Foreclosure Information A must read

This is a must read for anyone going through the foreclosure or short sale process. Click on the title of this article and go to the link.

Interview with a Realtor

Builder radio called me last week and requested an interview based on material I had published on the Sales and Marketing Council page through the National Association of Home Builders. Scott Stroud conducted the interview and it was a blast. He did a great job of keeping me moving forward and getting the material I wanted to present expressed in a timely and orderly fashion. I am excited for it to be published and will update the blog when it is. Take a look at the link on the side of my page to builder to look at all of the interviews currently posted and see Jerry and Scott's latest web series for some great sales training material.
On another note, July was the strongest month in real estate I have had in the last year. How great is it to have to manage appointments so carefully because of how busy it is. Let's hope the market continues to grow stronger.

RiverWalk Video Complete

This is the second video on the series MC Squared and I am building for the communities I work in. It has been a lot of fun working on the production of these.

Thoughts about marketing and selling new homes: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR HOMEBUILDERS – The American consumer does not see us as wearing white hats.

Thoughts about marketing and selling new homes: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR HOMEBUILDERS – The American consumer does not see us as wearing white hats.

New Listing Just in Time for the Fourth

If you or someone you know is looking for the perfect family home in Okemos, I just listed it.

Ever thought of living in a neighborhood where the kids can play for hours around a pond or in the large park down the street? Of having a beautiful river in your back yard with a peaceful wooded setting? Walking into your home everyday and being welcomed by beautiful hardwood floors throughout a flowing home designed for family and entertainment? This rare opportunity has arrived in prestigious Tacoma Hills. Located on the farthest street back in the community, this home is in a low traffic area, as you stand outside you can hear how peaceful this setting is. Yet it is minutes from the mall and shopping. Your opportunity has arrived, make sure you take it.

Thanks Marty for your effort on the 911 center

For those of you that don't know Marty Colburn, he is the city manager of Mason. I would like to give him kudos for his effort on trying get the 911 emergency center next to all of the other county services in Mason. Despite common sense of keeping all the county emergency services together, the is being moved to South Lansing. Marty put a lot of effort into this even though the deck was stacked against him before he started. I hope people in Mason who see Marty thank him for the effort. He still won by showing other governing bodies in the area that his city is organized has a vision for their part of the region.

New Website and video

I am excited that lansingrealestate.com has just received a facelift. MC Squared is making some great changes to make the web page more interactive and exciting. I have enclosed a link to the video we have produced on Lakeside. It is the first one of this kind we have done. Please email me or leave a comment about what you think. If there is something we can do better on the website please let me know, I am building it for you. On a personal note I have just joined Linked in, Facebook, and activerain. I am learning how to build my profiles now and it is fun to see so many people I work with and have known over the years getting in contact. I will attach my profile links as I get them built. I look forward to hearing from you.

Parade of Homes provides less homes than years past but doesn't disapoint

I am one of the lucky people that get to inspect homes in the Parade before it opens to the public. Even though there is just shy of 35 projects this year, the ones in won't disappoint. I viewed the homes in Okemos, Haslett, and Williamston this weekend. A couple of the models had been in the Parade before. They were still very nice and some of the decor inside had been changed up. Mayberry's home in Okemos is beautiful and I really enjoyed the counter tops in the kitchen. The cost is still $10 per person or $25 per family. Even Committee members and Home Builder Association Staff pay the fee to enter. Remember, the money helps benefit local charities.
Cindy at the home builders association stated that traffic was steady throughout the weekend, and was similar to last year at this time. "We are excited to see the housing market turning around and there are great opportunities still available for buyers. Be sure to stop by one of the Parade homes to pick up your ticket to see these great projects and support our local charities."
The market does seem to have made a turn, three of the homes I inspected all sold prior to the Parade this year. All of these were over $300,000. If you haven't been to the Parade before, it is worth the time to go around and see what local builders are creating in your town. If you have been in the past, just because there are less homes, don't let that stop you from going this year.
Here is a link to preview some of the Parade homes. http://www.obeo.com/Public/Search/AgentSearchResults.aspx?agent=119692&resultsonly=true&rpp=100 . Take a look and see where you want to start.

