BiggerPockets Daily

With mortgage rates and home prices high, more homeowners are staying put, according to a report by Redfin. The number of homeowners looking to move to a different metro area started to decline in the fall of 2023, dropping to 23.9% in November 2023. That marked the lowest share in a year and a half and below the 26% seen last summer. While some of it also has to do with remote work becoming less...

Real estate investing can be a one-and-done deal or a strategy with more work but potentially higher profits. If you’re an investor looking for ongoing passive income, the BRRRR method may be a good option. The BRRRR method means you buy, rehab, rent, refinance, and repeat. It’s a cycle to build a robust real estate portfolio by purchasing undervalued properties using the equity of an existing inv...

When my husband and I got married, we bought our first place—a brand-new, 1.5-bedroom condo—in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. At the time, the Bed–Stuy neighborhood was rough—for example, a biker gang that loved to throw huge all-night parties was headquartered at the end of our block, and there were abandoned buildings every few feet, often rustling with the sound of homeless inhabitants. Back in...

Remember the container ship that got wedged in the Suez Canal in March 2021? Within days, hundreds of ships halted. In less than a week, 12% of global trade halted.  This is merely one simple example of volatility. A tiny event in some remote corner of the world made life perilous and unpredictable for a billion people. The shockwave reverberated across the Earth.  There are many more examples lik...

Since 2006, my team and I have delivered almost 500 Las Vegas investment properties (> $130 million). The properties had an annual appreciation of 15% and annual rent growth of 7% (2013 through December 2023), and our average vacancy rate stayed below 2%, including during two major economic turmoils: 2008 housing crash: Zero decline in rent and zero vacancies. COVID pandemic eviction moratorium: N...

Do you want to get started in real estate investing but don’t have the funds to purchase an entire property? Fractional real estate investing may be the answer you’re looking for. Fractional investing offers lucrative opportunities to own part of a property rather than an entire one. Fractional real estate ownership can be affordable for startup investors who want to enter the real estate market....

A December report issued by staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) discusses several potential modifications to the accredited investor definition, as suggested by sources like the Investor Advisory Committee and the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee.  The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 requires the SEC to review the definition every four years in light of changes in...

There may be a real estate underinvestment crisis looming in the coming decades, thanks to baby boomers.  According to a joint study from Morning Consult and home improvement company Leaf Home, 55% of baby boomers plan to age in their 40-year-old-plus homes and have no intention of selling or renovating. That means when millennials inherit homes, they may be faced with a mountain of deferred maint...

At the end of January, the House passed legislation that would extend some of the provisions of Trump’s 2017 tax bill and expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC), along with other tax reform measures.  If passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 would allow real estate investors to continue to claim 100% bonus depreciation,...

One of the questions we see on the BiggerPockets forums over and over again is, “Where do I find a good lease document?”  When people ask that question, they really don’t mean that they want a good lease document. What they mean is they want a free lease document. The truth is that leases are really the most important investment you’ll make when starting your career as a self-managing real estate...

In the ongoing quest for happiness, a recent Empower poll disclosed that around 60% of Americans believe money can indeed buy happiness.  However, the dynamics of money’s role vary from person to person. For 67% of respondents, happiness hinges on the ability to pay bills on time, while more than half prioritize living debt-free and enjoying luxury without financial worry. Another 45% see homeowne...

You can’t scroll through your daily news feed these days without seeing story after story about the impact of generative AI on virtually any and all industries. It’s here, and the good news is it can be an incredibly useful tool in real estate.  According to a recent analysis by McKinsey Global Institute, “In our own work with AI, we have seen real estate companies gain over 10% or more in net ope...

In 2005, I decided to start an investor services business. I reviewed all the popular investing literature. What I found were self-professed experts offering opinions and no processes. As an engineer, opinions hold little value. I shifted my research focus to the commercial sector, where I found rigorous processes that resonated with me. I discovered that retail store location selection and stocki...

In case you missed it, Scott Trench, CEO of BiggerPockets, wrote this thoughtful article: Multifamily Is at High Risk of Continuing Its Historic Crash in 2024—Here’s Why. Scott and I have been discussing this topic offline anyway, so I thought I would take him up on his invitation to debate the subject online. Healthy debate is what BiggerPockets is all about, right? I will start by saying I agree...

Virtual house flipping can be an exciting, lucrative way to get involved in real estate investing. But as with as any type of investment, it’s important to understand the finer details to determine where you fit in.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three years ago, I opened the doors of my guest room to travelers on Airbnb to offset my mortgage. What started as a way to supplement my living expenses evolved into a passion for creating 5-star guest experiences and led me to start Stay Peachy Homes, a short-term rental (STR) property management company that helps homeowners and investors maximize their property’s performance and remove the man...

Do you enjoy filing your taxes? Of course you don’t. But there’s a silver lining.  Doing your taxes can be fun (or at least tolerable) when you understand how to make the best of your circumstances. Savvy investors know the power of taking advantage of every last deduction—within the limits of the law.  This leads to an important question: How much mortgage interest can I deduct on my taxes? Learn...

As most house flippers or BRRRR landlords will tell you, paying for hard money—with high interest rates and points tacked on top—can take huge chunks of profit out of a project. For landlords, extra expenses are involved in making monthly payments and paying to refinance into a regular mortgage, further eroding the bottom line. It’s generally a big pain and a reason many would-be-flippers and land...

Many investors assume that ownership is inherently safer than debt. I currently own equity in thousands of units and have invested six figures in real estate debts. I can tell you firsthand that it’s not—at least not always.  Still, real estate equity and debt investments serve different purposes in your portfolio. Before parsing the risks of equity versus debt investments in 2024, it’s worth revi...

Real estate investors are usually most concerned about rental income and property taxes. They seldom discuss home insurance. Many assume that home insurance is a standard fixed price in most parts of the country and give it scant regard, but you could be making a big mistake if you are one of those people.  According to insurance.com, the average cost of home insurance nationwide hovers around $2,...

If you’ve been reading our stuff for the past year or so, you know we’re bullish on preferred equity. And we believe there is a short window of opportunity to achieve this asymmetric risk/return opportunity.  Investors are asking a lot of questions about preferred equity, so we thought you might be interested in some details on the most recent preferred equity opportunity our fund invested in.  Le...

Insurance premiums are skyrocketing across the U.S., with no end in sight to annual increases that may just make you rethink investing in real estate in several parts of the country. At the very least, anyone investing in 2024 needs to be aware of the states where insurance premiums are rising the fastest—and factor these changes into their costs.  According to a recent report by the insurance com...

Whenever I hop on a conference call, someone asks, “Where are you located?” And then their eyes widen when I respond, “Lima, Peru.”  But back when I invested in rental properties, I did so in my hometown of Baltimore. It was only after I moved abroad that I discovered just how much I had subsidized those properties with my own labor.  When people ask me today what I would do differently if I were...

Five years ago, on the BiggerPockets forums, the name Western Wealth Capital (WWC) started to appear. With offices in North Vancouver, Canada, and Phoenix, they were well-known syndicators with a solid reputation, doing deals nationwide.  A competitor, Sam Grooms of White Haven Capital, stated: “They’re solid underwriters and performers. Janet [LePage] (Western Wealth Capital CEO) is known to not...

Growing old is a fact of life—even for Keith Richards—and while it’s doubtful you’ll see world-famous rock stars or aging screen stars in a residential assisted living (RAL) facility, for the rest of the population, they serve as the last stop before our final elevator ride. This is why, after a pandemic pause, senior housing communities are back to making a roaring trade.  “People put off moving...