The Flip Board® – Real Estate Blog

Wow…

Poor Steve Jobs unleashed the IPAD on the kool-aid drinking masses today. In essence, it is a large touchpad with video capability. This is not a technological leap in ingenuity and innovation. However, the only saving grace seems to be the fact that Apple typically produces high quality products and this promises to give you a much better experience than other tablets touch devices and e-book readers, such as the Kindle.

With HDTV display capability and built-in WiFi and a 10-hour battery life, this device will appeal to nerds, rich yuppies with too much disposable income and Steve Jobs himself.  I, for one, will wait a couple of years for the costs to drop. And I recommend you don’t drop your IPOD’s for the IPAD just yet, even though it will run all IPOD apps completely unmodified.

Apple stock is currently down 2%.  I wonder why…

For Immediate Release

Lightyear Network Solutions, LLC Partners with VoX to Expand Broadband

Phone Service Footprint

With More than 200 Active Agents and 20,000 Active Direct Sales Reps,

Newest Reseller Will Initially Leverage VoX to Offer Services in Puerto Rico

and retail provider of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services nationwide,

announced a wholesale agreement with Lightyear Network Solutions, one of

America’s fastest growing providers of voice, data and Internet services. VoX will

provide local number and VoIP origination services, enabling Lightyear to expand its

residential and small business VoIP phone services offering into Puerto Rico.

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CNBC’s Senior Futures Editor, Albert Bozzo wrote an article today discussing the dichotomy of housing’s budding rebound and the overall real estate market. Mr. Bozzo lists items such as government intervention, evidenced in the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers, as reasons for some apparent life in the housing market. The overall housing market (which includes commercial, retail, service industries, suppliers and so on) remains in a fiscal slump due to the recession at large. He subsequently identifies an expansion of the government tax credit program as a driver for continued growth in housing sales. I can see Mr. Bozzo does not understand basic macroeconomic theory.

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Amidst all the cheerleading by your local wholesale ‘experts’ about how they have sold ‘x’ many properties, and the promise of ‘turnkey, headache free’ solutions, comes something unexpected:

Reality.

Time and again, at The FlipBoard – America’s premiere real estate blog, we watch as investors who purchase through other wholesalers get caught up in the hype of cheap area real estate, plunking down hard earned money based on promises of equity and cash flow, only to forget about such things as vacancy, maintenance, and appropriate rent ranges, and in doing so wake up with a little surprise known as 30 years of negative cash flow.

Has this happened to you?

I pray it hasn’t, and in order to help you avoid such situations I have put together a little guide to owning rental property that some of you may find enlightening, although it may clash directly with the snake oil you have been sold from wholesalers who are interested solely in whacking you over the head for a massive commission.

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Wouldn’t it be nice if you could AUDIT YOUR MORTGAGE LENDER?

You may be victim of FRAUD or PREDATORY LENDING. Your lender may have over charged you.
A Forensic Loan Audit can find VIOLATIONS that may help you force a settlement with your lender and potentially lead to a reduction in your principal balance and/or interest rate.

Check out our friends at Home Defense Team. HDT uses very skillful techniques to uncover potential violations and underhanded tactics.  If you think you were a victim and cannot get out from under your mortgage, check out their website and give them a call. They give you the ammunition you need to confront your lender.

http://www.homedefenseteam.com/

Foreclosures Rise 15% In First Half of Year
The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes soared by nearly 15 percent in the first half of the year as more people lost their jobs and were unable to pay their monthly mortgage bills.

The mushrooming foreclosure crisis affected more than 1.5 million homes in the first six months of the year, according to a report released Thursday by foreclosure listing service Tap into millions of public records, notices and articles on The Daily News.

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We have received about 100 emails today letting us know that our financing application is not working.  If you click on “Get Financing” and complete the form, you get an error message. We have found the problem and are currently working to get this resolved.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are working with our vendors and underwriter, right now, to get this fixed as soon as possible.  I apologize for the inconvenience and hope you will continue to use our site in the future.

 I will let everyone know as soon as it is back up.

Thanks and I appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding.

-Paul

Why buy a short sale home?

1.)  The sales prices of most short sale properties are sometimes actually sold for less than foreclosure homes.  This is due to the fact that a foreclosure proceeding costs a lender $58,000 on average.  Lenders are also in the money lending business, NOT the property management business.  Due to these facts, a lender will typically accept well below market value on a property in order to avoid foreclosure. 

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Now, I can understand the recent decline in home prices and sales due to the economy. After all, you gotta save money to pay your bills. I think we get that. But when apartment rentals begin their slow declines, you have to worry about that particular area; even if it is just a little bit. The video below is talking mainly about New York, but can be troubling for any major US city. Let me know what you think about this clip.

Folks – check out this article written by my friend, Bobby Middleton, from VIP Realty in San Antonio, Texas. He is a successful and dedicated Realtor who knows what he is talking about.  Get your pencils ready, class!

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