Investment Strategy

Learn about asset classes and investment methods that dial into strategies to meet your REI goals: Alternative Investing | Commercial | Funds | IRAs | Multifamily | Single Family | Syndication

Back To: All Topics 

Investment Strategy

Learn about asset classes and investment methods that dial into strategies to meet your REI goals: Alternative Investing | Commercial | Funds | IRAs | Multifamily | Single Family | Syndication

Back To: All Topics 

Top 25 Zip Codes for Buying Single Family Homes

Top 25 Zip Codes for Buying Single Family Homes

ATTOM Data Solutions, released its Q3 2017 Single Family Rental Market report, identifying the top 25 U.S. ZIP codes for buying single family rental homes based on potential rental yields and cash flow, vacancy rates, home price appreciation, population growth, neighborhood quality, and average property age. The report analyzed the ...
How to Maintain a Profitable Investment Portfolio in a Shifting Housing Market

How to Maintain a Profitable Investment Portfolio in a Shifting Housing Market

“Live where you want, but invest where it makes sense.” Marco Santarelli, founder and CEO of Norada Real Estate Investments, is known for saying. Santarelli, who invests in cash-flowing turnkey rental properties in markets around the country, has maintained a profitable investment portfolio for more than two decades thanks to ...
3 Reasons to Invest in Residential Assisted Living

3 Reasons to Invest in Residential Assisted Living

“The silver tsunami is unstoppable,” Gene Guarino, CEO of the Residential Assisted Living Academy, is fond of saying. He follows that with some pretty incredible numbers, including that there are 1.4 million people turning 85 every single year and 10,000 people turning 65 every single day. “They’re going to need ...
Should You Invest in Areas Hit by Natural Disasters?

Should You Invest in Areas Hit by Natural Disasters?

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, signs of the storm damage are everywhere. Not all those signs are related to property damage, though. While there are plenty of homes devastated by flood waters and mold, mildew, and other water-related damage, there are also a number of bandit signs on the ...
Think Realty Magazine October 2017

Think Realty Magazine October 2017

+ WHAT'S INSIDE Think Realty |  Where We’re Thinking Realty • Coaches Corner Cover Feature |  Leveling the Playing Field Design Point |  Beautifully Engaged Market Update |  Atlanta, Georgia Regional Spotlight|  Memphis, Tennessee The Big Picture|  Entrepreneurialism: A Smart Pathway to Success • Net Zero in Cost Rica • ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Glutton for Punishment or Naive DIY’er?

Glutton for Punishment or Naive DIY’er?

Abby Tillman and her husband chronicled their first foray into real estate investing, buying a rental property, in Think Realty’s “Rookie Investor” blog series. The following article is excerpted from that blog. You know those things that everyone tells you not to do, but you think, “It won’t be like ...
Contained Investing

Contained Investing

When you think of alternative investments in real estate, you might not think of changing the building materials or the physical framework of the property. Maybe you should. Container homes, built from cargo shipping containers, are altering the way people think about and visualize new homes. Upcycling materials in the ...
Curb Appeal Gone Native

Curb Appeal Gone Native

We all know that a buyer’s first impression of your property will likely make or break the deal. Given that landscaping can add up to 28 percent to a home’s value, taking the time to understand what makes your lawn really work may prove invaluable. According to landscape economist John ...
Really Big Deals: Getting In on the Farmland Phenomenon

Really Big Deals: Getting In on the Farmland Phenomenon

Farmland: Any land used for farming. Rural: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines rural areas as those that are nonmetropolitan and have “open countryside, rural towns (places with fewer than 2,500 people) and urban areas with populations ranging from 2,500 to 49,999.” Over the past decade, international investors have doubled ...
Investing in Corporate Housing: Monetizing the 30-Day Stay

Investing in Corporate Housing: Monetizing the 30-Day Stay

Corporate Housing: A solution for corporate employees who need monthly lodging, usually provided through businesses offering fully-furnished private residences for stays of 30 or more days. Pain-Per-Dollar (PPD): The amount of work that each dollar you invest “costs” you on a property. For example, a typical vacation rental has a high PPD ...
Think Realty’s Guidebook to Turnkey Rental Real Estate

Think Realty’s Guidebook to Turnkey Rental Real Estate

Turnkey Property: A turnkey property has historically been defined as a piece of real estate that can be purchased as-is and immediately rented out. Turnkey has expanded in recent years to include anything that can be conducted from a distance (i.e. a turnkey fix and flip) but generally refers to rental ...
rental performance

6 Ways to Accurately Assess Rental Property Performance

Whether you have one income rental property in your portfolio or dozens, you should be tracking your investment portfolio’s performance. Part of that process includes evaluating each income property individually to determine whether it is serving its purpose in your portfolio and to assess the viability of future, similar investments ...