Real Estate blog

Five things that Real Estate Investors should consider when evaluating an investment opportunity

admin — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:06:14 +0000

Home Staging Tips and Resources

admin — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:06:13 +0000

In any market, but particularly a buyer’s market, the listing that looks the best, shows the best and feels the best will sell faster (that is given the listing is also priced properly!). The best staged home will sell faster when all other things are comparable (price, terms, location).

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Big shocks await many Adustable Rate Mortgage holders

admin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:06:27 +0000

There’s a multi-factorial equation brewing out there that is going to impact real estate investors.

Young investors

admin — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:05:15 +0000

More and more young people are getting into real estate investing.

Interview with Dave Dugdale of RentVine.com

admin — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:05:30 +0000

I was recently interviewed by Dave Dugdale who runs Rentvine.com, an online resource for landlords and rental applicants.

Dealing with deadbeat tenants

admin — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:05:44 +0000

I’ve often stated that one of the most important factors in your success as a real estate investor is your ability to select, screen, and retain quality tenants. This is something that I think I’m pretty good at, which has helped me as an investor.

I was going to write an article about this not to long ago when, bam, I ran into a problem: tenants who stopped paying.

The tenants were a flaky young couple that I knew I might be taking a chance back when they signed the lease in May. But I decided to rent to them and mitigated my risk by signing a short lease (six months, with renewal contingent on timely payment), charged them first and last month’s rent upfront, plus one month’s rent as deposit. I won’t go through the boring details, but they ended up breaking the lease and abandoning the property while they owed me money. If you find yourself in a situation like this one here are some points to keep in mind.

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Option ARMs in the news

admin — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:05:49 +0000

BusinessWeek recently ran an interesting article on Option ARM mortgages (also known as pick-a-payment, negative amortization mortgages, NegAms, deferred interest mortgages, and various other aliases).

Is Email a Time-saver or Time-stealer?

admin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:04:13 +0000

I just read Seth Godin’s post entitled Email Checklist - “Before you hit send on that next email, perhaps you should run down this list….” It’s a classic and got me thinking about my love-hate relationship with email.

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Houston Realtor - property manager

admin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:04:38 +0000

Real estate investors looking for a realtor in Houston should check out Eurika Coleman, a real estate professional that I’ve been working with for the past few years.

Inside the investor mindset (or :: why my Realtor® is about to kill me)

admin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:04:10 +0000

Ok, so I’m in the middle of a 1031 tax deferred exchange, the result of a New Years resolution to cash out of a high-end townhouse that had generated some equity and reinvest into a property(ies) that generates better income.