Dennis Norman Musings

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Investors, get those check books ready, maybe it’s time to buy again?  Adding to the list of recent positive reports on the housing market and home prices is the Housing Market Report that was issued this morning by Radarlogic.  According to the report home prices increased in June from the previous month in 23 out of the 25 metropolitan areas tracked by their company.

Overall the composite for all 25 metros showed a 3% gain in price from May to June representing one of the largest monthly gains reported by RadarLogic since June 2000. There has been a trend of price increases reported for the 25 metro areas for the past few months. In fact, the increase in the Radar Logic Composite from February to June outpaced the house price gains over the same period during the previous threes years, and the increase in house prices from April to June was the largest since the beginning of Radar Logic’s date in 2000.

Read more…

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Presently SmartZip, which just launched its public Beta site in June, 2009, rates over 15 million properties, including listings, foreclosures as well as non-listed homes, across California and Florida only.  However, these two states represent some of the most opportunity-rich markets for real estate investment.  SmartZip plans to roll out its ratings to all 50 states over the next year which will then give them the ability to highlight the best investment cities across the nation. Read more…

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Monday and Tuesday I did part one and two of my series on the National Fix and Flip Network and today will finish this series with the conclusion of my E-View ^TM with Eric Dale, the Vice President of National Fix and Flip network.

Dennis-Eric, you have touched on some of the resources your network provides for investors.  Can you please give me more information as to all the benefits an investor will receive from your network and also whether there is a cost to be a part of this network?

Eric-Our web site is completely free to join and it provides a plethora of useful information.  We provide education through our articles and videos.  We display important daily real estate news covering the topics of real estate changes/information, lending and government policies regarding real estate.

In addition, we provide access to thousands of property listings including foreclosures.  We provide access to thousand of real estate agents, contractors, appraisers, lenders, etc, nationwide.  We also allow members to post/advertise their information on our web site to get in front of our extensive membership.

The web site is geo-targeted so you can pinpoint any area in the United States and find all the resources you need in that particular area.  We are targeting any real estate investor or consumer who is interesting in becoming an educated investor or homeowner looking to improve their overall home-ownership/property experience and save time and money in the process.  We are also targeting real estate agents, lenders, contractors, appraisers, home inspectors, etc that would like to promote their services on our site. 

To take advantage of our network an investor or consumer simply needs to go to www.nfafn.com, join for free and start using our extensive and helpful resources.

Dennis-I noticed on your website a logo and link for Rebuilding Together.  Can you please tell me about this organization and your relationship to it?

Eric-We have a partnership with Rebuilding Together, a wonderful charity that fixes over 10,000 homes a year nationwide for those in need, the elderly and veterans.  We chose this charity as it was a natural fit for us.  Not only could we provide them help monetarily, but by bringing awareness of their cause to our members; our members could lend a hand using their skills to help those in need.  After all, most real estate investors know how to hold a hammer!  This year, we traveled to Tampa for the Superbowl as a corporate sponsor of Rebuilding Together’s “Kickoff to Rebuild” event.  We brought the Denver Bronco Cheerleaders with us and helped to revitalize an inner city Tampa neighborhood in desperate need of attention.

Dennis-Eric, I am impressed that even though your company is a new that you are committed to “giving back” through your support of Rebuilding Together. 

I want to thank Eric Dale for taking the time to share this information with us and think that investors will find the site very useful.  Below is contact information for Eric:

National Fix and Flip Network, Inc.
500 W. Silver Spring Drive – Ste K-200
Glendale, WI  53217
(414) 962-9600

Eric@nfafn.org

www.nfafn.com

To read part one of this series please click here.
To read part two of this series please click here.

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Yesterday I did part one of my series on the National Fix and Flip Network and today will continue this series with the beginning of my E-View ^TM with Eric Dale, the Vice President of National Fix & Flip network.

Dennis-Eric, from talking with you I know your background is real estate and in fact it is from this experience that you saw a “void” that you set out to fill by creating the National Fix & Flip Network.  Please tell us more about your background and how your experience led you to where you are today. Read more…

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

I recently received a press release from ServiceLive.Com announcing their company had joined forces with National Fix and Flip Network to help real estate investors that are buying homes to “Fix and Flip save time and money on home repairs and improvements”. 

