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.
12-Year Low in Foreclosure Activity for 2017
ATTOM Data Solutions, today released its Year-End 2017 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 676,535 U.S. properties in 2017, down 27 percent from 2016 and down 76 percent from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in ...
The Case for Real Estate as an Investment
Yes, as you may have heard, Bitcoin has gone through the proverbial roof of late and cryptocurrencies are all the rage. There are also plenty of sexy startups out there and I’m sure your friend has a great stock tip or two. And you probably know at least one gold ...
Real estate investing is all about the personal touch, so it’s not surprising that most investors are not too concerned about one of the hottest topics in tech these days: robots replacing humans in many areas of employment, even possibly realtors. However, a startup called Homie is hoping to change ...
Breaking News: Amazon Announces 20 Finalists for HQ2
Amazon announced today it has narrowed the list of possible locations for its second headquarters, HQ2, down to 20. Not surprisingly, the list features a number of metro areas in the Midwest and South, which are the most affordable regions of the United States, and steers away from what the ...
Avoid Over-Renovation: Here’s Why
What a great feeling it is to walk into a newly renovated home, smelling of fresh paint and new carpet. Many rental home investors are now providing incentives to new tenants, with upgrades and amenities that they may not have been able to afford in previous housing situations. If you do ...
Buying Cheaper than Renting in More than Half of Markets
The national housing market is definitely heating up, but it still makes more sense to buy instead of rent in more than half of all housing markets. According to ATTOM Data Solutions, buying a median-priced home is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 54 percent of all U.S ...
Infographic: 7 Habits of Effective Flippers
Habits are a loop that we create by queues and positive rewards. Real estate investors know that if they find a deal, perform their due diligence (queues) they are rewarded with a positive outcome of a profit of some form, no matter how you have your exit strategy structured (positive ...
17 Clarifying Home Definitions
What is a mansion compared to a McMansion, or a manufactured home versus a prefab home? These home definitions clear up any confusion. There are so many types of homes and houses, and some can be easily confused. Let’s take a look at definitions of homes that are often mixed ...
Foreclosure Wave Heads for Puerto Rico
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, it was quickly named the worst natural disaster on record to ever hit the region. Maria was the 10th-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, and the deadliest storm of the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season. It was also far and ...
Hottest & Coldest Names for Home Buyers
ATTOM Data Solutions released a unique set of data, nothing like what is usually gathered and recorded. In the following maps comes the hottest and fastest declining first names of homebuyers. Much like the lists of top baby names, this list shows the most popular names of buyers and those ...
7 Steps to Grow Your Network – Week 3
Every day in January, we’ve committed to one activity that will help us grow our network. Some of us are doing it to find deals, identify potential partnerships, source funding, or even to create an outlet to discuss real estate investing. No matter your reason, here are the things you ...
1031 Exchange & the Role of the Agent
While most real estate transactions conducted in the United States have a real estate agent involved, not many of them are clear about their role in the 1031 Exchange. What should the role of the agent be with the principals in the transaction and what duties, if any, can the ...
Is Your Property Dressed Appropriately for Winter?
I went to college with a kid born and raised in Alaska. He still wore shorts and t-shirts when the fall weather ushered in highs in the 40s. All of us Midwesterners thought he was nuts. That was sweater weather! While he may have adapted to the colder temperatures just ...
5 Indicators a Real Estate Event is Worth the Investment
One of the most frustrating things that active real estate investors can encounter is a wasted real estate event. We don’t mean an event you paid for through the nose on credit, and then found yourself still unable to invest. Those are an entirely different topic, and not one we’re ...
Real Estate Investment, a get Rich Slow Strategy?
One of my favorite analogies for business was given by Jim Collins in his book Great by Choice. It involves Roald Amundsen, who was the first explorer to ever reach the South Pole. In 1911, Amundsen and his team faced off with Robert Falcon Scott and his team in the ...
Zillow Chief Economist Discusses 2018 Trends
Svenja Gudell started at Zillow in 2011 with her first project of calculating negative equity, and she’s probably one of the few homeowners in the country who would tell you that the topic has “a special spot” in her heart. However, that special spot, such as it is, is one ...
3 Effects Tax Cuts Could Have on Economy & Housing
When President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on December 22, 2017, he accomplished a number of things with a single swipe of a pen. Those things included: Cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent Cutting the top individual tax rate to 37 percent Reducing ...
64 Percent Live Where Cheaper to Rent than Buy
ATTOM Data Solutions, today released its 2018 Rental Affordability Report, which shows buying a median-priced home is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 240 of 447 U.S. counties analyzed for the report — 54 percent. The analysis incorporated recently released fair market rent data for 2018 from the U.S ...
Turnkey Operators: Insurance Coverage Choices
This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of Think Realty Magazine as part of the sponsored “Investor Review.” Turnkey operators have unique needs when it comes to how they insure their property investment portfolio. Whether it’s deciding to carry property and liability insurance (or liability only) or determining what building value ...
Reform Boon for Commercial Real Estate
Starting this week, new tax rules will usher in the New Year with a big win for residential and commercial real estate investors. It’s still too early to know the full impact of the legislation, but many tax professionals say real estate investors and other property owners have hit the ...
Luxury Real Estate Lags Behind Mainstream Housing
According to Realtor.com, U.S. luxury housing lagged behind the mainstream real estate market in 2017 and is likely to continue to slow in 2018. Of course, that does not mean that the sector is not still growing. In fact, analysts reported that average sales price in the luxury market, defined ...
Section 1031: West Coast vs East Coast
The history of the tax code pursuant to IRC Section 1031 is striking when viewed against one simple critical factor that runs through real estate: Real Estate is a local business. In some ways this explains why a Federal Tax Code called Section 1031, which has so much value for ...
Global Economic Rankings Will Affect U.S. Real Estate
When the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) announced in early January that China’s economy would surpass that of the United States “by 2032,” the reaction from the U.S. media was not surprising. The U.S. has been a dominant economic force in the world for a very long time ...
FHA May Refuse to Insure Loans on Energy Efficient Properties
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) recently released new restrictions on the types of mortgages it will insure and eliminated certain energy-efficient homes in the process. In early December 2017, the FHA reversed a policy from the previous presidential administration that allowed the FHA to insure mortgages on homes carrying liens ...
Rents Continue to Rise into 2018
Although rental rate growth slowed over the course of 2017, Zillow reported at the start of 2018 that rates were starting to rise again. Over the past 12 months, median rents nationwide rose about 2.4 percent. This manifested in a median rental price of $1,435 per month, which, Zillow analysts ...
