smithpaul's  Instablog

Nearly 4 million more single-family homes have been added to the rental market since 2005. This new supply has fully caught up with the increased rental demand during the housing crisis - causing single-family home rents to flatten nationwide.

Nationally, rents rose 2.4 percent year over year. For apartments only rents rose 2.9 percent Y-o-Y, while rents for single-family homes were flat, rising just 0.1 percent Y-o-Y. In Las Vegas, Orange County, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Phoenix, where investors have actively bought and rented out single-family homes, rents are either falling or flat. Even in single-family rental markets where rents are up, such as in Tampa and Dallas, asking prices to purchase homes rose much faster than rents.... Read more

Much can be found online and otherwise exalting the importance of starting retirement investing at a young age. But often people don't find the importance, motivation, or patience it takes until much later to start their investing journey.

Enter in real estate, quite possibly the sexiest avenue to invest, with the smallest barriers of entry for the types of returns it can produce. The income and potential earnings can produce a white collar nest egg for a blue color worker.

Add the appeal of finding good deals, negotiating, and fixing up your own assets. Thanks to the likes of larger than life personalities with network television sponsorship, flipping for huge profits continues to attract ambitious and venturing souls.

When it comes down to making an honest go of it, though, who makes a better investor…young ambitious go-getters or been-around-the-block old timers?

Let's compare the two sides and see what your thoughts are as well:

Young Bucks:

Positives
+ Time is on their side. The earlier you get started, the better. Plus, you can learn from the Old Dogs in the field what NOT to do, and cut out a lot of the learning curve if you connect with the right mentors.
+ Not afraid to hustle. Late nights, early mornings and plenty of energy drinks are the usual agenda for college students and recent grads. With little expenses, the drive, energy, and desire to succeed, new blood has the advantage of spending the resources they do have towards investing: their own time and efforts.
+ Less fear, less to lose: It's easier to take chances when you're failures and wins are tied to your own credit and accounts. Plus, no real career may be established yet, so leaving a comfortable position with benefits and tenor won't be an issue.
Source: http://www.investmentguidance.us/who-invests-better-young-bucks-or-old-dogs/

Most people who own property in Washington, D.C., particularly commercial office property, would agree that the current property value assessment process for establishing tax rates if flawed, but a new plan that will shorten both valuation times and informal appeals times has assessors and property owners rethinking. What's more, experts believe the new measure has a chance of passing, which many say will weaken an otherwise effective appeals process while failing to address the problem of inaccurate property tax assessments. For more on this continue reading the following article from National Real Estate Investor.

Most property owners in the District of Columbia would welcome a plan to increase the accuracy of tax assessments by providing assessors with the most up-to-date information available. But if that plan also reduced the time D.C. assessors have to conduct their assessments to two months, rather than the current six months, many of those same taxpayers might reconsider. And if this plan would also reduce the time for assessors to handle initial administrative appeals, which has been an efficient mechanism to pare down the number of formal appeals, to six weeks instead of the current four-month window, most reasonable people would likely balk at the entire notion.

The truth is, legislation mandating these exact changes is pending before the Council of the District Columbia. And if statements from key councilmembers and District officials are any indication, this legislation has a good chance of becoming law in the next few months. How did we get here?

First, understand that Washington is unique in its reliance on property taxes, and in particular commercial property taxes, for a disproportionate share of its revenue. This is due in large part to factors outside of the council's control, such as the large amount of federally owned, tax-exempt property in the district, and to Congress' decision to prevent the district from taxing income earned in the district by non-residents.

Nonetheless, this heavy reliance on property taxes has created the public perception that Washington's assessment division is a revenue-generating department. Misplaced as this view may be-and it is misplaced-it has resulted in the assessment division being subject to frequent charges of "giving away" taxpayer dollars.

The most recent iteration of this line of criticism came to a head last year when the Washington Post published a series of articles suggesting that the Real Property Assessment Division was improperly settling commercial assessment appeals. To pile on, the Washington D.C. Office of the Inspector General issued a report shortly thereafter roundly criticizing many key practices and policies in the Assessment Division.

Although many of the criticisms levied at the Assessment Division were unmerited, the top staff of the Assessment Division determined that action needed to be taken. Naturally, one would anticipate that a working committee of stakeholders was convened and suggestions of the assessors sought, since they would be implementing any changes.

One would also expect such a committee, or someone in authority, to thoroughly review implications of any proposed changes. Unfortunately, though not unsurprisingly, none of this occurred. Instead of engaging in an "all-of-the-above" type of conversation, district officials quickly rolled out a wholesale overhaul of the assessment process without anything resembling the thorough vetting needed.

Good intentioned as those public servants proposing these changes may be, most professionals involved in the assessment and appeal process (including every assessor the author has queried) agree that the recommended changes will have a negative impact on the quality of assessments, and will ultimately increase both the number of appeals and the average time required to resolve an appeal. While this is surely not the outcome that district officials desire, it will likely be the one they achieve.

Source: http://www.1realestateinvesting.com/proposed-dc-property-tax-rules-rankle/