Quick Review of Home Buyer Tax Credit

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is passed and signed into law, so what does it mean to you as a homebuyer? I am getting a lot of questions about the first time homebuyer tax credit of $8000, the main two being “Who qualifies? And “How does this credit work?” The first time homebuyer tax credit is available to everyone who has not had ownership of a home in the last 3 years. If you’re married that goes for your spouse as well. Even if you had owned a home years ago you still qualify. The income limits are $75,000 for a single person and $150,000 for a married couple. Unlike the $7,500 interest free loan last year, this is a straightforward credit. It works like this.
For every $10,000 of purchase price, you receive a $1,000 credit against your income tax. This is capped at $8,000. One you go above $80,000 for a purchase price the full credit is available. Since this is a credit it means you get the full amount of money you qualify for. You can receive the money in two ways, one change the withholdings on your taxes and get more money in your paycheck, or get a check back with your tax refund if you there is any money left after paying your taxes.
This is a great opportunity for those of you who are thinking of buying a house in the next year. I am putting the links to great sites that explain more about this program. I am also putting the application here for you to download. Before you purchase a home and go after the credit, talk with your tax advisor, real estate professional, and lender to make sure you get full advantage of this great program. If you have any questions please feel free to email or call me.

First Day at Homeshow Huge Success

Day one of the home show is drawing to a close. The doors are open just ten more minutes and all the vendors I talked to were excited about the amount of people out looking around. MC Squared Technology group and myself shot a short video about the show and posted it to www.lifeinlansing.com. You can view it on the front page. A new twist for the show this year is educational seminars. So far they have had full audiences. The topics tomorrow include; how to build a pole barn, financing options, "green" flooring, outdoor living spaces, and a remodeling seminar. I look forward to seeing you here.

Home Show Ready to Shine

The Booths are almost built, the carpet is getting put down, and ticket sales are about to begin. All that is missing is....YOU! Tomorrow the doors open on the annual Greater Lansing Home Builders & Remodelers Spring Home and Garden Show. You won't be disapointed this year. The hours are posted on the website, and stop by BOOTH 142 to visit us and write your own review of the show. See you there.

Greater Lansing Home Builders and Remodeler's Show

Just wanted to leave a quick note to join us in booth 162 at the Home builders Spring Home Show. It is located at the Summitt on the west side of Lansing. Follow the link HERE for directions and times. I bringing my laptop and will have our new website set up and you will be able to write a review of the show right our booth. There will be many other exciting opportunities to see showcasing what builders and remodelers are doing in our region. I look forward to seeing you there!

Is it time to buy a home or investment property yet? A study guide to reading the market.

In every market there are signs that tell you what the market is doing at any given time. These are called indicators. This post will show the indicators I use for looking at the market and trying to read where it is going. Please remember this data is being provided for you to look at and I am no way offering advice for what you should do. These are my opinions, and should be used to start a discussion only. One point to remember, even in a down market there is still a market. So it is important to find where it is and capitalize on it. The next few paragraphs may be a little too much information, so if you just want a one paragraph synopsis, skip to the last one. Other than that, if you really want to get more in depth with your market, hope this helps.

The first and most important indicator to me is population. If there is population growth, there is a need for housing. According to the “Real Estate Guys Radio,” the Detroit Metro area is getting 2 to 1.5 inquiries of people wanting to move out verses people wanting to relocate here. One of the best ways to track this is talk to a moving company or your local cable service may be of service if you know someone there. They can tell you how many hookups verses cancellations they are getting. Remember, these are not exact sciences, but they will give you an indication of what is going on in the market. Unfortunately, from talking with people in these fields around here, we are seeing population loss in Lansing as well. It is no surprise when you look at another important indicator and one which is very easy to track, absolute employment. This is tracked through the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. If you live in Lansing, search for the Lansing-East Lansing MSA, or Metropolitan Statistical Area. This is usually a few months behind, but I use it to look at trends. Absolute employment shows the actual number of jobs a region currently has. I use this instead of unemployment rate because when someone has been out of work for the allotted time on unemployment, they are no longer used in the statistic from the State as an employable person. If you look year over year for the last few years we are still trending down. Most likely we are going to see annual numbers for 2008 be a couple of thousand jobs under 2007. This is our third year of job shedding in Lansing. When there is a turn around here, things should start stabilizing and the region will start getting healthy again.

We also made history for new houses in our area according to the Greater Lansing Home Builders Association. December of 08 was the first month no single family home permits were pulled in our region. NAHB states builders are in a “de facto moratorium”.

This leads me into tracking monthly permit data from Texas A&M Research Center. Permits for our area are under 300 for 2008 according to their data. This may change a little bit from rural areas that only report once a year. I think you will see this number get adjusted to close to 400 or so for 2008. Even so, this is the lowest result since the early 80’s. It may even be another record book statistic for lowest in history since data was kept. Here is the link to view what the research center has published, http://recenter.tamu.edu/.

