The old adage “If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck” might as well be the title of this article, since most of what I am about to tell you is aptly covered by that adage. Real estate investors are often told by experts and gurus that...
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Dodd-Frank 2014 Part Two: New Federal Rules for Consumer Mortgage Loan Servicing and Loss Mitigation
In addition to the new rules for loan applications which went into effect this January, (covered in part one of this article) the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau promulgated a new set of rules governing the servicing of existing consumer mortgage loans by...
Dodd-Frank 2014 Part One: New Federal Rules Affecting Consumer Mortgage Loan Applications
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act became law in July of 2010. However, the process of changing the consumer mortgage loan process in America dictated by Dodd-Frank is not yet complete. Two new sets of regulations promulgated by the...
Act 93 Expands Effects of Unpaid Real Estate Taxes in PA
In late November of 2013, a simple, four paragraph amendment to Pennsylvania’s Municipal Claim and Tax Lien Law was passed by the legislature, and signed by Governor Corbett. This law, known as Act 93 of 2013, quietly became effective in late January 2014. The...
Is Partner a Four Letter Word for Real Estate Investors?
Just this week, as I have many times before, I had an initial consultation with an experienced real estate investor who had found a partner to help him to expand his real estate investing business a year or two ago, and is now in a costly and time consuming...
July PROA Board Member Message
As I write this message, I have just finished a three day convention of leaders of real estate investors’ groups from all over Pennsylvania and the rest of the country. It occurs to me that it has been some time since I wrote to you about our state...
The Tortoise and the Hare in Real Estate Investing
In over twenty years of working with real estate investors, and being personally involved in real estate investing for even longer, I have had the opportunity to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different types of real estate investing. That review...
Recent Developments Regarding Allegheny County Property Tax Appeals
By the time you are reading this, the new window for 2013 property tax appeals will have closed on April first. However, the resolution by Allegheny County Council opening 2013 appeals again in March was not the only significant development in the ongoing...
Magisterial District Court Landlord/Tenant Dockets Now Available Online
For years, I have been showing landlords how to search the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System web portal for free and detailed information about potential tenants’ criminal records, traffic citations and more. The one glaring absence in the online information...
Where Are You Going as a Real Estate Investor This Year?
Now that we can close the door on 2012, as we start preparing information regarding our real estate investing activities for our 2012 tax returns, it’s a perfect time to look a little harder at that information and see how we are doing and where we should be...