Judy Dutton
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Articles by Judy Dutton
Pepsi just got fried by KFC
Coke or Pepsi? Few questions spark bigger debates at barbecues—or in fast-food boardrooms. And Coke just scored a major win in the cola wars: After four decades on Team Pepsi, KFC is ditching the drink for Coke in its 3,700 US restaurants starting in January 2027. The fried-chicken chain has served Pepsi since 1986, the year PepsiCo acquired KFC. Even after the soda-and-snack giant spun off KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell as Yum! Brands in 1997, KFC stayed loyal to its former parent company.
Beat high rates: A guide to creative financing
In today’s high-rate world, the usual 30-year fixed mortgage isn’t the only game in town. Creative financing can help make the math work. Here are a few options to consider, along with the trade-offs to weigh before taking the plunge. You can’t bring rates down, but you can buy them down—at least temporarily. The most popular is a 2–1 buydown: If your rate is 7.5%, you pay just 5.5% the first year and 6.5% the second before it returns to 7.5%.
What everyone does wrong during a hurricane
Now that Isaias has delivered the 2026 Atlantic season’s first hurricane and Simon is churning up the Pacific, storms are back on everyone’s radar. Here’s what it’s actually like to ride one out, according to Miles Smith, a licensed architect and Senior Industry Growth & Strategy Manager at Graphisoft who lives in Asheville, NC—a city devastated by Hurricane Helene in 2024. Q: What surprised you most going through Hurricane Helene?
They broke into real estate with a credit card on Craigslist
Josh and Adam Justiniano are brothers, best friends, next-door neighbors, and co-partners at Quick Home Offers—where they’ve bought and renovated over 300 properties in Central and Southern California. Check out the unusual way they got into the game. How they got started: A credit card, although Josh is quick to say, “We do not recommend this.” Back in 2013, the brothers charged a few thousand marketing mailers to plastic, then cold-called investors off Craigslist.
Inflation just crashed the party
Just as investors were starting to relax, the bill arrived and ruined the vibe. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index climbed 0.6% in September, bringing annual inflation up to 3.7%—hotter than forecasts of 3.6% and the highest level since May. Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3% for the month to an annual gain of 2.6%, also topping projections of 2.5%. Analysts didn’t take this news in stride.
From fetching golf carts to flipping houses
While recovering from a failed business venture and working as a caddie at a golf course, Denny Anderson decided to check out a tax deed auction, where he met a friendly flipper named Josh Williams. “He wanted to teach me, so I started working for him,” Anderson recalls. “He became one of my best friends, and he’s still a mentor to this day.” Here’s how that inspired Anderson to launch his own real estate business, Built to Buy, in Jacksonville, FL.
Forget high rates. Meet real estate’s hidden deal killer
While everyone’s fixated on high interest rates, another line item in the budget is quietly sinking home sales—and most buyers never see it coming. “Insurance has killed more of my deals than interest rates ever have,” says Denny Anderson of Built to Buy in Florida, the most expensive state for insurance averaging $8,471 a year. Anderson recently met a homeowner whose insurance spiked from $1,400 to $2,000 per month, forcing him to sell.
Most interior designers charge $20,000+. Their fee is a fraction of that.
Interior designers usually cost a fortune, but they don’t need to. Check out how Cody Caswell and his wife, Sarah, design homes for a fraction of the usual fee at REI Studio. Q: When did you realize that traditional designers don’t work for flips? “Investors started calling us and asking, ‘Hey, would you design my flip?’ We said, ‘Absolutely!’ But we had no idea what to charge.
Bad news for jobs, fabulous news for investors
Just in time for Friday happy hour, jobs data has served up a heady cocktail of good and bad news. The bad: The US labor market limped along in September, adding just 29,000 jobs—far below the 84,000 hires analysts were expecting. Unemployment also crept up from 4.1% to 4.2%, while annual wage growth came in weak at 3%, the lowest level in five years.
