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.

flood insurance coastal flooding

Hurricane Florence Highlights Homeowners Without Flood Insurance

Hurricane Florence is estimated to have caused between $38 billion and $50 billion in total economic losses. Flood insurance is not part of a standard homeowner’s insurance policy, although many people assume coverage. Most homeowners who take out flood insurance do so through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Unfortunately, ...
Revitalization

Market Trend Spotlight: 3 Indicators of Effective Community Revitalization

As the third quarter of 2018 begins, both national and local housing markets are still experiencing pinched inventory. That is good news for today’s sellers and rental investors, who hope to garner top dollar in tight markets for both retail sales and rental properties, but it makes the classic real ...
tappable-equity

Homeowners Own $6 Trillion in Tappable Equity

Headlines are full of warnings about the housing market cooling, but homeowners are not necessarily heading for a world of pain this market correction. According to Black Knight, U.S. homeowners with mortgages currently hold about $6 trillion in "tappable” home equity. Tappable equity is the most money a homeowner could ...
Kitchen-Cabinets

How the Latest Kitchen Cabinetry Trend Could Affect Your Design Decisions

This content is sponsored by 84 Lumber. Learn more about 84 Lumber here. 10 years ago, the drivers of kitchen design were “big,” recognizable brand names (think MasterBrands or Kraftmaid) and maybe a few individual celebrities. Today, one of the biggest style drivers of them all is somewhat surprising: IKEA. That’s ...
Credit-History

The Investor’s Guide to Building a Full Credit Picture

Real estate has always been about credit, even before Congress created Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 1938 and the wheels were set in motion to create today’s extremely credit-dependent home-lending environment. As far back as the 9th century, lords of the manor on feudal estates documented rents collected (and associated ...
market-listings

Increased Listings May Stabilize the Market Sooner Than Expected

As media headlines speculate about the possibility of a housing market correction in the next 24 months, buyers and sellers are adjusting their perspectives. Existing home sales are down slightly over a year ago, indicating the market is shifting from a seller's market, and into a buyer's market. According to ...
10-Calculations

10 Real Estate Calculations Every Investor Should Know

| Andrew Syrios | Article | Operations
In real estate, not everything will fit into a neat little box. Creativity is a must. However, there is indisputably a mathematical side to successful real estate. Sooner or later, you must put pen to paper and figure out if it makes sense to buy a particular property. These 10 ...
Facebook-Tips-Featured

3 Tips for Maximizing Facebook Results

No matter how many articles you read about how Facebook is fading, the truth is that nearly every active real estate professional is still on the platform. That fact combined with Facebook’s extremely simple user interface for boosting posts makes it a very attractive promotional venue for investors regardless of ...
Agents-Credit

Agents Credit Social Media for Highest Number of Quality Leads

Real estate agents are reporting their best leads come from social media. In fact, they cited leads from social media as being better quality and coming in higher volumes than other leads. Other leads include MLS sites, brokerage sites, and listing aggregators. This information was recently released by the National Association ...
2018-Winners-Announced-Featured

Think Realty announces 2018 Think Realty Honors winners

Think Realty announces its 2018 Think Realty Honors winners. The winners are peer-nominated investors who excel within their industry niche. This year, over two hundred unique nominations were submitted. Finalists were selected by an independent panel of prior Think Realty Honors recipients, and winners by a panel of Think Realty ...
Hottest-Zip-Codes

5 Hottest ZIP Codes for Millennial Living

Millennials remain the largest single home-buying population in the country, and rising home prices are not removing their determination to live – be it by purchase or rent – in urban areas. According to information from the U.S. Census Bureau as analyzed by RentCafé, “millennials are still showing a strong preference ...
Marriage-Delays

Bucking Concerns, Construction Expert Says Marriage Delays Will Help Housing Market

As more Americans delay marriage, housing analysts are concerned that delays in matrimony might postpone homeownership, thereby hurting the new-construction sector. Women are now on average waiting until after reaching 27 to get married, and the average man is getting hitched at 30, according to the  U.S. Census Bureau. And ...
Owner-Occupied-Homes

