Best summer home renovation projects

Summer brings pool parties, ice cream and popsicles, playing in the yard…and renovations. Many homeowners find that some home upgrades are best completed during the warm summer months. The weather is much nicer, contractors have longer daylight hours in which to work, schedules tend to slow down, and labor costs might actually be lower. Which renovations work best during the summer? Here are some of the most popular ones, ranked from simplest to toughest (or longest).

Small DIY projects

Remember all those little projects on the back burner? Now is the time to tackle them. Everything from staining the deck to installing a new porch railing is fair game. You can do some work in the house too, renovating closets to create more space or creating a study area for the kids. Speaking of the kids, now that they are home for the summer, you can enlist their help in smaller home upgrades that give them a sense of accomplishment.

Continue reading the full article here.

First-time buyers push home sales to a 5-year high

U.S. home resales surged to a 5-1/2-year high in May as first-time buyers stepped into the market, the latest indication that housing and overall economic activity were gathering steam in the second quarter.

The National Association of Realtors said on Monday existing home sales increased 5.1 percent to an annual rate of 5.35 million units, the highest level since November 2009.

That left sales this year on track for their strongest performance since 2007.

“It suggests that the U.S. housing market recovery is back on track after the missteps earlier this year. We expect this upbeat tone in the housing recovery to continue as the favorable domestic fundamentals begin to reassert themselves,” said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

Last month’s increase unwound April’s surprise drop in purchases, which economists had dismissed as a blip given that forward-looking indicators on home sales, including mortgage applications, had been fairly strong during that period. Continue reading the full article at msn.com

Real Estate Investments: How Much Room Should You Leave in Overhead?

If you’re like many individuals new to real estate investing, you probably have little to no idea what overhead is. What you should know, however, is that overhead costs are one thing you want to understand and estimate before investing in a property.

What is Overhead Anyways?

Overhead is the sum of the recurring expenses relating to your property, otherwise known as your operating costs. This can included fixed costs–those that stay the same each month–as well as variable expenses like maintenance that vary from month to month.

Overhead costs typically include:

• Mortgage payments
• Property taxes
• Insurance
• Maintenance costs

How to Estimate Your Overhead

Assuming you’re planning to invest in a residential property, the best way to figure out how much room to leave in overhead is by estimating all of your costs.  Continue reading the full article via realestateinyourtwenties.com

Investing with Your Partner: The Key to Your Long-Term Real Estate Success

It was 8:00 on a Sunday night and our clothes were covered in paint, drywall dust and sweat!  We spent the better part of our weekend rehabbing our latest rental.  Typically, we try to outsource the “make-ready” work to our local handyman, but on this job we decided to do the work ourselves to save on labor costs.  I won’t say it was the most relaxing weekend we’ve spent together, but it wasn’t the first time we sacrificed our days off to work on our rental business – and it won’t be the last either.

I mention the above story to illustrate an important point: in order to be successful in the long-haul, your significant other must be on the same page with your investment strategy.

When I first started buying rental property, one individual who was most influential to me wasMike Zuber.  In my first conversation with him, I asked him the same question every newbie investor asks a more experienced investor – what advice/suggestions do you have for me?

What was Mike’s response?

It wasn’t about how to increase cash flow or my ROI; but rather, it was to make sure my significant other was on the same page with my investment strategy.  It doesn’t sound like something you would read in a real estate investing book, but I can tell you that this piece of advice has gone a long way in helping to build a healthy rental portfolio.

Over the past three years, I can’t count how many weekends we’ve spent fixing up houses, going to real estate investing clubs, or making random trips to Home Depot.

I love houses and real estate.  I’m not exactly sure why, maybe I was supposed to be a contractor in another life, but for whatever reason, I like taking an ugly house and making it look brand new.  However, I can’t say the same is true for my wife.  I’m sure she’d rather spend her free time reading a book or finding a new recipe on Pinterest.

The point is that we differ when it comes to real estate.  For me it’s a passion, while for her, well it’s . . . security. Continue reading the original article by biggerpockets.com