Western Real Estate News

Orlando, Fla. – According to Orlando REALTOR® Jonathan de Jesus, the high inventory of real estate listings in the Orlando area means buyers can count on continued bargains for the near future.

How long the bargain-basement prices on Orlando real estate will last is debatable, according to de Jesus, who says that it depends on factors like the overall health of the U.S. economy and future mortgage legislation changes.

“Everyone is looking for bargains, from the first time home buyer to the real estate investor, and the market is providing great opportunities for both. The excess inventory has not only served to lower the entry barrier for buyers, but given them more properties to choose from as well.”

De Jesus says he’s seeing increased interest from international buyers due to the combination of rock bottom prices and the weakness in the U.S. dollar.

“The international buyers have definitely helped to balance out inventory with demand, but whether we’re talking about Baldwin Park condos or Windermere foreclosures, price is driving the market right now.”

“I believe those who are able to buy in the Orlando market right are getting in at historically low prices and interest rates. That’s a great combination!”

For more information, please contact:

Jonathan De Jesus
Dominium Realty Group
6236 Kingspointe Parkway #10
Orlando, Fl 32819
407-588-7828

http://www.florida-real-estate.pro/

Portland, Oregon – Portland Oregon real estate agent David Somerville says young families are being drawn to Downtown Portland’s condos and lofts by low prices, good neighborhoods, and close proximity to jobs.

Somerville, who has been selling Portland real estate for over ten years, says the trend of younger buyers coming into the downtown is welcomed by Portland employers and property owners alike, and has helped to revitalize downtown neighborhoods.

“The current housing market is providing some great opportunities for younger buyers to get into Portland condos and lofts at pretty amazing prices.”

He says there are certain neighborhoods, like the Pearl District, that are particularly sought after by younger home buyers.

“The Pearl District has a lot of things going for it as a place to live downtown. There are plenty of restaurants, nearby employers, parks, grocery stores, and other shopping, all within walking or biking distance. Walkscore.com rates the area near 100.”

While Somerville encourages first time home buyers to get preapproved for a loan before setting out to visit properties, they can search for available Portland homes for free on www.maxwellsinclair.com.

For more information, contact:

David Somerville
Portland Real Estate
5 Centerpointe Dr. Suite 150
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
503-789-7633

http://www.maxwellsinclair.com

Minneapolis, MN – Downtown Minneapolis real estate agent Ben Ganje, known as the Urban Realtor/Dad, says the lowest interest rates in years are boosting demand for condos and lofts.

According to Ganje, with interest rates hovering about 4.87% for a thirty year fixed mortgage, Minneapolis lofts and condos make for a great purchase decision for more and more Twin Cities city dwellers.

“I think more young couples are deciding to move into the Minneapolis downtown because it has a lot of benefits: Cheaper real estate prices, of course, but also a culture-rich lifestyle, and shorter commutes.”

With fuel prices climbing higher and taking a bigger chunk of the family budget, Ganje says there are a lot of financial incentives for young professionals who work downtown to live and work within walking distance.

“Everyone talks about oil prices and food going up. I just tell them to move closer to work. Downtown is not just a great place to work, it is an incredible place to live, and you can save a lot of money.”

He says his clients have a wide variety of reasons for moving to the city. For some it’s the fast paced lifestyle, while others are drawn to the beautiful cityscape view from some of the nicer Minneapolis condos.

“The bottom line is that Minneapolis real estate just makes financial sense for a lot of people–even those like me who are raising a family.”

Ben Ganje
Urban Realtor/Dad
www.SearchMinneapolisCondos.com
700 Washington Avenue N #101
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(612) 777-8005

Los Angeles, Calif. – Bryan Glenn of Charles Dunn Company’s West Los Angeles office has closed the sale of a 24-unit multifamily property located at 916 S. Lake St. in Los Angeles, Calif. The value of the transaction is $1.2 million.

The 10,712-square-foot apartment complex was purchased and sold by private investors. Glenn represented the seller and Connie Kim of Coldwell Banker Commercial represented the buyer. The building was constructed in 1923 and is currently 92% leased.

