Anyone who has ever flipped a house knows about the potential perils of what kind of wiring the house has and when was it last upgraded. Depending on the age & condition of the house it could be extremely costly or maybe just a cheap fix. However, you have to know what to look for and what you’re looking at. Today’s infographic from John K McCraw Electrical discusses common items in older homes, what you might need a permit for, and some general due diligence items when flipping a home. Happy Friday!!
Author: Brad Beckett
Brad Beckett
Director of Education & Outreach, National Real Estate Investors Association
A good rule of thumb in every business transaction you undertake is to do your due diligence – especially when hiring a contractor for work on your property. Last month we saw where one angry remodeling contractor hired a hit-man to kill a homeowner that he was trying to scam (an extreme situation, of course) and now we’ve found a good example of disreputable contractors (who are also burglars) being rounded up by local law enforcement in Tampa, Florida. According to a report on WFLA-TV, over 20 unlicensed contractors were arrested during an undercover sting called “Drop the Hammer.” In…
The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales were down 3.2% in January, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million. The median existing-home price for all housing types in December was $240,500, up 5.8% from January 2017 and marking the 71st straight month of year-over-year gains. Inventory at the end of January was up 4.1% 1.52 million homes for sale, representing a 3.4-month supply at the current pace. “The utter lack of sufficient housing supply and its influence on higher home prices muted overall sales activity in much of the U.S. last month,” said Lawrence Yun,…
Almost everyone buys gasoline…period. Even if you don’t own a car, you’re paying for fuel one way or another. Recently, the folks over at howmuch.net put together an interesting map showing the current average price of gas (as of January) and the corresponding amount of gas tax by state. While this might seem academic, it reveals how a necessary commodity like gasoline can affect the cost of living in each state. We gathered the data from a couple different places—we found average gas prices from AAA.com and tax information from API.org. We combined both datasets to color-code each circle on…
So let’s get this straight; there is a real neighborhood near Kansas City, Missouri that does not have a homeowner’s association connected with it. However, according to WDAF TV, some crafty criminals decided to create a fake HOA for the neighborhood and then send out fake dues notices which were ignored by the residents. But then, if that weren’t already enough, the perpetrators attached not-so-fake liens to the properties in the subdivision for the fake dues their fake association was charging. Finally, adding insult to injury, the man behind the enterprise is running it from federal prison where he’s serving…
A landlord in Southern California is part of a class-action lawsuit against the cities of Indio & Coachella over exorbitant fees resulting from actions taken by her tenants who had chickens. As you might have guessed, there’s a little more to the story than just raising chickens. According to the Desert Sun, the lawsuit alleges that the two cities have “made a practice of taking residents to criminal court for exceptionally minor crimes, then charging them thousands to pay for the cost of their own prosecution.” Indeed……it turns out that the cities employment of overzealous private prosecutors that have billed…
We’ve had several posts about the impact of so-called tiny houses on the real estate market but now comes a survey from the National Association of Home Builders that says a majority of Millennials (63%) would consider buying a tiny home. In fact, just over half (53%) of those surveyed said yes or maybe to purchasing one. Interestingly, the enthusiasm wears off with age as the results below reveal. Indeed…. Tiny homes, however, may be inviable in many areas. Many local zoning laws have minimum lot size requirements, which wouldn’t prohibit tiny homes, but would make them very expensive considering…
Realtor.com says now that the economy is roaring again McMansions are making a comeback. To that end, they scoured the data for homes with at least 3k square feet as well as the metros with the highest percentage of them on the market. Interestingly, they found that more than 70% of the surveyed markets saw an increase in the share of listings of these homes since January, 2016. In addition, they found there are actually more large homes being built now than there were at the height of the housing market (10 years ago), however that doesn’t mean they’re selling.…
The U.S. Government is reporting that privately owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,326,000. This is 9.7% above December’s revised number and is 7.3% above January 2017. Single-family housing starts in January were at a rate of 877k, which is 3.7% higher than December. The January rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 431k. Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,396,000. This is 7.4% above December’s revised rate and is 7.4% higher than January, 2017. Single-family authorizations in…
The contributions of Chinese-Americans to the greatness of this country have been incredible. Today, February 16th marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year; the Year of the Dog. If you’re fortunate enough to live in an area of the country with a sizeable population of ethnic Chinese, be sure to find & join in the celebrations….Happy Friday!! And Happy Chinese New Year!
