International Builders Show Full of Engery

I am out here in Las Vegas at the end of the first day of the International Builders Show. I will be speaking tomorrow on how to get rid of existing homes and Thursday about foreclosures. Despite the building industry still in a slump nation wide. The economic forecast is showing signs that the proverbial spring has begun and markets are stabilized in a lot of states and there may be some growth this year. Energy seems good at the conference so hopefully there are good things in store for the new home industry this year!

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.

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.

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!

Suburban's E-home perfect fit for Michigan Families

Suburban Homes of Mid-Michigan has just released their new housing line to help combat the new construction housing slowdown experienced in the area. "Many of the homes built can have up to 10% of the materials brought to the job sites thrown out instead of used in the construction of the home. This money comes directly out of the pocket of the consumer. This home has been engineered to be extremely efficient to build allowing us to bring our home owners a product with lots of square footage at a very competitive price. We feel that this is a perfect product for Mid-Michigan families and allows them to have a great home with an affordable payment." Stated Dave Netti of Suburban homes. Dave is able to build a 2100 Square foot two story starting at $179,900. His ranch home starts at$135,000. I will post a picture of the homes with actual square footages later this week.
I spent a couple of hours with Dave and a couple other select Realtors from around the Lansing area including John DeMarco of Keller Williams. The concept of these homes were very well accepted and the overall consensus is these will be a big hit in the greater Lansing area. The one disadvantage is the lack of choices that the consumer has in color choices, of paint and doors, but the cost of the home will more than make up for that shortcoming. Forsberg has a few home sites around the Greater Lansing area that these homes could be built on. The prices quoted above is a turn key house, meaning it is a livable house at that price. If you are interested in finding out more about these, please contact me at brentforsberg@gmail.com or leave a comment here, and I will get back with you more information. This home will be springing up all over mid Michigan this year, and I will bring more pictures of it and updates as they get completed. Have a great day.

Home Builder Economic Forecast given at International Builder Show

I am sorry for all of you reading this in Michigan right now. I am currently At the International Builders Show™ in sunny Orlando, Florida. It is a little cool right now because it is in the 60’s. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to cope. Yesterday we were given the 2008 housing outlook according to the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) economists. Their news agreed with what I posted a few weeks ago regarding the fact we seem to be moving more homes and with the slow down in building, inventory is reducing. It was nice to hear the validation in the numbers that we are seeing locally. They also gave a report regarding the foreclosure rate and what the numbers realyy mean. I will go into more detail on this next week. They are very optimistic about the outcome the home building industry for the next two years. I am going to try and get permission to post part of the report up to show what they had put together. It is a pay service, so I cannot guarantee anything. If you want to try and find it you can go to www.nahb.com and look for it. I am moderating two Meet the Expert courses at the builders show so I have posted some of the forms that Forsberg Real Estate uses in its day to day operations that I am going to be talking about in Florida. These are mainly Goal Setting and Agent Training forms, but are located on the right side of the screen if you are interested in looking through them. Have a great day.

Despite National Gloom, Lansing Real Estate Shows Life.

If you did not get a chance to read the business section of the local paper today, it wasn't great news for the new construction housing industry. The Articles title was "New Home Sales Plunge." It is interesting to see that according to data collected by the Commerce Department, the Midwest saw a decline of 27.6 percent from October to November. I found this interesting since November this year was one of our busiest months. In our community Lakeside, we welcomed three new neighbors that are all in the process of building their homes. I find it interesting that the paper has a quote from Richard Yamarone a national economist that states "This is one sector of the economy that doesn't show any signs of life." It is interesting because the U.S. is still on pace to sell 647,000 new homes this year. It might not be the million homes that we topped a few years ago, and I am not saying that this is a healthy market. I just don't think that it is fair to say that here is no sign of life.
Locally, many of the bankers and Realtors that I have talked to have been very happy with the level of activity going on right now in our market. One builder we work with is putting in five more basements for customers before the end of January. I bring this up, because these are positive spots in our local area that you won't hear about in our main media streams. I know that homes aren't valued as high as they were a few years ago, and if you are a seller that sales are not as strong as they were. Even so, there is life in the real estate market and homes are still selling. The market will come back, and we will see real estate values rise in the future. What this region needs to focus on is job growth and stability. More jobs in the region mean a greater demand for housing helping marketing times and values.

