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
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
Are You an Investor or a Speculator in Real Estate Investing?
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 ...
Risk is an accepted part of real estate investing, but that doesn’t mean an investor isn’t always looking for ways to lessen it—and there’s no shortage of vendors promising solutions. The people behind Kansas City-based RentFax think they have an answer that outperforms the competition and could revolutionize the way ...
Any real estate investor who has been in the game for a while knows the benefits of direct property investment. Among the major asset classes, real estate enjoys many unique positive tax advantages, particularly when compared with traditional investments such as stocks and bonds. However unrealistic in today’s market, consider ...
All-Cash Investment Home Prices Skyrocket
Median sales prices for all types of residential real estate are soaring, according to the just-released monthly HomeUnion Home Sales Report that examines August 2016 data. The report shows that the median sales prices for investment houses and owner-occupied homes increased 12.6 percent from one year ago to $266,500. The ...
3 Red Flags in Evaluating Investment Property
A common question from many beginning investors is “How can I tell by looking at a property whether that is going to be a good investment or not?” First, let me say this: Most beginning investors should never ever, ever purchase a property that needs major renovations. Never purchase a ...
3 ‘Unknowns’ that are Critical to a Real Estate Investor’s Success
Looking back to when I started as a part-time real estate investor 10 years ago, I remember feeling some concern or even worry about whether I was prepared enough. Regardless of the amount of due diligence and effort I put into my business plan or even the general preparation I ...
You don't have to add another property to your portfolio to increase your monthly net. Here are seven ways to make your current properties more profitable. 1. Minimize vacancies Vacancy is the “biggest profit-killer for rental properties,” according to Brian Davis, co-founder of Spark Rental, an online educational resource and rental ...
Just last week, John (not his real name) lost nearly 60 percent of the value of his self-directed IRA in a single day. There wasn’t a horrible crash in the stock market or an act of fraud that caused this calamity. Instead, John’s misfortune was the result of an esoteric ...
Hurricane Prep and Reaction for Real Estate Investors
We are officially in the thick of hurricane season — a worrisome time not just for residents of storm-prone areas but also investors who own property there. Here are some hurricane prep and reaction tips that can help if you own investment properties. Hurricanes are unpredictable. Their projected paths, wind speeds and ...
Contributing Columnist, Owner-Financing Expert Launches Podcast
Real estate investing mentor and owner-financing expert Mitch Stephen, a regular contributor to Think Realty Magazine, has launched a new podcast, “Real Estate Investor Summit.” The podcast can be accessed at www.REInvestorSummit.com or via iTunes or Stitcher. “Real Estate Investor Summit is dedicated to delivering insightful interviews that teach listeners how to ...
Does the Math Add Up for Build-to-Rent Single-Family Homes?
Building single-family rental home neighborhoods seems like a great idea—until you run the math. Almost 12 percent of all households in the country now rent a single-family home. Certainly, a portion of these renters will pay a rental premium for a new home. However, there is a snag. While the ...
Do the Numbers Square With the Hype in Real Estate Investing?
There’s a lot of excitement, interest and energy around residential real estate investing. But at the end of the day, the prudent investor—or the individual who is considering real estate investing, if he or she is smart—needs to look at the numbers. Make sure the numbers are aligned with and ...
Foreclosed Property is a Slam-Dunk Great Deal for a Smart Investor
As we film Episode 30 of our video series “Real Estate Deal Talk” it’s “Super Tuesday” in Georgia, which means all the tax sales, foreclosures, etc. are happening on the courthouse steps today. And just this morning we got a call from one of our lenders saying, “Listen, I’m going ...
The Housing Cycle: What Inning Are We In?
Where are we in the housing cycle? This, by far, is the question we get asked the most. It’s often framed with the metaphor of a nine-inning baseball game: What inning are we in? This question implies that markets move in unison, driven by similar factors. In reality, every market ...
A Slowing in High-End Housing?
Home prices are tied not only to interest rates and local demographic factors but also to new construction that brings on added supply to the housing stock. As prices rise, builders take on more construction projects, and the resulting new supply eventually permeates the market and can keep prices down ...
9 Numbers to Help Identify a Profitable Rental Property
What constitutes a good, profitable rental property? There’s no one, single answer to that question. No matter how many people you ask or how many calculations you run, you’re probably going to get that many different answers. I remember when I was starting out as a weekend or part-time investor, ...
Home Flipping at Six-Year High in Q2 2016
Home flips in the second quarter of 2016 were up 14 percent from the previous quarter and up 3 percent from a year ago, to the highest number of home flips since Q2 2010—a six-year high, according to the Q2 2016 U.S. Home Flipping Report from ATTOM Data Solutions, the ...
Tampa Tops Investment Housing Power Rankings
Three Florida cities—Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami—took spots atop HomeUnion’s first-ever “power rankings” of the top investment housing markets in the United States. Milwaukee ranked last among the 32 metro areas listed in the rankings. For the study, the online real estate investment management firm HomeUnion, ranked 31 metros based on how ...
My Advice: Start Small, With Single-Family Investments
I was recently in San Francisco for a speaking engagement. After I had returned to my home and business in Ohio, we started getting a lot of calls. These calls were from people based in California who have some pretty deep pockets—like about $300,000 to $400,000 to invest—but a lot ...
Like a Runner In a Marathon, Focus on Finishing ‘Best’
As I write this, it’s early September, kind of a turning point of the year heading into the fourth quarter and a change of seasons. And here in Dallas, where I am a real estate investor and HomeVestors franchise owner, we live in a very, very warm-weather climate, and another ...
4 Areas of Focus to Make Your Rehab Stand Out
The “lipstick on a pig” model is all but dead. Gone are the days of investors purchasing a house, putting in new carpet and paint and waiting a short period of time for the price to appreciate. For a house flipper, competition is increasing, and you need to make sure ...
How to Get a Property Tenanted In Less Than 30 Days
I am often asked how we get our properties tenanted so quickly. It’s because we focus on quality instead of quantity. First, we focus on buying a property in the right area, for the right amount of money and which needs the right amount of work. That makes the process ...
You are the CEO of Your Real Estate Investing Business
Today I want to talk about how we, as small real estate investors or part-time real estate investors, should step back from time to time and don a CEO’s hat, because that mentality can positively influence your approach to real estate investing and the success you ultimately achieve, enjoy and ...
How an Auto Mechanic is Like a Rehab Contractor
Has it ever occurred to you how similar are the processes of finding a reliable contractor to renovate your investment property and locating a decent mechanic to fix your car? Just think about it for a moment. When you own a car or a house, you are investing both your ...
HELOCs Increase for 17th Consecutive Quarter
Nearly 1.9 million (1,868,187) loans were originated on U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) in the second quarter of 2016, up 26 percent from the a two-year low in the previous quarter but down 4 percent from a year ago, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q2 2016 U.S. Residential ...
