Author: Brad Beckett

There’s a new side-hustle for the side-hustlers driving for Uber; bird-dogging for real estate investors.  Realtor.com says that house flippers are paying Uber drivers (during their down time) as their eyes and ears to take pictures of potential flips.  One company they cited pays up to $1,500 per referral that leads to a purchase and some are even paying for good leads. “It’s a great way to be able to reach areas that I can’t drive around town all day,” said Scott Sekulow, who runs a HomeVestors franchise in Atlanta that has hired several drivers. “You don’t need a lot…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that overall pending home sales declined in April, but predicted higher sales over the next few months.  The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings) decreased to 104.3 in April, with the Midwest being the only region to experience growth. In addition, they report that year-over-year contract signings declined 2%, marking the 16th straight month of annual decreases. “Though the latest monthly figure shows a mild decline in contract signings, mortgage applications and consumer confidence have been steadily rising…It’s inevitable for sales to turn higher in a few…

As a regular reader of this site you’ve undoubtedly seen a lot of stories about short-term rentals.  Vacation rentals (Airbnb, etc) are attracting a lot of interest as well as being very lucrative, but you have to know how to market them.  The folks at iGMS put together this cool chart as a guide to vacation rental marketing, with their “4P’s” of strategy…..Happy Friday!! Hat tip to airgms.com.

For the 6th year in a row, Gallup is reporting that more Americans prefer real estate over other long-term investment vehicles for growing wealth.  These numbers broken down show that 35% prefer real estate, 27% prefer the stock market, 15% prefer CDs/bank accounts, and 14% prefer gold. “Gallup has asked a version of the best investment question since 2002, and Americans’ choices have varied, largely in response to the performance of the various investment options. In 2002, as housing prices were increasing rapidly, 50% of U.S. adults said real estate was the best investment, the highest percentage choosing any investment…

According to the latest CoreLogic Single-Family Rental Index (SFRI), single-family rents increased 2.9% year over year in March.  Their index measures rent changes among single-family rental homes, including condominiums, using a repeat-rent analysis to measure the same rental properties over time. Interestingly, CoreLogic pointed out that single-family rents climbed steadily starting in 2010, and annual rent increases have stabilized, fluctuating between 2.7% and 3.1% for the past 12 months. Key findings: Rents for lower-priced homes increased faster than those of higher-price homes. Phoenix had the largest annual rent increase of the 20 analyzed metro areas in March. Houston and Miami…

Realtor.com says that 1 in 5 metropolitan areas are now seeing decreases in home prices, compared with half as many just one year ago.  So, where exactly have home prices fallen the most?  To come up with that list, they looked at the median list price changes from April 2018 to April 2019 in the 250 biggest metropolitan areas. “Some markets are seeing price drops due to overbuilding: This creates too much supply and not enough demand, so prices naturally fall. And just like in past years, in other areas, natural disasters devastated lives, communities, and local real estate.” Click…

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, the rate of home price increases reported a 3.7% annual gain in March, down from 3.9% in February.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 2.3% and the 20-City Composite posted a 2.7% year-over-year gain.  The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are one of the leading measures of U.S. residential real estate prices, tracking changes in the value of residential real estate both nationally as well as in 20 metropolitan regions. Click here to read the full report at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Opportunity Zones have been called one of the most exciting and game-changing investment incentives to come down the proverbial pike.  Recently, National REIA teamed up with the law firm Frost Brown Todd, llc, to discuss the. recently released regulations (issued in April, 2019) as well the overall practical application of Opportunity Zones themselves. Click here to watch the webinar on YouTube. Click here to learn more about Opportunity Zones.

The U.S. Government is reporting that sales of new single-family houses in April, 2019 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 673k, which is 6.9% lower than March’s revised figure.  The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2019 was $342,200 and the average sales price was $393,700.  There was an estimated 332k new houses for sale at the end of April representing a 5.9 months supply at the current sales rate. Click here to read the full report at Census.gov.

Monday, May 27th is Memorial Day.  To many, the three-day weekend will mark the unofficial start of summer with swimming pools all across the fruited plain opening to excited children.  However, the solemn significance of the day is often forgotten.  It is actually a national day of remembrance for those men & women who, while wearing the uniform of this great country, paid the ultimate sacrifice defending freedom & liberty around the globe. Today’s infographic reminds us that Memorial Day is about more than just cookouts and 3-day weekends, it’s about a path paved by others to enjoy the freedoms…