Supply oversupply issues can be best illustrated by what’s happening in the Seattle condominium market.  Inventory levels dipped over six percent from the previous year even as prices have risen just as modestly.  This seems to suggest a fairly balanced equilibrium between supply and demand in high-end residential real estate for the city, perhaps with implications for the state as a whole.  However, it has been suggested that much of this economic activity has been due to the limited-time tax credit offered by the federal government to assist first-time homebuyers in this recessionary period, which stimulus is scheduled to expire in November – thus raising the question of whether the real estate market will simply go back into decline then.

Median home values statewide stand at $227,700, with median monthly housing costs for mortgaged owners being $1,454.  In the economic dynamo that is Seattle and environs, however, residential realty has been hot for decades, increasing much faster than any in the rest of the country.  For example, in 2006 single-family home prices shot up 19.7 % over the previous year.  Commercial property in Washington tends to be relatively inexpensive due to the state’s pro-business policies, and with some of the world’s most storied companies headquartered there, rents should continue to be robust enough to weather even this current economic downturn.

The biggest news in Washington residential realty has been that nearly a thousand residents who lost their homes due to foreclosure are eligible to some government money to help them along.  This situation comes as a result of negotiations concluded between the state’s Attorney General and the residents’ new lender, Bank of America, which took over Countrywide.  Countrywide had been the subject of attorneys general throughout the United States on account of the various allegations against it, claiming unfair and deceptive practices in lending and loan servicing.  Nationally, almost half a million Countrywide borrowers may receive $8.4 billion in settlement claims.

The content of this article has been posted strictly for informational and human interest purposes only, not for advisory purposes, and should not be relied upon in any way by any person or institution.  The reader should not rely on the validity of any of the information contained herein.  The reader is urged to consult a variety of professionals when making business or any other significant decision, including accountants, lawyers, investment advisors, insurance companies and the like.  Again, this article has been posted merely for human interest and informational purposes, not for advisory purposes.

The report reveals a marked disparity between people’s earning and rental housing costs. This difference is sizeable and has increased every year. In fact, the cost of rental housing has gone up by 28% in the past 7 years, much beyond the wages earned by the people who need affordable housing the most.

NLIHC calculated the hourly wage needed to afford the rent and utilities of a market rate rental home in each state. Affordable housing was defined as the cost of a two-bedroom rental home without having to spend more than 30% of one’s gross income on housing costs. The report terms this rate of affordability as the ‘national housing wage’, which has increased to $16.31 from last year’s $15.78.

Housing prices in many rental markets far exceed the wages of the renters, making them the least affordable rental markets. Based on the Out of Reach 2006 report, Hawaii stands at the top of the ten most pricy rental markets for a two-bedroom rental home. Listed below are top 10 most expensive states for rental housing:

1. Hawaii – hourly wage of $23.53 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

2. California – hourly wage of $22.86 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

3. Massachusetts – hourly wage of $22.65 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

4. New Jersey – hourly wage of $21.21 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

5. New York – hourly wage of $20.70 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

6. Connecticut – hourly wage of $20.42 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

7. Maryland – hourly wage of $20.07 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

8. Rhode Island – hourly wage of $19.36 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

9. New Hampshire – hourly wage of $18.10 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

10. Alaska – hourly wage of $17.90 needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

The report concluded that a minimum-wage earner making $10,712 a year cannot afford even a one-bedroom home anywhere in the country. The reality is that a wage earner needs to make $28,475 per year to afford a two-bedroom rental home. Families with two minimum-wage earners need to make at least $33,925 to afford a two-bedroom rental home.

Remember, both parties are trying their best to get what they want, but their goals are diametrically opposed. The seller is trying his or her best to get the highest possible price, while the buyer is trying just as hard to get the property for the least possible amount of money. There’s an old saying in the business: “All sellers are liars, all buyers are thieves.” While I don’t believe in either scenario as a way to do business, those commercial real estate investors who are able to create a win-win transaction will enjoy huge advantages over their more combative competition. And the key to doing that is in your questioning technique.

Finding and creating these win-win deals isn’t easy, but making them happen is the basis of successful real estate investment. In many ways, finding the best deals boils down to knowing which questions to ask and is one of the most important of all real estate “secrets.”

The key is to ask plenty of open ended questions of either the seller or his agent and to not accept a simple “yes” or “no” answer. If you ask an open ended question and get a yes/no answer, your immediate reaction should be to follow up with additional open ended questions! Obviously, if you keep getting yes/no’s to your questions, it may be time to find a more cooperative and serious seller.

Some of the leading questions smart real estate investors use include:

• What can you tell me about this piece of property?
• What makes this particular property a good investment?
• What is it like dealing with the city?
• Tell me about your tenants … neighbors … city, etc.
• What can you do to help me get into this property?
• What financing are you willing to carry?
• What are your neighbors like? Or “how easy are the adjacent property owners to
• eal with?
• How quickly do you need to close? Why?
• Why are you selling the property … now?
• What is the existing financing? How can it be assumed?
• What are the down payment requirements?

