California Rent Control Expansion Defeated
BY BRAD BECKETT ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018
A closely watched ballot initiative in California was defeated in November’s election. Proposition 10 would have allowed cities to expand rent control by allowing local governments to set rent control policies for their cities, contrary to current law – which was upheld by the failure of Proposition 10. According to the SF Chronicle, the measure was placed on the ballot by tenant advocates who had failed for years to persuade the CA state legislature to curb rising rent. Indeed….How restricting supply and hamstringing landlords would lower rent prices is beyond our comprehension abilities. Then again this is California, and sometimes they do overreach with their goofy ballot initiatives.
“Opponents, led by the California Apartment Association, developers and property managers, spent $74 million to convince voters that developers would cut back on construction if rent control spread. Proponents raised $26 million, nearly all from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.”
Is Creative Financing the Solution You’ve Been Looking For?
BY WHITNEY NICELY ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018
When I first got started in real estate I kind of had no idea what I was doing. I jumped in whole honcho, spent every dime of my life savings, was even able to get my brother to give me his too, bought houses, made sales, and went flat broke. It took that hard knock for me to realize that there had to be another way of doing real estate. I needed a method that let me keep my money (and let my brother keep his…), and did not require for me to take out a mortgage. Enter creative financing….
It was not too long after I hit the wall that a fellow investor took my under his wing. He invited me to come to one of his seminars, which was a real stretch for me with the $75 price tag, but I went anyway. It was there that my eyes were opened. I started learning about all sorts of ways to finance properties that I had never heard before: lease options, seller financing, private money lenders, wholesaling, and on the list goes. I had no idea that this whole other world even existed! Maybe you are in a similar situation. If so, there are three great options to check out to get you started.
#1 Seller Financing: Instead of working the traditional path of finding houses that currently have a mortgage, focus your efforts on the houses that are likely free and clear. Ideally, the current owner pays nothing on the property except for property taxes. This means that there is an excellent opportunity that you can work out a deal with the seller where they act as the lender and you pay them every month to ultimately pay off the agreed upon amount in a predetermined period of time. THIS IS GOLD!!!
#2 Lease Options/Rent-to-Own: This is a technique for your buyer, which is excellent if they are not sure whether or not they really want to buy the house just yet (or are not able to secure a mortgage loan). When worked out in union with seller financing, the buyer’s agreement with you will ultimately pay for your monthly amount to the seller, and then some.
#3 Wholesaling: This option really allows you to remain fairly hands off from the whole transaction. You find the deal (a motivated seller), you make the deal, but then you find another end-buyer investor who wants to close the deal. Then, you get paid a “finder’s fee,” of sorts, for your work and trouble. This can be whatever you decide, but it’s usually a few thousand dollars or more. The best part – you never actually own the property.
When I learned about creative financing, it turned around my entire experience with real estate. I went from flat broke to making over $140,000 in the next 9 months with only 14 sales! This is why I am so passionate about teaching other women all about creative financing with First Deal Done Fast. I LOVE seeing the wheels starting to churn and the light bulbs turning on.
When you’re ready to learn about creative financing keep in mind that there are a whole bunch of other ways to get creative. Start studying and researching what options exist. Make sure you are aware of your states laws and regulations. Get knowledgeable and informed, always. Find seminars, conferences, and courses to teach you what you need to know. Then, get to work. Whichever one you choose and sounds right for you, this is always the path for success. It cannot be skipped, nor glossed over. Learn, learn, learn, and action. Wash, rinse, repeat. Now, get to it!
Whitney Nicely rejected the southern girl path of working at her family’s trucking business and embraced the life of an investor. Her first nine months made her over $140,000, and set her on the path to empowering other women to break into the real estate “good ole boys club” and break down barriers while making some serious cash. If you’d like to get started, or want to find out more about what I teach, click here to set up a time to chat or visit WhitneyNicely.com to learn more.
