Posted by Alice on July 22, 2008
Bank of America’s acquisition of Countrywide Financial has analysts, investors and the media a bit nervous. BusinessWeek took a look at the situation and did not have good news to report. In today’s top story, they exposed the shaky background of Countrywide and its affect on Bank of America (BofA). “. . . The Countrywide buyout brings BofA lots of trouble. The quality of Countrywide’s loans is much worse than the loans on BofA’s balance sheet. BofA said July 21 it will need to deal with $40 billion in troubled mortgage loans at Countrywide.”
This news is softened by the bank’s reported share prices. Although the result was still a loss, share prices were not down as much as analysts had predicted. Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America Chairman and Chief Executive, is using this data as proof of the bank’s strength in the midst of the current economic adversity. However, BusinessWeek was not fully convinced. The upcoming weeks will show if investors buy into it.
Posted by Dylan on May 14, 2008
I was tired of the way my life was going when I stumbled across Liberty League on YouTube. I couldn’t believe all of the testimonials about how Liberty League International was changing their lives. I decided to give it a try and now I’m hooked. I got the Beyond Freedom system and I’m well on my way to reaching every single dream of mine.
I went to the Liberty League conference in Hawaii and I learned so much about myself. All I had to do was change everyday habits and routines and instantly my life improved. I quit my job and am now financially free. I was so tired of working 60 hour weeks to help someone else realize his dreams. What kind of life was that? They weren’t interested in my well being. They were only interested in their making their pocketbooks fatter.
Now I’m ready to be involved in my own life. I don’t live in fear anymore and I do things that I never thought I could do.
Posted by Dylan on March 20, 2008
I got a flat tire the other day and when I went to the tire store I found that a toyo tire was too expensive. So, after I got home I went online and found the same tire for a lot less! In fact, I was able to get the tire I needed plus high quality cheap chrome rims. My car has never looked so good, except of course when I first got it.
I’m planning on taking a road trip this summer from California to Chicago on the historic route 66. I’m planning on stopping at several classic diners and I really want my car to look great. I think that it will now that I can afford auto tires all around. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t found this web site.
It seems like I’ve spent a fortune with the necessities of my car but now I know that I was just being ripped off before. Performance Tires Plus provides great cheap rims and tires and they have excellent customer service. I should have been shopping through them for years. Now I know what I’ll do when I need something for my car.
Posted by Dylan on March 18, 2008
A printable map of the United States ended up saving me in 1st hour yesterday. My students don’t have the best textbooks in the world for geography but they’ve been okay thus far in the year. I had them open there books to page 68 yesterday and we found that the old geography teacher had them all ripped out for some reason. I quickly gave them a new assignment.
I went online to find a map for them to use. First I found maps of Asia and then maps of Mexico. At last I found a printable map of the United States. We got enough for the whole day and my students were able to get to the assignment at hand. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do because they had to do that assignment at some point because the objectives align with several of the state’s and the district’s.
I don’t know what I would have done for that assignment. I guess I’ll have to push the district to get them new books. I wonder if they will or if I’ll have to continue to purchase supplies for my students.
Posted by Dylan on March 14, 2008
Last week my husband and I decided we were going to make our house look nicer by getting a few new accessories. He wanted all new lamps but I thought that curtains and rugs would make the difference. I figured that new area rugs would be less expensive than new furniture.
We found a huge selection of braided rugs and my husband really liked that style. They were not only functional but they were stylish. We both really liked the way the braided rugs matched almost all of our furniture. If we had known about all of the inexpensive ways to give our home a facelift, we would have done that years ago!
So after the living room was finished I thought we would call it a day but no. My husband wanted to do the kitchen and then the bathrooms. All I really thought we would do was pick out a few wall decorations and some accessories. Now I get to redo my kitchen!
Posted by JohnnyMac on January 18, 2008
For people looking to invest in real estate abroad, there are some areas in Australia that are worth taking a look at. While there is plenty of barren desert in the Australia, referred to as the Outback, there are also several booming cities, such as Melbourne and Sydney. Finding real estate in these cities may be a bit expensive, but will definitely cover the initial investment quickly. Sydney has many attractions, such as the famous opera house, while Melbourne boasts the beautiful Rod Laver stadium, home to the Australian Open. Of course both of these cities have many natural attractions as well such as all the breathtaking beaches and the Great Barrier Reef.
