The Trump Blog

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Thousands of homes have been destroyed by one disaster or another. Hurricane Katrina left a mess, leaving a great opportunity for investors to build businesses, homes, schools, libraries, etc. The fires in California, drought areas in the South.... Perhaps man-made water containers should be added as one of the amenities for choice real estate.

There are infinite opportunities outside the USA. Many small communities still need basic conveniences that most people in America take for granted. A toilet being one of them. On television, I see people still living in straw huts, dried dung shacks, rundown, bacteria infested houses that have never seen a bottle of "Mr. Clean."

Regardless of interest rates, seek opportunities to help someone else. You will be providing a needed service and if you work smart, you can make a profit too.

Facts:New cons. down.New prices...Resales...plummeted.Inventory at historical highs.
Unsold homes COULD depess prices.
WOW!Opportunity time,especially for my fellow realtors,we have massive inventory
which does not cost us anything and lets us make a profit when sold!
When THE BANK wakes up and has a press release that puts an immediate moritorium
on foreclosures and short sales prices will firm and inventory will decrease.
Now,why would BAC do that?I believe that their number crunchers that advised them to buy Countrywide may just be smart enought to let them know that Forclosure and Short sales GIVE THEM AN IMMEDIATE LOSS on their ENTIRE....ENTIRE INVENTORY-not just the small percentage of homes that go thru the process,but the entire inventory as well as the
guesstimate of 95% of all homes in that area.Is there a solution?YES.
I would rather say that the housing crisis could be solved suddenly and I would love to know when Mr. Paulson and Mr. Greenspan decide to buy the ABX long.

Come to Houston Texas! Our market is pretty steady. For November 2007 our total property sales were - 10.2%, our months inventory + 14.5% and most important, our median single family home price went up by 1.7%. so, compared by the rest of the country, we are doing OK. Our economy is doing well. We are the fourth largest city in the US and the energy capital of the world. and we welcome investors.
Magda Vandenbussche
www.fineinternationalhomes.com

Yes. New and Resale Inventory at historical high prices could be depressed 15-20% more before turnaround.

I would rather say, "Wow!" "We have a five year supply of inventory available and the subprime housing crisis could be resolved rather suddenly."

Hopefully, "The Bank" will wake up and stop hurting themselves and others by announcing a moritorium on foresclosusures and short sales when they realize that they do not lose 10 or 15% on the individual units, but 10 or 15% on their entire Inventory when a foreclosure or short sale is publicized.

Hopefully BAC's number crunchers that advised them to purchase Countrywide were smart enough to tell them it's in their best interest to use a different solution and there is one.

Also, I would love to know when Mr Paulson and Mr. Greenspan decide to purchase ABX long.

Warm Regards,
Basilovecchio

My strategy at this current time is to buy and hold. With the items that you mentioned, and especially in my market (Utah), rents are going up while prices and rates are going down.

1. always using fixed rate
2. always aticipate the worst case scenario
3. save some money, to act in a full opportunity condition like now

I would like to read more feedback from people living outside the USA. When I travel, I always observe what is happening there. Real estate opportunities are everywhere even when they don't seem obvious.

Mr. Trump has several beautiful buildings being created in places like Dubai. This excites me. There will be something familiar when I arrive, mixed with a new experience and a chance to explore the unknown.

I lived and worked in different countries and US states, but I never dared to buy property until I moved back to India after working for more than 6 years overseas. Currently properties in India is really a Gold Pot.

These are the some of potential factors which I see can keep properties market really hot here.

* Indian economy is growing @ 9% per annum.
* Average age in India is 24.8 years. Which means a lot of them will invest in housing and business properties in coming years.
* IT business growing @ 30% per annum. Definitely office space demand is also growing with same rate.
* Recently government has opened doors for infrastructure development to private sector. This week, we saw a biggest IPO of India from Reliance Power.
* People are seeing their income growing and most

A recent article on real estate boom in India.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120053213930796145.html
http://www.indiarealestateblog.com/


About the recent development in Bangalore, where I live, a new bigger airport is developed in north of Bangalore which will start its operations from April 1st. All space around this new airport is currently undeveloped and most of it are farm fields. You can imagine this property will become in few years.

Interest rates are coming down for loans tied to prime per Bernanke's release of 75 basis points today. I would expect the mechanisms effecting 20 & 30 year fixed won't be far behind. With the housing market in distress AND interest rates falling like lead balloons, I see one of the biggest opportunities of our lifetimes for acquiring properties.

I plan to:

Find BARGAINS via Pre-foreclosures and Foreclosures.
Leverage equity lines on existing properties linked to prime to acces down-payment funds.
Get LOW 20 or 30 year fixed rate loans and sit tight.
I'll ride this out renting my new properties with structured positive cash flow deals..
When we see the turn-around I may sell or hold the positive CF props.
Note: I once read you can negotiate REOs to a ridiculously low fixed rate by offering a better purchase price, just so the banks won't have to take a Balance Sheet hit on the sale. (Thanks Mr. Trump!)

How about being the solution to the problem?

The problem Foreclosures and short sales.
The solution purchase the homes or help those in foreclosure to get into a home they can afford by doing owner financing. Not only did you get a family out of the street you are helping them to rebuild their credit.

Do you think you can find someone in your area who could use your help? Heck Yes! Take that subprime family and help them get into a home they can afford. Michigan is a tough area since they have one the highest foreclosures in the country. You can get 3000SF Homes for $149,000. These are mid 1990 prices.