The Real Costs of Rental Property Ownership

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” I had heard this old adage thousands of times in my life, but it had never really applied to me until I started looking into buying real estate, and more specifically, buy/hold rental investment properties.   Over the last several years, I have researched thousands of buy/hold rental investment properties across several different US markets, a...
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Why a Buy and Hold Investor Should Care About CAP Rates

If you have spent any time researching “buy and hold” real-estate investing (buying a property, renting it out, and collecting positive cash flow), you have likely heard the term “CAP rate” thrown around. “What’s the CAP rate on this deal?” “Hey, take a look at this fantastic 6.5 CAP!” “I’m looking for a Net 7 CAP” “What are the CAP rates in this area?” So… what exactly does CAP r...
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3 Reasons Millennials Aren’t Buying Houses and How Real Estate Investors are Cashing In on the Trend

Now that the election has passed the media, pundits, insiders and outsiders will sift through all the data looking for reasons to explain the results. Equities markets reacted negatively to Donald Trump’s victory, but within 24 hours nearly all the losses were recovered. Bank and drug maker stocks especially surged on the news. It’s projected by national analysts like RealtyTrac, and housing pu...
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Determining Market Rent for Your Investment Property

There are numerous resources available to real estate professionals and investors that can estimate the market value of a property. I use the Milwaukee Metro MLS daily to determine the bottom and high end for our current inventory of single-family and multi-family homes. I also use it to do comparative market analysis on properties we’re considering purchasing. In addition, inside the MLS syste...
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