I’m sure most of you have seen this short term housing video. If not, here ya go.
3
January
Renting Out Your First Corporate Apartment
If you have only ever been a tenant and not a landlord, it can be a little nerve-wracking at first. Renting property is a responsibility, but once it’s put into perspective it’s easy enough. Corporate apartments are a great way to introduce you to the rental market, and we’re going to discuss renting your first corporate apartment here.(http://www.sanfranciscocorporatehousing.net/about-san-francisco/)
The first thing to say is that not all properties are suitable to become corporate apartments. To qualify, the property must be of a high standard, near transport links, or within walking distance of places of work. They would ideally also be near bars and restaurants too, but that’s often less of a concern.
Apartments would ideally be in city locations and near everything. If you have a family home, these can become corporate rentals too. They will need most of these qualities, but can be in quiet areas too. Not all corporate clients will want to be in the middle of things.
Most corporate apartments are let furnished. The premise is to offer an alternative to a hotel room at a much lower cost. That means the apartment should contain everything a renter would need. That includes furniture, crockery, bed linen, towels and so on. These should all be of a good quality, so it may be that you will need to invest in quality goods before offering your property for rent.
The standard of décor should also be of a high standard. It doesn’t have to be interior designed, but new, clean and tidy is the minimum they would expect. It would make sense to decorate throughout before letting the apartment, so it looks its best.
Short term rentals tend not to produce as much wear and tear on a place, but a regular regimen of decorating and cleaning will keep everything looking clean and tidy. A corporate renter won’t expect you to redecorate between each tenant, but regularly enough to keep everything looking nice.
Once the apartment is ready, it’s over to you. To begin with, it’s best to use a corporate lettings agent to handle everything. They know the business, the likely clients the advertising methods that work and the kind of rent you’re likely to achieve. They will of course charge their fee, but the reward is that they take care of all the details for you.
Once you have a little experience, there’s nothing wrong with managing the corporate apartment yourself if you want to.
If you decide to go it alone, study your local market and scout the competition. There will always be something to learn, so learn it early. Being a corporate landlord isn’t for the passive person, you’re going to need to get out there and find clients and do deals. Gaining confidence early is essential if you’re to hit the ground running. If you aren’t the outgoing type, you should use an agent.
Renting your first corporate apartment takes a little work and a little courage. Once you have had a client or two under your belt, you will never look back.
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10
October
Creating Curb Appeal
When selling your home it is important to make a good first impression for prospective buyers. This is particularly important if you plan on listing your home online or through advertisements with a picture. You can increase the number of prospective buyers as well as the value of your home by creating great curb appeal. Furnished homes are perhaps a better choice for the personal or family who does a lot of traveling.
Power Wash
The outside of your house can take quite a beating over the years. Dirt and grime can easily collect on the exterior making the paint look dingy and the whole house seem years older than it actually is. Take a power washer to the exterior of your house and give it a good clean. This will instantly improve the appearance of your home.
Paint
Check for cracks and fading of paint on your porch and shutters. Spend half a day putting on a fresh coat of neutral colored paint to give your home a nice and clean look.
Plant Some Color
Even if you’ve never had a green thumb, make a little extra effort to get already bloomed plants from your local nursery and plant them in front of your house. A potential buyer might really see the potential of a nice gardening space. The colorful plants will also add a little vibrancy and life to your property as well.
Cut the Grass
So many people overlook this basic task. Simply by cutting the grass you can give the impression that you are a homeowner that takes pride in your property. This will send a good message to potential buyers.
There are many creative ways to increase curb appeal. Even the smallest effort can go a long way in how people perceive your property. Show people the true potential of your home and make them want to live there before they even step inside.
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15
September
Builders Confidence At Lowest Level Since 1991
With the current real estate slow down in progress it comes as no surprise that the home builders of America have their level of confidence down a bit.
On Monday the National Association of Home Builders released their latest report on their housing index. The builders that were surveyed had their lowest confidence level since February 1991 with a reading of 28.
