Operations

Your operations define your long-term success in real estate investing. Fine-tune your process with: Asset Management | Asset Protection | Deal Analysis | Fundamentals | Growth | Lead Generation | Risk Management

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Operations

Your operations define your long-term success in real estate investing. Fine-tune your process with: Asset Management | Asset Protection | Deal Analysis | Fundamentals | Growth | Lead Generation | Risk Management

Back To: All Topics 

On the Record

On the Record

So you have your first property under contract, and you’re ready to get started and hire a contractor. What now? This was the question that confronted us on our very first project. We had already done the business basics: formed an LLC for our company and got our EIN number, ...
What's Your Personality?

What’s Your Personality?

As a real estate investor, are you an investor, or are you a speculator? There is a significant difference. Speculating is when you form a theory or conjecture about a subject without firm evidence—for example, investing in the stock market. You’re buying shares of a certain stock in the hopes ...
Business Sense

Business Sense

| Teresa Bitler | Article | Operations
Often the difference between a successful real estate investor and a not-so-successful one is how they treat their investments. A successful investor sees investing as a business while a not-so-successful one thinks he’s being business-like but actually has more of a hobby mentality. Here are seven ways successful investors treat ...
Momentous Ruling in Tax Court

Momentous Ruling in Tax Court

| Steven Hickox | Article | Operations
On Aug. 10, 2016, the United States Tax Court issued an opinion in the case of George H. Bartell et al., v. Commission of Internal Revenue, 14 T.C. No. 5. This case may prove to be the most momentous tax authority dealing with 1031 exchanges in the last 20 years ...
Real Estate Resolutions

Real Estate Resolutions

This time of year, talk about making resolutions is everywhere—in conversations, on blogs and splashed across every form of news outlet. Now, what do New Year’s resolutions have to do with the reason you read this magazine? I’m going to point out the obvious: If you weren’t interested in how ...
Securing Quality Renters

Securing Quality Renters

Ask any experienced landlords, and they’ll tell you that one of the secrets to success with rental properties is finding the right tenants. The right occupants are a landlord’s dream-come-true. They’ll pay the rent on time—every time—and look after your property and treat it right. They’ll abide by the terms ...
Commercial Caretaking

Commercial Caretaking

The backbone of any commercial property is strong property management. If you have recently purchased a commercial building or have a building that you have owned for a while, there comes a time when you must truly consider hiring a professional property manager to skillfully guide the property through its ...
Soft Sell

Soft Sell

The right software can help you run your real estate business more efficiently. But how do you know the difference between useful features and bells and whistles when choosing a software package? Experts say that sticking to the KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) theory will allow you to buy a ...
A Matter of Timing

A Matter of Timing

Most real estate agents tell their clients that the three most important things to consider when buying property are location, location, location. I disagree. Here’s why: If you sold a house in Stockton, California, in 2006, you might have received $400,000. If you sold that same house in 2009, you ...
Success by Design

Success by Design

A successful website conversion is when someone visits your real estate investor website and takes some action you want them to take. For investors looking to buy houses, it’s when your website visitor wants to sell his or her house and either submits the requested form or gives you a ...
Entrepreneur's Corner: Are There Holes in Your Boat?

Entrepreneur’s Corner: Are There Holes in Your Boat?

| Ben Rao | Article | Operations
As I learn more about myself and my business, I realize how little I really know. Don’t get me wrong, my business is successful, but sometimes as an entrepreneur, I’m wearing filters that keep me from seeing the entire truth. Sometimes it’s ego or pride. Sometimes it’s perspective. When these ...
The Senior Advantage

The Senior Advantage

In 10 short years, from 2005 to 2015, the number of people turning 65 each year exploded from 2.2 million to 3.5 million. Many of these older Americans are increasingly choosing to rent. With this surge of older renters, developers are building age-restricted or so-called “active-adult lifestyle” apartments. These apartment ...
Capital Idea

