Charlotte Property Management Weekly: 52 Consecutive Weeks of Writing- Some Random Thoughts on the Real Estate Industry

Writing a blog every week is hard!  My hats are off to the people who write multiple times a week, and especially to those that do it every day- kudos!

My thoughts haven’t changed in the past year on the near future of short-term residential real estate (next 1-2 years).  Rent-to-own and rent-to-sell (as well as short sales and working with serious investors) seem to be what the main growth areas will be.

As foreclosures continue to rise, banks will not even pretend to relax lending guidelines.

As the US economy sputters, FHA loans will not become more affordable or easier to get.  It will actually be the opposite.  Fannie and Freddie have lost and continue to lose a lot of money!

People, in general, have less money.  For people disbursing it (banks, government, property managersJ), the pressure of delivering it is on much more than usual.

More real estate offices will close as technology and business realities (aka less revenue and customers) continue to hit.  Office virtualization will continue to grow.

I don’t like the thought of owning a business in a downtrend industry.  There, I said it.  Being involved in high growth industries is much more exciting (and profitable).  Property management is a good growth industry with steady income, but the margins are not close to those of brokerage.  You live off of property management and vacation from the brokerage business.

The biggest market for rent-to-own and rent-to-sell prospects will continue to be $250K+ homes.  These owners (especially those over the FHA maximum loan amount) need solutions for their homes!

Rental (and especially rent-to-own) tenants are plentiful in this market!

Other people are still the best source of blog material!

Is social media going to continue to trumpet it’s ROI in anecdotal format?  Has anyone made any money on Twitter on a consistent basis?  Let’s see the numbers, not hear stories!

On that token, one of my favorite quotes on social media is, “Conversation is king.  Content is just something to talk about.”  Twitter is a bit one-sided (aka no conversation), no?

Here’s to another 52 weeks…

Brett Furniss is the President & Owner of BDF Realty (“Charlotte’s Most Innovative Property Management & Investment Company”), and Rent-To-Sell Realty (“When You Need a New Solution to Sell Your Home”) which  specialize in rent-to-own (lease options) and rent-to-sell homes.  You can contact him directly at [email protected].