Existing home inventory levels in the tri county area also give us a pulse of what the market condition is. Currently there are just over 3800 homes listed on the Greater Lansing Multiple list service. If you take the last 12 months of sales and divide the current number of homes available, it shows that currently there is a 10.5 month supply of houses listed in the Greater Lansing Area. This is down from the last time I ran this ratio.

SO… What does this all mean to me?

First the new home permits levels falling off with no permits being pulled in December is a good thing for our market. Since I started tracking new home permits verses sales in 02, I have watched our inventory grow from around a 6 month supply to over 15 months. When I looked at current sales against inventory levels the end of 2008, we were around 13 months meaning that the market inventory is finally stabilizing. Unfortunately for us in Lansing we may be in for another small downturn before we finally level off and start back up the market cycle. This is based on the current announcement of 1500 jobs being cut in our area in manufacturing. It will most likely mean that we will see a little more erosion in our home values in the market. We need to see a turn around in the jobs market for the region to stabilize. It looked like we were going to see that last year but unfortunately we still had a slight downslide.

Under all of the bad news currently in the Lansing Market, small start up businesses and small entrepreneurs are beginning to sprout up and bring new life to our economy. This is a trend that is being showing up nationally as well. As large companies downsize ex-employees are becoming business owners since they are unable to find work at other companies. I feel that this is going to play a significant role in the revitalization of the Lansing Region. Even though we are seeing articles in our local paper stating that 2009 is going to be a rough year for commercial real estate, small businesses have a great opportunity to get into real estate for their companies cheap.

The answer to the question posed in the title, Is it time to buy a home or investment property yet?, is really for you to decide. What the indicators show is we may be hovering near the bottom now. What will get me to say we have absolutely hit bottom is when I see a year of the employment trend growing. What that means is we won’t know bottom has hit until we are well out of it. The only solace is, everyone finds out that way. It important to use education, and the experience you have gained and from professionals to find what is best for your situation. The real estate market like any other is cyclical. Many people told you in the late 90’s and early 00’s that they could time the stock market and become rich, well, who got the bigger bailout. I am certain that in the long run real estate will be worth more in the future than it is now. Since I believe that, it is time to get educated about the market and get out and find property. Signs of life are starting to show through the proverbial snow. Be careful, but get out and look and see what is going on around you in your market place. If you are not in the Lansing market, use the web links here and through your own research to see what is going on in your market. Deals are available for either investment or for your next home. And remember, once the growth has started it may be too late to get the best deal.

Is a foreclosure your best option?

