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.

7 Truths about Networking in Real Estate

7 Truths about Networking in Real Estate

We’ve heard the old adage hundreds of times: “Your network is your net worth.” If you’re active on social media, you have probably seen it in memes, tweeted out accompanying images of various friends and acquaintances hanging out with self-titled industry “influencers,” and hashtagged to infinity. While you might be ...
3 Ways to Prepare for the Next Real Estate Correction

3 Ways to Prepare for the Next Real Estate Correction

It is common knowledge that the housing market is cyclical, but while most investors agree this is the case, they do not have firm plans in place to help them adjust their investment strategies when downturns occur. Certainly, some investors thrive in down markets, snapping up great deals and setting ...
Home Affordability Increases in Q3

Home Affordability Increases in Q3

ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q3 2017 U.S. Home Affordability Index, released October 5, indicated that home affordability in the third quarter improved compared to the previous quarter in 60 percent of 406 U.S. counties analyzed in the report — although affordability was still worse than a year ago in 79 percent ...
Think Realty Welcomes Julie Ziglar Norman as a New Contributor to Magazine

Think Realty Welcomes Julie Ziglar Norman as a New Contributor to Magazine

The Think Realty Team would like to warmly welcome Julie Ziglar Norman as a monthly contributor to Think Realty Magazine. Every month Julie will be sharing her motivation and inspiration through her column on varying subjects related to the entrepreneurial spirit and real estate investing, in hopes of sparking drive, ...
Labor & Material Shortages Equals Slow Rebuilds

Labor & Material Shortages Equals Slow Rebuilds

With the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and Irma, came images depicting streets filled with personal property; the guts of beloved homes and business lay in heaps of trash. Many individuals have had to turn to friends and neighbors to help with clean up instead of turning to contractors who coordinate ...
Think Realty Resident Expert Ben Rao, "The Entrepreneur"

Think Realty Resident Expert Ben Rao, “The Entrepreneur”

| Think Realty | Article | Profiles
Title and Affiliations: Executive Vice President of Think Realty Benefits, Think Realty Resident Expert, Founder of Community Buying Group (CBG), Founder of RentFast, President of Direct Data Consulting, Inc., Senior Partner at the Summit Holding Group, former Senior Consultant & IBM eServer Solution Specialist, host of E2 Hustle podcast for ...
A Closer Look at Industrial Real Estate

A Closer Look at Industrial Real Estate

Industrial real estate, which includes warehouses and distribution centers, is among the most profitable categories of investment properties. These types of properties offer yields as high as 7.5 percent, compared to between four and five percent for office space and five and six percent for retail space. Furthermore, long-term agreements, ...
Shining Bright with ENERGY STAR

Shining Bright with ENERGY STAR

You’ve seen the sticker thousands of times on your own appliances and on those for sale in retail stores. Among the aisles and aisles of appliances there is one universal name, ENERGY STAR. You probably already know that the ENERGY STAR sticker displayed on appliances shows you how much you ...
Thinking Big from the Very Start

Thinking Big from the Very Start

Real estate investors buy their first property for many reasons. For most, it boils down to independence, self-reliance, and control of their future. While most investors start out relatively small with single-family wholesale deals, residential fix and flips, or buy-and-hold rentals that they manage themselves, some opt to go big ...
A Hidden Gem: The Kansas City Land Bank

A Hidden Gem: The Kansas City Land Bank

As other real estate investing markets are reaching their plateaus, the Kansas City, Missouri, market is just getting started. Thousands of potential real estate investments, residential and commercial, are waiting to be put back into productive use in Kansas City. That is great news for real estate investors aware of ...
The “20-Percent Down” Myth

The “20-Percent Down” Myth

Mortgage rates are slowly and steadily rising. These current market conditions make buying a home particularly attractive in today’s market. Homeownership has always been viewed as one of the central pillars of the American dream and, because your home is often your largest asset, it can be an incredible means ...
One-on-One with the Atlanta Housing Authority

One-on-One with the Atlanta Housing Authority

Real estate investors often cringe at the words “local housing authority.” While the term has a long, storied, and often strongly negative connotation, most of that negativity is due to decades of miscommunication between real estate investors and these organizations which are, in truth, dedicated to providing affordable housing resources ...
Breathing Life into Communities

