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.
Today’s Home Buyers Will Sacrifice All Amenities for This Feature
Many homebuyers have an extensive “wish list” for their new home and a few “must-have” items as well. However, according to a survey from Realtor.com of people who closed on a home in 2018, only one in five will stick to those must-have items when presented with a property in ...
FHFA Gives Up on Credit-Scoring Overhaul
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced this week it will suspend an initiative dedicated to updating a credit score model used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The updated model would, the agency hoped, have helped “provide millions of creditworthy Americans who have been unable to be scored with ...
International Real Estate Wire Transfer Scheme: 74 Arrested
74 people were recently arrested in the United States and overseas for alleged wire transfer fraud. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a “coordinated law enforcement effort” resulted in the arrests and the seizure of about $2.4 million and recovery of about $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers. When ...
Exposing the Human Element in “Direct-Data” Real Estate Sites
If you are like most real estate investors, you spend quite a bit of your time searching for deals. You probably also spend quite a bit of your time fielding offers from various service providers who are more than willing to find those deals for you. Unfortunately, most investors find ...
The Online Paperwork Evolution, Simplified at Last
Legal document preparation, legal research, and document review grow more sophisticated daily due to the rising abundance of data. In the last two years, the amount of legal data available has tripled, and with it, the volume of search and translation tools has risen as well. That growth includes the ...
Chinese Investors Buying Real Estate with Bitcoin
Chinese bitcoin tycoons are actively working to sell off their cryptocurrency in the United States in order to use the cash to purchase real estate investments. For example, one early adopter recently sold 500 bitcoin in the U.S. (that value is just under $3.8 million at time of publication), then ...
3 Things You Can Learn from Your Hard-Money Lender
There are many legitimate reasons to use a hard money lender. Compared to traditional lenders, hard money lenders can offer faster funding, flexible construction draws, no prepayment penalties, and a willingness to look beyond a specific borrower’s credit blemishes. This might beg the question, “When would a hard money lender ...
The Terminology of Housing Market Progression
You’ve probably heard terms like “major metro,” “primary metro area,” “secondary market,” and “tertiary market” when reading market analyses. This nomenclature is “slippery” and often relies heavily on context and speaker intent to make sense of it and apply the commentary to your specific investment goals and strategies. Here, we ...
3 Cities Paying New Residents to Relocate
While the national housing market has been officially “in recovery” from the housing crash and Great Recession for quite some time now, some cities are facing a serious population shortage that is being exacerbated as current residents age, retire from the work force, and often move elsewhere. To combat this ...
Many Property Owners Lack Sufficient Disaster Insurance
Hurricane season is underway in the United States, and a lot of homeowners who could get hit by bad weather are not adequately insured against potential damages. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the issue lies mainly in a lack of flood insurance, which usually must be purchased from ...
3 Red Flags for Airbnb Investors
Airbnb is one of the most disruptive short-term rental platforms in the world right now, and that description is both complimentary and pejorative, depending on the source. According to the company’s head of global policy, Chris Lehane, Airbnb uses “technology to create economic empowerment.” However, many city officials (not to ...
Texas Federal Court Warns FHFA Leadership Structure Could be “Unconstitutional”
The leadership structure for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which was created in 2008 to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is under fire from a Texas appeals court. The court, which is comprised of a three-judge panel, recently ruled that the FHFA “defies the Constitution because it does ...
Nearly One-Third of NAR Members Have Less Than Two Years’ Experience
Despite tight housing inventories and tough competition, more and more people are jumping into real estate as registered realtors. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR)’s 2018 member Profile, just about one in three realtors has two years’ worth of experience or fewer and the realtor population has grown ...
Make It Rain: Real Estate Investing for Real Estate Agents
| 166 pages | 26,745 words | 2.5 hour read | Excerpt Are you working harder for fewer commissions, or being asked to cut commissions in order to get clients? Do you find it impossible to set aside enough money to pay taxes, fees, and other expenses in your real ...
Gary, Indiana, Puts Millions in School Buildings on the Market
For 20 years in some cases, public school buildings in Gary, Indiana, have sat vacant as a target for vandalism, looting, and arson. Now, the Gary School Community Corporation is hoping real estate investors with an eye for community development will come into the area, buy the buildings, and help ...
4 Simple Rules When Buying a Home Near Flood-Prone Areas
Houstonians get nervous every spring because frequent torrential downpours often result in serious flooding. This year, Houston is still recovering from Hurricane Harvey and must already start planning for a new hurricane season, which officially began June 1. For real estate investors, these issues are top-of-mind when considering homes in ...
10 Hard Questions to Ask Before Investing in a Commercial Partnership Deal
Real estate has always been regarded as an equal-opportunity wealth creator. However, caveat emptor: Real estate historically has been full of scams. Based on my experience managing distressed real estate funds, that fear of being deceived and losing it all is the number one reason why smaller investors don’t invest ...
Thieves Target New-Home Construction
A new construction building boom is usually a good thing these days, but new construction may lead to a booming burglary business as well. The problem is particularly serious in California cities like Roseville, where police are receiving an unusually high volume of reports of theft from new and under-construction ...
Smaller Kitchens Could Make a Comeback Thanks to Changing Dining Practices
A recent report from investment firm UBS suggested boldly that the kitchen as we currently know it, a central location in the home used for food preparation and family camaraderie, could soon be gone for good. USB analysts certainly took the speculative process to the extreme as they highlighted the ...
Southwestern Florida Housing Market Struggles with Smelly Algae Invasion
As green algae blooms in the waters of southwest Florida, local real estate professionals are preparing to take a hit. Even if the algae is not presently growing in local waters, real estate deals are falling through and, in some cases, home values are taking a hit. One Sanibel real ...
Former “Foreclosure Capital” Debuts Universal Basic Income Program
In 2012, one in every 135 homes in Stockton, California, was in foreclosure and the city was in bankruptcy protection. Although the area’s housing market is certainly now in recovery mode, local officials believe that many residents still need something extra to help them make ends meet. As a result, ...
3 Ways to Invest in Secondary Mortgage Notes
Back in 2005, it was clear to those of us who looked closely that the housing market was sitting on unstable ground. When lenders are freely lending money to borrowers with low credit scores (in the 500s) at combined loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of 103 on a stated income with no ...
3 Worst States for Foreclosure Halfway Through 2018
Although foreclosure starts are still falling midway through 2018, the rates are actually rising in 40% of local markets according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ Midyear 2018 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The report indicated a total of 362,275 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings. Those filings include default notices, scheduled auctions, and ...
Millennial Homeownership Trends Linked to Wealth Disparities
The decision to delay homeownership could have some unexpected effects on younger generations, especially Millennials. According to the Urban Institute (UI), the Millennial generation’s move from renting to homeownership has been “sluggish,” which could create problems for these individuals far into the future. In fact, UI relates lower rates of ...
Online Retail Bolsters a U.S. Industrial Building Boom
Every time you make a purchase on Amazon or using another online retailer, you contribute to a real estate boom most people may not notice. “For every $1 billion of digital retail sales, shipping requirements gobble up more than 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space,” reported CBRE head of ...
