Knowledgebase
All of Think Realty's extensive content archive is at your fingertips. Filter by media type and keyword to hone in on exactly what you need.
Knowledgebase
All of Think Realty's extensive content archive is at your fingertips. Filter by media type and keyword to hone in on exactly what you need.
Local Market Monitor’s analysis of what fourth quarter report means for real estate
By Ingo Winzer Local Market Monitor Estimates for GDP in the fourth quarter paint a positive picture, even though total growth was at a modest 2.4 percent annual rate after a 4.1 percent third quarter. Most encouraging is that personal spending was a good part of the growth. Last quarter, ...
A window into how the Fed operated in the 2008 all-time most-dangerous banking wreck
The big news this week is an astounding historical revelation useful in the present, but before that a few current events. In Congressional testimony Chair Yellen acknowledged weakness in new economic data, but confirmed a continuing quantitative easing taper. Even Congressmen know to be delicate in debate with babes, and ...
Five things you need to sustain your real estate investment
Sustainability of a real estate investment is as important as having water to drive a boat. It is definitely as important as location. To have a sustainable real estate investment you need the best possible property, within the best area of the best and most sustainable market that is positioned ...
How many landlords handle property management themselves?
This week we look and property management and trends among landlords, plus where most landlords get their leasing forms -- you may be surprised -- and how many actually show property to prospective tenants. This is all from our survey and excerpts from the "By Owner Corporate Housing Annual Report." ...
Ten questions that will help you avoid the second most common mistake in real estate investing
Buying in the wrong markets. Imagine that. Many investors bought houses through promoters in areas that are declining and have subsidized rents from the Federal government with Section 8. These properties will have continuous maintenance issues and may never go up in value. The U.S. is made up of 50 ...
Sales of new homes in January highest in five years
Sales of new homes jumped unexpectedly in January despite bad weather in many parts of the country according to the U.S. Census Bureau, to the highest levels since January of 2008. “I’m hopeful the recovery in home sales will get back on track in the next couple of months,” said ...
A letter from Warren Buffett: What you can learn about my real estate investing
Warren Buffett tells a personal story about two of his non-stock investments in an article on CNN Money. The story involves two real estate purchases, when and why he bought them, and how they have performed over time. "There is one major difference between my two small investments and an ...
What rates do landlords charge for corporate housing?
This week we continue looking at excerpts from the research in our “By Owner” Corporate Housing Annual Report" by looking at actual rental rates landords charge. Variances: Changes in Rates. 60% of respondents say they offered the same rental rates in 2013 as they did in 2012. 33% reported they ...
What is the key to negotiation?
RJ Palano here from BuyCashFlowProperties.com. First a little background. I’ve been involved in the acquisition of real estate since 1977 when I bought my first house. Since that time, I’ve owned and sold thousands of houses, a couple office buildings and apartments. The houses I’ve been involved in span over ...
Boomer investors ask about rental cash flow vs paying off mortgatges
Reader Question: My husband and I own two cash positive rental properties with a combined mortgage balance of $260,000. We have 401k accounts that total approximately $1 one million. We will both retire next year and will draw social security of $4,000 per month. Should we pay-off both mortgages with 401k ...
For investors rates continue stable, but concerns overseas
Here in the U.S. market participants are fidgeting and annoyed by the weather distortion of incoming data. Three housing reports of January-February activity were of course weak, but meaningless, the same for snapshots of manufacturing activity in New York and Philly-Fed. The longer we go without good information, the larger ...
Foreclosure filings up slightly for January
Foreclosures were up slightly in January, but still down 18 percent from January of last year, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. "The monthly increase in January foreclosure activity was somewhat expected after a holiday lull, but the sharp annual increases in some states shows that many states are ...
How a beach house visit turned into a tax disaster
My last few blogs have been examples of how you can invest in real estate through a self-directed Individual Retirement Account. I thought I would take a few minutes to share an example of what NOT to do with your This never firstmedicineonlinepharmacy completely stick Carmex mild precio viagra mexico ...
Fed flying blind, is a surprise coming?
A rational week. What a relief. The steep drops in interest rates and stocks stopped just where charts said they should, and both rebounded in predictable perfection, now dead neutral. U.S. snowboarders should land so well. Janet Yellen gave her first formal testimony as Fed… Chairman? Chairwoman? Chairperson? Madame Chairman? ...
What landlords think about the 2014 outlook for profits
In our survey, 36% of landords predict that 2014 will be better and more profitable than 2013 – similar to responses in 2012. Only 6.3% of respondents believe that 2014 will be less profitable, down from the 10% who had this outlook in 2012. According to respondents, the outlook for ...
Mortgage rates post first increase of 2014
Mortgage rates broke a five-week long streak of declines, with the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate increasing 4.48 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.33 discount and origination points. The average 15-year fixed mortgage notched higher to 3.53 percent, and ...
Seven paths to progress for investors to watch
As you know markets change as time goes by. Once you have found the best markets to invest in there is still one more thing you should definitely be looking for before looking at the actual property. This of course is identifying where within this market is the “path of ...
Millionaires moving to increase real estate investment in 2014
Real estate is the top alternative investment millionaires are considering this year according to a new report from Morgan Stanley. “After a year where the Standard & Poor’s Index rose 30 percent, some millionaires are moving money out of traditional, long-only strategies to find outperformance, and turning toward alternatives such ...
How to know whether we can raise rents?
Reader Question: Hello, Monty! We are mom and pop investors. We have a duplex and a town home in Portland, Oregon. My partner and I are not sure whether we should raise rents at this time. Expenses have gone up about 5% since January 2013, in line with inflation in the ...
What the landlords had to say in our survey
Relevant data equals real estate success. To support the success of Do-It-Yourself landlords who have corporate housing rentals, help them gain insights into industry trends, and better understand how such trends can help shape rental management, CorporateHousingbyOwner.com (CHBO) announces the 5th annual "By Owner" Corporate Housing Report. CHBO is a website dedicated ...
Lou Barnes helps investors make sense of the latest jobs report
On the first Friday every month: payroll roulette. No data is more important to the Fed and interest rates because jobs and incomes are so central to inflation prospects. But no report is so wildly, comically inaccurate. Today's factoid: a January payroll gain only about half the up-side guesses, 113,000 ...
What do the growing number of single-family rentals say about the housing market?
Housing Wire magazine has a headline asking whether real estate investor home sales mask a weak housing market, and whether the hype has gotten ahead of the underlying fundamentals. Also, the article asks what has been the real role of large institutional purchases. Writer Trey Garrison interviews several experts, including ...
Home “flips” up 16% in 2013 with average gross profit of $62,000
RealtyTrac's latest report for 2013 shows flips were up, but as many serious investors know, still represented only 4.6 percent of all U.S. single-family sales during the year. Their report shows 156,862 single family home flips — where a home is purchased and subsequently sold again within six months — ...
Is the currency crisis an advantage to U.S. investors?
By Louis S. Barnes Three weeks ago, surprise market movements embarrassed New Year's prognosticators. By last week the moves were big enough to attract a few bottom-fishers, others too queasy. At the end of this week, the defensive huffing, "Just a correction" sounds like Monty Python's amputated knight, "Just a ...
Making Money with Rental Properties- my book is out!
By Kimberly Smith Real estate investment tools are making it easier for individuals to succeed in residential real estate investments and all signs are pointing to 2014 as the start of mainstream acceptance of residential property investments. I has spent the past few years trying to get a real estate ...
