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.
Foreclosure starts jump 12% in October, largest month-over-month increase since August 2011
Foreclosures were started for the first time on 48,605 properties in October and there were 36,582 properties repossessed by lenders in October, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. The report shows: U.S. foreclosure starts increased 12 percent from the previous month – the largest monthly increase since August 2011 ...
The 6 fundamentals of residential real estate investing
Whether you are a seasoned real estate investor or you are just getting started, fundamentals are an important part of your business. Hopefully from this video below there will be something the seasoned investors can pick up to grow their real estate investing business even more than it is. And ...
Setting rental rates: Finding the right price and keeping up with market changes
Not so long ago, pricing rental properties involved a largely “set it and forget it” approach. The rent would be determined, often based on arbitrary numbers or a gut feeling, and then it wouldn’t be adjusted again until the landlord felt the need to raise it. Today though, it’s a ...
5 things to do to make 2016 your best investment year ever
In the fourth quarter of the year, I always hear investors talking about closing the year’s investments strong and wondering what next year will have in store for them. This reminds me of a consultant friend of mine who said, “Predict the future by creating it.” Wise words indeed. However, ...
The secret of successful residential real estate investing
Speaking from my experience as a one-time, part-time real estate investor and active executive in the corporate world and now a full-time investor here in Dallas and the owner of a HomeVestors franchise, I want to share what I have realized is the secret to a successful real estate investing ...
The economy is either going to slow or the Fed will see to it
Last week I described the Fed divided into three groups: hawks, doves, and undecided. After Friday’s employment report the Fed is a united hawk-nest, and outside the Fed anxiety-ridden birds have begun to pluck out their own feathers. Like me. The only anxiety refuge from Friday’s report of October payrolls: ...
How to choose the right entry and exit strategy for any house flip
When you watch our show on HGTV, you usually see my wife and me going through a lot of crazy things while we fix and flip houses for our real estate investing business. Most of the time, despite all of the surprises and drama that make good TV but stressful ...
The story of 2 vacant lots – one works and one may not
This week in “Real Estate Deal Talk,” we look at a vacant lot we got from a wholesaler. Everybody keeps asking me, “How do we find deals?” I do one thing more than anybody else, I feel: I call and call and call. Here are the stats on this lot. It ...
7 reasons now is a great time to be a landlord
It's cheaper to own a home than to rent one, and that's good news for investors and landlords. Here's why: We’ve been telling you for a while that it’s a good time to be a landlord and buy and hold real estate—property values have nowhere to go but up. But ...
7 steps on how to negotiate a short sale with banks
For active real estate investors, “short sales” can be a key source of investment opportunities. They’re less common now, but short sales are still important in many regions that are still working through foreclosure backlogs. Yet short sales can be difficult transactions; the lender must accept less than the total ...
4 ways to commit to a buy-and-hold real estate investing style
Why do we invest in real estate? We invest in real estate to supplement the current income from a job we do not want to be working in. Or, even if you love working in your current job, it is still awesome making money before you get out of bed ...
The Fed is divided into 3 camps: Hawk, dove and not sure
Long-term rates rose last week, not a lot, but since summer rates have not been able to penetrate the lows revisited in October. I would say that confusion about the future course deepened, but it can’t get any deeper. Long rates rose a little after the Fed’s meeting broke on ...
Each week I travel across the Southeast, whenever I’m in a different city I like to attend the local real estate investor club meetings. While there, someone will inevitably ask me the following question: “I don’t understand why a person would pay a franchise to have a real estate investing ...
3 lessons from your full-time career that will help your part-time real estate investing
Your part-time real estate investing is a business. It’s not a hobby or a fad, it’s a business. You have to treat it like a business and run it like a business in order for it to be successful. So many of the things I learned, the experiences I gained ...
Test your real estate investing knowledge with our quiz
Each week we test your real estate investing knowledge with our quiz to let you have some fun and perhaps learn more about real estate investing. How many single-family home sales in the last year were flips? What is a gross rent multiplier? How many investors identify themselves as part-time ...
A walk-through on a rehab in Atlanta by a flip expert
By Abhi Golhar I like flips. I am a flipper. I like where trends are headed, and I like capital gains from flips. That is what I am interested in. I am not interested right now in buy-and-hold. Flipping is never that simple, and it is certainly not for everybody ...
Why it is important to invest outside of your neighborhood comfort zone
This is something I experienced in my own investing. I learned a lot when I was able to overcome my hesitancy to invest outside my neighborhood comfort zone or my immediate geographical zone. It is so important because you might find yourself, as a part-time investor, being stifled, slowed or ...
Of course bonds are right, and stocks don’t get it
Last week was an exercise in perspective, stocks versus bonds and mortgages, and here versus over there. In a week with little new U.S. data (apartments hot, single-family not), bonds and mortgages stayed the same -- which is remarkable given the performance of stocks. The 10-year T-note could not break ...
3 big things you need to know before you raise the rent
It is a great time to be a landlord. In fact, landlords have been having a great time enjoying some of the fasted growth in rent rates in recent history. Being aware there is a cap to the growth is now key. Rental demand continues to remain very strong, which ...
Investor rehabs: Some tips, and borrowing options A number of active real estate investors have developed lucrative careers by investing in less-than-perfect residential properties, renovating them and re-selling or flipping (or renting) them, for a profit. The real estate market has now turned around, and although foreclosures are on the ...
Residential real estate investing looks great – what’s the catch?
On paper a single opportunity may look great, but how do we know if there’s a catch? Or what the catch is? From my personal experience as a part-time investor and former full-time corporate employee, I do not know if I was intelligent or astute enough to identify the catch ...
Investor Question: Out-of-the-Box Due Diligence Tactics
DEAR MONTY: About six months ago, three longtime friends and I decided to make some real estate investments together. Our investment goals are similar; we are each high-income professionals, share similar risk tolerance and see real estate as a long-term investment opportunity. Now, we have identified a 60-unit apartment building ...
Long-term rates down and the prospect of Fed liftoff receding
Non-junkies find the Fed about as interesting as other non-junkies enjoy presidential debates, but I promise that Fed issues are vastly more important. And current. Long-term rates fell this week as a direct result of Fed disarray, the 10-year T-note below 2.00% briefly, and the prospect of Fed liftoff receding ...
8 questions to ask yourself about your investing strategy
Working with hundreds of investors over the years, I have found a very small percentage who have actually taken the time to identify and to clearly define their investment goals. What I witness every day is investors bouncing from one real estate investment strategy to the next. Ultimately they will ...
What is the best strategy for insuring your real estate entity?
You have created an entity to hold title to your real estate but did you change your insurance policy to reflect the change in ownership? Unfortunately, some real estate investors who create LLCs, land trusts or other entities to hold title to their real estate forget or improperly update their ...
