Investor education key for success

An investor friend of mine from Dayton, Ohio informed me last week about a very interesting real estate site. www.reiclub.com is full of information for those of you who are looking to make real estate investing a long term goal. I will be adding it to my links on the the right side of this page. For those looking to make bids on HUD houses, it is going to be a week or two before the site is back up and running. Chapman announced on Saturday that they are turning Michigan back over to Michealson, Connor, & Buhl as of today. The short notice has left current accepted bids up in the air, but after talking with them today, it seems they will have it smoothed out soon. The new site, or old site if you bought or sold these a few years ago will be www.mcbreo.com. If you are interested in learning more about how to bid on these, please leave a question posted here, or email me at brentforsberg@gmail.com.

New Years Resolutions, Education, and real estate

I hope everyone’s New Year was good and you haven’t broken too many of your resolutions yet, it’s still early. One of my goals this year is to read 15 books in either the real estate field or self help type books. Last year my goal was one a month, and I achieved it. Not all of them were in print though, I have used my MP3 player to turn my car into what Zig Ziglar calls, Mobile University. What does this have to do with real estate? If you are thinking about buying a home, or investment properties there is a lot of material out there to help you get a jump start. I have a couple good sources on the side of this blog page. I was looking through I-Tunes, which is free even if you don’t have an I-Pod and the amount of knowledge there is incredible. No matter what your interests are, there is probably a cast that can give you information about it. You can even download podcasts that teach you different languages.

I will be posting the 2007 final market report for Lansing Real estate within a few weeks. If you would like to find out more information about the Lansing real estate market before then, please feel free to call me or leave questions here and I will get answers posted up. My number is (517) 349-9330 ext. 206. I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope you look as forward to a great year in 2008 as I do!

Market report on Lansing housing supply

I apologize for not getting the investor interview posted, I have had some scheduling conflicts with getting the interview done. I am hoping to record it this week. I have just run a market report for my company using the Realtor multiple list data. I do this every couple of months to try and keep a pulse on our local market. When I ran these numbers in July we had seen a constant rise in the amount of homes available on the market of both existing homes and new homes. This has been right in line with the national numbers that we have all seen on T.V. and in the papers. As of the end of November there were currently 4978 residential properties listed in the MLS. Looking at the amount of homes sold year to date, this means there is currently just over 14 months worth of housing stock available in the greater Lansing area. This is about a month more of supply than was available earlier this year. We are starting to see the market stabilize especially in new construction where permits pulled for new homes have declined more than 40% year over year for two years in a row. For the first time since the early 1980’s we may see less than 600 new homes built in this area. If you are interested in buying a home, it has been over twenty years since we have had this strong of a buyers market. I have many homes that come across my desk daily that would be a good buy, and there have been several that are almost steals. Whether you are looking for a home to live in, or for an investment, now is the time to really start doing your homework and seeing what’s out there. It might not be the best time to flip properties, but if you can buy and hold, it will be worth it in the future. You can start looking at properties by going to www.lansingrealestate.com and clicking on the home search function. If you are interested in learning more about investing I have a few good links on the side of this page you should check out. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email at brent@lansingrealestate.com or call my office at (517) 349-9330 ext. 206. Have a great day.