Sellers Market Unhealthy, Unprecedented time for buyers

We saw more bad news in the papers last week with foreclosures rising 54% in Ingham County. New homes being started in the area through the third quarter are also down over 40%. Currently in Lansing as of today there are 5117 houses available for sale according to the MLS. Using the average of 366.5 sales per month year to date, this would mean we have almost 14 months of inventory currently on the market in the Greater Lansing area. It is no secret that the market has switched from a sellers to a buyers market.
Believe it or not this is one of the best times in the history of real estate for a buyer to purchase. The last time Lansing’s building permit numbers dropped this low was in 1982. Interest rates were through the roof and it was extremely difficult compared to today to get a mortgage. Even with the tightening of the market, there is a program for just about any one looking for a loan. I have seen some unbelievable deals on homes that have sold in the last few months. There are many different incentives and just regular price reductions that are going to allow many people who purchase right now a chance to have large equity positions in property in the future. We just came off of the longest run in housing growth in US history. Metaphorically, the new years party ended and it is currently mid morning Jan. 1st and the hangover is really setting in. Some people really tried to play the market, especially in some parts of the country were there was 15%-30% gains per year in housing value. They jumped in at the end and are currently getting burned. Michigan’s real estate market isn’t healthy if you are a seller, but in very few instances are the consequences of purchasing a home in our hottest markets of 2004 and 2005 going to have as much of an impact dollar wise as someone who purchased in Florida or California. One thing I will guarantee you, in the future, real estate will be more valuable than it is currently. I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you how to time the market and I don’t think that we are going to see the type of market we saw a few years ago for quite some time. Our area was overbuilt, financing got a little aggressive, and it is going to be hard for a while for some people to be able to get their money back out of there homes. However, we are seeing signs of the market stabilizing.
I have accumulated the building permit data for the area for the last 30+ years. It is easy to see to see the trend of the growth and then a sharp drop off for a few years. This would coincide with the existing home real estate market as well, since new homes are primarily needed when there is growth in an area. The easiest way to track new home growth is by looking at the employment growth in an area. The more job growth the more new construction that can be absorbed in a market area. Looking at jobs in the Greater Lansing area from 2000 to 2007, there were 10,000 jobs cut out of our market. This data was not seasonally adjusted, but it still shows a downward trend which would create a situation where existing housing stock would be in over supply, let alone adding new homes. New construction permits pulled were at record highs in 04-05 which has now caught up with us. The good news, we have seen employment numbers stabilize over the last year. This is a good sign for the market, because we should start to see our local market stabilize over time. For buyers right now, if you need a home there has never been a better time to find a good deal on a piece of property. When the market does stabilize and we start to see growth, people who purchase now are going to have the best chance of being in a great equity position in a few years. If you are thinking about real estate investing, now is the time to start researching properties and neighborhoods to learn values. With foreclosures at an all time high, interest rates at an all time low, and the new job announcements in Lansing and the surrounding area this market is showing signs of being healthy again faster than many of the other areas in Michigan. If you are interested in seeing what properties are available right how, please visit my website www.lansingrealestate.com, click on listings and MLS. You can either search properties my company currently has listed, or search all listings in the MLS by clicking on the MLS button in the upper right corner. If you are interested in government foreclosure homes, check out www.homesales.gov. This will give you the list of all the government foreclosed properties in the US. For strictly HUD homes in Michigan here is the link to Michigan broken down by cities. http://sales.clfres.com/SelectCities.aspx?State=MI&DollarExclusive=Y
If you are interested in viewing any of these homes, or have any questions regarding real estate investing or purchasing, please post a comment, or email me at brent@lansingrealestate.com. I will also be posting some of the podcasts that I listen to regarding real estate investing and real estate in general, as well as links to other sites I find useful.
Please let me know what other good sites are out there, I am always looking for more information. I am working on setting up to interviews regarding real estate investing. One from an investor that just purchased and flipped his first piece of property, and one from a gentleman who has been buying flipping and renting properties for quite some time. I hope to have these within a week.