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.
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
