BiggerPockets Daily

Commercial real estate is melting down fast. Home values next.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2023 That’s what Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted last week in response to a stream of tweets from venture capitalist David Sacks. In that series, Sacks claimed that Fed rate hikes and the increased borrowing costs they led to are causing a slew of problems in the financial world, including a so...

Is it still possible to find undervalued commercial real estate investments?  I believe it is, and I’ll prove it by telling you a remarkable story about a recent investment we made in a Nevada self-storage opportunity.   We’re in a Transitioning Market We are in a time of transition. From a booming market to a shaky market. From historically low interest rates to the highest we’ve seen in years. F...

According to a recent report by Fannie Mae, there are concerns about the housing market.  The U.S. housing market has experienced some ebbs and flows this year, but it’s undoubtedly been in correction mode. With elevated interest rates and tightening lending practices, Fannie Mae is forecasting a “modest” recession with a soft landing starting in the second half of 2023. Learn more about your ad c...

Federal eviction moratoriums lasted nearly 18 months, from early 2020 through late August 2021. Even after the federal eviction moratorium ended, many cities and states continued preventing landlords from enforcing their lease contracts.  Some cities went so far as to use federal tax dollars to give free legal aid to tenants to fight lawful evictions long after moratoriums ended. And that’s even a...

Commercial real estate is facing a lot of stress. Many analysts and investors, including myself, expect to see significant value declines across much of the sector in the coming year. But one particular type of commercial real estate is facing the biggest crash potential of all: office space. And even if you don’t currently invest in office space, the future of this huge asset class will have larg...

By most accounts, the Fed will hold steady after raising the federal funds rate by a quarter point to 5.25% at the beginning of May. A Reuters poll found that 102 of 116 economists thought the Fed was done raising rates this year, and 30 believed they would lower it. With inflation down from its high of over 9% last year to 4.9% in April of this year, it might seem like the Fed should reverse cour...

Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Houston. Those are the only four remaining cities where it costs less to buy a typical home than to rent, according to a new report from Redfin. The analysis compared March home values and rental estimates assuming a 5% downpayment and a 6.5% mortgage rate for the 50 most populous metro areas in the United States. Back in January 2022, an analysis from Realtor...

Your offer was just accepted on a beautiful property in Central Florida just a few miles from the coast. The income you will make from this short-term rental will fund your early retirement plans. Everything is humming along relatively smoothly—until you get your quote back for the insurance. Now, you feel like you just got punched in the gut.  The cost of the insurance will certainly take a chunk...

Atlanta, colloquially referred to as the “capital of the South,” is a large and growing market with interesting investment opportunities. The metropolitan area, officially defined as Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, has a population of over six million and hosts the headquarters of many well-known companies such as Coca-Cola, CNN, and Chick-Fil-A (all of which oddly start with the letter “C”), an...

Passive activity loss rules are complex. These rules prevent you from using tax losses from your rentals to offset your active income. A foundational understanding of the rules will save you thousands of tax dollars over your investing career.  And knowing how to review your tax return to ensure these rules were successfully applied is an investor superpower. For instance, if you opened your tax r...

Managing your real estate investment portfolio gives you more control over your assets and risk exposure. You can monitor the growth strategy of your real estate business so that it always aligns with your goals, which can change as you add alternative investments to your portfolio. While successful property management can vary among investors, there are key strategies that can enhance your skills...

Starting a real estate business can be a lucrative venture. Real estate investment provides various avenues for building wealth and achieving financial freedom, such as generating passive income through rental properties or earning profits through property sales. However, there is much to learn about real estate investing before closing deals.  Real estate investing (REI) offers endless opportunit...

Starting a real estate business can be a lucrative venture. Real estate investment provides various avenues for building wealth and achieving financial freedom, such as generating passive income through rental properties or earning profits through property sales. However, there is much to learn about real estate investing before closing deals.  Real estate investing (REI) offers endless opportunit...

The real estate industry is dynamic and ever-evolving. Market conditions are constantly influenced by factors like supply and demand, interest rates, and economic cycles, to name a few. Any of these factors can cause your property values, rental income, and investment opportunities to fluctuate. Before real estate investment trusts (REITs) were established in 1960, only ultra-wealthy investors cou...

A sound understanding of how to calculate debt-to-income ratio is critical to your overall financial health. Rather than guess and hope for the best, this blog post breaks down everything you need to know about the debt-to-income ratio.  What is a Debt-to-Income Ratio? Debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is a financial metric that shows how well you manage debt repayment in relation to your total income. ...

Are you considering selling a rental property? If so, using the right strategies can help you profit from the sale of an investment property and reduce your tax liability. Marketing the rental property, deferring capital gains taxes, and having a robust sales strategy are a few ways to sell an investment property for the best price. Investment properties can be a reliable source of income to build...

Every journey begins with a single step, and real estate investing is no different. Now that you’ve gotten your feet wet and learned a few lessons from your first investment, it’s time to grow your mindset andportfolio. Whether you’re an active investor looking to achieve financial independence or a passive investor wanting to earn extra income, expanding your business requires changing your goals...

Just because you own real estate doesn’t mean you have a real estate portfolio. It takes time, and you must be intentional about your real estate investing. A solid strategy guiding your buying and selling habits can help you build your portfolio and track your results. Once you have a strategy for buying an investment property and have created a real estate portfolio demonstrating your ability, y...

Deciding when to sell an investment property can be one of your most challenging decisions. The problem is that real estate markets are constantly changing. Selling a rental property too soon could mean missing out on a property boom. However, holding on to a dud property may result in significant financial losses. When is the best time to sell an investment property? It all comes down to timing....

The 1% rule is a real estate investment guideline indicating the minimum monthly rent you must charge to break even on a rental property. The rule states that your rent should be at least 1% of your property’s sale price.  While the 1% rule can be a helpful metric for investment properties, it’s meant to be more of a filter than anything. You should take it with a grain of salt, especially when ac...

News of a potential housing market correction often causes many Americans to be concerned about the global economy, but this concern may be unfounded. A correction isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It may help to improve housing demand and inventory when property values increase faster and higher than the norm. Housing market corrections impact people differently, and there are both pros and cons to...

There are plenty of platforms that short-term rental real estate investors can use to market their space, but two of them make up the lion’s share of the industry: Airbnb and VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner). While their primary functions are similar, Airbnb and VRBO have many key differences in the types of properties available, target audiences, fees and commissions, and much more.  Let’s match...

If you’re wondering how to grow your real estate business, you must learn about some of the most successful strategies for scaling your investment portfolio. Taking the time to educate yourself on the real estate world and what others have done to achieve success is a good first step. But to take your real estate portfolio to the next level, you must implement scalable techniques with proven resul...

Did you know you can add a layer of privacy to your entire portfolio through anonymous ownership on public filing for your assets? Holding property in your name makes it easy for anyone to find you through a simple public record search, exposing you to potential frivolous claims from upset tenants. However, by adopting anonymous ownership strategies, you can make it more difficult for them to iden...

Are you looking at a real estate purchase agreement and trying to decipher its essential elements and terms? If so, that is understandable. A purchase agreement for buying or selling property involves complex legal expressions and procedures. So, it’s easy to get confused with terms like disclosures, sale inclusions, contingencies, and earnest money deposits when talking about real estate transact...