While the straightforward approach and strategy generally works the best, many successful real estate investors have also found success at using the “Columbo Technique.” For those of you too young to remember, Columbo was a dumpy-looking fictional detective who always seemed a couple of cents short of a dollar. However, he had this process where he’d get up to leave after seeming to conclude his suspect interviews and would say something like: “Oh, Mr. Jones, one more thing …” And that question would usually catch the perpetrator off guard. I suggest trying it during your discovery process. It can be very enlightening!

You’ll need to develop your own list of questions as you do more transactions and I suggest even rehearsing them or incorporating them into some form of due diligence checklist. The bottom line is that the better you question, the better your deals will be.

Craig Higdon, “The Investment Property Insider,” works as a commercial mortgage broker. He publishes the weekly “Investment Property Insider” e-zine and blog, http://www.InvestmentPropertyInsider.com/. Visit the blog and get a complimentary report on commercial financing techniques.

That’s right. Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad book series, said it exactly like this: “It doesn’t take money to make money. I often hear people say it takes money to make money. I disagree. We had no money when we started and we were also in debt. It also doesn’t take a formal education.”

He then mentioned Bill Gates as someone who never completed a college education. Which would you rather have, a collection of doctorates or Bill Gates’ money?

What it does take, Kiyosaki says, is determination and a willingness to learn quickly. But you also have to know what to do with your talents and, most importantly, to know which part of the Cash Flow Quadrant to generate your income from.

The Cash Flow Quadrant is an icon taught to him by his best friend’s father, a man to whom he refers in his books as his “rich dad.” It is an illustration of what his rich dad called the four different types of people in relation to money: Employees, the Self-employed, Businesspeople and Investors. Each quadrant comes with its own outlook on the world. The outlook of those in the B and I quadrants are the ones that help make them rich.

When Kiyosaki says you need to be willing to learn quickly, he doesn’t mean go back to school to improve your job skills. He means you should learn about investing, preferably investing in real estate. The rich dad on whom he based his books was a real estate investor. You can get rich investing in real estate because everything else depends on it. At the beginning of his book Cash Flow Quadrant, he pointed out how so many of Hawaii’s businesses were sitting atop real estate that his rich dad owned.

But he doesn’t just mean you have to learn the nuts and bolts of investing. You do have to learn about those things, at least to the point that you are able to intelligently choose a professional to help you with your investments. But more importantly than that, you have to learn how to think like an investor, and possibly a bit like a business person too.

That is a far cry from thinking like a Self-employed person. According to Kiyosaki, a self-employed person is someone who owns a job, not a business. You don’t own a true business, he said, unless you can leave it for a year and return to find it still making money for you. Businesspeople, he said, know better than to try to do everything themselves. In order to save time and money, they hire people to do the things they can’t do or don’t have time to do. That’s why hiring a qualified real estate professional to guide you in your decisions can be a good investment in and of itself.

However you decide to do it, learning the nuts and bolts of real estate investing yourself or by hiring a qualified person to advise you, it is definitely time for you to move to the I quadrant—that is, if being rich is something you’d like to consider.

Investment Property Specialist – Alex Anderson Connects Real Estate Investors With High-Quality Investment Properties. Get A Free Copy Of, “The Investor’s Rental Guide” at: www.GreatInvestmentProperty.com.

New investors, however, often overlook a very powerful way of getting the inside track about the investment business: the real estate investment club.

Chances are, there’s a real estate investment club in your area. This club may meet regularly and members of this club may have access to special news resources, newsletters, trips, and events. Best of all, your local real estate investment club is a wealth of real estate investing information.

That’s because the club, like any professional association, gives you the chance to network with successful investors in your area.

Many beginner investors learn all they know about investments by meeting up with a local investor who is already achieving success and acts as a pseudo-mentor. Investment clubs help you to meet these types of mentors or helper’s so that you can gain the insights you need to make wise decisions. Best of all, investment clubs have fees that are usually much smaller than the average course or class in investment.

If you want to learn about real estate, and grow your bank account, then hooking up with a club in your city, or online, is an excellent bet.

But first, a warning to the newbies out there..

Before you sign up for the first association that you read about, do your research. You get the most out of your club if you choose the right one. Ask plenty of questions before you pay your membership fee. Find out who is involved in the club, what sort of access you will have to other successful investors, and what exactly you will be getting for your membership fees. W

here possible, join a club that has a mentoring program, a newsletter, and other resources that you can start taking advantage of right away. At the very least, join a club where investors seem willing to work with you, share information, contacts, and other real estate investing resources.

