I hope you are all well. February was a great month; a number of members said they sold a lot of their inventory and are looking for new properties to buy. I hope you are in the same boat. Have a great month and call if I can help you with anything.

Real Estate

Wow, snow bird season is in full swing here in sunny Florida. January and February were great months for listings and closings at the office. So Realtors are happy, but investors are starting to grumble. In some parts of the country, and especially here in Charlotte County, inventories are way down. In my market the inventory is down by 1/3. So prices have started to creep up. This is good for home owners, but for investors lower inventories and increasing prices make it hard to buy a property and fit it into your working model. Getting into a bidding war with other investors may not be a good thing. In most cases this only gives you a headache and less profit.

I would highly suggest you start to look for other ways to buy property. Check Craig's List and Back Page. I have found a few gems there in the past and more and more investors are starting to look there as well. FSBO web sites are good; you just need to look around. Most of the owners have their homes overpriced but a few will tell you they need a quick cash sale, so look around - it might be worth your time.

One new issue we need to address is vandalism on your properties. This past month I have heard quite a few of the members complain that their properties were broken into. They complain that doors were left open or not locked, keys missing, etc. Most of the break-ins were in houses that the investors were selling on their own. When I asked how they were qualifying the buyers most said they gave them the lock box combo and told them to lock the doors and put the key back. No other questions or proof that they were qualified. All said they do not meet people at their houses when they want to see them. I am surprised that more houses are not broken into or appliances stolen! If I were a buyer/thief I would be trying to find all your houses for sale and relieve you of some of the appliances and other extra stuff you may have hanging around. C'mon, this is simple, common sense. You have got to put some measures in place to protect your investment. I understand you don't want to meet every person out there but you need to qualify them better. Maybe have set times to show the house and ask them to come during that time frame. Set up video cameras. They make them portable you know, so it's easy to move to a new location.

Just some thoughts on the subject and next month I will go into details of how we can protect ourselves and our property better. Paul

Dori's corner