New Data Reveals Region with Oldest Owner-Occupied Homes

Most owner-occupied homes are less than four decades old, even if the owners themselves are older. But in certain areas in the Northeast, median owner-occupied ages are much higher than other U.S. regions, according to new data from the National Association of Home Builders. For example, Johnston, Pennsylvania, has a ...
Hurricane Florence Damage

‘First Wave’ of Hurricane Florence Damage Could Cost $5 Billion

Hurricane Florence just began dumping water on the Carolinas when CoreLogic released data indicating the staggering value of possible property damage in the affected regions. The first wave alone could cause as much as $5 billion in damages to property, according to the consumer, financial and property analytics firm. Corelogic ...
Save on Mortgages Mortgage-Options

Homebuyers’ Behavior Shifts as ‘Stressors’ Disturb the Buying Process

A decade ago, homebuyers tended to pick out their dream home and then look into financing. But these days, the buying process has significantly changed. The vast majority of buyers have flipped that process. Now about 74 percent of house shoppers are looking at their financing options first, then picking a ...
5-Things-Corsinis-Featured

5 Things Ken and Anita Corsini Think Every Investor Should Know

Both Ken and Anita spend a lot of time talking to real estate investors, especially new ones. “We actually have certain things we really want everyone to know about real estate investing, that we feel helps kind of frame the concept,” Ken said. Here are the five things they feel ...
Fast-Sales Homes listed

Report: Homes Listed in July Sold in Less Than Four Weeks

Homes listed in late June and early July were likely sold before August, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors. The NAT reported that properties typically remained on market for 27 days, which was only one day longer than was reported for June. The information — ...
Renovation Rockstar

Renovation Rockstar: The Park at LeBlanc

Featured investors: Mike Becker & Carl Dean, SPI Advisory LLC (Dallas office) Making over a 168-unit apartment complex is no simple task, even when you have more than a dozen deals under your belt. When Michael Becker, Principal at SPI Advisory LLC in Dallas, Texas, first encountered The Villas at ...
Corsinis-Design

Design and the Bottom Line

While investors traditionally are encouraged to remain inside a fairly unremarkable “box” when it comes to design decisions, Ken and Anita like to push the limits in their remodeling designs. “Historically, investors stay neutral because you do not know what a buyer will really like in a house. You use ...
Minority Neighborhoods

Study: Equity Growth in Minority Neighborhoods Continues to Surge

Neighborhoods predominantly populated by minority families are substantially growing in home equity — a trend that’s now reaching into its sixth year. Predominantly minority neighborhoods posted large percentage gains each year from 2012 to 2018, according to a new Redfin study. The gains were, in fact, larger than mostly non-minority neighborhoods during ...
Hurricane Florence Carolinas

What Does Hurricane Florence Mean for Investors in the Carolinas?

Most of the U.S. experienced significant declines in serious mortgage delinquency rates this summer. A serious delinquency — one that extends more than 90 days — is a sign of significant distress on the part of the homeowner and, as such, is a strong indicator for the health of a ...
Homeowners-with-Children

Sellers with Children Usually More Motivated to Sell

About one in every four home-sellers with children describe their need to sell as “very urgent.” This is compared to about one in seven homeowners without children at home. According to a new survey from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), homeowners with children under 18 have very different real estate ...
FHA-Loans

FHA Loans Shifting Toward Lower-Credit Approvals

Underwriting standards appear to be loosening for FHA loans according to a new report from credit developer FICO. The report indicated that borrowers with FICO scores dipping down into the 400s rose from 21.9% in 2009 to 29.7% in 2017. The FICO score is one of the standard measures of ...
Home-Remodel-Plunge

Home Flipping Rates Plunge During Q2 of 2018

Home flipping in the United States hit a four-year low during the second quarter of 2018 according to ATTOM Data Solutions. About one in 20 home sales transacted from April to June of 2018 was a flip—down slightly from last year. ATTOM Data defines a “flip” as a property that ...
Hurricane-Florence

Hurricane Florence Approaches Southeastern U.S.

The National Hurricane Center is warning that Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm off the East Coast of the United States, will hit the Southeastern U.S. late this week. Although forecasters predict the hurricane will hit North Carolina first, its tail includes parts of Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. While ...