7% rates broke the ‘It’s better to buy than rent’ rule
We’ve all heard the broken record: It’s better to buy than rent. But with mortgage rates near 7%, is that still true? The latest numbers from Zillow suggest the math has changed. Today’s typical rent runs $1,948 per month. The typical mortgage payment—assuming a 30-year fixed-rate loan, 10% down, 6.67% rate, plus taxes and insurance—comes to $3,014. That means renters hang onto an extra $1,066 per month, or $12,792 a year.
‘The house smelled like 14 cats and broken dreams’
Jackie Coffey at Jackie the Happy Investor has flipped 1,000+ Dallas homes, owns 100+ rentals, and has learned one universal truth: No listing photo has ever captured the smell of regret. Here’s what she’s learned the hard way.
This man lived in a van for a year—but that wasn’t how he saved up for a house
Stephan Desrochers was determined to save money, so he took a swing at his biggest expense—rent—by moving into a van for a year. Here’s how this experiment helped him buy a house (but not in the way you think), and launch Van to Vault to teach others how to invest in real estate without much cash. Q: What led you to live in a van? “I was living in California in my 20s, in and out of my parents’ house, renting rooms and sharing with roommates.
The economy's not a dumpster fire
Between oil shocks and killer-AI jitters, the economy may look like it’s dressed to scare for Halloween. But beneath the frightening vibes, the numbers suggest we’re doing oddly okay. Take inflation, which came in cooler than the doom and gloom would suggest. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index rose 0.3% in August to a yearly gain of 3.4%, well below the expected 3.7%.
Costco's discount therapy is working
When money feels tight, nothing soothes quite like $0.83 toilet paper chased with a $1.49 foot-long churro. It’s no wonder that Costco’s fourth quarter topped Wall Street estimates, with sales surging 11% year-over-year to $95.7 billion, and profits climbing 15% to $6.75 per share. Costco CFO Gary Millerchip said members are showing “resilience” in spending not just on necessities, but discretionary goodies that feel like a deal. Kirkland’s new matcha powder is flowing.
America’s latest real estate report card isn’t pretty
Ready for high school flashbacks? Real estate report cards are out, and whether you should pin yours on the fridge or bury it in a locker depends on where you live. Among the 100 largest metros nationwide, only 10 earned A grades.
She found a loophole around high mortgage rates
Think 4% interest rates are long gone? Not for Veronica Parkinson at SoldFast Utah, who recently snagged a 3.6% mortgage rate on her Salt Lake City home. Her secret: She asked the seller to serve as her bank. Here’s why it worked.
‘I was scared out of my mind.’ He now owns 180+ homes
Eric Augustyn got his start in real estate by selling his car, buying a $55,000 foreclosure in a sketchy neighborhood, and muddling through renovations with YouTube University and a few panicked calls to dad. Fifteen years later, that first deal has grown into a 180-home portfolio and a new job as CEO of the real estate investment site BiggerPockets. Here’s what he wishes someone had told him back when he thought real estate was “radioactive.” Q: Tell me about your first investment property.
Is Peloton on track for a comeback?
Remember Peloton, the bike that turned bedrooms into spin studios and staved off thousands of pandemic pounds long before GLP-1s? While the fitness company has been sweating through a rough few years, it’s trying to reenter the race—this time on foot. Today Peloton rolled out three new treadmills, including its first foldable version, the Tread Flex, for $2,195. That’s about $1,000 cheaper than previous models, and is aimed directly at fitness buffs who are tight on both budget and square footage.
Builders are giving up and going home
Somewhere between the Fed’s latest rate hike and mortgage rates flirting with 7%, a bunch of homebuilders quietly rolled up their blueprints and waved a white flag of defeat. According to the National Association of Home Builders, 38% of builders slashed prices on new homes in September, up from 35% in August—the highest proportion in eight months.
The best time to buy a home is arriving just in time
Homebuyers have one shred of hope on their side right now: timing. According to Realtor.com, September 27 to October 3 is the best week nationwide to buy a home, according to listing data. “That window has consistently landed in early fall, and this year it arrives a bit earlier than the past couple of years, as inventory and price reductions both peaked earlier,” says economist Hannah Jones.
