Wintertime is usually a slow time for the residential real estate market. Cold temperatures and budgets that are recuperating from the holidays make January and February low activity months. The weather in many areas also makes most construction activities a non-starter. During this time of year, seasoned real estate professionals get into prep mode, establishing or maintaining professional relationships, stepping-up marketing efforts and preparing properties for the Spring. Homebuyers can use this time to prepare as well, by getting their financing in order, paying off debts and seeking additional sources of funding. One source of funding that often is overlooked is homebuyer programs and downpayment assistance funds.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Friday, December 29, 2023
2023 Recap (No Clever Title This Time)
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Strategic House Flipping as a Gateway to Adult Education Funding
Monday, October 30, 2023
Industrial Real Estate: A Normal Market for a Somewhat Normal Time
Thursday, August 17, 2023
TRET the Podcast Episode 16: Interest Rates
Join TRET for it's 16th episode, as Stephon discusses the effects of current interest rate activity on the real estate market.
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Stick With Properties—For Now
Cautioning against whole loans almost goes against the very
nature of this blog, which promotes all profitable methods of real estate
investment. Whole loan trading and valuation is the very reason why I started
this blog and whole loan investing can be a great way to find hidden value real
estate. That said, the following are various reasons why whole loan investment
is not the best strategy in the current market:
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
12 Baffling Mortgage Acronyms Explained (UK)
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Foreclosures and the Moratorium
An increase in residential foreclosures and evictions is certainly bad news for affected homeowners and tenants, who will have to find new living arrangements, undergo costly moves in short timeframes, uproot their lifestyles and, in some instances, face long term financial effects. Increasing foreclosures will also serve as a market correction in the real estate market, which is currently driven by inventory scarcity. Amidst the market change and its social implications, many real estate investors can be left wondering which strategy to employ. The answer is simple—any or all of them.
Sunday, April 4, 2021
ARMs: A Quick Look
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Property Maintenance Laws and Lending
The fight against property blight is a battle that has been waged for many decades. Some areas of the nation, have struggled with abandoned properties and even abandoned neighborhoods since the shrinking of the nation’s industrial sector beginning in the 1970’s. Other areas became intimately acquainted with blight as a result of the wave of foreclosures that took place at the end of the first decade of the century. However it may have arrived, the real estate finance market is certainly now affected by the palpable concern of property blight and has had to adjust to attempts to mitigate its damaging effects.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
My How Local Lending Has Changed!
Friday, May 27, 2016
Monte Carlo Mortgages
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
From Property to Liens and Back
Friday, January 29, 2016
Same Mechanism, Different Crisis
The political affiliation of both former heads of the FDIC is tangential to my point, however, I mention it to make two observations. The first observation is that both Mr. Seidman and Ms. Bair are linked by political party. The second is that the economic climate forced them to participate in the goverment takeover of private companies and their assets, an idea that is antithetical to most Republican ideology.
Although one of the chief duties of the FDIC is to close failing institutions and liquidate their assets, under most normal economic circumstances, this duty of the FDIC is either carried out infrequently or confined to a certain sector of the market. Both the S&L crisis of early 1990's and the Great Recession of the late first decade 2000's, however, forced the FDIC and other government agencies to either take ownership an stake or fully national financial institutions in a large, systemic manner.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Mortgage Backed Securities and Personal Bankruptcy
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Special Purpose Entity Bankruptcy Concerns for Mortgage-Backed Securities
As a quick review, I would like to restate that mortgage-backed securities are the result of a process of securitization that takes place when a real estate lender sells a package of its loans to an entity, called and SPE. The SPE receives the money to purchase the loans from the sale of either securities, beneficial interests in the entity or trust certificates from a trust set-up to hold the loans. If securities or trust certificates are sold, they are called mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Through the securitization process, real estate lenders are provided with cash to originate more loans and investors are able to purchase MBS and invest in the real estate market without having to hold real property. If you question why one would want to invest in the real estate market at all, please see my earlier post, “Why I Choose Real Estate.”