Mike’s Real Estate Show

You seem to be getting no feedback from the Realtor/agents who are showing the property. This can be the most helpful advice currently on your property. Did your agent NOT follow-up with this? If s/he did and you ignored the feedback then you are THE problem. If you have had NO SHOWINGS then you must be incredibly overpriced!!  However, that said, you must have some cards from the Realtor/Agents who showed your property. These folks represent the prospective buyers. Call them and ask them what feedback their clients gave on the property after the showing. Look for the honest agent who gives you the unvarnished truth about your property. My first question to you would be, “Do you really have to sell this property?”  If you hem and haw, don’t give me a straight answer, or tell you no, we’ve got all the time in the world, then YOU need to get real about why it is you are selling. The last thing this market needs is another overpriced, unmotivated Seller clogging up the market. Remember, DENIAL ain’t just a river in Egypt!

I think I understand your question! Here are some tips I recommend to my buyers. In the MLS look for properties on the market for 60+ days, vacant (in our area over a 1/3 of all of our listings are vacant!), with a history of price reductions as recorded in the MLS. Any competent Realtor/agent should have access to this information. You also may wish to determine the equity in the property at the same time. A seller who bought in our area 3 years ago has minimal equity. A low-ball offer may run head-on into a short sale. Those with equity may wish to make you a great deal as they are most likely moving to an area where prices are a heckuva lot cheaper than our area. This may not hold up across the nation but still applies for negotiating purposes If the property is investor owned AND a short-sale this might be a total waste of time as lenders are looking to help homeowners and investor’s are not getting looked at in our market. A “Short-Sale” situation can be a long, lengthy process which can end in NO DEAL when the day is done. But if you have patience and cash in this market some great deals can be had. I’d wait though. A representative of Data Quick( http://www.dataquick.com) , a company which tracks foreclosures nationwide, stated in December $50 Billion in loans will be “recast” and another $150 Billion will be “recast” in March/April. These are primarily the 2/28’s or 3/27 loans with low teaser rates. Countrywide did a major portion of these loans and Countrywide does 46% of all their loans in California. So I’m anticipating another “wave” of short-sales, foreclosures, “have to sell” properties in the months to come. What effect this will have on the California and nationwide market is yet to be seen.

After three weeks of preleague play we get on with the league races with Cardinal Newman in the NBL and Casa Grande in the SCL holding the favorites rolls. More…A couple of notes:

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 I heard Bob Brinker, nationally syndicated radio talk show host of “Money Talk”, state to millions on the air Sunday, “Asking price is now irrelevant!!” He cited a national builder who had reduced all of their new home communities by 25% across the board for a special national open house. That being said, what then is an offering price? This is espeically true if one is considering a “flip” though for the life of me I can’t see how this word can even be uttered today!! I remember speaking to a lawyer who specialized in writing large bond offerings for cities considering redevelopment issues. He did this throughout the world. He was working in Tokoyo many, many years ago and told me investor’s where buying property there for pennies on the dollar. In the same breath he looked at me over his glasses and uttered, “you’d be surprised how fast you can be ruined by property for pennies on the dollar!!” I think investor’s with cash in this market can make some great purchases but I’d be buying in areas where “Short-Sales” and NOD’s are NOT rampant as this type of neighborhood over the long haul may NOT be a good investor market. Think long and hard about this one!

Questions and Answers on Home Foreclosure and Debt Cancellation
 
1. What is Cancellation of Debt?

If you borrow money from a commercial lender and the lender later cancels or forgives the debt, you may have to include the cancelled amount in income for tax purposes, depending on the circumstances. When you borrowed the money you were not required to include the loan proceeds in income because you had an obligation to repay the lender. When that obligation is subsequently forgiven, the amount you received as loan proceeds is reportable as income because you no longer have an obligation to repay the lender. The lender is usually required to report the amount of the canceled debt to you and the IRS on a Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt.

Here’s a very simplified example. Read the rest of this entry »

Preleague is over and now onto league play. If the league races have any of the craziness of the preleague this should be one heck of a season.

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This week’s addition is titled “Where did the defense go?”
BRONZE…Oklahoma State 49 Texas Tech 45…This doesn’t have the wipeout value as most games that appear here.

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LAST WEEK 12-4 75%
SEASON       26-6 81.3%
OVERVIEW WEEK 2: Last weeks picks I said “My safest prediction is that I will have more wrong by the start of the afternoon games then I did all of Week 1.” More…That turned out to be right… Read the rest of this entry »

WEEK 3-THE NOT SO CLOSE
BRONZE…Utah 44 UCLA 6….Two reason’s this make the list. UCLA is ranked NO. 11 in the country and get drilled by Utah. Also it was UCLA’s first loss and Utah’s first win.
SILVER…Western Illinois 69 St. Francis 0…Western Illinois outgained St. Francis 619-67, outfirst down them 28-5 and led at halftime 56=0.
GOLD…SE Louisiana 79 Kentucky Wesleyan 7….SE Lousiana led 49-7 at the half. This is also a school record 79 point for SE Louisiana and their first win of the season. In fact in their 0-2 starts they were out scored 97-14 including suffering a 62-0 loss to….KANSAS.
HONORABLE MENTION…Michigan 38 Notre Dame 0…After all the bad pub Michigan got from their 0-2 start Running Back Mike Hart gaurenteed the win. Nevermind it was against Notre Dame who has stunk it up worse then they have the first two week. Hart went out and rushed for 187 yards.
At halftime this game look like it would have the kind of score to be on the main list. Michigan led 31-0 and Notre Dame had ZERO total yards on offense.

Best and Worst States: Based on data from the 2002 census, the following five states have the lowest local property taxes per capita/year. They are Arkansas ($191), Alabama ($285), Kentucky ($376), New Mexico ($380), and Oklahoma ($425). The states with the highest local property taxes per capita/year are: New Jersey ($1,871), Connecticut ($1,733), New York ($1,402), and Rhode Island ($1,369). http://www.retirementliving.com/RLpropertytaxrate.html