The push is on to turn single-family rental homes into an asset class that can be bought and sold on Wall Street. Last week, the Journal reported that publicly traded home-builder Beazer Homes had teamed up with buyout firm KKR & Co. to launch a real-estate investment trust to manage its small portfolio of single-family homes as rentals. Beazer’s REIT is still private, for the moment, but has plans for an IPO to take the company...

For decades, the 65-plus crowd has flocked to Arizona hotspots like Scottsdale and Flagstaff. But with prices in these retiree-friendly markets soaring, a growing number of retirees are looking east to what some call the next Arizona: New Mexico. What many retirees are finding is better deals, say experts: The median home in New Mexico costs just $150,000 and the cost of living is 5% lower than the national average. And for those retirees...

Four houses, all of them more than a century old, will be open to visitors during the Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s annual Mother’s Day Historic Home Tour on Sunday afternoon. “This year, in honor of New Mexico’s Centennial, the theme will highlight select properties on sections of Acequia Madre, Garcia Street and Canyon Road that were in existence in 1912,” the foundation said announcing the event. New Mexico...

Over the past year or so, “pocket listings” have become a more mainstream option for quietly marketing a home. If you haven’t heard this real estate term before, you probably will. This Zillow Article goes more in-depth into pocket listings, but here are the basics. A pocket listing is an unofficial, off-market listing Pocket listings are growing in popularity Pocket listings let sellers test the market Pocket listings have...

Pending sales of existing homes rose to their highest level in nearly two years in March, according to the National Association of Realtors’ latest Pending Home Sales Index. “First-quarter sales closings were the highest first-quarter sales in five years. The latest contract signing activity suggests the second quarter will be equally good,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, in a statement. “The housing...

Last Thursday was Take Your Kid To Work Day, so my 8-year-old daughter, Jade, came with me.  Other than the big breakfast of eggs, bacon, and rye toast with lots of butter, I asked Jade what she thought of the day.  Jade said, “Dad, you work with a lot of stubborn people”.  I laughed, as I never thought of it that way. One example was a meeting we had with clients on an offer we had on their home. My reply to Jade was that the people...

Coast to coast, a much higher percentage of listings are (a) selling, period (b) selling, fast and (c) selling at or above the asking price than they have during any spring in recent memory. Pristine and staged. Photos should look like something out of a home decor catalog or design magazine — like no one lives there, even if someone does. Low prices. When buyers see a beautiful home listing online for less than they’d expect...