You watch the news and see many companies downsizing and plants idling. Real Estate has all but been written off by the media. I even read in Newsweek that home builders have all but written off 2009. The word foreclosure is now the new marketing “Buzzword” for Realtors. You hear that word and you think, bargain. All around town I see real estate signs that actually say “Foreclosure” on it like it is a good thing. I had one realtor tell me he received a call on one of his listings from a sign and the first question out of the prospects mouth was “Is this a foreclosure, if it’s not I don’t want to see it?” The foreclosure has really come to the forefront of the current real estate cycle that we are in. The foreclosure market is also the media darling at this time, so is this the best opportunity for you?
Before you jump on the foreclosure band wagon you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. Is this worth the time investment that I will have, and is the money it take to complete the project worth it in the end? We will talk about exit strategies more in the next week. I am sure you have heard that just because something is cheap doesn’t make it a good deal. All over the media it is plastered that you can buy houses 60 cents on the dollar, and I had an investor tell me that he purchased a house for 25 cents on the dollar. So what does this actually mean when you are done. To give you some background on me, the last 6 months I have bought two foreclosed properties. I have a client who has bought 13 through me in the past 8 months, and have showed countless other foreclosed properties in the area. I am stating this because I want you to know that I have experience when dealing with these homes.
This first part I want to discuss is time. For every one of these homes that myself or my client has bought we probably looked at close to 20 in person and at least 50 on paper. I spend at least an hour a day reviewing houses and at least 3 hours a week going into and getting cost for repairs together. Next, it is usually a month to get these homes back to market or in rentable shape. So you need to make a real commitment if you are going to find a deal.
Next, cheap doesn’t necessarily mean a good deal. There are so many hidden costs in getting one of these homes back to market. You need to make sure that if you are doing the estimating you have a good handle on the costs, or you could hire an inspector, but that is going to run you about $300. This may be money well spent if you are going to be making a substantial investment in these homes. It should help speed your learning curve, and could save you thousands in mistakes further down the road. If you have a partner that has been remodeling for years, you will have an advantage here.
If you are looking at purchasing one as a home owner, you need to take extra care. Human instinct draws us towards advertisements like “Good Deal,” “Best Deal in Town,” “Discount,” and of course “Foreclosure.” What actually happens when you buy most of that cheap stuff. If breaks, it has some sort of defect that you may be able to live with but would be too costly to repair, in worst case scenarios, you could end up spending a lot more money to cover the mistake than it would of to put the extra money in up front. This can be a real issue in the foreclosure category.
I am going to give a real example of two houses located in the popular “Colonial Village” community. Both are +/- 1100 Sq. Ft. Cape Cods. One is a move in ready Cape Cod that sold for approx 83K and the other was government owned that sold for around 60K. These numbers I am giving are strictly my opinion, but I feel are an accurate representation of my point. The 83K house didn’t need anything, but lets say you didn’t like the color so you spent 2K to change it. Should be high, but it puts you into the house for 87K. You have the other cape cod that you just picked up for 60k. This home has been sitting with out any climate controls for months causing cracking of the plaster and leaving a lot of deferred maintenance. Here are the numbers off my bid sheet. For kitchen update we had $7500. Redo all floorings we had $2.5 per sq ft. This totals out to $2887. Bathroom we had $3100. Paint/drywall repair $3600. Landscape $1000. New Doors/trim $1900. This was because we needed to replace a slider and put trim through out the house. Mechanicals would have been $2200. The roof and fencing also needed maintenance at approximately $2000. This brings the total of repair to just under $23000. Let’s say it takes you two months to repair it. You will have at least a thousand dollars of holding costs or if you paid cash, lost opportunity cost.
If you add it all together it comes out to $84,000 that you would have effectively has into that home. So as a home owner you would have had two invest two extra months living somewhere else, and would have had close to the same money into your home. If you are really handy around a house (which is not me), this may be a great opportunity for sweat equity. If you haven’t done it before, think out your costs. My old football coach always said, “if it was easy everyone would be doing it.” Same scenario here.
This is not meant to scare you, but just to get you thinking. A foreclosed property may be your best bet. And when you look hard enough there are good deals that need minimal work. Be careful when you hear the word discount. Before you buy the “good deal” take time to assess your skills, and write down what your needs are before just finding a house. In other words, think about your lifestyle first, then find the property that suites that. If you have any questions, please feel free to email, or call me anytime. Good luck in your house hunting!

Stay Warm! Network Online.

After being back in the cold for a few days, I can see why facebook, linked-in and all of the other online networking groups are growing at exponential rates. IT’S COLD OUTSIDE! Lets face it, when the temperature stays in the single digits for this long of a period, it really makes it hard to justify spending a lot of time outside interacting with fellow man. That’s ok, it is forcing to do something that I have been meaning to get done a long time ago. Giving me the time to really make my online profiles shine.
I have had a myspace page for the last year and have a lot of fun connecting with old friends and seeing what they have been up to the last few years. At the builder’s show it was great to catch up with other volunteers on the Sales and Marketing Committee and see what they have been up to in their business. It was exciting to see their networking groups and I have added a couple of links to my blog. Theses guys have written some great articles and have some really good resources to view about the economy today. I will be posting local market numbers by Jan 30.
I have also just started building my profile at activerain.com, which is a site built for the networking of active salespeople in the real estate profession. If you want to find out more about what is going on in the real estate industry go check out the blogs and read the profiles. I will also be building a profile on facebook and linkedin.com. I am excited to expand networking opportunities. I will put the links on the side of this blog as well. Please link your profiles when you get a chance.
One of the most exciting online programs we have going this year is the revamp of lifeinlansing.com. The site has been redesigned and is much more user friendly. TasteofLansing and lansingareaevents.com are all being rolled into the site. We will have online forums and places to review local restaurants and hotspots. We are looking for subject matter experts in different fields that would be willing to write columns, or basically blog for the site in its different fields. There is not a lot in the way of tangible returns, we can’t pay because this is a grass roots effort, and you would have to buy your own food at the restaurants and clubs until they see what great value we have here and start sending us meal tickets to get us to show up. Until then, it should be more than rewarding in the fact you get to influence how people spend their hard earned entertainments dollars. Also, it gives you a chance to really show off your expertise in a particular field, and lets face it, on some level we all love to give reviews and share our experiences.
I am trying to keep these short, so I will wrap up. Stay out of the cold and on your computer (unless you are going out to look at a house). I am really excited to work on my online profiles and connect with people to see what they have going on. I am excited to expand on the web and see who I get to run into. I also can’t wait to show you all the new LifeinLansing.com site. I hope you find it useful and exciting. Please share your ideas and experiences either here, or send me an email. Have a great week.

