Robinson Real Estate Report

by Donna Robinson www.RobinsonRealEstateReport.com

I often get email from investors asking me how they can tell which real estate investing strategy is ideal in their city. From the perspective of a new investor it can often be difficult to decide what particular strategy you should use in a given area.

There are two essential ways to break down a real estate market for residential real estate investing. One is geographically and the other is demographically.

In the case of Geographics let’s say we have an investor who lives in Cobb County, GA and he or she only wants to buy and sell properties in Cobb County. Since this investor has chosen to limit themselves to a specific geographic location, they will be limited to the deals (i.e. Strategies) that they find most readily available in Cobb County.

For example, if you are in a suburban area that has lots of new construction, you may find more retailing opportunities to owner occupants. You will also find some rentals and virtually nothing suitable for Wholesaling because everything is too new. And, the majority of properties in new areas have very little equity. Short Sales are the big way to create equity in newer markets right now, due to foreclosures.

If you are in an older area such as inside a major city, where there are thousands of older properties and many fixer uppers, you are much more likely to find wholesale, rehabs and rental property deals but relatively little new construction.

So when it comes to choosing a strategy, your choice will be dictated by the situation. Is there a lot of equity to work with? Perhaps wholesaling is the best choice. Is there very little equity to work with? And it’s a
pre-foreclosure too? Then a short sale might be the only way to make the deal work.

On the other hand many investors choose a strategy and then try to find a house that fits that strategy. For example if you want to be a real estate wholesaler, you have to go where the wholesale deals are.

This is what most professional wholesalers will do. They don’t limit themselves to a small geographic area. They travel all over their area in order to find all the potential wholesale deals that they reasonably can. They may limit their territory somewhat, but generally they will cover a wide geographic area to find only the wholesale deals.

Their focus will be on contacting owners of older properties that are abandoned, or need lots of repairs. This is because these properties generally represent the best opportunity for lots of equity and a flexible seller.

If you are a wholesaler you don’t want to waste your time contacting owners of 2 year-old houses with no equity.

Wholesalers who do this are using the demographic method. They are not looking in a particular location, they are looking for a particular type of seller.

Demographic prospecting means using more of a mass marketing technique, and targeting pre-foreclosures, health issues, job transfers, probate, divorce, and the whole range of life related events that can lead a person to become a motivated seller.

It is more common among professional investors to search for deals demographically rather than limit themselves to specific geographic locations. However this means you must have a willingness to drive sufficient distances to check leads. I personally have driven more than 200 miles in a single day, while viewing as many as 12 properties. At that point I was specifically looking for wholesale opportunities so I had to go where those opportunities were.

Had I wanted to stay close to home, which is a newer area, with lots of houses built in the past few years, I would only pursue strategies that work with pretty houses, such as lease options, subject-to or buy and hold, because my geographic area is newer and therefore it contains very few wholesaling opportunities.

It can take you some time to get a feel for the types of deals that are most likely to be found in your area. If you are in an older area mostly built prior to 1970, then chances are very good that you would find more wholesaling opportunities.

If you live in a new area where most of the construction is less than 10 years old you would find more opportunities with less equity.

Retailing to owner occupants on a Lease with Option to Buy, is my personal favorite strategy in suburban neighborhoods that are predominately owner occupied. You can make that deal work at 80% LTV, instead of the 65% LTV you need for wholesaling.

So, one key to determining what strategy to use in what area is to look at the age and condition of the properties in that area and make offers that work for those properties.

In larger metropolitan areas, the outlying suburbs are much more likely to be ideal for retailing, or buy and hold strategies. The in-town neighborhoods in the older parts of the inner city are better suited to strategies like wholesaling, because older houses tend to have more equity and need repairs.

Newer houses usually have less equity and therefore are better candidates for creative cash flow strategies, like “lease with option to buy”, or “subject-to the existing mortgage”.

Creative cash flow strategies may require less equity where Wholesaling strategies will require more equity in order for the numbers to work.

In todays market, with foreclosures at an all time high, many investors are using short sales to create equity where none exists. REO’s are also a great source for discounted buying opportunities, due to the high amount of inventory banks currently have available for sale. Where over-supply exists, banks will be forced to cut deals until demand catches up. That probably won’t happen in many hard-hit markets until 2009. In this market many deals are “made” not “found”, by savvy short sale negotiators.

Any strategy only makes sense if the numbers work. Regardless of where you are located, and whether your market is “hot” or “cold”, the bottom line is — what will cost you? and, Can you sell it or rent it for more than it will cost? ***

Donna Robinson is a real estate consultant, licensed agent, and real estate investor in metro Atlanta, GA. She offers private coaching and consulting to beginning and experienced real estate investors. Contact Donna at director@therealestatearena.com for more information on coaching or consulting services.

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When I wrote “ARM Freeze Offers Solution To All World Problems”, and said we should “let the chips fall where they may”. I received many cheers for voicing the opinions of those who agreed with me. (See Blog Article dated January 3rd 2008)

The point of that article was that people learn best by being made to deal with their mistakes, instead of having the government play the role of “baby-daddy” to come along and “save” us every time things get tough and we start whining. Where the housing crisis is concerned, at the home owners level, most people did “make their bed”, and now they are having to lay in it. The real truth is that as a nation we have no financial wisdom. We have not learned how to manage our money well. We don’t really understand our financial commitments like buying cars, houses and racking up credit card debt, until it becomes a problem. Then we tend to start crying and hoping that someone will just come along and bail us out, so we can learn nothing and repeat the same mistakes endlessly.

I have consulted with and counseled dozens of individuals over the past few years who are/were in trouble over bad financial decisions involving personal homes and investing in houses using questionable financing tactics. I know from direct personal experience that the housing crisis ultimately boils down to personal responsibility and common sense decision making. But those who now find themselves in this dilemma demand a quick fix, instead of paying the price for and learning from their mistakes. They want government to bail them out, or the bank to bail them out, but few are really interested in learning the lessons of their mistakes so that they won’t be repeated.

The comments I wrote in that article generated some interesting responses from readers who were offended at the idea of learning from mistakes and dealing with the consequences of their actions. One email said that I didn’t have to care about the “little people” because “Millionaires like me” can sit around in our wonderful world criticizing others because we have nothing better to do and we don’t understand what they are going through.

I find such assumptions rather interesting. Actually, I am not a millionaire at all. I work for a living just like most people do. Heck, as far as I know, most millionaires work harder than most average people. I do have friends that are wealthy, but they are among the hardest working people that I know. You don’t get rich sitting around on your assets all day.

