You’ve heard it said many times that location is key in real estate. It is, but perhaps for different reasons than you though. In this article I will explain to you where to buy investment real estate, and why. WHAT DRIVES VALUE in REAL ESTATE To me – the investor and manager of a portfolio of real property, […]
How to Calculate ROI on Investment Property
One of the questions I am asked often is how I know if a property is a good investment. To me, the answer to this question translates into knowing exactly how to calculate ROI on investment property. The reality that folks are willing to put money under my management via syndication of real estate is […]
Is a Real Estate License Necessary?
In the past many people recognized me as a musician, violinist, artist, and teacher – that was in the past. Today, more and more people recognize me as a real estate investor, syndicator, businessman. However, neither in the past nor in the present has anyone confused me for a marriage councilor. And yet, having no formal […]
CAP Rate Real Estate – What is it and How to Use It
INTRODUCTION CAP Rate (Capitalization Rate) Analysis is the standard barer for estimating value of any large commercial income-producing asset, including multi-family residential which is 5 units or larger, multi-unit commercial, strip mall, retail mall, office, storage, industrial, etc. While the CAP Rate Analysis is not typically utilized by the bank appraisers for small multiplex, as […]
Why Do People Sell Cheap – Vending Machine Wisdom
If you are indeed a newbie in this sport of Real Estate Investing, you might be wondering why anyone would ever sell for 60 cents on the dollar, and at times for less. The circular logic goes like this: If it makes money, then why do people sell cheap; And if people sell cheap, then it […]
Remodeling an Apartment Kitchen – Ultimate Guide
NTRODUCTION The basic premise behind buying apartment buildings is Stable Passive Cash Flow. Passive cash flow is a function of your unit being easy to rent, staying rented for a long time, and being easy to manage – these three conditions are required to achieve any type of passivity of cash flow. If you’ve been […]
How to Pay Less Taxes – Advice from the IRS
“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.” ~Ayn Rand Every year around this time I become keenly aware of the reality that TAXES are indeed one of, if not the biggest drag on my financial life. They cast potentially a lot […]
What Is Due Diligence
In the world of real estate investing and finance there is a lot of jargon; a lot of terms that can sound strange to someone not immersed in this world on a daily basis. Fortunately, with just a bit of research most of these terms become self-evident quickly. But, then there is this term – due-diligence… I […]
How to Build Wealth with Rentals – A Case Study
INTRODUCTION I have been investing in income-producing real estate for nine years now. My portfolio currently consists of 28 units which generate Gross Rental Income of about $170,000/year and Cash Flow of around $45,000/year. I don’t flip houses. I don’t wholesale houses either. I don’t do Sub2 or Lease/Option sandwich deals or any other fancy VooDoo real […]
How Much Capital Gains Tax Do I Have to Pay
Some time ago I published an article entitled What Is Depreciation in Real Estate. Today I’d like to further consider what impact depreciation has on taxation upon the sale of an asset – the capital gains, by shedding light on the concepts of Cost Basis, Taxable Income, and Capital Gains as they relate to a […]
I Don’t Make Down-payment – Here’s Why
Real Estate investing is a cash intensive game, and this is nowhere evident than in the requirement of a down-payment. Yes indeed, the overriding reality for most people is that financing the purchase of an investment property generally involves a sizable down-payment. More than that, unbelievably enough, a rather wide cross-section of real estate investors […]
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Ben Leybovich – As Featured On
As you know by now, I love real estate and I love to talk about real estate. More specifically, it’s not real estate in and of itself that I love, but what it represents in my life and the lives of many well-educated but otherwise ordinary people. Real estate provided opportunities and answers in my […]
Wholesale Houses For Down-payments on Rentals?
An article I wrote last week entitled Newbie Alert – Don’t Buy Into the Wholesaling Hype started some meaningful discussion on the BiggerPockets Blog. I struck a nerve; can you believe it…? New investors are understandably vulnerable to persuasion, and believe me when I tell you that there is no shortage of advice out there, […]
Paying Too Much for Real Estate – Really?
Some people struggle to find a way, while others seem to turn everything to gold that they touch. How is that? I‘ll tell you – while most people LOOK, only a few SEE. Does that make sense? I hope so… This ability of making finer distinctions in life; of being able to look at the […]
The Worst Advice in Real Estate Investing
Real estate investing is a difficult field to enter. It’s not really difficult as in “hard to comprehend”, I can teach anyone what they need to know to start with in the space of three months. But rather, the difficulty is in terms of isolating the most viable among the many apparent options which are […]