James Hart

  • James Hart is senior staff writer at Think Realty Magazine. Contact him at jhart@ithinkbigger.com.

One-to-One with Tameka Bryant

One-to-One with Tameka Bryant

| Article | Profiles
Tameka Bryant, a national expert on real estate, is building what could be a game-changing resource for real estate investors. Her new business, Think Realty Real Estate Services, is a national brokerage designed with investors in mind. “Although we do traditional real estate sales also, our agents are provided with training ...
New Finance of America To Serve Residential REI

New Finance of America To Serve Residential REI

| Article | Market & Trends
Finance of America, a national lender known for its home loans and reverse mortgages, has created a new unit dedicated to serving residential real estate investors: Finance of America Commercial. “With nearly 16 million rental units in the United States and residential purchase-rehab-resale transactions reaching new highs, the real estate ...
Private Money Lending Guide: The Money Matchmaker

Private Money Lending Guide: The Money Matchmaker

| Article | Profiles
For newer real estate investors, the world of private money loans can often feel intimidating, especially if they’ve only ever borrowed from traditional banks. But private money lenders – also known as “hard money” lenders – serve as important partners to real estate entrepreneurs who need relatively quick financing from ...
One-to-One with Matt Neisser: How Private Lending Works for Investors

One-to-One with Matt Neisser: How Private Lending Works for Investors

| Article | Funding, Operations, Profiles
LendingOne helps real estate investors across the country secure the financing they need to build bigger, more profitable portfolios. The direct private real estate lender, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, provides bridge loans for fix-and-flip deals, as well as longer-term financing for properties that investors hold onto for years. Curious ...
Bullish on Detroit

Bullish on Detroit

| Article | Profiles
When Michael Jordan looks around his hometown of Detroit, he just can’t help seeing opportunity and growth. Jordan is the founder and president of Strategy Properties, a turnkey real estate investment company. Strategy buys and renovates residential properties in high-demand Motor City neighborhoods, particularly three-bedroom homes near desirable schools. The ...
May the Fores Be With You

May the Fores Be With You

| Article | Profiles
A few years ago, Joe Ross—an award-winning hotel entrepreneur with more than 50 years in the business—went looking for his next big adventure. And he’s found it in Fairway Suites. The Kansas-based company puts together deals to build extended-stay hotels next to golf courses and similar attractions. And that unlocks ...
Look Ahead 2017

A Look Ahead to Existing Home Sales for 2017

| Article | Market & Trends
Existing home sales probably won’t increase much in 2017, according to a new forecast from the National Association of Realtors and its fourth-quarter Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (HOME) survey. A majority of renters - 57 percent - say now is a good time to buy a house but that’s down ...
Rising Home Values

Rising Home Values Mean Fewer Underwater Mortgages

| Article | Market & Trends
About 11 percent of U.S. homeowners were underwater on their mortgage during the third quarter, down from 13.4 percent a year prior, Zillow reports. That’s great news if you consider where things stood a few years ago. Back in early 2012, about 15.7 million Americans owed more on their mortgages ...
Home Inventory

Starter Home Inventory Continues to Dry Up

| Article | Market & Trends
The supply of U.S. starter home inventory has dropped off 12.1 percent since a year prior. The steepest year-to-year decline in three years, according to the latest Trulia Inventory and Price Watch. And if first-time buyers are able to find a house they like, it will consume about 38.5 percent ...
Airbnb

Experts Doubt Airbnb-Style Services Hurt Housing Inventory

| Article | Market & Trends
Do short-term-rental services like Airbnb and HomeAway make it harder for average renters to find affordable housing? Zillow decided to ask housing experts. According to the new Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey, most of them don’t believe short-term rentals are the root of the inventory shortage. Only about 5 percent ...
Pending Home Sales

Little Movement in Pending Home Sales

| Article | Market & Trends
Pending home sales — deals involving existing homes where the contract has been signed, but the transaction hasn’t closed—were up slightly in October, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index was up 0.1 percent on a monthly basis, and 1.8 percent higher than October ...
Fewer New Home Sales Refi Loans Up

