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.
New survey: People feeling more confident about net worth and finances
People are feeling a little more confident about their personal financial situation, net worth and job security according to the latest survey from Bankrate.com which is good news for real estate investors. The Bankrate Financial Security Index was up three points in March to 102.2, from 99.3 last month. That ...
Why an investor is better than a speculator when you need to sell
Here's some frank advice to owners of distressed properties: Work with investors, not speculators. How can you tell the difference between the two? Start by asking the prospective buyer a series of simple questions about their experience, their knowledge of your neighborhood – find out if they even live and work ...
Lou Barnes’ financial weekly perspectives for investors
We interrupt coverage of Flight 370 for brief news from the world…. Interest rates rose this week on receding worry about Ukraine, and in the aftermath of the first Fed meeting with Janet Yellen in the chair, including her first public mistake (may as well get it over with). Two ...
How do landlords find tenants?
Getting a property rented is about having the right property at the right price and being able to connect with the right tenant. There is never one, perfect place to find a renter, and as the economy and business trends change, where you find those right tenants will also change ...
5 principles for real estate wealth building
As you probably heard, over 90 percent of all millionaires made their wealth in whole or in part through real estate investing. The common denominator is that real estate is in their investment portfolio. Real estate has for years been known as the best performing vehicle to create wealth. There ...
What is the No. 4 most common mistake real estate investors make?
This ties right in with buying houses in the wrong part of the country and buying low-income houses. You should ask yourself the same questions I ask myself when I am considering a house to purchase: “Who can I sell this house to for more money than I paid for ...
Lou Barnes on Russia, Fannie and Freddie impact on investors
Watching markets this past week has been surreal. On the surface the usual tub-thumpers were at it: economy picking up, Fed's going to tighten, stocks to infinity and beyond, and well-dressed technology drunks in every upscale gutter. The ordinary media is completely preoccupied with an airliner seized by aliens. Get ...
What advice do you have for a first-time residential developer?
Reader Question: Monty, as an apartment developer, I fuel future development by regularly investing in raw land. I have owned a 40-acre parcel for 20 years. I am certain I cannot rezone it for apartments as the surrounding area has developed as single family. It is a beautiful parcel and ...
The secret formula to finding an undervalued market
How do you know if you have found an under-valued market? The seasoned investor looking for appreciation, the investor looking for cash flow, and the buy-and-hold investor are all looking for the undervalued market. Makes great sense, but where or how you find these undervalued markets? Today’s undervalued market may ...
What is the No. 3 most common mistake investors make?
Buying inexpensive, low-income houses looks excellent on paper until you count the cost in terms of time and money. I’ve owned as many as 350 low-income houses at one time with 143 tenants on Section 8. These are exactly the type of properties you want to avoid as they will ...
How many landlords take pets and what do they charge?
Many long-term business travelers are arriving at rental properties with pets. Pets can give landlords advantages and this week we look in more depth based on our survey "By Owner Corporate Housing Annual Report." Many renters continue to travel with pets. 43% of survey respondents say they accept pets (down ...
Foreclosures drop to lowest level in seven years but zombie properties still a problem
The foreclosure rate has fallen to the lowest level in more than seven years, but auctions are still up annually in 19 states RealtyTrac said in its latest U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for February 2014. The report which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — ...
Where landlords still offer city apartments for under $1,000 a month
Landlords are still offering studio apartments in many cities for around $1,000 a month, according to a new survey from Apartments.com. Even in some of the largest and most expensive cities, rents of around $1,000 a month can be found in nearby neighborhoods or suburbs or by tenants committing to ...
I lost money on tech and stocks and why I won’t on real estate
Let me clue you in on a little secret that took me about 30 years to figure out. I’ll share it with you in the hopes that you will avoid some of my mistakes. As I was growing up in the business world, every time my friends were making money ...
I do not believe the jobs numbers and neither do the markets, here’s why
The first week of each month brings a blizzard of fresh data from the month immediately prior, and an even more blinding wave of contradictory analysis. Except when the data reveal a big change in trend, the best way to evaluate the load: try to bracket the edges of the ...
What types of tenants do we get?
This week we look at what kinds of tenants we get as we continue with excerpts from our survey "By Owner Corporate Housing Annual Report." In general, our experience has always been that corporate housing tenants are LPD (“less pain per dollar”) than tenants of vacation rentals. We asked respondents ...
Apartments.com sold to CoStar Group
Classified Ventures, LLC ("CV"), a leading provider of digital marketing solutions in the automotive and apartment rental categories, has entered into an agreement to sell its Apartments.com business for $585 million in cash to CoStar Group, Inc., a leading provider of commercial real estate research and information services. The sale ...
Local Market Monitor’s analysis of what fourth quarter report means for real estate
By Ingo Winzer Local Market Monitor Estimates for GDP in the fourth quarter paint a positive picture, even though total growth was at a modest 2.4 percent annual rate after a 4.1 percent third quarter. Most encouraging is that personal spending was a good part of the growth. Last quarter, ...
Home prices up 12% year over year
Home prices across the country increased 12 percent in January of this year compared to January 2013, marking 23 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally, according to a release from CoreLogic. “The last time January month-over-month and year-over-year price appreciation was this strong was at the height ...
A window into how the Fed operated in the 2008 all-time most-dangerous banking wreck
The big news this week is an astounding historical revelation useful in the present, but before that a few current events. In Congressional testimony Chair Yellen acknowledged weakness in new economic data, but confirmed a continuing quantitative easing taper. Even Congressmen know to be delicate in debate with babes, and ...
How many landlords handle property management themselves?
This week we look and property management and trends among landlords, plus where most landlords get their leasing forms -- you may be surprised -- and how many actually show property to prospective tenants. This is all from our survey and excerpts from the "By Owner Corporate Housing Annual Report." ...
Five things you need to sustain your real estate investment
Sustainability of a real estate investment is as important as having water to drive a boat. It is definitely as important as location. To have a sustainable real estate investment you need the best possible property, within the best area of the best and most sustainable market that is positioned ...
Sales of new homes in January highest in five years
Sales of new homes jumped unexpectedly in January despite bad weather in many parts of the country according to the U.S. Census Bureau, to the highest levels since January of 2008. “I’m hopeful the recovery in home sales will get back on track in the next couple of months,” said ...
Ten questions that will help you avoid the second most common mistake in real estate investing
Buying in the wrong markets. Imagine that. Many investors bought houses through promoters in areas that are declining and have subsidized rents from the Federal government with Section 8. These properties will have continuous maintenance issues and may never go up in value. The U.S. is made up of 50 ...
A letter from Warren Buffett: What you can learn about my real estate investing
Warren Buffett tells a personal story about two of his non-stock investments in an article on CNN Money. The story involves two real estate purchases, when and why he bought them, and how they have performed over time. "There is one major difference between my two small investments and an ...
