Market Trends and Condition

Throughout the US, there are still a large number of properties on the market, however it is becoming more challenging in finding motivated sellers. As coaches
we teach dozens of ways to find motivated sellers, but I recently read an article that was written by Anne C. Lee and published on CNNMoney.com’s website.

“Housing inventory is stiflingly tight in many locations, making it a challenge to find, much less land, your dream home.

The number of available houses in the hottest markets has dropped dramatically over the past year, says the National Association of Realtors: In the Boston area, for one, inventory levels are down 29% vs. 2012. And Denver, Seattle, and San Francisco aren't far behind.

I’ve been fortunate during my real estate investing in that I’ve surrounded myself with a great “Power Team”. I have a Real Estate Attorney who is also a CPA that has set up over a dozen different business entities over the years I’ve been working with him.
I know how to invest in real estate, BUT I don’t know what I need to do in order to properly protect myself and give myself the best tax deductions … that is why
I pay to have that done!

Stephanie AuWerter recently wrote an article for CNNMoney.com that discussed this topic.

“The main reason to set up an entity like a corporation is to protect your personal assets against a lawsuit -- say, if someone gets injured on your property.
Ultimate Guide to Retirement
• Getting started

I have been asked before how do I determine a good market to buy and hold? How do I get started?

These are good questions and there are multiple factors that can play into a "good" market.

I will give a quick high level overview of a way you may get started determining an area.

Without getting into items such as growth, economics, owner occupancy percentages and the likes. I suggest seeing areas where properties are holding value and increasing in rents.

Here is a quick example of how I quickly determine a market I may want to buy and hold in:

I go to Google and search for median house prices in the United States.

I then go back to Google again and search for median rents in the United states.

The Baby Boomer generation was lucky in many ways when it came to housing. The dollar was strong, there was plenty of cheap housing, mortgage rates were low, and all asset classes for investment were booming. Owning a home was a middle class dream that was easily realized during a period of high employment. Even those with only a single blue collar household income could buy a home.

Ironically in the same week that Facebook announced the axing of a privacy setting, billionaire Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg prevented the building of a spectator mansion adjacent to his main 5,617 square-foot home.

Zuckerberg is using a classic buy-and-hold strategy which has been used by numerous billionaires such as Google chief Larry Page and the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. This approach allows the wealthy to ensure their privacy by preventing the destruction of nearby homes and vetting the neighbors.

Enough Money Speeds Up Time

News is coming in from the various government and quasi-government agencies that guarantee mortgages or lend directly. The U.S. Government effectively shut down at midnight on September 30th. The word from supposedly reliable sources is that the mortgage market is likely to be only minimally impacted by the shutdown. If this is the case, it’s good news, as the government is involved in underwriting, insuring, or issuing around 90% of all mortgage debt.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Over the past six years, the housing market has taken us on a wild and, in some ways, unprecedented journey. One main feature of that journey involved the historic levels of foreclosures that almost wrecked the market but provided savvy investors and homebuyers with an abundance of cheap properties.

Now, a continuation of that trend is impacting the market in a secretive but significant way: vampire foreclosures.

What is a Vampire Foreclosure?

Typically, when a homeowner enters the foreclosure process, he or she is evicted or otherwise leaves the home. Then home then enters a foreclosure auction, where it is either purchased by an investor or homebuyer or left unsold.

In my real estate career I’ve been involved in all types of deals from simple to complex.
I’ve done many “condo conversions” … where you buy an apartment and convert it to a condo development & then sell off the condos.

Well, I just read a very creative “condo conversions” … “Masonic Temples Reborn as Luxury Condos”!
The real estate section of the Wall Street Journal had a great article on how there has been a rise in the number of Masons selling their old temples to developers, who in turn are constructing beautiful condos. If you’ve ever been to New York or any large downtown city, you’ll see some breath-taking views of incredible architecture.

NANCY KEATES followed this “trend” and wrote an article for the WSJ

What’s the most important factor in buying real estate? No matter if you are an old-school investor or homebuyer or a new-age, daredevil entrepreneur, the most important factor is and will always be location.

If you take this to heart and look for awesome locations with lots of real estate gems, you will come out ahead more often than not – especially if you take a look at a few prime areas identified in a recent article by Business Insider.

We’ll look at some of the best “hidden” real estate markets for hot properties, but first, what makes a prime location?

Factors to Consider When House Hunting

I read several interesting articles today. One of them listed the top 100 metropolitan markets for appreciation in 2013, based on 2nd quarter, 90 of them are in California, the other 10 are in Florida, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada.
In other articles each of those areas are expected to perform very well in 2014. Other areas of note, projected to have very high appreciation in 2014 include Washington, Oregon, and three surprises to me, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Alaska.