Author: Brad Beckett

Have you seen DIY Network’s reality TV show First Time Flippers?  A recent story over on Realtor.com says these “rookies make the darnedest mistakes” while calling the show itself a “train-wreck reality TV at its finest.”  The show just began season 5 and features real-life “rookie” house flippers fumbling their way through a flip. In the “Don’t Quit on a Sand Pit” episode, this St. Petersburg, FL, couple, who have a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old, decide they want to start flipping as a “family business.” So Liz goes out and buys a fixer-upper for $200,000, and Ray promptly quits his full-time…

National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that nationwide rent prices slightly rose in April with the median price of $1,012 for a one-bedroom apartment.   San Francisco continues to lead with $3,415, followed by New York City, NY ($2,705), San Jose, CA ($2,459) and Boston, MA ($2,398).  ABODO uses over 1 million listings across the United States to calculate the median 1-bedroom rent price by city, state, and nation and then track the month-over-month percentage change. To avoid small sample sizes, they restrict their analysis to cities meeting minimum population and property count thresholds. Click here to read the full…

We recently learned about the record existing home sales that took place in March. Today’s infographic from the National Association of Realtors breaks down those numbers to reveal what exactly is taking place.  Happy Friday!! Click here to read more.

What the kitchen faucet taught me about how to keep great tenants By John Triplett, NationalREIA As a small investor focused primarily on single-family home investing, I stay very close to my business and the issues that come up with the tenants. From time to time in this blog, I will share a story or two from my business and tenant relationships that I hope might help you in your real estate investing business. So here is one that just came up. That late-night maintenance call I got a call last night from Jake – We will call him Jake…

A recent analysis from John Burns Real Estate Consulting says that secondary apartment markets are outperforming what they call “surban” locations (desirable suburban locations with urban amenities) and that these secondary markets account for the largest current year-over-year rent growth, which they forecast to outperform through 2020.   Interestingly, the article also contains an analysis of U-Haul truck rental pricing, which is always useful in identifying in & out migration patterns nationwide – especially in regards to their hypothesis. Click here to read more.

According to the latest Mortgage Monitor Report from the Data and Analytics Division of Black Knight Financial Services, the average borrower of a HELOC (home equity line of credit) resetting in 2017 will face an average increase of $250 per month over their current HELOC payment – in some cases doubling their current payment.  The loans typically have a 10-year period with interest only payments before fully amortizing.  According to Black Knight, 19% of active HELOC’s are facing a reset in 2017.  Valued at just under $100 billion, they represent the largest share of active HELOC loans facing reset on…

There are currently five U.S. states without a statewide sales tax;  Alaska, Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire and Delaware.  Using data from the Tax Foundation, the folks over at GOBankingRates put together a quick list of those states along with a caveat for each about the taxes they do in fact collect.  They warn that while shopping might be easier in these states just watch out for their other taxes. “Some of the five tax-free states impose a local tax, and others rely on property taxes that are higher than average. In addition, some even levy hotel and motel bed taxes…

The U.S. Department of Commerce is reporting that total construction spending in March was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,21 trillion, which is 3% higher than March 2016.  Private residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $503.4 billion in March, 1.2% higher than February’s number.  Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $436.8 billion in March, 1.3% below February’s number.  Public construction spending was $278.1 billion in February. Click here to read the full release.

A new analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America shows that between March 2016 and March 2017 thirty-nine states added construction jobs.  Using data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the AGC noted that while contractors are worried about being able to find enough workers in the future.  California added the most construction jobs (42,200 jobs) over the past year, followed by Florida (36,500 jobs), Texas (18,900 jobs), and Washington (12,200 jobs).  Ten states and the District of Columbia shed construction jobs between March 2016 and March 2017. Employment was unchanged in West Virginia. Illinois lost the highest number…

The U.S. Census Bureau is reporting that at the end of Q1 2017 The U.S. homeownership rate stood at 63.6% (virtually unchanged from last quarter) and the national vacancy rate for rental housing was 7% and 1.7% for homeowner housing – both virtually unchanged since last quarter.  Approximately 87.3% of the housing units in the United States in Q1 were occupied and 12.7% were vacant.  Owner-occupied housing units made up 55.5% of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 31.8% of the inventory.  Vacant year-round units comprised 9.4% of total housing units, while 3.3% were for seasonal use. Click…