Posts Tagged ‘Warren Buffet’

Intero Insider: Don’t Miss the Big Opportunity

By Gino Blefari | August 10th, 2010 1 Comment

In this type of market, it’s best to focus on what’s working, what’s favorable, what’s reality. And when preparedness meets opportunity you get success. Whether you’re a buyer, investor, seller or agent trying to make sales, you strive to find the opportunity for success.

Distressed home sales continue to represent this opportunity. Distressed homes – those homes that are in danger of going into foreclosure or are for sale because the homeowners defaulted on their mortgage – were 32 percent of home sales last month, compared with 31 percent in May, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors.

What’s happening here and why should we pay attention?

In a word: inventory. Distressed properties more and more are making up a huge chunk of the inventory in many markets around the world (not just here in the U.S.). But wait! Remember that great Warren Buffet quote about when to get interested in an investment? He said:

“Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.”

At first thought, you’d think that something that already represents a third of the market for home sales is past the tipping point. But I don’t believe that. We’ve been doing very well at Intero by studying the market and moving swiftly to seize distressed opportunities. So should you.

Earlier this summer, I spoke about distresses properties at a prestigious real estate conference in Singapore. The distressed market is nothing to run from, folks. In fact, the true real estate lovers saw this coming long ago and stashed cash accordingly.

And sure, for the average consumer, buying a distressed property is going to be a mind-boggling experience (if it even happens in the first place). But all the more reason to study the process and figure out how to make it work if you’re really interested in pursuing this opportunity. When preparation meets opportunity you get success.

You just have to remember another quote from the great Warren Buffet:

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

Which takes us back to that studying process and being prepared.

Where can you learn about the market for distressed properties? We have knowledgeable agents who can help. Many are specializing in this field right now for this very reason. Even so, I’d advise you to do some reading on your own as well. Take the time to choose the right agent and be sure you’re armed financially.

Just because we’re in a “slow” housing market, doesn’t mean you can’t profit in the end.

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Intero Insider: Seeing Signs of Recovery Yet?

By Gino Blefari | March 2nd, 2010 0 Comments

One week, it’s up. The next week? Down. No matter what the experts say, the fact remains that no one really seems to be able to put their finger on how fast or slow the recovery of the real estate market will be.

There are some who say that we haven’t seen the worst of it yet (and we sincerely hope that’s not true).

Others have a shinier view, saying that the turnaround has been made and that we’re well on the way back.

I think it’s more prudent to take things more cautiously. To brace myself for setbacks, but to take heart in the great strides the real estate industry has made in the past year. Make no mistake, however, the recovery of this sector isn’t going to be instantaneous, no matter how badly we’d like it to be. The boom market by which we were spoiled lasted the better part of a decade, and it left a great deal of wreckage in its path.

That said, last week, Standard & Poor’s released its quarterly home price numbers. And what they show is encouraging. They show that, while it’s gradual and slow, recovery is, most certainly, taking place. For the seventh consecutive month, there was an improvement in pricing. Granted, this quarter’s increase was just three tenths of a percent, but it’s an increase all the same.

Substantial gains were seen in San Francisco, which saw a five percent gain, in San Diego and Dallas, each of which showed gains of three percent, and gains that were far above average in Washington, DC, Boston and Denver. Even cities that have been hit (and hit very hard) by the sagging real estate market, such as Las Vegas and Phoenix, saw increases, and that’s not something that’s happened for them in a very long time.

Even Warren Buffet, whom we all can agree knows a thing or two about money, seems to feel that we’ll have recovered from this slump by 2011. He said recently that while prices will remain below “bubble” levels, a more normalized market will be return by sometime next year.

We are, by no means, over every hurdle. We are not sprinting toward the finish line. But we are making progress. Slow and steady, to be sure, but progress. I take heart in that. I think that a measured recovery is the key to winning the race and standing on the podium, once and for all.

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