A decade or two ago, vacation home rentals were handled by professional vacation rental managers. Now, only 40 percent of these rentals are managed by professionals, according to the Vacation Rental Managers Association. If you are a vacation homeowner who has decided to tackle renting out and managing your vacation property on your own, you […]
Three Easy Steps to Improving Your Holiday Rental Listing Read More »
Options are one of the most interesting yet misunderstood tools in an investor’s tool box. And how you think of them depends on whether you’re a Wall Street investor or a Main Street investor. Wall Street investors use options (puts, calls, LEAPs, etc.) to create profits, hedge positions (stop losses), and to speculate on uncertainty.
12/1/13: Exploring Your Options – Controlling Properties and Creating Profits Read More »
John Denver once sang, “Life on the road is kinda laid back.” Not for us. But thank God we’re real estate guys. For you youngsters, this is a reference to a classic John Denver tune, Thank God I’m a Country Boy. You know…John Denver? Rocky Mountain High? Blond hair, little boy haircut, high voice? No?
11/24/13: Follow the Money – Clues Where the Economy is Headed Read More »
Home ownership isn’t as well entrenched in the American dream as it was in the past, a recent MacArthur Foundation Survey found. Based on the survey results, 54 percent of the respondents thought renting has become more appealing, while 57 percent thought that home ownership was less appealing. Surprisingly, 45 percent of present homeowners who
Online Tips to Help Landlords Snag Potential Tenants Read More »
Whether times are good, bad, uncertain or chaotic, it always makes sense to focus on fundamentals. And there’s nothing more fundamental than food. In this episode, we visit with the CEO of an international investment company. He shares the path of discovery his firm and their clients explored in the wake of the 2008 financial
We think crowdfunding could be the Facebook of connecting money to Main Street. Yes, it could be THAT big. So we decided to go to Ruth Hedges’ 2nd annual Crowdfunding Bootcamp in Las Vegas to find out more about it. And of course, we took our mobile microphones with us. So when we weren’t listening
10/27/13: Crowdfunding Update – The Next Phase of Connecting Dollars and Deals Read More »
The dollar has been on a steady decline since Nixon took it off the gold standard in 1971. Since then, the dollar has lost a staggering 80% of its purchasing power. Ouch. The flip side of a falling dollar is that it takes more of them to buy anything that’s real. That’s why that gallon
10/20/13: Real Asset Investing – Using Hard Assets to Hedge Against a Falling Dollar Read More »
Because the US dollar is the reserve currency of the world, what happens in Washington DC and at the Federal Reserve has a big effect on the rest of the world. Likewise, how the world responds to Washington and the Fed affects the strength of the US dollar, which in turn affects interest rates. And
10/13/13: Government Shutdown and Debt Ceiling Debate – Ramifications for Investors Read More »
We all have people who’ve made a big difference in our lives. Sometimes they’re people around you. Other times, it’s a someone “out there” – an author, speaker, talk show host (hey, we can dream), or even a politician (okay, that’s REALLY pushing it). But you get the idea. For us, Tom Hopkins is a
10/6/13: Tom Hopkins – A Legend Shares Wisdom on Investing, Sales and Life Read More »
Retirement accounts hold trillions of dollars of assets. Almost all of it is in the hands of Wall Street through stocks, bonds, mutual funds and annuities. For those who want to move their money closer to Main Street, real estate, precious metals and private placements are appealing alternatives. But even though many real estate investors
9/29/13: Retirement Account Real Estate Investing – Borrow, Lend or Partner Read More »