Maureen Mengel Blog

The vacant lot at Ivory Street and 15th Avenue in Spokane's South Perry District sits on a high bluff of basalt riddled with signs of its past, both recent and long forgotten. Apples dangle off a small, gnarled old tree. Spokane responds to hot real estate market with housing infill - Sun, 31 Dec 2017 PST curated from Real Estate News

Protests against a Joh Bjelke-Petersen government proposal to build a road through rainforest abutting the Great Barrier Reef in the mid-1980s attracted so much national attention that the Daintree area became a huge tourist attraction overnight. Federal Labor put the area up for World Heritage Listing but rapacious real estate agents and developers moved in, and by 1994 Cabinet was shocked to learn the planning process showed the development rush was threatening World Heritage values in the Daintree's lowland rainforests. How not to protect nature curated from Real Estate News

Greenwich resident Ray Dalio, a hedge fund billionaire, speaks about his book "Principles" as part of Greenwich Library's authors live speaker series in the Cole Auditorium at the library in Greenwich, Conn., Wednesday night, Dec. 6, 2017. less Greenwich resident Ray Dalio, a hedge fund billionaire, speaks about his book "Principles" as part of Greenwich Library's authors live speaker series in the Cole Auditorium at the library in Greenwich, Conn., ... more General Growth Properties CEO Sandeep Mathrani addresses the crowd as GGP holds their official groundbreaking ceremony for The SoNo Collection mall on Wednesday, August 16, 2017, in Norwalk, Conn. Start the conversation, or Read more at News Times. The year ahead: cutting to the core of the Tax Cuts Act curated from Real Estate News

Fc Global Realty and Transcontinental Realty Investors are both small-cap real estate development & operations - nec companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends. This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Fc Global Realty and Transcontinental Realty Investors, as reported by MarketBeat.com. Critical Analysis: Fc Global Realty curated from Real Estate News

Summary : The year 2017 has been filled with a number of odd and significant lawsuits against those in all levels of the real estate industry. Real estate can hold a big risk for those involved in investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop projects. 10 Craziest Real Estate Lawsuits of 2017 curated from Real Estate News

Cousins Properties and Realty Income are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends. Cousins Properties has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Cousins Properties (CUZ) & Realty Income (O) Head to Head Contrast curated from Real Estate News

TAFE NSW enrolment data for 2017 shows thousands of extra students this year enrolled in the Certificate IV in Property Services course - a huge 44 per cent increase on last year. It's an industry Tamworth real estate agent of nearly 30 decades, David Doherty, is encouraging more people to take up. Real estate course on the rise as students eye property boom curated from Real Estate News

Ross Hancock sold his four-bedroom house in Coral Gables, a city of pastel luxury at the edge of Miami, because he was worried that sea-level rise would eventually hurt his property's value. He and his wife, Darlene, downsized to a small condo on Biscayne Bay, perched atop one of the highest coral ridges in the area. Start the conversation, or Read more at Finance and Commerce. Florida's real estate reckoning could be near curated from Real Estate News

When design studio RIGI was asked to redesign a traditional Shanghai lane home, the building was in need of structural repair and a major interior overhaul. Built in 1947, the residence was segmented into a warren of compartments that blocked natural light. Playful modern home created in traditional '40s Shanghai house curated from Real Estate News

Calvin Acuff, a real estate agent based in Morganton, N.C., is a self-professed animal lover who currently takes care of six pets - dogs Charlie, Molly, Willa, and cats Bow Tie, Orville and Leo - all of which he rescued while out and about hiking and walking in gorgeous mountain scenery that surrounds his town. Acuff, who only began his real estate career in 2016, infuses his love for rescue pets in his everyday business by giving buyers advice on how to care for furry friends they'd like to bring into their new home. Real estate agent donates $100 from each sale to help animals find 'fur-ever' homes curated from Real Estate News

Even in December, home sales in Ottawa have been brisk, as consumers try to buy homes before the new mortgage stress test kicks in Jan. 1, 2018. Instead of a winter slowdown, many Ottawa real-estate agents experienced a sales spike over the past two months as homebuyers rushed to seal deals ahead of new mortgage rules that kick in Jan. 1. The new rule puts a mortgage "stress test" on uninsured homebuyers putting more than a 20 per cent down payment on their next home. Mortgage 'stress test' brings winter real-estate spike curated from Real Estate News

