Richard Warren, Author at The BiggerPockets Blog

Archive of Richard Warren

Richard has written 186 articles for The BiggerPockets Blog.

Assessing Your Real Estate Investment Year

by Richard Warren December 3, 2012

Back in the 1980s New York City Mayor Ed Koch would walk around his city asking people “how am I doing?” He was seeking feedback from his constituents and this made him enormously popular. It was his way of assessing whether or not he was achieving his goals. Do you ever ask yourself how you [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Going the Distance: Should You Invest in Out of Town Real Estate?

by Richard Warren November 5, 2012

It’s easy to be tempted by out-of-town investments that seem to be a great opportunity. Sometimes they are outstanding deals, but are they good deals for you? Hurricane Katrina left an extremely devastated area that became the GO Zone. Mega storm Sandy blazed its own trail of destruction that will lead to opportunities for many. [...]

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Real Estate News & Commentary

Realtor Ads as a Gauge of Your Local Real Estate Market

by Richard Warren October 1, 2012

Investors are constantly bombarded with statistics. Housing starts are up in the United States, housing starts are down in a particular city. Resale inventory is high, retail inventory is low, short-sales are up, short-sales are down. Don’t get me started on the “shadow inventory” that’s been poised to flood the market for years now. It’s [...]

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Markets

Upside of a Down Market

by Richard Warren September 3, 2012

The real estate market experienced such a prolonged downturn that it created a number of new opportunities for those who stopped wallowing in misery and got on with their business. Few areas were hit as hard as Las Vegas yet many investors and realtors are thriving. So many real estate agents left the business that [...]

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Real Estate News & Commentary

Buy Where People Want to Live

by Richard Warren August 6, 2012

I was at a business networking meeting a couple of weeks ago and met a real estate investor. As usually happens, we started talking about the state of the market in the area. He couldn’t contain his excitement about a deal he had just closed to purchase a rental property. This wasn’t his first but [...]

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Flipping Houses & Rehabbing

Is There a Right Time to Rehab Your Way to Wealth??

by Richard Warren July 2, 2012

The other day I was asked by a networking contact if I would talk to one of her colleagues about rehabbing real estate. This person was a well established professional looking to venture into real estate investing with a focus on renovating distressed properties. He would be partnering with a fairly successful contractor with extensive [...]

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Real Estate

Beware of Municipal Risk When Investing in Real Estate

by Richard Warren June 4, 2012

You’ve got cash for a down payment just burning a hole in your pocket, financing is lined up, you set up your LLC, you’ve even checked out things like insurance, and you’re ready to go. You’ve watched real estate listings for months but now you are looking with a serious eye. You’ve found one area [...]

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Real Estate

Importance of Real Estate Maintenance Funds

by Richard Warren May 7, 2012

An amazing run of good luck has come to an end. Despite owning a number of older rental properties, I haven’t had to deal with a major repair in almost two years. Recently I had to replace a water heater that failed and take care of several plumbing problems requiring extensive repairs. While I wasn’t [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Where’s the Irrational Exuberance?

by Richard Warren April 2, 2012

Over the last decade I’ve had a front row seat to one of the most interesting real estate markets in history. I made my first foray into the Las Vegas real estate market twenty years ago as a long-distance investor and landlord. I saw the growth taking place and believed that appreciation was sure to [...]

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Foreclosures

Where Have all the Foreclosures Gone?

by Richard Warren March 5, 2012

There’s something missing from the nation’s foreclosure capital. It seems that while no one was looking all of the Nevada foreclosures have disappeared. Has the market finally absorbed all of the delinquent homes so that markets can return to some semblance of normality? Hardly. You can thank a new state law – with a wave [...]

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Landlord Tenant

So You Want to be a Landlord? Really?

by Richard Warren February 6, 2012

Several days ago I read a great post by Michigan landlord, Dennis Fassett, in the BiggerPockets member’s blog section. It would have been hysterical if only it wasn’t so true. He discussed what he called The Boyfriend Disorder. He wrote about what happens when a prospective tenant shows up to view a property and has [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Importance of Rental Property Maintenance

by Richard Warren January 2, 2012

I remember the auto parts commercial stating that you could prevent a costly engine replacement by simply changing the oil and filter on a regular basis. The tagline was “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.” That certainly applies to real estate. Performing preventative maintenance on a regular basis can help [...]

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Foreclosures

Look Both Ways Before You Walk

by Richard Warren December 5, 2011

So many people have walked away from homes that are hopelessly underwater. With little prospect of recouping their losses, or faced with a difficult personal financial situation, they have made a decision to let the bank foreclose. Prior to 2007 this would have resulted in an income tax liability on the amount of any forgiven [...]

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Landlord Tenant

Fall of a Property Manager: The Rest of the Story

by Richard Warren November 7, 2011

As a real estate investor and landlord you need to have a strong and trustworthy team in order to have a strong and vibrant business. Operating as a one-man-band is fine at first and a majority of successful people probably started just that way. However, trying to manage all aspects of your business while taking [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Take the Emotion Out of Flipping Houses

by Richard Warren October 3, 2011

One of the biggest obstacles to success as a real estate investor is emotion. It’s part of being human. Imagine you are shopping for a new car. You do your research on the internet, you read reviews in various publications, calculate exactly the highest price you are going to pay and head to the showroom. [...]

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