Norada Real Estate Investments

Bank Note Blunders

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Buying bank notes for non-performing loans is one of the easiest ways to make money in real estate today. Sure, it's not absolutely fool-proof (nothing is) but it comes pretty close. So, why does it seem there are so many people making a mess of buying bank notes?

Like most things in life there are always a few people that give something a bad name but that doesn't mean it should stop you from adding bank notes to your personal investment portfolio.

Find out for yourself what the most common bank note blunders are (and how to avoid them) with this quick checklist:

  1. Failure to verify the outstanding balance due and the actual repayment terms of the note. Yes, it sounds obvious enough but you might be surprised at the number of people that don't really understand what they are buying. Take time to inform yourself about the original conditions of the note and terms before finalizing the transaction. A little information and education can go a long way.

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Don't Become a Seminar Junkie: Experience is the Best Teacher

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I know of some people who have become totally caught up in the euphoria of newfound knowledge and just couldn’t stop buying audio programs and attending very expensive seminars and bootcamps.  This seminar junkie must have spent at least $50,000 within a 12 month period and still hadn’t bought their first .  They were just bouncing around from one great idea to the next.

I don’t know whether, in their case, it was because they were just caught up in the excitement of that environment, whether it was their way of convincing themselves they were active when they may have been too scared to get started, or they were honestly trying to find the best strategy for them.  I’m guessing it was a mix of these things.

I also know of an investor who took quite the opposite approach.  He stumbled across a pretty good investing strategy and didn’t check out any other alternatives but went ahead and spent over $10,000 getting a good education in that one area.  He went on to build a decent portfolio over a few years but then realized there were some even better strategies out there.

This second story isn’t so bad because he built some success and he could afford the further education he now sought.  However, he told me once that it was a little disheartening because if he wanted to pursue a different strategy he had to start the learning process all over again and it felt very much like he had his “ladder to success” leaning against the wrong wall.  And even though he could now afford the education more easily it was still another $5,000 – $10,000 that he could have avoided spending.  If only he'd done his homework first.

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Fed Set to Hold Rates Low as US Economy Struggles

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The US Federal Reserve is expected to keep US interest rates at historic lows when it meets later Wednesday, as it tries to keep a languishing recovery on track. The Fed's top rate-setting body is widely expected to keep its main rate of borrowing at between zero and 0.25 percent to help spur economic growth.

Faced with reams of data showing the recovery is still fragile, the debate over whether the Fed should quickly raise rates to stave off inflation has all but disappeared in recent months. The Fed's announcement will still be keenly watched as investors look for any hint that a double-dip recession is on the way, or that the worst of the danger has passed.

Jobs growth remains anemic with employers still reluctant to add permanent positions during the fragile recovery. The unemployment rate is expected to hover near 10 percent for quite some time as the economy regroups after the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s Consumers have been cautious about spending, which normally drives about two-thirds of the activity in the world's largest economy.

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Short Sales: Fact vs. Fiction

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Looking for big profits in short sales? An internet search for the phrase “investing in short sales” brings up tens of thousands of hits, many of which offer strategies and tricks to make a killing on the rising number of short sales in the U.S. These properties are sometimes viewed as easy money because the seller is in distress. But this is not necessarily the case.

The concept behind a short sale is this: a homeowner is unable to continue making mortgage payments; however, the outstanding mortgage on the property is higher than the market value of the house (i.e. “upside-down”). The homeowner makes a deal with the lender to sell the property at market value, and the lender eats the loss.

But are short sales really the money-making scheme that many believe them to be?

Not that it’s impossible to get good deals – many investors manage to buy short sales at a discount – but investors should be aware that negotiating a short sale is no walk in the park.

“Our biggest challenge [with short sales] is getting the banks to recognize that the property is not worth what they think it is. When we submit offers, and we think it’s a fair offer, and we fight with the banks on behalf of…the buyer, it’s very difficult to get them to meet us halfway at times,” says Mia Lutz, president of Say No To The Bank, a community counseling organization that works with foreclosure buyers and sellers.

Time frame can also be a major impediment for looking to purchase short sale properties. Short sales can take anywhere from 30 days to six months from contract to closing, and the deal can fall apart at any time.