Prospective homeowners often evaluate nearby schools, public parks, and public transportation options. But future homeowners in coastal cities might want to consider another factor before making a down payment: climate change. 'Climate gentrification' is coming to Miami's real estate market. curated from Real Estate News

The family of Barry and Honey Sherman, the Canadian pharmaceutical billionaires found strangled in the basement of their Toronto mansion, have reportedly hired private detectives to solve the mystery of their deaths. It is now two weeks since the bodies of the couple were discovered by a real estate agent, and Toronto police are yet to publish a meaningful update since December 17. Now, Brian Greenspan, the renowned Canadian lawyer acting for the Shermans' family, has retained the services of two private detectives to carry out an independent investigation. Private detectives are now investigating the mysterious deaths... curated from Real Estate News

Dan and Colette Craig have owned a condo in Cape Coral, Fla., for almost a decade. They know better than to talk politics with the neighbours when they visit. Consider putting your U.S. home in a cross-border trust:It could mean ... curated from Real Estate News

Calvin Acuff, a real estate agent based in Morganton, N.C., is a self-professed animal lover who currently takes care of six pets — dogs Charlie, Molly, Willa, and cats Bow Tie, Orville and Leo — all of which he rescued while out and about hiking and walking in gorgeous mountain scenery that surrounds his town. Acuff, who only began his real estate career in 2016, infuses his love for rescue pets in his everyday business by giving buyers advice on how to care for furry friends they’d like to bring into their new home. But, Acuff wanted to do something more to help the community he’s loved since his childhood in the country. “I’ve never had the traditional experience of going out and buying a puppy,” said Acuff. “I’ve always just loved rescue animals. They make excellent pets and the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve rescued.” “When the new year came, I began thinking of a way to give back to my community and that just kind of fit with what I enjoy and what is close to...

The body of real estate agent Alice Ristine, 72, was found floating about 50 feet into Little Lake Harris after she apparently drove a truck into the water and drowned. The body of real estate agent Alice Ristine, 72, was found floating about 50 feet into Little Lake Harris after she apparently drove a truck into the water and drowned. Lake real-estate agent, 72, found drowned near submerged truck curated from Real Estate News

Can the  LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) , the most popular standard in the world for rating the eco-friendliness of buildings, help sell new homes in Arizona? Homebuilding company Maracay Homes , which specializes in Tuscon and Phoenix-area residences, thinks so. Maracay markets itself as a “leader in building energy efficient homes that you can customize according to your family’s needs.” Earlier this month, the company  announced that it has a total of 300 properties already LEED certified or in the certification pipeline. In a phone conversation with Inman News, Maracay Marketing Manager Elise Goodell said her company saw a direct benefit to the company from its efforts to reach realtors and potential clients with information about LEED features. “We have outperformed our competitors because of the Energy Star and LEED component,” she explained. “Realtors and prospects are seeing a lift in value, and they are willing to pay for the LEED ce...

Inman announced the next 18 companies that will be sponsoring Inman Connect New York , Jan. 22-26, 2018. Inman Connect is a week-long event that will foster connections and big business deals among more than 4,000 real estate professionals. Featuring critical, inspiring keynotes, the latest industry driving trends and research, and experts from inside the industry and out on hand to interpret and make sense of it all, CEOs, tech entrepreneurs, marketing experts, top agents and brokers, and financial executives will come together to explore a future of opportunities. “We have lined up the best sponsors for the best-ever Connect,” said Brad Inman, Publisher. “I’m excited to see how they help our attendees drive themselves and their business.” For more information on Inman Connect sponsorship or exhibitor opportunities, please contact sales@inman.com . Sponsors will include: Platinum Sponsor Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is a retail mortgage lender, which provides home mortgage s...

