Be Creative to Sell Your Home

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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)

Activity or Accomplishment?

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The late basketball coach John Wooden is attributed with the saying “Never confuse activity with accomplishment”. It is advice that can serve us all well. Simply flailing around looking busy does not in itself solve the challenges of life. With that in mind, let’s examine some of the current developments in real estate. (more…)

Posted In: Investment Property, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, foreclosure, mortgage, tax on July 12, 2010 Comments (0)

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

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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

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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

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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)

Change Affecting Home Buyers & Sellers

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Everyone knows there are a ton of foreclosures and other “distressed” properties that mortgage lenders are coping with lately. I have written about using a short sale, one of the methods employed by many to deal with their crisis. In summary, (more…)

Posted In: Investment Property, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, foreclosure, mortgage, short sale on February 3, 2010 Comments (1)

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

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I was going through some papers last week (okay, I was cleaning up my junk pile) when I came across an article written by John Adams in the AJC. It was called “Inside Advice” and titled “2008 prognosticators show existing home sales going up”. (more…)

Posted In: Investment Property, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, foreclosure, land, mortgage, short sale on December 12, 2009 Comments (1)

“OK … Now What’s Your Excuse?”

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Our job as professional Realtors® these days is to listen to all the excuses people use to put off buying a new home. “The market will keep going down. The interest rates are staying low. The windows are a little dirty. There is no reason to hurry in a buyer’s market. I’m looking for a $350,000 home for about $140,000.” I’m sure my fellow agents can come up with a few more. It would be hilarious if it were not so tragic, watching people wring their hands in “analysis paralysis” while the deal of their lives slips away before their eyes. (more…)

Posted In: Investment Property, Mortgage Protection, Mountain Living, My Listings, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Real Estate Values, Uncategorized, Unemployment, foreclosure, horse farm, land, mortgage, short sale, tax on November 9, 2009 Comments (1)