creiZ about Real Estate

I recently came across this Chicago property management company and wanted to post information on it in case you are in the market for one. They also have a site for finding Chicago apartments and a Chicago real estate blog. (BTW, tell them Marvin Corea of creiZ.com referred you.)

Have fun in the Windy City!

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Tags: chicago apartments, chicago property management, chicago real estate management, chicago real estate

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On my way back from Safeway this morning after buying about a week's worth of milk (in other words 6 gallons, hey I've got 4 kids and it's just past noon and half a gallon is gone already... but anyway), on my way back home I passed by Michaels and saw a bunch of Christmas wreaths selling for 90 cents each. These are normally about $5 to $10 wreaths at the peak of the Christmas season. If someone or even maybe a Christmas store (you know those that only open for a couple of months at the end of the year) bought these and held them till the end of the year, they could probably make a killing. They could probably have an ROI in the few hundreds.

Rather than stopping and buying 100 wreaths (since I know my wife would not be too happy seeing 100 wreaths in the garage), I got to thinking how much the wreaths were like discounted real estate/REO properties (or in general any discounted asset that is out of season). The subprime mess (among other things) in the United States has caused a glut of residential real estate to fall out of season.

As with wreaths, residential real estate will be back in season eventually. The time frame may not be the same since wreaths will most likely be back in season in the latter part of year and residential real estate may or may not recover some, but it will recover. It always does. It is, to use Warren Buffett's words, a "high-probability event" that residential real estate will be back to where it was 1.5 to 2 years ago. It may just take 1, 2, 3 or more (or less) years to get there.

So imagine the returns those that buy now at 40 to 70 cents on the dollar will see once the residential real estate market is back up again. It may not be in the hundreds as with wreaths, but in the 30s to 50s shouldn't be too bad.

Could this be of interest? If not, I can definitely find you some wreaths that available for pennies on the dollar. You can open up your own Christmas store and you'd make a killing!

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Tags: high-probabilityevent, distressed investment sourcing, distressed asset investing, bulk reo, loan portfolios, note portfolios, warren buffet, reo properties, reo portfolios, discounted property, mortgage trading, commercial portfolios, investment portfolios

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 02:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just saw this on Inman news (PAID SUBSCRIPTION required) by Bernice Ross and thought this was interested for any agents out there. Here's the list (comments in italics):

• Get rich in a niche - in other words specialize in a particular area, type of product, etc.
• Don't rely exclusively on referral strategies - Bernice says that on average on 25% of business comes from referrals. So the rest must come from somewhere...
  
• Respond immediately to consumer inquiries - This is probably one of the key ones here. Think of time when you call a contractor or repair company. How likely are you to choose the ones the call you the first day versus the ones that call you the third or fourth day. (Speaking of which I need to start making some calls... :)
  
• Customize your personal Web site; don't rely on your broker's site - It's nice to be on your broker's site, but you normally don't have full control over your area. You have to jump through hoops, call the IT department, give up your firstborn, etc. just to get your picture updated. Set up your own and if you don't know lick about website management, contact one of those that can do it for you and customize the text. This takes some work to maintain and keep up to date, but it is normally worth or better yet create a blog (see below).
  
• Earn a NAR designation - I have different opinions on this. I think that a designation such as GRI, CRS or even CCIM could be a good differentiator all else being equal, but designations can't tell you (as a consumer) how the person really is/their personality. But if you have some cash and time, it can only help. I don't think it would hurt.
  
• Blogging - Need I even comment on this? The benefits of blogging are that you can have your website, "speak" with your own voice and it is easy to set up and it's free. What more can you ask for?
  
• Podcasting - I'm adding videocasting/YooTubing to this too. Like blogging, you can speak (literally) with your own voice and it's free. But this takes a little more time (unless you're just posting to YouTube/Google Video) and effort, but the key thing is that they get to see and hear the real you presented as you like anywhere in the world. What more can you ask for?

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Tags: realtor, marketing, real estate agent, lead generation, business development, Inman News, Bernice Ross, real estate blog, emarv, podcasting, Marvin Corea, real estate videos

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just came across a site to search Austin New Homes that some of you might be interested in especially if you are looking for new homes in Austin, Texas area. It allows you to search the floors plans of six Austin area builders, Gavurnik Builders, DR Horton, Centex, Kimball Hill Homes, Capital Pacific Homes and Armadillo Homes. You can search by model type, number of bedrooms and total square footage. DR Horton, for example, has 20 communities to select from in the Austin area.

