Well, we are halfway through the year and we are looking at a cup that is ready to over-flow not only for our company and our team, but for every real estate investing client we work for.  And...make no mistake about it, we WORK FOR over 800 clients around the country every day!

The classic debate returns. The “rent vs. buy” issue has been around for ages, but the answer is never as clear as one would think. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t distinct pros and cons to both renting and homeownership. In fact, many of these points transcend location, from the hottest metropolitan areas to more modest suburbs.

Real estate investing has been a very popular topic over the last few years.  Real estate investors with rental properties have been in a good place during the last few years. The surge of homes in foreclosure meant that properties were ripe for the taking - and at record low prices. As the housing market recovers, however, the number of homes available is dwindling and some investors are choosing to leave the business...it just isn’t as easy anymore.

Millennials don’t have it as easy as we like to think. Recent college graduates deal with a slew of financial stresses thanks to the state of the U.S. economy and it appears that buying real estate is only one of those stresses. It feels nearly impossible to attend college without incurring some amount of student debt, and the job market, while improving, is still challenging. It’s hard to start a life and find success if you can’t find a job with that new degree.  If you can't find a job, then you sure can't buy a first home much less invest in real estate.  

Plenty of factors figure into the state of the U.S. economy. When the economy crashed a few years ago, the housing market was largely blamed. Very slowly, we’ve been climbing out of this economic hole. The general public opinion of the recovering economy, however, is still mixed and hasn’t changed much from 2009. In a study by the Pew Research Center in February of this year, a reported 61% of Americans were hearing a mixture of good and bad news surrounding the U.S. economy and its recovery, 33% heard mostly bad news, and only 5% heard mostly good news.

Rent may be a necessary evil for tenants, but for real estate investing, it's simply necessary. Rent is your positive cash flow, after all. Those savings are integral to having peace of mind in our uncertain and ever-changing economy.