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.
Price-Gouging Charges Leveled Against California Landlord
When wildfires destroyed thousands of homes in California last fall, tens of thousands of residents were displaced. As those households began to seek new places to live and to rebuild, many investors flocked to California as well. This is part of the housing/natural disaster cycle: When disaster strikes, real estate ...
Smart Wallpaper is Flame-Retardant, Alerts Homeowners in Event of Fire
Researchers at Shanghai’s Institute of Ceramics have developed a wallpaper that not only delay the spread of a fire but might call the fire department for you as well. The paper consists of fire-resistant materials including graphene oxide and hydroxyapatite nanowires. The combination enables the wallpaper to “sense” when heat ...
3 Reasons to Invest in Small Towns
This article was originally featured in March 2018 Think Realty Magazine and written by Michael Miller, Chief Marketing Officer of 5 Arch Funding. Are you an investor seeking fresh opportunities? If you haven’t yet considered fix-and-flip or rental property investments in small towns, now may be the time. Of course, any ...
4 Unique Ways to Source Off-Market Apartment Deals
This article was originally featured in March 2018 Think Realty Magazine and written by Joe Fairless, Principal at Ashcroft Capital. The most common type of apartment transaction is an on-market sale. An apartment owner lists their property with a broker, the broker markets the deal to the public, and, after a ...
Detroit Resident Makes Over Neighborhood, Builds Rental Portfolio
Jeff Cowin moved into Detroit’s Virginia Park historic district in 2010 when the area was still full of abandoned homes, blighted buildings, squatters, and crime. At the time, neither Cowin nor the neighborhood had any idea just how positive the new homeowner would be for the area. Today, Cowin’s street ...
Metro Detroit Home Prices Set to Rise
Thanks to relatively low unemployment, rising interest rates, a dearth of new construction, a large population of new metro residents, and tight housing inventory, Detroit, Michigan’s housing market could be heading into a heated territory. According to reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the area’s unemployment is hovering ...
Zillow Makes Waves with Pilot of Home-Sales Platform
This week, Zillow announced it will begin both buying and selling properties directly from and to homeowners, meaning that it will purchase homes directly from sellers, then resell those properties to buyers. The program will start as a test in two markets, Las Vegas and Phoenix, this spring. The move ...
10 Mistakes Property Owners Make When Writing their Property Listing
When it comes to marketing a rental property, many investors (myself included at one point) believe that a compelling set of numbers trumps any other information you might include in your property listing. While this might be the case once a buyer or potential tenant looks at those numbers, if ...
JFK Airport in New York No Longer in the “Top 20” for World’s Busiest Airports
New York’s JFK Airport is, according to the International Air Transport Association, no longer among the world’s 20 busiest airports. The reason, the ATA speculated, is likely “explosive growth of Asian airports” in New Delhi, India, and Guangzhou, China. Both locations’ airports recently entered the top 20. Atlanta, Georgia’s Hartsfield-Jackson ...
Activists Express Concern Over Amazon HQ2 and Housing
Shortly after naming 20 cities to its “short list” as finalists for its second headquarters, Amazon.com issued a demand for confidentiality on all offers and negotiations between those cities and itself on the topic of HQ2. According to Amazon, the project will bring in $5 billion in investments to the ...
Chinese Investors Still Buying U.S. Real Estate
Although the rhetoric has been heated on both sides as President Trump and President Xi trade threats about various tariffs and taxes to potentially be imposed on each other’s respective countries, Chinese real estate investors do not seem to be too worried about a potential trade war and its effects ...
How Blockchain Could Transform Property Record Transparency
This article was originally posted in the April 2018 Think Realty Magazine. It’s hard to go a day without news about Bitcoin these days and it’s easy to understand why. The cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s rapid rise late last year drew a lot of attention from the financial sector, with analysts espousing ...
