Real Estate Investing

I love photos of homes for sale that are taken at dusk or at night.  Here are some of my favorites!

I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would think about today’s log homes.  At the urging of one of my seller who is considering a log home as their next option, I walked inside a model for Southland Log Homes this weekend.  It was on the way back from the Girl Scout cookie depot where our goal is to make people fat and happy while earning troop money.

As I understand it, the log homes come in a “kit” that is priced very affordably.  You’ll have to provide the land on which to build the house, but the company will help you find a builder with the experience and know-how to get the job done right.  When you buy a log home, you do have the ability to get a mortgage loan that will pay up front - allowing for the kit to be sent.  According to the literature from the company, a construction to permanent loan combines financing for the purchase of land, the construction of your log home, and your permanent mortgage into one loan with one closing.

I’ve looked at locations for this particular company and they have sites mostly in the south, southwest, Rocky Mountain states, and the upper Midwest (as opposed to the Plains states).  If you want to find a log home company in your own area, Log Home.com offers a search tool to  locate both a company and a builder.

Home prices will vary depending on the size of the home.  When you pick an existing plan or have a new plan designed, the log home companies will calculate the building materials needed, including log overlay elevations.  Inside a log home are all the standard and upgraded features you’d find in any home - wood flooring, granite counter tops, stainless appliances, walk-in closets, garden tubs, etc.  Your decor can range from wallpaper, paint, elegant, simple.

The biggest surprise for me was affordability.  Homes can range from as low as $100,000 if you build it yourself to several hundred thousand dollars.  They are very comparable to regular site built homes price-wise.

Don’t tell anyone, but they are having a drawing this spring to win a free log home.  I’ve entered and my fingers are crossed.  I could see myself in a log home overlooking a calm lake with a warm breeze caressing my face.  Munching on a box of thin mints or do-si-do’s.

Photos from Southland Log Homes.

Are you in foreclosure? You’re not the only one. Click here to view a photo gallery of million-dollar homes that are in the foreclosure process. What is the deal?

A recent Forbes magazine article points to a series of unfortunate occurrences. In many cases, the buyers found themselves in a negative equity situation. In other words, they overpaid for the home initially or the house’s value has declined along with the overall housing market, leaving them panicked and seeking an escape. In many cases, housing lenders approved outrageous loans that far surpassed the homeowner’s ability to pay.

“There were people with $100,000 incomes getting million-dollar loans,” Wendell Cox, founder of St. Louis-based housing research firm Demographia, told Forbes.

The situation puts banks in a prickly position. They must either continue paying brokers to maintain, market and sell the properties, or — in light of the surplus of foreclosure properties and the sea of choosy buyers — they must decrease the price and take a financial hit. Forbes reports that sellers in the pre-foreclosure stages are getting some decent offers from international investors, but there is often still no meeting of the minds between buyers and sellers.

This is far from the first time the high-end housing market has experienced trouble, although the problem seems to be more significant now than before. But before we go entirely into the Land of Gloom, take a look at Peter Viles’ real estate blog for the L.A. Times. The blog lists several neighborhoods around Los Angeles where the housing prices have not dropped “one iota.” Granted, they are all sub-million dollar homes, meaning the $700,000 to $900,000 range. Still, not too shabby, right? So here again, there may be local pockets of prosperity amidst the nationwide picture of despair. In any case, if you’ve ever thought about buying a luxury home, now may just be the time.