Minneapolis

Some win and some lose. That is the way life works. You can try your best, but sometime you get beat out. It might now be because you were bad, it was just the other person was better. Or maybe, you are bad and you need to improve. I think one of the most important things to do right now and the turn of the year is to reflect on your actions and your life. Are you achieving your goals? Are you happy? Sometimes we can get caught up in everything that is going on. Bernard Madoff tricked a lot of people in to giving him money and now he is being exposed. It is really sad. I think the most important thing to achieve for this difficult time is to try to improve your character. Nobody is perfect and everybody has flaws. But we can work on honesty, discipline, consistency, and generosity. You don’t have to make it complicated. I think the most important thing is to try to do what you said you would do and don’t infringe on others or  their property. If you do that, then you should be ok. If you need a hardwood floor sanding and refinishing estimate give me a call. I’ll try my best to win for you.

It is a new year. 2009 is here. I am excited for it. I know things in the economy are not that good right now but I am optimistic. I think a lot of good stuff can happen from failure. You learn a lot about yourself, test your boundaries, and most of the time you become better. New Data came out for October that stated home prices fell last month more than any other month ever. Also, home prices are now at their 2004 levels. This is pretty bad, but if you are buying real estate it means a lot. The lower the price of a cash producing asset the more it will be worth. Also, GM is offering 0% financing on a lot of its vehicles. So if you need to buy a truck right now you can get a pretty good deal on it. But this stuff doesn’t even matter that much. I think what is most important right now is to have the right mind frame. If you think somebody is going to save you, I don’t think that is the right way to look at it. Throughout my life I have learned that to get things done you have to go out and do it yourself. The key is to do something you love and try to keep getting better at it day in and day out. I love refinishing hardwood floors. So if you need an estimate on your hardwood floors in Minneapolis give me a call. It is a new year and your floors should look new too.

First Time Home Buying Minneapolis Market Expert

Practice, practice, practice! Thats how you get better at something right. If you’re buying your first house in Minneapolis it is no different. The great thing about buying real estate is that you can go through a lot of homes first before you find a deal and make an offer. For example, let’s say you’re looking for a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house with an unfinished basement in the Lake Nokomis area in Minneapolis. It needs to be under $200,000. Right now there are about 100 houses on the market that fit that criteria. The key to finding value is to go through the houses and find out which ones are overvalued, undervalued, and just about right. By doing this you not only can find a nice house to make an offer on, but you can become better educated about the real estate market in that area. Seeing these assets first hand will give you confidence that you are making an informed and analytical decision based on facts and evidence. So instead of just buying purely on emotion, which is not always bad, you are basing the decision on good financial judgment also. Right now this is critical because there are so many foreclosures in Minneapolis on the market to sort through. Give me call if you’re interested in checking some of these houses out and learning a little bit more about the current real estate market. Thanks a lot. Arne at 612-423-0202

What a great time to be buying your first house in Minneapolis. Interest rates are very low. A client of mine just locked in a fixed rate on his FHA mortgage at 5%. The lowest down payment on a mortgage right now is 3%. That is pretty low historically, but at the same time home prices have dropped a lot over the last two years. Just in Minneapolis alone they have gone down over 12% just this year. So housing is cheap. There is a great program for first time home buyers called the 203K loan that will allow you to finance the repairs and fix up cost on a house into the mortgage. So say you find a really good deal for $100,000. If you put $50,000 worth of work into it, it would be a very nice house and probably worth $225,000. With a 203k loan you would get a mortgage for $150,000 and use $50,000 to pay for the fix ups. The only cash you have to come out of pocket is the 3% down payment and a couple more grand for taxes and insurance. I think that is a really good deal especially with you can find a nice duplex and rent out one side and live in the other. If I was a first time home buyer I would look for real estate deals in South Minneapolis, Northeast Minneapolis and Richfield. There are a lot of really nice homes that are cheap right now. If you’re considering buying your first house call me today and I will give you eight free home showings on some nice foreclosures. Thanks a lot. Arne at 612-423-0202

Want to build a lot of equity with a little bit of cash? Are you a first time home buyer in Minneapolis? If so, you should think about qualifying for a FHA 203K loan. With this loan program you can buy the house with a 3% down payment and finance the fix up cost of the property into the mortgage. Isn’t that great? For example, say you want to buy a duplex. You are going to live in one side and rent out the other side. You and two of your friends are going to live on one side and you’re going to rent to three people on the other side. But to do this, you need to finish the basements for both units, update the plumbing, electrical, refinish the hardwood floors and put a beautiful fresh coat of paint on the walls. To do all of this you need $25,000. Say you buy the house for a good deal because it is a foreclosure. You buy it for $150,000. With a 203K loan you can get financing for $175,000 and use $25,000 of it to fix up the place. When all is said and done your payment with taxes and insurance is around $1500. But you rent each room out for $500 because it is a really nice place and market rents are around $600, but you’re giving them a deal. Your gross rent is $2500 and your payments are $1500. You’re living for free and you’re making $1000 a month. Plus you just added $75,000-100,000 in equity to your duplex. Wow! You did this all with only $5100 cash out of pocket. What a deal. If you’re interested in doing this give me a call. I can help you find a good deal on a house in Minneapolis. Call Arne at 612-423-0202.

