Because I continue to be so bullish on real estate in metro Detroit, I’m constantly talking to people about buying rental properties here. Day in and day out, all kinds of people in all walks of life with all different backgrounds.  I have to say that the most common reaction that I hear is this:  “Ooooh Nooooo – I DON’T want to be a landlord. Then you have to talk to tenants all…
Category: Cash Flow Real Estate Investing
Shut UP Already! The Sky IS NOT Falling!
I’m confused. I really am.  I’ve been getting a rash of grief lately from the Chicken Little crowd here over my bullishness about buying suburban rental homes here in Metro Detroit.  They’re running up and down the street like little girls with their dresses up over their heads screaming “The Sky is Falling. They Sky is Falling!â€.  I suppose that it’s easy to do when you put your brain in neutral. That…
A Commercial Hard Money Suicide
Commercial lenders are suffering in this economy as well – just not as publicly it appears. Last month one of the most prolific Hard Money Lenders on the Commercial Real Estate side of the house killed himself. A Hard Money Lender lends money to real estate investors for very short time frames at astronomically high interest rates – and some investors hyperventilate at the chance to borrow. It looks like he got overexposed to the…
I’m Fuzzy On the Whole Good/Bad Thing.
Be careful what you believe. The home sales numbers for June are out – and Hooray! Sales of homes were UP last month in the metro area over June last year! And not just UP – but up almost 12%! Let’s throw a parade a celebrate the bottom of the real estate market here in Metro Detroit!! The days of Mai-Tais and Yahtzee are back! Not so fast. Sure the numbers are up in the…
A Pig Through a Snake
The carnage and destruction of the mortgage industry continues – with no end in sight. Just days after Countrywide became part of Bank of America on July 1, Indymac Bancorp, the 11th largest producer of US home mortgages, suspended their lending operations yesterday and immediately stopped accepting any new retail or wholesale mortgage applications.  The company posted the first annual loss in it’s 23-year history last year, and it’s stock price, having been as…
These Market Returns Suck
Captain Obvious reporting. I was reading the Wall Street Journal yesterday and saw how bad things are right now in terms of available returns on investment. You can tell the bad news by just reading the headlines and some of the charts: Steep Fall for High-Flyers (China and India stock markets are down over 50%) Even Defensive Names Take Hits (Merck and Pfizer at multi-year lows) The Dow is down 10.7% this year and 11.7%…