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National Economic Outlook (May 28, 2010)

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The two large questions on the minds of are: when will the economy recover? and when is a good time to reinvest in the housing market? We think the economy has reached the point where aggressive investors can find good opportunities in selected housing markets. Although the national economy will just be creeping along for another couple of years and home prices will be weak, some local markets have enough long-term potential to warrant taking investment chances.

The latest bad news for the housing market is that the fall in home prices in the last four quarters was worse than expected, showing weak demand for housing and competition for from vacant properties. Overall, home prices fell almost 7 percent, whereas the fall for the four quarters of 2009 was 5 percent. Although the biggest drops were in Florida, California and other markets out West, the effect was felt across the country. The good news is that rental vacancy rates seem to have stabilized most everywhere, and are falling in large markets like Atlanta, Chicago and Miami. On balance, we seem to be looking at a housing situation where the downside in some local markets has become quite small.

Even though the economy grew at a 3 percent rate in the first quarter, the job situation has not improved very much, indicating a much longer recovery period. Over a million jobs were lost in the last 12 months, many in construction and manufacturing. We expect job gains during the next year, but in lower-paying areas such as retail trade and health care. And the number of temporary workers will continue to grow.

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3 Reasons a Series LLC Should be a Real Estate Investor’s Best Friend

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For those of you wondering, a Series LLC is a regular LLC with a twist – it can have an unlimited number of subsidiaries (called Cells), and each subsidiary is treated as a separate structure where liability is concerned – if you set the structure up and run it properly. So far eight states have Series LLC legislation on the books (Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas and Utah). But even if you don’t live or own property in one of those states, you can still use a Series LLC by qualifying it to do business in the state(s) where you want to operate.

I think this is perhaps the ideal structure for real estate investors (and anyone else) who wants to keep their assets safe without spending all the profit on legal structures.

Here are my 3 favorite reasons to use a Series LLC with real estate:

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3 Things To Do Before Walking Away From Investment Property

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If you or someone you know dumped some “bad” real estate, then there might be a ticking tax bomb coming your way. It’s a Form 1099-C and it means you have a “cancellation of debt”, and cancellation of debt is taxable.

So if the lender forecloses and takes your property from you, or you do a short sale, chances are the current value is less than your loan. That means the lender has to forgive part of the debt or may pursue you for the difference.

If they forgive the debt, you have a cancellation of debt. And if you have a cancellation of debt, you have a taxable event. The amount of debt that is cancelled is taxable income to you. You report it on your Form 1040 just like any other type of ordinary income. In other words, you never got a check, but you have to pay tax on it.

So, let’s go with the foreclosure or short sale scenario and assume that your lender has forgiven the debt. Just as a note though, don’t assume that the lender is forgiving all the debt. In most states, they can pursue you if you’ve refinanced the first loan or for a second mortgage. And depending on your particular state laws, they could wait years to come after you for the amount. Yikes!

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Housing Vacancies Reach New Record

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Housing and rental vacancies have hit unprecedented levels. Included in these record vacancy numbers are a plague of abandoned properties fated for demolition, and millions more homes being withheld from market. Of the more than 19 million empty homes recorded by the US Census, just under 2 million are up for sale, many of them in uninhabitable condition.

Even though the economy remains weak and the housing market, in particular, is still years from recovery, some news suggests that stronger growth can be expected as the year progresses.

A record 19.2 million U.S. homes are vacant, representing the highest number of residential properties that are vacant of all-time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The figure represents 14.5% of all the homes in America.

The dismal figure was issued as part of the Census Bureau homeownership quarterly survey for the first quarter of 2010. A total of 19,230,000 homes are vacant, according to the report. The same study shows that 10.6% of all in the nation are vacant, also an all-time record.

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Who Can You Trust?

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Our "favorite housing economist" Dr. Bob Shiller thinks the market (especially housing) is already overheated.  "We are in a very unusual circumstance," says Shiller, "because of the massive bailouts, the homebuyer tax credits, the Fed's purchase of mortgage-backed securities – and these things are coming to an end.  I don't trust the trend we have."

"So the question is, are we at risk for even more price increases, and another bubble?  I think we are at risk, but I'm not predicting it," says Shiller.  "I think it's more likely we don't do so well from here," Moneynews reported Shiller telling The Motley Fool.

So is that "a yes, a no, I know, or a maybe?"

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