The government is giving away money! If you buy a house by July 1 2009, you could get $7500 in an interest free loan from the federal government. You have to make less than $75,000 and you have to live in the house you’re buying. This is a great program for qualified buyers. There are a ton of deals in Minneapolis, Edina, Richfield, which are undervalued. Most just need some paint and a few repairs. If you have a couple of friends who need a place to live, then you can rent to them and maybe even live in the house for free. If they are paying your mortgage you can save that money to invest or start your own business. Give me a call today if you’re a first time home buyer. I will give you eight free home showings in Minneapolis. And tell the Feds to “show me the money!”.

Right now is the time to act.  If you are a first time home buyer, then you should consider purchasing your home in the next 6-12 months.  Right now 41% of the homes on the market are foreclosed properties.  These properties on average sell for 20-40% less than traditional homes that people live in at the time of sale.  Foreclosures are expected to increase 34% in Minneapolis over the next year. This is creating great opportunities to build wealth through real estate. The federal government is considering lower interest rates on FHA loans to 4.5%. In addition, there is a federal tax credit of $7500 for first time buyers. This is money you can use to fix up the place. This is an extremely low interest rate that can save you hundreds of dollars a month and thousands of dollars over the life of your loan. I just sold a very nice 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house in Northeast Minneapolis for $95,000. The house was build in 1991, has a completely unfinished basement in excellent shape. He is going to live there with a few friends and after his income from rent he will live for free and could make $450 per month. Right now, this is the smart thing to do. People are losing jobs, and it is getting very difficult to make money. You want to lower your costs as much as possible. Right now you can own a house for less then you pay in rent! Call me today for eight free home showings in Minneapolis. If you’re a first time home buyer in Minneapolis call me today.

Foreclosure, foreclosure, foreclosure! That is all I see. Almost 50% of homes on the market in Minneapolis right now are lender mediated homes. This is a 65% increase from October 2007. Furthermore, foreclosed homes for sale under $120,000 are up 120% since October 2007. Does this make sense? Most of the houses on the market right now are foreclosures. That is crazy. This truly is showing how irresponsible lenders and borrowers have been over the year 4-5 years. There was too much cheap money going around and too little due diligence. Where are all these people who lived in these houses? Are they renting or did they buy another house? I imagine that a lot are renting. I don’t know the numbers right now, but one could conclude that the rental market is heating up and is going to continue to heat up. I think this is the greatest time to buy residential real estate since 1945. Prices are extremely low, the housing supply is very high and from all the numbers I’ve seen it is going to take a while to eliminate the supply. Call me today if you’re looking to take advantage of this great wealth building opportunity. There are a lot of great south Minneapolis homes for sale today!

Have you ever heard of hyperinflation? Most people have heard of inflation, which is when the price of something increases. Most of the inflation over the last 80 years has come from an increase in the money supply. Most of the global economy uses dollars to make transactions. And since the 1970s the U.S. Dollar has only been worth anything because the U.S. Government says it is and everybody believes it. The good thing about this is our government can just print money when it needs more of it. But if you increase the supply of something long enough and demand does not keep pace, then its value will decrease. Right now, we are going through that. There are so many damn dollars in the global economy that we are losing value in our dollar. Now think about it like this. If you’re an investor your goal is to increase the value of your investment. But if your investment is held in dollars then you’re fighting against inflation, plus you have to increase the value of your assets besides that to maximize your return. But what if your asset is not held in dollars, instead it is held in real estate, gold, silver, or oil. Then you don’t have to fight against inflation. Inflation is actually helping your asset gain value because it is not held in dollars. The government is about to spend 7 trillion dollars go “get us out of” this recession. That is $7 trillion more dollars in the economy. This is going to cause hyperinflation. What to do about this? You should buy Minneapolis real estate. Buy rental properties. They are very undervalued and they will probably get more undervalued. I just sold a house for $94,000. It is assessed at $227,000. My client is going to live there for free and make $450 a month after he rents out three rooms. Now that is deal. He will be protected against hyperinflation. If you’re looking for real estate to buy give me a call. I would love to help you out.