May 2008

Do Valuations Continue to Slide for Years? What’s The Answer?

by Tom Koziol | May 30, 2008

Mortgages That Attract Homebuyers

by Troy Schuricht | May 29, 2008

Do great rates and great service fail to impress you? Well you are not alone. We are in a time where you need to find out who can create value with their services and ideas. And what I mean by value is, attracting customers. A good number of investors plan to sell their property at [...]

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Economy

Good News, Bad News: Home Prices Fall Off A Cliff; Big AntiTrust Case May Help Home Buyers

by Charles Feldman | May 28, 2008

Good news, bad news time for real estate and the general economy this week. The bad is, I am afraid, very bad, indeed. Prices for single-family homes took a nose dive in the first quarter of 2008…down an enormous 14.1 percent from the year before. Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller report, according to Reuters, says this [...]

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Real Estate Law

Breaking Down the HUD-1 Settlement Statement

by Joshua M. Marks, Esq. | May 27, 2008

The Settlement Statement, often referred to as the “HUD-1”, is a document that contains a detailed breakdown of the closing costs apportioned between the buyer and seller of property. Typically, the closing agent (often a representative from the title company), gathers the pertinent information, completes the Settlement Statement and disperses the required funds once the [...]

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Commercial Real Estate

Financing the Investment Project: Leaving Nothing To Chance

by Mike Farmer | May 27, 2008

The importance of financing is so great it pays to leave nothing to chance and assumption. Knowing the local lenders and what they like to invest in is critical to finding the right lender for your investment project. Also, presenting a compelling case to the lender is important. These two aspects lay the foundation for [...]

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Blogs

Is Las Vegas Real Estate Showing Signs Of Life?

by Richard Warren | May 26, 2008

The real estate agent seems to be the eternal optimist. In the middle of the credit crunch, foreclosure crisis and general market malaise, he or she will be smiling broadly and proclaiming that this is a great time to buy. You could almost picture the agent showing a property that had been devastated by an [...]

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Foreclosures

From Pre-Foreclosure to Pre-Trial Hearings

by Milton B. Yates | May 25, 2008

BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE! I am quite sure that many of you are staying abreast of the new laws regarding dealing with sellers and properties on their way into foreclosure status. On my side of the country it is especially critical to follow all guidelines of the pre-foreclosure business. Those who are choosing to take their [...]

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Commentary

Cities Working Against Themselves in the Battle Against Foreclosures

by Jim Watkins | May 24, 2008

Minneapolis on the Decline: A Case Study I have been following a fraud case that the city of Minneapolis has played a major role in. To be more exact, the Minneapolis City Council has been a driving force behind it. North Minneapolis has long been considered a high crime area and that part of Minneapolis [...]

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Commentary

Just Imagine the Mortgage Paid by Lakshmi Mittal on the World’s Most Expensive House

by Joshua Dorkin | May 23, 2008

The World’s Most Expensive House London’s paper, The Sun, today shares with us the rumored sale of the Most Expensive House in the World. The home is located on “Billionaires Row” in London and is set to sell for a WHOPPING £117million or approximately $232 million to Lakshmi Mittal, the steel Tycoon, and one of [...]

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Foreclosures

Foreclosure And Its Effect On Non-Foreclosure Homes

by Tom Koziol | May 23, 2008

Just Surfing for Foreclosure Information As I was surfing the Net looking for foreclosure information, I stumbled across a study titled: HOUSING POLICY DEBATE VOLUME 17 ISSUE 1 NOTE: The study is copyrighted by the Fannie Mae Foundation. One of the co-authors, Geoff Smith, is a vice president at the Woodstock Institute, a policy group [...]

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Real Estate Investing

Why Buy a FourPlex?

by Troy Schuricht | May 22, 2008

New investors have a wide variety of options available to them when it comes to what kind of property they are going to focus on. In fact, one of the top questions I hear from investors is, “What would you do?” If I could start my investing life all over again I would buy a [...]

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Credit

Turning the Real Estate Ship Around: Why It Hasn’t And How It Can

by Charles Feldman | May 21, 2008

Okay…so what’s wrong with this picture? In communities all across America the value of homes has dropped faster than the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square. Lower prices should mean bargin prices. Bargin prices should mean people jumping back into the housing market. People jumping back into the housing market should help inflate the [...]

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Commercial Real Estate

Utilizing a network of real estate agents to invest in a down market

by Mike Farmer | May 20, 2008

I have approximately ten serious buyers who have a home to sell in another state before they can buy. I talked to the relocation person at Gulfstream here in Savannah and she said many of her new hires have homes to sell before they can buy. If you take my situation and consider all the [...]

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Housing

Alt-A Loans: The Crisis Yet To Come?

by Charles Feldman | May 20, 2008

Last week, a member commented on my weekly post that he thought the next great crisis, following the current one caused in large measure by subprime mortgages, will come to us via something called Alt-A loans. And, he just may be right! Alternative to grade-A prime loans..or Alt-A loans..unlike subprime loans, were dished out to [...]

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Commercial Real Estate

Apartment Building Loans — Should You Do It Yourself?

by Ted Karsch | May 19, 2008

With the recent melt down of the sub prime mortgage market banks are tightening up their lending practices in the commercial sector of the finance industry as well as the residential. What this means for the apartment building investor is that he or she needs to make sure that he is working with a commercial [...]

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