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.

Think Realty Magazine July/August 2016

Think Realty Magazine July/August 2016

+WHAT'S INSIDE The Big Picture | Turnaround Specialists • Conversion is the Key • Alive and Well • Moving Up the ‘Risk Curve’ • Looking for the Right Mix Cover Feature | Think Realty Awards of Distinction Up Close & Personal | Got Your License Yet? • One-to-One with Lukas Krause • Street-Smart: ...
How To ‘Quantify’ the Quality of Different Rental Houses

How To ‘Quantify’ the Quality of Different Rental Houses

Just as with the stock market, there are different levels of quality in investment properties. This is true with apartments, office buildings, industrial warehouses, and it is true with rental houses.  Many brokers and investors qualify a property as A, B, or C. I use that same technique when I evaluate rental ...
Investing

Retiree Trends Bear Watching by Investors

Only 10 years ago, 2.2 million people were turning 65 each year. That number has surged to 3.5 million this year and will grow to 4.2 million in 2025! Tomorrow’s retirees will completely transform the housing industry. While a majority own their homes, many also indicate renting is in their ...
Abhi

Small Two/One Property Holds Several Options for a Broad-Thinking Investor

| Abhi Golhar | Article | Operations
From the archives of my video series, Real Estate Deal Talk, Episode 19 focuses on a home near Glenwood Park, a really nice neighborhood with a really nice park. The property in question is an 800-square-foot, two-bedroom/one-bathroom rental, currently occupied that we are looking at purchasing and expanding. It looks ...
Existing-home sales

It’s Not Where—But What—You Buy That Matters

Today’s lesson is a valuable one that I learned early on as a real estate investor in Dallas, Texas. And it is simply to remember that it’s not where you buy that matters, as much as it’s what you buy. Many investors—whether you’re a part-time investor, a weekend investor, or ...
Annual Foreclosures

U.S. Foreclosure Activity Down Less Than 1 Percent in May

U.S. foreclosure activity in May 2016 was down from a year ago for the eighth consecutive month and continuing to run below 2006 average monthly levels, according to a new report from leading national data provider RealtyTrac. There were 100,841 properties with foreclosure filings in May, virtually unchanged from the ...
Mentor

Associate With the Best, So You Can Be the Best

| Engelo Rumora | Article | Operations
Today, I want to address a question that I get a lot: Is it important to your business success that you have a mentor? From my standpoint, mates, the answer is “Yes.” And, “No.” Let me explain: Absolutely, you want to associate yourself with successful people of good character and ...
Abhi

Technology for Your Real Estate Business

In this blog post – from episode 25 of my video series “Real Estate Deal Talk”– I would like to share a little bit of insight about using technology as a tool to help you invest in real estate. Among the best tools that I have found: Podio and Zapier ...
Moving Up the 'Risk Curve'

Moving Up the ‘Risk Curve’

Real estate investors often start small—a single-family home investment or a small apartment, office or retail building—before leveraging that early experience into multiple properties and a larger portfolio. The move up from new property investor to a seasoned property investor level can require training in the “school of hard knocks.” ...
2016 Think Realty Awards of Distinction

2016 Think Realty Awards of Distinction

| Think Realty | Article | Profiles
Humanitarian of the Year: An individual of highest integrity, standards and principle who not only excels in the real estate investing industry but selflessly contributes to the betterment of the world at large. Andy Williams, Recon Realty 214-306-4598 Recon Realty is a veteran- focused private real estate investment firm specializing in ...
Upon Further Inspection

Upon Further Inspection

There’s a natural tendency for investors to think more like home appraisers than home inspectors when evaluating a property, and it makes sense—you need to know how much you can expect to sell for when the time comes. But you can miss issues that affect your bottom line when you ...
It Pays to Know 'NOI'

It Pays to Know ‘NOI’

In previous articles, I have discussed how to estimate effective gross income and operating expenses. With those figures at hand, we can now estimate our property’s net operating income (NOI). NOI is calculated as follows: Gross Scheduled Rents (+) Other Income (-) Vacancy Allowance = Effective Gross Rent (-) Operating Expenses = ...
Success by Design

