Joel Walsh asked:

Will the internet do to real estate agents what it’s done to travel agents? That question has incited fear among some in the real estate world. The recent launch of a do-it-yourself real estate website by one of the founders of expedia.com has given new urgency to the discussion. Yet the fact remains that we are well into the maturity of the ecommerce age, with no end to the real estate agency industry in site. Are real estate agents finally out of the internet-competition woods?

What the Web Has Done to Travel Agents

In case you’re not familiar with the effect the internet has had on the consumer travel agent industry, just pay a visit to your local travel agency. Very likely, you’ll find either a vacant storefront or another business. It is widely believed that the internet—in particular, do-it-yourself travel websites such as expedia, travelocity, orbitz, and priceline—has proven more competition than most travel agents could bear. How were the websites able to beat the travel agents? There were arguably two big factors:

Cost. Cost savings is the most commonly cited factor in the decline of the consumer travel agency industry. This was one case where “cutting out the middle man” wasn’t just a slogan. When the travel agent no longer had to be paid, a trip usually got that much cheaper. But perhaps the biggest challenge to travel agents wasn’t the cost savings to consumers, but to the airlines. The airlines aggressively pushed the new travel websites, cutting agents’ commissions at the same time. It is widely believed that the airlines saw they could get more money selling through the internet than through agents.

Knowledge. Travel agents had sold themselves to customers largely on the basis of their knowledge of travel planning and the locales to which they sold trips, and their ability to find the lowest airfares and best-value hotel rooms. Yet the internet put a great deal of that knowledge at people’s fingertips. For instance, airlines’ published fares—and even cut-rate “consolidator” fares—were now just a web search away. Ditto for hotel rates, travelers’ reports, local profiles, and State Department advisories.

Real Estate Agents and the Web: Better Outlook?

The commercial mass-market world wide web is now over 10 years old, and unlike travel agents, real estate agents are still going strong. In fact, the last few years have seen the ranks of real estate agents swell with thousands of people who found the field not only exciting but potentially lucrative. Could it be that there are problems with the comparison between travel agents and real estate agents?

Cost. At first, cost would seem to be a more important factor for real estate agents than travel agents, given how much money is involved. Yet money weighs in favor of real estate agents as well as against them. Both buyers and sellers stand to make more money if represented by real estate agents, who can puff up or negotiate down the price of a property. Knowledge. Consumers have shown themselves quite willing to do their own research for travel plans. The knowledge needed to handle real estate transactions is arguably much more daunting. Failing to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s can lead to quite a real estate headache, even legal or tax problems. Meanwhile, the seller in the real estate market is usually an individual person; in the travel industry, the seller usually is a monolithic corporate giant like Delta or Disney. For the average individual, “branching out” into real estate by building up a wealth of knowledge on the subject may not repay the investment. Fun. Ultimately, planning your own travel can be fun: you learn about different places and get to imagine what each experience would be like. It’s hard to see how selling or buying a house is fun in the same way. Sure, there are the exciting expectations for the future after the sale has closed. But the buyer and seller are still involved enough in the process even with a real estate agent that they aren’t missing anything but the stress.

Looking to the Future of Real Estate and the Web

What will the future hold for real estate agents? The new website, zillow.com, founded by one of the founders of the travel website expedia.com, may point the way. Despite all the travel agent vs. real estate agent comparisons the site excited, it does not actually allow visitors to buy or sell real estate. At least for the moment, then, it does not affect real estate agents on the important issue of costs.

Yet zillow.com may pose a real challenge to real estate agents in the area of knowledge. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, the site aims to be for real estate what Kelley Blue Book is for automobiles: an easy way to find out the value of a property. Simply type in the address, and you get a number—even if the property is not on the market.

To be sure, many real estate agents quoted in the news scoffed at the machine-generated property values provided by the site. But the knowledge the internet offers buyers and sellers—knowledge once only available from real estate agents–will likely get better in the future. Will more knowledgeable buyers and sellers choose to go it alone? Will they just demand a better deal from real estate agents? Or will agents be able to justify their current services and fees?