But the bigger point I want to make here is that my story is very similar to those of the people who are now going through financial and personal hardships.

Most of my regular readers may not realize that I have been through a total financial melt-down, been stripped of virtually everything I owned, and wound up almost homeless. And then began the process of rebuilding my life and my business activities. A process that is well under way today, but has taken years to restore what was lost.

In November of 2000, my husband and I were regular working folks. He had a good paying job, and I had a budding career as a real estate agent and investor. Then that Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, my husband came home from work very ill, with what appeared to be the worst case of the flu that I had ever seen. He was so sick he couldn’t even talk. He went up to bed and slept for 3 days before he even spoke to me.

To make a very long story short, we soon discovered over a period of weeks that he was suffering not from the flu, but from liver failure, brought on by Hepatitis C. We had known that he had Hep C antibodies, but up to that point, he had not suffered any real symptoms. Then that fateful day, he went over the edge, and suddenly he was clinging to life by a thread. The doctors said he needed a liver transplant, and gave him maybe a year to survive in that condition.

Little did I know that it would become a 3 and 1/2 year ordeal that would eventually strip us of all of our personal assets, our real property and leave us virtually homeless, living in a camper at a campground.

Within the first 45 days, my husband gained 100 pounds of fluid in his body. Fluid that was leaking out of his severely damaged liver, and literally filling up his body like a plastic bag full of water. He swelled from a size 36 to a size 48 in 5 weeks. He could not get up, sit down or get dressed without assistance. He could not eat without getting sick. I had to eliminate all the salt, sugar and preservatives from our diet, because he could only eat natural, unprocessed foods.

Then as if that were not enough, he suddenly developed a condition known as “Hepatic Encephalopathy” which is a fancy term that means his blood had too much ammonia in it, due to poor liver function. This would bring on episodes of “instant alzheimers” in which he had no idea where he was or what he was doing. During these episodes, which would last as long as two or three days, he would not even know to get dressed, and was basically nothing more than a 300 pound toddler, who had to be watched constantly. He started a fire in the kitchen one day and almost burned the house down. He required constant supervision. And in all of this, neither one of us was able to work a job, and our income had disappeared.

Needless to say, our lives were falling apart. We were selling personal property and assets just to keep a roof over our heads, generating medical bills for thousands of dollars, and within less than one year we went from a thriving middle class household to one that was on the brink of total financial and physical disaster.

Eventually we had sold everything we had left of any real value, and we moved into a camper to cut our living expenses as much as possible. It seemed that there was no way out, and my husbands prospects for a liver transplant seemed to be slim to none. Just getting on the transplant list was a major challenge, with many hoops to jump through, and then, even if you made the transplant list, the wait for an actual transplant could take more years. Years that my husband did not have to wait. It seemed like the situation was hopeless.

During this time, I learned first hand about dealing with financial and physical trials in a way that I could not have imagined previously. I still had to find a way to make an income, so that we could afford to even live in a camper. We had no telephone line or cable access, so I had no internet connection. When my husband would go to the hospital to see a doctor, or on one of the many occasions that he was admitted during his illness, I would take my laptop, virtually the only asset I had left, get on the internet, and try to do business.

I was still a real estate investor, only now I had to deal with being in the “no cash no credit” scenario. Not because I didn’t have good credit, but because I had no documented income. I was a full time caregiver for my terminally ill husband, and had to find a way to generate income from a camper at a campground, or a hospital room.

Even in the midst of these troubles, I tried to focus on doing what I could to make money in real estate. Through a variety of events, which I now look back and see were God’s divine intervention, I was contacted by an investment group that was buying houses. They invited me to come to work with them, helping them locate properties that they could buy, and would pay me a commission for those deals. They had no idea at the time that I was virtually broke and living in a camper with a terminally ill husband.

I went to work with them immediately. Real estate is a great industry because it allows for flexibility in your schedule and can be done to some extent from anywhere. And that was what I needed…A job that could permit me to make lots of money while not going to an office and working all hours of the day or night, as needed. I jumped on every opportunity afforded me at this investment company, and slowly, over a period of months, I started to make decent money. Eventually I got a pipeline going, and closed several deals in a short period of time. This allowed us to finally move out of the camper and back into a house. But my husband was still terminally ill. By this time he had survived almost 3 years, but was still not on the transplant list.

I could go on for there were many other events that transpired during this time, but suffice to say, I have seen my share of trials, hardships and financial challenges. All during that time, no one offered us a bail out. I had a few dear friends who helped out as best they could, but there was no magic bullet and no instant miracle. But the miracles did come. As we slowly but surely worked through the financial, personal, and health issues, day by day, the real miracles did begin to manifest themselves.

In February of 2005, my husband finally made the liver transplant list. Then, by a miracle that can only be ascribed to God alone, he received a transplant on April 5th, 2004. That happened to be Easter Week in 2004. I can tell you it was like living through the resurrection. He was a “dead” man when he finally got the call for the transplant. He not only survived the transplant, but he went home only a few days afterward. Today he is a healthy and restored man, and we are enjoying the fruits of a marriage that has been transformed and made stronger through those difficult trials.

And, as a result of the time spent living in the camper, I had an idea for a new commercial business. At the time, that idea seemed equally impossible. But through God all things really are possible. Today that business is known as Marine Depot, www.MarineDepotUSA.com and is my boat and RV storage business. We acquired a small facility from a real estate developer. He told me later that he didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance in hell, but he allowed me to acquire control for only $1300. As of August of 2008 I am buying this property all cash, thanks to another near miraculous series of events. I perservered through the really tough times, and now the momentum is building like never before. Today Marine Depot has become a thriving business that will be expanding in the near future.

And of course, I am still involved in real estate. I don’t know what I would have done during those darkest days had it not been for my faith in God, and my knowledge of real estate. Prayer and hard work have been the only “bailout” that we have had.
Looking back on it now, I can honestly say that those trials turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to us. They changed our lives spiritually, made us better decision makers, made us better financial planners, and made us stronger. It radically improved our marriage, and our business lives are today better than ever. No I am not a millionaire yet, but I am on the way to building a solid financial future. All because we did not have anyone there to bail us out, and we had to learn to live in faith. Today that faith influences everything we do, and has not only restored us, but has made our life better than it was before it all happened.