Capital Idea

Getting a loan doesn’t have to be a difficult process, according to Ron Blum, founder of Atlas Capital and Asset Management. In fact, building a portfolio doesn’t have to be complicated, either. Atlas offers quality properties in blue-collar neighborhoods; internal underwriting of fixed-rate, 30-year loans; and property management service—all under ...
On the Record: The Term Sheet

On the Record: The Term Sheet

| Eric Dean | Article | Operations
The Term Sheet is often used in a real estate transaction as a preliminary document that is incidental but not integral to the ultimate transaction because it is usually defined as “non-binding,” “confidential,” “preliminary” and/or “expiring.” But that should not lull either party in the transaction—property buyer or property seller—into ...
Closing the Gap with Mezzanine Financing

Closing the Gap with Mezzanine Financing

Mezzanine finance is a bit like it sounds—the semi-floor, halfway up the stairs, that in department stores like Fields and Macy’s was used for just about everything in between the women’s and men’s displays on the first and second floors. In real estate finance and the “capital stack,” the first ...
Market Update - San Diego

Market Update – San Diego

In May 2016, San Diego, California, was the “eighth-hottest” home market in the United States according to Realtor.com. That had the media, analysts and even some economists starting to whisper the word “bubble.” At that time, Think Realty Magazine took a hard look at the San Diego housing market (“San ...
How Secure Are You?

How Secure Are You?

It seems like a week doesn’t go by without a company announcing it experienced a cyber attack, often with dire consequences for its bottom line and stock price. The security company Symantec reports that more than 500 million personal records were lost or stolen in 2015. And while small- to ...
A Winning Combination

A Winning Combination

When Matt Rodak, CEO and founder of Fund That Flip Inc., funded his first deal in January 2015, he was already confident he had a winning real estate combination on his hands. So confident, in fact, that he quit his high-paying corporate job running sales for a billion-dollar insurance company ...
real estate investing

5 Housing Markets Set for 2017 Population Surge

When populations surge in size, housing prices and transaction volumes tend to follow. For that reason, many savvy real estate investors closely follow timely Census data released about population movements on an annual basis (not the data collected and released every few years). This December, the U.S. Census Bureau released ...
Staging

Make Sure Staging Reflects Reality

Virtual staging is becoming more and more popular as sellers leverage a variety of software and photoshopping options to make their homes look their very best. Not surprisingly, virtual staging has also led to some pretty nasty disputes when reality and virtual reality don’t entirely match up after closing. However, ...
Home Affordability

Home Affordability Drops to 8-Year Low

The Home Affordability Index, which shows national affordability of housing, shares that Q4 2016 was at its lowest level since Q4 2008. The report, issued by ATTOM Data Solutions, parent company of Realty Trac, shows that 29 percent of the U.S. county housing markets were less affordable than their historic ...
Will Trump’s Immigration Policy Lead to Another Foreclosure Crisis?

Will Trump’s Immigration Policy Lead to Another Foreclosure Crisis?

It’s no secret that President-elect Donald Trump made a lot of promises on the campaign trail and was pretty controversial while he did it. One of the biggest things that he promised voters was that he would take a hard stance on immigration policy; specifically, that he would start deporting ...
Google lawsuit has implications for real estate investors

Google lawsuit has implications for real estate investors

A challenge to strict Google personnel policy bears watching by real estate investors and others who also often find themselves subject to non-compete, non-disclosure rules. However the court fight plays out, there are lessons to be learned. A Google product manager has brought suit against the search giant, saying that ...
Will Fed Rate Hike Crash the Market Again?

Will Fed Rate Hike Crash the Market Again?

The Federal Reserve finally raised rates for the first time this year at its December meeting and suggested there could be three more rate hikes next year. There are varied opinions about what this could mean for real estate, so let’s tackle it! After threatening to do so for several ...
Book Choices

New Year Book Choices for Real Estate Investors

At Think Realty, we love to share knowledge. Listed below are our team's book choices for you, the real estate investor and is a terrific way to start the New Year. These books are perfect for the experienced investor, a new investor or simply a curious want-to-be investor. Some are even available on Kindle! ...