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Housing

Housing

Foreclosures and Mortgage Delinquencies: A Tale Of Opposites

by Tom Koziol | November 20, 2009
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Today’s news seems to bring us a tale of opposites every time they report on the real estate market as it exists at this point in time. For example, an article by the AP just the other day said “the pace at which people fell behind on their mortgages slowed during the summer for the [...]

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Housing

The Hot Real Estate Spots For 2010

by Charles Feldman | November 18, 2009
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Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; Austin, Texas; Boston and good old New York top the list of five projected top real estate markets for 2010, according to The Urban Land Institute.
Washington, says the report from ULI, is where “…major insurers and big banks have taken a long term view and are actually providing financing for new [...]

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Housing

Has The Housing Bubble Burst Completely?

by Peter Giardini | November 4, 2009

The funny thing about bubbles is that sooner or later they burst.  Once again I get to be the master of understatement.  What fun!
After having survived these past 2+ years as each of us has watched the housing bubble burst in most parts of the country and deflate everywhere else, we are being told that [...]

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Housing

The best time of the year to buy real estate is…

by Winston Westbrook | October 12, 2009

I get asked the following question from time to time:
Winston what is the best time of the year to buy or invest in real estate?

I have been in real estate sales and finance since 1995 and I would usually say that towards the end of the year was the best time of the year to purchase a property. Why do I say this?

  • Less competition
  • Less competition
  • Less competition

I never had the hard stats to prove it but you could just get a feel for it based on market conditions. Towards the end of the year I would get less activity from:

  • advertisements
  • listings
  • referrals
  • etc etc

I got to thinking and so I came across this section in Google called Google Trends. Google Trends lets you see what people are searching for over a selected period of time. I found an interesting trend for the search for “real estate” in the United States.

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Housing

Why Exercising Could Make You a Wealthier Investor

by Jason Hanson | October 7, 2009

I hate running. I pretty much hate any form of exercise. I have no problem doing my real estate work, but when it comes to working out, I’ll admit I’m very lazy and lack discipline.

I remember many of my mentors telling me how important it was to exercise on a daily basis and how exercising was often the first thing they did in the morning. I’ve also read the same thing in many books written by successful people. I recall one successful entrepreneur/writer saying that no matter what, he does three things every single day: 1) He writes 2) He promotes his business 3) He exercises.

This is What Happens When You Get Older

I’ve heard this advice for years and I just ignored it and didn’t think it had anything to do with success. Well, I must be getting older because a few weeks ago I started feeling run down and I didn’t have as much energy as I used to. Come 9:00 at night I’d be ready to pass out, even though I had just sat at my computer all day and hadn’t had a stressful or rigorous day.

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Housing

Short Sale Relief: Fact or Fiction?

by Peter Giardini | October 6, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article that included a chart that showed that there are still a boat load (over a million) Adjustable Rate Mortgages that will reset between now and 2011. You can re-read that article here.

Many experts believe the Fed Rate will hold steady through most of 2010 and therefore, the number of mortgage resets may not see huge jumps. Many of these mortgages are tied to properties that are upside down, meaning the property value is less than the mortgage, and that will be the primary reason for increased defaults — or it will at least make these properties prime candidates for short sales.

Real estate investors can attest to how hard it has been to get lenders to let go of their inventory, and if you specialize in short sales, you know that at times, waiting for a short sale response from a lender is a lot like watching grass grow.

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Housing

What Blockbuster Can Teach Us About Real Estate

by Kyle Koller | September 21, 2009

blockbuster video real estateThe other day, I was preparing to check my email when a headline on Yahoo!’s homepage caught my eye: Tough Times for Blockbuster. As a fan of Blockbuster’s, I felt compelled to learn why so many of its beloved stores (between 810 and 960!) were closing. As it turns out, several of its stores were becoming unprofitable money pits, no doubt due partly to the success of online rental goliath Netflix and newcomer Red Box—the rental box company taking the nation by storm.

