Trespassers Beware!

Many times in Michigan we hear of property rights disputes involving where bodies of water and private land meet. Over the years there has been a lot of case law involving riparian rights. This website seems to have a lot of information regarding property rights for land owners adjacent to a body of water www.mwai.org . There is a large section of the rights of property owners and a list of cases regarding this issue.
Being a sportsman, respect of land and property is something that has always been very important to me. As more and more land is developed and purchased privately, it is getting harder to find large property for enjoying outdoor sports. Michigan has done a great job in developing its parks, and heading to the areas in the more rural parts of Ingham, Eaton, and Clinton Counties, there are tracts of State land available for use by Residents. I am bringing up land rights issues due to an incident that happened on our property behind our office on November 11, 2007. A gentleman was given permission to hunt the property with a bow, and harvested a 10 point buck. The animal ran onto property owned by a utility company. A neighbor adjacent to the utility company’s property confronted the hunter stating that he had illegally taken the animal and removed the head of the deer and took it. The neighbor had stated that he leased the property from Consumers Power. Here is the link to the article posted at WILX TV
www.wilx.com/home/headlines/11227326.html . This seems highly unlikely since several people have pointed out that Consumers Energy does not lease there property. So whose deer was it? According to the “Tagging Big Game and Furbearers” Section of the Michigan Department of Natural Resource’s Hunting and Trapping Guide. “It is unlawful to tag and animal you did not legally kill.” So even if the Neighbor did tag the head before he took it, he would still be in violation. Leaving the game laws out of, it brings up questions of property rights. If the deer had fallen on Mr. Wisniewski’s (AKA The Neighbors) property and he would not allow the hunter to retrieve it, the animal would become the State’s property. This is due to trespassing laws of Michigan. “MCLA 750.552 is the general state statute for trespass. This statute prevents anyone from trespassing upon the premises of another after having been forbidden to do so.” According to Attorney Clifford H. Bloom in an article called Trespass! Posted on the mwai.org website above, since the hunter would have been prevented from entering the premise, and the land owner could not tag the animal, an officer would have to confiscate it.
Now the question becomes since the property was not posted as private, when the hunter went on the property to retrieve his animal, was he in violation of any laws. He had never been forbidden to enter the property either by signs on the property or by any individual. If I am reading how the statute is being interpreted by Mr. Bloom, it would seem that he had every right to enter the property, especially since he thought he was still on the property he had been given permission to hunt. He had no intention of trespassing on someone else’s property. The DNR is currently involved now, and it will be interesting to see what the outcome of this incident is going to be. If you have any comments or know more about the laws involved, please leave me your comment.

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.

Learn how land planning and Development is done

As development and land use become an ever more heated topic in the United States, many people have questions as to how different decisions are made. Ingham county residents will have a chance to take a workshop to learn how planning and zoning works. This would be an excellent class for anyone interest in learning about board procedures, or just curious about getting involved in our region with development issues. The workshop is being put on by Ingham Economic Development Corporation. This group is dedicated to helping communities and businesses develop through education and links to local, state, and federal funding and other services. I am looking forward to attending this seminar to learn more about the process. The cost of $35 seems more than fair for this course. Here is the Link for Ingham Economic Development if you would like to learn more about them, www.ingham.org/DV/developm.htm . To register for this course, you can contact Susan at spigg@ingham.org or find out more at Lansing area events under the lecture and Seminar section. As always, with any question, or comments, please email me brent@lansingrealestate.com

Go Green Lansing

The green building movement is something relatively new on the American scene. Most people know the term green but do not know exactly what the standard is. In the residential housing industry, you can have the five star energy rating for a home, which means it is energy efficient. This is kind of the beginning standard, then you can get into the types of glues used, renewable finishings, such as bamboo flooring, and many other features that can be used to save energy and be more environmentally friendly. In Commercial buildings, I am aware of Leadership in Energy and Environment Design, or LEED. It is the standard developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. Here is the link if you are interested in finding out more about the standard, www.usgbc.org/LEED/. The National Association of Homebuilders announced that it is going green and is really pushing its new green building courses. In Lansing Gene Townsend announced his new project on the Corner of Kalamazoo and Cedar with its retail shops, condos, and apartments as a green building. I am really excited about this, and I think Gene is going to make a real impact on this town with this. As far as I am aware, this it the biggest green project that Lansing has ever seen. This may be the only true “Green” building in Lansing. This type of project is something that Lansing really needs. I hope that it is a great success for Mr. Townsend, and shows the other developers in the area that Lansing is ready to “Go Green.” (Hopefully that last line does not infringe on any copyright of any certain University)