Posted by Dylan on December 22, 2007
If you’re ever on the lookout for a plumber in Phoenix, try the new site at http://www.plumberphoenix.info/ This is a new service that allows businesses to advertise themselves locally without the expense of building a website and optimizing it. Information displayed includes:
- Company Name and Logo or other image.
- Full Contact Information including toll free and regular phone numbers, fax number.
- Website URL and contact email address.
- Text describing the company and products offered.
- Opening hours
If you would like more information about this service contact info@blueadder.com
Posted by Dylan on December 19, 2007
Seeking Alpha have just posted their Housing Market Tracker - Commercial Real Estate and REITs Review - a good read for those in the business or just those tracking the commercial real estate business.
Posted by Dylan on December 14, 2007
Moody’s now reports that commercial real estate prices are declining in line with the tightening credit squeeze. All of these reports are based on how things were before the cash injection into the banking system by the major central banks (see BBC News). This cash injection resulted in LIBOR rates decreasing slightly. The injection of cash should also allow the banks to stop relying on each other for money and allow them to use government money. The BBC News site especially mentions Northern Rock which has had a tough time recently because most of the money it lends out is borrowed from other banks, rather than being supplied by its own savers.
Posted by Dylan on December 13, 2007
So we’re in the new office for one week and its taking up a lot of my time just fixing minor issues that keep coming up:
- Kitchen sink faucet is leaking
- The new towel dispensers in the bathrooms were installed and new supplies had to be bought
- Reverse Osmosis needs installing
- Current water supplier needs canceling.
- New office door being installed
We’re not in a big office, no wonder facilities in larger offices are a full time job.
On top of this we had a power glitch yesterday which showed that two uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) were in fact interruptible. Two servers go down and our T1 and Phone lines too. The T1 and phone lines I moved onto a second UPS in the same closet with no problems, I now need to go and buy a new UPS for the servers. Anyone know if the small UPSs by APC are worth fixing or should I just replace it with one from CostCo?
Posted by Dylan on December 13, 2007
Great post over on the Seeking Alpha blog going into the underlying reasons the commercial real estate market will fall
Reggie uses some very basic CRE pricing models to show the price is out of control for the larger CRE investor. Whether this is just one market or across the board is not mentioned in the post. This is quite important as other people are saying the prices are softening but not necessarily deflating and then you have Sam Zell saying the prices have to go up because of supply and demand.
So in one day three people give three different views on the commercial real estate market. Which one do you trust?
Posted by Dylan on December 12, 2007
We received a letter from our water supplier O Water trying to upsell us to a RO (reverse osmosis) unit that also takes pods and brews coffee and stuff. Here we are sitting with 10×5 gallon bottles of water cluttering up our office and we start talking about this offer. After much discussion, instead of going for the supplier’s RO system we’ve decided to install our own. No more bottles cluttering the office. No more monthly fees. The savings in monthly fees will pay for our own unit (purchased from CostCo) within 5 months. The only ongoing costs for us are replacing the filters occasionally.
Guess the O Water should be careful what they promote.
Posted by Dylan on December 10, 2007
Twice this weekend I read that the real estate market is slowing down. Is it true? With so many banks having to write down heavy losses due to sub-prime lending (the latest being UBS $10 Billion) that can only put a brake on the real estate market. No good saying that commercial and residential real estate is not the same - if the banks are losing money then the credit available to the lending market is going to be depressed
Of course the whole economy is slowing down due to lower consumer spending, lower consumer spending means lower money in business’s pockets, which in turn means less investment from businesses in longer term investments, such as real estate. Lets face it if you’re the owner of a corner shop who was looking to expand, then consumer spending lowers so suddenly you’re not as profitable and your shop is not as busy. Given all that would you decide to expand? Probably not.
Posted by Dylan on December 7, 2007
Atlantic Publishing have just released a new commercial real estate investing book called ‘The Commercial Real Estate Investor’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Road Map to Financial Wealth’. As they state (and I agree) commercial real estate “Investing in real estate is one of the safest and smartest investments you can make.” Commercial real estate offers some advantages over residential real estate from an investment point of view:
- Longer leases - usually three to five years
- Tenants tend to be better from a owners POV i.e. pay on time, likely to have the money to pay, etc.
For more information see their blog post.
Buy the book at http://www.atlantic-pub.com/cgi-local/shopper.exe?preadd=action&key=CGC-01
If anyone buys the book, let me know if you like it.
