Atlanta Real Estate Investor Blog » Investors

Investors look at REO opportunities

admin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:57:45 +0000

Earlier this week at county courthouses all across Georgia, thousands of properties were being called for foreclosure.

Metro Atlanta alone had a record number of scheduled foreclosures last month, with almost 8,500 homes slated to be sold on the courthouse steps. And today, those steps just aren’t as crowded as they used to be. Auctions once teemed with real estate investors looking for deals; today it is more common for the number of attorneys calling foreclosures to outnumber potential buyers.

Why? It’s simple: the deals for investors just aren’t there.

You see, if no one buys a property at the steps, it gets taken back by the lender. It becomes a class of property known as Real Estate Owned, or what’s more commonly-called REO. And once that property is classified as an REO, it’s listed on the lender’s books as a non-performing asset. That means the bank needs to sell it as quickly as possible. With record numbers of homes being foreclosed upon, that REO inventory is only expected to increase – and banks become much more motivated to sell.

Here at Harlan and Associates, we’ve handled hundreds of REO closings, and we’re seeing more and more every day.

Why? Well, most of our real estate investor clients are finding that the real deals are in post-foreclosure REOs – They say investing in REOs is the best way to generate instant potential equity in today’s market. It allows them to buy a property at a well-below market price and sell it for more than they paid.

Not only that, but there are more and more financing opportunities for investors buying REO properties. We’ve handled cash closings. There’s private money available. If the numbers are right, hard money lenders are always interested in lending on REOs. And earlier this month, Fannie Mae increased the number of properties an investor may finance, so more conventional non-owner occupant financing is available.

In other words, there are certainly opportunities for investors to profit.

Harlan and Associates has years of experience in helping real estate investors be successful, and ee’d love to be your Georgia closing attorneys. Want to know more? Just contact us today and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service
to you!

Empty Nest Syndrome, originally uploaded by bitzcelt.

Take advantage of the first-time homebuyer tax credit

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:50:13 +0000

There’s a new and better tax credit in town. Are you poised to take advantage of the coming surge in home sales?

Are you marketing your properties specifically to first-time homebuyers?

If not, you should be.

Last week, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Under this Act, qualified first-time homebuyers will receive tax credits of up to $8,000 if they buy a principal residence this year. And it’s expected to bring 300,000 to 1,000,000 new homebuyers into the market.

That’s a lot of sales. And those sales should lead to even more as current homeowners look to trade up.

Best of all, unlike the $7,500 tax credit enacted last year, this new tax credit does not have to be repaid, and it’s refundable. It can, and will, put money directly into your buyer’s pockets.

The highlights:

The credit is available to first-time homebuyers. That’s anyone who has not owned a principal residence in the last three years.
The credit does not have to be repaid, and it’s refundable.
The credit is equal to 10 percent of the purchase price, up to $8,000.
The credit is available for homes purchased between January 1st and December 1st this year.

As a real estate investor, now is the time to take advantage of the first-time homebuyer market. From concentrating your sales marketing at those potential first-time home buyers to converting your lease/option tenants into owners through wrap financing, there are many different ways you can turn this new law to your advantage. It might be just the thing to get your deals closed!

At Harlan and Associates, we have years of experience in helping real estate investors be successful. We’d love to be your real estate closing attorneys in Atlanta Georgia. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service to you!

1 Circle Arrow, originally uploaded by *Seuss*.

Atlanta ranks third in vacant homes

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:14:11 +0000

According to a Census Bureau report, Metropolitan Atlanta is now the third emptiest city in America, ranking behind only Las Vegas and Detroit in the number of vacant rental units and single family homes.

Overdevelopment, soaring foreclosures, and the size of the Atlanta metropolitan area – 28 counties – have left the city among the country’s leaders in empty homes.

A primary culprit: intown condos.

Once the darling of real estate developers who rushed to put up new buildings as quickly as they could be built, the condominium markets in Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead have all but collapsed.

