One of our best-kept secrets: Renting Dear Bruce: Can you tell me your thoughts on owning versus renting? My girlfriend thinks that renting is throwing money out the door. I think that there are more costs to owning than she realizes. — Mike, via e-mail Dear Mike: I don’t know what your girlfriend is thinking …
Category Archives: Investment Tips
Real estate flippers back in South Florida, but this time they could help
Real estate flippers back in South Florida, but this time they could help The flippers are back. Bolstered by swelling foreclosures and bottomed-out prices, investors are returning to the South Florida real estate market, snapping up distressed homes with cash payments for either a quick turnaround or a short-term rent-then-sell investment. Unlike the speculative flippers …
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The Stresses of Buying Distressed Homes
The Stresses of Buying Distressed Homes Home buyers are finding that the battered real-estate market offers just as many opportunities for headaches as for bargains. Seth and Crystal Grotzke, both 25 years old, recently bought a bank-owned two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse in Edina, Minn., for $110,000—when similar homes in the same development were selling for as …
How to Land a Foreclosure House
How to Land a Foreclosure House Buying a foreclosure home often is appealing to house hunters trying to stretch their dollars. But finding a good one can be a challenge. “The vast majority of the banks don’t want us to advertise [foreclosure homes] as ‘bank-owned’ because it comes with a negative connotation,” says Ryan Melvin, …
Be wary of buying into homeowner association
Be wary of buying into homeowner association It has always been wise to take extra care when buying a house or apartment in a community governed by its owners. But nowadays, with so many people behind on their mortgage payments, even a fire-sale price from a desperate seller could quickly lose its luster if too …
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Apartment (REIT) Hunting
Apartment (REIT) Hunting Can the sluggish economy really justify the prices investors are currently paying for stocks? That’s the question on traders’ minds these days, and it certainly applies to real estate companies, which have seen their shares roughly double since the market’s financial crisis nadir in March, easily trumping the S&P 500’s mere 57% …