trends
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

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
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 ...
Doug Duncan chief economist for Fannie Mae says consumers are not yet ready to move on housing

Consumers not ready to move on housing despite improving economy

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
Americans are becoming more optimistic about the economy, but consumer confidence toward the housing market is lagging, according to results from Fannie Mae's December 2014 National Housing Survey. Likely bolstered by a strengthening employment sector, the share of consumers who believe the economy is headed in the right direction improved ...
2015 real estate outlook from Local Market Monitor

2015 real estate outlook from Local Market Monitor

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
By Ingo Winzer Local Market Monitor Despite low interest rates, low inflation, and an economy that has steadily expanded, new and existing home sales - and therefore mortgage and home equity lending - have languished. Part of the reason is a high level of consumer debt that keeps many potential ...
Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, gives his 2015 predictions for real estate growth for real estate investors

4 predictions for real estate and investors in 2015

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
Home value growth will slow to around 3 percent per year instead of the 6 percent seen recently, and that will make real estate less attractive to many investors, says Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow. “It's been a tough market for home buyers," Humphries said in a story in ...
real estate a business

7 must-have items that make up a great real estate investment

| Larry Arth | Article | Investment Strategy
My investors are always looking for the high performing yields which are found in the spread between the cap rate of a property and the interest rate for a financed property. The spread of the two reflects your positive leverage on the property. Today, with such low interest rates and ...
5 reasons you may find you best investments buying from other investors

5 reasons you may find you best investments buying from other investors

| Larry Arth | Article | Operations
Struggling to find good real estate investments with my Realtor, I was convinced he simply did not understand what I was looking for. So I decided to take a real estate course for the sole purpose of having access to the Multiple Listing Service. By getting my real estate license, ...
HomeVestors passes 60,000 home purchase milestone in 2014

HomeVestors reaches 60,000 home-purchase milestone

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
HomeVestors continued as the leader in home buying in the U.S.,  passing the milestone of 60,000 homes purchased since the company was founded, according to a release. The company also reported a surge in new company franchisees during 2014 passing the mark of more than 500 in 41 states. Co-Presidents ...
The 10 commandments of real estate investing by Larry Arth

The 10 commandments of real estate investing

| Larry Arth | Article | Investment Strategy
Setting goals for 2015 Every year I personally purchase or assist in the purchase of hundreds of real estate investments. Over my 35 years of real estate investing there are things I have learned that work great and have pledged to do again and again. There are, of course, things ...
5 real estate investors indicted for bid rigging at foreclosure auctions

5 real estate investors indicted for bid rigging at foreclosure auctions

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
A federal grand jury in San Francisco has returned a nine-count indictment against five real estate investors for their role in bid rigging and fraud at real estate foreclosure auctions in the east bay area of California, according to a release from the FBI. The indictment charges northern California real ...
one in seven home appraisals have been inflated by 20 percent or more according to new study

One in seven home appraisals have been inflated, according to new research

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
One in seven home appraisals done between 2011 and 2014 were inflated by 20% or more, according to data collected by Digital Risk Analytics, a subsidiary of Digital Risk, LLC, and provided to the Wall Street Journal. The mortgage-analysis and consulting firm, based in Maitland, Fla., was hired by some ...
Home price gains continue to slow in latest Case-Shiller Home Price report

Home prices continue slow down through August

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
Data through August 2014, released today by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices continue to show a deceleration in home price gains. The 10-City Composite gained 5.5% year-over-year and the 20-City 5.6%, both down from the 6.7% reported for July. The National Index gained 5.1% annually ...