In fact, Atlanta had over 6,000 new unsold condos at the end of 2008. Only 645 were sold during the year, and only 66 in the last six months.

Overall, the Census Bureau reported that 16.1 percent of Atlanta’s rental market was vacant, as were 4.3 percent of non-rental homes.

Still, Atlanta is not in as dire straits as Detroit, for example. The city continues to attract more people, which should result in a quick rebound of demand when the economy stabilizes.

Harlan and Associates are short sale attorneys in Atlanta. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how we can be of service to you!

, originally uploaded by shadowplay.

Atlantic Station condos to be acutioned

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:47:29 +0000

On the heels of the news that sales of new condos in Atlanta have taken a real nosedive (with only 66 being sold in the last half of 2008), comes an announcement that 40 condominiums in Element at Atlantic Station are to be auctioned off at the end of this month.

Minimum bids will be as much as 56 percent below listed prices.

Harlan and Associates performs real estate closings in Georgia. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how we can be of service to you!

i like my centered horizon line, originally uploaded by rodinis [ roh-DEE-niz ].

Home Depot to close Expo stores

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:26:14 +0000

Home Depot announced today that it is closing all its Expo stores as well as eliminating 7,000 jobs.

The company has been deeply affected by the ongoing real estate slump.

Home Depot Expo, which specialized in high-end appliances and furnishings, was never as successful as the company had hoped. Now that consumers are spending less in light of an ongoing recession, there is less demand for the store’s specialty products.

Harlan and Associates performs real estate closings in Georgia. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how we can be of service to you!

Squish it like a bug!, originally uploaded by Lostmycat.

Record plunge in July home prices

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:45:42 +0000

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, released today, showed home prices dropping by a record amount in July, although the pace of monthly declines seems to be slowing.

The 20-city index fell 0.9 percent in July and is down 16.3 percent from last year. That’s the largest drop in the index since it began in 2000.

The 10-city fared no better, with prices dropping 1.1 percent from June and 17.5 percent since July 2007, which is the biggest decline in the 21-year history of the index.

Overall, home prices have fallen nearly 20 percent nationwide since peaking in 2006.

While the picture remains bleak for future home prices, there is some good news in the latest report: the prices are dropping less and less across the country each month, though there is still no evidence of a bottom.

The usual suspects remained on top of the index: According to the report, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami experienced the greatest price declines at 29.9, 29.3 and 28.2 percent respectively.

Home prices continued to tread water in Atlanta with the change in home prices actually showing a small appreciation of 0.4 percent from June to July. Still, prices were down 8.2 percent from last year.

We’d love to be your closing attorneys in Atlanta. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service to you!

Polar Bear Plunge 2007: Plunge Zone, originally uploaded by Earl – What I Saw 2.0.

Existing home sales slide 2.2% in August

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:59:31 +0000

The sales of existing homes fell again in August after a slight gain in July according to the latest report by the National Association of Realtors.

Nationwide, last month’s home sales fell 2.2 percent from July and were 10.7 percent below August 2007.

The national median existing home price also fell in the past year from $224,400 to $203,100 – a drop of 9.5 percent.

In the south, existing home sales actually increased 0.5 percent, but were still 15.1 percent off of last year’s pace. The median home price was $176,500, which is 3.4 percent lower than August of 2007.

The NAR has been predicting a second-half turnaround in the housing market for months now, but the chances of that happening are increasingly dim as the credit squeeze roils across Wall Street. And while the pace of declines seems to be decelerating, there is still no bottom in sight.

Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist, once again blamed the lack of access to home mortgages for the dismal sales numbers: “… home sales will be constrained without a freer flow of credit into the mortgage market. The faster that happens, the sooner we’ll see a broad stabilization in home prices that in turn will help the economy recover,” he said.

