1. Loopnet.com - Loopnet is probably the largest and most well-known commercial real estate listing site. They claim to have over 630,000 active commercial real estate listings on their website. It costs $24.95 a month for visitors to have access to all of the property listings. The free membership for visitors allows full search capability, however, only a limited number of results are shown.
2. Realup.com - Realup is brand new to the market and officially launched on May 17, 2009. It appears that all of the memberships for both buyers and sellers are free. The website says that “our property listings are charged based on a pay-per-results pricing model, setting us apart from our competitors and providing the greatest value to our partners and clients.” So, they are basically charging for the traffic or leads that your listing generates. This sounds good in principle but from my experience the technology for these “pay for the lead” type of systems is usually too weak to determine what a valuable lead is.
3. Costar.com - Costar offers the ability to search for all commercial property types. Basic listings are free for real estate professionals and property owners. It costs $24.95 a month for visitors to have access to all of the property listings. The free membership for visitors allows full search capability, however, only a limited number of results are shown. They offer information on “space available for lease, comparable sales information, tenant information, properties for sale, property information for clients’ web sites, industry professional directory, analytic information, data integration, property advertising and industry news–throughout the United States as well as in the United Kingdom and France.”
4. Lead-Trac.com - Lead Trac is designed to give investors and commercial real estate professionals access to following data about commercial real estate: property data, owner data, phone numbers. They also offer direct mailing and marketing tools within the website. Pricing starts at $69/user/county/month.  In addition to the monthly plans, they have an unlimited access plan that they sell on a per county basis.  This plan ranges from $1500 to $3000 per county per year.
5. CIMLS.com - What makes CIMLS different than many other similar sites is the fact that visitors can search listings for free while realtors and property owners can also post their listings for free. Realtors and property owners have the option to upgrade to a Gold account for added exposure. The Gold account costs $14.00 a month for the first month and $20.00 a month for every month thereafter.

Photo Credit: quinet

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Tags: buy commercial real esate, commercial real estate sellers, commercial real estate website, Loopnet, marketing, national association of realtors, real estate, search commercial real estate

Home sales in many markets are dominated by bank REOs, or Real Estate Owned as foreclosures are called after they have gone back to the bank. Generally these REOs will sell below market and can be a great deal for the buyer. However in areas that have an overabundance of REOs they do not sell below the market, they are the market.

Las Vegas

On the surface it may appear that the Las Vegas market is going to lead the housing market out of the doldrums. Looking strictly at the numbers you will see that April home sales were up 78.3% from April of 2008 (article). The median price has dropped to $141,720, a 39.9% reduction from a year ago. Figures for inventory, days on market, and days of supply have dropped as well. These are all good things, right?

Not so fast, it depends on which side of the transaction you are on. For buyers these numbers are awesome. Homes in Las Vegas are more affordable than they’ve been in a very long time. First-time homebuyers can take advantage of an $8,000 tax credit to make it even more affordable. For buyers it’s all good.

Which leaves the sellers. REOs absolutely dominate the Las Vegas market and there are a large number of short-sales as well. In a normal market these distress sales would be an aberration and not a major factor in real estate prices. However, distress sales in Las Vegas counted for a whopping 86% of all closings in April. In a normal market an appraiser can overlook distress transactions when compiling comparable sales. When 86% of closings (article) are distress sales, they become the comps and there isn’t much that you can do about it.

Hobson’s Choice

A seller is now left with the choice of pricing a property low enough to compete with the REOs or not selling it at all. Indeed, many homes have been pulled off the market as sellers wait for prices to improve. Many sellers can’t lower prices to compete because they owe too much on the house. A recent report shows that an astounding 67% of Las Vegas homeowners owe more than the house is worth (article). Their options are to sit tight, try for a short-sale, or lose the home to foreclosure. Ouch!

New homebuilders are facing the same pricing pressure. However, they have overhead and holding costs to deal with as well. They have reacted to this by limiting the number of new homes to a bare minimum and greatly reducing prices on homes that are at or near completion. Some Las Vegas builders have actually reduced prices to a point that is below their cost in an effort to finish projects even if it means taking a loss. The positive point here is that a reduction in the supply of new homes will lead to an increase in sales of existing homes.

In their attempt to alleviate the foreclosure problem the Government created programs to help struggling homeowners. Unfortunately these programs may only prolong the agony. One program, Fannie Mae’s Home Saver, has experienced a re-default rate of 70% (article). Not exactly a promising statistic and it shows that this mess is going to be with us for quite some time.

The bottom line is that this is a terrible time to be a retail seller. If you are an investor who is looking to buy for cash flow, it’s a great time. If you’re an investor who is looking to buy cheap rehab properties and flip them at low prices, it’s not such a bad time. If you are someone who absolutely must sell, good luck because you are going to need it.

What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending - that’s the whole point! - Barack Obama

Tags: foreclosure, Foreclosures, las vegas real estate

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 provides the inflated valuation, a real estate agent who goes along with it and, frequently, phony buyers. Sometimes the buyer is a victim in the scam but it is usually the lender that is left holding the bag when the other participants disappear.

However, in an unusual case of “man bites dog”, the usual victim becomes the scammer. Unlike most of these schemes, which involve small-scale criminals, this one involves some of the biggest names in the real estate industry.

The Particulars

A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona against Countrywide Financial, KB Homes and LandSafe Appraisal Services (article) accusing them of artificially inflating home prices. This is definitely a new twist. This allegedly took place in the Arizona and Nevada market. According to court documents the scheme netted $280 million between 2005 and 2008.

