My life as a Realtor.

Again, it's been a while. I graduated the SMART program with top honers. I was in the top producing group with $22 mill in transaction in a 7 week period. I was awarded the leadership award for being the asst. leader of our top producing group and I received the All Star award for Exceptional Productivity. There were only 8 out of 73 people that got that!

I have been really busy. I just picked up two more bars to go for the package deal for the Big. All tree bars are now listed and we will let all three go for $1.5 mill. For these bars bringing in aver $20k a month we are letting them go for a song. If you have anyone that is interested in this, please let me know!

So far I have closed $962,500.00 in Transaction and have $1,820,000.00 in inventory and that's not all. I will be picking up a $450,000.00 Loft condo downtown on the 1st of June. This property is a green built and ready to move into.

I also picked up a 3/1 cabin on 20 akers that we are letting go of for $280,000.00. We have had a lot of interest on this property, but we can't get into it yet. Me and the owner are going up to fish this weekend and we should be able to get into it. We went up weekend before last and there was still 2 ft. of snow on the ground.

Let me know if there is anything I can do for you, your family or your friends! I have attached a few articles and of course the Quotes!

Enjoy! More later!

"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of
recognition."
-- Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. president

"A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not
too much above his last achievement."
-- Kurt Lewin, