Archives for August 2012

An Investor-Driven Recovery

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An Investor-Driven Home RecoveryInvestors are buying homes at a more rapid pace than ever before, and this time their investments actually make sense.  Most are buying homes below replacement cost, or at prices that allow for a reasonable rental return.

Across the 167 metro areas we analyzed, investor activity rose to 29.6% of all transactions in the first quarter of this year, up from the trough of 23.6% in Q4 2009.  Our research leads us to believe Q2 activity exceeds Q1, and since last quarter, investor activity has already spiked 2%!

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Are Rental Homes the New Asset Class for Wall Street?

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The wizards of wall street are back with a new twist.

Certain venture capital companies are promoting a “new” asset class to be sold as securities… single family rental homes!

Remember the last time Wall Street created a new asset class? That’s right, they packaged up single family mortgages and sold them as securities. And, we all know what happens when bad government policy and Wall Street financial experts conspire to take advantage of Main Street… don’t we?

Yes, you’re reading this correctly. Instead of packaging up and selling the underlying mortgage as a security, which led to the 2008 economic collapse, Wall Street is packaging up the rental home itself as a publicly traded REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust). Like a mutual fund, a REIT is a so-called “professionally managed” collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to purchase securities.

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Choosing the Right Insurance for Your Rental Property

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The number one goal of your rental business should be to make money, not give it away.  One way to protect you and your investment is to have proper insurances in place.  Let me introduce you to four insurances that you should consider.

A Good Lease

The first insurance that I posses is the insurance of a good lease and a thorough move-in inspection. More than once I have referred to the pictures of a move-in inspection to counter a tenant's claim about a pre-existing condition. I remember one time during a preliminary move-out inspection I noted a cracked ceramic floor tile. The tenant claimed that it was like that when they moved in. I turned on my laptop, pulled up the appropriate picture from the move-in inspection, and proved to the tenant that the crack was in fact not there when they moved in.

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Bottom Dwellers Waiting to Pounce

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The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both published articles in the past six weeks stating that the housing market has reached a bottom.  But hold on for just a minute… It seems that not everyone believes it.

Even Yale professor Robert Shiller, co-founder of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, admits to being a little bit skeptical.  In fact, he even told Fox Business last week that he's not entirely convinced that a bottom has been reached yet.

“It’s possible, but I’m not confident. This is partly seasonal,” Shiller said regarding the recent rise in home prices that have been documented over the past few months.

Only one thing is certain when it comes to economics: there is no certainty as to when an economic cycle has bottomed out until it’s already past.  This is especially true in real estate — one of the biggest driving forces behind our national economy.

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