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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.

is a buy to rent strategy right for your self-directed IRA

Buy-to-Rent Series: Is buy-to-rent real estate investing a good self-directed IRA investment?

| Editorial Staff | Article | Topics
By Tom Anderson Investor James Mann was frustrated with the lack of appreciation in the stock market and decided it was time for a different approach. So he took a rollover IRA from a former employer and put it into a self-directed IRA to buy something “I could see and ...
Zombie foreclosures down overall but still up in half of the metro areas surveyed says Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac

Zombie foreclosures down overall, but still up from a year ago in half of U.S. metros

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
A new report shows that in the second quarter of this year there were that 127,021 homes actively in the foreclosure process had been vacated by the homeowners prior to a completed foreclosure, called zombie foreclosures, representing 24 percent of all active foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac. These owner-vacated foreclosure properties ...
What the kitchen faucet taught me about how to keep great tenants

What the kitchen faucet taught me about how to keep great tenants

| John Triplett | Article, Topics
As a small investor focused primarily on single-family home investing, I stay very close to my business and the issues that come up with the tenants. From time to time in this blog, I will share a story or two from my business and tenant relationships that I hope might ...
Why you cannot quit after one rental property blog by Kevin Guz for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

Why you cannot quit after just one rental property

| Kevin Guz | Article, Topics
I bought my first rental property more than 10 years ago, as we have discussed before. I was a part-time investor—or, in my case, a “lunch hour” investor. I was very excited, and I made the leap, and I purchased that first property successfully. But here’s what you are going ...
7 things if only I knew...or they don't tell you where the problems lie blog by Larry Arth for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

7 things if only I knew…what they don’t tell you is where the problems lie

| Larry Arth | Article, Topics
What they don’t tell you is where problems lie Have you ever evaluated an investment property and were very excited about the purchase? Everything looks great on paper. The property looks good and talk of “hurry, before it is gone” prompts you to make an uneducated decision. I hope you ...
Where is one to invest in this market real estate investor question of the week for Richard 'Monty" Montgomery for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

Is shadow inventory a problem for real estate investors?

| Dear Monty | Article, Topics
Reader Question of the Week: Where is one to invest in this market inclusive of the banks shadow inventory? A good example is Clarksville, Tennessee which appears to be an excellent opportunity, however if you consider Housing and Urban Development (HUD) unoccupied housing information, it paints a very different picture Monty's ...
The jump in rates continues up, and with it economic confusion writes Lou Barnes in his blog this week for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

The jump in interest rates continues up, and with it, deepening economic confusion

| Danny Johnson | Article, Topics
Last week I thought the rise in long-term interest rates was overdone and had a chance to reverse. Oops. The jump in rates has continued, and with it deepening confusion. In just six weeks, the 10-year T-note has moved from 1.90% to 2.40% , mortgages from 3.75% close to 4.25%. News media ...
My success in real estate is due to copying the right cat writes Engelo Rumora in his blog for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

My success in real estate is due to copying the right cat

| Engelo Rumora | Article, Topics
G’day, everyone! It’s your favorite Australian and The Real Estate Dingo, bringing you another great blog about the KEY strategy that I used when I first started out in real estate and that I continue using to this day. As many of you may know, I’m a huge believer in working ...
Down payment averages drop to 14 percent on new home purchases RealtyTrac report says

Down payment average for home purchases drops to 14.8 percent, a three-year low

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
The average down payment for single family homes, condos and townhomes purchased in the first quarter was 14.8 percent of the purchase price, down from 15.2 percent in the previous quarter and down from 15.5 percent a year ago to the lowest level since the first quarter of 2012, according ...
Real estate investor question of the week: Is there a dark storm on the horizon blog for real estate investors by Lou Barnes

Real estate investing question of the week: Is there a dark storm on the horizon?

| Danny Johnson | Article, Topics
Mr. Barnes, Good morning. I am a full-time real estate investor who subscribes to Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine, and I am fortunate enough to read your articles on a regular basis. I have become a fan of your reporting due to your straightforward, no-spin and non-partisan articles. They are ...
6 dangers of the pro forma report for real estate investors blog by Larry Arth for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

6 dangers of the pro forma report for real estate investors

| Larry Arth | Article, Topics
I was having an interesting conversation yesterday with an investor client who was trying to evaluate some properties. She was confused at seeing properties and how they can be so similar yet have such incredibly different returns on investments (ROI). Instantly suspecting the reason for variances, I began to ask ...
Rental growth where you least expect it, single-family homes despite the hot apartment construction market

Rental growth where you least expect it: single-family homes

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
By David Guarino Senior Research Analyst John Burns Real Estate Consulting Take a drive through the urban portion of any major city and you will likely see cranes and construction crews dotting the landscape, building what appears to be an endless supply of apartment units. Your eyes are not deceiving ...
Don't let fear of finding tenants stop you from real estate investing blog by Kevin Guz for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

Don’t let fear of finding tenants stop you from real estate investing

| Kevin Guz | Article, Topics
When I look back at my first rental property purchase more than 10 years ago, I am amazed at my good fortune. Because there were plenty of times, as a part-time real estate investor with a full-time career outside of real estate, I tried to talk myself out of that ...
Hint: the next interest rate move will be down says Lou Barnes in his weekly column for real estate investors

