Western Real Estate news covers current information on commercial and residential real estate in the entire U.S. from East Coast to West Coast, Alaska to Hawaii.
Using Annuity Loans to Access Investment Capital
May 25th, 2010
Good investors are always on the lookout for opportunities in the market. Whether it is the Dow facing a 10% correction or more, or a real estate market that is ripe for picking up investment properties, the opportunities don’t do us any good when our money is tied up in other investments.
One type of investment many people have put a large chunk of their savings into is annuities. An annuity is a type of insurance policy where you commit a dollar amount, usually substantial, to the insurance company for X number of years. In return, they send you a monthly or quarterly check. In essence, they are renting your money. At the end of the term, they give you the entire sum back, minus any taxes or penalties you may incur.
One way to access some investment capital if you have already committed your money to an annuity policy is to borrow against it. This is done by means of annuity loans taken out with your policy acting as collateral. If the loan is not paid, then the money gets charged as a “distribution” which can incur taxes and penalties. However, if you pay your loan according to the specified terms, an annuity loan is a cheap source of cash, because you are essentially borrowing from yourself. Interest rates are low and risks are fairly low.
The key, of course, is to make sure you have sufficient capital and a good enough investment vehicle with the loan proceeds to offset the interest rate you’ll be paying. In general, it is not wise to take out a loan to invest. However, there may be exceptions to that rule if you have a particularly attractive investment opportunity and your money is already tied up in an annuity. Of course, it is may be wise to check with your financial and tax advisors for more help making that decision.
Colorado Springs property management is an alternative to selling your home
May 21st, 2010
Selling your home is the easiest alternative for those needing or wanting to move into a new home, but it’s not always the best option for your long term financial health. Whether you’re relocating due to a job transfer, PCSing to another military installation, or want to upgrade your home or downsize to an empty nest, using professional property management can help you keep your existing home rather than sell it, so you can start building a substantial retirement nest egg. Would be sellers in the area are increasingly turning their unsold home into Colorado Springs rentals.
While not everyone can afford this option, you would be surprised at how average-income families can be resourceful and find a way to buy another home while holding onto their previous one as an investment. The best thing to do is talk to a Colorado Springs property management company to help devise a strategy for your particular home. The ability to keep a positive cash flow by keeping your Colorado Springs home rented out to good renters and keeping maintenance expenses at a minimum will depend on how good your property manager is. (By far the best in the area is The Ashford Real Estate Group, 719-314-6057.)
Military families can buy a home using BAH to qualify for a VA loan
April 23rd, 2010
Military families sacrifice enough with the low wages that often accompanies an armed forces career. Too many familes in the military cut corners on their financial future by not choosing to buy a home. Military housing doesn’t have to be confusing. A majority of service members do not realize there is a technique to abandon the renter mentality and actually buy a home paid for by their Military Housing Allowance.
Everyone knows that salaries in the service are not the best in the world. It’s usually necessary to utilize all available tricks at your disposal in order to qualify for a loan and make the payments. One of the best places to turn is the BAH, paired up with a V.A. loan.
It’s now possible, particularly in markets where home values have lowered significantly since peak real estate prices in 2006, to buy a home using your BAH. There are some rules that you must comply with when you choose to receive a Basic Allowance for Housing. The rules differ according to which military branch you are in, but in a nutshell, married personnel living in off-base housing are able to receive an allowance that goes a long way toward buying a home.
When spouses in the military are separated due to deployment, or both spouses are members of the service, they may qualify for even more of a loan paid for by their BAH. While each branch of service is slightly different in its rules, an agent who is an expert in providing military relocation services can help you navigate the regulations and develop an approach that aligns with your family’s needs.
Basic Allowance for Housing rates are distributed differently according to three primary factors:
- Military pay grade
- Geographic location
- If you have dependents
Armed with these three pieces of information, you can download the official military BAH Rates table for free and you’ll know how much money you can count on each month to qualify for a VA home loan.