Posted by Dylan on December 6, 2007
Chinese prosecutors have found high incidence of commercial bribery in infrastructure and real estate projects, most implicating the government officials in charge.
Read More at China Daily…
Posted by Elaine on December 6, 2007
RBC, 05.12.2007, Moscow 19:57:40. Russia’s commercial real estate market is set to grow by 10 to 15 percent on average, experts believe.
Read More at RosBusinessConsulting…
Posted by Elaine on December 6, 2007
That was the message from yesterday’s annual real estate outlook from Jackson Cross. Delaware Jackson Cross partner Pete Davisson said Office leasing was down in 2007, but not at levels that would suggest a major downturn.
Read More at The Business Ledger…
Posted by Dylan on December 6, 2007
Shamil Bank, EAG form joint venture in real estate
Read More at MENAFN…
Posted by Marcus on December 5, 2007
Shamil Bank, a leading Islamic commercial and investment bank and member of the Ithmaar Banking Group, and Bahrain-based Ebrahim Abdulaal Group of Companies (EAG) today announced a multi-million dollar, joint venture to pursue real estate opportunities in the Kingdom of Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf area.
Read More at AME Info…
Posted by Elaine on December 5, 2007
NEW YORK—-CapLease, Inc. , a real estate investment trust focused on single-tenant commercial real estate investments, today announced that Mr. Paul McDowell, Chief Executive Officer, will present at the 11th Annual Wachovia Global Real Estate Securities Conference in New York City on Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at 3:20 PM Eastern time.
Read More at Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance…
Posted by Brenda on December 5, 2007
Who says football and real estate never mix? Former Dallas Cowboys star quarterback Roger Staubauch owns the Texas real estate services firm that has acquired Kansas City-based Glaze Commercial Real Estate Advisors.
Read More at Commercial Property News…
Posted by Elaine on December 5, 2007
The Staubach Co. has acquired Glaze Commercial Real Estate Advisors of Kansas City, Mo. Addison-based Staubach is scheduled to take over operation of Glaze Commercial at the beginning of 2008.
Read More at Dallas Morning News…
Posted by Elaine on December 4, 2007
Delinquency rates rose last month on collateralised debt obligations that package together commercial real estate loans and slice them into different pieces of risk, as the outlook for the property sector continues to deteriorate.
Read More at eFinancial News…
Posted by Elaine on December 4, 2007
LOS ANGELES—-The residential real estate industry could drag the commercial property sector into a downturn in 2008, and real estate investors, developers and service companies need to start preparing now for what could be a tougher business environment.
Read More at Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance…
Posted by Brenda on December 4, 2007
Question: I have a chance to pick up two ocean-front condos on the east coast of Florida for about $85,000. I was thinking of buying them in an all-cash deal with my IRA account, but I’m not sure whether you’re allowed to own real estate inside an IRA. Can I do this? - Bernard Grossman, Hallendale Beach, Florida
Read More at CNN Money…
Posted by Elaine on December 4, 2007
An investment group from the United Arab Emirates said Monday it has set up a joint venture in India that will invest $5 billion over the next five years to develop residential and commercial properties. The joint venture, Rakindo Developers Pvt. Ltd., plans to build independent townships closer to smaller Indian cities, where real estate is poised for high growth in the coming years, said …
Read More at Lexington Herald-Leader…
Posted by Elaine on December 4, 2007
With the appointment of commercial real estate developer X. Cristofer Damianos to the Long Island Power Authority’s Board of Trustees, the commercial real estate community will once again have a voice at the utility.
Read More at Newsday…
Posted by Dylan on December 4, 2007
A Texas real estate service company owned by Roger Staubach, the former Dallas Cowboys star quarterback, has acquired Glaze Commercial Real Estate Advisors of Kansas City.
Read More at The Kansas City Star…
Posted by Dylan on December 4, 2007
Credit market turmoil has slowed sales and softened prices for office buildings in Southern California. The global credit crunch that took hold of financial markets in the summer is now taking the steam out of commercial real estate.
Read More at Los Angeles Times…
Posted by Brenda on December 3, 2007
Another out-of-state commercial real estate firm has set its sights on Columbia. Trinity Capital, a Charlotte-based firm, has targeted Columbia for office and industrial acquisitions and office, industrial and mixed-use development for 2008 and 2009. The company issued a news release last month saying it would use its second real estate investment fund, Trinity Capital Value Fund II, to enter …
Read More at The State…