Hint: The next interest rate move will be down says Lou Barnes

| Danny Johnson | Article | Topics
Another week of quiet waiting for big data end of this week (not tekkies spying, just the monthly jobs report). I am not a betting man, but I do occasionally guess: there are hints that the next interest rate move will be down. First, head-shaking news of humanity. While working ...
How does real estate crowdfunding work for apartments and commercial properties? blog by Lawrence Fassler for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

How real estate crowdfunding works for apartments and commercial properties

| Lawrence Fassler | Article, Topics
I’ve written before about the basics of peer-to-peer—also called crowdfunding—real estate marketplaces. When it comes to debt investments, many of the first few companies in this space focused on lending to active “flippers” who were renovating single-family homes. This is still a great business, and there are lots of reasons ...
Home buyers purchasing below market value in 60 percent of markets according to a new study from RealtyTrac says Daren Blomquist, vp

Home buyers still purchasing below market value in 60 percent of markets, new study says

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
Home buyers in about 60 percent of the markets surveyed in a new report by RealtyTrac.com are buying at below market value, while sellers are getting above-market prices in about 27 percent of the markets, the report shows. “Nationwide in April single family homes and condos sold for almost exactly ...
What's really wrong with housing? Mortgage credit, slow job growth and slow wage growth over the years

What’s really wrong with housing? Mortgage credit, years of a weak job market and slow wage growth

| Danny Johnson | Article, Topics
Another week last week of anxious pencil-tapping in quiet markets, and one more holiday-short week ahead this week before events will conspire to move the herd. Long quiet, big move. A “data-dependent” Fed means more than ordinary waiting for data. If the Fed is waiting, too, then we’re really waiting ...
Real estate investing: Where it's hot and where it's not. where are the best investing markets

Real estate investing: Where it’s hot and where it’s not

| Larry Arth | Article, Topics
I often am asked where real estate investing is hot (or not), and I love this question. The answer, however, is a moving target. Macro and micro fundamentals are always changing. This is why it is so often said that real estate is local in nature. A hot market for ...
Bank repossessions (REOs) and foreclosure filings hit an 18-month high according to a new report from Realty Trac

Bank repossessions (REOs) hit 18-month high across the U.S. as foreclosures put new inventory on the market

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
Bank repossessions (REOs) and foreclosure filings were reported on 125,875 properties in April, up 9 percent from a year ago representing an 18-month high, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. The U.S. foreclosure rate in April was one in every 1,049 housing units with a foreclosure filing. “The REO ...
3 secrets to turn nothing into something blog by Larry Arth for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

3 secrets to turn nothing into something in real estate investing

| Larry Arth | Article, Topics
One of the most important statements I have ever heard involves taking action—specifically, getting your name and your investing goals in front of as many people as possible. That statement is this: “Your success in real estate investing is directly proportional to the number of people who, when thinking of ...
When to hold and when to fold blog by RJ Palano for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

When to hold and when to fold: The art of the (wholesale) deal

| R J Palano | Article, Topics
Last week we put a house under contract in Dacula, Georgia, at 2433 Robin Ridge Road. I knew prior to meeting with the owner that this house was going to be a wholesale real estate deal opportunity. I did not like the floorplan that much and I could change it ...
How i bought my first investment property on my lunch hour blog by Kevin Guz for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

How I bought my first investment property on my lunch hour

| Kevin Guz | Article, Topics
For many part-time investors or investors embarking on that first property purchase, the easiest excuse is, “I don’t have time.” But if you really have the desire and passion to purchase investment real estate—even if you are already involved in a full-time career or pursuit—that should not hold you back ...
We appear to be heading in disinflation Lou Barnes writes this week in his column for Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine

We appear to be drifting into economic disinflation, Lou Barnes writes this week

| Danny Johnson | Article, Topics
After three weeks of startling (and painful) movement, financial markets have staggered to a standstill. The question before the house: Did the market-lurching signify changes in economic trend, or correction of prior events? Stick with correction. Here is the reconstruction: Way back, 18 months ago, U.S. long-term rates were rising ...
Mortgage loans originated on single-family homes were up 17 percent year over year says RealtyTrac's Daren Blomquist

Mortgage loans originated on single-family homes up 17 percent year over year, new study says

| Editorial Staff | Article, Market & Trends
Mortgage loans originated on single-family homes and condos were up 17 percent year over year according to a new report from RealtyTrac.com, led by California, Florida and Massachusetts. The majority of the loans were for refinancing and new mortgages for purchases were up only about 1 percent during the same year ...
How will deflation impact the owners of mobile home parks and low-end apartments? The real estate investor question of the week blog by Richard 'Monty' Montgomery

How will deflation impact owners of mobile home parks and low-end apartments?

| Dear Monty | Article, Topics
Reader Question: How will deflation impact owners of mobile home parks and low-end apartments? Prices are VERY high for MHPs right now. Buyers are jacking up rents, while tenants can't get full-time jobs. Tons of 1031 Exchange money chasing too few deals, too. Seems like a good time to SELL ...
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