Unfortunately, it was exactly that “freer flow of credit” that directly led to the housing bubble which is now having catastrophic effects on the overall economy. After the conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie, the collapses of IndyMac, AIG, and Lehman Brothers, and a projected 700-billion-dollar plan to bail out Wall Street by purchasing bad mortgage debt, the odds that lenders will return to the wild-west anything-goes mortgage lending standards of the past years lie somewhere between none and none.

On a small positive note: the inventory of unsold homes at the end of August dropped to 10.4 months from 10.9. Still, that’s a glut of homes that need to be worked through the system, and unfortunately it is highly unlikely that any bailout on Wall Street will do anything to reduce that number.

We’d love to be your Georgia Closing Attorneys. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service to you!

Twists and Turns, originally uploaded by Bobshaw.

Omni Financial cuts 20 percent of workforce

admin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:57:51 +0000

Clients who have had dealings with Omni Financial and Omni National Bank will be interested in this article over at the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Facing substantial losses stemming from its real estate redevelopment loans, the bank has cut 20 percent of the company’s workforce, including the chief risk officer and president. In Atlanta, 19 people were given the axe.

Not only that, the company was officially de-listed by NASDAQ.

Additionally, the company’s quarterly financial reports are being delayed because of ongoing audits of the books.

We’d love to be your closing attorneys in Atlanta. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service to you!

Lumberjack with Axe, originally uploaded by ron brewer.

Buckhead condos go rental

admin — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:15:56 +0000

Mezzo, a 94-unit, 20-story luxury condominium development on Peachtree in Buckhead is being converted to a rental-only project, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

It’s the latest casualty to a dreadful market in Atlanta for condos, which has seen a number of projects delayed or cancelled: John Weiland’s One Museum Place, a $350 million development across from the High Museum of Art is on hold until at least next year; Skyline, the planned 21-story project at Lindbergh stopped at the 4th floor with financing difficulties; and Trump towers in midtown has yet to break ground.

Still it illustrates the difficulties that real estate investors and developers are facing with sales continuing to soften and financing remaining difficult to come by – and it’s a problem keenly felt by condominium developers since its typically much more difficult for a purchaser to obtain financing.

It also shows that, in today’s real estate market, it pays to be flexible. Faced with few sales, the developer returned all pre-sale money and converted the entire building to apartments – a move similar to that made by other investors who are content to be landlords until the overall market rebounds.

We’d love to be your Closing Attorneys in Georgia. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service to you!

for rent, originally uploaded by mgoldstein.

Existing-home sales down in 2.6 percent in June

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:13:22 +0000

Sales of existing homes slowed more than expected, according to the latest monthly report by the National Association of Realtors.

In June, the pace of home sales nationwide dropped 2.6 percent from May to a seasonally-adjusted annual pace of 4.86 million. Economists had predicted that sales would drop to 4.95 million. The rate was 15.5 percent below the number of homes sold last year.

In the south, existing homes sales fell 3.1 percent from May for a year-over-year decline of 18.1 percent.

More troubling for homeowners and real estate investors looking to sell their properties, the number of homes on the market swelled to 4.49 million – which represents an 11.1-month supply of houses for sale.

With supply increasing and demand stagnating, if not falling, home prices, as measured by the NAR, are falling as well. Nationwide, the median price of a home fell 6.1 percent from last year to $215,100. In the south, prices are down 2.4 percent to $185,300.

Blamed by the NAR for lackluster sales are potential buyers waiting on the sidelines, expecting prices to continue to drop. While additional downward movement in home values is almost certain, it is the problems in the credit markets which are driving home sales numbers. With down-payment requirements increasing and mortgages harder to come by, a great number of home buyers are simply shut out of the market.

Still, the report underscores the fact that in order to sell a house, investors have to be incredibly competitive on price – or be open to alternative financing methods such as lease-options and wrap mortgages.

We’d love to be your closing attorneys in Atlanta. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service to you!

2.6 / 8 ½ = 2 [], originally uploaded by sonofsteppe.