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Demand by tenants for 3 bedroom apartments on the rise; Roommates on the rise

Dennis Norman

According to a report just released by MyNewPlace.com , as a result of the bad economy, renters around the nation are saving money on their monthly housing costs by sharing apartments with roommates rather than opting for living alone in a one bedroom apartment.  As a result, demand for 3 bedroom apartments has been [...]

Has the real estate market hit bottom? Is it time to buy?

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Recent reports on the real estate market have been pretty encouraging and, in fact, many are suggesting the real estate market has hit bottom or is even beginning a recovery.  Some of the current stories I’ve seen are:

Stocks spike on recovery hopes- CNNMoney.Com - ”The report is basically telling us that the [...]

Are there too many rental properties in the market?

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Since the real estate downturn reared it’s ugly head many builders, developers and speculators  have turned their “for sale” inventory into rentals.  At the same time many frustrated homeowners have rented their homes out after not being able to sell them after buying another home.

As this happened I wondered if all that was being done [...]

Tax court upholds passive loss deductions for real estate agent landlord

I think there is still some good information in this case. The case is “Shri G. and Sudha Agarwal v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, docket No. 12670-07S. According to the summary opinion from the tax court the facts of the case are as follows:

“It sold for twice as much a year ago – it has to be a good deal”

By:  Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

How many times have you heard something like this from an agent or seller trying to convince you how good a deal is?

I find it funny how often people will base their definition of a “good deal” on the relationship of the price you can buy it for to either what [...]

New home sales & prices fall: Opportunity for the investor?

By: Dennis Norman

This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in January was down 10.2% from December and down over 48% from a year ago.

Prices on new homes continue to drop as well.  The median price for January was $201,100, down 2.6% from Decembers

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Why you need a professional property manager…final post in the series

By: Dennis Norman

Irving Blue, CPM

In part one  and part two of this series I gave you some background information on Irving Blue as well as the part of my E-View TM  with him.  Now we’ll pick up where we left off.

The mission statement of Irving’s company is to the point:  ”Work collectively with owners to secure [...]

Why you need a professional property manager..part two in a series

By: Dennis Norman

Irving Blue, CPM

In part one of this series I gave you some background information on Irving Blue as well as the first part of my E-View TM  with him.  Now we’ll pick up where we left off.

Professionally, Irving serves or has served on various committees/organizations including: Intstitute of Real Estate Management (IREM), St. [...]

Why you need a professional property manager

By: Dennis Norman

Irving Blue, CPM

So why would you need a property manager to handle your rental properties?  Afterall you are an active investor and are capable of managing your units…plus why spend the money?  These are all good questions and just part of the dilemna for many landlords. 

On the flipside, are you getting sick [...]

Investors beware…or be ready

By: Dennis Norman

The National Association of REALTORS(R) just released their pending home sales index for November which shows pending sales (houses under contract to be sold but have not closed yet) are down 4% nationwide from October and down over 5% from a year ago.  With all the recent bad economic news this is not surprising. 

The Northeast [...]

Be thankful you don’t own a mall….final post

By: Dennis Norman

By now you may be asking yourself how my rant about malls relates to you, the real estate investor?  It’s just to stress the fact that residential real estate is a good investment even when we are facing challenging times like the present.  Sure, values may drop at times, like now, however since rents are not dropping [...]

Is now the time to buy rental property?

By: Dennis Norman

 For the past year the media has been flooded with reports and stories of how bad the real estate market is.  Falling prices, an oversupply of homes for sale, a meltdown of the mortgage industry and now the banks are even in trouble!  So what’s the silver lining?  Perhaps it is the opportunity to [...]