By: Dennis Norman
Irving Blue, CPM
So why would you need a property manager to handle your rental properties? Afterall you are an active investor and are capable of managing your units…plus why spend the money? These are all good questions and just part of the dilemna for many landlords.
On the flipside, are you getting sick of the late night phone calls about a clogged toilet, dealing with collecting rent, trying to keep up with the books for your rental property business and still have time to run the business? Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
With falling prices, record low interest rates and plenty of homes on the market to choose from you may be thinking now would be a good time to jump into the market and make some money. Or perhaps you are already an investor and see now as a prime opportunity to make some great deals.
It is impossible to predict what the future of the real estate market has in store for us but for some insight on investing in the current market I would suggest you check out a 3 part series I did for RealEstateInvestorsDaily.Com when I interviewed a professional investor.
You can click on the links below to read the articles:
Part one of the series
Part two of the series
Final, part three of the series
By: Dennis Norman
In the first post and second post of this series I gave a little background on Marc Mink, the person responding to my E-View TM and sharing his knowledge and wisdom. As promised, I will give some more background on Marc and then continue with part two of the E-View TM .
Over the years Marc continued to pursue foreclosures and estate deals but also broadened his business to include being a hard-money lender as well as partner in a mortgage company. I was fortunate to have worked with Marc for over a dozen years in the real estate business as well as the mortgage and loan business. Marc is now with Bellington Realty, the largest company in St. Louis in the business of “speculating” (buying and selling homes aka flipping). Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
Today the U.S. Department of Commerce released new home sales data for December 2008. This report, the last for the year, continued the downward trend of the prior reports.
Sales of new homes for December dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 331,000 homes, down from 388,000 in November. At 331,000 homes for the year that is a drop of 44.8% from 2007 sales of 600,000 homes. Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
State Farm Insurance Company (State Farm Florida), the state’s largest private property insurer, announced earlier this week filed plans to discontinue its Florida property insurance lines.
This is not good for Florida residents nor all the people around the country that own vacation homes, rentals, time-shares or have other real estate investments in Florida.
State Farm Insurance Company said their action would not affect the availability of of auto, life or health insurance. The lines of insurance coverage they plan to discontinue include homeowners, renters, condominium Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
In the first post of this series I gave you a little background on Marc Mink, the person responding to my E-View TM and sharing his knowledge and wisdom. As promised, I will give some more background on Marc and then continue with part two of the E-View TM .
Marc started in the antique and architectural salvage business in the 1970′s. As part of that business he began doing personal property appraisals which brought him in touch with estate attorneys and insurance adjusters. By the time he started in the real estate business full-time he was already somewhat connected with people in the cash/investment real estate business.
Marc’s first full-time pursuit of the real estate business was “bird-dogging” foreclosures. He would make contact with people facing foreclosure and offer them alternatives, such as selling their home to him on a quick, cash basis, prior to the foreclosure sometimes even offering the homeowner the chance to lease the Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
I am not an economist and don’t have a PhD…in fact I think the closest I ever came to an academic course in economics was a business management class in high school. However, having said that, I think it is pretty clear that what is going on in the housing market now is a basic law of economics called “supply and demand” and perhaps by the latest statistics these two parties, which have been strangers for a while, are now getting reacquainted.
For starters, let’s look at the definition of “supply and demand“. Wikipedia.Org defines it as: “An economic model based on price and quantity in a market. It predicts that in a competitive market price will function to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity.” Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
I am not an economist and don’t have a PhD…in fact I think the closest I ever came to an academic course in economics was a business management class in high school. However, having said that, I think it is pretty clear that what is going on in the housing market now is a basic law of economics called “supply and demand” and perhaps by the latest statistics these two parties, which have been strangers for a while, are now getting reacquainted.
For starters, let’s look at the definition of “supply and demand“. Wikipedia.Org defines it as: “An economic model based on price and quantity in a market. It predicts that in a competitive market price will function to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity.” Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
Real estate investors are facing quite a dilemma in this market. On the one hand prices are down, inventory of “deals” are plentiful; on the other hand financing is tight, the resale market is weak and many banks don’t even want to finance rental properties right now. So what’s an investor to do? To answer this and other questions I approached Marc Mink, a friend of mine, a veteran real estate speculator and investor in St. Louis, MO to get his thoughts via an E-View TM (my newly coined term for detailed interviews via email or other electronic means…hmm, kind of like it).
Before I start, a quick disclaimer: Marc is also one of the smartest people I know, is very knowledgeable when it comes to real estate, finance, the financial markets and more. You name it, he knows it. He is also VERY outspoken…he has no problem letting you know what the thinks…I personally like this trait and am therefore presenting this interview with his answers in his own words and un-edited. The weak at heart may want to think twice before reading. For those that do read what Marc has to say and keep an open mind (oh yeah and don’t take any comments personal) they will benefit from his knowledge and experience. Read more…
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Last night my sister sent me a link to a video about children in Uganda and their battles with starvation, sickness and life without parents. Wow, when we are made aware of things like this it is really an eye opener to just how blessed we are, particularly here in the US. It really puts things in perspective.
This morning I arose still thinking about the video as I was reading some Google news alerts as well as doing some research on REALTOR(R).org. After skimming through news reports, economists comments, etc there were a couple of things that got my attention. One was a news story on Bloomberg.com which said home prices dropped in 70% of US States in 2008 and the other was a commentary by Lawrence Yun, the Chief Read more…
