With the longer days of summer, some of you have a little more time on your hands, providing an excellent opportunity to prevent future hassles. How? By making a floor plan. First, grab a tape measure, paper, and if, like me, you were not blessed with the coordination required to draw a straight line, a … Read more
If you don’t spend much of your time buying and selling homes, you probably don’t have a clear sense of what title insurance is or why it’s important. Like many types of insurance, it’s not important–unless it is, and then it’s crucial. People can have unrecorded or unofficial rights to your property, so it’s important … Read more
When trying to figure out how much renovating you can afford, zero-based budgeting is a good way to go. Zero-based budgeting means starting from scratch. Assume all decisions are negotiable. Start with a list of every renovation expense you can think of, and assign a cost to each individual item. Ideally, it’s best to choose … Read more
Some things are just plain common sense. For example, when there isn’t enough of something to go around, it becomes more valuable. This is the economics of supply and demand: low supply means shortage of available workers (and vise versa). In the real estate market, this principle is in play right now with contractors who … Read more
When you’re trying to sell your home, you want to engage in all the activities that encourage buyers and none of the activities that don’t. Common sense, right? Then why do I see so many sellers sabotaging the sale of their property when it comes to open houses? Realtors have many marketing techniques to get … Read more
As the headline implies, this is the third column in a series about real estate investing. I started with single-family homes, moved to duplexes and four-plexes, and now I’m on to small apartment complexes (residential real estate with 5-12 units). Before I move on, however, I need to correct last week’s column. I said duplexes … Read more
When it comes to real estate, you can invest in several types of properties. The question is, why would you? Well, because it can pay handsomely. A reader asked, “If I were interested in investing in real estate, where should I start?” Well, there are several different types of real estate investments: single family homes, … Read more
Before I jump into the topic of who pays for what on a rental property, let me say that contracts trump all. If you sign a contract that gives away your rights or requires you to pay for uncommon expenses, it doesn’t matter what’s “typical.” You have to comply with the contract. When you own … Read more
Last week I shared information about investing in real estate, specifically purchasing a single-family home for use as a rental. This week, I’ll share why duplexes and four-plexes can be even better investments, if you have the funds. I’ll use a four-plex as my example. In Ukiah, you can purchase one for about $450,000 and … Read more