High foreclosure rates bring investors out of the woodwork
April 7th, 2010
A lot of people talk about buying foreclosures when they consider the investment opportunities in the current market, but there is another largely unnoticed investment option that sometimes goes under the radar. It is the rental market.
What do foreclosures have to do with rentals? A lot, according to one San Jose property management company, but I’ll narrow it down to two major points here: Purchase price and rental price.
First, foreclosures affect the price of homes, which affects those homes’ investment potential. Second, foreclosures put former homeowners out into the rental market, which creates demand for rentals. These factors combined are bringing savvy investors out of the woodwork to participate in the investment opportunities that abound.
Few rental markets in the country are suffering, and that’s because more people than ever are needing to rent because they couldn’t afford the home they bought in 2005 at the peak of the last real estate boom. As a result, longtime San Jose property management company First Statewide Realty, in business since 1988, is saying that vacancy rates have decreased since 2010. This would appear to be good news for investors as the market seeks to correct itself from the bubble days.
Intro to the New San Antonio Home Market
April 6th, 2010
Many people aren’t aware that San Antonio has a strong market for new homes. In fact, many real estate agents would say there is a shortage of San Antonio new homes available on the market becaus of decreasing numbers of new housing starts and building industry consolidiation.
There are a large number of San Antonio builders to select from when shopping for a new home in this healthy market, driven by both private sector business relocations plus a strong military housing market. With Lackland Air Force Base nearby in addition to several other military installations, Air Force families who want to buy buy a home near their base will find a nice inventory of new homes that fit within the Basic Allowance for Housing.
Most builders, such as Fieldstone and Pulte Homes have had a presence in the San Antonio market for many years, providing high quality houses and highly innovative floor plans for home buyers. Real estate agents who frequently with with the top builders in this TX real estate market are frequently able to negotiate better builder incentives for their clients.
One agent whose area of expertise is San Antonio new homes says that buyer incentives from builders can be substantial, sometimes adding up to thousands of dollars in valuable services, gift certificates with local furniture stores, all expense paid vacations, and other goodies.
In short, San Antonio new homes are a viable alternative to the used home market because of reduced prices in recent years since the 2005 peak in the real estate market. Builders are in stiff competition to reduce their overhead and inventory. That, coupled with rising demand for remaining inventory, makes for a strong new home market in San Antonio.
Is your real estate IDX website worth the money you spent on it?
March 18th, 2010
Is your real estate IDX website worth the money you spent on it?
A high-powered custom IDX website is the most important tool a Realtor has to generate high rankings, high traffic, and plenty of motivated buyers. Why? Because an IDX web site gives buyers precisely what they are looking for.
Why IDX is important
Providing IDX gives real estate websites the ability to let home buyers search for property using the data from their local MLS. Technically, multiple listing services are switching away from IDX to a technology called RETS, but the end result will be identical – a real estate agent’s site with IDX or RETS can attract plenty of buyers with active listings. What a lot of real estate professionals don’t grasp is that buyers aren’t searching on Google for an agent, they are looking for property. The absolute worst thing agents can do is focus their website too much on themselves rather than on what the public is really searching for, which is homes. Give them what they want and they will be sure to visit your site often.
The wrong way to integrate MLS search
When IDX websites are done correctly (meaning with an eye toward search engine optimization), they are big lead producers. When not done correctly, they are a waste of time and money.
Here’s how NOT to do an IDX website:
* Flash-based IDX (Flash looks great but is not search engine friendly)
* Framed IDX (where search results are displayed in a frame
* Third party subdomain-hosted IDX (username.idxcompany.com)
I’ve built sites from agents who spent over $8K on a custom website that never produced leads, followed by $5500 on another one that also didn’t perform. If you’re going to invest in a custom real estate website, hire someone who knows how to built it right.
The bottom line is that if your web developer wants to use Flash or frames for your IDX integration, run as fast as you can from them. They obviously don’t know a thing about real estate SEO, and chances are good your investment will be a waste of time, bandwidth, and cash.
