I'm new to the RE business but one thing I've found is I'm having difficulty finding reliable comps.

Where do you run your comps? Are Zillow and Trulia worth bothering with?
What criteria do you use? Distance, when...

I started a thread with an article about rent decreases nationwide. The replies seemed to substantiate the concern with properties taking longer to rent, and reductions in rent as well as other bennies needed to rent ...

Hi everyone,I have been on the forums for awhile doing research and I feel that it is time to get my first investment property.I am targeting a duplex in the East Bay and my agent/loan officer has come up with some cr...

I am new to real estate investing, and am looking for advice on how to research the best markets.  What information do you look for?  And what resources do you use to gather the information?  I have decided to target ...

Single family houses are very different than apartments in many ways. One of the most distinct ways I've found them to be different is that there are rarely two identical houses. This means coming up with the correct ...

I been shopping around for the past 2 weeks and the best I have seen out here in my local market Los Angeles is 5.875% 30 year conventional fixed (25% down) with 1.25 points for a 2 unit investment loan duplex? A lot ...

I wrote an article for the BP Blog asking a question about real estate appraisers and what role they are playing in holding down real estate values: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2012/07/18/are-appraisers-pa...

I'm currently in the process of refinancing a 2 family house which has two 4 bedroom 3 bath units in it.  There are a shortage of multifamily comps in my area and the comps that were used are all 2 bedroom 1 bath two ...

Hi everyone!
I am a newbie and have just gotten my first deal. Here is my question/situation: My hard money lender had 3 independents come out to my property to determine the ARV on my house, so that he could then de...

When you do your accounting for your PFS, business books, etc. do you carry the projects at historical cost or mark them to market? If you mark them to market how do you determine "true" market value without cheating...