One thing’s likely: how real estate agents market themselves is going to get quite a bit more complicated.

Chicago Real Estate

Timothy Rea asked:

Can you afford commercial real estate on the Chicago Magnificent Mile? If you can, your business will be in good company, and you can make a lot of money!

A festival of restaurant dining, theater and jazz experiences, shopping, hotels and entertainment, Chicago’s Magnificent Mile is abuzz with activity from Spring through Fall, and those merchants and commercial vendors who are lucky and wealthy enough to rent space in Chicago’s most productive real estate market, are the fortunate recipients of some pretty hefty income.

The Magnificent Mile stretches from Randolph Street to North Avenue and from Lake Michigan to the North Branch Canal, and it is Chicago’s most expensive commercial real estate.

The landscape is flush with fancy hotels including the Inter-Continental, the Ritz-Carlton, Hilton, Omni, Le Meridian, Hyatt, Wyndham, the Westin, the famous Whitehall and many other world-renowned hotels share this prestigious real estate, and the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association manages the business district.

Within this precious Chicago real estate, street festivals, garden shows, food festivals and other events are planned, all to bring local residents and tourists to spend their entertainment dollars.

Along this stretch of expensive real estate you can also find posh, formal restaurants like Les Nomades, and NoMi intriguing international restaurants where you can find Brazilian, East Indian, French, Italian and cuisines from many countries around the world.

The Chicago Shakespeare Company is also in residence in the Magnificent Mile of Chicago Real Estate, as are a number of jazz clubs and galleries like Kenneth Probst, Peter Bartlow and R.S. Johnson, selling fine art, antiquities and much more.

Water Tower Place, the Shops at North Bridge, Chicago Place and the North Michigan Shops also offer commercial real estate opportunities in well-advertised storefronts, malls and real estate centers.

If you are looking for commercial real estate in this area of Chicago, be sure you employ a reputable broker. Rents are high and real estate is precious. Options to extend commercial leases and expansion options to take on more space will come at a premium in this real estate market.

Upscale brokers like Gordon McAdam, Property Management companies like Zeller, and Executive Suite brokers like AMATA deal in finding and leasing commercial real estate and space to businesses in this area.

If you are looking for Chicago real estate on the Magnificent Mile, be sure you find a company that will work with you to assess your square footage requirements, and do an office or building search that will take into consideration the ideal location for your type of business.

These companies can also help you analyze the commercial lease you will be asked to sign and negotiate more favorable terms. Some have partners that offer architectural and build-out services for your real estate needs, and even move-in and utility hook-up services.

If you DO rent commercial real estate along the prestigious Magnificent Mile in Chicago, make the most of your network by joining the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. Membership in this business and real estate district association provides you the opportunity to participate in business-to-business marketing activities and to have your logo and business identify advertised and promoted in the Magnificent Mile events and activities.

The Board of Director’s for this Chicago real estate business district and association always includes prestigious hotel managers and business managers for large commercial vendors like Neiman-Marcus, as well as business district and service vendors who provide the local transportation. These are good people to know if you want to promote your business.

Get to know the individuals who share this small square of real estate with you and leverage their connections to help you make more money and pay that steep rent bill every month.

Per square mile, this patch of Chicago real estate will produce more income for your business, but it will cost you a pretty penny to house your business here.

If you want to consider Chicago real estate with a slightly less onerous price tag, you can consider real estate in the Riverfront area, which is very near the Magnificent Mile and attracts lots of tourists. There are lots of events there and the overflow of shoppers and tourists from the Magnificent Mile is a definite advantage to renting commercial real estate in the area.

Ask your Chicago real estate broker to make some recommendations and see what you can afford. Good luck and enjoy the ride!