Cheers,

Brad Wozny
Creator, 7 Figure Profits™

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Understanding Commercial Real Estate.

Real Estate is defined as a certain property that can possibly generate revenue for its owner. It generally includes office buildings, shopping malls, service stations, restaurants, apartment units, and raw land.

You must understand that only properties, which have a potential to produce income for its owner, is categorized as commercial real estate.

Therefore, it will not include real estate of habitable characteristics such as houses and apartment buildings.

So how is it leased to the potential clients? Usually, the owner of the property leases it through a licensed broker. Then the broker will make the necessary arrangements with regards in advertising that property.

In addition, the broker can make some agreement with the owner or seller of the property about its improvements such as renovating or clearing the perimeter of the ground where it is erected.

How to Get Started in Commercial Real Estate Business

If you want to start with this type of investment and yet, you do not have a concrete property to sell, maybe the first thing to do is to have some guidelines that you can start with. Here are the things that you should consider in building your commercial property:

• Determine what are the hot business are around. Decide if you will cater to the needs of individual or partnership that wants to rent spaces for their food or novelty shops.

• Choose the best location of your property. Go for the finest piece of land that you can utilize efficiently. You can consider erecting commercial property nearby high traffic areas can be easily accessed for full-service restaurants, hotels, and other shopping centers.

• In aid of choosing your property’s location, you consult the planners of the local government where it will be built. They have a zoning system, which separates industrial, residential, and commercial properties. It will help you to obtain the necessary clearance and permits from them.

• You can opt to hire some financial advisors. They can help you to plan for the revenue aspects of your investment. Always keep in mind that the right investment is the best chance to earn more profits.

• In case that the property is funded under a mortgage, it will be wise on your part to repay it religiously. Do not let it be your liability; remember that your goal is to earn money, not to lose money.

• If the property is now ready for leased, always have the necessary arrangements with your real estate agents with regards in advertising your property.

• Check the rates, terms and conditions, and other related aspects concerning the lease of your commercial property. You must also serve the interest of your potential clients that will avail it.

Earning money through commercial real estate property requires enough planning. This is an investment; either you lose or gain money.

Lavinia Snider is the editor of Seized Real Estate Online. Learn everything about seized real estate sold by public auction.

Geography

Located along the north-central of the U.S. Illinois is bounded on the north by Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri on the west. Kentucky takes up the southern border and Indiana in the east. The Mississippi River almost takes up the western boundary.

Industry

The ideal location of Illinois gave way to the installation of first rate transportation infrastructure and world class educational centers. Illinois promises to be a good place to do business. Illinois is into warehousing, manufacturing, agriculture, banking, food, and chemicals. Industries also concentrate on fabricated metals, computers, electronics, plastics and rubber. Transportation equipments are also manufactured in Illinois.

Technology and Infrastructure
144 university-based research centers
71 federal research centers
Argonne National Laboratory is a leading federal laboratory prioritizing in technology and biotechnology

Finance

Illinois leads in the financial industry. It is the site of over 2,300 commercial banks. It has 2,000 insurance carriers, and 175 insurance carriers. The state has the financial capability of providing capital funding for commercial and industrial development.

Agriculture

Corn is the major agricultural produce of the state. This is followed by soybeans and feed grains. Illinois is the top five producers of swine in America. Livestock, dairy and poultry are also major income generating resources.

Education

Illinois offers a choice of schools and universities. These offer varied programs from four-year programs to associate degrees. There are also online schools made available to interested students.

Sights to see

Donley’s Wild West Town (Addison) – a recreated mining operation where you can watch the shows and get a ride on the C.P. Huntington Locomotive

American Indian Burial Grounds (Albany) – The burial mounds are recognized as historic sites

Mississippi River (Albany) – The river made famous by Mark Twain. The river is one of America’s largest river systems

Alto Vineyards (Alto) – Red and white wines can be sampled on site

Snowstar Winter Sports Park (Andalusia) – Skiing pleasure and fun

Arlington Park (Arlington) – Thoroughbred racing

The Creole House (Prairie du Rucher) – See the French creole house built in 1800 and experience the lifestyle of the past

lllinois Waterway Visitor Center and Museum – Watch towboats along the Illinois River. The center provides learning tours about the locks and dams controlling the water flow along the Illinois & Michigan Canal.

Illinois Real Estate

An Illinois real estate is patronized by many. Of course the reason for this is obvious. And that is because an Illinois real estate is near to all the good things that can only be found in Illinois, such as tourists attractions, excellent education, agriculture, technological, and industrial facilities.

Seth Willis Jr. is the webmaster for http://www.planetpads.com and a savvy real estate investor. His focus for Planet Pads is to allow users to showcase their real estate from all over the world .Users can browse properties , rentals , vacation homes and commercial properties from every corner of the globe.