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.

Can't find a deal? Create one! blog by Larry Arth

Can’t find a deal? Create one!

| Larry Arth | Article | Topics
Perhaps the best investments that I have ever personally done or helped investors with are the manufactured investments. As the world renowned personal developmental instructor Jim Rohn would always say, “Imagine the possibilities; turn nothing into something.” As the markets tighten, seasoned investors are less affected than others. They excel ...
How to get and build equity - the unappreciated gift in real estate investing blog by Kevin Guz

How to get and build equity – the unappreciated gift

| Kevin Guz | Article | Topics
Many of us get into real estate investing to generate passive income or monthly cash flow from rental properties. That is a good and a viable reason to get excited about investing in real estate as a part-time investor. Cash flow is king, as many say, and renal real estate ...
10-year T-note in the last 12 months. Double-bottom at 2.00%, but descending tops since July. The two trendlines will soon collide, but the global economy will decide the next trend.

Perhaps the Fed’s best option is to shut up – you look ridiculous

| Danny Johnson | Article | Topics
It is odd out there. High-volatility markets have gone still. Long-term interest rates certain to rise have fallen, mortgages back in the threes. The 242-seat Republican majority in the House is captive to 40 wild men, the party in many ways no longer a party. Vladimir’s latest excursion is only ...
Hybrid financing and mezzanine instruments in real estate financing

Hybrid financing and “mezzanine” instruments in real estate financing

“Mezzanine” finance is a bit like it sounds – something in between two “regular” floors. In department stores like Fields and Macy’s, the mezzanine floor was often used for just about everything in between the women’s and men’s displays on the 1st and 2nd floors. In real estate finance and ...
3 ways to make sure your investment deals are still good blog by Larry Arth for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

3 ways to make sure your investment deals are still good

| Larry Arth | Article, Topics
When I talk to investors and ask if their properties are performing the way they intended when first purchased, I often get a glazed expression as they try to decide. Just as a bad apple in the bag will spread decay into the other apples, so can one bad or ...
The 7 Best Renovations for Rental Properties

The 7 Best Renovations for Rental Properties

Here are a number of renovation suggestions designed to help ensure that a prospective tenant will choose your rental. When dealing with rental-property ownership, two of the biggest variables are dealing with vacancies and the length of time it takes you or your property manager to re-rent the property. Marketing ...
When should you make the transition from part-time to full-time real estate investor blog by Kevin Guz

When should I make the transition from part-time to full-time real estate investor?

| Kevin Guz | Article, Topics
Whether you are a part-time investor trying to become a full-time investor, or whether you are not an investor but you aspire to be, this topic is relevant. There is no silver bullet or single answer to the question of how or when you transition to full-time investor. What does ...
The Fed and the weekly economic analysis by Lou Barnes

The Fed, the employment rate, the bond market going anywhere in particular?

| Danny Johnson | Article, Topics
Trying as always to grasp the present, it seems to me the financial markets today reflect a world wandering through an odd passage. Not aimless (plenty of people have aims... too many), but without direction in two senses: not headed anywhere in particular, and certainly not led by anybody greatly ...
How one 28-unit apartment building could be your road to building equity for retirement blog by Chris Urso

How one 28-unit apartment complex could be your road to building equity for retirement

| Cristopher Urso | Article | Topics
When leverage is used properly it’s your best friend in real estate. Using the right financing for the right property allows you to create true wealth over time. We help our private coaching clients establish a custom plan, identify the right properties and financing structure for each deal. How one ...
Kevin Ortner president and CEO of Renters Warehouse

Moving on up: From real estate to rent estate

| Kevin Ortner | Article, Topics
When you think of real estate investments, well-known business moguls and investors probably come to mind. But while getting into large-scale real estate investing is largely relegated to the realm of the top 10 percent, there’s another option that’s available – an easier way to make money with real estate ...
How to take calls from motivated sellers like a pro blog by Danny Johnson

How to take calls from motivated sellers like a pro and convert more leads into deals

| Danny Johnson | Article, Topics
Leads into deals Real estate investing success hinges on being able to find good deals. If you don’t have leads coming in and are not making offers on those properties, you’re just not going to make it. It really is as simple as that When I got started flipping houses ...
Teresa Bitler

7 things to do when walking through your rental property with a tenant

| Teresa Bitler | Article, Topics
Do you want your rental property in better shape after your tenant moves out? Landlords who conduct a good initial walkthrough of their rental property with a new tenant will experience less damage and receive the property back in better shape than those who rush through or skip the walkthrough ...
Is your hometown always the best place to invest? blog by Larry Arth

Is your hometown always the best place to invest?

| Larry Arth | Article | Topics
A popular debate I hear regularly among real estate investors concerns the question of whether to invest locally in your hometown or in another market. I hear this debate at local real estate offices as well as at local real estate investment club meetings I attend. I enjoy hearing the ...
Are you ready to take action when the right house comes along? asks Kevin Guz in the weekend real estate investor blog