Santa Monica homes

Joshua Geary asked:

The newest buzzword to hit the world of real estate investment is: Real Estate Notes. Now, real estate notes themselves aren’t new, they’ve been around. But the awareness of them as viable investment vehicles is a new trend that is a direct result of recent drops happening in the real estate market. Real Estate notes are a dose of ‘hot’ in recent ‘cool’ times.

Smart real estate investors always keep a close eye out for any changes in the real estate market and act quickly to make the wise investment decisions necessary to avoid disastrous financial losses. You too can now benefit from what these; investment-gurus have come to know about real estate backed notes.

Real Estate Notes Provide Passive Cash Flow:

Real estate backed notes can have a high rate of return if structured properly, and are more secure than most other well-known investment strategies. A real estate note can be used to earn what has been coined as passive-income or passive cash flow by marketers and investors. Simply put, this means you will earn dividends on your investments in real estate notes without having to do much else other than writing a check for your note and voila the money starts flowing in month after month like clockwork. Not a bad, but it gets better. Since the money is earned passively through a real estate investment, you benefit again at tax time. Gains earned by real estate note investments are taxed at low 15% capital gains tax rates. Do you know of any other investment strategy that allows you to make money passively and at a flat 15% tax rate? Nothing like real estate notes has hit the real estate world yet, so until or unless it does, real estate notes are the way to go if you want to put real cash and profit into your pocket: month after month, year after year.

If you’re not content with sitting idle and watching your investment grow without any help on your part, or you want to increase your dividend earnings even further, there are things you can do to achieve this. You can always make cosmetic and well as functional improvements to the real estate property listed on your real estate note and really pump the value of the property and your real estate notes to new heights. This will not only increase the dividend-earning potential of your real estate notes. This also works to your benefit should you want to sell off a portion of your real estate note, or sell the note off completely because its increased value will put more money in your pocket. You can use your windfall to re-invest in more real estate notes or use some of it to buy real estate notes and a portion of it to fund a college education for your child.

Real Estate Note Liquidity:

Unlike selling real property, real estate notes have built in liquidity. In most cases, you don’t have worry that if you hold a real estate note and wanted to sell it quickly, that it would be hard to find buyers for it. Wise real estate investors are always looking to buy more real estate notes because they know what valuable, income-earning vehicles they are.

Self Directed 401k/IRA Notes:

Did you know you can use your 401K or self directed IRA retirement accounts that you either implemented through an employee-employer plan, or opened up yourself, to fund the purchasing of real estate notes? Many people are dipping into their retirement accounts because they have learned that real estate notes offers them the ability to increase the dividends usually earned through such retirement accounts, securely and reliably.

Will you be among the wisest of real estate investors and look into the viability of real estate notes as an investment strategy to best increase the dividend-earning power of your retirement money? The internet provides you with access to all of the information you need to learn how real estate notes can help you to retire-in-style without the risks unlike so many of the other investment opportunities out there today.

Let’s recap the benefits of real estate backed notes:

1. Passive income

2. Secured by real estate

3. Taxed at low capital gains 15%

4. They can purchase with 401k or IRA funds.

Real Estate Notes: maybe your ‘hot’ ticket to financial success in ‘cool’ times.

Boston homes for sale

Brenda Cote asked:

When it comes to real estate, the topic of the day is the downturn in the market, the number of people losing their homes, and how much this is going to hurt the economy. In the seventeen years I have been in the real estate business, I have witnessed every fluctuation the market has to offer. While it is true that many property owners are enduring trying times, rarely does the same happen to knowledgeable real estate investors.

There are those individuals who remain emotionally unattached and invest wisely in real estate. As a result, they live a very comfortable, if not lavish, lifestyle. Investing in real estate, especially during a downturn, can widen an investor’s opportunities and bring about lucrative returns. This is a truth. If you are thinking about becoming a real estate investor or have already made the decision to start, the following information is priceless.

Wanting to secure a comfortable financial future, most of us go to work every day hoping to build a nest egg. Since, it is common knowledge that real estate investors have the capacity to not only build a nest egg but also create a fortune, why aren’t more people joining the ranks of real estate multimillionaires? Why aren’t there more people fighting for a seat on the real estate bandwagon?

