DENVER IS #1

Now we don’t have to try harder! Here it is. Forbes Magazine says Denver is the best city in America for real estate deals: “Denver tops the list. It had 25% of its property sales occur within approximately 25% of the city’s ZIP codes. This means sales in various parts of the city were fairly evenly distributed, showing proportionate activity. The further a city deviates from the 25% mark, the less evenly distributed the market is in that city, and thus the lower that city ranks… (They credit) Denver’s stability to its main industries–energy and technology–that (they) aren’t likely to decline simultaneously. (Denver’s) housing market didn’t grow as much as in other parts of the country over the last five years.”

Tell us something we did NOT know. Now the WORLD knows. 

It looks like the Obama Administration wants to make it simple for home buyers by providing a Plain Vanilla loan; gosh, how refreshing, 30-year fixed. We hear rumors that the Feds plan to take over some state administered (federally funded) programs and eliminate discrepancies in how local states determine who benefits.

 

 

REAL ESTATE WEATHER REPORT

At our last breakfast club, local realtor and investor Terry Wenze tipped us off about a new Carbon Monoxide Alarm law requirement effective July 1, 2009.  Any new rentals require landlords to provide CO Detectors AND batteries. Rehabbed houses, too. Looks like new addendums to add to our rental leases as well as the $30 per CO Det cost.

 

Forbes Magazine disclosure of the JOYS of DENVER will have an impact on our marketplace.  We are already seeing it. Best and Final is becoming more and more popular. We’re seeing wholesalers selling MLS properties well above the listed MLS rate (less than 5% of ours do). Bidding wars are more frequent between investors. We’re seeing bidding wars between homeowners, as well.

I have a sneaky suspicion that the normal season cycle will copy our weather patterns: more rain and nasty storms. Expect first-time homeowner frenzy to hit hyper-drive this September-November…I would not be surprised if our government extends the Dec 1, 2009 deadline to close for homeowners to get the $8,000 tax credit.

Here’s the latest report on Colorado’s Single Family Home/Condo Vacancy Report.  Up to 3.6% from 2.7 last year. Still low compared to apartment vacancies. Most investor landlords factor in a 5% vacancy rate when determining cash on cash, ROI, etc. so you’ll be fine with your forecasts.

How are the rents? It appears that they are stabilizing. 4/2/1 in Montbello can get you $1100/mo or higher. 3/1s in old depressed neighborhoods can bring in $800/mo. Do your diligence. Make the calls. Know your competition. We’re seeing investors buying, fixing, and renting drawing healthy cash flows, $200, $300, $400 per month, even more in some areas. Any of you who were around in this market place ten years ago never saw returns like that. THEY’RE HERE. Enjoy. Don’t miss the opportunities, be they townhomes, condos, duplexes, or single family houses. We were working with one investor who determined he could buy and live in a tri-plex with 2 units MORE than paying for his purchase and fix up (the numbers indicated that he could live with FREE RENT and FREE UTILITIES). The deals are there and people are getting them done!

What about flips? We’re still seeing a squeeze between paying higher prices for the junkers and the sale prices are not rising at a similar rate.  We hope that will change SOON. Flipping still works. People are still buying.

 

INVENTORY

We are still turning down some deals that do not meet our standards. By the looks of things, they meet other investors standards. There are still many investors who are willing to pay more for a property and take less profit for various reasons.

Our inventory remains low. We still have these two deals, one that will cash flow well with lite fix and low maintenance, the other has promising potential.

. 

16495 E 17^th Pl #B, Aurora. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Buy this REO for $45.5K and fix for only $4.5K, over 1500 finished sq ft! Great cash flow. Who’s interested?  2 miles East of the Fitz Med Center. 

2105 Eagle Cir, Aurora. Horse property (local authorities report up to 2 horses provided they’re related). Irrigation. 3/2/2 with out buildings. Over ½ acre. Buy this REO for $59K and fix $20K +. Oh, in light (and dark) of the recent rains and hearty hails, some of the roofs leak, what a surprise!

Call us for more information or with questions. We expect more properties anytime; bookmark our WEBSITE and visit often. Don’t miss opportunities.

 

Bon Homepetit!

 

John Fisher

www.happycanyongroup.com

303 338-8000

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:  If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
-~Ivan Turgenev ~

 

       HAPPY JUNETEENTH

Wow. Are you keeping up with all of the market conditions? Market changes? What’s selling, what’s not?  If you cannot wait, scroll down to our Denver Weather Report for some local remarks on what’s going on in our backyard. Nationwide, things continue to be interesting and exciting!

Everyone is still picking on Detroit: Got $100? Welcome to your new Detroit home. Maybe less.

Good News: Freddie Mac reports:Fixed-rate Mortgages Head Lower. Let’s hope this trend continues! Even 30 year fixed are down ¼ point. Regardless, experts say we may never see sub 5% rates for a long time.

 

On a personal note: How’s your health? Newsweek has some information that helps you predict how long you will live: Can you Cheat Death? Pg 68, Newsweek, June 22, 2009. Men start with 75.2 years and women at 80.4 and you go up or down from there.

