The Importance of a Real Estate Pro Forma

As a real estate investor, an up-to-date and accurately compiled pro forma is your primary tool in evaluating the income potential of an investment property. In this article, we will provide an overview of what a pro forma needs, as well as some of the common mistakes and factors you should consider in your pro forma before making any investment decision.

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Easton Yards Learnings, Part 1: The Project

Earlier this year, a large project for the Jennifer de Jesus and Empire Property Management teams came to a happy conclusion. In this part one article, we’ll share about the Easton Yards project and how we were involved in a very successful renovation and pre-leasing of this property.

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Improving Tenant Relations—An Investor's Guide

In this week’s article, we provide insight and tips on how investors can improve tenant relations. Even if you are working with a property management company, it’s important to foster good communication and proactive response to property requests from your tenants. Keep the higher-quality tenants longer and protect your property’s value and appearance by prioritizing the relationship between you, your property management company and/or your tenants.

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Tale of Two Investors: Lessons to Learn

This week’s article is excerpted from a recent Club Conversations event where Jennifer de Jesus shared her experiences working with two investors who made mistakes and what you can learn. She shares one story of an unfocused flipper with unrealistic expectations and what happened on a project using a hard-money loan. The second story is about investors who were purchasing value-add properties, but didn’t have enough cash reserves to cover unexpected situations that impacted their cash flow. From these two stories, you can learn a lot about best practices when investing in real estate whether you’re flipping or buy-and-hold value-add properties.

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How to Increase Curb Appeal of Older Investment Properties

Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton—the Lehigh Valley has its fair share of older properties—many exceed the hundred-year-old mark. The market is highly competitive for tenants and you need every advantage you have to make your investment property the most desirable. In this article, we offer up some relatively inexpensive ideas to spruce up your property’s curb appeal so an older property looks like new and grabs the eye of your ideal tenant.

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Self-Directed IRAs and How They Work

Real estate investors have more options when it comes to getting cash to invest in a real estate investment fund like the Empire Capital Fund. In this article, we provide some insight into self-directed IRAs (SDIRAs) which empower the investor to direct their funds into alternative investments, providing more flexibility and options in addition to the stock and bond market.

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1031 Exchanges — Tips for Success

Using a 1031 Exchange can be a great way to reduce your tax burden on your real estate investment sales, but there are a few important tips you need to know. Each state may also have its own like-kind regulations, so make sure you’re familiar with your state’s guidelines. We have provided links to several resources as well as a high-level overview of important aspects about your 1031 Exchange.

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Rehabbing Properties - Six Tips You Should Know

On March 29th, Jennifer de Jesus hosted a lively EIC Club Conversations entitled, “Rehabbing Properties: What You Need to Know.” She provide six important tips on how to approach renovations—whether cosmetic or capital investments—to save time and money (and not anger tenants!). Attendees had the opportunity to ask questions live about their rehab projects so they are better prepared moving forward. Join us at a future Club Conversations to ask your important questions!

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Analyzing Properties for Cash Flow

This week’s EIC article includes key takeaways from the “Analyzing Properties for Cash Flow” Club Conversations event on March 9, 2022. It includes Jennifer’s very own spreadsheet with formulas for assessing a property’s potential for cash flow as well as key takeaways from the conversation.

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Hot Investment Properties Primer

Exciting news this week about the most recent upgrade to our Hot Investment Properties. In this article, we walk you through a primer on the new Hot Investment Properties featuring all of the details included in an active MLS listing.

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Building the Right Team—Part 3: Maintenance

In the final part of this 3-part series on building the right team, we’ll talk about maintaining relationships and dealing with the ups and downs of adding and rolling off properties from your portfolio and how that impacts your team and your investment strategies. When you have an open dialog with your team, everyone will be more successful.

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Building the Right Team—Part 2: Implementation

The second in a three-part series where we guide you through the implementation process of building the right team to make your real estate investment efforts successful. In this second part, we’ll talk about executing your strategy. You’ll be able to choose how much you want to do yourself, the reality of managing investment aspects such as maintenance, upgrading or construction for your property as well as sourcing your deal.

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Building the Right Team—Part 1: Strategy

The first in a three-part series where we guide you through the thought process of building the right team to make your real estate investment efforts successful. In this first part, we’ll talk about your strategy. What are the things that you may have taken for granted about investing in real estate that you could revisit to freshen how you look at your real estate investing strategy.

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