Well, the truth behind real estate investing is that it is a business and therefore, must be treated like one for it to prosper. Just like any other promising venture, investing in real estate requires a well-defined vision, a strategic plan, and an entrepreneurial mindset. Even with the overwhelming evidence revealing success, only a microscopic segment of the population is willing to take the risk, do the work and follow through. The rest simply watch and call those of us doing the work “Lucky”.

When I began my career in real estate, I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t invest. I didn’t even see past my next commission check. What kept me hanging on was a desire to live like the people I worked for, most of whom were real estate investors. Years later, I committed to create serious wealth through real estate. As soon as I mindfully committed to my goal, I began to make deals and more money than ever before.

By choice, I am not one of those investors who vacations six months out of the year. I work all the time meeting with clients, looking at properties and refining my strategy. Add to that a growing number of mentoring/coaching clients and my schedule is officially full. Nevertheless, I am continuously increasing my net worth as I am doing something that never feels like work.

Besides creating amazing wealth, being your own boss and having a place or two to call home, owning a real estate investing business has many other advantages. The following five play a special role for the novice investor.

1. Safe Investment

When we use a timeline to compare the real estate market to other investments, such as the stock market, it is easy to see that real estate continues to increase in value over time without any serious instability. Although, there is currently a housing crisis in various parts across the country, every indicator points out that what we are actually experiencing is a readjustment of highly inflated real estate prices. Just as prices may be dropping, in time they will undoubtedly increase. In contrast, the stock market has put investors through a dizzying rollercoaster ride made up of swift highs and abrupt lows throughout history. Regardless of what type of market we are in, it is clear that an investment in real estate guarantees a profit over time.

2. No Cash Necessary

For beginning real estate investors, sometimes the only investment they can make is their time. For every real estate investor, finding a lucrative deal is as good as striking oil. There are plenty of seasoned investors with money in their pockets itching to buy a piece of discounted property. Wholesalers often utilize this method. Therefore, if you are new to the game, consider finding a deal, tying it up and connecting with an investor who can take it off your hands…for a price, of course.

3. Almost Anyone Can Do It

Real estate is such a lucrative field that it opens doors to countless amateur investors everyday. There are how-to books and seminars at every turn teaching would-be investors a myriad of ways to make huge profits in the real estate market. While it is true that overnight success is practically unheard of, anybody with the heart, mind and determination can make it big in real estate. The keys are to continue learning and to monitor market conditions.

4. Leveraging Power

While novice investors can turn a quick profit by wholesaling their deals, Buy-and-Hold investors can yield a profit by borrowing against (leveraging) their properties. Typically, lenders will allow holders of owner-occupied property to borrow up to ninety-five percent of their property’s value and up to eighty-percent of non-owner occupied units. This means that you can either purchase property with a minimal out-of-pocket investment or acquire financing that will allow you to pull cash out of your property’s equity to use for future ventures.

5. Tax Breaks

The popular 1031 exchange and depreciation are just two of them. The United States government has set up multiple tax breaks favoring real estate investors. Owning real estate with the goal of making a profit allows you to deduct interest payments, repairs, and vacancies among other expenses when preparing your tax return. It is important to note that purchasing real estate makes economic sense; it should not be purchased solely for the tax benefits.

Ultimately, owning a real estate business is the way to achieve financial freedom regardless of economic conditions. Whether you quit your job and dive right in or you work at it in your spare time, you can make it happen. Worthwhile benefits are waiting faithfully for the taking.

Silver Spring real estate

James Kobzeff asked:

cle covers six dynamite real estate investing tips intended to help anyone just getting started in real estate investing to successfully launch and hit the ground running with real estate investment property.

1. Develop the Correct Attitude

To stand a chance of succeeding at real estate investing, foremost, you must understand that real estate investment is a business, and you will become the CEO of that business.