One thing that would be a nice feature to include on the web site would be a floor plan comparison feature where people could select several floor plans from multiple builders and be able to see the square footage, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, a list of amenities (like if the community has a pool, is gated, has a community playground, offers 24-hour security, parking, etc.) and the location of the communities. Another nice bonus that I'm sure a lot of people are used to seeing now is the ability to map the communities so that you can see where the communities are in relation to each other. Demographics would also be nice, but you can't have everything, right? :)

Sponsored by: ReviewMe 

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

from an email:

Date for Priority Number Notification Announced

Attention Mueller Pioneers! The day you’ve been waiting for is set. On Wednesday, May 30, Catellus will send to each of the homebuilders the priority order list of people who have registered to be a Mueller Pioneer. The builders will begin notifying each Pioneer about his or her priority number by email — as well as by phone and letter — to ensure communication.

Soon after, builders will begin contacting their Pioneers in the priority order they receive to inform them of the process and timing for scheduling individual appointments. Once your appointment is set, you will then meet with your homebuilder to discuss floor plan and site availability, design options, pricing and other aspects to complete your home purchase.

As a reminder, if the builder you selected sells out of homes before your priority number comes up, you will carry over to subsequent phases, assuming your builder continues at Mueller. Your builder will be able to address this further, if necessary.

Please know that nearly 1,100 people registered as Pioneers and, therefore, it is possible the builder you chose will not be able to respond to every inquiry immediately.

On behalf of the homebuilders and the entire Mueller team, we greatly appreciate your interest throughout the Pioneer process.

For more information visit www.MuellerAustin.com, stop by Mueller Central located at 4550 Mueller Blvd. or email us at contactus@muelleraustin.com.

my comment: looks like its time to buy some property around the Mueller airport area. actually, I should have bought a couple of years ago in that area, when stuff was cheaper. Anyone have a spare apartment complex that needs work and that you are selling dirt cheap?

BTW, I think that they are doing a pretty good job marketing Mueller. (They even got bloggers blogging about it for free! ;-) 

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now I need to find more ugly properties. Let me know if you come across any ugly properties (rehab/remodel candidates) in Baltimore. I will happily pay a finder's fee when I close on the property.

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the Houston Business Journal: More jobs were created in Houston between January 2006 and January 2007 than in any other metropolitan area in the nation, new figures show. "The [US Bureau of Labor and Statistics] numbers show Houston on a dramatic growth trend, outpacing the rest of the nation in jobs gained," said Jeff Moseley, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership. "This is great news for our region and further validates our board's vision of contributing to the creation of 600,000 new jobs and $60 billion in capital investment by 2015."

what this means for Houston real estate:

It means that there will be some growth in practically all Houston real estate sectors. After all, where are 600,000 people going to live, work, play and shop? One of the things that concerns me the most about Houston (which is probably the case with a lot of metro areas) is traffic. Downtown real estate is going to continue to increase in value so where will the majority of people (in the low to mid income range) end up looking for houses? More often than not they will probably be looking for real estate in the suburbs as property gets more and more expensive closer to downtown. (Remember, expensive is relative to Houston because you can still find decent single family homes under $200,000 within the main city limits whereas in DC, well...you'd be lucky to find a good 1 bedroom condo for that price!) So back to the topic...what this means is that there will continue to be more and more traffic! Naturally, developers and city of Houston and Harris County officials need to continue addressing the traffic issues immediately. Expand on the positive that Houston is already working on which Tory Gattis talks about in his houston strategies blog.

Personally, I think that more mixed used the development would be helpful. In many areas it is practically impossible to find places that you could actually walk to from home or work (except in the downtown areas). It'd be nice to actually walk to places without having to take a car everywhere and always have to find parking. I know that a common argument against this might be that it is way too hot to being walking outdoors in Houston, especially in the summer, but a good integration of trees would help too. (And according to Tory and the Houston chronicle, it looks like that is starting to happen too.) Only time will tell...

shameless plug: And I hope that my company can be a part of the Houston's future in the near future!

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)