Investment Opportunities
3 Pitfalls to Avoid as a Landlord
As the rental market heated up this year and rents in San Francisco Bay Area climbed in the double digits, many real estate investors seized the opportunity and bought rental properties for the steady cash flow and future equity gain. However, with the handsome return also comes liability. Being a landlord entails more than posting [...]
Read More >>The Fear Trade Benefits Housing : Part 2
Just a month after I posted the first half of this blog, the real estate market turned on a dime. On a national level, sales activity has picked up sharply while prices remain stagnant. But, locally in the Bay Area, housing suddenly has turned red hot. Good properties no longer lingered on the market for [...]
Read More >>How to be a Successful Home Buyer
It’s only March and 2012 is already looking like the rebound year for the Bay Area real estate market. Many homebuyers sitting on the sidelines are diving into the market, often with fistfuls of cash from 3-5 years of hard saving. Pockets of strong demand are showing up in the Bay Area, with buyers seeing [...]
Read More >>New Investor Makes Bet on Redfin's Cost-Efficiency Business Model
Since Redfin launched in 2006, I’ve followed the private company closely. Redfin would take a novel approach, and I was very interested in how it would fare against traditional real estate transaction models, which is rife with inefficiency. Initially, I thought it would streamline much of the arduous paperwork involved through an online platform, but eventually it [...]
Read More >>Following the Gold Proxy
In today’s environment of uncertainty, nearly every investable asset is showing divergence from historical correlations. With the Federal Reserve increasing the money supply, US Treasury yields have gone down and the dollar has strengthened. Oddly, the stockmarket declined while the dollar strengthened. Hot IPOs have a strong start in initial trading only to fizzle immediately [...]
Read More >>Foreign Investors Sensing Bargains in US Real Estate
As the US and local real estate markets continue to work slowly through a large inventory of distressed properties amidst tight credit conditions, foreign investors are sensing solid value in US real estate and have become very significant purchasers. While traditionally, most foreign investors are like some of my clients who purchase prime multi-million dollar [...]
Read More >>Investors Bottomfishing Great Distressed Property Deals
As policy makers, anodyne pundits, and dazed homeowners continue to wring their hands with worry, sharp-eyed investors have seized upon attractive investment opportunities available in US real estate. Brought along by the confluence of a deleveraging population and a huge distressed inventory from recent poor lending practices, US real estate prices are retracting 10+ years [...]
Read More >>House Auction Evolved
I recently went to a live residential properties auction for the San Francisco Bay Area. When talking about house auction, most people associate that with court house auctions or trustee’s sales which all to-be-foreclosed properties have to go through so that it will be sold to the highest bidder or to be re-possessed by the [...]
Read More >>Investing for 9% Returns in San Jose
Despite its dubious reputation for being the most expensive place to live in the country, San Jose still offers opportunities for informed real estate investors to earn 9% on their invested cash. The key is to find the right properties with the proper cash flow characteristics. At the moment, condos are offering some of the best [...]
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