Dennis Norman Musings

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) published their Commercial Leading Indicator for Brokerage Activity for the second quarter of 2009 showing a decline of 1.3 percent to an index of 101.5, down from an index of 102.8 in the first quarter. At 101.5 the index for the second quarter of 2009 is 13.7 percent below the 2nd quarter of 2008 when the index was at 117.6. The index is currently at the lowest level since the first quarter of 1994.

In reviewing NAR’s report, it doesn’t appear any of the sectors have been able to avoid a slowdown, below is a recap by sector: 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

When we speak of discrimination in housing it seems many people think of it only in terms of discrimination based upon race.  However, landlords and other property owners need to remember that the Federal Fair Housing Laws that make it illegal to discriminate in housing based upon race also make it illegal to discriminate against people based upon religion, sex, familial status or disability.

Recently I have noticed several cases involving discrimination in housing based upon a persons disability.  This area of the Fair Housing laws may be the most difficult for property owners to understand what is necessary on their part in order to comply.  The other forms of discrimination are a little more apparent; you cannot refuse to rent to someone based upon their race or color, sex, etc.  While this applies to people with disabilities as well, the laws also require that, in the case of persons with disabilities, you make reasonable accommodations to make your property accessible to them.  This is where many property owners seem to have problems. Read more…

By: Dennis Norman

The FBI has issued a consumer alert warning of phony online rental ads. According to the alert, the scam goes like this:

 A prospective tenant can’t believe their good fortune-they find a rental home in a nice area through a Craigslist classified ad at an unbelievably low rate. The landlord-who had to leave the country and travel to Nigeria-asks the tenant to wire him two months worth of rent. The tenant arrives at the home on the agreed-upon date, but there is just one small problem- the house is not actually for rent and its owners know nothing about the tenants agreement.

This latest scam is being perpetrated by Nigerian criminals located halfway aroudn the world and has been seen in a number of U.S. states, perhaps in response to the current housing market- with fewer people buying, more people are renting.

The criminals behind this search websites that list homes for sale.  They take the information in those ads-lock, stock and barrel-and post it, with their own e-mail address.  In an ad on Craigslist (without Craiglist’s consent or knowledge) under the housing rental category.  To sweeten the pot the houses are almost always listed with below-market rental rates. 

So beware and keep an eye on your vacant homes….unbeknownst to you, they could be used in the scam.

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

• For the act to apply the tenant must be under a “Bona Fide Lease or Tenancy” which the act describes as:
  • the tenant is not the mortgagor or the child, spouse or parent of the mortgagor
  • the lease or tenancy was the result of an arms-length transaction, and
  • the lease or tenancy requires the receipt of rent that is not substantially less than fair market rent for the property or the unit’s rent is reduced or subsidized due to a Federal, State or local subsidy
  • tenancy or lease was in effect as of the date of the “notice” of foreclosure Read more…

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Since the real estate downturn reared it’s ugly head many builders, developers and speculators  have turned their “for sale” inventory into rentals.  At the same time many frustrated homeowners have rented their homes out after not being able to sell them after buying another home.

As this happened I wondered if all that was being done was passing off the excess inventory problem of the for sale market to the rental market.

While pondering this I did realize the sad fact that the tenant population has probably increased substantially over the past couple of years a result of homeowners losing there homes and resorting to renting. Read more…

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

First off, my usual disclaimer…I am not an attorney and this is not intended to be legal advice or a legal opinion.  I’m simply reporting on “news” that I think is interesting and relevant to those investors out there that own apartment buildings or may be involved with condominium developments.

Some time ago, it seems around the early 90′s, I remember hearing from a friend of mine that owned hundreds of apartment units how much money he just received from a cable company by offering them the “exclusive” right to offer it’s services to his tenants.  In other words, if you were a tenant in one of his apartments your only choice for television (other than broadcast TV that you could receive without the aid of an antenna on the building) was the cable company my friend the apartment-owner had selected.  You would not have any other choices.  While this arrangement didn’t offer much choice to the tenant it sure seemed like a windfall to the apartment owner to me.

Apparently many condominium developments went the same route.  The developer would enter into an exclusive agreement with a cable provider (or I assume a satellite provider) and then owners of units in that development would have no other choice. Read more…

By:  Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

How many times have you heard something like this from an agent or seller trying to convince you how good a deal is?

I find it funny how often people will base their definition of a “good deal” on the relationship of the price you can buy it for to either what the price the seller was asking or to what it sold for before.

I just don’t see how these two things come into play with regard to the value of a house or whether or not it is a “good deal”. 

Case in point: Yesterday I was sent a list of a dozen homes that could be bought for a small percentage of what they previously sold for.  One was a house I was told could be bought for $3,000 – $5,000 that sold for $82,000 at the end of 2005 and the other could be bought in the same range and sold for $80,000 in late 2005. Read more…

By: Dennis Norman

Last week the U.S. Census Bureau released new home data for January.  Once again, permits and housing starts were down. 

Building permits for January were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 521,000, 4.8% below December and over 50% below a year ago.  Housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 466,000, 16.8% below December and 56.2% below a year ago. Read more…

By: Dennis Norman

Irving Blue, CPM

In part one  and part two of this series I gave you some background information on Irving Blue as well as the part of my E-View ^TM  with him.  Now we’ll pick up where we left off.

The mission statement of Irving’s company is to the point:  ”Work collectively with owners to secure the highest possible investment returns.”  I think that is what every investor is looking for…oh yeah, without headaches also….that’s where the property manager comes in. Read more…