How to Turn Your Backyard Into an Open-Air Movie Theater

All you need is a king-size sheet and some kid-friendly snacks.

Nothing channels summer quite like an outdoor movie. Gathering family and close friends on a blanket with homemade popcorn (and a bottle of wine) is the ideal way to celebrate the longest, balmiest nights of the year, especially with little ones in the mix. And re-creating that experience in your own backyard is easier than you might think.

Here are DIY steps and the essentials you’ll need to have your own open-air cinema (Domino)

DIY Movie Screen

1. Get a king-size white sheet with a deep hem. Buy a long climbing cord (length should be the width of your sheet, plus a few extra feet on both ends), and three 36-inch-long wooden dowels from a hardware store. 

2. Using a seam ripper or small scissors, snip open the seam on either side of the hem (leaving the length of the hem intact), so you have an opening through which to thread the cord. Think of it like a curtain rod—with the cord being the rod and the sheet being the curtain. 

3. Attach an open safety pin to one end of the climbing cord and pull it through the top of the sheet until the cord is taut, with a couple extra feet outside the sheet on each end. Remove the safety pin. 

4. Push the three dowels through the bottom seam until evenly spaced to weigh down the sheet at the bottom. 

5. To hang the sheet, tie each end of the cord onto a tree branch (or anything else in your backyard!). 

The Technology 

Nebula Projector by Anker ($580)

Xtreme 2 Speaker by JBL ($350)

For the best viewing experience possible, go with a projector that’s both super-portable and offers razor-sharp picture quality (like the Nebula, which you can plug into your laptop and hit play). If you want a sound boost, JBL’s wireless speaker offers Bluetooth connectivity, a waterproof design, and 15 hours of battery life. Movie marathon, anybody? 

The Main Event

Ultra Soft Flat Sheet by Target ($12)

The Criterion Movie Collection

Once you create your screen, it’s time to pick your flick. We’re loving Criterion, the company dedicated to publishing classic films in updated, high-quality editions. 

The Setup

Lightweight Outdoor Reversible Plastic Nirvana Rug by Green Decore ($54)

Classic Lawn Chair by Lawn Chair USA ($60)

To get a real movie theater look, comfy chairs are key–and a classic lawn chair design in green and white will last many a season (fold and store when not in use). Lay down a vibrant outdoor rug to stretch out on.

The Soft Touches

Roll-Up Blanket by Pendleton ($149)


Montecito Floor Pillow by Serena & Lily


Layer in some plush pieces, such as Serena & Lily’s Montecito floor pillow, to get cozy. Once your lounge area is propped out and the sun goes down, unroll Pendleton’s tartan blanket (carrying handles make it easy to transport and roll up after use).  

The Concessions

 
Colorful Mini Stripes Popcorn Boxes by Warmtree ($15)$

Cloudy Qorn 12-Pack by Bjorn Qorn ($43)

Whether your go-to is buttered, salted, or mixed with M&M’s, popcorn is a must for any at-home screening. (Trendy vegan brand Bjorn Qorn sells healthy options that use nutritional yeast rather than butter or cheese.) Pair your snack with old-timey striped boxes to mix and match flavors in style. 

See more details: Domino Magazine

If you are wondering how current national and global situations might be impacting your property’s value, your neighborhood, or the Real Estate market in general, we are happy to provide more specific information.

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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Multifamily Developers Report Ongoing Delays in Permitting and Starts Due to COVID-19

More than half (57 percent) of multifamily developer respondents reported construction delays in the jurisdictions where they operate, according to the fourth edition of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) COVID-19 Construction Survey.

Of those reporting delays, 83 percent highlighted permitting due to COVID-19, which was virtually unchanged from 85 percent in round three (conducted May 11 – 20), and up from both 77 percent in round two (conducted April 9 – 14) and 76 percent in the initial survey (conducted March 27 – April 1). This round of the survey also featured more detailed questions specific to pricing and financing, and expanded questions on reasons for and timelines of delays.

Survey respondents reporting construction delays also indicated a significant pause in starts, with 71 percent reporting delays. The main reasons cited for delays in starts were permitting, entitlement and professional services (56 percent); economic uncertainty (52 percent); and availability of construction financing (48 percent).

The NMHC Construction Survey is intended to gauge the magnitude of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak on multifamily construction.

Additional findings include:

– The majority of respondents reported pausing at least one construction project since mid-March; twenty-three percent reported that they’ve paused projects but will definitely resume, 18 percent have paused projects with uncertainty around resuming, and an additional 18 percent paused operations earlier in the pandemic but have since resumed.

– Over a third (36 percent) of respondents reported being impacted by a lack of materials, the highest share recorded since the initial survey conducted in late March. The share of respondents experiencing price increases in materials (18 percent) was effectively unchanged from last round (17 percent), up from 5 percent and 4 percent of respondents in the first two rounds, respectively.

– Even though the majority of respondents have not been impacted by availability of labor, the share of respondents that indicated they are facing labor constraints increased 14 percentage points during this round of the survey, from 25 percent to 39 percent. This is on par with the labor constraints seen in the first two rounds (44 percent and 41 percent, respectively).