Top 3 Hottest Luxury ZIP Codes in the United States
New data from Realtor.com indicates that luxury home prices in certain markets around the country are spiraling through the roof, and the trend does not appear to be cooling anytime soon. Researchers combined data on markets where median list price exceeds $1 million and markets where median list prices have ...
Mississippi Investors Plead Guilty to Bid-Rigging
Mississippi real estate investors who agreed not to bid against each other at foreclosure auctions are now facing fines and even jail time. Last week, three more investors pled guilty to designating a winning bidder in advance of auctions and accepting payoffs from each other in exchange for agreements not ...
3 Keys to “Making Magic Happen” in Your Real Estate Email Marketing
You’ve heard the phrase “Your network is your net worth" in terms of real estate marketing and email marketing, but when Charles Blair, “Mad Scientist” and founder of the Baltimore area’s Real Deal meetup, says it, he means something entirely different from just getting out there and introducing yourself to ...
Floodplain Codes to Change in Houston, Texas
The Houston City Council is hoping to prevent a repeat of the damage the city’s infrastructure suffered in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, and the changes to municipal codes could affect some real estate investors. The council recently passed a new ordinance it designated as “designed to retool and strengthen ...
Co-Living No Longer a Wall Street Concept
This article was originally featured in April 2018 Think Realty Magazine and written by Aaron Norris, VP of The Norris Group. Co-living is all the rage in major metropolitan areas across the U.S. While these “hacker houses” or “adult dorms” are not new in concept, there are some major players ...
Millennials Will Spend Nearly $100,000 on Rent Before Turning 30
According to a new study from RENTCafé, Millennials will not only spend more on rent in their first decade as adults; they will also spend nearly half their income on their rental housing. “Many Millennials find renting more affordable and hassle-free than buying,” observed RENTCafé blogger Florentina Sarac. However, she ...
Younger Homeowners May Overestimate Their DIY Abilities
It is not surprising a study of homeowners of all ages indicated older homeowners have more experience with home repairs. What is surprising, however, is the high degree of confidence younger homeowners have in their ability to perform these repairs. According to Porch.com’s recent “Do You DIY” survey, which asked ...
Ginnie Mae Cracks Down on Lenders “Targeting” Veterans
In early 2018, federally owned Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA or Ginnie Mae) threatened a small group of lenders with expulsion from its primary mortgage bond program if the lenders did not address problematic policies Ginnie Mae alleged targeted servicemembers and military veterans. It appears two of those lenders, reportedly ...
New York Mayor Proposes Fine for Retail Landlords with Vacancies
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is worried about storefront vacancies in his city, and he believes a “vacancy tax” on the property owners might solve the problem. “I am very interested in fighting for a vacancy fee or a vacancy tax that would penalize landlords who leave their ...
“Best States” Ranking Released for 2018
Iowa, a Midwest farm state in the heart of the United States and host of the winter caucuses, takes first place in U.S. News’ recent “Best States” rankings, which assess and rank how well states perform in serving their citizens’ needs. The study considers health care, education, opportunities, the state’s ...
Investor Spotlight: Memphis Investment Properties
This article was originally published in April 2018 Think Realty Magazine. Memphis Investment Properties (MIP) has been actively investing in the Memphis, Tennessee, real estate market for nearly four decades. the company offers complete turnkey real estate investing services, meaning that real estate investors who wish to own rental real ...
Regional Spotlight: Washington, D.C.
This article was originally published in the April 2018 Think Realty Magazine. When the national housing market collapsed in the mid-2000s, Washington, D.C., homes lost nearly $120,000, on average, from their overall value. Median home prices in the area bottomed out in July 2009 around $355,000, a steep fall from ...
Chief Economist Talks Homeownership, Housing Policy, and Market Turning Points in 2018
This article was originally published in April 2018 Think Realty Magazine. When Lawrence Yun talks about real estate, the discussion revolves around what he refers to as “turning points” in national and local markets. “My role, as chief economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), is to look at ...