PVR Partners and Alliance Resource Partners are both coal - nec companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations. Alliance Resource Partners has higher revenue and earnings than PVR Partners. Critical Comparison: PVR Partners curated from Real Estate News

Hawaii's commercial real estate market had a busy year in 2017, with new projects in all stages of development, several large transactions and Alexander & Baldwin converting to a real estate investment trust, but readers made Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg 's effort to gain quiet title to land on Kauai the most-read real estate story in Pacific Business News for the year. Here are the top 10 most-read commercial real estate stories for 2017. Start the conversation, or Read more at Business Journal. Zuckerberg tops PBN's most-read commercial real estate stories of 2017 curated from Real Estate News

In 2017, I hit the reset button on my comfort zone . I quit my job (I actually quit two jobs), I moved from California to Arizona and started a new position as chief operating officer for HomeSmart International. Oh, and I became an Ironman! The journey to resetting my comfort zone actually began with committing to doing something so crazy and so far beyond what I thought were my physical limits, I wasn’t even sure it was possible. Wendy Forsythe, you are an Ironman! I have always been athletic, but completing in an Ironman race was unimaginable to me. How could I possibility cover 140.6 combined miles of swimming, cycling and running in 17 hours or less. Was I strong enough? Was I tough enough? I wasn’t sure. Spoiler alert: I did finish the race! I crossed the finish line and heard the words “Wendy Forsythe, you are an Ironman!” I had reset my comfort zone in what I could accomplish as an athlete. What I didn’t expect is what hitting the reset button on my comfort zone would ...

Trump and his GOP allies relished wins on taxes and a Supreme Court pick, but turbulence reigned as Republicans tried and failed to replace Obama-era health care laws and Trump picked fights on Twitter. A U.S. judge says a law that dismantled a popular Mexican-American studies program was enacted for a discriminatory racial purpose and so could not be enforced. 10 Things to Know for Friday curated from Real Estate News

Trump and his GOP allies relished wins on taxes and a Supreme Court pick, but turbulence reigned as Republicans tried and failed to replace Obama-era health care laws and Trump picked fights on Twitter. A U.S. judge says a law that dismantled a popular Mexican-American studies program was enacted for a discriminatory racial purpose and so could not be enforced. 10 Things to Know for Friday Source: AP curated from Real Estate News

In this undated photo released by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Dan Chung, Tanya Gersh poses for a photo. Gersh, a Montana real estate agent, sued the founder of a neo-Nazi website Andrew Anglin, accusing him of orchestrating an anti-Semitic internet trolling campaign that terrorized her family amid her dispute with the mother of a leading white nationalist. Judge won't tolerate 'game-playing' by neo-Nazi site founder curated from Real Estate News

The more successful you are, the more in demand your time is. Five moguls and members of The Oracles share how they decide whom to give their time to and on what terms. 5 Ways to Get Your Time Back curated from Real Estate News

Media coverage about Tejon Ranch has been trending somewhat positive on Thursday, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. The research group rates the sentiment of press coverage by reviewing more than 20 million news and blog sources. Tejon Ranch (TRC) Receives Daily News Impact Score of 0.12 curated from Real Estate News

It is said that it takes two people to enter into a marriage, yet just one to make that marriage better. The success doesn’t only lie in compromises alone but also in patience and understanding your spouse. Marriage is a challenge that gets harder with the passing of time. It takes efforts to build and sustain a marriage and no matter how clichéd this sounds, it only gets truer. So let’s discuss 5 ways to save your marriage… When we hear about marriage failures too often, we lose hope in resolving issues to save a marriage. Advice become uninteresting merely because they lose credibility in our sight. This is because we predict the outcome of our lives based on probability, even though each marriage is unique and only the couple themselves can make the ultimate difference to their marriage. If your marriage is on the rocks, it is understandable that you’ve thought about giving up already. But just by redirecting your energy on the positive things, you can set yourself in a new ...

More houses could be for sale toward the end of the year, giving home buyers a greater selection to choose from Yet in other ways, 2018 might continue to be challenging, especially for home buyers. Mortgage rates are likely to rise, reducing affordability. What to expect from the real estate market in 2018 curated from Real Estate News

Did you go into real estate because you loved marketing? Chances are, you didn't. And that explains why marketing is one of the top challenges for real estate agents today and the subject of so many of these articles. 5 trends shaping real estate marketing in 2018 curated from Real Estate News

Nearly a decade after the 2008 recession and housing crash, much of the U.S. has fully recovered. As a result, most of the country is experiencing a rise in the cost of living, especially as home prices return to and surpass pre-crash levels. With the cost of living set to rise higher in 2018, one thing Americans can do to soften the blow is adopt some proven  ways to save money before the end of the year . Otherwise, it will be difficult to escape this rising prices tide. Although the living-cost-increase trend is general, there are a handful of cities that specifically stand out due to the level and rapidity of their increases. Two recent studies, conducted by  GOBankingRates , analyzed over 100 major U.S. cities to find out where living cost increases are making the biggest impact. The first study identified cities with the  biggest cost of living increases over the course of 2017 . The second study determined which  cities are ex...

