Brian Patton's (capitalrealty) Blog

Real estate is one of the best, if not THE best, tax shelters available.  The term “tax shelter” has some negative connotations, because of frequent misuse.  But, real estate is a legally permissible tax shelter that you can use to offset your personal income taxes.    The primary tax shelter for...

WHAT IS INVESTING? Investing is giving up something today for something tomorrow.  Your job as an investor is to carefully consider all the hurdles to determine how best to use your limited funds to create more funds for the future. Risk is the primary concern when investing.  Risk is uncertainty...

Leverage is the use of borrowed funds for the purchase of an asset, such as real estate.  If you make cash flow because of this, then it’s called positive leverage.    Using leverage increases your power by using other people’s money, namely your banker’s money. One advantage of using this levera...

Another term that’s important to get a conceptual grasp of is “net present value.”  It’s important to understand this concept because most of your real estate  income will come in the future.  Therefore, you must know what that income is worth today. In my real estate courses, I’ve taught that a...

  Is that a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel otherwise known as the Great Housing Meltdown of the 21st Century? It might be. June brought with it some of the most encouraging statistics for the housing market that we have seen in some time. Housing starts nationwide jumped for the third ...

  Now is the time for investors to begin to look at residential foreclosures as investment vehicles.  As recently as a few months ago, the residential investment market was less than ideal for investors.  However, due to incredibly low interest rates, increased tenant applications, and an increas...

Live, work, and play has become a mantra of progressive thinking communities throughout the nation. Evidence is mounting that consumers not only want to live near their work because of the convenience, but also because of the rising costs of energy. One such Alpharetta business owner that I spoke...

A new government study on the strength of the US economy is a mixed bag of news.  The report was introduced recently and found that November retail sales rose 1.2%.  This is obviously good news for retailers anxious about the upcoming buying season.   Some other good news is despite some slow dow...

The bad news of the residential market over the last few months begs the question of what will happen to the commercial real estate market in the coming year.   In order to gauge investors' expectations for 2008 in this market segment, a group of leading research companies recently surveyed more...

Two nationally renowned experts in economic forecasting recently spoke in Atlanta at an annual meeting of the CCIM Institute, a group of recognized experts in commercial and investment real estate from across the nation. The event was attended by members of the group from over thirty states. Raje...