The Majority of U.S. Homeowners Thinks Their Home is Insulated from the Housing Crisis According to Zillow Q2 Homeowner Confidence Survey 62% of homeowners believe their home’s value has increased or stayed the same in the past year yet 77% of U.S. homes actually declined in value  Short-Term Outlook: More optimism for own home vs. neighbors’ homes in next six months although 70% say they are concerned foreclosures will decrease home values in their…
Off-Topic Friday: Kid Rock PSA: Steal Everything!
Not a big fan of his music but Kid is right on point on this. Hat tip to my buddy Mark for telling me about this.
The Beginning of the End for Real Estate Contrarians
I read an interesting article this morning on Marketwatch.com. Specifically a piece by Marshall Loeb. Now as a finance guy I normally skip articles by Loeb and his cohorts at competing web sites, because their content is bland, vanilla, and always so overly general that nothing they recommend or discuss can ever be directly implemented. And after reading them I usually I feel like a cross between the AFLAC duck as he walks out of…
It’s a Budget Buster!
In this real estate market there is no good reason to buy a property that you plan to hold and rent if it needs any more than about $2500 worth of work. It’s just not necessary, because there are so many great properties on the market – and I mean listed on the MLS and STILL occupied – that will cash flow as a rental at or near full asking price. I took a quick…
Off-Topic Friday: Those Are NOT Double Stuff
We had a family crisis last weekend. A Red-Alert-level crisis. We were on our first solo family camping trip in the Waterloo State Recreation Area out past Chelsea. First time camping without a big group like the cub scouts. Aside from forgetting my trusty Swiss Army knife and a lighter for my cigars we did pretty well with the packing. We had great weather – the lake temp was perfect and it had a sandy…
Yes But Why THAT One?
As I move between the worlds of residential and commercial real estate I’m realizing more and more that the fundamentals of both are a lot alike. Having spent the last few years building up a portfolio of single family rental properties, I’ve developed some very strict and specific criteria to use in my screening process. It’s interesting to note in retrospect though, that my criteria has gotten more and more specific, and therefore more narrow,…