Strategies
Building a small portfolio over ten years
What a realistic accumulation actually looks like, with the pace and the constraints stated rather than assumed away.
Real Estate Investing Trends — The numbers behind the property
Strategies
What we would tell someone starting today
The things that turned out to matter, from three people who have made most of the available mistakes.
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Strategies
Wholesaling, and what it actually involves
Contracting a property and assigning the contract for a fee is a real business with a marketing engine at its centre and a growing set of legal constraints.
Tax & Structure
Bookkeeping systems that survive an audit and a decade
The administrative work nobody enjoys, done properly once, saves money at tax time and prevents the reconstruction nobody has time for.
Tax & Structure
Selling: timing, costs and the tax bill
The exit is where a large share of the return is realised, and where the costs are most often underestimated.
Markets & Cycles
Demographics and the next twenty years of housing demand
The slowest-moving variable in real estate is also the most predictable, which makes it unusually useful and easy to overrate.
Rental Operations
The annual review every landlord should do
A few hours once a year on things that quietly drift, and the drift is expensive in every direction.
Underwriting
All underwriting →
Underwriting
The assumptions that break deals, ranked
A summary of where underwriting actually goes wrong, in rough order of how much money each error costs.
Underwriting
Reading operating statements a seller prepared
The document is real. Whether it describes the property you will own is a separate question.
Underwriting
The offer: contingencies, timelines and leverage
Price is one term among many, and the others frequently determine whether you win the property and whether you regret it.
Financing
All financing →
Financing
Paying off the mortgage early, or not
A question with a clear mathematical answer and a legitimate non-mathematical one, and the two frequently disagree.
Financing
Assumable loans and why they matter again
A low-rate mortgage attached to a property has become a significant asset in its own right, and a minority of loans allow it to transfer.
Financing
The HELOC and other ways to use existing equity
Equity in a property you already own is the most accessible capital most investors have, and the most dangerous to deploy carelessly.
Rental Operations
All rental operations →Rental Operations
The annual review every landlord should do
A few hours once a year on things that quietly drift, and the drift is expensive in every direction.
Rental Operations
Building the vendor relationships that carry a portfolio
The contractors who answer the phone are the difference between a manageable business and a stressful one, and they are chosen by how you treat them.
Rental Operations
Utilities, sub-metering and billing back
Owner-paid utilities are an uncapped expense with no incentive on the consumption side, and the fix is one of the better returns available.
Markets & Cycles
All markets & cycles →Markets & Cycles
Demographics and the next twenty years of housing demand
The slowest-moving variable in real estate is also the most predictable, which makes it unusually useful and easy to overrate.
Markets & Cycles
Is now a good time to buy?
The most frequently asked question in real estate, and the one where the honest answer is least satisfying.
Markets & Cycles
Office, retail and industrial: what happened and what it means
Three commercial sectors that moved in completely different directions over the same period, for reasons worth understanding even if you never buy one.
Tax & Structure
All tax & structure →Tax & Structure
Bookkeeping systems that survive an audit and a decade
The administrative work nobody enjoys, done properly once, saves money at tax time and prevents the reconstruction nobody has time for.
Tax & Structure
Selling: timing, costs and the tax bill
The exit is where a large share of the return is realised, and where the costs are most often underestimated.
Tax & Structure
Passive activity losses and why the tax benefit may not apply to you
The rule that determines whether your rental losses reduce this year’s tax bill or sit unused for a decade.
Strategies
All strategies →
Strategies
What we would tell someone starting today
The things that turned out to matter, from three people who have made most of the available mistakes.
Strategies
Building a small portfolio over ten years
What a realistic accumulation actually looks like, with the pace and the constraints stated rather than assumed away.
Strategies
Wholesaling, and what it actually involves
Contracting a property and assigning the contract for a fee is a real business with a marketing engine at its centre and a growing set of legal constraints.
About Real Estate Investing Trends
Cash flow, cap rates, financing, landlord operations and market structure — analysis for people who underwrite before they buy. We publish explanatory articles rather than news, which means an article here is written to still be useful a year from now. Every piece is bylined, sourced and read by an editor before it appears — the full process is set out in our editorial policy.