Mar. 29, 2007 - Blogging When Feeling Lazy

Here I am with time to blog and I can't seem to put a decent sentence together.  Having a brain that was made for problem solving, however, I have come up with a solution.  Since I real feel that I should give you something great to read, and I do not want to commit plagiarism in order to do so, I have decided to point you in the direction of some other really great real estate bloggers that you might not know about otherwise.  Besides, you never know, one of you might be contemplating a move to another part of this great United States.  I have five ladies that I want you to read.  I drew their names out of a hat so as to choose what order I would put them in.

First is Carole Cohen from Cleveland.

Next is Kristal Kraft from Denver

One of my old pals Maureen McCabe from Columbus

Then there is Bonnie Erickson from St. Paul.  Bonnie I might add, is the most prolific commenter on my blog.

And last but not least Linda Davis from Connecticut.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Mar. 27, 2007 - The Perfect Storm

Wall Street is rattled and the pundits are saying that it's the soft housing market that is causing it.  New home sales are down and builders inventories are up.  Charlie Gibson is doing a series on The Home Wreckers.  I heard him blame the mortgage industry for all the foreclosures that are taking place.  Home prices in most areas of the country are feeling the downward pressure of an over saturated market.  I believe I saw Chicken Little running down Main Street today screaming that the sky is falling.  The local hobo was wearing a sandwich board that indicated that the end is near.  Doom and gloom are the buzz words of the day.  The perfect storm is brewing.  What are we to do?

Perhaps we would feel better if we sang.  Come on everybody sing along with me now: "What goes up, must come down.  Spinning wheels got to go 'round."  Sir Issac Newton figured the what goes up must come down part out along time ago and not much has changed.  I realize that the basic premise of it is about gravity, but think about it, it works on just about everything.  It's the yin and the yang.  It jives with that for each and every action there is an equal, but opposite reaction thing.  Have you ever heard that ditty that goes something like "Those that the gods would make crazy, they first raise up"?  That's all this is my friends.

When they talk about consumer confidence being at an all time low, who are they talking about?  Has anyone asked you about how confident you feel as a consumer lately?  It is my belief that the spinning wheels of the media sets the tone for consumer confidence.  One thing I know for sure is that you can take statistics and make them say pretty much whatever you want them to based on what you leave in and what you leave out.  How are things at your house?  Is your mortgage being paid?  Is there food on the table?  Even though Wall Street is rattled by the soft housing market do you still have a couple of bucks left in your IRA?

If you are faced with, or actually in foreclosure then I guess you didn't listen to your REALTOR® when they told you that interest only loans would come back to haunt you.  You must have been daydreaming when they said that the A in ARM stood for adjustable and that rates would most likely be adjusting upward.

On the other hand, if all is well with you and you have a few extra bucks, perhaps you should give me call.  Now would be a great time to invest in some rental property.  All of those people in foreclosure are soon going to need some place to live.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Mar. 26, 2007 - Let's Not Get Cheap

Time and time again potential sellers ask the same question, "What can we do to get the best possible price ?".  Time and time again I make the same suggestions.  Chances are you will hear me telling someone that modernized water rooms, ie, bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms, will give you the most return on your investment.  I will especially be telling that to someone who has a mildew farm growing in their circa 1980's bathroom.  Lately I have had to go out of my way to explain that I cannot list the house as having a remodeled bathroom just because they installed a white tub liner on their avocado bath tub and glued a three piece tub surround over the moldy plastic tiles.

Nothing screams cheap, do-it-yourself, like a glue on tub surround.  And the thing that amazes me the most is that there are "remodeling companies" that seem to be specializing in such things.  As far as I can tell, and I know someone will correct me if I'm wrong, these cheap fiberglass aberrations first showed up in trailer homes and "luxury" campers.  They may well be acceptable to buyers of these types of things, but they sure do make a fixed to the Terra firma house hard to sell for top dollar.  Especially in today's buyers market.  There is inventory galore out there, and chances are pretty good that you can acquire a home with a nicely remodeled bathroom for a pretty reasonable price.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you can't sell your house if you put a tub surround in your bathroom.  You should simply expect to get less than top dollar.  And I would also caution you about listing it as having a remodeled bathroom.  Unless of course you can find white liners for that avocado toilet bowl and sink.    

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Mar. 22, 2007 - Here We Go Again

The Des Plaines Theatre Preservation Society is at it again.  This time they are moving their latest fund raising event to the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge.  They are moving it there because the owners of the Des Plaines Theatre, Bhagwakar Properties, gave them a royal screwing back in January of '06.  According to their own timeline, in January '04 the DPTPS negotiated a Letter of Intent with Owners to trade restoration funding and labor for rent credits.  From March '05 thru December '05 the DPTPS raised money by putting on events, as well as selling non-voting memberships to the Society.  During that time they carried out restoration projects, including repairing and painting of the landmark marquee, repainting of the lobby and repairing the plaster in the auditorium.  In January '06 the owners of the theatre unilaterally dissolved the Letter of Intent Agreement.  Bhagwakar Properties, which presents East Indian films and entertainment at the theatre, got a lot of free work out of the Society and then shut the doors on them.  Now the DPTPS is announcing the "NEXT STAGE" campaign to aquire the theatre which entails yet another public fund raising campaign.  Your tax deductable contribution of a suggested $25.00, $50.00, $100.00, $250.00, $500.00 or $1,000.00 will enroll you as a member.  As a member you will be eligible to recieve discounts, newletters and e-mail updates, but it will not get you a vote.

Of course I have an opinion on all of this.  As a real estate professional my opinion is that the Des Plaines Theatre as a structure suffers from both functional and economic obsolescense.  It has nothing to do with enhancing the direction in which Downtown Des Plaines is moving.  I believe that the only reason the current owners are surviving is because they have targeted a niche market, not to mention the fact that they seem to know how to get free labor and materials when it comes to renovations.  But be that as it may, there is a basic tenent in real estate that seems to be missing here.  In order to come to a meeting of the minds there needs to be two parties, a buyer and a seller.  One of these things is missing here.  Since everything has a price, I believe that given what they want for the property, Bhagwakar Properties would probably sell.  If the property itself would appraise for what they want for it (remember that sentimental value is worth $0.00 to the lenders) then a QUALIFIED buyer should have no problem arranging for financing or setting up terms.

This thing has been going on since the Fall of 2002 and the only people who have benefited from the DPTPS efforts are the Bhagwakars.  I used to be behind the efforts of the DPTPS but I have lived and learned.  Their tag line is "Once It's Gone, It's Gone Forever" and if you don't think it should be gone then this will be a good not for profit cause, give and give generously.  Personally I've lost faith in Bhagwakar Properties. They have demonstrated that they have no interest in doing the right thing.  

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.