fliprent

The Old E Baltimore project is finally moving again.  The old contractor is out of the way, at least for now.  The new guys have the deck, fencing exterior doors and most of the patch up work completed.   The punch-out work can sometimes take just as much time as the larger projects.  I must admit that the majority of the delay is due to my inability to get around.   Getting back on my feet took several months and is still a work in progress.   Health problems can derail a business, especially when you are the business.   Make sure you plan for situations like these by having at least six months of mortgage payments in savings.  Also look into purchasing long/short term disability.

The last items on the list are the range, refrigerator, gutters/down spouts, plumbing and cleanup.   The plumbing work is a story all by itself.  The problem is mostly due to the contractor’s use of the toilet even though it was not working.  I’m not even sure if the toilet is any good, let alone the fact that the water isn’t even on in the house.  The toughest part of this real estate investing business is working with contractors.  If you have a weak stomach, find something else to do. Needless to say this will be a messy job for the next plumber.   I sure hope he has a mask… 

 Next up on the list will be the city inspections, followed by the section 8 inspections.  I’m sure I’ll have a whole new to do list soon. 

We’ve all heard the news that existing home sales in December 2009 surprisingly increased.  Previously owned homes in the US increased 6.5% to a 4.74-million-unit annual sales rate, according to the National Association of Realtors. This was very surprising considering most analysts had predicted sales at a 4.40 million unit pace.  Some analysts say that this could be a sign that the bottom is near., although the spark was mostly due to distressed foreclosure sales in states like California and Florida. 

Not everyone agrees that the housing market is anywhere near the bottom.   According to James R. Hagerty of the Wall Street Journal, economic indicators show that the housing market is not looking any better for spring 2009.    Dave Johnson and James Boyce of the Huffington Post believes that there is another entirely new bubble on the horizon that they refer to as the double bubble. 

It seems for every analyst predicting an upswing there is an antagonist waiting in the wings to disagree.   Heck!   That’s a 50/50 chance that it could swing either way.  Those odds are a lot better than at this time last year.

President Obama and Congress are finalizing an economic recovery bill that could be signed into law by next month. The bill has important implications for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).

The LIHTC is the nation’s largest, most successful affordable rental housing production program. But it has been hit hard by the financial crisis. Investment in the LIHTC fell from about $9 billion in 2007 to about $4-5 billion in 2008. It could drop even further in 2009.

Bringing the LIHTC program back to its full potential is one of the fastest ways to provide an economic stimulus while also assisting low-income working families, including victims of the foreclosure crisis.

BACKGROUND

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the nation’s largest and most successful affordable rental housing production program to date, financing more than two million homes since 1987 and about 120,000 annually in recent years. According to the National Council of State Housing Agencies, approximately 90 percent of all affordable rental housing is financed through the LIHTC. According to the National Association of Homebuilders, building 120,000 homes annually through the LIHTC supports 180,000 jobs annually. 

Source: Enterprise Community Partners

Have a great day and don’t forget its National Service Day.  This is a great opportunity to give in our communities.  The current conditions have created a need for more families than at any point in most of our lifetimes.  Let’s join President Obama and First Lady Michelle in this historic moment.  God Bless!

 2009 King Day of Service Will Be Largest Ever – 12,100 Projects and Counting!

Search for an event near you.

Note to president Obama… Our current financial system doesn’t work!  As if he really needed me to tell him that!  The current mortgage meltdown and credit crisis should tell us all one thing for sure.  We don’t know what the “h-e-double hockey sticks” we are doing in our financial markets.  Many years ago there were no banks or brokers to create this mess.  Banks served a great purpose in building our country to what it is/was.  But maybe its time that we do something different or in this case do it again but better.   What I am referring to is people investing in other people not banks.  Today this concept is commonly referred to as Peer to Peer lending. 

Read the rest of this entry »

According to three researches at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the 2005 bankruptcy law is another contributor to our economy in crisis.  The article states that prior to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, homeowners were able to file Chapter 7 liquidation.  This allowed them to continue to pay their mortgages while freeing themselves of unsecured (not asset backed) debt.  You can red the rest of the article here.

 By now we all should know how our country got into this economic depression.  Anyone who doesn’t know isn’t paying attention.  Yes I did call it a depression just like I called it a recession before it was official.  It’s not just me either.  However, if you don’t know how it happened, here is my condensed list:

• Lenders
• Mortgage Brokers
• Regulators
• Mortgage Secondary Market
• Investment bankers
• Bernie Maydoff (yes he gets his own category)
• The Feds
• White House
• Congress
• Past Presidents
• New Home Builders
• Real Estate Investors
• Hedge Fund Managers
• Media Outlets

Read the rest of this entry »

Sales of pending US homes dropped to a new low in November.  According to the National Association Of Realtors (NAR), signed contracts in November dropped 4.0 percent to 82.3.  This is the lowest level since 2001. Economists expected a 0.1 percent drop, so that should tell you just how far off the mark they are.

Yeah! comments are back!  Akismet is a life saver for Wordpress blogs, along with many others blog engines I’m sure.  Comment Spam on the blog-sphere is out of control!  I had over 11,000 spam comments in the queue.  How ridiculous is that?   Well thankfully I rediscovered this plug-in so we can get back to some meaningful conversation.  Thanks guys at Akismet!  Now if I can only find the time to post articles again…

Today my contractor on the Old E. Baltimore project decided that this job “wasn’t worth it” in his own words.  Hey maybe he’s right.  It’s not worth it for him.  In fact it hasn’t been worth it for me either.  Needless to say, I had no problem with it.  It’s been way too long and he is trying to juggle too many jobs.  Good thing is I don’t have a lot left to do.  Bad news is, its time to get another crew in there.  Parting ways, with no hard feelings, is just fine with me.  I may loose a few more weeks but it’s better than the ensuing battle at the end.  The search begins…  Hey…do you know of a good TRUSTWORTHY carpenter in the area?  Drop me an email if you do. This ought to be fun!