As your first order of business, then, it’s crucial to develop the correct mind-set about investment real estate and be able to make this distinction between buying a home and investing in real estate:

“You buy a home to live and raise a family; you buy real estate investment property to pay for the home, live comfortably, and raise your family in style”

As one very successful real estate investor said, “Only women are beautiful, what are the numbers?” In other words, you will not succeed at real estate investing until you acknowledge that it’s not curb appeal, amenities, floor plan, or neighborhood that should turn you on or off to the investment opportunity; what counts most is the property’s financial performance.

2. Develop Meaningful Objectives

A meaningful set of (realistic) objectives that frames your investment strategy is one of the most important elements of successful investing. Yes, we may all desire to make millions of dollars from real estate investing, but fantasy is not the same as expressing specific goals and a method on how to achieve it.

Here are some suggestions:

How much cash are you willing to invest comfortably? What rate of return are you hoping to achieve by making the investment in real estate? Are you expecting instant cash flow, looking to make your money when the property is resold, or merely looking to achieve tax shelter benefits? How long are you planning to hold the property before you dispose of it? What amount of your own effort can you afford to contribute to the day-to-day operation of running the property? What net worth are you hoping investing will help you to achieve, and by when would you like to achieve it? What type of income property do you feel most comfortable owning, residential or commercial, or does it matter?

3. Develop Market Research

If you’re new to real estate investing, you undoubtedly know little about investment real estate in your local market. So, do market research to learn as much as you can about income property values, rents, and occupancy rates in your area. The better prepared you are, the more likely you are to recognize a good (or bad) deal when you see it.

Here are some good resources:

(a) The local newspaper, (b) A local appraiser, (c) The county tax assessor, (d) A qualified local real estate professional, (e) A local property management company

4. Run the Numbers

I can’t stress enough the importance of running the property’s cash flow, rates of return, and profitability numbers. Remember, real estate investing is a business, and as the CEO of your investment enterprise, you’ve got to know what you’re buying, especially if you’re trying to determine which of several investment opportunities would be the most profitable.

You have two options:

(a) Invest in real estate investment software. This will enable you to discover for yourself the investment property’s cash flow and rates of return, and create your own analysis reports. Plus, by running the numbers yourself, you gain a broader understanding of real estate investing nuances, and in turn might be less likely to fall victim to the wiles of someone with little concern about how you spend your money.

(b) At the very least, work with a real estate professional that has invested in real estate investment software and can calculate, present, and discuss the property’s financial data with you.

5. Develop a Relationship with a Qualified Real Estate Professional

Working with a qualified real estate professional is a great way for beginners to get started with rental property investing because an astute professional can acquaint you with local market conditions, recommend a property that meets your investing objectives, and discuss strengths and weaknesses about specific property performance.

Here’s a warning, however: Work with a real estate person who understands investment real estate.

Be sure the agent has a firm grip on key financial measures inherent to real estate investing, knows how to measure profitability and rate of return, has the ability to present the data you need to make wise investment decisions, and, most importantly, shows a genuine interest in how you spend your money. The last thing you want to do is to get involved with a real estate agent that would throw you under the bus just to make a commission.

Here’s a good way to interview for an agent. Ask them for the property’s cap rate and then request an APOD. If their response (even to these basics) is to stand there looking at you like a deer into the headlights of a car, find another agent.

6. Start Investing

Hopefully, this has given you some insight into real estate investing, highlighted a few things to make you a more prudent real estate investor, and perhaps alerted you to a couple of things that should be avoided.

Okay, that does it for us, now it’s time for you to get started. Here’s to your success.

Flatlake real estate

Tom Wheelwright asked:

Even if you have strong positive cash flow from your rental real estate, chances are you still have a loss for tax purposes due to the depreciation deduction.

This is a great tax strategy because your positive cash flow is sheltered from tax. But, it can be even better if you are able to take your losses against your other income (like your income from your job or the business that you run).

