Why People Don’t Want to Become Real Estate InvestorsChange is all around us. Foreclosure inventories and discounts are fluctuating in ways that are virtually impossible to predict at a local level. A massive wave of new multifamily construction could change the rental equation in hundreds of markets. Government and lender bulk REO-to-rental experiments could take off, drying up inventories and introducing new competition for SFR tenants. Well-heeled investment consortia promise to change … [Read more...]
Housing Update: Distressed Sales Hang Tough
May 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Housing Update: Distressed Sales Hang ToughAnnouncements that a recovery is underway are not paying attention to the huge piece of the home sales pie belonging to foreclosures and short sales. Distressed market share is not diminishing in the middle of the spring sales season and it is the first time in two years when prices are rising in a majority of markets.Improving prices are supposed to inspire sellers to act, but if they are, then there is a rush of distressed properties pouting into … [Read more...]
2012 Rental Update: Increases are a Mixed Bag
May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
2012 Rental Update: Increases are a Mixed BagIf you’re thinking about raising the rent or building a business plan based on a rent increase this year, this might be a good time for a reality check on the rosy forecasts issued at the beginning of the year (see Rental Outlook 2012: The Good Times Roll on).Unfortunately for single family landlords, virtually all the rent price data out there is multifamily, which reflects poorly on real estate data providers since there are now more single family … [Read more...]
REO-to-Rental Goes Prime Time
May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
REO-to-Rental Goes Prime TimeThe business of buying up foreclosures and renting them out is no longer the exclusive, private domain of individuals and small companies. REO-to-Rentals is quickly becoming a business plan for multi-million dollar investment groups, a fundamental force in the nation’s real estate economy and a public policy strategy to soak up REOs and preserve property values.The combination of lower vacancies, increasing rental rates, and affordable REO properties has … [Read more...]
Report on the Foreclosure Storm
April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Report on the Foreclosure Storm On March 12, the multi-state Attorneys General agreement was filed, ending the Robogate scandal and opening the way for expedited foreclosure processing. Foreclosure activity hit a five-year low in the first quarter according to RealtyTrac and Lender Processing Services reports first-time foreclosures remained stable in February as repeat foreclosures saw an 8 percent month-over-month decrease. Even delinquencies were down 12.2 percent from last March, … [Read more...]
Embracing the Two-tiered Real Estate Marketplace
April 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Embracing the Two-tiered Real Estate MarketplaceIf you want to buy a Ford, you don’t expect to pay a Mercedes price, do you? Fords and Mercedes are two different automotive submarkets; about all they have in common are four wheels and a horn.So if you want to buy an REO, you should expect to pay a significant discount from the price of all non-REO properties in the neighborhood because they also are two different tiers of the housing market. That reality has existed since the first wave of … [Read more...]
Real Estate News Week of March 31 – April 6
April 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate News Week of March 31 – April 6A quick rundown of the important real estate news from the week of March 31 – April 6, by the numbers:120,000 – New jobs added to the U.S. economy in March. The number was disappointing, as it was half the jobs added the previous month.8.2% – Unemployment rate in March, down from 8.3% in February. However, the drop was largely due to a shrinking labor force, as many stopped looking for jobs.$15.2 Million – Purchase price of singer Julio … [Read more...]
Why Investors Lose Money on a certain Percentage of all Auction Deals
March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Nearly one out of every four properties purchased by investors at auction over the past four years has cost them money, not because they didn’t know what they were doing but because lenders overvalued them when setting minimum bid and reserve amounts, especially in markets with weaker demand and an older housing stock. As a result, investors in one market alone, Cleveland, have lost over $56 million since 2006. A new study by two economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Thomas J. … [Read more...]
Real Estate Is A Calculated Investment
March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate Is A Calculated InvestmentHere’s something that may shock you – you don’t have to risk much at all in real estate.Seriously. I know that may surprise you given the current state of the economy and the stories you may have heard about people losing millions of dollars in the real estate market, but there doesn’t have to be Read the full post here... … [Read more...]
Investors Meeting the Multifamily Challenge?
March 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Investors Meeting the Multifamily Challenge?A new generation of multifamily apartment projects is under construction across America. Within the next year or two thousands of brand new properties will be competing toe to toe with single family landlords for tenants. Will investors be up for the challenge? Soaring vacancy rates and rising rents have driven multifamily construction to the highest level in years. The nation’s apartment-vacancy rate in the fourth quarter fell to its lowest … [Read more...]