Ten U.S. Cities Where Home Values Are Skyrocketing
BY BRAD BECKETT ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018
Get ’em while they’re hot…The good folks over at Realtor.com, like everyone else, have been watching shrinking inventory drive up home prices all across the country. To that they, they crunched the numbers and took a “deep dive” into their listings to find those housing markets where home prices are growing at the fastest clip. To come up with their list, they analyzed the increase in median list prices on realtor.com from 9/17 to 9/18 in the largest 300 metros. Then they ranked the places that saw the biggest percentage change in home prices during that span and limited it to just two metros per state to ensure some geographic diversity. Indeed…
“There are a few places where home price growth isn’t just edging up, it’s actually growing at an accelerated rate, putting fat profits into the pockets of sellers. And here’s the thing: They’re not those ultrapricey, usual suspects like New York, San Fransisco, or Seattle.”
Zumper’s National Rent Report for November
BY BRAD BECKETT ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018
Rental information site Zumper recently released their National Rent Report for November showing that the median national rent for 1-bedroom apartment was $1,203 and the median two-bedroom rent was $1,432. Year over year, both one and two bedroom prices are up 2.3% and 2.9%, respectively. 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 report is based on all data available in the month prior to publication…..be sure to check out their entire list of 100 cities.
Total U.S. Construction Spending Holding Steady
BY BRAD BECKETT ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018
The U.S. government is reporting that total construction spending in September was estimated at $1,329.5 billion, which is nearly identical to August’s revised estimate and 7.2% higher than September, 2017. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $556.4 billion in September, 0.6% above August’s revised estimate.
ABODO: Are U.S. Rent Prices Officially Stable?
BY BRAD BECKETT ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018
National apartment listing site ABODO recently reported that the median nationwide rent price for one-bedroom units in November dropped slightly to $1,019 (down 0.8%) with two-bedroom units coming in again at $1,266 (down .24%). 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.
S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Says Home Prices up 5.8% Year-Over-Year
BY BRAD BECKETT ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018
According to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, home prices continued their ascent, with a 5.8% annual gain in August. Their 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 5.1% and their 20-City Composite posted a 5.5% year-over-year increase. 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.
Homeownership & Rental Vacancy Rates Remain Steady
BY BRAD BECKETT ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018
The U.S. government is reporting that the national vacancy rates in Q3 2018 were 7.1% for rental housing and 1.6% for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate was virtually the same as Q2 and 0.4% lower than the third quarter of 2017. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.6%, which is 0.1 percentage points higher than the the second quarter 2018, but is the same as one year ago. The U.S. homeownership rate was 64.4%, which was not statistically different from the second quarter 2018 or one year ago.
Sight-Unseen Homebuyers Down 35% Last Fall
BY BRAD BECKETT ON OCTOBER 25, 2018
Have you ever bought a property, sight-unseen? According to recent data from Redfin, one in five recent homebuyers said they made an offer sight-unseen. That figure is 35% less than a similar survey conducted last November. Redfin obtained their data from a survey in May of 1,463 people across 14 major markets who had bought a home within the last year.
“Now that most homes are staying on the market for longer than a week, there just isn’t as much pressure for buyers to make offers so hastily,” said Jessie Culbert, a Redfin agent in Seattle. “That’s a big change from earlier this year when sellers set offer review deadlines…This meant that whether or not you had time to physically step inside the home, you had to get your offer in on time in order to be considered…”
Single-Family Rents Up 3.1% Year Over Year
BY BRAD BECKETT ON OCTOBER 25, 2018
According to the latest CoreLogic Single-Family Rental Index (SFRI), single-family rents in August 2018 were up 3.1% year over year. CoreLogic’s SFRI index measures rent changes among single-family rental homes, including condominiums, using a repeat-rent analysis to measure the same rental properties over time. In addition, the report shows that single-family rents climbed steadily between 2010 and 2018. However, year-over-year rent growth has slowed since February 2016, when it peaked at 4.1%, and has stabilized over the last year with a monthly average gain of 2.8%.