According to Glenn, the seller was looking to reduce management responsibilities while the buyer found the low gross rent multiplier and attractive cash flow greatly appealing. The buyer plans to hold the property for future investment.

“This is one of a handful of older properties that has traded in this submarket recently based on an attractive price per unit and strong cash flow,” Glenn said.

About Charles Dunn Company

Charles Dunn Company is one of the largest full-service brokerage firms on the West Coast. Established in 1921, the Los Angeles-based company provides a full complement of real estate services. For more information and office locations, please visit www.charlesdunn.com.

Marco Island is a very unique island in Southwest Florida. It is the largest of Florida’s renowned Ten Thousand Islands chain stretching from Everglades City to Flamingo, the island has an impressive collection of historically significant places to keep residents and tourists alike enamored with the community for a lifetime.

Part of the Wilderness Waterway, Marco Island’s varied plant life, animal life, and geography alone is astounding. There are sand hills, forests of pine trees, fields and pristine sandy beaches, and a swamp of mangrove trees. Burrowing owls inhabit the island–in fact, nature lovers report that the islet is the only island in the Ten Thousand Islands chain to be home to these birds.

The city provides a full range of services for residents, with an excellent school system and infrastructure. Visitors to the island can find numerous activities on Marco Island, including snorkeling, canoeing, boating, sport fishing, and much more. There are even archaeological excavations that are over 2000 years old from native American indian tribes, such as the Calusa Indian burial mound and the famous “Marco Cat” found at the Frank Cushing Archaeological Site.

The uniquely habitable island was home to nearly 15,000 residents in the 2000 census, but census data to be released on December 21, 2010 is expected to show significant growth from those figures. The boom in real estate in the new millennium led to economic and population growth from the Naples metropolitan area, with many exclusive homes commissioned during that period. With the housing price pullback that followed, bargain hunters have found exclusive Marco Island real estate parcels that are priced very attractively. In fact, Marco Island condos and bank owned properties represent some of the best bargains on the Multiple Listing Service.

Prices on Marco Island homes at the time of this writing range from about $70,000 for a 460 s.f. townhouse to $10.5 million for a 12,000 s.f. estate. There are plenty of choices in water front properties, many with private access to the pristine Gulf of Mexico waters.

Colorado Springs, CO. – Nicole Lee with the Ashford Real Estate Group, a leading Colorado Springs property management company, says the recession has significantly lessened the margin of error for real estate investors who are feeling squeezed by the economy and can no longer afford inefficient cost controls and inexperienced management of tenants and vacancies.

She says that property managers who don’t sufficiently screen tenants for ability to pay the rent and likelihood of paying it on time, and who don’t take proactive steps to reduce or eliminate vacancies, can end up permanently destroying their clients’ real estate assets. In some cases, they may risk putting their clients’ properties into foreclosure.

In one recent case, Lee says that a builder with nine income properties faced catastrophic loss of all assets in foreclosure proceedings because six of the nine tenants stopped paying the rent. According to Lee, this is happening more frequently to inexperienced property managers as the job market continues to underperform, and more renters start getting behind on their rent. She says that her clients haven’t suffered that fate because of her quick-response strategy for late payments.

“We protect our clients going into the lease agreement, first of all, by being extremely picky about the tenants we allow into the property. There are plenty of good tenants out there if you know where to look, and we definitely know where to look.”

She says that once the lease is signed with a reliable tenant, it’s still more important than ever to be diligent in managing every aspect of a property’s investment potential. If and when a late payment occurs, her property management company has quick reflex policies to deal with it and keep a small problem from becoming a large one.

“Many Colorado Springs real estate managers don’t realize the dramatic impact they have on the bottom lines of their clients’ balance sheets each year. We take our clients’ assets very seriously, because we want our property owners to stay with us for decades.”

Lee says that too many homes are going back to the bank these days, but that foreclosures should present opportunities for investors, not problems.