Use a buyer’s agent for your Portland real estate negotiation
March 16th, 2010
A lot of people mistakenly believe that they are better off negotiating a deal on their own without an agent. The facts show that a large majority of the time, this just isn’t the case. Whether you are buying or selling, using a buyer’s agent can pay handsome dividends when it comes to your Portland real estate negotiation.
It’s a bonus, of course, that you don’t pay the commissions up front – your agents commission comes out of the seller’s proceeds and was no doubt figured into the price of the house. But the real benefit is that you can save significant money on the bottom line when the transaction is finalized.
Having an experienced professional on your side when you’re talking about a contract where large sums of money change hands is simply a good idea on its face. But add to that the potential boost to your financial position as a result of the expertise an agent can bring to the table and it should be an easy decision. There are just too many ways to loose money on a deal not to have someone who negotiations Portland real estate deals on a daily basis to keep the trains (and the signature pages) running on time.
Buyers can now search on their iPhone for Portland homes
March 9th, 2010
Ever wanted to use your mobile phone to search for homes, but the interface was just too clumsy? Fear not, there’s a solution. It turns out that Portland real estate agent David Somerville has released a new iPhone app to do just that.
The application, which you can download in iTunes or directly onto your iPhone to sync later, is completely free: just enter the code 2370 to activate it.
Research has shown that about half of all mobile phone website browsing is performed on the ubiquitous iPhone. This is likely due to its desktop-like similarities in the browser experience. On the iPhone, the web browser is almost identical to the Safari browser you’ll find on all Apples. However, this tool takes the users experience one step further by offering the Portland real estate search functionality as an application rather than simply via Safari.
Overall, it’s a great little tool to search for Portland homes, and is sure to be a hit with younger buyers and business professionals in Portland who make up the bulk of iPhone users. Somerville will be offering more applications for other phone operating systems in the near future, including Android and Blackberry.
Elsewhere on the web: Check out this page featuring Somerville’s iPhone Portland homes search app in a discussion of mobile real estate search tips for real estate agents.
Good deals on Omaha real estate
March 5th, 2010
There are some great deals on Omaha real estate right now, but don’t expect them to last forever. With the redeployment of military personal from the various conflicts around the world, it seems safe to say that families will be setting up shop to raise their families and start civilian life.
With Offutt Air Force Base so close to Omaha, this is bound to have a significant impact on the local economy, bringing a new generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, and home owners into the mix for a vibrant community. How will that affect home prices? It’s hard to say, exactly.
Many real estate market watchers are looking for big growth around military installations nationwide. That seems like a logical outcome. If that indeed happens, right now could be the best time to make an offer on that piece of Omaha real estate you’ve been considering. The market’s had a tough hit since 2005, but buyers are starting to come back to the table. Let’s see if the pace picks up in Omaha as redeployments take places in the various branches of service.
Mount Washington Homeowners Association Boosts Property Values
March 3rd, 2010
When communities come together, they can do great things. Take the Mount Washington neighborhood of Northeast Los Angeles, for instance. Residents banded together long ago to create what’s called the Mount Washington Homeowners Association. This alliance citizens who care about their home values and community has added real value to home values in the opinion of local real estate pros like Ralph Guerin who sell Mount Washington homes.
One of the most interesting things this group of homeowners has done is to create an archive of the oral and written history of the area, going back quite a few years to some of the elderly residents who lived there in the early 1900s. This ability to preserve stories from the “exclusive” neighborhood (exclusive in the sense that it is desirable and supply is limited, but prices are still very reasonable) has given a real sense of community to residents and a heritage worth passing down to future generations.
Only a few minutes from Silverlake, Mt. Washington homes make a great place to live for those needing to commute to nearby Burbank, Glendale, or Pasadena. Of course, the freeways are close by for those who need to go a bit farther, but by all accounts, the quiet bedroom community makes a nice place to come home to at the end of the day.