A Bunch Of Topics — And A Few Thoughts

Posted @ 6:09 pm - Filed under Cool Info, Real Estate Investing, Check This Out, Weekend Thoughts, Financing, Real Estate Markets, Market Correction

Many of you may already know, I write for other real estate related blogs. I’ve written for BloodhoundBlog for several months now. This week I was honored to begin writing a weekly piece for Laurie Manny over at her Long Beach blog. To say Laurie has figured out her market, is understatement at its most British. Anyway, if you wish to see my first post, you can find it over there. It’s called Bernanke’s Purposeful Plan?. If you have any reason to search out info in the Long Beach area, trust me, Laurie is the person to see.

Looks like we’re gonna have our hands forced in our quest to open up Kansas City for our clients. So far, our efforts there have generated yawns from the local pros. Of course, if it didn’t take a couple days to get phone calls and emails returned, we might’ve already been there a couple months.

So we’re taking the bull by the horns, and eschewing our normal approach. We staunchly maintain our core belief there are title companies, lenders, inspectors, etc. with whom we’ll be excited to do all our business. Meanwhile, it seems the lender portion will be handled by those already under the Brown and Brown umbrella. Though I’d much rather use local guys, we’ve already wasted six months in our fruitless search. Plus, our current mortgage guys are battle tested, and rarin’ to go. I know one thing — our failure to locate a solid KC mortgage guy isn’t the fault of our studly local agent, Chris Lengquist. He’s been trying for months. The only agent Brown and Brown has hired in the last couple decades, carried our DNA. If Chris lived in San Diego, and was interested in the least, we’d hire him in a nano-second. Read this and understand why.

Investors — There’s an opportunity on the horizon. The axiom quoted here ad infinitum — Lenders Lend — has proven itself once again. A couple lenders have now come up with new adjustable rate loans for investors. They’ve retaken the momentum from hybrids by lowering their indexed rate. Also, they lowered the payment rate. Big deal you say? They’re still neg-ams. Yer absolutely correct. The prudent use of those type loans in years past resulted in the creation of untold million$ in capital growth. Ask your skeptical self this question: If you buy in a relatively low priced, but demonstrably growth region, and interest rates keep falling — What will your net result be?

Ah — I just saw the light go on a touch. Remember the days when the indexed rate on neg-am loans was actually lower than 30 year conforming fixed rates? I do. So do my clients. You know, the ones who have either come close, or have actually added a new comma to their net worth? With a falling indexed rate, you’re gonna see a rise in the use of these loans — as weird as it sounds.

And this one cracks me up. A man I respect very much, Warren Buffett, that ignorant wannabe investor from Omaha, (insert laugh track here) has shown great interest in investing significant capital into, wait for it………Countrywide. How stupid can some folks be? I dare the talking heads to call him out on this one. Please, please, please, interview him. But alas, they won’t, as he just might say something rational on the air. Who says the Lord doesn’t have a sense of humor? Wall Street is reacting positively at just the thought of Mr. Buffett following through by acquiring shares of the (deep announcer’s voice) beleaguered lender.

Finally, let’s see if I can’t send you into the Labor Day weekend with a good thought.

I’ll invoke the — This opinion along with my heavily armed Starbuck’s card will get you some coffee and a great big oatmeal raison cookie disclaimer here. I’ve seen this economic movie more than once before. Here’s what happens, more or less.

Wall Street wrings its collective hands while shedding crocodile tears, imploring the Fed to wave its magic wand and make the boo-boo go away cuz it hurts really bad.

Just when even the cooler heads begin to show a little fear, the Fed lowers rates.

Once again the confidence factor proves to be the most important factor, as a ¼% drop is treated like the discovery of penicillin.

By New Year’s Eve folks everywhere, including you, will be telling whoever will listen, that you told them so.

Those who’ve invested in the right markets (read: low priced & growth) this year, and probably the first 2-3 quarters of next year, will be handsomely rewarded in the next several years.

It will be enormously entertaining watching the doomsayers explaining away the lack of the total economic collapse they’ve been predicting for so many years..

The next few months are gonna be, as the Chinese proverb says — interesting times. Much of the time they wished those times on folks with ill will. I think the upcoming times have an excellent chance of being interesting the same way a movie with a Hollywood ending is.

I wish you all a safe and fun Labor Day weekend.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Cool Info, Real Estate Investing, Check This Out, Weekend Thoughts, Financing, Real Estate Markets, Market Correction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.