So don’t despair if you now find yourself in the midst of a tough trial. In the long run, it could be the best thing that ever happened to you. It was for me. I am glad that I had to learn to work through my trials, instead of getting an instant bail out. God knows what is best for all of us, but we have to be willing to make ourselves subject to him. The government means well, but they simply can’t do for you what God can do.

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Lets congratulate the Bush administration, the Federal Reserve and the democrat controlled congress. It looks like they have come up with a breakthrough approach to problem solving that may finally end the worlds problems once and for all.

The breakthrough came with the idea to freeze ARM rates so that borrowers will not be subjected to the terms of the agreements that they voluntarily signed. Combine that innovative thinking with the ongoing efforts to save wall street from its own irresponsible actions. It seems that the U.S. government and the federal reserve will finally succeed in realizing a foundational tenet of liberal politics - change the laws and the way financial markets work so that we can eliminate personal responsibility and individual accountability once and for all.

Just ignore the fact that the “full faith and credit” of the United States government will be undermined and perhaps destroyed. Never mind that every individual involved here has made decisions that they knew had risk and potential consequences.

Lets just ignore the terms of existing mortgage loans, let all borrowers in default off the hook, pass some new laws, and expand FHA so that the american taxpayer can be required to pick up the tab for a new round of subprime lending under the guise of “government guaranteed loans”. That way we can avoid a financial meltdown, avoid consequences of our collective actions, and continue to expand this madness even further by making the same stupid financial decisions in the future at taxpayer expense.

But in pondering the situation in which we now find ourselves, I realized that in fact this line of reasoning may actually be used to save the world and solve all of the worlds major problems.

If we can simply decide to alter the way financial markets operate, change existing contractual commitments in the middle of the game, and in the process ignore the long term consequences of such ill advised actions, then lets just take this line of reasoning one step further and solve all of the worlds problems.

As soon as the U.S. government gets finished solving the world credit crisis, which may take another week or two, lets move on to some other major issues…

Global warming - How about a law that stops global warming by mandating that all future carbon emissions should fall to the ground and wash away with the next good rain storm?

Eliminate the threat of world pandemics like Bird Flu - How about a law that says that all birds who are sneezing or have a “runny beak” shall be required to stay at least 1000 feet away from any humans?

World Hunger - While we’re at it, lets make sure that all of the oppressive regimes in the “third world” are required to feed all of their citizens until they get at least as fat as the average citizen of “first world” nations.

I know what you are thinking…these are obviously silly ideas that can’t be enforced by passing laws…I rest my case.

Only one thing can solve the present financial crisis we find ourselves in, and that is to let the chips fall where they may. Let the free markets do their thing, let the accountability fall where it lies…at the feet of those who have made irresponsible financial decisions that they must be held accountable for. Let all involved learn their lessons, and learn that decisions have consequences, and that risk and reward go hand in hand.

We will never solve problems by ignoring them, failing to account for them or by trying to avoid the consequences of our actions. Borrowers who borrowed more than they could afford should learn that there is a price to be paid for such irresponsibility. Lenders who make loans to people who can’t afford those loans need to understand that there are consequences for such irresponsible business practices. Investors seeking high returns need to understand that high risk follows high reward. All investments look good on paper, but reality can be a very different thing.

Until we are willing to confront our own financial irresponsibility by facing the consequences of our own personal decisions all the way down the financial “food chain”, we will never reach a point of true financial stability again. America is already at a crisis point, and a potential turning point in our history that theatens to undermine our national stability and could well be our undoing in the near future. Only a return to integrity and personal accountability will stabilize the system and restore the “full faith and credit” of the United States of America.

Any financial system is only as good as the integrity and commitment of the individuals who are involved in it. When it’s all said and done, it all boils down the the actions and decisions of millions of individuals. There is a reason why home buyers were once required to make substantial downpayments. And there is a reason why financial managers are expected to follow common sense rules of finance and investment.

Oh - I just thought of one more law we need to pass…let’s recognize that the government is not our “baby-daddy”. We don’t need more “child support” to be paid by already over-burdened american taxpayers. Let’s pass a law that says that all members of the U.S. congress, and all state and local municipalities must manage taxpayer funds with sound financial principles so that the american taxpayers actually realize a solid return on their investment…Yeah, I know, this really IS the most ridiculous idea of all, but you can’t blame me for daydreaming.

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The following article is contributed by Bryan Ehret, a commercial
real estate appraiser, MAI candidate, and Designated Expert For
The Real Estate Arena. Bryans contact info and other information
are provided at the end of this article. My thanks to Bryan for
providing such excellent content for our subscribers.

Editors note: Though this approach is standard for commercial real estate
it is also the approach we advocate for any residential income property, since
income is the driving force that generates profit.

Commercial Real Estate Appraising 101
As a follow-up to my previous article, The 5 Keys to Unlocking the World of Commercial Real Estate Investing, I thought a good topic to discuss would be the basics of commercial real estate appraising. As I mentioned in my last article my experience in appraising, and the classroom education, as well as real world knowledge I’ve acquired through my MAI candidacy has allowed me to be a much more savvy investor.

The MAI designation is the highest designation in appraising, and it essentially allows a person to appraise anything, anywhere in the world. Needless to say my journey has enabled me to evaluate nearly every property type, as well as analyze how deals are structured regarding investment property. I have definitely seen the proper and improper ways to handle investments, and I have taken this knowledge and applied it to my everyday practice in investing, as well as appraising.

Knowledge of appraising is an integral part of investing in commercial real estate. After analyzing your personal financial situation, it is the next step to finding an investment that is right for you. If you don’t understand appraising, then you may pay too much for a property, or buy a property that will not live up to your income requirements. It is highly unlikely that you’ll be able to find a decent investment property without at least some minimal knowledge of appraising. Obviously, the more knowledge that you have, the more likely you are to find a really good investment. The reason being is appraising allows you to see the property from a different perspective, and like I’ve mentioned before, the numbers don’t lie.

The first and most important factor to know about appraising investment properties is that income primarily controls value. Obviously, the more income a property can generate the higher the value should be. When appraising an investment property, usually the majority of the consideration is placed on the income approach.

The income approach is one of three approaches that appraisers utilize in their analysis. The other two approaches are the sales comparison and cost approach. The names of these approaches describe what takes place in the analysis.

The cost approach analyzes the property based on what the improvements would cost to construct minus accrued depreciation, plus the land value. This approach is rarely given any consideration when evaluating an investment property. The sales comparison approach analyzes the property based on the comparison of similar properties that have sold recently. This approach is given some consideration when evaluating commercial investment properties.

