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.
MultiFamily Real Estate: For Investors Who Want a Balanced Portfolio
Good balance keeps you from falling over. In all areas of of my life, I strive for that healthy balance – of work and play, family and business. This balance should carry over to your financial health as well. Why do I feel that a balanced portfolio should contain multifamily ...
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 renting) them for a profit. The real estate market has now turned around, and although foreclosures are on the decline, good fix-and-flip deals remain available. From my vantage ...
Almost Never Buy Your Vacation Home
I love looking at houses, even on vacation. The fact is that I love to check out real estate markets wherever I am. Recently I took my wife to Hawaii for her 60th birthday. She deserved a wonderful vacation. After all, she has tolerated me for the last 45 years ...
One Investor’s Borrowing Experience
Home prices have now stabilized, and most observers see the market as continuing to rise at a modest pace. Active investors are coming back to the market, and are back in the swing of buying distressed properties, doing quick rehabs and selling them for a profit. An aftershock of the ...
Rehabbing for Rentals Vs. Rehabbing for Resale
If you’ve watched many episodes of our show on HGTV, you know that my wife Christina and I specialize in rehabbing houses so that they can sell really quickly. People who aren’t really familiar with flipping houses and the real estate industry usually think that just means that we have ...
Investors are increasingly reaping the rewards of building and rehabbing properties with energy-efficient features in higher cash flow and ROI. By Susan Thomas Springer Do green building practices make economic sense for investors? Two successful real estate developers, one in California and one in Colorado, have proven the answer is ...
7 Lessons Learned From My Landlord Mistakes
If I’ve learned anything over the years it would be to embrace your mistakes and turn them into profitable lessons. I suppose you could look at it as a sort of tuition for some good education. Trying as these lessons can be, it is paramount to truly learn what you ...
The Long and Short of the Fed’s Rate Hike
We have liftoff. The long and short of it follow, short first. The immediate reaction to the Fed’s first hike in 10 years, from a band “0% to .25%” to .50%: the prime rate moved mechanically to 3.50%, rising in lockstep as it will after each future increase in Fed ...
The Negotiation Never Stops When a Seller Holds a Mortgage
When buying houses from sellers, the name of the game is negotiation. Negotiation is the highest paid job you can get. Determining a seller’s needs is where it begins, and meeting those needs is where it ends. Negotiation is a learned skill. Anyone can do it, but it takes practice ...
7 Documents Every Landlord Should Have on File
If you haven’t given much thought to the documents you keep—and those you discard—you risk being unable to defend your position in a dispute or pursue the tenant to collect damages in the event that becomes necessary. Although the documents can vary depending on the property type, jurisdiction and other ...
5 Things I Would Tell My Younger Self About Real Estate Investing
How often have you heard the expression, “If I knew then what I know now?” It reminds me, growing up, listening to Dad talk about real estate investing, he was always saying, “If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things much differently.” So this got ...
What Will Wednesday’s Federal Reserve Meeting Bring?
The entire financial world would prefer to remain in fetal curl until the Fed acts next Wednesday at the Federal Reserve board meeting, but events intrude. Oil prices falling into the $30s presage even less inflation (Fed oblivious), and create unrest in the stock market (and producer nations). The big ...
We’ve all heard of crowdfunding or kickstarting—websites that allow people to pool their money to support new innovations and projects like smartwatches, video games, and even potato salad. But crowdfunding as it applies to real estate may not be something that you see every day –although perhaps it will be ...
Don’t Go It Alone As a Part-Time Real Estate Investor
Many people get excited about the opportunity to get out on their own and do their own thing as a part-time real estate investor in addition to their full-time career. There’s something very attractive about the idea of being on your own, even on a part-time basis, and that may ...
Airbnb Apartments? Is This Startup Ready to Invade the Apartment Space?
In only its eighth year, Airbnb is on pace to book 80 million nights this year, double that of last year. It is the third-largest unicorn (a start-up valued at $1 billion and above) in the world with a valuation estimated at $25.5 billion. But will Airbnb migrate from challenging ...
How to Apply for Financing Quickly and Easily
Many investors have developed a lucrative career by investing in less-than-perfect residential or commercial properties, renovating them and re-selling (or renting) them for a profit. The real estate market has now turned around, and although foreclosures are on the decline, good fix-and-flip deals remain available. If you’re such an investor, ...
Landlords create great ROI by giving gifts for the holidays to tenants
After I was married 33 years ago, my gift giving list during the holidays grew exponentially with all the additional mother-in-law, father-in-law, brothers, sisters and even aunt and uncle in-laws. I remember after an exhausting day of shopping and purchasing the final gifts telling my wife, “Damn glad to have ...
Nobody believes the Fed will be aggressive so mortgage rates should be intact
Here before Thanksgiving I’m more pensive than my usual argumentative self, backing away from the immediate toward historical distance, savoring surprise, and tilted to forgiving human absurdity than railing against it. The dominant news, of course: Paris. Which has had no effect on financial markets. Tourism will suffer for awhile ...
Overcoming obstacles is the key to driving success as a part-time real estate investor
I was recently driving down the road, as I frequently do as a full-time investor in here Dallas and the owner of a HomeVestors franchise, and I heard a story on the news that said only about 7 percent of the new vehicles sold today are manual or stick shift ...
Remodeling spending expected to increase in 2016, Harvard study says
Spending on remodeling and home improvement show more optimism going into next year and are projected to more than double in 2016, according to a study from the Joint Center for Housing at Harvard. After several quarters of slackening growth, home improvement spending is projected to pick up its pace ...
11 things Baby Boomer renters want and landlords need to know
As a real estate investor and landlord myself I understand that tenants are the pillars of our business. Working with hundreds of investors, I carry a high level of interest in these tenants who represent our customer base. I trust that you, as landlords and diligent investors, do as well ...
It’s not about the house it’s about connecting with the seller
Let’s start with what we are all familiar with: buying a home for yourself. Even if you are not a real estate investor, there is probably a pretty good chance you have purchased a home for your personal use. That type of real estate purchase is very different from the ...
Is the Fed liftoff trying to slow imaginary inflation?
An overwhelming consensus of economists expects Fed liftoff at last in December. Good thing we’ve had several hundred miles of runway. An equally overwhelming consensus in the bond market thinks the Fed may get the bird airborne, but not for long. Nor for good reason. After a peculiarly strong employment report last ...
Meet our expert real estate investors who blog to help other investors
Each week we bring you fresh helpful, useful advice from expert veteran real estate investor-bloggers in our featured blog posts area. These real estate investing experts are hands-on in the field everyday working with fellow investors to grow real estate investing businesses. In case you have not seen them featured ...
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 ...
