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.
Smoking Can Decrease Resale Value by Nearly a Third
Most real estate investors know that a “smoking home” can be a bear to clean up. However, the issue may go far beyond the cost of smoke and stain removal. According to a new report from Realtor.com, smoking in a home can reduce property value by up to 29 percent ...
Funding Options for Fix and Flips
This content is sponsored by Sunset Equity. Learn more about Sunset Equity here. [siteorigin_widget class="SiteOrigin_Widget_Image_Widget"][/siteorigin_widget] Are you interested in beginning to fix-and-flip houses for profit? If you are, in fact, interested in entering the growing marketplace for flippers, you must have a lot of questions. Unless you have caches of ...
National Flood Insurance Program Extended
Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through November. The program is the only option for many homeowners who live in areas threatened by flooding during hurricane season. It has come under attack for charging premiums much lower than the ...
Buyers’ Kitchen Preferences are Changing
Current homeowners who are planning to buy a new residence within the next decade say their kitchen preferences are changing. According to southeastern homebuilder Ashton Woods’ research, buyer preferences are shifting away from the dominant all-white kitchen motif. The all-white theme still places second, but buyers are looking for more ...
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Shawn Woedl, Senior Vice President of National Real Estate Insurance Group (NREIG) and a sought-after industry speaker and educator, has been named Think Realty’s newest Resident Expert. His first three courses are “Intro to Risk Management,” “Protecting Yourself and Your Properties,” and “Insuring Your Fix and ...
Rising Home Values Hitting Pre-Recession Peaks
New research from Zillow indicates that seven out of 35 of the largest U.S. housing markets have regained all value lost during the recession, and that could signal a looming turning point in those markets. Zillow considers a market to have recovered to pre-recession values when more than 95% of ...
Live the Life You Dream of Sooner with the Right Tech
There are two types of technology people - those who love it and those who hate it. I absolutely love it, but I’m not so far gone that I must have the “latest greatest” as soon as it comes out. I make myself go two to five years minimum before ...
5 Strategic Videos that Will Revolutionize Your Real Estate Marketing
The same YouTube that hosts those crazy (and strangely addictive) cat videos can also be quite effective in promoting your real estate business. YouTube is a perfect platform for scaling your business brand along with adding a user-friendly team resource. Furthermore, many of the most effective YouTube strategies in use ...
Today’s Home Buyers Will Sacrifice All Amenities for This Feature
Many homebuyers have an extensive “wish list” for their new home and a few “must-have” items as well. However, according to a survey from Realtor.com of people who closed on a home in 2018, only one in five will stick to those must-have items when presented with a property in ...
FHFA Gives Up on Credit-Scoring Overhaul
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced this week it will suspend an initiative dedicated to updating a credit score model used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The updated model would, the agency hoped, have helped “provide millions of creditworthy Americans who have been unable to be scored with ...
International Real Estate Wire Transfer Scheme: 74 Arrested
74 people were recently arrested in the United States and overseas for alleged wire transfer fraud. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a “coordinated law enforcement effort” resulted in the arrests and the seizure of about $2.4 million and recovery of about $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers. When ...
Exposing the Human Element in “Direct-Data” Real Estate Sites
If you are like most real estate investors, you spend quite a bit of your time searching for deals. You probably also spend quite a bit of your time fielding offers from various service providers who are more than willing to find those deals for you. Unfortunately, most investors find ...
The Online Paperwork Evolution, Simplified at Last
Legal document preparation, legal research, and document review grow more sophisticated daily due to the rising abundance of data. In the last two years, the amount of legal data available has tripled, and with it, the volume of search and translation tools has risen as well. That growth includes the ...
Chinese Investors Buying Real Estate with Bitcoin
Chinese bitcoin tycoons are actively working to sell off their cryptocurrency in the United States in order to use the cash to purchase real estate investments. For example, one early adopter recently sold 500 bitcoin in the U.S. (that value is just under $3.8 million at time of publication), then ...
3 Things You Can Learn from Your Hard-Money Lender
There are many legitimate reasons to use a hard money lender. Compared to traditional lenders, hard money lenders can offer faster funding, flexible construction draws, no prepayment penalties, and a willingness to look beyond a specific borrower’s credit blemishes. This might beg the question, “When would a hard money lender ...
The Terminology of Housing Market Progression
You’ve probably heard terms like “major metro,” “primary metro area,” “secondary market,” and “tertiary market” when reading market analyses. This nomenclature is “slippery” and often relies heavily on context and speaker intent to make sense of it and apply the commentary to your specific investment goals and strategies. Here, we ...
3 Cities Paying New Residents to Relocate
While the national housing market has been officially “in recovery” from the housing crash and Great Recession for quite some time now, some cities are facing a serious population shortage that is being exacerbated as current residents age, retire from the work force, and often move elsewhere. To combat this ...
Many Property Owners Lack Sufficient Disaster Insurance
Hurricane season is underway in the United States, and a lot of homeowners who could get hit by bad weather are not adequately insured against potential damages. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the issue lies mainly in a lack of flood insurance, which usually must be purchased from ...
3 Red Flags for Airbnb Investors
Airbnb is one of the most disruptive short-term rental platforms in the world right now, and that description is both complimentary and pejorative, depending on the source. According to the company’s head of global policy, Chris Lehane, Airbnb uses “technology to create economic empowerment.” However, many city officials (not to ...
Texas Federal Court Warns FHFA Leadership Structure Could be “Unconstitutional”
The leadership structure for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which was created in 2008 to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is under fire from a Texas appeals court. The court, which is comprised of a three-judge panel, recently ruled that the FHFA “defies the Constitution because it does ...
Nearly One-Third of NAR Members Have Less Than Two Years’ Experience
Despite tight housing inventories and tough competition, more and more people are jumping into real estate as registered realtors. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR)’s 2018 member Profile, just about one in three realtors has two years’ worth of experience or fewer and the realtor population has grown ...
Gary, Indiana, Puts Millions in School Buildings on the Market
For 20 years in some cases, public school buildings in Gary, Indiana, have sat vacant as a target for vandalism, looting, and arson. Now, the Gary School Community Corporation is hoping real estate investors with an eye for community development will come into the area, buy the buildings, and help ...
4 Simple Rules When Buying a Home Near Flood-Prone Areas
Houstonians get nervous every spring because frequent torrential downpours often result in serious flooding. This year, Houston is still recovering from Hurricane Harvey and must already start planning for a new hurricane season, which officially began June 1. For real estate investors, these issues are top-of-mind when considering homes in ...
10 Hard Questions to Ask Before Investing in a Commercial Partnership Deal
Real estate has always been regarded as an equal-opportunity wealth creator. However, caveat emptor: Real estate historically has been full of scams. Based on my experience managing distressed real estate funds, that fear of being deceived and losing it all is the number one reason why smaller investors don’t invest ...
Thieves Target New-Home Construction
A new construction building boom is usually a good thing these days, but new construction may lead to a booming burglary business as well. The problem is particularly serious in California cities like Roseville, where police are receiving an unusually high volume of reports of theft from new and under-construction ...