 

REAL ESTATE WEATHER REPORT

We’re starting to see foreclosures in the rural mountain communities.  Not much demand for fixer upper acreages…yet.  If you have any interest, let us know.

Lon Welch with Your Castle provided data to the Denver Business Journal states that Housing sales inventory out of balance in metro Denver.  They report that the average days on market for listings $85K and under is less than one month. The HOT houses are priced and selling between $150-300K. Houses priced at $1M+ have an absorption rate of 16 months.

Is that what we’re seeing? Well, YES. Refinances are slowing down as rates have risen slightly. We’re seeing owner occ purchases take an additional 2 weeks to process through lenders and banks. Hopefully, that will go back to 3-4 weeks soon. REO sellers still hold out for 30 days or less (after all, ALL investors buy with CASH, don’t they?).

Appraisals still are dicey. We should reach some leveling soon or it will drive us all crazy. Is ordering TWO appraisals now becoming standard procedure??? I had a property in Old Aurora hit with a declining neighborhood label and took a 10% deduction. Two years ago, maybe, but now??? Maybe that appraiser hadn’t been to Old Aurora for a few years….

 

INVENTORY

We turned down properties this week in Lakewood, Park County, and Aurora. We’re not sure what buyers are looking for so drop us a line, let us know what you want. We just might have something that can work well for you!

. 

16495 E 17^th Pl #B, Aurora. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Buy this REO for $45.5K and fix for only $4.5K, over 1500 finished sq ft! Great cash flow. Who’s interested?  2 miles East of the Fitz Med Center.  This must close soon.

2105 Eagle Cir, Aurora. Horse property (local authorities report up to 2 horses provided both are related). Irrigation. 3/2/2 with out buildings. Over ½ acre. Buy this REO for $59K and fix $20K +.

Call us for more information or with questions. We expect more properties anytime; bookmark our WEBSITE and visit often. Don’t miss opportunities.

 

Bon Homepetit!

 

John Fisher

www.happycanyongroup.com

303 338-8000

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:  We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. ~Winston Churchill

       CHANGE: ACCEPT, ADJUST, ADAPT

It’s not Death and Taxes you can always count on, it’s CHANGE. You must accept it, embrace it, make your adjustments and adaptations. We’re focusing on Real Estate, national and local. Things are really changing in our arena.

CNN/Money has a feature on Detroit: Investors bet on Detroit housing market. Says to be careful but some investors report to be doing very well.  As mortgage rates rise, mortgage apps go down. Logical. Let’s hope that the $8K tax cut continues to encourage first-time homeownership.

Blogs, Microblogs, Social Networking, our future marketing.

 

REAL ESTATE WEATHER REPORT

Whether report. OK.  How’s our local market?  Most everyone is still hesitant. Employment is still tentative. Strip malls have their vacancies.  Only those with great credit can get loans. Only strong buyers can buy our houses. Where are the opportunities? Rent to Own. Straight rentals. Fix and flips. They all work. They’re all money makers.  Name your part of town. It works everywhere. If you know what you’re doing. Owner occ interest rates went up. Investor loans are still hard to come by; who’d ever thought that 65% LTV at 6% would be “good?” Let’s hope they get better.

Someone suggested that I start a Twitter and post whenever we get a new property, we may try that out. As it stands, we send out one e-mail per week as this blog/newsletter. We also send out an invitation to our monthly breakfast club, once per month. 

Our Breakfast Club meets this Saturday, June 13, 2009 7
AM to 9AM at NY Deli on Hampden.  Lots to talk about. Trends, foreclosures, auctions, Congress….

 

INVENTORY

You can skip the descriptions below and go directly to our Wholesale  WEBSITE.  We’re still getting great deals. 

8147 S Book Forest Rd. Evergreen. 6 Plex. PRICE FURTHER REDUCED  7 bedrooms/6 baths.  It’s ALL RENTED. Great cash flow. Buy this for $179K. Over ½ acre in woods and rocks with a babbling brook. Who could ask for more?  This must close soon.

16495 E 17^th Pl #B, Aurora. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Buy this REO for $45.5K and fix for only $4.5K, over 1500 finished sq ft! Terrific rental or Rent to Own. 2 miles East of the Fitz Med Center.  This must close soon.

2105 Eagle Cir, Aurora. Horse property. Irrigation. 3/2/2 with out buildings. Over ½ acre. Buy this REO for $59K and fix $20K +. Tap Fees and Land alone cost more than this. Act now (or we will!).

1031 Sable St., Aurora.  4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage. MOUNTAIN VIEWS. Opens to Greenbelt. Huge lot. OK, it needs work. Buy this for $94K and fix for $20K. Walkout basement.  Another great flip or rental. Your choice! No address yet, you must call us as we’re awaiting final paperwork.

Call us for more information or with questions. We expect more properties anytime; bookmark our WEBSITE and visit often. Don’t miss opportunities.

 

Bon Homepetit!

 

John Fisher

www.happycanyongroup.com

303 338-8000

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:  Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor. ~ Robert Frost,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       IT’S STILL SPRING!

