By Austin Realty Management on
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
- Another great article from the Wall Street Journal...
These are heady days for apartment owners: Demand is growing and supply of new rentals continues to lag. But are landlords getting ahead of themselves? Will a recovery take hold that allows people to afford heftier rents?
It turns out that the outlook isn’t so bad. Research from the real-estate forecasting firm Property & Portfolio Research, which is owned by CoStar Group, says median household income and average rent over the next five years will grow at similar rates. Nationally, PPR projects growth of 16.1% for median incomes between now and 2016, versus 15.6% for rents. (The data are from 54 major markets tracked by PPR.)
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Thursday, January 12, 2012
An interesting article courtesy of the Wall Street Journal...
A private-equity fund that generated big profits by scooping up empty data centers after the technology-stock bust in 2000 is now making a big bet on foreclosed homes.
The fund, GI Partners in Menlo Park, Calif., plans to announce on Wednesday a $250 million investment in Waypoint Real Estate Group, an Oakland-based company that buys foreclosed homes at discounts and rents them out to tenants. The investment is among the largest to date by an institutional investor in the nascent single-family rental space.
Richard Magnuson, managing director of GI Partners, said the private-equity fund could eventually expand its investment to $1 billion over the next two years if the initial round is successful.
"They seem to be getting the kinds of yields we need for our investors," said Mr. Magnuson. The question now, he says, is "can you scale it to 5,000 or 10,000 homes, because the supply is there."
Waypoint Homes
Waypoint purchased this Antioch, Calif., home for $140,000 and is marketing the rental at $2,049 a month.
In 2001, GI purchased empty data centers that had been overbuilt during the dot-com boom, becoming one of the largest landlords for this type of property. After the technology sector rebounded, GI spun off the centers into Digital Realty Trust, a real-estate investment trust that went public in 2004 and has a $7 billion market capitalization.
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The first question we get once we have a new client who is putting their home on the rental market is "What do I need to do to get ready for a tenant?". Well, putting your home up for rent is almost the same as putting it up for sale, except for one fundamental difference, you still own the home! What we mean by this, is that the problem of the leaky sink, the door that doesn't stay shut, or the toilet that has never flushed right does not go away once you have a signed lease. While it would make our job much easier if everything in your house was updated prior to going on the market, we know that this is not financially realistic. We may be getting ahead of ourselves here though...Without Further ado, the top 3 things you can do to get your home rented and ensure you have happy tenants:
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The garbage disposal is an invention many of us couldn't live without. Well, that might be a stretch but it seems like every house has one and the days of actually scraping your leftover food into the garbage can are over!!! With all the convenience they provide, they still can be a major headache. Each year we are called to repair many inoperable disposals. Sometimes they just give out and need to be replaced. However, most of the time they are broken due to misuse. To avoid an unnecessary bill from a contractor please, please, please follow these simple rules when using your garbage disposal:
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
I agree the title is a little cryptic, but I had to get your attention. What about "Say Goodbye to the Mortgage Interest Deduction"? Better?
No matter what the title is, the fact is that the wheels are turning in Washington to get rid of our beloved mortgage interest deduction. Banks love it (it encourages mortgages), Realtors worship it (it spurs home sales), and the everyday american people? well let's just say there hasn't been a bigger legislative push to encourage homeownership since the GI Bill of 1944, which financially enabled hundreds of thousands of WWII veterans to purchase homes (then a privilege reserved for the rich) and ultimately created what we now know as just "suburbia". Simply put, the MID puts thousands of dollars back in the pockets of middle class americans every year, just for owning a home and pushes forward modern American society as we know it.
. 
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Excuse the corny title but in the spirit of this blog post we had to use it. If you've read " Freakonomics", then you know where we're coming from. In it, economist/writer pairing Steven D. Levitt and Stephen Dubner break down "the hidden side of everything" as economic theory and life intersect. Sounds boring, but it is a great book. We're not alone in thinking this either; it has sold over 5 million copies, been a New York Times Bestseller, and currently has just under 174,000 "likes” on facebook ( A.R.M.I. currently has 56). That said, there is a part of the book that stands out to me as being completely and entirely false. It wouldn’t be a big issue, given that the book is approaching the end of its first decade, but a certain topic keeps coming up from time to time in conversations, with clients and friends---plus they have made a movie, blog, podcast, and 2 follow up sequels to the original. At this point, we aren’t sure if their marketing machine will ever run out of gas…
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Friday, March 04, 2011
This article is courtesy of the "Fauquier Times-Democrat" (2/23/11)....
Rents increasing as more families seek other shelter
BY MICHELLE BAKER Special to the Times-Democrat
The warm weather of spring ushers in an increase in real estate activity each year. This year, the rental market in Fauquier County warmed up even before the weather outside changed. Fauquier County’s rental market is warming up fast with more renters, more competition for properties and higher monthly prices, according to some local brokers.
“Our market has tightened up quite a bit,” said Trey Austin of Austin Realty Management.
He said the market has improved on several fronts, including the addition of afford- able rental housing units due to investors snapping up foreclosures and short sales.
“A lot of people are picking up inexpensive homes to rent,” said Austin.
“It’s nice...we represent a number of investors who haven’t seen these opportunities,” said Austin. “The ease with which you can get invest- ment money from lenders [is] at really all-time low rates — 5 1/2 to 6 percent. You have local banks like Middleburg Bank that have a lot of money to lend for good investment properties.”
Rental Market Heats Up - 2.23.11.pdf
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
We don't usually step outside the realm of Real Estate in our blog, but anytime a Warrentonian (human or not) makes National headlines, then you can be sure we are going to Blog about it. Way to go Hickory, who took "Best in Show" Tuesday night at the Wesminster Kennel Club!
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/pets/dogs/2011-02-15-west_N.htm
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tax season is upon us yet again. However, if you are an owner of an investment property then there is good news (well, some good news). Other than the obvious deductions you are allowed to claim by owning property (Interest paid on mortgage, Property Taxes, etc.), owning a rental property allows you take just a little more. Here are the Top 5 as we see it:
|
By Austin Realty Management on
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
You would think that with the housing crisis in full swing that there would be so many homes available to rent that rental prices would go down. Seeing the recent numbers from HotPads you would be wrong.
The average rental price in 2010 increased by 11.6% during the year.
|