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.
Street Smart: Why Use Professional Property Managers?
Thoughts from pros in an age where a disgruntled tenant and a premises liability lawyer could cost you more to prove your case than your property is worth! Kimberly Smith CEO/Founder, AvenueWest Corporate Housing 800-928-1592 Yes, we can all manage our own rentals, but will this make us the most ...
Equity Financing in Real Estate Deals
I’ve written before about one investor’s borrowing experience with crowdfunding lenders, but in this column, let’s take a look at what things look like on the equity side. The equity financing capabilities usually come on with larger commercial projects. Single-family projects, for example, don’t usually get additional equity financing unless ...
A 7-Point Checklist That Ensures You Are Buying Great Investments in 2016
2016 is upon us and everyone is telling you to get your goals set right? When it comes to those goals around investing, I always like to share with my investors some good practices to include in their investing endeavors. I have found with hundreds of conversations each year on ...
Multifamily Housing Outlook for 2016
One of the questions that I get all the time is: Is this the top of the multifamily market? Have I missed the boat? There are still excellent opportunities ahead. Let’s take a look forward to what the apartment investment market holds for 2016. So, what will 2016 look like ...
Street Smart: Why is Integrity an Issue in Personal Real Estate Investing?
Nate Armstrong Founder, Calhoun Ventures 651-789-5386 The truth is, there is plenty of room in my business for unscrupulous people to make a quick buck. I must emphasize, though, that a quick buck can only be made once. We live in a world where people know what Kim Kardashian ordered at ...
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 the 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 ...
7 Ways to Overcome the Fear of Buying Your First Rental Property
When I was still in the corporate world and just beginning my career as a part-time real estate investor, I started by purchasing a single rental property. It was a very simple, low-risk approach. Like many would-be investors, I was fearful of taking that first step – buying that first ...
Case Study: How Rehabbing Saved a Great Deal
The following is a case study of one rehabbing deal, courtesy of John Tesh, who with his wife, Corinne, owns Citygate Home, LLC, in Greensboro, N.C. By John Tesh We found this house by a referral from a past customer. She knew we paid cash for houses and closed quickly ...
Real Estate Investing in 2016: Simple, Straightforward Keys for Success
As each year draws to a close—even as early as October or November—my focus turns more and more to evaluating my performance that year as a full-time real estate investor and planning how to improve the next year. It’s always enlightening to look back at the goals you started with ...
I am always reluctant to offer predictions for the year ahead because of the arrogance involved. But, shoot, as in the gallows humor of the Eighth Air Force, “No guts, no Air Medals.” Evaluating Last Year’s Predictions Let’s begin with reviewing successes and embarrassments one year ago today. Two mistakes: ...
Too Hot to Handle? The Real Estate Deal That Got Away
In this video, I have something of a treat today. But I don’t know whether to be happy or to be slightly frustrated. It’s the story of a deal that could have been very profitable for us. We are on Irwin Street, which is in Old Fourth Ward, a super-super-sizzling-hot ...
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 ...