Don’t forget, we have another few more weeks of Spring! This is a great time to be rehabbing and getting your property listed and sold.  Change is in the air. Our economy is still a-twitter. Countrywide execs are in trouble!  Overexpansion? Ignoring the market? Well, DUH!

CNN Money has an interesting discussion on the Pro’s and Con’s of Rent to Own. Check it out! It’s an option that can help “sell” an otherwise hard-to-sell home.  I love it for basic rentals because we structure it for minimal maintenance. All the better if they really buy it! They probably won’t be able to take advantage of the $8K tax credit, though. CNN also has the 10 Most Under-Valued and 10 Most Over-Valued Housing Markets.  Denver is not in the running.

Forbes has an interesting article about Second Homes. Check it out if that’s you or you’re thinking of buying or selling a second home!

FDIC was looking to dump about $1B in bad toxic real estate loans this month. WAS. They’ve reconsidered. The opportunity may come up if we’re prepared to act.  I heard that you, too, can play if you can post a $5M letter of credit…let me know if that’s you!

 

REAL ESTATE WEATHER REPORT

Alright. What’s going on locally? We’re hanging in there. I heard one MLS Showing Service had a banner day last Friday with over 1000 showings. Wow. Let’s hope it continues.  We’re seeing signs of recovery. Not with the volume and price increases we want to see; nonetheless, we’re seeing some improvements.  Appraisals remain unsettling. It seems that appraisers may not be able to see how much the buyer wants to pay for the property.  I am reminded of the subjectivity of real estate; take 3 appraisers out to the same property and you’ll get 3 different appraisals. Gosh, we can pay $1000 instead of $350 now and get a tri-merge, just like with credit scores, right???? No. Thank heaven.

Two of our Follow Me students report their listed properties are under contract, one was listed for less than a week. Does it really take 6 weeks to close a property?  No and yes. Go figure. Oh, those aforementioned properties were in Commerce City and Aurora (who says people are avoiding certain markets?)

Don’t forget, we still have the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline!  If you are in trouble or know someone who is, have them call to better understand their rights and options.

The City of Denver is offering home improvements permits at no charge until June 15, 2009 in an effort to encourage homeowners to fix up their homes and use contractors to help stimulate our economy. Check this out for more information.

SEC 8 Payments Delayed in July. Check out this announcement , 2 week delay if you have Sec 8 renters…something to do with funding, fiscal year, and completing appropriate docs.

Follow Me Denver. We currently have openings in our rehab mentor program if you’re interested. Hands-on, no classroom. If you don’t “do” a house, you don’t “do” our program!

 

INVENTORY

You can skip the descriptions below and go directly to our Wholesale  WEBSITE.  We’re still getting great multi-family, condo and single family deals.  For those of you who don’t know us well, we’ve been wholesaling for years. We do not cherry pick. If no one is interested in these properties and provided we have funding, we do ‘em ourselves. Last month we closed on a property no one wanted and did quite well. You can too!

8147 S Book Forest Rd. Evergreen. 6 Plex. PRICE FURTHER REDUCED  7 bedrooms/6 baths.  It’s ALL RENTED. Great cash flow. Buy this for $189K. Over ½ acre in woods and rocks with a babbling brook. Who could ask for more?  This is the last week we’ll list this. If we have no takers, we’ll do it ourselves!

16495 E 17^th Pl #B, Aurora. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Buy this REO for $45.5K and fix for only $4.5K, over 1500 finished sq ft! Terrific rental or Rent to Own. 2 miles East of the Fitz Med Center. 

2105 Eagle Cir, Aurora. Horse property. Irrigation. 3/2/2 with out buildings. Over ½ acre. Buy this REO for $59K and fix $20K +. Tap Fees and Land alone cost more than this. Act now (or we will!).

9161 Nagel Dr, Thornton.  OK. If you don’t know “old” Thornton, SOG is the rule: SLAB ON GRADE.  3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Mirrored floor plans, 1176 sq ft. Cute, brick, carport. Curb appeal.  This investor-purchased foreclosure auctioned property can be yours for $79K. Fix up appears to approach $20K.

3460 S Dale Ct, Sheridan/Englewood. 2/1/1. Buy this Short Sale at $73.5K  and fix for $8K. Cute (oh, it’s occupied). Check it out.

1 Come Monday, Green Valley Ranch, Denver. Turn this 2/1/2 into a 3/1/2. Cute. Great curb appeal and it’s only $66K with $15-20K in fix. This makes cents no matter how you spin the coin. Flip! Rent! Rent to Own! YOU make the call. This sold in 2008 for $150K. Go figure. No address yet, you must call us as we’re awaiting final paperwork.

1031 Sable Blvd, Aurora.  4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage. MOUNTAIN VIEWS. Opens to Greenbelt. Huge lot. OK, it needs work. Buy this for $94K and fix for $20K. Walkout basement.  Another great flip or rental. Your choice! No address yet, you must call us as we’re awaiting final paperwork.

Call us for more information or with questions. We expect more properties anytime; bookmark our WEBSITE and visit often. Don’t miss opportunities.

 

Bon Homepetit!

 

John Fisher

www.happycanyongroup.com

303 338-8000

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:   If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. ~Anne Bradstreet, 1655