Real Estate News by the Numbers: Week of March 3 – March 9
March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate News by the Numbers: Week of March 3 – March Real estate news from the week of March 3 – March 9, by the numbers:227,000 – Number of jobs the U.S. economy added in February. The number exceeded the 204,000 jobs analysts expected. However, the unemployment rate remained at 8.3%.$14.5 Million – List price for Rachel “Bunny” Mellon’s Caribbean vacation home. Bunny Mellon, 101, was the wife of the late Paul Mellon. The estate sits on 26 acres.3.88% – Average rate on … [Read more...]
The Midwest: REO Hotbed of the Nation?
March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Midwest: REO Hotbed of the Nation?Which metro city last quarter topped RealtyTrac’s list of best REO markets?Vegas? No dice. Miami? Nope, prices are up in Miami. Phoenix? No way, Phoenix ranked second nationally in price increases last quarter. Of course, you read the title of this article, so already you knew the right answer wasn’t a Sand State city. How about Milwaukee?Milwaukee???That’s right; the foreclosure discount capital of the nation is Milwaukee, where the … [Read more...]
Investing Strategy that Works in ANY Market Especially Real Estate
March 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Investing Strategy that Works in ANY Market Especially Real EstateOne thing that the last several years has taught us is that financial markets can go up and they can go down. The real estate market is no different. When markets go up, everyone is happy and even bad investments can turn out okay. When markets go down, investors who used the wrong real estate investing strategy at the wrong time can get wiped out. Down times separate the good real estate investors from the bad or just lucky … [Read more...]
How The Economy Is Effecting Landlords & Wholesalers In 2012
February 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How The Economy Is Effecting Landlords & Wholesalers In 2012It’s easy to understand that unemployed people aren’t buying houses, thus depriving demand within the real estate market. However, the entire cycle is far more pervasive, and merits a closer look and how it effects your real estate business.These unemployed people often stop paying their mortgage, their rent, their auto loans, their [...]Read the full post here... … [Read more...]
How the Robo-signing Settlement will Affect You
February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How the Robo-signing Settlement will Affect YouAs the result of a massive settlement negotiated between states and lenders that is almost complete, major changes are in the offing that will significantly change the way lenders, especially the largest banks, service defaults and foreclosures. For investors, especially those who invest in major foreclosure markets in states in participating, the settlement will have a significant impact on foreclosure prices and inventories.More than 40 states … [Read more...]
How the Robo-signing Settlement will Affect You
February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How the Robo-signing Settlement will Affect YouAs the result of a massive settlement negotiated between states and lenders that is almost complete, major changes are in the offing that will significantly change the way lenders, especially the largest banks, service defaults and foreclosures. For investors, especially those who invest in major foreclosure markets in states in participating, the settlement will have a significant impact on foreclosure prices and inventories.More than 40 states … [Read more...]
Are Housing Solutions Really Part of the Real Estate Problem?
February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Are Housing Solutions Really Part of the Real Estate Problem?Cash is KingIf you’ve been paying attention recently to the drivers of the real estate market, you may have noticed that there is a decided uptick in the number of ‘Cash Purchases’ taking place throughout the country. Some estimates put the actual number of cash transactions at over 100,000 monthly across the U.S. This development though has raised some interesting questions among industry experts as to whether or not this is … [Read more...]
America’s Love/Hate Affair with Investors
January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
America’s Love/Hate Affair with InvestorsWhen it comes to residential real estate investors, there are clearly two points of view today within the real estate industry and in Washington. Some applaud investors for plunking down their own dollars to save decaying homes in moribund neighborhoods and reviving local real estate markets. But investors come under fire by others for out-competing owner occupants (especially first time buyers and minorities) for distress sales and for … [Read more...]
Real Estate Economics
January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In the dorky world of real estate economics, the creation of a new housing category should be a major event, on par with, say, the discovery of a new solar system or the cloning of a pig. Strangely, single family rentals (SFR), even though they are now a multi-million property segment of the nation’s housing stock, have been the Rodney Dangerfield of housing. They’ve receive nowhere near the respect they deserve. Perhaps that’s because SFRs are entirely the creation of a new breed of … [Read more...]
Get a copy of my best selling book ($9.97 on Amazon.com) and an investor training video series FREE!
