Be Creative to Sell Your Home

Search Foreclosures and Short Sales at www.RonBarnesRealEstate.com  

As recently as a couple of years ago, I generally would not pursue most owner finance transactions. There were two reasons. Up until that time money was obscenely available, so if the prospect couldn’t qualify for a bank loan, they should have been more concerned with finding a pulse in their arm than buying a house. The second is that homes were selling well, so there was no incentive for sellers to tie up their assets in owner financing the sale of their homes.  Times have changed, to say the least. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mountain Living, Owner Finance, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, foreclosure, mortgage on July 27, 2010 Comments (3)

Didn’t Your Mother Teach You Anything?

Two phrases come to mind when describing the state of the real estate market lately.

 

The first I attribute to Dan Forsman, President of Prudential Georgia Realty, which goes like this: “As the pieces of the pie get smaller, the table manners get worse”. I cannot recall so many people, both real estate professionals and their clients, having such a bad attitude toward other people. Just because it’s a “buyer’s market” does not give anyone the right to forget what their mother taught them about common courtesy. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale on June 30, 2010 Comments (1)

Mortgage Rates - Interesting

Search all MLS listings at www.RonBarnesRealEstate.com 

A couple of weeks ago, I made a statement reflecting analyst predictions that interest rates would reach 6% by year end. I’m not even sure the ink is dry on that one, and now interest rates are trending lower. Now before you make fun of me, I can explain. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, Unemployment, foreclosure, horse farm, land, mortgage on June 5, 2010 Comments (0)

Bye-Bye Tax Credit – Hello Reforms

You can search all MLS listings at www.RonBarnesRealEstate.com  

So as of last Friday, the home buyer tax credit can rest in peace. I never got the feeling that it ever really took off like we expected. I had some clients that took advantage of the $8,000 credit to provide or beef up down payments, but I think they would have purchased a new home anyway. The credit just helped them along. That means that in many cases, all we did was spend tax dollars for a non-stimulus, which is typical of government intervention. Now that we have a largely unpopular healthcare reform bill in place, we are moving on to “financial reform”. It seems to be a popular notion that we need to hack up the rules regarding lending practices so the “fat cats” don’t rip us off again. At the risk of taking an unpopular position on this, I disagree. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on May 4, 2010 Comments (2)

We Don’t Need Financial Reform!

Now that Washington has “fixed” health care, they are setting their sights on financial reform. What caused the current problem with the economy was not a lack of regulatory rules. It was a lack of enforcement of those rules that was promulgated by a failed policy. The FDIC simply looked the other way, or actually forced financial institutions to make loans that were totally stupid. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, foreclosure, mortgage on April 25, 2010 Comments (3)

The Cost of Waiting

View all the MLS listings at www.RonBarnesRealEstate.com

I’ve been doing a little reading lately, and a little listening too. There is this guy named Stephan Swanepoel, who is supposed to be the Grand Pooba of real estate forecasting. Most people have never heard of him, which makes him even more mysterious. Like most of the gurus, he never seems to remember when he was wrong, but he is right most of the time. There is another guy named Dan Forsman, who happens to be the CEO of our company, and is also a CPA and pretty shrewd number cruncher. If you pay attention to them you can learn some things. (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale on February 20, 2010 Comments (1)

Governor Perdue Severs Georgia ACORN Contract

state seal

STATE OF GEORGIA

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

Sonny Perdue
GOVERNOR

For Immediate Release                                               Contact: Office of Communications

Thursday, September 17, 2009                                                                               (404) 651-7774

Statement of Governor Perdue Regarding the Department of Human Services Contract with ACORN (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, Unemployment, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on September 20, 2009 Comments (0)

“HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM”

You can search all MLS listings at www.RonBarnesRealEstate.com

        The most astute appraisal of President Obama’s performance to date. If anyone sees an error or an exaggeration in the below please bring it to my attention.

One of Bob Oster’s CEO friends wrote this. Bob respects him highly. (For those on this list who don’t know Bob: he was CFO of Oracle when it went public, also CFO of Syntex, and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Berkeley. Since 1987, he has been an angel investor and private VC. He is on the Board of Overseers at the Hoover Institution.) (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, Unemployment, Water Front, foreclosure, horse farm, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on September 17, 2009 Comments (0)

Understanding the “Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act”

Search all MLS listings at www.RonBarnesRealEstate.com

The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 signed into law on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 (Pub. L. 111-22) provides a 90-day  notice requirement and additional protections for tenants in foreclosed properties.  (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, mortgage on September 3, 2009 Comments (0)

Short Sale Q & A

Search all MLS listings at www.RonBarnesRealEstate.com

Short sale is a term that really had little if any use during the period when real estate was spiraling out of control in many parts of the country. Many people still ask me questions about short sales. Here are a few of them: (more…)

Posted In: Commercial Property, Investment Property, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Unemployment, foreclosure, mortgage, short sale on September 2, 2009 Comments (0)