Are you ready to take action when the right house comes along?

| Kevin Guz | Article, Topics
As a part-time real estate investor your readiness or preparation is key. What you are going to find if you have not yet bought your first investment property is that when that right house comes along, at the right price, your ability to purchase that property is going to depend ...
The Fed may soon be in the business of raising the unemployment rate Lou Barnes blogs

Yellen’s speech: The biggest story of the week is the hardest to interpret

| Danny Johnson | Article, Topics
Sunday evening... imagine 10,000 years ago on an open steppe, your tribe witness to the rising of an over-sized full moon, colored burnt or bloody, then darkening altogether. What could it mean? Famine, drought, flood, sickness...? It means the Fed’s going to tighten, that’s what. (I’ll miss the celestial show: ...
How to share ownership and get additional funding for your bigger real estate investment projects

How to look for other investors to share ownership and get additional funding

| Lawrence Fassler | Article, Topics
Only rarely will a lender cover 100% of a property’s cost. Lenders generally want owners to retain some “skin in the game.” But you may not have enough cash (or don’t want) to cover the rest of the money needed. In these cases, investors need to look for other investors ...
Joe Scurlock and Chris Underwood are still finding big foreclosure opportunities in Florida

Joe Scurlock and Chris Underwood still finding big opportunities in Florida foreclosure properties

| James Hart | Article, Topics
By James Hart Senior Staff Writer When Chris Underwood and Joe Scurlock of Florida’s HomeStream LLC started the year, they set a goal of buying, rehabbing and selling at least 100 foreclosure properties before Dec. 31, 2015. They passed that milestone in June. Now, Scurlock and Underwood are on pace ...
Jeff Ball of Visio Financial Services

Wide-ranging experience and interests, plus a penchant for innovation, propel Visio’s and Econohomes’ chief Jeff Ball

| Editorial Staff | Article, Topics
By Susan Thomas Springer Jeff Ball's education and career prepared him to be successful in just about any sector. In college, Ball studied economics and theology and earned a law degree and an MBA. Add to that a position in banking and tech, as Global Head of Semiconductor Investment Banking ...
Real estate investment gurus: Friend or foe? blog by Larry Arth

Real estate investment gurus: Friend or foe?

| Larry Arth | Article, Topics
When I hear or read the word “guru,” my mind starts pinging like an arcade game. Every investment seminar I attend has discussions about gurus. Every magazine you read references them, and the frame of reference is always different, from “They are great and made me a fortune,” to “They ...
How to avoid the potential loneliness of part-time real estate investors blog by Kevin Guz

How to avoid the potential loneliness of part-time real estate investors

| Kevin Guz | Article, Topics
The life of a part-time real estate investor can be very lonely at times. You may feel like you are out on an island trying to figure everything on your own and doing everything on your own. Why this is relevant is that state of mind can often lead to ...
The Fed is peripheral now, by the way, so is the stock market blogs Lou Barnes his analysis for real estate investors

Lou Barnes analysis: The Fed is peripheral now, by the way, so is the stock market

| Danny Johnson | Article, Topics
Well, thank heavens that’s over. Not. It’s never over. Which is a good place to begin. Start by sorting Wall Street propaganda and bad theories in general from clear thinking about what’s actually happening and ahead. Bad idea number one is just silly, not damaging: the Fed’s September pass creates ...
Does your professional advisor truly understand your real estate business? blog by Clint Coons

Does your professional advisor truly understand your real estate business?

| Clint Coons | Article, Topics
What is the appropriate entity for real estate investors who buy and sell, wholesale, buy tax liens and deeds, or any other activity that does not require holding on to real estate for more than one year? This question is typically answered as follows – use a limited liability company ...
How real estate coaching should work in the real world blog by Rob Caldwell, real estate coach and mentor who can help you grow your real estate investing business.

How my real estate coaching differs from what the “gurus” do

| Rob Caldwell | Article, Topics
A few years ago I received a call from a coach saying the company he worked for was planning a real estate boot camp Saturday and Sunday in my town. He asked if I had any vacant properties they could show their students on Sunday morning to illustrate what distressed ...
Investing in college towns - what real estate investors need to know blog by Larry Arth

Investing in college towns: the overlooked great investments

| Larry Arth | Article, Topics
As any entrepreneur knows, the key to success is to find a need and then fulfill the need. When you do, profits will soar. This is exactly what a friend of mine did when his son went off to college. The need in college towns At the start of any ...
Debt Financing and getting that loan

Debt financing and getting that loan is not simple: who will loan on investment properties?

| Lawrence Fassler | Article, Topics
Quick and consistent access to debt financing is a key component of successful real estate investing. Investors are often surprised, then, when their borrowing process hits roadblocks. Who will loan on investment properties? Perhaps surprisingly, getting a loan on a “flip” or other investment property is not always as simple ...