The general rule for rental real estate losses is that they are passive. This means they can only be taken against passive income. The income from your job and the business you run is active income so your rental losses cannot shelter this income. However, there are two exceptions to this rule.

** Exception #1: “Active Real Estate” exception. **

The Background on the Active Real Estate Exception

Rental real estate, in many cases, is held to provide financial security to individuals with moderate incomes. Because of this Congress believed that a rental real estate investment in which a taxpayer has significant responsibilities and which served a significant non-tax purpose should be treated differently than the activities meant to be limited under the passive loss provisions. So Congress created the active rental real estate exception.

- How It Works -

If you are active in your rental real estate activities you may be able to deduct up to $25,000 of your rental losses against other ordinary income. We say may be because there are income limitations which phase out the $25,000 deduction. The phase out will start when your adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000 and end when your adjusted gross income is at $150,000. This means that for every $2 over $100,000 of adjusted gross income you will lose $1 off the $25,000 deductible amount. For example if your adjusted gross income is $120,000 you will have to reduce the $25,000 exception by $10,000 and the most rental real estate losses you can deduct will be $15,000 for that tax year.

Don’t let your high income penalize you! Learn my tax secrets to increase your cash flow by uncovering the hidden cash flow in your real estate. Several of my secrets reveal how to legally get around these income limitations!

What constitutes active participation?

Active participation exists so long as you participate, in the making of management decisions or arranging for others to provide services (such as repairs), in a significant and bona fide sense. Also, you must have at least a 10% interest in the activity at any time during the year.

** Exception #2: “Real Estate Professional” exception. **

What is a Real Estate Professional?

First, let’s dispense with one myth: Real Estate Professional status does not mean you have to hold a real estate license. Rather, it is a designation you obtain by meeting certain specific requirements. If you qualify as a real estate professional you can deduct all your current year rental real estate losses against other income without limitations.

Requirement #1

The first requirement is that you spend more than 750 hours in real estate trades or businesses in which you materially participate.

What is a real estate trade or business? A real estate trade or business is defined as ANY real estate development, redevelopment, construction, reconstruction, acquisition, conversion, rental, operation, management, leasing, or brokerage trade or business.

The 750 hours test must be met for each activity. So for example, say you have three rental properties. The general rule is that you have to perform at least 750 hours on activities related to EACH of those three properties. Fortunately, there is an exception to this rule. If you make the election to aggregate all of your rental real estate activities into one activity, you only have to meet the 750 hours requirement once for the tax year.

What types of activities qualify as real estate professional activities? Activities such as:

- Searching for possible rental properties

- Attending real estate seminars or reading real estate books

- Meeting with real estate agents and viewing properties

- Meeting with mortgage brokers with regards to getting loans on properties

- Travel time to and from the seminars and your property searches

- Preparing your bookkeeping and tax information for your rental properties

- Time spend buying or selling properties (i.e. signing the closing documents)

- Studying and reviewing financial reports (Investor-type)

- Preparing summaries or analyses for personal use (Investor-type)

- Monitoring finances or operation in a non-managerial capacity (Investor-type)

An important note to the investor-type activities mentioned above is that these activities can only be counted towards real estate professional time if you are involved in the day-to-day operations or management of the activity for which you perform those tasks. Essentially, this means that if you have an independent property manager and your only real estate business is your rental properties, you probably will not qualify as a real estate professional.

Requirement #2

The second requirement is that you spend more time in your real estate trades or businesses than in ALL OTHER trades or businesses combined. Time spent as an employee in real estate activities is counted only if you are a more than a 5% owner in that business.

- What You Need to Do -

You have to meet the above requirements each year. So, you could be a real estate professional one year but not the next. Only one spouse needs to meet the requirements in order for a married couple to take advantage of the benefits provided by the real estate professional status.

The extent of an individual’s participation in an activity may be established by any reasonable means. Contemporaneous daily time reports, logs, or similar documents are not required if the extent of such participation may be established by other reasonable means. Documentation required includes the identification of services performed over a period of time and the approximate number of hours spent performing such services during such period, based on appointment books, calendars, or narrative statements.