Finally, the income approach analyzes the property based on the income being generated, or income potential that the property may have. As mentioned earlier, the income approach is the most important when analyzing an investment property.

Since the income approach is the most important when evaluating investment properties, I will concentrate on providing you with the essential tools needed to properly analyze an investment property via the income approach.

When evaluating an investment property for a potential purchase, the first thing you need to do is analyze the historical income and expense figures. These figures should be provided to you by the current owner of the property you are pursuing.

I like to review at least three years of income and expense figures in order to get a good grasp on the historical performance of the property. I suggest that you set up an excel spreadsheet template that will allow you to plug in income and expense figures for properties you are evaluating. This way you won’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you are looking at an investment. Once you’ve entered the total gross income, which is the total income generated by the property, you’ll be able to start inputting the expense items. After the expense items are accounted for, you should deduct the total expenses from the gross income, which will results in a net operating income (NOI). The NOI is the most important figure when analyzing the income from an investment property.

Once you have established the NOI, you’ll be able to apply a capitalization rate to it. I will elaborate on the capitalization rate shortly. After you’ve derived the NOI for the years prior, you’ll need to look at the current rent roll (i.e. the current income being generated).

The current rent roll should be broken down to dollars per square foot, which is a common unit of comparison when evaluating income. Also another unit of comparison is dollars per unit, which is commonly utilized when analyzing apartments. By understanding what each tenant is paying on a dollar per square foot or a per unit basis, this will allow you to compare these rents to that found in the market for similar properties.

It is always smart to compare your property and rental rates to those in the market. The reason for this is if you are at above market rents, then you may have a higher likelihood that a tenant may not renew their lease, because there is cheaper, comparable space out in the marketplace.

On the flip side if the rents are below market, then you may be able to negotiate a rental increase when the leases roll over, which would result in a higher future value. Obviously this scenario is one that is most favorable to an investor, because you negotiate the sales price based on the below market rents, then hopefully negotiate the leases to slightly higher amounts, which then produce a higher value, and therefore additional equity in the investment.

You must be careful when negotiating the leases, because you don’t want to get greedy and have the tenant move out on you. I typically like to negotiate the initial year of the new lease just below market, then have a step up to where the tenant is paying market rent by year two to three.

Capitalization rates are factors that are applied to the NOI (Net Operating Income)of a property in order to derive the overall value. The NOI of a property is divided by the cap rate, which then results in the value of the property.

For instance, if you have an NOI of $100,000, and a cap rate of 10%, then your value for the property is $1,000,000. Cap rates can also be applied to a value or asking price/purchase price in order to derive an NOI.

For instance, if you have a value/purchase price of $2,000,000 and typical cap rates for this type of property are 9%, then you would multiply $2,000,000 by 0.09, which results in an NOI of $180,000. The way in which you can derive cap rates from the market is you can take the NOI of a sale and divide it by the purchase price.

For instance, you have a property that has an NOI of $150,000, and it recently sold for $1,765,000, then the resulting cap rate would be 8.5%. Deriving cap rates from the market like this is the best way to understand rates for different property types in your area. There are also resources like RealtyRates.com and Korpacz that provide cap rates for various property types across the country. The only problem with resources like this is they are somewhat skewed by the larger markets. This is why it is best to get cap rates from sales in your market.

As a recap, the process of performing the income approach for a potential investment property should start with analyzing the historical income and expense figures. After you have calculated the NOI for the previous years, then you will need to analyze the current situation regarding income for the property.

This should be done by looking at the current rent roll or leases in place, and comparing them to rents and leases for similar properties in the area. Once you are comfortable with the current income situation, then you must look to the market for the proper capitalization rate to apply to the current NOI.

Capitalization rates are always applied to the annual NOI. The best source of a cap rate is from sales of similar income producing properties in the area. As mentioned earlier, there are publications that provide cap rates for various property types across the country.

Finally, once a cap rate is chosen for the property, then it is applied to the current NOI, which results in value conclusion for the property. The NOI is divided by the cap rate to get a value, the NOI is divided by the value or purchase price to get a cap rate, and the cap rate is multiplied by the value or purchase price to get the NOI. One factor can always be solved for if the other two factors are known.

This article has provided you with the basics for appraising an investment property. Obviously the most important thing to remember is that income controls the value of an investment property. The more income a property can generate the higher the value is going to be. Like I mentioned before, if you can analyze the income stream of a property using templates that you’ve set up, then you will be ahead of the game, and on your way to finding a profitable investment.***

Bryan Ehret: Commercial Appraiser, MAI Candidate, Real Estate
Developer/Agent, Investment Consultant, President of Construction &
Development Firm, Investment Coach/Mentor.
E-mail - bryan.ehret@gmail.com
Commercial Real Estate Expert/Analyst for The Real Estate Arena.

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Well, the new FHA expansion bill appears to be rocketing through congress with virtually no opposition.
I got my email from NAR last week, (several times in fact) asking me to make sure that I contacted my congressional representatives to request passage of this bill.

NAHB is in strong support of the measure, saying that it will help stabilize the housing market. In fact, if you read the mainstream media, you would get the impression that this bill has no opposition anywhere. You may even think that this idea will be beneficial for you if you are an agent or broker who is suffering under the strain of the present slump in retail sales.

However, there is a HUGE downside to this bill. The problem is not in wanting to help people and stabilize the largest single asset class in America. That is a noble goal, but the means to achieve the end simply do not add up. In my opinion, and that of most other real estate market analysts, this expansion of FHA will not solve the subprime problem. It will simply move it from the banks and professional capital investors and instead place it squarely in the laps of the American taxpayers, as subprime lending practices move from the world of capital investors to the world of government guaranteed loans.

Most folks don’t realize what “government guaranteed loans” actually are.

Under FHA the taxpayer actually guarantees the mortgage payoff. When a home that has an FHA loan on it gets foreclosed on, the lender does not lose their money, as happened with the recent subprime losses that wiped out some investors and investment companies. When an FHA loan gets foreclosed, the government actually reimburses the lender for the balance of the mortgage note. Meaning - the lender gets paid off by Uncle Sam and HUD becomes the proud owner of a foreclosed home.