Before ‘Million Dollar Listing L.A.,’ he was terrified to buy his first house
James Harris, founder of real estate firm Harris & Partners and the agent platform Breezy, got his first big break in Los Angeles in a very old-school way: by buying his first house. Here’s how that kicked off a career in luxury real estate, a starring role in Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, and why buying in the City of Angels isn’t as scary as you think.
He drank beer there for 30 years. Then he bought the bar.
When San Francisco’s famous craft beer bar Toronado was listed for $1,799,000 in 2025, no one expected its new owner to be a longtime regular. Here’s how Bill Lewis and his brother-in-law ended up in charge of their very own Cheers, and what they’ve learned so far. Q: What made you decide to buy this bar? “Toronado was the first place I’d ever had a Belgian beer back when I’d never even heard what that was. It’s not a dive or upscale, but it has a lot of character.
Store brands are eating name brands' lunch
Remember when adding cheap store-brand toilet paper to your cart felt like a small defeat? That era is over: Private-label products (think Costco’s Kirkland, Whole Foods’ 365, and Amazon Basics) have morphed from consolation prizes into must-haves, pulling in $245 billion in sales last year, up from $184 billion in 2020, according to global market research firm Circana.
Welcome to the hunger games
When shoppers start cutting back on food, you know things aren’t good. This latest ominous sign comes courtesy of Kroger: Although more shoppers were scrounging the chain’s aisles in Q2, they were tossing less in their carts. As a result, same-store sales inched up just 0.2%, below estimates of 0.8%. Total revenue rose 2% to $34.62 billion, short of forecasts for $34.64 billion. Part of Kroger’s problem was the cyclospora outbreak, which had shoppers avoiding produce like the plague.
The ‘forever renter’ just turned 42
Not long ago, renting was “just a phase,” like going goth or getting bangs. But no more: The average American renter is now 42 years old. Only one in four renters 18 to 34 expect to buy a home in five years, the lowest level recorded since Gallup first asked in 2013. It’s not that renters don’t want to buy; many just can’t afford to.
How to make the most of a skinny house
Interior designer Dorothy Weise at Chapter Renovation has tackled tricky floor plans, but skinny homes as narrow as 10 feet are a whole different puzzle. Here’s how she makes these homes feel spacious and even nicer than wider layouts. Q: What’s the skinniest home you’ve worked on? “In New York City, it’s common to work on apartments with narrow footprints. Railroad-style apartments can be just 10 feet wide; for townhouses, 13 to 15 feet is not unusual.” Q: Are skinny homes hard to love?
He slept his way into a NYC portfolio
Ben Chester came to the Big Apple as a penniless grad student, then quietly built a portfolio of eight properties—three in NYC, and even Billy Joel’s upstate house. Here’s the sneaky way he pulled it off, with his advice on how to size up a co-op board and more.
She built a real estate empire with 1% down
Tyler Clark bought her first home in Chicago at 24. By 33, this 3D hair artist had built an eight-property portfolio. Here’s how it all began with just 1% down. How she got started: Clark didn’t set out to become a real estate investor; she just figured her money was better spent on owning than renting. That mindset led to buying her first home in 2016 (for $230,000) and her first rental property two years later (for just $30,000).
How one investor is turning college tailgaters into hotel owners
College grads always come back: Long after tossing the cap and gown, they return for reunions, football games, and a nostalgic beer or two. Gary Brandeis—a self-professed “crazy, Kool-Aid-drinking rah-rah Penn State” alum—has found a way to turn those repeat visits into a solid real estate investment strategy as the owner of Scholar Hotels. Q: What makes hotels in college towns a smart investment? “The biggest advantage is reliable demand.
Class is (never) dismissed
Would you go back to high school—for good? Haunting the halls of your adolescence is now a legit housing option, as vacant schools across the country are being converted into residential apartments. Quick vocab lesson: “Adaptive reuse”—the practice of giving underused buildings a second life as something we actually need, like apartments—has hit a record high, with 180,585 units currently in the works, per RentCafe.
A floating man cave washes up on the market for $5.5 million
Why live near the water when you can just live on it? Fowl Play, a luxury lodge docked off Port Fourchon, LA, can be towed out into open water so you can fish, hunt, and not bother the neighbors. Listed for $5.5 million, there’s plenty of room for friends and family, plus there’s serious revenue potential as a rental for offshore trips. Here’s a taste of what your weekends could look like. Q: What was the inspiration behind building this floating lodge?