For those of you who have attended Inman Connect New York in the past, Pete Flint will be a familiar name. The former Trulia CEO started his relationship with Inman by attending Connect many years ago as an MBA student at Stanford to learn about the opportunity in real estate. It helped inform his decision to start Trulia, which he sold for $2.5 billion to Zillow. Today, he invests in startups, including a couple of real estate plays. SAVE MY SEAT Pete will give a keynote interview at Inman Connect New York on Friday January 26th at Capital Connect (free to ICNY registrants). Pete is currently working with NFX Guild, a seed and series A venture firm based in San Francisco that is a transforming how true innovators are funded. Previously Pete was founder, chairman and CEO of Trulia for over a decade. In 2015 Pete merged Trulia with Zillow in a transaction which valued Trulia at $3.5Bn and served on the Zillow Group board during the integration. Grow real estate business wit...

Inland Real Estate is one of 75 publicly-traded companies in the "Commercial REITs" industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Inland Real Estate to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and valuation. 73.0% of shares of all "Commercial REITs" companies are owned by institutional investors. Inland Real Estate (IRC) vs. Its Peers Critical Survey curated from Real Estate News

In the wake of the signing of the new tax plan into law, there’s been a flurry of activity from states affected by limitations on deductions of state and local taxes (SALT). The governor of New York, for instance, took emergency executive action to allow state residents to prepay their property taxes. In New Jersey, the governor ordered local governments to accept prepayment of property taxes. There’s been such a rush on 2018 tax prepayment that the IRS felt the need to clarify things, issuing a message yesterday cautioning taxpayers that prepayment of state or local real property taxes may not be deductible if those property taxes haven’t been assessed yet. “A prepayment of anticipated real property taxes that have not been assessed prior to 2018 are not deductible in 2017,” the statement says. In case you’re on the fence—or maybe standing in line at your local municipality trying to get your check in the right hands before December 31—here are a few things you should keep in ...

Many investors recognize the advantages of off-market real estate over listed properties, for a number of reasons. I have dealt with off-market sales for over six years and eventually   built an online marketplace around private offerings, so I’ve heard every question and answer you can imagine. Let’s take a look at some of the specifics of what separates listed and private real estate deals. What is the appeal of off-market real estate for investors? One of the foremost benefits of buying a property off-market is that there is often lower competition. When working on acquiring a property, time is of the essence, and an investor can create better negotiating leverage by having fewer interested parties in the property. Often, finding an off-market opportunity can allow a clear window to negotiate and purchase the property under terms that benefit the investor. Private offerings often also carry unique circumstances. Whether it’s a commercial or residential property, there is a...

Most investors want to buy low and sell high. A major factor in that equation is understanding when the market has peaked — after all, once the market peaks, it’s time to sell. It’s a pretty unanimous belief that most commercial property values have now peaked. The real challenge is that once you sell, you have to get back in line to buy something else. That’s certainly the most common concern we hear from our clients. The Proper Mindset First, let’s agree that it’s a great time to own commercial real estate. I've seen that pricing has hit record highs.   Most commercial properties also put off consistent cash flow. It’s hard to give that up, even if you recognize that your property has reached its peak market value. It’s easy to tell yourself that there’s nothing else out there to buy, so why sell your golden goose? And if you did sell, who wants the pressure of quickly finding a suitable replacement property? This line of thinking usually results in procrastination. ...

One of the most common questions I get from aspiring real estate investors is whether to buy property directly or purchase shares in a real estate investment trust, commonly referred to as a REIT. For those who aren’t familiar with REITs, these vehicles allow individuals to buy shares in companies that own real estate as their primary business activity. While some REITs are private or non-traded, in this article we’ll focus on the publicly traded REITs, which are the most visible and can be purchased by any investor with a brokerage account. I used to run one of the largest publicly traded single-family rental REITs called Starwood Waypoint (now part of Invitation Homes), which I took public in 2014. Today, I’m the CEO and co-founder of a marketplace for buying, owning and selling single-family rental investment properties — so I’m pretty familiar with both sides of the argument. While both methods of investment allow investors to achieve real estate exposure, it’s a bit ...