Fewer Purchase Loans, More Refi in Q3

| Article | Market & Trends
Home loan originations were down about 2 percent in the third quarter compared to the second, though up 1 percent compared to a year earlier. The value of the loans was bigger, too—$502 billion, 8 percent higher than the same timeframe in 2015. If you dig deeper into the numbers, ...
New-Home Sales Down in October

New Single-Family Home Sales Down

| Article | Market & Trends
Sales of new single-family homes—which had been trending up since 2015—dipped 1.9 percent in October, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The NAHB’s report was based on data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. “Though slightly down from last month, ...
Good Time for Sellers ... Won't Last Forever

Good Times for Sellers … Won’t Last Forever

| Article | Market & Trends
It’s an amazing time for sellers, but the momentum is expected to shift to buyers by 2018 or 2019, according to a Zillow survey of housing experts. In October, the median U.S. home value of $191,200 was up 6.2 percent compared to a year earlier, thanks partly to a 6 percent ...
Out-of-Staters Homeownership

Where Out-of-State Investors Live and Buy

About 16 percent of the nation’s single-family rental homes - or 3.4 million properties -  are owned by out-of-state investors, according to a new study from ATTOM Data Solutions. In many cases, ATTOM found investors lived in blue states with hotter housing markets and were buying in red states where properties ...
Growth in Multifamily

NAHB Predicts Growth in New Multifamily

Expect a strong year for new multifamily properties in 2017, the National Association of Home Builders reported. The newest Multifamily Production Index climbed three points in the third quarter to 53. A measure of 50 or higher indicates conditions are improving. The index often serves as a leading industry indicator ...
Equity

More Homeowners Have High Levels of Equity

More and more homeowners can be considered “equity rich,” according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ new U.S. Home Equity and Underwater Report. More than 13.1 million homeowners have a loan-to-value ratio of 50 or lower on their residence or 23.4 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage. Areas with high levels ...
market predictions

A Look Ahead to the 2017 Housing Market

What does 2017 hold for the U.S. housing market? Zillow.com has released its forecast for the coming year and it looks like some noticeable shifts could be on the way. The home-ownership rate, which has been lower than normal, will rise as more and younger buyers enter the market. Many ...
Turnkey Tips

Turnkey Tips

What’s the secret to succeeding with turnkey investment properties? We asked Sean Tarpenning, owner of US Real Estate Equity Builder (USREEB). His company has been sourcing and managing turnkey properties in Kansas City’s urban core and suburbs since late 2014, and it’s expanding to two other metros. In a typical ...
Within Reach

Within Reach

| Article | Profiles
Time for a little myth-busting: You don’t have to be an institutional investor to succeed in the world of commercial real estate. The Kansas City-based Block Real Estate Services and its affiliate, Block Funds, are opening doors to investment opportunities that many individual investors would otherwise have a hard time ...
The Tech Startup Curing the Lawn Care Headache

The Tech Startup Curing the Lawn Care Headache

| Article | Profiles
Ken Davis had a problem. About eight years ago, the Utah man started building a portfolio of rental properties—more than a hobby, but not quite large enough to justify hiring his own team. So, for a long time, Davis was on the hook for lining up vendors to mow his ...
Trading Places

Trading Places

It’s relatively easy for the average American to buy into the stock market. According to a Gallup survey from last year, about 55 percent of U.S. adults own stocks. Investment in real estate is another story entirely. Becoming a real estate investor demands a level of time and expertise that ...
The Sweet Smell of Success

The Sweet Smell of Success

The calls to OdorXit’s 1-877 help line come practically all day, every day. On the phone are real estate investors desperate to banish the stench of skunk spray, cigarette smoke and dead animals from their rental properties. OdorXit’s president, Deb Meyer, has heard practically every horror story out there—and has ...
What Smart Property Managers Need to Know Now

What Smart Property Managers Need to Know Now

Thanks to sky-high demand for rental housing, right now is a great time to be in the business of property management. It’s simpler than ever to find and place quality tenants in a property. Make no mistake, though: Property management is a business, one that’s shaped by larger trends in ...
Why You Need to Become a Real Estate Agent

Why You Need to Become a Real Estate Agent

| Article | Profiles
For many residential real estate investors, it’s still not the typical way of doing business. But if you want to power up your operations, you need to seriously consider becoming a licensed real estate agent, according to Angie and Dan Francis, the owners of Texas-based StepStone Realty. Being both an ...