They caught ‘Yellowstone’ fever—and now run a ranch
Yellowstone. The Madison. 1923. Dutton Ranch. A stampede of neo-westerns proves that America’s obsession with ranch life is alive and kicking like a rodeo bull. Homebuyers are also weighing in with their wallets: Ranch prices are up 112% over the last decade to an average of $769,000, leaving regular real estate’s 66% gain in the dust. But is owning a ranch all it’s cracked up to be? Investors who’ve ridden off into this sunset have plenty of hard-won wisdom to share.
What it’s like to live with 150 alpacas
When Yussy El-Hibri and her husband, Travis McManus, wanted to start a ranch, they agonized over which animals to get. The result? They settled on Black Barn Alpacas, a 50-acre farm in Finksburg, MD, with over 250 alpacas. How they got started: El-Hibri and her husband both grew up around agriculture and tried out corporate careers but eventually boomeranged back to the farm; it turns out the land, the animals, and the lifestyle don’t let go that easily.
This house comes with a built-in lawsuit
A home for sale in Colorado has racked up over 4.3 million views on Zillow Gone Wild—not because it’s shaped like a spaceship or filled with taxidermy, but because its previous owner is still inside and refuses to budge. Her name is Tori McMechan. She bought the property in Nunn with her husband in 2006. After he died in a car crash, the home went into foreclosure, which she fought in court but lost. She says any new owner will need to evict her, which could send the case right back to court.
He went from homeless to owning real estate on two continents
At 19, Anthony O’Neal was sleeping in his car and $40,000 in debt. Today, he owns real estate on two continents and is the author of Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck. Here’s how he went from stretching McDonald’s burgers to buying six properties, plus his end-run around high rates. Q: What were your “paycheck to paycheck” days like before you broke out of this cycle? “At 19, I was homeless and sleeping in my car with $40,000 of debt due to poor financial decisions.
The Chip and Joanna Gaines effect on Waco, TX
Justin Ramos started his real estate career the way lots of New Yorkers do: by renting out a spare room in his Queens apartment to cover his mortgage. He then set his sights on Waco, TX, a city that’s had a very good decade thanks to two HGTV stars who put this small city on the map with a whole bunch of shiplap.
Nobody's buying homes these days
Home-shoppers are throwing in the towel on open houses and retreating to the beach this summer: Existing home sales sank 1.7% in July to a three-month low of 4.06 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. This slump comes courtesy of soaring mortgage rates, which hit a one-year high of 6.81% for a 30-year fixed-rate loan in the last week of July, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
America’s homes have passed their expiration date
The typical American home is now 44 years old—and ripe for a midlife crisis. Homebuilding has been stuck at a six-year low, and now half of all homes are old enough to be flagged as structurally at-risk. “By 40 to 50 years, homes often need significant repairs or replacements involving roofs, HVAC, plumbing, electrical panels, windows, and foundations,” explains Nancy Shipley of home inspection platform HouseMaster.
Confessions of an old house addict
Rebecca Churchill is a self-professed “old house addict” with the pedigree and purchases to prove it: She got hooked during her first job at the National Trust for Historic Preservation and has since fed her habit by buying three homes, each more than 120 years old. Q: You and old homes go way back. How did it start? “In 1999, my husband and I bought an 1885 rowhouse in Jersey City for $225,000.
What it’s really like to own a home in Morocco
Think owning a home in Morocco is a hashish-infused pipe dream? Marrakech investor Anis Chity says it’s actually affordable. Just watch out for the adouls. How he got started: “My focus was simple: small apartments in areas with practical rental demand,” says Chity, who owns four rentals. After fielding the same questions over and over from foreigners (Can foreigners buy property in Morocco? Is Airbnb allowed?
