Dean Graziosi | Dean Graziosi Real Estate | Dean Graziosi Investment

The New York Real Estate Expo is held annually at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel, to provide an opportunity to agents and brokers for targeted networking and connection with the agents ideal clientele. The N.Y. Real Estate Expo is the single largest event concerning real estate in the country. Everything and everyone an investor or agent needs to succeed can be found behind its doors. Architects, bankers, contractors, credit specialists, landscapers, real estate bankers, mortgage bankers, real estate insurance companies, all be present, just to name few.

The New York Real Estate Expo Agenda: Imperial Room

The N.Y. Real Estate Expo will happen in stages, even though those stages won’t be noticed by most, it is happening. In the early hours of the Expo, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., registration will be held, as well as exhibitor set up. After that, from 9a.m. to 10:30 a.m., the Imperial Room is opened for the commercial observer forum, the topic will cover, New York investment sales in 2011. The moderator will be Tom Acitelli, and will show case Moses Sioni, managing director of Sioni & Partners; Sam Chandan, President and chief economist of Real Estate Econometrics, along with many others.

The seminars don’t stop there, though. From 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the Real Estate Weekly Forum will start. The topic will be: Amid the Economic Uncertainty, What Lies Ahead for the Real Estate Investor. The moderator will be Dan Geiger, from Real State Weekly. The forum will showcase owner and investors such as, James R. Wacht, President of Sierra Realty; Paul J. Massey, Jr., Chief executive Officer and founding partner of Massey Knakal Realty Services; and Ralph Herzka, the President and CEO of Meridian Capital Group LLC.

A real estate seminar for effectively marketing and selling green properties, will be held from 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. The keynote speakers for this seminar are, Alison Novak, of GreenHomeNYC and The Hudson Companies Inc. Speaking with her, is Alanna Martin, of Green Properties New York.

A CCIM forum will be held from 4:15 p.m. to 5 p.m., covering the topic of, what are the rules in office, retail, development, and lending. The experts that have been scheduled to speak are, Paul G.W. Fetscher CCIM, SCLS; Craig T. Evans, CCIM and Cassidy Turley; Wayne D’ Amico, CCIM and Property Politics; and Jimmy Vattes, CCIM and Mortgage Bankers.

Bolasco Room

Other seminars in the Bolasco Room include, Ethical Considerations for the Real Estate Practitioner, Foreign investment in US Real Estate: Challenges and Opportunities, and the History of CO-OP’s in NYC / NYC Condo History, to name a few.

Those were just some of the seminars and activities going on at the New York Real Estate Expo, dozens others are taking place in the Carnegie Room, Booth Room, and Edison Room. The final seminar ends at 5:30 p.m., so if you chose your learning options poorly, you’ve run out of time. Use your experience here wisely, and you’ll be one real estate investor who comes out with more leads for clients, lenders, and contacts with other agents and brokers. To see the full schedule of the New York Real Estate Expo, go to their website at, http://www.nycrealestateexpo.com/Agenda.html.

The Florida real estate market has been one of the hardest hit markets during the recession.  It will take years for values to get back to their 2007 values.  Since late 2008, Florida’s real estate activity can only be described as dismal.

Residential and commercial construction, once the heart of many Florida counties, is at a standstill and showing no signs of recovery.  Unemployment on Florida is among the highest in the country. 

After Hurricane Katrina, much of the construction in Florida involved the use of Chinese drywall.  The drywall has left thousands of homeowners and construction firms involved in litigation. 

In Florida in the first quarter of 2010, 39 percent of all homes sold were distressed or foreclosed properties.  Florida was one of ten states where distressed housing accounted for more than 33 percent of all sales.  In Nevada, a stunning 63.5 percent of all sales were distressed homes.

In Florida, 35,410 homes sold in the first quarter.  15.2 percent of all foreclosure sales in the country were located in sunny Florida.  Foreclosure sales rose by 9 percent in year-over-year comparisons, but were down 3 percent form the fourth quarter 2009.

Just three years ago, Florida real estate was in high demand.  Buyers flocked to the beach and to the sun for primary and secondary housing. Houses were selling at prices that will not be seen again for years.

However, investors are on the scene and in the Florida market.  Bank owned real estate sold at a 37.8 percent discount in the first quarter 2010.  The average selling price of pre-foreclosure and foreclosure homes in Florida was just $121,394 in the first quarter.  Nationwide the average selling price for foreclosure homes was $171,971.