Builders are asked about their perception of the future outlook for the coming six months as well as rate the current amount of traffic of prospective buyers. The answers are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index. Any number over 50 means more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.
Unfortunately it’s going to get worse before it gets better according to NAHB chief economist David Seiders:
“Home sales most likely will erode somewhat further in the months ahead and improvements in housing starts probably will not be recorded until early next year. As a result, we expect housing to exert a drag on economic growth during the balance of 2007.”
It looks like new construction home buyers will continue to see builders offering free upgrades to get them to sign the dotted line on the purchase agreement.
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15
September
Maybe Hank Paulson should hire Warren Buffet to manage the bailout?
If done right the American tax payers can end up making money on the current 700 billion bail out plan says Warren Buffet.
But first… with all the current debate about the rescue plan being proposed in congress many Americans ask themselves: “How did we get into this mess?”
National Public Radio has an excellent one hour special called “The Giant Pool Of Money” that tells you in plain simple English the roots and causes of the current crisis.
You can listen to it on the web or download a 20 page transcript here if you prefer to read.
In a nutshell here is what happened:
1. In the past decade the amount of money in the world has roughly doubled. All this money had to be invested somewhere and preferable somewhere “safe”.
2. Big pools of mortgages bundled together as “mortgage backed securities” and sold by Wall Street became more and more popular and in demand.
The problem? There were not enough mortgages to sell.
The solution? Relax the lending standards.
So in essence many borrowers applied for mortgages with no documentation and just a credit score. Have a pulse? You will get approved. In the heydays of the mortgage boom many brokers did very few “full documentation” loans. Why bother with all the paperwork when just a credit score was needed?
So people took out mortgages that they could not afford. These mortgages were sold in bundles to Wall Street who sold them to institutions and foreign investors. A huge problem was that these mortgages were marketed as “safe” and “secure” and often backed with a AAA credit rating (AAA is that US government debt is rated at). Credit agencies have a lot to explain here I think.
When home prices started to fall people could not refinance their mortgages any more.
Foreclosures started to grow. And these supposedly safe mortgages are not so safe anymore. A lot of times they might only be worth 50-70% of what investors paid for them in aggregate (no-one really knows).
So what the government is planning to do now in an essence is this:
1. Since no-one want these mortgages and economy is in crisis with no-one lending any money to each other the tax payers will buy them up, hopefully at a good discount.
2. When house prices re-bound in the next 5-10 years the Government will then repackage and sell these mortgages again and get some or all the money back.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions regarding the rescue plan. It’s not 700 billion down the drain. These homes will come back in value in the future. We just don’t know when. And it takes a government to be patient and hold these types of assets for a long time. A good example from a decade ago was the bailout of all the banks in Sweden described here in the New York Times.
It was approximately the same size of bailout in terms of percentage of the economy that we’re talking about in the US. And since the government got shares and equity in the banks pretty much all of the money came back to the tax payers over a 10-15 year period.
So is the rescue plan needed? Yes. Is it fair that responsible home owners and tax payers are rescuing irresponsible home owners and investment banks from a mess that could have been avoided? No. But there is not much of a choice if we don’t want our 401k’s to go down even further and our home values drop even more.
And hopefully we will make some money on it long-term. Here is what Warren Buffet said on CNBC Television according to the Guardian newspaper in the UK:
“I bet they’ll make a profit,” said Buffett, who pointed out that hedge funds specialising in junk assets were already picking up mortgage-related securities with a view to making profits of 15% to 20%. He said a positive return was feasible if the government ignores the book value of instruments or the original cost to banks and instead pays the prevailing market rates for the bombed out assets.
“They’ll pay back the $700bn and make a considerable amount of money if they approach it like that,” said Buffett. “I would love to have $700bn at Treasury rates to buy fixed-income securities – there’s a lot of money to be made.”
Maybe Warren Buffet should be retained by treasury secretary Hank Paulson to help negotiate these buys?
-Ola Edvardsson
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