Ever wonder where all those HUD houses come from? They are homes with government guaranteed loans that were foreclosed. Now Uncle Sam is the proud owner. Problem is, Uncle Sam is using taxpayer dollars to provide these guarantees. Then HUD tries to resell the home and recover it’s expenses. When HUD homes sell at a loss, it is you and I that foot the bill. The real loser in this scenario is the same hard working American taxpayer that the government claims to be helping.

Expanding FHA to allow for higher Loan To Value limits, “no downpayment” loans, and adding easier condo financing is tantamount to moving subprime lending from the little known corners of capital investing, and secondary mortgage markets, into the living rooms and pocket books of middle America.

“No Downpayment” and “High LTV Loan Amounts” are considered “subprime” for a reason. That reason is their tendency to produce much higher default rates. Well duh…that is exactly what has happened to subprime. Higher default rates caused by relaxed lending standards have nearly led to a world economic crisis. It makes absolutely no sense to me to now decide to throw good money after bad. Especially when the taxpayers are the ultimate source for these loan guarantees. If you’ve ever wanted to be like Elvis, and buy houses for people you’ve never even met, here’s your chance. But at least Elvis did it with his own money, not someone elses.

Everyone in Washington wants to be seen as doing something to “fix” this problem. “Broadening” and in effect lowering FHA’s lending standards will fix things alright. In my opinion, this idea is a violation of every common sense rule for smart investing. I predict that this program will only move FHA into the subprime lending business, and set the US (and the US housing market) up for an even bigger financial disaster in the future.

Below is a list of the highlights of the new FHA expansion act. Where would the US economy be today if these items had already been in place prior to 2005? What if they had been enacted prior to the collapse of the current housing market? With condos overbuilt in many cities, and values falling like rocks, and a few million more properties with no equity and 40 year payoffs where the heck would the US economy be right now?

The only reason we survived the current storm is the fact that the Federal Reserve injected money into the system to help keep it afloat. We came very close to a 1929 style crisis. It was narrowly averted. The average taxpayer does not realize that next time, it will be their money that will be paying back these loans. It really makes me wonder what our government leaders are thinking…no wait - I know what they are thinking…”get me reelected”, that’s what they are thinking.

Meanwhile, next time you pass a HUD house, or show one to a prospective buyer, take pride in knowing that you own a small piece of it. And now, you’ll get the chance to buy even more…say, doesn’t that make us all real estate moguls? I’ll bet you didn’t even know you owned so many houses already!

FHA Expansion Act Includes The Following Items:

1- There won’t be a minimum 3% down payment which
means you need less cash at closing.

2- New 40-year loans will lower your monthly payment.

3- The FHA loan amounts can be higher which
means more homes would qualify for financing.

4- Condos will be more easily insured with an FHA loan.

5- You don’t have to have perfect credit.

6- More seniors will be able to get reverse mortgages.

None of the measures being added to the expansion act has any basis in common sense financial principles. Only a return to solid fundamental financial principles will save our housing market and stabilize it over the long run. We have to realize that there are no quick fixes for poor financial management. It’s high time that our leaders realized that you cannot solve financial problems by creating more debt. You may disguise the problem, but you won’t get rid of it. But this time, they have me really worried. This bill is cleverly disguised as help for homeowners, but in reality it is you and I who are behind the mask. ***

The Real Estate Arena promotes real estate investing with common sense and financial responsibility.
Real Estate Arena members enjoy information, education and tools for real estate investors that emphasize profit and responsibility. To Join TREA today, click here.

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These days there are lots of people who are wondering how to keep
their income coming in. After years of a hot real estate market,
and constant appreciation, the upside of the cycle has ended and
the downside is at hand.

Over the past few months, many thousands
of lenders and real estate agents have begun to experience the
first market shift of their careers. Retail home sales are dropping
and thousands of lenders are being laid off or losing their jobs
altogether. Agents don’t get laid off in the classic sense. They
just stop making any money when things go bad. But the good news
is, there is a way to keep your income coming in, no matter what
the market conditions are.

As an agent and an investor, I have experienced first hand the
challenges of maintaining income in a changing market. I know from
personal, hard won experience that there is only one way to survive
when you fish for your own supper. That is to always know what to
fish for.

You see, some kind of fish will be biting all the time,
but no single kind of fish bites all the time. A good fisherman
knows how to read the water and weather conditions to determine
what to fish for, and what bait to use. Real estate is much the
same. In fact all business to some extent follows this principle.
To sum it up from my TREA training program, The Real Estate
Investors Guide To Buying Right, it boils down to one thing…

FUNDAMENTALS DICTATE STRATEGY

For long term success in any business, and especially in the real
estate business, you must learn to adapt your business strategies
to get inline with the current market fundamentals. At present, we
have a buyers market that is being driven by high foreclosure rates
caused by over financed properties, and maxxed-out owners. In 2004
if you were a real estate agent working for a builder doing new
subdivision sales in Las Vegas, you were probably pulling down 6
figures yearly in commissions. Today you may be lucky to afford
your car payment.

In many areas, the retail strategies that produced high income in
the hot market of 1996 to 2005 are no longer working.
The market shift that we have undergone since the beginning of 2007
has turned the retail real estate and lending businesses into a
game of survival for many.

Personally, I am experiencing high growth in my business activities
as a real estate agent. This is because I happen to cater to the
market where all the current buyers are…
The investing market.

Fundamentally, my strategy is right in line
with todays market conditions. There is always a strategy that
works in any market. The key is to recognize it in time to take
advantage of the changes before they catch you asleep at the wheel.
Given the price run ups of the past 10 years, and the over
abundance of high LTV loans, it was only a matter of time before
the fundamentals began to manifest themselves in the form of higher
foreclosure rates.

I saw the trends beginning to develop in late 2005,when I first noticed that we were
no longer looking at typical fixer upper properties for leads, but rather, we began to
see a lot more houses that had been renovated then within a few months a foreclosure had ocurred.

I started to realize that the price appreciation had finally
outstripped the income potential in most areas. In short, the costs
to get in were getting too high. By 2005 it was becoming nearly
impossible to produce adequate cash flow. I knew that we were
headed for disaster if we kept buying houses at prices that were
too high to produce enough income for our investor buyers. So, I
shifted strategy away from buying anything at that point to address
this fundamental situation.

The professional real estate media has (finally) caught up with
this 2 year old trend, and for the first time ever, Realtor.org is
touting the benefits of working with investors in their current
issue. NAR and others are realizing that the “hot” market sales
models aren’t working in most markets. As a result, they are
touting business strategies that used to be discouraged and even
forbidden by some brokers - specifically, working with investors.