Many REO’s and short sales in Florida are second homes.  Sellers want out.  The banks want out and investors are reaping big harvests.  Florida investors are approaching banks for quantity discounts.  In the Sunshine State, wheeling and dealing is taking place.

Investors are finding a strong seasonal rental market for short sale acquisitions and REO’s. It’s not too late to become a Florida investor.  

If investors are purchasing a foreclosure property, repairing the property and putting it back on the market as soon as the repairs are complete, the investor should already know the asking price.  In keeping with the investment strategy that there is no romance in real estate, the investor must be very familiar with values in the neighborhood as well as with foreclosure sales and short sales.

In addition to applying the square foot replacement cost to the property, the investor will have performed a CMA before purchasing the property.  During the period the property is being renovated, the investor must stay in touch with the marketplace, including those short sales and foreclosures.  These sales definitely impact the value of homes around them.

In the investor’s buy-fix-flip strategy, every real estate agent and every buyer will most likely know what the investor originally paid for the property. That information may come into play.  However, in areas where the investor has acquired a distinctive home in a desirable neighborhood and made smart improvements, profits are being registered.

This may account for why investors are entering the higher priced areas and bidding on REO’s and short sales with jumbo mortgages.  The investor must be willing to tie up credit, pay for improvements and run the risk of being unable to sell quickly.  If the property does not flip, the investor can rent but a good deal of credit will still be attached to the property.

Buy-fix-flip on jumbo mortgage housing is risky.  But, investors in certain metropolitan areas are turning big profits.  In some cases, the investors have been able to ask very reasonable prices and generate multiple offers.  When a fair price for a unique property comes on the market, good things happen.

This practice has become popular in Oakland.  “We’re seeing multiple offers; we’re seeing above asking prices.  People are buying foreclosures, fixing them up and selling them and getting offers,” says David Kerr of ZipRealty in Oakland.

If the investor has the ability to perform the renovations themselves, six figure profits are within reach.  There is profit to be made on jumbo failures but be prepared to handle the risk.   

Lewi Ranieri, the creative originator of the mortgage-backed security is not taking a removed, back-seat approach to help homeowners stay in the homes.  His Selene Residential Mortgage Opportunity Fund provides hands-on solutions for defaulting homeowners.

Ranieri has assembled a savvy group of experienced advisers to help struggling owners stay in their homes.  The counselors sound more like

upbeat, can-do problem solvers than debt collectors.  The prevailing attitude is positive, friendly and result oriented.

The Selene Fund advisers offer plenty of experienced advice about restructuring debt and improving the value of the residence.  Solutions have included advancing money to perform repairs, debt counseling and budget review.  These tools are used by Selene to get the homeowners back on track and repaying a much lower mortgage level than previously existed.

Ranieri has admitted a sense of guilt about his development in the mortgage-backed securities market.  His hope is that property owners will use his fund to save their ownership and that government will come to realize that the real cure to stemming the foreclosure tide lies in voluntarily reducing mortgage amounts rather than lose the bulk of the value.

In short, the Selene Fund appears to be a mortgage short sale.  Lenders may actually save more than they lose by giving back to the original buyers.  Ranieri’s plan addresses the two key obstacles facing millions of today’s owners.  These struggling and often unemployed owners cannot afford the current mortgage payments and are not motivated to keep paying on homes with mortgages that exceed the home’s value.

What makes this housing slump so unique is the stunning loss of value spread throughout the nation.  Federal government and state driven plans are not resulting in affordable mortgage modifications.  Through Selene’s willingness to negotiate lower mortgages, but the cost side and value side of the slump are being addressed. 

Selene’s program also is designed to restore the traditional homeowner’s pride of ownership, which has slumped badly in the recession.  Ranieri wants owners to want to remain in their homes and is offering principal reductions that make it hard to say no.    

Despite repeated efforts to help struggling homeowners, the Administration has announced new, aggressive steps designed to help as many as 4 million delinquent homeowners.  The new $75 billion loan modification program has new incentives for borrowers as well as for lenders.

Previous modification plans have not met with success.  Previously, an applicant for modification entered into a trial period to assure the lender that the borrower could meet the modification terms.  Amazingly, only 5% of Freddie Mac loans were converted to permanent modifications.  On a broader scale, as of September 1, 2009, only 1.26% of all trial modifications were made permanent after three months.