“By being proactive in our real estate management services, we’re generally able to keep our Colorado Springs rentals consistently in a state of positive cash flow. That’s why our clients stick with us through all types of markets – they know we’re out to fiercely protect their investment.”

About Ashford Real Estate Group

Nicole Lee of Ashford Real Estate Group is a part of the Masters Group and provides a variety of real estate services to Colorado Springs and surrounding military installations such as the Air Force Academy, Fort Carson, Peterson Air Force Base, Shriever Air Force Base, and Cheyenne Mountain Air Station.

Nicole Lee’s passion is finding the right place to live for military personnel and other residents looking for Colorado Springs homes for sale or rent, and managing investment properties efficiently for local and out of town investors. She also specializes in helping renters learn how to become first time homebuyers and enjoy the benefits of home ownership.

Nicole Lee can be contacted at:

Ashford Real Estate Group
4760 Flintridge Dr, Ste 100
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
Phone: (719) 314-6057
Fax: (888) 631-0062

http://www.coloradospringshomesource.com/
http://www.coloradospringspropertymanagement.net/
http://www.coloradospringsrentals.org/

Hear Nicole Lee discuss real estate management:
http://www.coloradospringspropertymanagement.net/files/nicole-lee-property-management.mp3

Amherst, NH – Virtual Homes Real Estate, a leading technology company that merged in 2009 with two former RE/MAX real estate offices in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is applying its technological edge to attract top agents to its easy-to-use virtual back office. Designed to efficiently capture and qualify leads for member agents, the technology works because much of the customer relationship process is either automated or handled by experienced staff.

Virtual back office software technology has been helping real estate companies improve productivity for a long time, says Fred Doleac, Owner/Broker of Virtual Homes Real Estate. The problem, he says, is that the technology in the past only benefited those agents who became technically advanced enough to master complex real estate CRM software. Doleac says his company set out to change that.

“In the process of providing our real estate MLS search technology to agents, we were soon able to predict which agents would sell more homes each month based almost entirely on how agents were using the system. As a result, we were able to provided extensive training to help agents increase their closings and excel in their real estate career.”

Training was not enough to improve sales in every case, however. Some agents simply did not use the technology to its full potential, even with plenty of training and support.

Doleac soon realized that improving sales also meant off-loading some lead management tasks to staff members.

He says that Virtual Homes’ CRM technology along with constant improvement of in-house business processes supported by staff allow the company to remove many day-to-day tasks from its agents.

Now, Doleac says agents can focus on closing more deals with more clients instead of sitting at a computer all day chasing unqualified leads — or trying to find them.

He says that the company in its present form is the answer to the question ‘If your technology is so good, why are you selling it instead of using it?’

“The fact is, our technology is so good that we decided to stop selling it. It’s much more profitable for us to use it to help our agents sell more real estate.”

Many real estate offices see their agents as their customers, according to Doleac. They charge desk fees, add charges for basic office services, and even sell third party products to agents.

“At Virtual Homes, we are not interested in selling our agents anything. We’re interested in improving their sales. When they succeed, we succeed.”

The system works, he says, because if the real estate leads generation and CRM is superior, overall results will improve, and the number of successful transactions will increase. Ultimately, the agent, broker, and consumer win.

“Most real estate companies today have been real estate companies forever, and have had to work hard to adapt to changing technologies. Our edge at Virtual Homes is that we started out with powerful sales technology, and have applied it to real estate with amazing results.”

“It is a breakthrough way to start up a real estate business. It’s also the reason many top selling agents are joining Virtual Homes.”

For more information, contact:

Fred Doleac
Broker/Owner
Virtual Homes
55 Ponemah Road
Amherst, NH 03031
603-732-1800 or 800-856-2479
603-732-1817 Direct
Fax toll free – 888-884-0543

Virtual Homes Real Estate
http://www.virtualhomes.com

Virtual Homes Careers
http://www.virtualhomes.com/careers/

Virtual Homes MLS
http://www.virtualhomes.com/mls/

Massachusetts Real Estate
http://www.virtualhomes.com/mls/MA

New Hampshire Real Estate
http://www.virtualhomes.com/mls/NH