The Flip Board

Crye-Leike Realtors is the nation’s fourth largest real estate firm. It has 1,100 agents in the Memphis, TN area with its largest offices in Memphis and Nashville. Today, Crye-Leike announced its sales numbers across the eight states the company operates within. 

$4.2 Billion in sales from 25,871 property closings. This is for the one year period, 2007-2008.  Grant it, this is about 26 percent down from the previous year. But the point is, one company closed over twenty-five thousand pieces of real estate, both residential and commercial.  Do you think you can buy, sell or rent 20 to 50?  I think you can. I believe in you.

Professional property managers are experts in the field acquiring and keeping paying tenants for real estate investors. They are knowledgeable about the local rental market, vacancy levels, and rental price trends. But most of all, the property manager you use for your real estate business should excel in leasing and managing rental property.
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HSBC has done well to style itself the great subprime survivor. But the world’s biggest bank is less special than it thinks. True, its shares have outperformed almost every banking index around. And its core tier one capital ratio – 7.8 per cent at the end of September, towards the top of its target range – is on the high side, versus western peers.

But as HSBC has three-quarters of its loan book in the benighted US and UK, that target may be a moving one. A note to third-quarter accounts shows that the carrying value of US consumer loans was $111bn, but that the market value was $34bn lower. Fine: these are banking assets, not held for trading, so the group does not have to account for them at fair value. But if you were to tot up HSBC’s subprime losses taken so far through its P&L, then add the reported fair-value deficits not recognised on balance sheet, the sum would be almost $70bn – higher than Merrill, Citi or UBS, and second only to Wachovia. An accounting confection, of course, but it does throw a light on the scale of HSBC’s exposure to US subprime and the potential for further impairments.

- Lex – www.TheFlipBoard.com

I just read an article earlier today that really puts into perspective exactly what the mortgage collapse was all about. Check it out here.

The mess has gotten so complicated and convoluted that it has affected banks, savings & loans and other such institutions worldwide. As we move forward and keep our eyes focused on better days ahead, let us not forget the behaviors that led us into this mess in the first place. For if we forget our past, we are doomed to repeat it.

-Richard – www.TheFlipBoard.com

A market analyst from Wachovia Bank said yesterday that he feels real estate is about to hit the bottom. I agree and disagree at the same time. Yes, some specific niches of real estate may bottom out, but some still have a good way to go. Read the rest of this entry »

2008 is now history.  2009 promises to bring us all new challenges and opportunities for excitement.

From all of us here at The Flip Board…