Breathing Life into Communities

When Tammy Phelps looks at a possible future investment, she also looks back. The leader of Capital City Real Estate Investors Alliance (ccREIA) and multifamily investor recalled her own struggles when she evaluated and eventually purchased her first multiunit community in 2007 after a terrible accident left her unable to ...
The 401(k) Mistake that Can Easily Cost You $30,000

The 401(k) Mistake that Can Easily Cost You $30,000

As an individual retirement account (IRA) custodian, I often encounter investors who have been using their IRA or 401(k) accounts to buy and sell real estate in ways that are costing them serious capital. These sticky situations do not always lead to the so-called “implosion” of a retirement portfolio that ...
Paving His Own Way at 19

Paving His Own Way at 19

I was so hungry for success,” Jordan Dooley started off as he began describing his first foray into real estate investing. “I remember when I realized that real estate investing was actually a possibility, that I could really do it. It lit a fire under me.” Dooley sounds like a ...
Running the Numbers on a Vacation Rental Home

Running the Numbers on a Vacation Rental Home

If you’ve always wanted a vacation home but couldn’t afford one, you’ve probably considered obtaining that property via the Airbnb model: buying your vacation property and leasing it out as a short-term rental when you’re not using it in order to cover ownership costs. While this is a fantastic investment ...
Effective Networking at Real Estate Investor Association (REIA) Meetings

Effective Networking at Real Estate Investor Association (REIA) Meetings

Attending a networking event can induce dread, anxiety, and the cold sweats, but don’t be tempted to skip that local real estate investor association (REIA) meeting! The reality is that business and real estate investing require you to build a team. The fastest way to build an effective one is ...
Market Spotlight: Kansas City, Missouri

Market Spotlight: Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO), has been shaping the region around it since its inception in a tattered document describing the area penned by a deserting French soldier and illegal fur trader. Étienne de Veniard was, as a result of his desertion and subsequent efforts to avoid authorities, the first European ...
When the 1940s Meets the Modern Rehab

When the 1940s Meets the Modern Rehab

When a housing market heats up and home values start heading northward, the first thing to go is “affordable housing.” While this might seem like nothing more or less than conventional wisdom, when a market loses its affordable housing sector it tends to lose its lifeblood, the first-time buyer, in ...
Why I Moved to Phoenix to Invest in Real Estate

Why I Moved to Phoenix to Invest in Real Estate

I’ve concluded that Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the best places in the United States to invest in real estate. I’m so confident in this that I moved there! You may not always be able to invest where you live, but investing where other people want to live is a ...
3 Steps to Learning Your Investment Manager’s True Identity

3 Steps to Learning Your Investment Manager’s True Identity

The internet has truly opened up a “brave new world” for real estate investors. However, with this blessing that enables us to put our money in markets that make sense rather than just in our own backyards comes an identity crisis of sorts because the people who would like to ...
Double Down & Play to Win: A Call for Rental Housing Innovation

Double Down & Play to Win: A Call for Rental Housing Innovation

"If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu.” In his opening remarks at Think Realty’s Baltimore Expo this past June, Maryland State Delegate Marvin Holmes, a landlord and property manager himself, encouraged landlords to get involved and speak out for their cause. This sentiment is ...
Housing Policy in 2017

Housing Policy in 2017

In this issue’s section of “Industry Voices,” one of our features is an open letter that a magazine contributor, Brian Wojcik of NAIL411.org, sent the secretary of housing and urban development (HUD), Ben Carson. Wojcik provided plenty of context for his letter in terms of legislation and policy revolving around ...
How to Attend a Real Estate Conference Like a Pro

How to Attend a Real Estate Conference Like a Pro

Every gathering of real estate investors is a highly concentrated area of opportunity. Perhaps the most popular venue of all is the real estate investing conference or expo event, wherein educators, vendors, and hundreds of investors converge in one location to learn, connect, influence, and, hopefully, do some deals. Doesn’t ...
Think Realty Event Prep Checklist

Think Realty Event Prep Checklist

Networking Be prepared to make the best impression possible and accomplish your personal networking goals. Familiarize yourself with speakers and sponsors/exhibitors Identify individuals or organizations that you want to be sure to meet Make sure you have plenty of business cards Identify any events, physical and digital, where you can ...