The Dead Cat Story……….

by John McClellan on August 31, 2010

Dead Cat Story
Dead Cat Story
Close your eyes.  Relax.  Think back to a simpler time—a time before cell phones, before email, before PDAs and internet search engines.  Think back to a time when real estate agents had glamour-shot photographs on their business cards and online was not around.

Now, ask yourself these questions:  How did real estate agents look up properties in the MLS?  How did they know a house was for sale?  How did they know which house was for sale or a bank foreclosure?  How did they know if the house had 3 or 4 bedrooms?  The answer to all these questions could be found in an invaluable source real estate agents called “the book.”  Yes, the Austin MLS published a book once each month that contained all the listings.  So, if real estate agents wanted a virtual tour, they had to drive to the property to take an actual, visual tour themselves, take notes with pen and paper, and then run to the nearest payphone to call their clients to let them know they had found a house for them to preview.  Talk about putting some miles on your car!

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THE REAL ESTATE ROLLER COASTER

by John McClellan on August 31, 2010

Your grandfather always told you, “Location, location, location.” I am here to tell you that it is all about timing in specific locations. Investors have always given a lot of weight to the location of real estate, and this strategy has worked well in the past.  However, to maximize rate of return investors in today’s highly competitive market need to understand that, even though location is a very important part of the puzzle, timing in specific locations is even more important.

I like to compare real estate to a roller coaster. “How so?” you ask. Let’s take the example of the California market over the last seven years. If you listened very carefully seven years ago, you could hear the tic – tic – tic of the roller coaster of real estate as the appreciation rates climbed and demand grew. As long as that soothing tic – tic – tic sound was heard, the market continued to grow at a fantastic rate. About a year and a half ago that sound stopped. [click to continue…]

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Austin Real Estate Daily – Existing Home Sales Fall off a Cliff – Mortgage Fraud Increase

August 25, 2010

John McClellan and Jason Lewis discuss existing home sales and mortgage fraud.

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Existing Home Sales Drop a Record 27%!

August 24, 2010

Existing home sales dropped a record 27% today.  Consensus was 4.7M; however, the number came in at a much lower 3.8M, and MBS markets acted accordantly to the bad news and are currently rallying.   This report is  only for existing home sales expressed on an annual basis.  This lack of demand signals a future slowdown [...]

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Austin Real Estate Daily – Conference on Housing and Finance Reform – Seriously

August 19, 2010

John and Jason discuss the the conference on housing and finance reform

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Austin Real Estate Daily – The Mortgage World is evolving–will you become extinct?

August 17, 2010

John and Jason discuss the evolution of the mortgage business and give insight about current mortgage events.

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HUD is raising its monthly MI and lowering its upfront MI*****Update**** Change has been delayed!!

August 16, 2010

*******UPDATE********* *******UPDATE********* Tuesday, August 10, 2010 FHA’s new mortgage insurance premium structure change has been pushed back to October 4, 2010 http://www.immaag.com/Portals/0/BottStatementPremiumChanges_delay_100410_081010.pdf *******UPDATE********* *******UPDATE********* This just came across the email from HUD:   Big changes that will affect the affordability of FHA loans by almost doubling the monthly MI payments on FHA loans.  Currently, on a [...]

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Austin Real Estate Daily – We need “deliverance” from HVCC

August 10, 2010
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The Real Estate Zone – Commuter Rail and what it means to Central Texas Real Estate

August 4, 2010

John McClellan and Kevin Bown discuss Commuter Rail and what it means to Central Texas Real Estate.

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Austin Real Estate Daily – August 3, 2010 – TexaPlex – Texas Triangle

August 3, 2010

TexaPlex and what it might mean to Central Texas Real Estate

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