Firms continue to innovate in the face of challenges posed by the outbreak, with 52 percent of respondents indicating they have implemented new strategies to deal with the hurdles formed by the virus’s continued presence. Still, this is down from 59 percent of respondents last round, 75 percent in the second round and 73 percent in the first round who reported implementing new strategies.

View the full survey results here and a comprehensive overview of the results here.

Source: National Multifamily Housing Council

If you are wondering how current national and global situations might be impacting your property’s value, your neighborhood, or the Real Estate market in general, we are happy to provide more specific information.

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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6 Perks of Rental Properties for Retirement Income

When I was 22 and working in a miserable cubicle, it occurred to me that if I had enough rental income, I could retire by 30. Life didn't work out that way, but not because the premise wasn't sound. Unfortunately, it didn't work out because I invested all my money without knowing what I was doing. (Brian Davis, SparkRental)

Whether you want to retire at 30 or 80, rental income can help you get there faster. Here's how:

Ongoing Income

In the traditional 20th Century model, you save for retirement over the course of a 40-45 year career. Then you stop working, and gradually spend down your nest egg in retirement, hoping all the while that you don't run out of money before kicking the bucket.

That model comes with all manner of complications. You have to choose a withdrawal rate: what percentage of your nest egg to spend each year on living expenses. You have to worry about sequence risk: the risk of a market crash early in your retirement. All this because you're spending down your nest egg, and shrinking your net worth over time.

But rental properties generate ongoing income. Like the golden goose, they keep paying you every single month, indefinitely. Rather than shrinking, your net worth actually grows over time as your properties appreciate and your tenants pay off your mortgages.

Returns Adjust for Inflation

When you buy bonds, you lose money to inflation. Imagine you buy a bond paying 3 percent interest and over the next year, inflation rises at 2 percent. You end up with a real return on investment of only 1 percent.

Rents and home prices, in contrast, rise to keep pace with inflation. In fact, rents actually drive inflation and often surpass it. You buy a property in today's dollars once, but you get to adjust the rent to tomorrow's dollars. And the year after that; and onward, continuing to raise rents every year to keep pace with or exceed inflation.

Rental Cash Flow is Predictable

When you buy stocks, you hope for the best based on historical performance and company management. But you don't really know what returns you'll earn.

With rental properties, you know exactly what kind of returns to expect. You can calculate rental cash flow with startling accuracy—you know the purchase price, you know the market rent and you know the long-term average of all expenses. Those irregular expenses often look like this:

• Vacancy rate: 4-8% of rent

• Repairs and maintenance: 10-15%

• Property management fees: 12-16% (including both ongoing fees and new tenant placement fees)

• Property taxes: 5-25%

• Property insurance: 5-15%

• Accounting, legal, travel and miscellaneous: 2-4%

However, this says nothing of any mortgage payment due. Use a rental property calculator to forecast cash flow for any property before buying and never make a bad investment again.

Leverage

Rental properties are expensive. But with a purchase money loan, you can pay for most or even all of the cost using other people's money.

That could come in the form of a traditional 75-85 percent mortgage or you could negotiate seller financing, either as the primary mortgage or a second. Other options include HELOCs, unsecured business credit lines and even private notes raised from friends and family. I once bought a rental property on a credit card!

Best of all, you can even write off the interest as a tax deduction.

Tax Advantages

To score tax breaks with stocks or bonds, you typically have to invest in a tax-sheltered account like an IRA, 401(k), 529 plan or HSA.

But rentals come with inherent tax advantages. Every conceivable expense is deductible: maintenance, loan interest, accounting costs, legal costs and many closing costs. You can't deduct those expenses all in one year, but you can spread them over several years' deductions in the form of depreciation. This includes the entire cost to buy the property.

You can spread the deduction over 27.5 years, and when you eventually go to sell, the most you'll owe in taxes is the long-term capital gains tax rate, which you can defer with a 1031 exchange if you'd like.

Diversification

Lastly, rental properties help you diversify both your income and your asset allocation. Instead of simply relying on stocks and bonds, you spread your eggs into the third basket of real estate.

A significantly less volatile market than stock or even bond markets. And in most cases, real estate markets move with little correlation to stocks—one being up or down rarely affects the other much.

As you plan your financial independence and retirement, don't ignore rental properties! They bring unique retirement advantages to your portfolio mix and can help protect you against a sudden stock market crash, particularly one early in your retirement.

Author Brian Davis is a real estate investor and co-founder of SparkRental.com, which provides free rental property automation software, free rental income calculators and other tools, and education on how to retire early with real estate. To compare different loan terms, see SparkRental's comparison chart for multiple rental property loan options.

If you are wondering how current national and global situations might be impacting your property’s value, your neighborhood, or the Real Estate market in general, we are happy to provide more specific information.

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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New home construction jumps 17.3% in June

Housing starts, authorizations and completions all up since May

New home construction continued to recover from April’s five-year low in June as privately-owned housing starts jumped 17.3% from May at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.19 million units, according to a report by the U.S Census Bureau. 

