Author: Brad Beckett

Real estate investors need to be aware of not only the laws and governmental regulations of the areas in which they’re investing, but also, and perhaps more importantly, they need to know the political landscape as well.  A recent episode of the Rental Property Owner & Real Estate Investor podcast talked about the places where politics and Real Estate Investing connect and how real estate investors and landlords can support the candidates and legislation that, in turn, support the industry.  They have a conversation with RPOA president Tom Koetsier, a successful real estate investor that also sits on the Grand…

What are the least & most popular cities for millennial home buyers?  Consumer financial matchmaking site LendingTree recently analyzed mortgage requests and offers for borrowers ages 35 years and under (between 2/1/17 and 2/1/18) along with requests from the total population of mortgage-seekers based on the location of the property to be mortgaged.  They then came up with a set of rankings generated from the percentage of total purchase mortgage requests received by LendingTree from millennial buyers.  Be sure to look at the entire 100-city list. “From a housing market perspective, tight inventory is boosting prices in many markets and…

Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for April showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment dropped to $1,184 (down 8.9%) while the two-bedroom average grew 1.1% to $1,414.  In their report they said “…it seems a bubble has popped since rent has fallen back down to below $1,200.”  Zumper analyzes rental data from over 1 million active listings across the United States. Data is aggregated on a monthly basis to calculate median asking rents for the top 100 metro areas by population, providing a comprehensive view of the current state of the market. The…

A REIA leader from South Florida has a warning for people getting excited about reality TV shows that make flipping look like the road to easy money;  “…they are unrealistic in the profits they portray.”  A recent article in Miami’s Community Newspapers caught up with Ryan Kuhlman (leader of Broward REIA and Miami-Dade REIA) who warns fellow investors that it is hard work and perseverance that will make you successful in real estate investing, not necessarily forking over big bucks for someone’s training program or mimicking what they see on reality TV shows. “The fact is that you can be…

In their recent Inventory & Price Watch report, Trulia reported that, while the national housing inventory has risen 3.3% over the last year, the available inventory of starter homes has hit a 6-year low.  In addition, they report that the quality of available starter homes appears to have diminished and are less likely to be move-in ready with fixer-uppers constituting 11.2% of the market, compared with 10.3% in 2012. “First-time home buyers face a perfect storm this spring. Affordable, move-in ready starter homes have become harder to find amid rising home prices and mortgage rates. While new home construction hit…

Which cities across the nation have highest and lowest average down payments?  The folks over at Realtor.com turned over all the rocks to come up with a list of the highest & lowest down payments based on the percentage of a home’s sale price.  Interestingly, only two of the top 10 cities exceed the 20% threshold while all of the top lowest were less than 10%. Lenders prefer those gold standard 20% down payments because they ensure that buyers have enough skin in the game—and buyers aspire to them to avoid costly private mortgage insurance, which would allow them to put down less cash…

The National Association of Realtors recently reported that pending home sales increased 3.1%.  This figure is according to their Pending Home Sales Index which rose to 107.5 and is 4.1% lower than one year ago.   Interestingly, the index is based on a large national sample, typically representing about 20 percent of transactions for existing-home sales.  An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the housing market has gotten off to an uneven start so far in 2018. “Contract signings…

What’s the difference between a Traditional IRA and a Roth IRA?  The handy chart shown below from Equity Trust takes a look at the similarities and differences between various features of each kind of account.  Happy Friday!!!!! Hat tip to Equity Trust.

How much salary does someone need in order to afford the average-price home in each state?  A new study from GOBankingRates reveals that the minimum salary in one state can be vastly different than that of another.  To arrive at their conclusions, GOBankingRates looked at the average monthly mortgage payment for each state along with the average APR on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and then assumed no more than 30% of monthly income was devoted to housing. “Before you buy a home, it’s important to find out if you can afford the monthly mortgage payment.  To do this, some financial…

According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices,  home prices continue to rise across the country, reporting a 6.2% increase in January, 2018.  Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at in at 6.0% and their 20-City Composite posted a 6.4% year-over-year gain.  Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Francisco reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities.  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…