In light of the present rate of foreclosures, the modification conversion is surprising.  The number of loans in foreclosure or at least one month in arrears exceeded 14% in the third quarter 2009.  Banks are under pressure to entertain and permanently convert loans.

A scale of incentives, including direct mortgage reductions, and annual initiatives are expected to raise interest from lenders and borrowers alike.  As of November 2009, only 650,000 Americans have received temporary modifications. 

The administration has recently taken more aggressive steps to assist homeowners achieve a temporary modification while completing documentation to apply for permanent adjustments. The paperwork process is cumbersome.  The administration has lessened the documentation requirements and has even hired independent firms to go door-to-door to assist troubled homeowners.

To qualify for the modification program, an applicant must have a mortgage of less than $729,750 and must show monthly payments above 31% of their pre-tax income.  It is best to begin the process before entering default status.  Citigroup has just 1800 borrowers who have converted their temporary modification program to a permanent plan.  The Citigroup service has 89,000 applicants in temporary status.

Lenders like Citigroup and Chase have retained outside services to attempt to stave off foreclosures.  It seems that many homeowners do not know where to turn and choose to ignore the pending foreclosure actions. Help is out there!  

In October 2009, the foreclosure rates were still 18.9 percent higher than they were in October a year ago. In comparison to the previous months, the rate of foreclosure has dipped, but it’s still very high when compared to previous years. At such times of distress, homeowners are most vulnerable to dubious companies. Therefore, here are some methods in ensuring that you do not fall into sweet talking and smooth operating fraud companies.

One should take advice and information from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The counselors will advice you on a range of housing matters, including foreclosures. Also, the website of this department has a list of approved agencies state wide. Please remember that, for homeowners in financial distress, HUD counseling comes at a very low cost and is sometimes free. Refrain from working with an agency that asks for a fee before giving advice.

Any agency promising to stall the foreclosure once and for all and make it go away should not be trusted fully, since no one can give this guarantee. Any fee or service payments demanded by the agency, before the program goes into affect, should not be made unless clarified with the authorities. Before going to a local agency, check the credentials and listing at the HUD website. Ask for some customer names that have already availed the service; speak to them to learn about their experience.

During these times, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the consumer information on frauds, started back in 2008, still holds good. They mentioned that the agencies trying to perpetrate fraud get the information of distressed owners through notices on newspapers and online. These agencies then send personalized letters and offers to the individuals to see if they can get them to take the bait. Extrapolating from this it would be advisable to know how these agencies who contacted you got the information.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that, in the year 2008, the total mortgage fraud Suspicious Activity Reports were 63,173 cases, with a loss of $1.5 billion. Some of the most popular types of mortgage frauds that happen in America include equity skimming, property flipping and mortgage related identity theft. One should also be aware of predatory lending practices, which hurt the primary borrowers and usually result in defaults and delinquencies. These predatory practices target the elderly, distressed owners and defaulters.

Dean Graziosi is a real estate investing expert who teaches people how to make money in real estate. Dean shares his secrets to profit from a variety of unique strategies he learned through 20 years of real estate investing. Dean started making money with cars at the age of 16 and then used those same concepts to start his real estate investing career at the early age of 18, when he purchased his first rental unit — a run-down apartment building — and renovated it into a profitable piece of property. This whole interesting story of this first venture into real estate investing is told in his book “Be A Real Estate Millionaire: Secret Strategies for Lifetime Wealth Today.” This is a book people who want to learn real estate investing invest in to learn the same strategies Dean has used himself, and taught for over 20 years to novice real estate investors all across the United States.

Besides his new book, “Be A Real Estate Millionaire” Dean also has a real estate investing course titled the: Think A Little Different” real estate course. It teaches people how to make money from Real Estate in a variety of ways.  Dean also offers real estate investing advice to investors through an advanced real estate investing training program. Today Dean has accomplished most of his financial dreams. Dean Graziosi daily appearances on TV since 1999 have helped make him known internationally as one of America’s foremost experts on helping folks achieve top levels of financial security.

If you’re new to investing in real estate, it may seem confusing and complicated. With all those contracts, property titles, and legal forms, it can tend to look like rocket science, but it’s not. Dean Graziosi believes the main reason people get so confused about real estate investing is simply because it’s new to them. Dean Graziosi thinks that as we get older, trying something new becomes harder because we get stuck in our old ways. The good news is Dean Graziosi have a solution for you. If you want to invest in Real estate and want to be millionaire learn from Dean Graziosi who teaches people how to make money in real estate.