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.

real estate

3 Things Not to do at a Real Estate Conference

We’ve talked to countless meeting hosts, presenters, and power-networkers to come up with a list of the three worst things you can do at a real estate conference. Take a hard look at this list and then, yourself. If you’ve made these mistakes in the past, be sure to avoid ...
housing markets

Housing Markets Most Impacted by Tax Plan

The Republican tax proposal unveiled in late October and passed in December, included at least two changes to the income tax structure that could potentially have significant impacts on homeowners, and by extension the housing market. We’ve created two heat maps to illustrate which local housing markets could have the ...
creative

“Buying Time” in Creative Ways

Ask a real estate investor why they left their “9-to-5,” and they’ll usually say something about having more time. Investors are, in many cases, parents and grandparents seeking more time with family. Just as often, they are passionate entrepreneurs and community servants seeking more time in which to enact their ...
credit card stacking

Deal Funding with Credit Card Stacking

If you are a real estate investor and have been looking for capital to fund your real estate deals, there is a good chance you have heard of credit card stacking. Credit card stacking is the practice that credit brokers use to help individuals acquire credit by applying for multiple ...
time

What is Time to a Real Estate Investor?

Time itself is an investment. Often, you put in time for a very specific purpose or to achieve a certain goal. That goal could be to obtain more time. For real estate investors, the initial investment of your time may mean you later have additional days to spend with family ...
Real Estate Investment

Keys to Successful Real Estate Investment

While reading a book, journal or magazine article about real estate investment may instill a sense of motivation for an individual to jump into the market, important research must be done to ensure your venture is worth your while. Buying a home, renovating it to meet aesthetic and safety standards, ...
honesty

Rigorous Honesty, Make it a Habit

Several years ago, I was asked by one of my mentors if I was rigorously honest. I thought I was honest and said as much. More recently, I was given a challenge by Michael J. Maher, the author of 7L: The Seven Levels of Communication. It was the same challenge ...
housing

Take Heed, Housing Affordability Issue to Worsen

You might expect the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) to be happy to hear about inventory shortages since that means there is a need for more new construction. But the NAHB’s chief economist has a warning to accompany the association’s latest report on home prices, mortgage interest rates, and ...
housing

Housing Affordability Impacts Investor Strategy

| Abhi Golhar | Article | Operations
The Atlanta skyline has a lot of visible cranes right now making it easy to understand that we are in an interesting growth cycle. Everybody is giddy and excited about where the real estate market is headed, and we've had, what I think, is one of the longest run-ups in ...
real estate

Real Estate Agent Jailed Over Profitable Short Sale

When an Arizona real estate agent helped his parents purchase a distressed property from a motivated seller in 2012, he probably wasn’t thinking about bank fraud. In all likelihood, his main focus was on getting his parents a good deal on the property, which they bought for $580,000 in a ...
bookkeeping

5 Must Avoid Bookkeeping Errors

| David Rice | Article | Operations
Real estate investors tend to be extremely independent. That independence is one of the best things about these entrepreneurs, but that “go-it-alone” streak can lead to serious bookkeeping oversights that will create big problems in your real estate business. While most investors acknowledge they have neither the time nor the ...
Markets that Will “Double Up” in 2018

Markets that Will “Double Up” in 2018

Although home prices have been rising briskly in many markets across the country, the prospects for investors in these markets can be quite different from market to market. This is especially true for investors in rental properties who need a longer-term perspective than those rehabbing and reselling. Jobs are the ...
analyst

Predictive Analyst Names Two Picks for HQ2

Last year, New York University (NYU) marketing professor Scott Galloway predicted that Amazon would purchase Whole Foods. In June 2017, the internet behemoth did so. Now, Galloway has another big, Amazon-related prediction: “It all comes down to two locations [for HQ2]: It’s either going to be the metro area of ...
stock market

The Stock Market: What You Need to Know

Last week, Wall Street went a little crazy. After more than a year of steady growth, the time was certainly ripe for a correction in the market, and that is what the market gave investors last week. February started off with some turbulence, with the Dow closing on February 2, ...
guidelines

3 Guidelines for Effective Real Estate Advertising

| Rodney Halford | Article | Operations
Before you spend a dime on advertising your real estate business, you must absorb and incorporate one vital, foundational principle: Advertising is an investment, not an expense. If you like, you can add an additional descriptive word, such as “strategic” or “responsible” or “wise” to the description of this principle, ...
real estate investment

13 Steps to Real Estate Investment Success

In real estate, once the market begins to bounce back, investing in real property likewise turns into an all the more engaging thought – either as a profession or an awesome side job. Like any other undertaking, however, there’s a correct way and a wrong approach. Successful real estate investors aren’t made ...
renovation

Renovation Rock Stars: Portugal

| Lorraine Beato | Article | Operations
When Lorraine Beato, an Atlanta, Georgia, realtor specializing in single-family residential homes, investment acquisitions, and upscale renovations, updates a property, she usually does so for one of her investor buyers or a retail client. Also, she usually works in the continental United States! Last summer, however, she found herself in ...
project management

Project Management for Better Productivity

Real estate investors often find themselves overwhelmed, which is one of the main sources of disappointment in this popular industry for new investors. Ask any active investor at a local real estate investors’ association (REIA) meeting what surprised them when they started investing full-time, and most will mention that they ...
kitchen

3 Kitchen Secrets that Affect Your Bottom Line

| Mark Reginelli | Article | Operations
Kitchen remodels are among the highest-returning upgrades you can do in a home - if they are handled correctly. Unfortunately, many real estate investors tend to get a bit carried away when they upgrade the kitchen in their investment properties and sometimes make mistakes that cost them serious cash flow ...
10 Essential Questions to Ask the Director of Economic Development

10 Essential Questions to Ask the Director of Economic Development

| 6 pages | 1,233 words | 6 minute read | Excerpt Overall, the Director of Economic Development (DED) has a wealth of information about their community. Below are reasons why you should visit your local and state economic department website and in person: They know their city inside out ...
Mack Brown To Kick Off Think Realty Conference In Dallas

Mack Brown To Kick Off Think Realty Conference In Dallas

Mack Brown, former head coach of the Texas Longhorns, will kick off the Think Realty Conference & Expo in Dallas happening February 24th and 25th, at the Westin Galleria Dallas Hotel! Attendees will learn time-saving tips, how to get their real estate businesses started, solidifying and scaling strategy and how ...
mortgage

Mortgage Lending: Buyers Simply Do Not Understand

While most Americans state they believe owning a home is part of the American Dream, only about eight percent of the population reports having the basic knowledge to figure out if they can afford a home and obtain conventional financing in order to make the purchase. Ally Financial recently surveyed ...
texas

State Spotlight: Texas

The state of Texas has 10 distinct climatic regions and 11 distinct ecological regions, so it’s hardly surprising that the second-largest state in the union boasts hundreds of distinct housing markets. In fact, it’s far more common to find regional analyses than a statewide real estate analysis of Texas simply ...
staging

4 Fast Sale Staging & Design Decisions

| Aimee Breeden | Article | Operations
Owning real estate is a great investment, as any agent will tell you. Terms like “appreciating asset” and “equity” can convert almost any potential buyer to a homeowner. However, the excitement of purchasing a new home might feel like a distant memory when it comes time to cash in on ...
buying

Out-Of-State Buying Guide

Seven years ago, I moved from Eugene, Oregon to Kansas City, Missouri and have seen both sides of investing out-of-state. I’ve seen people in high-priced markets make very solid returns they could never have hoped to find in their home market. And I’ve seen people completely lose their shirt. On ...