Success by Design

In his best seller, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey provides seven concepts to guide the reader toward self-mastery and business success. The general theme of the book is that, in order to achieve success in one’s life, certain habits should be implemented. A successful life can ...
Sizzle Without the Burn

Sizzle Without the Burn

School’s out now, and one of the best parts of summer, I think, are the cookouts. Some of the best memories I have with friends and family have come from these get-togethers. A key part of our mission at Affinity Loss Prevention Services (ALPS) is to deliver seasonally relevant information ...
Our 'Secret Sauce'

Our ‘Secret Sauce’

It’s your first time flipping a house, and it’s almost ready. Now what? That’s a question we hear a lot. While our business model is mostly wholesale properties, we will flip six or eight houses a year and have learned you have to start marketing the properties even before the ...
Digital Indispensable Tools are Today's Classifieds

Digital Indispensable Tools are Today’s Classifieds

Long gone are the days when renters checked the classifieds. Today, landlords need a professional online presence to attract a steady flow of applicants and keep vacancy time to a minimum. Here several experts share what features matter most for this key marketing tool. WRITE LIKE A REALTOR Do renters ...
Continuing to Serve

Continuing to Serve

When Andy Williams returned from four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he faced a tough transition. “I was in an anti-terrorism team,” he recalls. When he returned to civilian life, he managed and expanded the real estate portfolio he had begun to build from overseas while he was in ...
What Smart Property Managers Need to Know Now

What Smart Property Managers Need to Know Now

Thanks to sky-high demand for rental housing, right now is a great time to be in the business of property management. It’s simpler than ever to find and place quality tenants in a property. Make no mistake, though: Property management is a business, one that’s shaped by larger trends in ...
SDIRA Dilemmas

SDIRA Dilemmas

If you have set up a self-directed IRA, you have probably done so with the intent to expand your investing options outside of securities and obtain higher returns. However, in pursuit of those returns, you may want to pause and consider whether you crossed any lines subjecting your IRA to ...
Lost and Found

Lost and Found

One of the simplest ways for companies to communicate financial well-being and shareholder value is to say that “the dividend check is in the mail.” Dividends—those cash distributions that some companies pay out regularly to shareholders from earnings—send a clear and powerful message about that company’s current performance and future ...
Avoiding Rip-Offs

Avoiding Rip-Offs

Thanks to a rocky recent history, American real estate has been dubbed the “land of milk and honey” for foreign investors. Countless people from across the globe are scooping up American houses like they’re hotcakes, spending an average of nearly $500,000 per purchase, which far surpasses the average U.S. home ...
commercial

Alive and Well

No recovery in U.S. property until 2017,” blared Reuters in 2009. Analysts were fearful that commercial real estate prices would fall another 50 percent from the peak in 2007. Building prices were forecast to take at least six to eight years to recover. Vacancies were soaring. Local malls, shopping plazas ...
Housing Market Watch

Housing Market Watch

RealtyTrac’s Q1 2016 U.S. Residential Property Loan Origination Report shows 1.4 million (1,415,511) loans were originated on U.S. residential properties (1 to 4 units) in the first quarter of 2016, down 12 percent from the previous quarter and down 8 percent from a year ago to the lowest level since ...
Street Smart: Evaluating Online Lenders

Street Smart: Evaluating Online Lenders

| Think Realty | Article | Operations
Laura Catalino SVP of Investor Relations, Money360 949-579-2200 In evaluating and choosing an online lending platform, investors should consider all business conducted by the platform, alignment of interest (between the platform and investor) and the way in which the investor’s interest is secured. Platforms can be marketing portals, origination platforms ...
Profile: Lukas Krause of Property Management Business Solutions

Profile: Lukas Krause of Property Management Business Solutions

| Think Realty | Article | Profiles
Property Management Business Solutions, North America’s largest property management company and franchisor of Real Property Management, promoted Lukas Krause from COO to CEO this past March. Think Realty recently asked him about the direction of his company and industry trends. As told to Susan Thomas Springer, edited for brevity. Think ...