International Builders Show has Education at forefront

I am writing from the sky as I travel back from Beautiful Las Vegas Nevada returning from the International Builders Show. I know, I know, what could possibly be good about an expo and conference devoted to the housing industry? Despite the fact attendance was off one area that really seemed to be utilized this year was the education courses. I facilitated two seminars in the “Meet the Experts Series” They were “Dealing with Clients with Homes to Sell” and “Getting Along with Realtor’s.” This is my third time talking at IBS, and at each of the previous courses I have had 20-30 people. This year I had 70 and 50 respectively. Now, these courses are informal round table discussions, and mine were scheduled at 8 am in Vegas! Some of the regular education courses that I attended had as many as 500 people in them.
I have always been devoted to education and when the market challenges us to get creative in what we do, it is nice to see many others turning to the same thing. Those of you who have been attending courses in your field over the past few years, congrats, you are ahead of the curve. Those beginning to educate themselves in their field, don’t get discouraged. It is never too late to start.
One of the greatest values I received out there was the positive reinforcement from all of the other volunteers and staff that are part of the Sales and Marketing Council. Many famous speakers talk about how important it is too go to seminars to sharpen your mind and get a positive charge. This time it was even more important. As I volunteer time with sales trainers and other sales professionals around the country, we feed off of each others positive energy. It is exciting electrifying helps me realize how lucky I am to be in this profession. By the time I got this plane, I couldn’t wait to get back to Zero degree temperatures to start showing the value of our New Home Communities, and tell Lansing how great real estate is.
Now I am not saying that this is the best market ever. Though, if you are a purchaser it just may be. Two years ago if you were a seller, it was your time for your house to shine. Don’t be bitter if you bought a house in the last three years and you watched your value tank as fast as your 401K. I know it burns a little bit too see prices erode like they have. Even many experts, including myself with 11 years experience bought a house 3 years ago and got too see my equity disappear as well. I still believe that everyone should own at least one home, and if you are an active investor you should have real estate in your portfolio.
2008 was a trying year for a lot of families. I have told every realtor that I have talked too since Mid December that I am really excited about 2009. A few of them have looked at me really funny and asked why? I know it is going to be great year because I choose it to be. Even as I leave 60 degrees and sunshine and head back to clouds and cold, getting that recharge reinforces how great I have it, even in a market that has already been written off by mainstream media. One thought to keep in mind. When the media starts reporting good news about the housing industry, it will be too late for the best opportunities. They will have already passed. It doesn’t mean that housing won’t be good after that, but those that do their homework, get educated about the market, learn to read the indicators that are available will be the ones to receive the greatest gains. Keep positive, Keep educated and resolve to have your 2009 as Joel Osteen puts it “Your Best Year Yet!”

Goals, education, and a propserous 2009

Sorry it has been a little while since I have written. This year has really started out with both feet hitting the ground running. I am adding another link that is focused to new construction sales people. This site features podcasts from some of the top sales people and trainers in this field. There is still a lot of good material for salespeople in other fields. You can also search under Jerry Rouleau under I -tunes and subscribe for weekly updates.
Education and training are the keys to my success in real estate. If you look at the top people in just about every field in the world, almost all of them will tell you that they are constantly learning and practicing to continually get better. Setting goals is also a common theme that you will see attributed to success by every reputable coach and almost every self improvement book I have read. One of my goals for my education last year was to read fifteen books, three more than I read last year. I achieved it and have moved my goal to 17 this year. I will be posting my reading list in the next week. If you are interested in a quick worksheet on goal setting, check out my documents link on the side f this blog under 12 steps for setting goals. This is a summary form a talk given by Brian Tracy. I have a link to his homepage under motivation.
Despite what you hear in the media, I really feel that this is going to be a great year. The opportunities are just a little different, but by having clear goals and a plan to follow I am excited to watch this year unfold. If you have any great tips on goal setting please feel free to add them in the comments section.
One last piece of news, I am really excited to be heading to the International builders show on Jan 17th. If you would like more information on the largest trade show in the US for the building industry check out www.buildersshow.com. I hope this year brings you everything you ask for.