Why? because given the current market fundamentals, it makes
business sense to avoid or reduce sales in retail markets in favor
of investors who have been waiting for these great buying
opportunities to manifest. Make no mistake, professional investors
have been watching market trends closely, and they know that now is
the time. But those who don’t read the fundamentals well enough to
see the need for strategy changes, have been caught with their
proverbial pants down, wondering how to keep a job or keep an
income as the downturn grows more serious and prolonged.

Fundamentals always dictate strategy. There is a place that is
“hot” in every market cycle, the trick is to know where that place
is, and put yourself in the middle of it.

What are the fundamental conditions in your local market? Can you
read them and make assessments about how to adjust your clientele
to take advantage of your current market conditions? Do you know
what conditions will promote the use of short sales instead of
retail sales?

Do you understand the critical differences between
building an investor clientele versus retail owner occupant buyers?
If not you may not survive long term in the real estate business,
either as an agent, a lender or an investor.

Most market cycles last about 5 years on the up side and on average about two to
three years on the down side. This market has had a 10 year run up.
There are big adjustments in store for the near future.

If you have been in real estate successfully for more than
15 years then you know exactly what I am talking about. You gotta
go with the flow of the market fundamentals, and make adjustments
in your processes to accomodate these fundamentals. A market with
high appreciation is drastically different from a market with high
foreclosure rates. Understanding how to adapt your business
strategy to market conditions is key to your long term success.

Anyone can succeed for a while, but it takes adaptability and
insight to succeed for a lifetime.***

The Real Estate Arena is committed to helping its members
understand how to work with investors in this buyers market, which
is just now really beginning to develop. Our “On Demand Training”
inside the TREA virtual office offers cutting edge tools,
information and education for investors, and the agents or property
locators that serve this important market.

TREA members learn how to use technology to grow their businesses more
effectively, receive weekly updates on important training issues as well as insider info
on market trends and developments that can help you build your business faster, for
less money and develop a broader customer or client base. Access to thousands of
other TREA members can help you find buyers or properties across the nation, and
expand your horizons well beyond your local market. You also get access to
information about the hottest investing strategies, and you’ll discover how others are
succeeding where many have failed.

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OC Real Estate - Still Gaining Ground
By Drew Hartanov

Across the country investors have been trying to guess what the fluctuations in the real estate market will mean to their valuable investments. There seem to be a number of theories as to what the market will be doing in the coming months, but then again that is just speculation. To fully comprehend what is happening in the national real estate picture one needs to look at it from a larger perspective. Over the last 10 years real estate was growing like a snowball rolling downhill. There seemed to be no end in sight for this market and investors and home owners alike enjoyed a huge jump in their property values. Unfortunately, as things tend to do the market has seen a dramatic change that for a while has everyone asking if the bottom had completely dropped out of the market. Saying that this was true is really jumping the gun and failing to look at things from that broader perspective.

What we are really seeing here is more of a market correction from the years of rapid inflation. There was bound to be a point where the number of buyers dropped below the number of available homes. Now that this has happened the market is straightening itself out and returning to a more average and even state. Now this does not mean that homes are losing value, merely that the rate of inflation has slowed down and homes are now selling for closer to what they are actually worth. for many years the high demand for homes inflated their values to amazing proportions and sellers and investors easily got used to that fact. As with any rapid increase in the value of anything, the leveling off of that increase can cause pandemonium and a good deal of guesswork as to what is happening.

The truth is that real estate in the major areas of popularity has retained that popularity and is still showing an increase although it is not nearly as dramatic as it once was. Take Orange County as an example. This is an area that saw immense growth and huge inflation on property values. Over that last year the average property in San Clemente has appreciated over $130,000!! So don’t despair, properties are still gaining in value and investments are still earning top dollar. One simply needs to be a bit more patient and less prone to jumping to conclusions!

Drew Hartanov & The Hartanov Team are the elite choice for Orange County real estate Drew’s attention to detail and professional manner are essential tools in the Hartanov Team’s quest to bring the best in real estate service to buyers and sellers in Orange County. Contact Drew for more info or visit the team online at www.localrealestateteam.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Drew_Hartanov
http://EzineArticles.com/?OC-Real-Estate—Still-Gaining-Ground&id=680418

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Hab 2:2 And the Lord answered me and said,
Write the vision and engrave it so plainly
upon tablets that everyone who passes
may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.

Even the Bible says that it is important to have a vision
that is clear and plain.
If you don’t have a clear vision of where you are going,
it’s very likely that you’ll never get there.

Today I am discussing the importance of having a vision of the way you want your
business activities to look.
Do you want to work from home? Do you want to increase your net income each year?
Do you want more freedom and more time for impotant things like your children or your family?
Do you know where you want to go and do you have a specific plan for getting there?

It is a truism that virtually anyone can understand and agree with. Unless you know where you are going, it is very hard to get there. A vision is a wonderful thing, and it is the starting point. It tells you where you want to go, then you just have to figure out how to get there…

As I grew older and more experienced, I realized that the key to your vision is in the implementation.

Corporations hire expensive consultants to analyze their business and come up with the next great vision and a strategic plan. But alas, the devil is in the details. It may look good on paper, and it may sound wonderful in the company meeting, but if you can’t get it implemented, it is doomed to failure.

As a consultant, I have seen this same issue time and again. Implementation is 90% of the battle. Especially for the small business entrepreneur. And in case you haven’t noticed, Real estate professionals and investors are classic among small business entrepreneurs.

The desire to own and run our own business is a basic tenet of American life. Real estate in particular is an industry in which the vast majority of the participants are operating as self-employed entrepreneurs.
Whether you are an agent, broker, appraiser, investor, lender or locator, chances are your income is based on your personal ability to generate business. The key to success is to implement strategies that can build your income and also diversify your income for safety. Whether your income is from a job or a commission, if you only have one income source, you are in trouble if you lose that source. For long term success and financial stability, you should have a vision that includes multiple sources of income.

But for some this idea can be overwhelming. Start with small steps. I have a lot to do each day, but if I break it up into small, specific tasks, I can make sure that I am accomplishing my most important objectives a little more each day. In a few weeks or months time, I have made enormous progress.

I am on track to do more than 100 transactions in 2007 - 2008 as an agent.
My team and I could hit 200 transactionis if we do a good job with our implementation.
But opportunities like this did not happen all at once. It has been a process of doing the little things every day, even when it seemed like it was not producing any results.

