Real Estate Investing

I love me some Google search engine.  I can find old friends.  Figure out if I had a concussion the other night after falling.  Compute when the space station will be flying over my house.  Double check whether I’m giving my dog too much flea medicine.

And now Google got even better!

You can plug in a city name, street name, state, or other location to see what houses are for sale.  All you do when you go to Google maps is click the “Real Estate” drag down box where it has show all maps.

Here’s what’s available in San Francisco, California.

Summer too hot for you?  Check out the listings in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

One of my friends is going to Cocoa Beach, Florida later this month.

Isn’t this fun?

Several days ago - before I disappeared for part of the week to attend my oldest daughter’s summer orientation for college - I caught this article from the New York Times and bookmarked it for readers here at Banks.com.   Financial writer Edmund Andrews wrote a riveting, heart-wrenching story about his personal credit crisis through a mortgage catastrophe.

Mr. Andrews found himself in a situation where he wanted to buy a home but because he was paying alimony and child support - and because his fiancee wasn’t yet working - he needed one of those *special* loans that dominated the 2005-06 buying years.

I thought I knew a lot about go-go mortgages. I had already written several articles about the explosive growth of liar’s loans, no-money-down loans, interest-only loans and other even more exotic mortgages. I had interviewed people with very modest incomes who had taken out big loans. Yet for all that, I was stunned at how much money people were willing to throw at me.

Mr. Andrews first found himself moving toward a “stated income” loan where he could declare what his income was with no paycheck receipts or tax returns produced as evidence of his earnings.   However, he quickly learned that his name was still on the mortgage being paid by his ex-wife so this plan put his debt to income ratio over the limit.

Bob didn’t get flustered. If Plan A didn’t work, he would simply move down another step on the ladder of credibility. Instead of “stating” my income without documenting it, I would take out a “no ratio” mortgage and not state my income at all. For the price of a slightly higher interest rate, American Home would verify my assets, but that was it. Because I wasn’t stating my income, I couldn’t have a debt-to-income ratio, and therefore, I couldn’t have too much debt. I could have had four other mortgages, and it wouldn’t have mattered. American Home was practically begging me to take the money.

Years later the family financial situation is sinking.  Mr. Andrews managed to save his marriage with his new bride, but they are bracing themselves for either foreclosure - or maybe they’ll be able to work with the lender to refinance.  For now they wait.  It’s been eight months since he made a mortgage payment.  Eight months without knowing what will happen would be torturous to me.  I can’t imagine how he and millions of others are feeling right now.

Go read Mr. Andrews full story. 

Last night was the annual, very festive Oscar celebration honoring the top people in the motion picture industry.  I think it’s only fair to honor the best advice for buyers and sellers with our own Oscar awards!

Best Costume Design - For the seller who heeds the advice of staging a home - remove personal belongings and make it a house where someone feels like they can make it their own rather than moving into someone else’s dirt.

Runner Up:  Clean the house, Landscape entryway

Best Actress -Becky Hill, President of the Women’s Council of Realtors.  Becky has been a Realtor for 25 years and offers some advise to agents in a slow market,

When you’re working with clients, you want to communicate more frequently than you might otherwise. Let sellers know what you’re doing, because it might not be evident to them. You also want to think outside the box when it comes to marketing. We’re starting to see more listings appear on social networking sites and YouTube. Many young consumers are involved here, and it’s a great way to increase exposure.

Best Actor -Ty Pennington of Extreme Home Makeover.  I mean, come on!  His enthusiasm is fantastic, he has a generous heart, and who wouldn’t be thrilled to either have him roll into your yard in his camper to re-do your home or to go and help him with someone else’s home?! Ty is great!

Best Director - Josh Dorkin of BiggerPockets.com.  This is a great site that features writers from different industries related to real estate: mortgages, investors, marketing, rehab specialist, and more.  Bigger Pockets also has a forum for open discussions that looks to be pretty lively. In addition, it serves as a portal for real estate agents ot write their own blogs, features listings, and much more.

Best of Show - President Barack Obama for signing housing stimulus plan to help us cast aside the real estate blues!

Congratulations to our winners - and by “our” I mean “my picks.”

Photo from the Bangkok Post.