If you are audited, the IRS will ask you to prove your real estate professional status. For more on how to be prepared, see my recent article titled: “Three (3) Things You Can Do To Be Prepared For An Audit”

Oakland retail space

Clifton Waldrep asked:

In a nutshell, that is the basic question at the back of our collective subconscious when we talk about the real estate bubble. If you turn on the TV, listen to the radio, or even surf the internet, you’ll notice that there is a lot of people talking about the “Real Estate Bubble”, and asking the question, “when is it going to burst? With property prices seemingly on the rise and rising quickly in Tampa. There is a lot of talk about a real estate bubble in the US and dire predictions that the so-called bubble could burst, leading to a lack of confidence on the part of investors and people seeking a second home.

At the root of the Real Estate Bubble Myth is the fact that interest rates are on the rise and the inexplicable truth is that, all of a sudden, everybody is so worried and concerned about it. Contrary to the belief of many ‘bubbleologists’ and the uneducated guesses of ill-informed consumers, a rise in interest rates is actually a welcome variable for the economy and, moreover, it is specifically the tool needed to keep a bubble from bursting. In conclusion, the three reasons the real estate bubble is bursting are higher interest rates; first-time buyers being priced out of the market; and the psychology about the real estate market is changing.

You can profit in any real estate market, bubble or not, when you do your research, understand your location, buy smart, improve the property, and sell with Marketing Psychology strategies. These folks have been conditioned to believe what they believe most likely from the experience of the stock market bubble of 2000, and maybe the 1990′s when the real estate market was hit hard in many large metropolitan areas across the country. While diversity is always a good idea and placing all of your investment funds in one vehicle, such as real estate, is never a good idea; there is reason to believe that the real estate bubble in the US is not about to end any time soon.

So therefore, there is no valid reason to believe, under the circumstances, that consumer confidence applies to everything but real estate and that an economic bubble would affect only real estate markets and nothing else. Whitney says that while there is no national real estate bubble, we may see some changes in local markets ranging from a slow-down in the rate of valuation increases to some slight declines in value. Another part of the answer is in the fact that the real estate bubble is extremely localized – and it’s localized in some of the larger media centers around the country.

Among other things, it means that the dangers of a real estate ‘crash’ are as localized as the effects of the real estate bubble. It’s a fact that talk of a real estate bubble has the attention of consumers. Before you give any substance to warnings about a “real estate bubble,” look closely at the source.

After looking at the numbers, it’s clear that Phoenix AZ real estate bubble concerns are overstated. Given these facts, it’s no wonder so many people are jumping on the real estate investment bandwagon. In San Diego in particular and most other major metropolitan real estate markets, it’s quite acceptable to acknowledge and embrace the double-digit real estate appreciation of the past.

In conclusion, the three reasons the real estate bubble is bursting are higher interest rates; first-time buyers being priced out of the market; and the psychology about the real estate market is changing. You can profit in any real estate market, bubble or not, when you do your research, understand your location, buy smart, improve the property, and sell with Marketing Psychology strategies. These folks have been conditioned to believe what they believe most likely from the experience of the stock market bubble of 2000, and maybe the 1990′s when the real estate market was hit hard in many large metropolitan areas across the country.

There has been some speculation that the wild investment in the real estate market and they hype of outrageous investment returns has no where to go but crashing back down to Earth. Two of the strongest industry trade associations, banking and real estate, have been waging a battle over the right of banks to offer real estate brokerage to consumers in addition to other financial instruments such as mortgages, securities and insurance which they currently market to customers. The headlines threaten a correction in real estate prices, projectionist real estate trade associations, traditional versus Internet brokerage business models and a consumers right to a competitive marketplace for real estate services.

Before you give any substance to warnings about a “real estate bubble,” look closely at the source. Try to obtain at least 2 points of view before coming to a conclusion. Don’t let fears of a real estate bubble stop you from reaching your financial goals.

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