Have you heard Florida is up for sale…. Literally
Governor-elect Rick Scott reportedly spent over $60 million of his own money to win a job that pays $165k/year. He could have bought over 600 REOs for 100k each all-cash, easily yielding over $6 mil/year of cash flow, but Rick apparently knew where he’d get a bigger bang for his buck. Makes us proud to know that Florida has the best state government that money can buy…………
HATS OFF TO BIG BEN.
Let’s hear it for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, for dumping the dollar on the global market. After China built a roaring economy based on an artificially low exchange rate for its currency, Ben’s giving them a dose of their own medicine—just as their inflation is spiraling out of control, and Ireland has run out of cabbage.
At first, we thought this guy was mentally challenged, but the more we see, the more we think he’s dumb like a fox. First, the GM bailout worked.
Now a cheap dollar should increase exports, decrease imports and thereby increase jobs in American factories, while bringing US currency back home to Big Ben’s vault. And it makes real estate that much cheaper for the foreign investor to buy in Florida, where nearly 1 in 4 homes are still over 30 days delinquent on mortgage payments—or already in foreclosure. Don’t be surprised if your next landlord speaks Mandarin.
Time to look for foreign investors to partner up with, on a 2-5 year play. The dollar always rebounds when there’s a crisis elsewhere in the world, and when it does, the foreign investor has a nice double-play on both the real estate and the currency exchange.
Meanwhile, Ben, if you want to bring dollars back home, stabilize the housing market , and get the US banks out of the foreclosure fantango, think about selling big bundles of these non-performing mortgages to the international market. Oh, wait a second, Wall Street already tried that, didn’t they…………..
TURKEY OF THE YEAR.
In the great tradition of John Madden, it’s time for us to pick the biggest Turkey of the Year in the real estate industry. This year, our “Gilt-Edge Gobbler” award, aka the “Fee Simpleton Absolute”, was a real challenge, as there were so many worthy contenders. Due to our inability to find one recipient more sponge-worthy than the others, we’ve declared a tie between the following: Bank of America (Larry), Citicorp (Moe), Wells Fargo (Curly), and Chase (Shemp).
After making billions while cornering the national mortgage market, totally screwing up the US real estate markets and economy, they now look to the Federal government to bail them out (again) from the monumental class-action fraud litigation brewing against them, both from the foreclosed property owners and from the mortgage backed bondholders. Doubt the Feds will bail them out this time.
GM set the model for success, and our award winners will most likely find a pre-packaged Chapter 11 in their crystal balls. So enjoy the award boys, and prepare to get carved up. You deserve it…………..
In Florida and elsewhere, we’re seeing increasing evidence of a growing “spread” between the “sold” prices of regular listings vs short-sale/REO listings.
Simply put, end-buyers today are sick and tired of the delays, uncertainty and fix-up costs inherent in short sales, and won’t risk the unknown consequences of a botched foreclosure on an REO. So the entire market for “distressed properties” is increasingly left to investors and rehabbers.
We’re also seeing an increasing number of bank REOs being targeted for Year-End Clearance sales. In our opinion, now’s the time for the investor to buy.
The end-buyer market is typically slow to non-existent between Thanksgiving and New Years, while the banks are compelled to “get em off the books” and move them out. The end-buyer will be back in early 2011, and there’s a growing pent-up demand, but the house has to be in top-notch move-in-ready condition, listed at an attractive price, and ready to close as soon as an FHA mortgage can be finalized.
Time for bottom-feeder investors to get out the checkbook and get in the game……
Written by John Howell
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How To Do A Probate Wholesale Deal Step By Step | Home Mortgage on February 21, 2011
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