I was not familiar with either of these companies but I was intrigued by what I was reading.  For starters, the idea of a national network to provide services to real estate investors sounded like a great idea and something that investors could benefit from.  Then, the idea of a company that could help investors easily find quality, competitive contractors in their local market sounded great as well especially since the rehab part of the transactions appears to present some of the largest challenges to many investors.

However, if you have been reading my blog posts for a while you have probably figured out that I am somewhat of a skeptic though in many ways, particularly when I read a press release from a company touting it’s own product or services.  Therefore I decided to dig into this a little…I went to the website for National Fix and Flip Network and spent some time checking it out.  I have to say, I was immediately impressed. Read more…

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

This past Monday I did a post on short sales where I addressed the use of option contracts by investors on short sales.  Since then I have spent a lot of time discussing and researching this approach to short sales.

I always try to keep an open mind when I look at new business models and approaches to investing.  With this in mind I set out to learn more about the option approach to short sales.  My research led me to one Nathan Jurewicz, a 28 year-old with neon orange hair, known as the “short-sale kid” and the peddler of the “ShortSalesRiches” program. Read more…

By: Dennis Norman

Today the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of the Thrift Supervision (OTS) released their mortgage metrics report for 1st quarter 2009.  

The report shows foreclosures continued to increase during the first quarter of this year.  However the report also shows a significant increase in short-sales which I discussed yesterday in a post. 

Below are some stats from the report: Read more…

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

A recent study shows that 20% of homeowners owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth.  This, coupled with the challenged market we have been in the last year and a half or so, has led to a record number of “short-sales”.

A short-sale is something that was relatively unheard of a few years ago but is quite common today and refers to those sales where the sale price of the home is not sufficient to repay all the debt owed on the home and the lender chooses to accept a lessor amount to release their lien on the home. Read more…

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 342,000.  this represents a 0.6% drop from Aprils rate of 344,000 and is almost 33% down from a year ago.

Three of the four regions in the US actually saw an increase in new home sales for the month.  The Northeast region was up 28.6% followed by the Midwest and the the West with increases of 18.6% and 1.3% respectively.  The South saw a 8.5% drop in sales for the month.

Median prices for new homes increased to $221,600 from $212,600 in April.  Homes in the $200,000 – $299,999 range continue to dominate sales with 28% of the sales, homes in the $150,000 – $199,999 range accounted for 25% of the sales for the month.

The inventory of new homes continued it’s decline down to 292,000 homes in May which represents a 10.2 month supply.  A 10.2 month supply is still about twice as high as we would like to see but it is certainly headed the right direction.  The Northeast region has the largest inventory of new homes with a 14.66 month supply, followed by the Midwest with a 11.29 month supply, the West at 9.75 months and the South at 9.3 months.

These figures are once again consistent with my earlier comments that I think the market is leveling off and perhaps is close to finding it’s bottom.  As new home inventories continue to decline we should see more strength in sales numbers.

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Florida is definitely a state that has felt the impact of the declining real estate market.  It has been one of of the top four states in number of foreclosures, biggest declines in values and a few other statistics a state would just as soon not be associated with.

The tides may be turning though.  The Florida Association of REALTORS(R) reported today that existing home sales in their state rose again in May…the ninth month in a row that sales activity has increased in a year-to-year comparison.  Home sales were up 16% in May and condo sales were up 21% for the same period.

Home and condo prices in Florida have taken a big hit over the past two years.  Last month the median home price for existing homes was $144,400, a year ago it was $203,800.  However the median price in May for Florida was higher than the prior four months.  Condo prices have followed suit as well: May’s median condo price was $113,400, down almost 40% from a year ago when it was $181,700.  Like single family homes, condo prices are showing signs of “bottoming out”.  May’s median condo price was higher than the prior 3 months and about equal to four months ago.

These stats would lead me to believe that the prices in Florida have fallen to the point where home owners and investors are perceiving value and stepping up to the plate and buying.  For investors that have been wanting to take advantage of the lower prices in Florida but cautiously waiting for the “bottom” I think these statistics should tempt them to wade out in the water. 

Having said that I want to do a little CYA.  With the way our federal government has been printing and spending money and the relative instability of the economy, things could change for the bad quickly and this could end up being a “false bottom”.  The problem is it is really impossible to determine the “bottom” of a market until it has passed.