Professional/medical office building for lease, ready for occupancy. Private offices, bull-pen, reception, conference room and server room. Easy access to I-80 close to main post office, hotel, services and restaurants. $1.25 psf/month NNN. Zoned LO.
View more information on website.
Burt
Congratulations to Isset Solario on her new business, Solario Insurance Services, who leased 1,080 square feet at 990 Lincoln Avenue in Napa.
Burt
I heard on a podcast this list of rules to consider when investing in real estate. It is quite good and worth sharing.
Burt
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Thou shalt become educated.
Knowledge is a powerful tool. Do your due diligence so that you are your own best advisor.
Thou shalt have a professional Investment Counselor.
Only invest with investment professionals who stay with you for the long-term so that you have a single point of contact to coordinate your entire investment plan. Advisors should buy for themselves what they sell, putting their money where their mouth is, and get paid for producing results rather than simply for advice.
Thou shalt maintain control.
Never leave your financial future in the hands of incompetent, unethical or greedy brokerage houses, fund managers or corporations. Always be a direct investor.
Thou shalt use prudent financial planning techniques.
Always invest with your goals in mind (retirement, financial freedom, creating wealth) and abide by your risk tolerance and investing style.
Thou shalt not gamble.
Be a prudent long-term value investor, never a get-rich-quick gambler, speculator or flipper by investing only in properties that make good financial sense the day you buy them.
Thou shalt diversify.
Reduce risk and maximize returns by investing in several areas as every market is different.
Thou shalt be Area Agnostic™.
Only invest with an advisor who is not partial to any one area or investment to avoid a conflict of interest. Consider a variety of opportunities.
Thou shalt borrow to maximize leverage and accelerate wealth creation.
Use as much borrowed money and as little of your own money as possible so long as the borrowed money can be repaid by the tenant. Let other people’s money work for you, reduce your risk and make you wealthy.
Thou shalt only invest where there is universal need.
No one needs stocks, bonds or gold but EVERYONE needs a place to live and with growing affluence around the world, consumption of raw materials will continue to cause upward price pressure on improved real estate.
Thou shalt invest only in tax-favored assets.
Non-cash write-offs and deductions are money in your pocket and real estate offers the best of both.
Jason’s Ten Commandments of Successful Investing
© Copyright 2005, The Hartman Media Company
I’ve had several questions from clients regarding short sales, foreclosures and bankruptcy and how it will affect them. It can be overwhelming and tough to know who to actually talk with about a looming financial crises. I hope this short explanation on recourse vs. non-recourse loans will shed some light on the different types of loans we may have on our properties and the resulting exposure we have.
Burt
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Don’t Make the California Refinance Mistake.
Central to the mortgage bailout plan is the refinance of adjustable rate mortgages to fixed rate mortgages. There is even a plan to nearly double the “conforming” loan limit to help jumbo mortgages refinance. But before you jump in, make sure you are not making the California Refinance mistake. California homeowners have been making the “refinance mistake” as long as the bubble has been going on. The big mistake homeowners make is turning a ”non-recourse” second loan into a “recourse” loan by refinancing it. A non-recourse loan is a loan that the bank can only look to their secured interest. In other words, they can only foreclose, they cannot get a deficiency judgment and chase you into bankruptcy collecting it. THIS IS HUGE! You can walk away from a non-recourse loan. So how is a second mortgage a non-recourse loan? Simple, it was “purchase money” for your home. A purchase money loan is one where the money went from the lender, to escrow, and then to the seller or to pay purchase closing costs. In California, purchase money loans made on your home (note: not second home or investment properties) are non-recourse. It’s simple as that.
The mistake comes when you refinance your second purchase money mortgage. Because it is no longer a “purchase money” loan a refinance transforms it into a “recourse” loan. That means the lender will chase you into bankruptcy collecting it. Or worse, they will sell it to a debt scrounger, the worst form of debt collector. Your life will be hell if it falls into their hands. It used to be second mortgages were never purchase money. Enter the housing bubble and creative Wall Street financing. The result: the 80/20 loan. It was really a beautiful thing. Buy a house with no money down, get two loans, a cheap interest rate first covering 80% of your loan, and a high rate second mortgage covering the 20% you were supposed to put down to have some skin in the game. Wall Street sold the loans to different investors and bought insurance on the second to cover the higher risk of default. But there was an unintended consequence Wall Street seems to have
overlooked. The Purchase Money Rule made these loans “non-recourse.” This has come back to bite. It turns out ETRADE has a bunch of California Second Mortgages. Guess what? They are unsecured now because housing prices have fallen so much, and there is no recourse against the borrowers. They can just walk away-AND THEY ARE.
A couple of tips:
1. You can refinance your first mortgage or both mortgages into one mortgage and still be “non-recourse.” This is because the One Action Rule prevents lenders from looking beyond the mortgage in a non-judicial foreclosure. Second mortgages do not benefit from this rule because they have not had their “one action.”
2. If a seller took a second loan on your property, they cannot look beyond a foreclosure even on investment properties or second loans. This is the “Vendor Rule.”
3. Always keep economics in mind. It’s better to let your home go and walk away without liability to the bank then to try to save your home with a refinance and become personally liable.
Written by Ken Andrews
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