Despite economic disturbances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, housing starts only fell 4% below the June 2019 rate. Single-family starts gained 17.2% month-over-month and the rate for multifamily units last month was 350,000.

“A downside risk to the housing starts forecast is building material prices, such as lumber, which have spiked in recent weeks. In early July, the price of lumber reached levels not seen since the surge of 2018,” said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae.

As construction jobs continue to rebound and the housing industry attempts to keep up with increased demand, privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits rose 2.1% above May with an annual rate of 1.24 million units, the report said.

June’s single-family authorizations were at 834,000 units and 11.8% higher month-over-month. However, multi-family building permits were at a rate of 368,000 in June – down from the 434,000 in May.

“Continued strong home purchase demand driven by historically low mortgage rates and tight inventories of existing homes for sale should support near-term single-family construction,” Duncan said.

Privately owned housing completions in June were 4.3% higher than the previous month at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.23 million, and 5.1% above the June 2019 rate of 1.17 million.

The Housing Market Index, a collaborative survey by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo, revealed builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes jumped 21 points to a score of 58 in June. According to the survey, any reading above 50 indicates a positive market.

“Housing clearly shows signs of momentum as challenges and opportunities exist in the single-family market,” said Robert Dietz, chief economist of the NAHB. “Builders report increasing demand for families seeking single-family homes in inner and outer suburbs that feature lower density neighborhoods. At the same time, elevated unemployment and the risk of new, local virus outbreaks remain a risk to the housing market.”

If you are wondering how current national and global situations might be impacting your property’s value, your neighborhood, or the Real Estate market in general, we are happy to provide more specific information.

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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Will Coronavirus Be the Final End for the Open Office?

What will the open office even look like in the future, given COVID-19 precautions and in-office fears in workplaces across America? 

The open office has oft been roasted over the years — and with good reason. Most workers dislike working in a privacy-bereft fluorescent bullpen, and feeling constantly “seen” is exhausting. Distraction is all around, and productivity plummets. 

But now in the wake of coronavirus, we’re all wondering what the future holds for the open office — will it kill it once and for all? Kate Lister, President of Global Workplace Analytics, believes the open office was already dead. “Most companies have learned you can’t force people to sit in a big, noisy area and expect them to be effective. You have to give them options. People want a choice of where and when they work.”

The pandemic-fueled exodus to remote work has given employees just that — more privacy and more freedom. But now, employers are scratching their heads, wondering what a return to the office will have to look like in order to protect employee health.

The pandemic has sprouted an insight. “Companies are now realizing that remote work… works.” says Lynn Taylor, workplace expert, author, and CEO of fashion brand Behind the Buckle.

With disease experts suggesting that a true virus-free office environment is unattainable, the solution for many employers may be having employees continue working from home, rather than dropping dollars to furnish the office in a way that could potentially be a mere illusion of safety.

BUT IF YOU DO RETURN TO THE OFFICE, WHAT MIGHT YOU EXPECT? 

The gust of a single sneeze can launch droplets through an entire area — and open offices are no exception. Masks may be mandatory. Companies may invest in air filtration systems that are more hygienic (they push air down rather than up). Many offices will see the introduction of plexiglass “sneeze-guard” barriers, desks spaced 6 feet apart, and hand sanitizer everywhere. 

The open office has been criticized as a germ hotbed for years. “General hygiene has never been a bad thing,” notes Taylor. “Habits that will have been made mainstream because of the pandemic can help prevent the flu, or god forbid the next COVID.” 

Companies may adopt a “checkerboard” formation that staggers employees so you’re never directly facing anyone. They may stagger what days certain employees are in the office so there are fewer people in the space, which seems to be the simplest way to keep workers distanced and safe.

The question is whether any changes that are made will be permanent. Taylor thinks so. “Companies don’t like to invest in new configurations and furniture design and then change it up again,” she explains. Plus, some of the changes made to open office spaces (like the addition of barriers) will grant workers more privacy and space. Taylor says that will diminish some of the controversy of the open office.

We are now asking ourselves how big of a footprint the office should even take. The adoption of the open office configuration reduced that footprint (by pushing people closer together), and now the adoption of remote work could reduce it even more. 

“Companies are struggling with the questions: Why do we come back to the office? What is the office really for? How do we make it a space conducive to collaboration?” poses Lister. 

SO, WHEN IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE IN-PERSON? 

It’s possible you’ll only come into the office for meetings of a certain import, and spend the majority of your work life at home. Perhaps work spaces will be designated zones of (socially distant) collaboration, and home the place of concentration “My theory is that when you know you have a specific, limited amount of time to meet with others and get the job done, you’re going to be more productive,” says Taylor.

Whatever changes are in store, you’ll have to be patient with what will certainly be a process. “We’ve got about a year and a half of shake-out to go through,” says Lister. “I think both management and employees should realize that there are going to be bumps along the way as we take on this new workplace,” advises Taylor. “See the good in it and don’t focus on the downside. Accept that this is a new environment, and be communicative to each other about what’s working and what’s not, on both sides.” 

Go to Her Money to read more.

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