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3 Simple Seasonal Staging Tips
As the leaves change from green to orange, red, and gold and the words “pumpkin spice” begin appearing on packaging of everything from lattes to pop tarts, we know that fall is in the air. In our own homes, we may crack out the cinnamon brooms, the football-themed front-door decor, and start ...
10 Ways to Give Thanks to Your Tenants
For most landlords –it’s easy to focus on the tenants that went wrong. Experiences with destroyed carpet, and unpaid rent tend to stick in our minds a lot better than the tenants who pay their rent on time, and without incident. But the fact is, though, that for every bad tenant out ...
Proposed Tax Reform Could Impact REIs
The proposed tax reform hit the internet last week. Though there are likely to be many changes and revisions, in its current form, there are many impacts to those who invest in real estate. Let’s explore these. Changes in Deductions The proposed tax reform has changed, reduced, and eliminated many ...
There’s no doubt about it, real estate is an inefficient investment by nature. Each investment and investor has its own unique characteristics and requires our most valuable resource…time! Time is Valuable Your time commitment is perhaps the most significant problem investors face when growing their portfolio. Real estate investing can ...
Big Boom in Baby Boomer Renters
Baby boomers set the housing market on fire when they came of age, but times have changed. Now, they are flocking in droves to an easier lifestyle than one of homeownership. RentCafé looked at Census figures to come up with a snapshot of the renting world. It found that people ...
7 Ways to Retain Your Existing Tenants
When your tenants move out, it can cost thousands of dollars in lost revenue, repairs, renovations, and marketing to get your property re-rented. A hallmark 1987 study by Walker Research identified the cost of finding a new customer versus keeping an existing customer was five times the effort and cost ...
How Recent Tax Proposals May Affect Marketplace Investors Part 2 of 2
In part one, Lawrence Fassler discusses proposed changes to the tax code, including limitations on sponsored business interest deductions, changes to 1031 Exchange program and carried interest taxation. To read part one click here. Lowered Business Income Rates for Investors in Pass-Through Entities The change that might affect investors and ...
Driverless Cars to Transform Real Estate Landscape
Driverless cars may seem like a novelty to many of us, but almost two dozen companies are racing to get them on the road in the next few years. It’s still a stretch of the imagination to visualize them as a common mode of transportation but if and when that ...
How Recent Tax Proposals May Affect Marketplace Investors Part 1 of 2 Part Series
The commercial real estate industry, in which many online marketplace investors participate, remained largely unscathed by the recent House proposal of changes to the Internal Revenue Code. Investors may actually benefit from some of the proposals, and changes to the individual mortgage interest deduction and other changes may end up ...
Homeownership Rates Rise Slightly in Mid-2017
Homeownership rates are slowly crawling upward. But fewer than two-thirds of the nation’s households owned their own homes at the end of Q3 2017 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Rates climbed slightly between the second and third quarters of this year, from 63.7 percent at the end of June ...
MIT’s First “Smart” Country Test
A small country in Europe has become a living laboratory for MIT researchers working on what they call “urban innovation.” They are collaborating with city planners, residents, and local companies to interactively test the effects of urban planning decisions and new technologies like driverless cars and ultra-lightweight, three-wheeled autonomous vehicles ...
This Paint Color Could Add Thousands to Your Selling Price
If you’re feeling a little blue this holiday season, that could be great news for your home values. According to Zillow’s 2017 Paint Color Analysis the right shade of blue in your bathroom could add more than $5,000 to your sales price, while light blue kitchens and bedrooms net sellers ...
HOA Liens Create Huge Stumbling Blocks
Homeowners Associations (HOA) can be a great thing for a neighborhood. These associations charge monthly or annual fees and, in return, perform certain maintenance-related duties. To include caring for neighborhood amenities, and work with the homeowners in the neighborhood to keep all properties looking well-kept and, to varying degrees, consistent ...
Distressed Sales Share Drops to 10-Year Low
ATTOM Data Solutions released its Q3 2017 U.S. Home Sales Report shows that distressed home sales — including bank-owned (REO) sales, third-party foreclosure auction sales, and short sales which accounted for 12.5 percent of all home sales in Q3 2017, down from 13.5 percent in the previous quarter and down ...
Top 3 Lighting Preferences for Homeowners in 2017
As the year winds to a close and lighting begins to take on a bit of a holiday tone, lighting manufacturer Legrand has released its annual lighting product survey. Legrand asked more than 2,200 U.S. adults about their lighting preferences and noted that 1,563 of those surveyed were homeowners. Real ...
Scorching Seattle Housing Market Draws Tech Population
Savvy real estate investors know that broken-down buildings can hide diamonds in the rough. This has never been truer than in a “hot” market like Seattle, Washington. A 1901 home with no bedrooms in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood was recently listed at $595,000, and local real estate professionals predict that the ...
Think Realty Magazine November 2017
+ WHAT'S INSIDE Think Realty | Where We’re Thinking Realty • Think Realty Honors Finalists Coaches Corner | Fostering Entrepreneurial Spirit and Community • Think Realty Course Reviews • Please Help Me! I’m Stuck Cover Feature | Real Estate, Not Rocket Science Up Close & Personal | One-on-One with the ...
Serial Squatters are a Nightmare for Landlords
A couple who appeared to be the perfect potential tenants have turned out to be nightmare renters. They’ve taken more than one North Texas landlord for a ride. In their most recent escapade, they moved into a home, bounced their first rent check, and then proceeded to drag the eviction ...
How to Become an Accredited Investor
Summary: Understanding the purpose of the accredited investor designation is important for you and your investing business. This article walks through how to determine if you’re an accredited investor, your net worth’s contribution to investor accreditation, and how you can still invest in private placements if you are not yet ...
Wildfire Devastation: How Tiny Houses Could Help
When multiple wildfires swept across California, burning hundreds of thousands of acres and destroying thousands of homes in the process, California’s housing crisis became immediately worse. While homeowners are still sorting through the wreckage and real estate investors are taking to the streets in hopes of helping homeowners who wish ...
Vacant “Zombie” Pre-Foreclosures Down
ATTOM Data Solutions released its 2017 U.S. Residential Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, which shows nearly 1.4 million (1,367,793) U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) were vacant as of the end of the third quarter of 2017 — representing 1.58 percent of all U.S. residential properties. The 1.58 ...
3 Tough Truths About Real Estate Asset Protection
Ask any real estate investor what asset class is the safest for their capital investments, and the odds are pretty good that you’re going to hear the same answer time and again: Real estate, of course! Unfortunately, even the most dedicated and diligent real estate investors tend to make a ...
Pop-Up Shops: A Vital Commercial Tenant
Derelict and distressed properties can lead to the downward spiral in property value for residential neighborhoods. When it comes to the commercial side of real estate investing, empty retail space can easily detract from the location or the buildings’ allure to businesses seeking a commercial location. Pop-up shops can make ...
3 Actions to Start Self-Directing Your Retirement
“Most financial advisors will tell you that you simply cannot have a better lifestyle in retirement than you did while you were working full time. Most financial advisors are wrong.” So began Edwin Kelly, CEO of Specialized IRA Services, in his 60-minute training session at the 2017 Think Realty National ...
Tools for Property Management Mean Profit Growth
“We are an instant society,” Linda Liberatore, founder and president of SecurePayOne, started out in her presentation on saving hundreds of dollars each month by making simple adjustments to your property management strategies. “Did you ever see [the way people act] when they do not have internet?” she continued; “They ...