I have learned that big success comes eventually, over time, from the small steps that we take every day.
Just make sure your steps are headed in the right direction and you will eventually get where you want to go***

The Real Estate Arena is a membership organization that is dedicated to the ideals of small business, and individual personal improvement, with the emphasis on the real estate industry.

We help real estate professionals, investors, and “newbies” learn how to leverage technology to increase income and business opportunities in real estate, while keeping operating costs low.

Our On Demand Training for real estate investors and professionals includes professional investing methods, as well as technology to improve business efficiency and broaden market opportunties.

The Real Estate Arena ownership team has more than 1000 deals to their credit. This combination of experience and technology makes TREA a new kind of membership club for real estate investors and professionals.

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By Donna Robinson

(This article was originally written in February of 2007, but is being posted here, as most of the articles comments are now being realized in the current market.)

Many “talking heads” in the real estate and financial media have been predicting a “soft-landing” for the housing market for months now.
Frankly, I think that the vast majority of these “experts” haven’t got a clue as to what is really driving the present real estate market conditions. Many of the well meaning folks who report on real estate and housing aren’t even old enough to have lived through a full market cycle as an adult.

Therefore they have little more than text book theory to go on when they are called upon to discuss the current state of the housing market. Other groups, who have a vested interest in making the housing market news as positive as possible, are simply spouting the usual propaganda about a short term downturn, with prices beginning to rise by the end of 2007.

I personally think we will not see the bottom of the present market for perhaps another year or two. And this is not based on my 30 years of adult experience, or based on my observations of the past two major real estate market downturns, though that alone would probably be enough to justify my position.

The fact is there are much bigger factors at work here. Factors that will contribute to what I predict will be the largest single real estate market slump in U.S. history. A slump that I believe has only just begun to be realized.

The following information will help you understand why I think that the next two years will see real estate values in many areas continue to lose ground, producing some of the best investing opportunities in residential housing ever…

In doing my research I’ve been reading some very interesting statistical data regarding housing and in particular some of the historical trends in housing markets.

Most interesting among these is a chart put together by Yale economist Robert J. Schiller, which is an index of American housing prices going back to the year 1890. It is based on sale prices of standard existing houses and excludes new construction so that it might more accurately track the value of housing as an investment over time. The housing prices are adjusted for inflation, in what economists call “constant dollars”, meaning that while prices are always rising, it is possible to adjust them to reflect a constant dollar value over time.
This gives a more accurate picture of true dollar value over a period of years.

One of the interesting things that I noticed was that a house in 1890 was more expensive than the same property in 1920. As new manufacturing techniques were developed in the early part of the 20th century the increasing inventory outstripped demand, leading to a major drop in housing prices.

Housing prices as adjusted for inflation were at their lowest point in the entire cycle in 1921. In fact, even during the worst of the Great Depression in 1932, housing prices did not fall below the 1921 levels.
So it’s interesting to note that even the Great Depression did not cause the lowest housing values of the 20th-century. The apparent cause of the 1921 low point was increasing supply outstripping demand, A situation similar to what we have today.

And even World War II did not cause housing values to erode. After a 1939 peak saw the highest prices in 20 years, World War II and Pearl Harbor only resulted in about a 10 to 12% drop in the value of existing homes.
And that lasted only until 1943. From 1944 to the early 1950’s prices rose about 40% and then began to level out, staying roughly consistent until the late 1970’s when prices finally reached levels not seen since 1890.

In the early 1980’s we saw a 15% drop from the peak prices of the late 1970’s. In 1984 the housing market began a significant boom cycle once again and by 1989 prices had risen to just above the 1970’s peak. Since 1979 we’ve had two 10 year long cycles where prices have risen significantly, then lost approximately 15 to 20%. This tendency to increase then fall back has kept the housing market more or less constant over the past 100 years in terms of real value.

However, since 1997 prices for real property have been on a steady increase. This means that we have sustained the longest single cycle of price appreciation in American history over the last 10 years.
And true to the historical data it would appear that yet another 10 year cycle is coming to an end.
Indeed it is already apparent that prices have dropped approximately 10 to 15% in general since the beginning of 2006.

What makes our current 10 year cycle unique is that it is the only 10 year cycle that has sustained consistent price increases for the entire 10 years. In other words this is the first time in our history that prices for housing have increased steadily for 10 straight years without any kind of decline in the middle of the cycle.

I believe that when you look at this information and combine it with other essential data such as the increase in the foreclosure rates, growing consumer debt, the popularity of exotic mortgages, and most particularly interest only payments and the recent phenomenon of negative amortization, common sense would tend to dictate that this is a recipe for a serious market adjustment.

Many factors seem to be combining at present, and may eventually bring about one of the largest market corrections ever seen in the real estate industry in the United States. We’ve already seen a 10 - 20% correction, but that is only 20% percent relative to 2005 values. If we look at the historical corrections that have already occurred at different points in time over the last 110 years, we might make some reasonable “guesstimates” as to what could happen in the near future.

Let’s put a couple of things in perspective. The real estate boom of the last 10 years exceeds any previous peak by 70 percent. The historical peaks of the past saw approximately 15 to 20% price growth followed by a decline of about 15 to 20% which kept the market somewhat consistent from the period 1948 to 1995. But the 1997 through 2005 boom has exceeded historical averages by approximately 300%.

Translated into plain English this basically means that we should see a major correction in housing prices over the next year, two or three, depending on interest rates, and overall supply versus demand.

Indeed we’ve already seen an average 15% decline even with interest rates still at historically low levels.
If interest rates begin to climb significantly in the near future this could certainly trigger an adjustment
of historical proportions.

So what would this mean for the average investor like you and me?

The number one thing it means is that just over the horizon are some of the best buying opportunities
we’ve seen in years. While a 50% drop in housing prices may sound like the end of the world on the surface,
the fact is that this would be a tremendous boon for Real Estate investors who have patiently waited for
better prices to come along.

If you are positioned correctly you stand to profit greatly. On the other hand if you find yourself tied up with interest only payments and negative amortization, you could be looking at serious financial problems. Now is the time to consider strategy adjustments to take advantage of the coming changes. Getting out of any
adjustable rate mortgages in favor of fixed rates is a smart decision right now.