10/19/2007 Regional Changes in Lansing

As we are constantly reminded of budget deficits, tax issues, and the automotive industry doldrums in the State of Michigan, under the radar Mid Michigan has seen a lot of small start up growth.
Lansing has had an exciting week of announcements. Accident Fund is working on finally coming up with a solution for the vacant Ottawa plant building and bringing it back to a community asset. Pat Gillespie has yet again shown that Lansing has the potential to really shine as an urban core with reclaiming more of the riverfront and turning it into a destination spot for the tri-county area. The entire region has seen some real changes for the enhanced quality of life. Old town just received national recognition from Ikea thanks to the support of the entire Lansing community getting together and voting. The festivals located there are packed with people and activities. REO town has started their Labor Day festival that brings in local and national bands that was truly a great time.
Many of the smaller communities in the area have events that attract hundreds to thousands of people. DeWitt has their Harvest fest coming up and the next few months will be full of Chili cook-offs and holiday celebrations across the region. Over the past decade people have really began to realize how important the fabric of the community is to the quality of life for all of its members. As you drive into the downtowns of our local cities, the streetscapes are being improved and many of the towns are very walk able and full of many exciting small businesses. I am sitting in the downtown Mason coffee shop and bookstore, looking at the town square and admiring the building facades that are all being renovated and the ones that are already restored. Even though its raining, people have been coming in and out of the coffee shop, and quite a few people are walking in and out the of the businesses and shops here.
Right now, downtown Lansing is hard to get in and out of due to the road construction. Next time you go down Washington though, notice how almost every building on the street is either restored, or in the process of being so. All of those second and third stories that were sealed in a metal shell for decades are now being re-utilized into lofts for residents and small businesses. As little as two years ago when you went downtown after five, you would be one of just a few people walking in what looked like a ghost town. Now, there are lines in front of the clubs to get in, the restaurants are starting to get busy, and the coffee shops have people enjoying a cup either before or after they get on with their days. Our region has seen our quality of life enriched with so many different types of activities and the towns all working to make their shopping districts more pedestrian friendly.
I am excited that this doesn’t seem to just be a trend, but a change in our daily lifestyle. As the world becomes more connected economically and many companies are competing for market share in regions and countries that it may not have been possible to do even 5 years ago, people are also realizing how important it is to support and build the local economies, to make sure that we keep the quality of life that we have created here. We have a great balance of businesses that compete on the international, regional, and local level. I hope we continue to see the business growth in the region, and the continued improvement of our cities and towns as we move forward. I really enjoy being a part of the tri county community, and want to know about what you find enjoyable here. Please email me the highlights of your experiences here in Mid-Michigan. What events, festivals, and businesses do you enjoy that adds to your quality of life here? Let me know at brent@lansingrealestate.com and I will get the answers posted. You can also post a response immediately at www.lansingrealestateopportunities.blogspot.com. Have a great weekend, and I look forward to reading what experiences you enjoy in Mid-Michigan.

Give Us Your Feedback - Potential Condominium Project!

Forsberg Real Estate Company is looking at a potential project in a town that is a suburb of Lansing. We are looking at restoring a building that would have 1, 2, and 3 bedroom condominiums ranging in price from approximately $99,000 to $139,000. These would be within walking distance of this suburb’s downtown which features a coffee shop, restaurants, a salon, convenience store, a bank, and other types of businesses. Downtown Lansing would be approximately a 15-20 minute drive.

I am curious to get feedback if there would be any interest in this type of home? If you were going to purchase a loft type condominium, what types of finishing’s and amenities would you want inside the condominium? What types of businesses would you want surrounding you? Until the live post is activated, please email your answer to brent@lansingrealestate.com. Thank you for your responses and time in answering our survey.

-Brent

Fall activities

What a change a week has made in the feeling of Mid Michigan. It seemed for a while that summer was going to never end. Fall has definitely set in, bringing with it many great outdoor activities, including donut and cider mills, fall festivals, hometown football games, and many other activities that can only be enjoyed this time of year. Over the weekend my wife and I were in Ludington. The fall colors were absolutely beautiful as most of the trees had completely turned. Hopefully with the cool weather we will get a spectacular show here by this weekend. If you are looking for fall activities, please visit www.lansingrealestate.com and click on the news/events button. We are constantly working to update this, so if you have any events that you think should be added please feel free to email the events to brent@lansingrealestate.com. We will do our best to get them added. Enjoy the crisp air, and have a great weekend.