The lawsuit claims that KB Homes steered buyers to Countrywide Financial who, in turn, used LandSafe Appraisal Services to provide the incorrect valuations.  Some of the appraisals may have been inflated by more than $80,000. Talk about being upside down!

The article didn’t have a response from any of the defendants, nor could I find any elsewhere. If these allegations prove to be true it could cause a lot of problems for Bank of America since they purchased Countrywide.

Housing On Steroids

Manny Ramirez Suspended for 50 Games

It’s bad enough that we have been suffering from the collapse of a runaway housing market that came crashing down. Like a baseball player who was caught using steroids, we now see that some of the housing gains were “juiced” as well. It remains to be seen how widespread this is, perhaps it was just an isolated incident. Somehow I don’t think so.

This breach of trust could make it difficult for builders in the future. Will people begin to look at them they way they look at car dealers? The housing industry could learn a lot by watching what Major league Baseball is going through with the steroid scandal. The builders need to get out in front of this problem and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

You can observe a lot by just watching. - Yogi Berra

Tags: Countrywide Financial Lawsuit, KB Homes, LandSafe Appraisal Services, Lawsuit against KB Home and Countrywide

It seems that you don’t have to look too far to find someone trying to scam the innocent these days. From Madoff on down, it feels like there is a white collar crook around every corner. The good news is that many of these people are getting busted . . . unfortunately, by the time they’re caught, people are losing some or even all of their savings.

Today, a New Jersey man, Anthony Natale, “plead guilty to participating in a conspiracy which defrauded hundreds of investors and mortgage lenders of more than $20 million” according to myCentralJersey.com:

Natale, whose law office was in Cranford, was retained by Wayne Puff, president and founder of N.J. Affordable Homes Corp., a purported real estate investment company, to conduct real estate closings for properties bought by the company as part of an investment program referred to as “Our Money, Your Credit,” where the company promised to purchase and renovate properties to be resold at substantial, guaranteed profits, authorities said.

Natale admitted in a hearing yesterday before Linares that he directed his paralegal, Sydney Raposo, 41, of Rahway to prepare false and fraudulent HUD-1 Universal Settlement Statements that falsely showed that Natale’s clients, who were “nominee buyers,” or buyers who were “in name only,” had paid money to purchase the properties, when Natale knew they had not. Natale also acknowledged that these false statements were often submitted to lenders for mortgage loans, and then to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which, in turn, federally insured the loans.

So far, 10 people have pleaded guilty to being involved with the scam.

Tags: fraud, mortgage-fraud, ponzi, real estate news, scam

Now what?
That’s a pretty fair question to ask as the economic news gets darker with each passing day despite all efforts,thus far, from our government.

As a Reuters story says today, “consumer confidence plumbed historic lows in January and home prices fell at a record pace in November…”

Of course, a big reason remains the general unwillingness of banks to take all that taxpayer money they have received and step up their lending.

If you believe the “experts” (and, face it, who can nowadays?) the banks won’t continue lending till they can unload all that bad debt on their books and that is not likely to happen unless the government, in effect, nationalizes the banks in exchange for, in effect, wiping out all that bad stuff that has ground things to a halt for the most part.

Real estate remains the key, most believe, to helping resolve this financial crisis. But, that has not happened as yet.

What needs to be seen is whether recent decreases in mortgage rates have sparked some real life into the real estate market?

The answer appears to be, sort of. True, sales of homes that have been foreclosed upon have gone up of late…meaning those lucky enough to have both money and a really good credit score…were able to pick up some bargains.

But it is not nearly enough.

Home prices took yet another nose dive in November from the previous year…down a record 18.2 percent.

And, says Reuters, “prices in 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the Home Price Index fell 2.2 percent from October. Prices in 11 metro areas fell at record rates from a year earlier, while the drop in 14 citites was more than 10 percent below the year-earlier level.”

Of course, no one knows how this picture will change…if at all…once President Obama’s financial rescue plan passes Congress, in one form or another?

Tags: bailout, financial rescue, mortgage, obama

This episode features hosts Joshua Dorkin & Charles Feldman talking about predatory lending and how lenders won’t work with borrowers regarding pre-payment penalties unless they fall behind on their loan. The topic hits home with Josh and he tells Countrywide how he really feels about it.

Tags: biggerpockets show, charles feldman, countrywide, housing, joshua-dorkin, loan, predatory lending, prepayment penalty, youtube

Everyone loves a top 10 list, but being a part of this one is not a mark of a city experiencing good financial times. Here’s a look at Fortune’s 10 Worst Real Estate Markets for 2009:

1. Los Angeles, CA - Projected 24.9% drop in 2009
2. Stockton, CA - Projected 24.7% drop in 2009
3. Riverside, CA - Projected 23.3% drop in 2009
4. Miami-Miami Beach, FL - Projected 22.8% drop in 2009
5. Sacramento, CA - Projected 22.2% drop in 2009
6. Santa Ana-Anaheim, CA - Projected 22.0% drop in 2009
7. Fresno, CA - Projected 21.6% drop in 2009
8. San Diego, CA - Projected 21.1% drop in 2009
9. Bakersfield, CA - Projected 20.9% drop in 2009
10. Washington, D.C. - Projected 19.9% drop in 2009

If these predictions are correct, we’re in for yet another really bad year to come. The brilliant minds running the government (sarcasm) better have some tricks up their sleeves because additional drops of this large a magnitude could be catastrophic!

BTW - Note that 8 of the top 10 worst are all in California . . . surprised?

Anyone got their own predictions?

Tags: case-schiller, Foreclosures, housing, los angeles, real estate