Here’s some really good news for anyone involved in acquiring, rehabilitating and reselling foreclosed houses: The Federal Housing Administration is temporarily waiving its “anti-flipping” rules and will now insure mortgages on properties that have been owned by the current seller for less than 90 days.
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Investor Report: Anti-Flipping Rules
The national economy keeps plodding along, but even that slow pace is better than what the experts predicted last year — that we’d be knee-deep into a serious recession by now.
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Real Estate Outlook: Inflation and Mortgage Rates
Thirty-one percent of top executives interviewed in a survey by the Business Roundtable said most will cut payrolls in the next few months. By how much is not known, but one thing is for certain — they won’t cut their own pay.
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Realty Viewpoint: Investment Bank CEOs Cash Out, Proving Life’s Not Fair
Not everyone is cut out to invest in foreclosures. Some people would rather watch TV, invest in stocks and bonds, spend time with family members, or hang out with their friends. Others have a low risk tolerance and can’t convince themselves to borrow money.
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Assessing Your Readiness to Invest in Foreclosures
Flooding along the upper Mississippi during the past few weeks has been awful. Dozens of levees have been breached, homes have been destroyed and millions of acres of farm land have been lost for the coming year.
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The Fake Foreclosure Debate In Washington
As the real estate market continues shaking out nationally, investors thinking out of the box are looking to gain from the turnaround by joining with like-minded buyers on luxury condos.
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Condo Trends: Fractional Ownership Of Luxury Condos the New Thing
Unless your homeowner association transacts all its business town meeting style, a regular newsletter is essential to keep the owners informed. There are tricks of the trade to increase its effectiveness and readability. Here’s a “baker’s dozen”:
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HOA Newsletter Baker’s Dozen
It doesn’t take any skill whatsoever to give away business for little or no fee. In fact there is no skill at all in running a business like that.
Active Vs. Passive Marketing: Changing Real Estate Markets. Strategies to Succeed
There’s more evidence that buyers who’d been sitting on the sidelines are now jumping into the housing market: The Mortgage Bankers Association of America reports that in its national survey last week, applications for new, conventional loans to buy houses jumped by eleven percent — and applications for FHA insured mortgages were up by seventeen percent!
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Real Estate Outlook: Buyers Off the Sidelines
Chances are, as a real estate agent, some of your clients are real estate investors. If that’s the case, they may have been rocked recently, to learn about Freddie Mac’s new lending changes going into effect on August 1, 2008. This rule change could mean hundreds of thousands of real estate investments are now in the wrong business structure.
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Holding Property in an LLC Just Got Tougher
Finally there’s some good news for the housing market. The market’s still terrible, but you can feel better about it if you take Lexapro.
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Realty Viewpoint: Lexapro And Depressed Housing Markets
During the past few years the real estate market expanded at record levels, growth which in large measure was powered by interest rates at 6 percent and below. Freddie Mac announced last week that interest levels had hit 6.32 percent. This is a substantial increase and suggests emerging investor worries about inflation — just four weeks ago 30-year loans could be had for 6.01 percent plus fewer points.
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Is Inflation Back?
Unfortunately for them, home builders are paying a heavy price for overbuilding, building too far away from city centers, and building the wrong products for the population.
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Realty Viewpoint: Why We Need New Home Production To Fall