I believe that one of the primary factors that has pushed the present market to its all-time highs is investor speculation on a level never before seen in the U.S. housing market. I believe that speculation among new investors has been one of the primary driving forces in this current cycle. It has pushed supply above demand, and is forcing price erosion in an otherwise strong economy.

Based on all of the data that I’ve seen recently I would be willing to bet that as much as 30% of all housing
for sale today is related to investor speculation. I believe this is also the reason for the huge cancellation rates builders are now seeing in new construction projects around the country. In some areas new construction contracts have seen cancellation rates as high as 36%. This is typical in areas where the so-called hot markets were located - New Jersey, south Florida and California, which are rampant with investor speculation.

If I’m correct about the amount of investor speculation diluting the overall housing market, future price erosion could be more severe than anyone realizes at this point. To compound the problem is the fact that many investors borrowed easy money, using financing that simply was not wise or profitable. Many of the defaulting loans today were doomed from the beginning. I have personally witnessed many investors in the Atlanta market who ignored common sense in favor of easy money. The result is hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of investment properties that are over-financed and are not cash flowing.

Many investors who have virtually perfect credit, are walking away from properties and mortgages that they simply cannot afford to pay on any longer. They have been throwing good money after bad, while month after month of negative cash flow drags by. I have counseled many of them. Over financing is the one mistake that is virtually impossible to correct when home prices are falling.

This is the reason we are now seeing financial problems among subprime and alt-A loans. There are a lot of bad loans out there…made for the wrong reasons, which had no hope of ever yielding a profit for the borrower. I saw this coming two years ago. There was just too much easy money floating around in the market, too much hype about the rising values, and now many people are now in over their head.

But all of this bad news is good news for smart real estate investors. I’ve been on the sidelines for quite a
while now waiting for these over inflated prices to drop to more reasonable levels. Once they do, smart investors who know how to avoid overpaying for properties will be out there to take advantage of the multitude of buying opportunities that will develop. There are obvious indicators that this has already begun.

There’s still time to plan for the tremendous opportunities ahead. Keep an eye on your market, pay attention to the sales and foreclosure activity in your local area, get your funding sources together and get ready. Things are about to get very interesting. ***

Donna Robinson is the Publisher of The Robinson Real Estate Report,
Director of The Real Estate Arena,(TREA), as well as a Realtor with Premier Properties of NW Georgia.
An experienced real estate investor, consultant and market analyst Donna has been writing and consulting
on real estate investing strategies for 8 years.

To contact her, send an email to drobinson@reihelp.com

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In todays market, with foreclosures reaching record highs, and many
sellers owing more money than their property is even worth, it is time
for a change in strategy.

Whether you are an investor searching for exceptional deals, a homeowner
facing foreclosure, a buyer looking for a great deal on a personal residence
or a licensed real estate agent, short sales are becoming a strategy
you can not afford to ignore in the present market.

With a fundamental situation that presents us with literally thousands
of properties being “dumped” on the market with each passing month,
and most of those properties having little or no equity, it is getting
more difficult to sell most properties for full value.

Many agents have listings sitting on the market for months,
and many of those listings on which the agent has spent valuable time and
effort are going into foreclosure, leaving many agents with less income
and no way to sell their listings for what the seller actually owes.

This situation is creating a need more than ever for agents and brokers
to understand how to use short sales to help their sellers sell and their
buyers buy. Agents - save your listing commissions and help homeowners avoid
foreclosure!

Short Sale means getting the lender to sell a property for a discount
well below the amount the owner owes for the property.
With the growing number of foreclosures, more and more lenders are
having to resort to short sales in order to move inventory that cannot be
sold for enough to cover the payoff.

We are seeing more short sales and hearing incredible stories from
around the US about short sales in some areas where the lenders are
discounting properties by as much as 30 to 70 percent! This results
in a very profitable deal when done correctly.

If you are an agent with overpriced listings that aren’t selling,
investor clients who want the best possible deals, or you are
representing aspiring home buyers who want a good buy in a
personal residence, short sales could be your ticket to more production
in a slowing market that still has a long way to fall before things
start to improve.

But short sales require a certain amount of expertise, not to mention
specific forms, letters and procedures. You have to know what you are
doing. But if you do, you can create opportunities for yourself or
your clients by getting discounts amounting to tens of thousands of dollars,
that can turn “no sale” into a great opportunity.

If you are an investor-buyer, you need to know how to use short sales
strategy to add bigger equity spreads to your own investments. Buying
at a discount will help insure strong positive cash flow on rentals,
with higher equity spreads. It’s the “safe” way to buy in an eroding
market.

But the trick is, how to get this crucial information without spending
$1000 or more on a seminar or course? They are out there - anywhere from
$250 to more than $1500 for information on what will surely be the
hottest buying / selling strategy of 2007 - 2008.

We have been working on a very cost effective solution
for you. If you are serious about making money in real estate in 2007,
you absolutely must know how to execute short sales in a professional manner.

I am currently using this same short sales process to help increase my
personal production as an agent to help sell overpriced listings, as well
as help my investor buyers find better deals and I am confident short
sales can do the same for you too.

There is no need to languish in this market - you must adapt to the
changing market conditions with strategies that will work for you or
your clients.

I predict that this market will continue to worsen for months to come,
making short sales even more necessary than they are now. By 2008
the banks may be desperate for any way out possible.

Because of the obvious need for this strategy, I am very happy to
announce that I can now recommend a new and timely
course called “Short Sales Short & Sweet”, written by Real Estate
Broker, Marie Whitton.

Marie is not just any broker, she is the broker
that I hang my license with. I have known her for several years now.
She is an accomplished real estate investor, and when it comes to
short sales, Marie really knows her stuff.

Together we use short sales to increase our office production.
And whether you are licensed or not short sales can work
for you. You do not have to be licensed to negotiate short sales.
Anyone can learn to use this timely strategy to create great real
estate buying opportunities. But agents should take special note.

The course is easy to read, and designed to help you get up
and running with short sales as quickly as possible. And frankly
it is priced UNDER $100 - a “no brainer” for those of us who make our
living in real estate.

If you are looking for ways to make more money in a tough real estate
market, this could be your ticket.

Short sales help homeowners avoid foreclosure, and it may be the
only way to make a particular deal work for an investor or home
buyer.
In todays market short sales are a timely and important strategy to
have in your toolbox.

Click the link below and discover the benefits of working short sales
and how they can help you add business and income.

Short Sales Short & Sweet

To your success,

Donna Robinson
www.RobinsonRealEstateReport.com

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