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.
Portland to Fine Landlords Who Raise Rents “Too Much”
Portland-area landlords could soon have to pay to help tenants relocate if the landlords raise rents too high for current renters to afford. Portland, Oregon’s city council members recently approved a bill requiring landlords to offer “relocation assistance” in the form of fees between $2,900 and $4,500 depending on the ...
Denver Neighborhood Serves as “Future City”
A high-tech neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, will serve as a test site for various technologies to show “what the future could hold,” according to the city’s “Smart City Project,” an endeavor partnered with Panasonic. The neighborhood, known as Peña Station Next (PSN), will have everything from smart LED street lights ...
Know Your Deal. Price is only part of it.
If you’ve met me in person it’s likely my height and nose already tipped you off, but for those of you that haven’t, I’ll fill you in: I am Dutch. Because of this, by both nature and stereotype, I LOVE a good deal. Yes, it’s true, we Dutch are tall ...
Farmlands Facing Threat of Real Estate Bust
As more and more farmers find themselves in debt thanks to falling prices for corn, wheat, and other agricultural commodities, many are opting to leave the sector entirely. According to economists, the Farm Belt of the United States, traditionally considered to be the central states of the Midwestern U.S., like ...
Detroit Lights Up, Sparking Investor Attention
Detroit has flipped the switch on a plan to light up the streets at night and is now attracting the attention of investors who see bargain basement prices and a whole lot of potential. The once-bankrupt city just completed a four-year project to replace "all" the city's streetlights. 88,000 mostly ...
Foreclosures Down from December 2015
CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report for December 2016, released on Feb. 14, 2017, shows there were 21,000 completed foreclosures nationally which is down from 36,000 in December 2015. Seriously delinquent rate is at 2.6 percent which is the lowest level since June 2007. Approximately 335,000 homes in the U.S. were in ...
Best RE Investment Opportunities in 2017
HomeUnion, has released its 2017 National Single-Family Rental Research (SFR) Report. The comprehensive study ranks 31 metro areas based on several factors including investment opportunities for 2017, yields, rental demand, investment home prices and capital markets conditions. Atlanta topped the Opportunity Rankings list as the metro area offering the best ...
Quarter of Homes Surveyed Found at High Environmental Risk
Almost a quarter of nearly 70 million single-family homes or condos in a recent ATTOM Data Solutions survey were found to have high environmental hazard risk. ATTOM's "Environmental Hazards Housing Risk Index," released Feb. 16, 2017, showed 17.3 million residences are in ZIP codes with high or very high risk ...
9 Marketing Arsenal Must-Haves
In a business that focuses on the details, real estate investors may forget to step back and consider the big picture of their goals and how they plan to achieve them. Are you confident your current marketing efforts will get you where you want to be professionally? Here’s a list ...
Who has the Jimmy Choo Shoe Box?
People are reorganizing closets, reclaiming shoe boxes, filled with receipts and statements that are being dropped off at their accountant’s office. All too often, with a commitment to end this cycle of disorganization and unnecessary stress. Always check with your accountant to verify what type of paper documentation they may ...
One-on-One with Kathy Fettke: Offering Hope
Kathy Fettke has spent the last two decades in real estate doing what she calls “offering hope” - and what many others consider to be making great calls on the real estate industry. Fettke is often asked to comment on the housing market on television and radio as well as ...
One-on-One with Shawn Woedl: Busting Real Estate Investing Myths
Shawn Woedl is the Vice President of the National Real Estate Insurance Group (NREIG), industry-recognized speaker and educator, and an expert on all lines of commercial property insurance. He will be presenting a study on “The 13 Insurance Myths for Real Estate Investors” at Think Realty’s San Diego Group Event ...
When it Gets Real: 4 “Must-haves” Before Buying your First Investment Property
Growing up, my mom and I spent our Sundays at open houses around our Midwestern hometown. We were never actually looking to buy a home; we honestly just loved walking around and dreaming (and yes, Dad, being a little bit nosy). We’d walk through a home and talk about which ...
Can Pension Fund Troubles be Mitigated by Real Estate?
A number of pension funds, both public and private, have recently had difficulties – some have gone insolvent, or are otherwise are on the brink. Most of these funds hold more than half of their assets in equities – even though the famous (and successful) Yale Endowment model stresses the ...
One-to-One with Sonia Booker: Sharing the Vision
Sonia Booker is a powerhouse on the real estate scene. With a strong voice and a powerful message, Booker has one of the most positive and confident networking skill sets in the business. She is now in demand all over the country, as she works to spread her “wealth-building movement.” ...
Are Your Goals and Expectations Realistic?
In a blog post, earlier this year, we talked a lot about goals—and specifically, goals for 2017. Veteran and beginning real estate investors alike will set their goals based on what they want to accomplish in a given year. But are your goals realistic? New and part-time real estate investors ...
UNDERWATER U.S. PROPERTIES DOWN FROM YEAR AGO
ATTOM Data Solutions’ Year-End 2016 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, shows that as of the end of 2016 there were 5.4 million (5,408,323) U.S. properties seriously underwater — where the combined loan amount secured by the property was at least 25 percent higher than the property’s estimated market value ...
The long-term forecast from Ten-X’s U.S. Office Market Outlook, released on February 8, 2017, reveals the sector's fundamentals appear to be stalling after years of slow recovery, as vacancy rates have plateaued despite a healthy labor market and growing national economy. The Top Five Buy Markets forecast indicates Portland, Oregon; ...
Trump Suspends “Fiduciary Rule” for Financial Planners
Another swipe of the pen by President Trump will delay - indefinitely - a new rule that was intended to protect consumers from bad financial advice. President Trump signed a "Memorandum on the Fiduciary Duty Rule" the same day he signed an executive order to re-examine Dodd-Frank regulations. This rule would ...
Single-Family Home Vacancy Rates Down
Strong retention rates and fewer lease expirations helped lower the vacancy rates among single-borrower, single-family rental transactions in December 2016, and Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC expects the vacancy rate to improve further in the coming months. The average vacancy rate among single-borrower, single-family rental transactions declined to 5.1 percent in ...
We've been investing in Detroit since 2009. Although we picked Detroit eight years ago, I believe that now is a better time to invest in the city than ever before. Here are six reasons why. Low Purchase Price Home prices in the Detroit area are quite low. Homes that need ...
Make More Money, Get Out of Your REI Comfort Zone
Raise your hand if you are reluctant to move beyond your comfort zone. If you raised your hand, you are not alone. People like being in their comfort zone because it is familiar. We know what to expect. Amazingly, people will stay in their comfort zone even if it isn't ...
Sellers Boasting Biggest Profits Since 2007
If you sold your home in 2016, then the odds are you saw a pretty hefty profit when you checked out that cashier’s check at the closing table. According to ATTOM Data Solutions, homeowners who sold their homes last year saw an average home price gain since purchase of $38,206 ...
3 Risky Moves Most are Willing to Take to Own Real Estate
The “American Dream” of homeownership still has a powerful siren song for many would-be homeowners and it can lead people to do some risky things in order to be able to jingle that special set of door keys in their pocket. According to the Owners.com Home Buyer Study 2017, which ...
New York City’s Housing Trend, Frankenmansions
New York City’s richest homeowners just can’t get enough square footage but they’re willing to go to some pretty great lengths in order to try. The result of the city’s wealthiest real estate buyers’ hard work and extensive renovations conducted with an eye toward wider, more open spaces in their ...
