Eric Blackwell's Blog: Louisville Real Estate Investors

My last REW blog post was about (of all things...) the keywords that we use nowadays that were not used before. Terms like "Short Sale" were simply not in the lexicon until recently.

As part of that post, I made mention of my friend (and REALTOR) in our office, Anne Mayhugh. I wrote about her experience with investment properties in Louisville and how she really knows her stuff. Little did I know that this would reach someone who was looking for someone just like Anne to help her. I received a blog message via email this past weekend from the NICEST person.

Here is a little of what she wrote:

"Hi Eric, I saw your blog and am interested in getting in contact with Anne. If you could forward this information to her, I'd greatly appreciate it. I am a…

365 days ago, the term "short sale" was just barely a blip on the lexicon. Now, everyone seems to know what they are. I had an internet lead the other day from our main site asking specifically. "I need short sale help. Please call me." (that's a quote).

I don't know about your market, but in Louisville, the foreclosure market is picking up big time. One member of our blogging team jumped in and created a Louisville Short Sales and Real Estate Investing Blog. (Great Job Anne, BTW). She has actually been on this side of the business for years and is an awesome agent IMO.

Since being on our team comes with a few **cough** advantages **cough**, she made it up to #2 on Google for the term "Louisville Short sales" (relatively little competition there) along…

"Yellow journalism" was a phrase coined in the 1800's to describe the press taking liberties and pushing their own views on the people. And when they did not like someone or their point of view, simply running a smear campaign was what happened.

In my opinion, the Louisville real estate market is suffering somewhat from visit back to those dark days.How else do you describe the onslaught of real estate articles promoting doom and gloom. The Courier-Journal has been a veritable negative news factory--and all of this in a market that has actually outperformed last year in the dollar volume of homes sold.

Recently Joe Simms, current president of GLAR, went back on the offensive and received some positive press for his efforts. Kudos Joe. I applaud your… Read Full Post

The Louisville rental market is getting ready to ROLL. Why do I say that?

Think about it. Over the last few years, whoever wanted a house (and had a pulse could buy one. With the changes in the loan market, we now are in a position where many otherwise decent people now can no longer buy their own home. For those with cash and good credit, it's

TIME TO BUY, PEOPLE!

What are we seeing? GREAT deals on the market. Homes that will ACTUALLY cash flow and less and less folks to buy them. The banks are getting nervous about their inventories of REO and it is time to move in my opinion. The choices haven;t been better in a long time and there is a ready market of people to rent to.

All that having been said, the same rules still apply. Caveat Emptor.… Read Full Post

One of our agents came into my office the other day with a quite a tale to tell. Seems she had just gotten out of a closing on an investment property for one of her clients that ended about as wierd as she had seen, so she decided to tell me about it.

The home was rather dilapidated but the investor client of hers wanted it anyway. So the price was agreed to and the bank he bought it from sold it "as-is". There was a small lien on the property as reported by the title search, but the day before the closing, the agent did one last check on the online courthouse records. She found another small lien.

She brought it to the attention of the closing attorney so that any proceeds could be adjusted. The attorney left the room to call the city government to… Read Full Post

Are you REALLY ready to invest?

Most of the self help real estate investment books out there make real estate investing look EASY. And to some degree they are right. It IS easy to buy real estate at a LITTLE bit off of retail. However, after the purchase is where things get sticky.

A REALTOR friend of mine, Anne Mayhugh and I were discussing this a couple of days ago. Most people who start into investing are SOMEWHAT prepared to buy. Most are NOT prepared to manage. Real estate ivesting is every bit as much about management as it is about buying. What do I mean? Here are some examples that they (usually) do not provide in the "everything you need to know " manuals:

You buy a property with the intention of flipping it and selling it quickly. The market…

1031 Exchanges are effective methods of transferring real estate wihout incurring undue capital gains taxes. Sounds great, right? But there's a lot more to it than meets the eye! Miss a deadline or incorrectly put this type of transaction together and you have not only negated any good --you can cost yourself THOUSANDS in taxes as well. 

There is a field guide to putting 1031 transactions together that is FREE and available at the National Association of Realtors site that I have linked below.

One of the REALTORS in our office who specializes in investment property and Tax efficient transactions is Joe "The Real Estate Guy" Hampton.

He has been a long time member of the Kentucky Real Estate Investors Association and has the experience of many 1031…

For a real estate investor, nothing is more powerful than information. You'd like to know how much someone owes on a proptery, when it was last sold and MANY other tidbits of info that will help you get the best deal.

Here's a quick place to look up ALL courthouse documents online in Jefferson County. It is jeffersonCountyClerk.org. Go to the "Online Land Records" section and you can look up ALL court documents quickly and easily!

It is a great resource for the investor and a good tool! I will post here more about what you can do with this tool--like looking up default notices--(hint , hint!) in my next post.

In my opinion, our county clerk has done a GREAT job of making real estate research easier and more efficient!