Needless to say, Blockbuster has had to implement several changes necessary to stay competitive in this ever-changing market. Like Netflix, Blockbuster has launched an online, mail-service component. Blockbuster has even started distributing rental box dispensers much like Red Box. The question remains: is this too little too late for the former movie rental giant?

What does this have to do with real estate?

The Blockbuster Saga illustrates how important it is for real estate professionals and investors alike to stay on top of current trends and innovations in the real estate realm.

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Housing

How to use Postlets to Improve Your Craigslist Posts

by Justin McClelland | September 17, 2009

There are quite a few features that Postlets offers, some fee-based and some free.  In this post I’m going to focus on the free features and show you how you can take your CraigsLists posts from this:

To This:

Postlets Tutorial for Craigslist

In this tutorial postlets.com does most of the work for you.  However, in relation to my previous post, I’ll also show you how you can create the illusion of an embeded YouTube property video.  The procedure is as follows:

Step 1:

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Blogs

Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

by Richard Warren | August 3, 2009
Dog Tunnel
There are plenty of mixed signals on the economy today. Each bad report is followed by something good only to be followed yet again by something negative. This is actually a good thing. It wasn’t that long ago that the news was almost universally bad. The mixed signals are actually a sign that things may really be improving.
The housing numbers for June were positive in terms of sales with new construction reporting a gain of 11% and re-sales posting a 4% increase. The flip side shows that prices were still falling. Some of these sales can certainly be attributed to the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit, but they’re still sales. So we have the good and the bad, but it is nowhere near as ugly.

More Pain to Come

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Housing

Where to Invest in Real Estate?

by Ryan Moeller | July 29, 2009

When it comes to finding great real estate deals, I am a firm believer that you can find deals in any market and any time. But what is the probability that you can cherry pick from many home run deals have little competition and multiple exit strategies?

To identify markets to invest it is recommended to have not 1 or 2 of the following, but all 4:
Little chance of depreciation, lots of available deals, low competition, multiple exit strategies.

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Commercial Real Estate

Is This the Bottom for Commercial Real Estate Prices?

by Ted Karsch | June 23, 2009

Even the most bearish economist is predicting that commercial real estate prices will fall up to 40 percent from peak to trough. However, the data released yesterday from Moody’s Investor Service shows that in April commercial property prices plummeted a record 8.6 percent. According to Moody’s data, commercial property prices fell a total of [...]

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Blogs

An Inflated Appraisal Scheme With A Twist

by Richard Warren | May 11, 2009

Most people have heard of schemes in which a lender is defrauded by someone who uses an inflated appraisal to obtain a loan for much more than a house is worth. This type of scam generally requires the cooperation of several people. In addition to the person running the scam you need an appraiser who [...]

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Housing

Tenants Are People Too! What Renters need to know about Foreclosure.

by Joshua Dorkin | March 13, 2009

Seems like an obvious statement to even the most casual observer. However, renters occupying properties in foreclosure seem to be looked at through a different lens. In Nevada where I live, for example, renters do not have to be told their rental home is in foreclosure. They don’t even have the right to a grace [...]

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Commentary

Need a Housing Bailout? I Admit it, I’m Unsympathetic to Speculators

by Brendan O'Brien | February 21, 2009

Have you heard of Scott Mintz? The LA chiropractor bought four houses, leveraging heavily in the expectation that real estate values would rise forever. Shockingly, they didn’t. Now, every one of his houses is underwater.
Mintz not only wants his loans refinanced, he’d like the lenders to reduce his loan principal to [...]

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Commentary

Foreclosure Anyone? Obama’s $75 Billion Homeowner Bailout: Some Say Success Is Far From Certain

by Charles Feldman | February 19, 2009

Wall Street, banks, even car companies got faster help from the government in the form of one bailout or another, than did the average homeowner in this country. And, now that “help” is at hand, the real question to ask is: will it do any good?
President Obama has now revealed his much anticipated “lifeline” to [...]

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