bubbleinfo.com

Tom Tarrant is progressing on his Painted Lady remodel – go to his website for more info:

http://tomtarrant.com/painted-lady-week-6/

Here’s his latest video:

The guy from the TV show, Flip This House, wants to show you how to do it too.

He has a seminar tomorrow to discuss how he is going to make $150,000 profit on this house at 1036 Edgemont in South Park.

The house had been purchased at the trustee sale by our favorite flipper J.Mann for $330,000 (corrected, $269,800) in March, but apparently things didn’t work out, and he sold to our new flipper for $270,000 a month ago.

The new guy has invested enough that he’s looking for $600,000+ now.  Link.

Here is his website promoting the seminar, with video: Link.

Listing photos by our friend Jakob!  Link.

Hat tip to JP for sending this along, from USAToday.com:

In the aftermath of the nation’s housing-market collapse and recession, more than 500 midsize and large cities have seen a rise in the share of homes that are rented rather than owned, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Census data.

Nationally, 34.9% of occupied homes were rented in 2010 compared with 33.8% in 2000, according to Census data.

Almost 4 million homes have been lost to foreclosures in the past five years, turning many former owner-occupied homes into rentals.

The shift to rental housing is potentially long-lasting and portends changes for neighborhood stability and how people build wealth, economists say.

“The changes are big but glacial,” says Mark Zandi, economist at Moody’s Analytics.

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Percentages of homes rented in SD cities with at least 50,000 people:

I’m not sure if 1-3% change over ten years equals big changes, but hey, Zandi said it!

Are you an investor who wants a rental survey before purchasing the next income property?  Or are you thinking of leasing a home in an area where you’re not familar with local rents?

Check out these websites: 

www.rentometer.com or

www.finestexpert.com

A couple of tests came out fairly accurate, and they map the other rentals nearby!  Finestexpert.com also does a financial analysis, and has for-sale comps too.

From NMN:

The REO listing in National City, plus extra clips from the bin:

From cnbc.com:

The estate tax—gone for 2010 but back in 2011—will have changes that should make it less painful for taxpayers. That’s if the current Obama tax cut plan crafted with the GOP becomes law.

The feared provisions—a 55 percent rate on estates valued at more than $1 million for individuals and $2 million for couples—were set for automatic return next year.

Now, as part of the proposed two year extension of the Bush tax cuts and the extended unemployment benefits, estate tax payers face a rate of 35 percent with an exemption up to $5 million.

The proposal also lets survivors combine their exemption with that of a spouse who has died, for a total exemption of $10 million—almost guaranteeting they would not pay.

“The best part of this plan is that it’s better than the 2011 provisions,” says Ryan Ellis, tax policy director at the conservative Americans for Tax Reform. “But it’s worse than 2010 when there was no estate tax. Thirty-five percent will become the new normal, I hope, and we can work to get the rate down from there. This will help the economy with keeping more money in the hands of people.”

An estimated 40,000 of the largest estates will skip the estate tax under the new rates, leaving only around 3,500 estates that will owe Uncle Sam. One analyst says that’s too much lost tax revenue in a struggling economy.

“The estate tax is a fairly small revenue generator, but it’s $300 billion over ten years that’s lost with these new rates,” says Benjamin Harris, a senior research associate at the Brookings Institute. “Those are taxes that have to be made up elsewhere or we’ll have even more deficits. There are also better ways to stimulate the economy, then cutting taxes for the rich.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The Malibu, Calif. home of the late philanthropist Nancy M. Daly, the ex-wife of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, has sold for more than $40 million. It was first listed for $57 million and most recently asked $47 million.

The buyer, listed as a Delaware limited-liability company in public records, intends to lease the mansion on Carbon Beach, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

Neighbors on “Billionaire’s Beach” include Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. The home, on 0.75 acre with 180 feet of beach frontage, has eight bedrooms, nine fireplaces and a double-height living room with glass doors which slide into a wall. The estate features 12,785 square feet, 9 fireplaces, a double-height living room with glass walls, swimming pool and spa that is covered by a frame-less glass wind screen.

This retreat also comes equipped with a sports court and balconies and terraces galore – one of which is accessible through the master suite, and another by a stone staircase.  Ms. Daly built the mansion in 2002 after buying the three lots comprising the estate in the 1990s.

All we need is more soundbites like this, and we’ll be off to the races.  Potential buyers who are gainfully employed and have ample resources will gravitate to these articles, especially when they’re quoting the guy with the most negative foreclosure stats. 

From cnbc.com:

Foreclosures have long appealed to investors who are looking for instant equity—and willing to roll up their sleeves.  Often, buyers can purchase such homes for 20 percent to 60 percent off their potential market value.

“There is probably three more years of extraordinarily high levels of distressed inventory before we burn through this supply,” said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac.com. “This is a market where somebody who does their homework can save significant money on a home purchase and create a nice investment opportunity on a longer-term basis.”

Investors entering the market today, however, will have to employ a different strategy than those who came before.  If you’re looking to renovate and flip, forget it. But if you’re in a position to buy and hold, with the intent of either renting your property or sitting on it until the real estate recession subsides, the market is ripe for the picking. 

According to RealtyTrac.com, Nevada, Florida and Arizona lead the nation in foreclosure rates, while Sunbelt cities and states, including Las Vegas, Nevada, Modesto, California, and Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Florida are posting the largest number of foreclosures.

For investors, notes Sharga, a rocky residential market and a growing inventory of foreclosed homes could mean a bigger potential payoff down the road.

“If you combine a down market with the kind of discount you’d be looking at with the typical foreclosure, that doubles your opportunity for success when the market comes back,” he said.

“Many foreclosure investors won’t purchase a property unless it is at least a 30 percent discount,” said Sharga. “That’s because you’ll typically need to do a rehabilitation to bring the property back up to the neighborhood standard, you’ll probably have to finance it for a short period of time and it’ll cost you some money to market the property.”

It may be not sit well to profit from someone else’s misfortune, but keep in mind that when you purchase a distressed property you’re not just doing your investment portfolio a favor.

By reducing the inventory of available homes, you’re also helping to stabilize the residential real estate market, which, in turn, will buoy the troubled U.S. economy.