He turned the Yellowstone stampede into a cash cow
Yellowstone National Park attracts over 4 million tourists per year. Alex Wright at DealForge has turned that seasonal stampede into a winning real estate strategy. How he got started: Wright bought aduplex in Bozeman, MT, for $420,000. “My mortgage was $1,900 per month, and the other unit rented for about $1,850, so it gave me an affordable way to live in a growing mountain market,” he explains. Wright eventually sold it for $850,000 and funneled $375,000 into a house in Cody, WY.
1 firefighter, 4 shipping containers, $100k per year in rent
When Ryan Duffy quit his job as a firefighter to flip short-term rentals around the Ozarks in Arkansas and Missouri, he eventually got bored updating cookie-cutter rentals and wanted a bigger challenge. So when Airbnb put out a call for unique stays, he decided to try building a home out of four shipping containers. How hard could it be? Here’s a blow-by-blow, plus a peek at what else his company, OMG Developers, has in the works, from 30-foot tower houses to a home tucked in an underground cave.
Hard money loans aren’t as sketchy as you think
When Pratik Pathapati set out to buy his first fixer-upper in Sacramento, CA, for $400,000, he knew no traditional bank would touch the property due to its run-down condition. His only hope was a hard money loan. Pathapati started showing up at local real estate meetups, where he connected with a private lender who was willing to hand him the $15,000 he needed for a down payment. The terms: 12% interest, due in full in one year.
How small investors are beating big ones: ‘Don’t play their game’
When Jesse Wyatt buys a house in Jacksonville, FL, he goes head-to-head against institutional investors, who own over one in five single-family rentals there, among the highest concentrations in the country. “We see all the major players: Opendoor, Offerpad, Invitation Homes, Progress Residential, and American Homes 4 Rent,” says Wyatt, an advisor at Real Estate Bees. He knows he can’t compete—at least not on price. In one recent deal, Wyatt offered $412,000, but was outbid at $424,000.
They run a mini commercial real estate empire in their town
What do flowers, coffee, dogs, and Pilates have in common? They’re all part of a cottage commercial real estate portfolio owned by David Switzer and his wife, Andrea, in Jersey City, NJ. Here’s how they broke into this intimidating asset with zero experience, plus the surprising perks they’ve discovered. Q: How did you get into commercial real estate? “My wife and I live a block from a flower shop, and in 2024 we noticed a ‘for sale’ sign.
Why 13 bedrooms is better than three
A 13-bedroom Tampa house may scream “spring break,” but it’s actually a respectable cash-flowing rental strategy. Alex Blackwood at Mogul explains. The pros: “Tampa is one of my favorite markets because the demand just keeps showing up,” Blackwood says. With nearly 400,000 new residents expected by 2030, “there’s also a shortage of affordable, flexible housing for people who staff the city.
What it’s really like to invest in manufactured homes
When Leo Young first heard about manufactured homes, his mind jumped to “all the stereotypes,” like the sitcom Trailer Park Boys and Eminem in 8 Mile. “Twenty years ago, people didn’t want to touch this due to the stigma,” he says.
Here’s how a Zillow economist invests in real estate
Zillow’s chief economist Mischa Fisher predicts the housing market for a living. On weekends, he bets on it—with his own rentals, renovations, and raw land. He reveals what owning real estate has taught him that spreadsheets never could, and why he never fully believes housing forecasts (even his own). Q: Tell me about your first investment property.
Manufactured homes are having a moment
Where can you buy a California home just steps from the ocean for less than the price of a used car? At Huntington By The Sea, a mobile home park where Casey TeVault recently purchased a 1,400-square-foot mobile home for $12,000, invested $46,000 in renovations, then sold it for $120,000. “Some parks are rough, but this one is beautiful,” he says, adding that many of the dwellings boast sunrooms and roof decks. “It doesn’t hurt to see the water from your roof!” Forget the “trailer park” stereotype.
How America’s new housing law will reshape real estate
With no presidential signature and minimal fanfare, the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law on Saturday. Here’s what’s worth knowing. The law caps large investors at 350 single-family homes—which could tip the odds in the bidding war back toward the little guys. “For everyone below that threshold, this law is a gift: It handcuffs the deepest-pocketed bidder,” says Marcus Williams, a personal finance writer at BanksMobile. “A bill rarely picks winners this clearly.
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