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Friday, April 30, 2004

Lake Of The Ozarks, Missouri Thrives As Resort Community

by Blanche Evans

Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri is a resort community of second-home and year-round homeowners, say local Realtors.

"Lake of the Ozarks is a growing community," says Realtor Donna Schrimpf-gum, "both in second homes and retirement and what I call pre-retirement homes. The market is very diverse, with everything from multi-million-dollar dream homes to small fishing cabins. The last few years has seen a large expanse in the number and types of condos available at the lake. It is hard to pigeon hole the market at Lake of the Ozarks. We have such a broad range of properties.

Schrimpf-gum advises, "Waterfront homes under $400,000 that offer good features and value move quickly and sometimes over list price. The beautiful homes in the $500,000 to $2,000,000 price range, although continuing to grow in the market place, are not selling at the same fast pace. Condominiums are springing up everywhere! Buyers that were once in the main stream of our homebuying market have switched over to condos. This has occurred as developers realize there is a marked shortage of waterfront lots and have improved the floor plans. Now they are mostly three-bedroom or larger."

Says Realtor Michael Elliot, "The past year has shown record sales in all property types at Lake of the Ozarks. Commercial development is strong, new homes and condos sales are booming, and resales are selling quickly and gaining rapidly in value. We are seeing an average of seven percent increase per year in property values. The sales for 2004 are strong and all indications show that this will be another record year."

Published: April 30, 2004

Copyright © 2004 Realty Times. All Rights Reserved.

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Long-Term Mortgage Rates Creep Upward For Sixth Straight Week

McLEAN, VA -- In Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.01 percent, with an average 0.7 point, for the week ending April 29, 2004, up from last week when it averaged 5.94 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.70 percent.

The average for the 15-year FRM this week is 5.35 percent, with an average 0.6 point, up slightly from last week when it averaged 5.25 percent. A year ago, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.03 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 3.75 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, unchanged from last week when it averaged 3.69 percent. At this time last year, the one-year ARM averaged 3.74 percent.

"With financial markets more optimistic that the economy is expanding nicely, mortgage rates had no where to go but up this week," said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac deputy chief economist. "Then, as a result of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released today, the market began weighing which part of GDP it feels is most dominant, growth or inflation.

"Perhaps next week's Federal Reserve Board meeting and the release of April employment numbers will help the market find a balance between the two influences."

Published: April 30, 2004

Copyright © 2004 Realty Times. All Rights Reserved.

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Eight Steps To Setting Up A Real Estate Investment Business

by M. Anthony Carr

Most investor wannabes I talk with want so badly to "flip properties" that they forget on the outset that they are talking about launching a business -- a real estate investing business. They simply think and say: "I want to begin buying and selling real estate."

Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Find a run down home, maybe a foreclosure; go through it repairing and painting walls, replace flooring, install new appliances; put it on the market and make $50,000 each time. Yeah, right.

Before you launch into the real estate investment world, first consider how the transaction went with your primary residence. The agent probably took care of many of the minute details, such as lining up contractors for inspection items, helping you with financing and insurance, and even getting the inspector. If you're going to start investing on a regular basis, then you'll want to develop relationships with these professionals yourself and follow these steps to begin your real estate business:

Locate financing.
All investing hinges on this first action. If you don't have financing, most likely you won't be investing. You'll want to find a program that will allow you to put as little of your own money into the property as possible. In today's competitive mortgage environment, there are now investor programs that allow five percent down on the investor's part.

Since you may have remodeling or rehab costs, don't forget to look for programs that include money for those activities.

If you can get it, try to get owner financing as this can be the easiest way to get into a property. The owner holds onto the note until you've completed your rehabilitiation of the house. You can try to get the owner to take just interest-only payments until you sell, then pay them the balance once the property is sold. There are plenty of other ways to finance an investment property, so talk with several mortgage providers to find out your options.

Set up a limited liability corporation. This protects you from any accidents that may happen during the refurbishing process. If someone gets hurt on your property, they could sue you -- the LLC purports to protect your personal property.

Find a real estate agent who knows the marketplace you're interested in to find the properties.

Line up your contractors. Unless you're going to do it yourself, then you have to ask the following questions:

Do I have the expertise to handle tasks that require trade status, such as plumbing, electrical, HVAC?

Can I lay carpet?

Can I hang/repair drywall?

Can I fix dry rot and carry out other carpentry work?

Can I replace subflooring and deck work?

Can I repair the roof?

If you're repairing electrical and plumbing you may need to get proper permits and inspections.

Find a title company to check out titles of properties.

Find a settlement or escrow company for closings.

If you're holding onto the property short term, you'll need a short-term insurance policy to cover the property until you sell it again.

And then here's the kicker -- except for the LLC setup, you have to do each of these steps every time you want to buy another house, fix it up and sell it.
As you can see, this is another job when you're considering the refurbishing of property and selling. I haven't even gotten into the tax ramifications of short-term investing (you will more than likely owe capital gains taxes of 5-15 percent on all of your profit).

You CAN make a lot of money, and you're going to work hard to do it. The good part about it is that the returns are usually higher than what you'll find in any other business.

Before you get started, write down your financial goals together with your partner -- usually your spouse. Find a real estate agent who can walk you through real estate investing as it pertains to your area and then talk with your accountant about tax liabilities and benefits -- then, make your decision.

Published: April 30, 2004

Copyright © 2004 Realty Times. All Rights Reserved.

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