Getting money for real estate, part 2

By Steve, 24 November, 2009, No Comment

There are really only 4 sources of cash to make real estate investments–

Your own cash, which makes sense if you want income, but don’t need to leverage growth
The Bank’s cash (fill in the name of the bank here), which works if:
1. You have no more than 4 properties total (banks and other lenders are currently restricting your ownership numbers to 4 or fewer properties. Considering that leveraged purchases and realistic rents are the bread and butter of real estate investing, this makes little sense–it does prevent speculation, but certainly does not provide an appropriate path to investment.

This is a preview of Getting money for real estate, part 2. Read the full post (402 words, 7 images, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

I didn’t get my offer accepted? What happened?

By Steve, 9 November, 2009, No Comment

What happened is that the inventory levels are now so low that virtually every agent who lists property finds himself with multiple offers on hand, and his seller selects the best one. This situation actually started to occur sometime in the late winter/early spring of 2009, long before the media began to report it. Those of us in the business found that the agents who had bank-owned property were treating everything as a “silent auction;” the offers would be made, and then later on the successful bidder would hear that his offer was accepted, with all the conditions the bank saw fit to place on the transaction. Shortly thereafter, the cash buyers came out of the woodwork, and then after that, the cash offers began competing with each other. So what’s a homebuyer to do? Here are some strategies you can use to make sure that your offer gets a good hard first look:

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The “Why” of Short Sales

By Steve, 30 October, 2009, No Comment

When should I do a short sale?
There is definitely a time to do a short sale rather than wait for the value of your property to increase (please note: this information applies to homeowners only. If you are an investor, please contact me for specific information about this process, and its potential risks and rewards).

1. If you are “buried” in the property, it’s time to think about a short sale.

This is a preview of The “Why” of Short Sales. Read the full post (679 words, 7 images, estimated 2:43 mins reading time)

Buyers, Buyers, Everywhere, and nothing to buy…

By Steve, 15 October, 2009, No Comment

So what happened to the real estate recession?

What happened is that the real estate recession is temporarily over.

Consider the following:

In the area where my office is (eastern San Diego County), the ratio of properties under contract to listed properties is about 2-1. In other words, there are twice as many properties that are in some sense “off market” (not including the “sold” properties) as there are properties for sale.

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