Real estate investors and property managers are all familiar with the frustration of tenants who never seem to pay their rent on time, which can throw your positive cash flow out-of-whack. Even when tenants pay the rent in full over the course of a month (making payments each week), the use of technology like mobile and online payments can add a sense of security for an owner.  Knowing that it is easy for your tenants to pay can reduce the stress of having to stay on top of those payments through the month.

With modern technology, it just doesn’t make sense for owners not to take advantage of the growing online and mobile payment avenue.

For most people, saying “renter” will bring up a particular image. Twenty-somethings, singles, young families — people who, essentially, can’t afford to buy their own home yet. While they, along with college students, make up a significant portion of renters, they are far from the only ones.

In fact, there’s quite the number of Baby Boomers turning to renting in their sunset years. Enough that real estate investors would do well to investigate. Marketing with Baby Boomers in mind in the right places may just give your investments a boost.

As we all know, Houston has been making real estate headlines for quite some time now. Space City took a softer blow during the recession and, consequently, has been experiencing a thriving real estate market (comparatively speaking). Most analysts saw Houston as top dog in 2015 as the local economy continued to grow along with housing demands.

The Houston real estate market wasn’t without its problems and complications of course (which market doesn’t?), but all seemed smooth sailing…

It's safe to say that most real estate investors are in the business to make money and many are actually planning for an event.  That requires planning and saving for that special something. In many cases, that something is retirement.

There are many, many reasons for real estate investors to rely on a good property manager. It’s no secret that property management is a difficult job. Any owner who has taken on landlord responsibilities themselves can vouch for that!

The reason investors ought to seek a property manager (or property management company) go beyond simple convenience. Having a top-notch manager can be the single biggest factor in the success of your investments.  On the flip side of that statement...having a poor property manager can be the end of your successful investment.

RealtyTrac recently featured Tennessee in their latest newsletter and even published an article from Memphis Invest.  The newsletter is full of fantastic information and is linked at the bottom of the article.  In the meantime, here is our article with some fantastic updates on Memphis real estate.

Just like positive cash flow, the notion of a good ROI has long been the gold standard for real estate investing. ROI can come in the long term through appreciation (which is what most people who take on big property renovations are banking on), but also through the short-term (such as just buying an investment property and achieving positive cash flow).

There’s a lot of reading to be done. As we’ve done in the past, we’re bringing you a handful of recent, relevant articles for real estate investors and professionals to pursue this week in lieu of having to hunt down posts worth reading.

As always, we try to keep our selection diverse, covering a broad range of industry topics and recommending reading that investors will find useful and practical.

One would think that with the relatively sluggish recovery of the real estate market in many parts of the country, with both home buying and home building on the low side overall, home improvement would be similarly stunted.

And yet, that’s not the case — a study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, property renovations are booming with nearly $300 billion in sales. It could be the highest spending this year since 2007. That’s good news!