Nine Lives Lease Clause

To heck with eviction, we'll use cats. Dead ones.

We often try to offer suggestions for landlords on how to deal with difficult tenants. But a landlord in NYC is taking things to a whole new level. Not knowing the whole story here makes it worthless for me to say these tenants were being difficult, so the best assumption was that the landlord wanted the rent controlled tenants gone so he can jack the prices. It's common in NYC.

I don't think he made his life any easier. Smellier, sure, but not easier.

Great foreclosure deals

The Wall Street Journal has highlighted some real bargains in the foreclosure sector. If you have the cash, now is the time.

Tax Strategies are your friend

If you did not attend the most recent Wake County Apartment Association meeting then you missed an ideal opportunity to learn about some key tax strategies from Kevin Bassett of Bassett & Associates.

Now you have another chance.

Kevin, who offers many tax seminars, will be offering his Pre-Emptive Tax Strategies Workshop next week:

Thursday and Friday, September 25 - 26, 2008 ~ 8:30am - 5pm
Saturday, September 27, 2008 ~ 9am - 12pm

Embassy Suites Hotel
201 North Harrison Avenue Cary, NC

You can find more information on his Web site. We can't recommend enough the importance of understanding the tax benefits and strategies in regard to investment real estate. And Kevin Bassett is one of the best sources for it in the Southeast. Talk about money well spent.

Fannie, Freddie and Sallie

Sallie doesn't have anything to do with this but I remember with severe disdain when my first student loan bill showed up in the mail with a Sallie Mae logo emblazoned on the return address. I was living on proceeds from recyclable beer can deposits and all forms of sustenance sold in a box by General Mills and lo and behold, some entity with a weird name like my mom's wants $250/month for the next ten years.

Can you say, "forbearance?"

Here I am twelve or so years later, out from under Sallie's thumb but unfortunately, being stomped upon by her older, obviously more disgruntled siblings. So, what do they have to do with what I do now? This, I guess.

Making a healthy market

Economic naysayers around the Triangle rest a lot of their argument on the notion that the Triangle is often the last area to feel an economic meltdown and the first to climb out of it. Well, maybe they're right. To an extent, anyway.

It seems that money continues to flow into the market for new jobs and economic development, which is the core driver of multi-family property. The small multi-family market is holding steady, from a rent and occupancy numbers perspective. Class A, institutional-grade developments are also doing pretty well, despite the prospect of over-building.

But let's not get nuts. People are hurting. Lending has fallen off a cliff (probably the one they built with the mountain of documentation they now require), creating headaches for even qualified buyers. Right now, the best match for a sale is a motivated seller and a cash-heavy buyer. And that's not a real compatible pair.

Hold tight, folks.