Team Thayer Property Servicing

 “What do I need to start investing in real estate?” The answer is more simple than you think. Whenever you get started in a new business, it is easy to get caught up in everything you don’t know. Fear and anxiety can quickly take hold of you if you let them. It is human nature to wait to make your move until everything is lined up perfectly. In reality, however, there will never be a perfect time to enter a new business. You will never know enough or have everything line up as perfectly as you would like. Instead of worrying about having your website up and running or having enough money, you just need to get started taking action. Before you do, here are a few of the essential things you must have in place: 1. A firm plan: Ok, so you are going to be a real estate investor. How are you going to do it? There is too much at stake to simply say that you are going to figure it out as you go. You don’t need a website or even business cards to get started, but you do ne...

Mortgage Rates At All-Time Lows 2015 is another great year for housing in America. Home sales are on the rise, home supply is diminishing, and prices are skyrocketing in most places. To top it all off, mortgage rates are dropping like stones. What’s a person to do in a red-hot market like this? Aside from buying a home, you can start flipping like those guys on TV! 30-year mortgage rates are below 4% nationwide, their lowest levels of all-time. Many lenders now quote rates and APR in the 3s; with rates for  FHA  and  VA loans  beating rates for conventional loans. Lower mortgage rates mean lower monthly payments. Unfortunately, many  first-time homebuyers  are still under the impression that they must start out by putting 20% down. This simply is not true. Most mortgage programs today require little or no money down. No Need To Put Down 20% Buyers in today don’t need 20 percent down. Many believe they do. The reason buyers beli...

The average gross profit on a flip, however, soared to $72,450, up from $61,684 in the first quarter of 2014. That is the highest profit since this survey started in the beginning of 2011, and is attributable to tight supply in the housing market, which is pushing prices higher faster. "The strong returns for home flippers in the first quarter demonstrates that there is still a need in this recovering real estate market for move-in ready homes rehabbed to more modern tastes, particularly given the dearth of new homes being built," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. Flips are now giving investors an average gross return of 35 percent, but with prices higher, investors are discovering it's increasingly difficult to find properties that will make good flips. Certain markets are offering much better odds. "Markets with the combination of distressed inventory, affordability and demand that are yielding the best flipping returns include places su...

Concerns about the potential impact of higher interest rates have sent  real estate investment trusts on a roller coaster ride this year, after chalking up double-digit gains in 2014. Despite their recent fickle behavior, however, this asset class belongs in the diversified portfolios of long-term investors, experts say. What's more, the volatility could provide a buying opportunity. A REIT is simply a company that owns or finances income-producing real estate. Most REITs are traded on major stock exchanges, and investors can purchase a share of the REIT just as they would any other stock. One major draw of REITs is that they provide investors with a  regular income stream , as they typically pay out their taxable income as dividends to shareholders. In the low interest-rate environment that has prevailed in recent years, income investors have turned to REITs to generate potentially higher rates of return than more traditional income-generating investments, such as ...

Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 2.7 percent month-over-month in April and have risen on a year-over-year basis for 38 consecutive months, according to the  April 2015 CoreLogic Home Price Index  (HPI) released on Tuesday. With distressed sales (short sales and REO transactions) figured in, 30 states plus the District of Columbia were at or within 10 percent of their peak prices in April, according to CoreLogic. The District of Columbia reaching price peaks not seen since the beginning of CoreLogic's HPI in January 1976. Some states within 10 percent of their peak were Alaska, Colorado, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. Home prices rose by 6.8 percent year-over-year and 2.3 percent month-over-month in April excluding distressed sales, according to CoreLogic. Home prices excluding distressed sales, which are normally discounted at 20 percent or more, actually appreciated at a lower rate month...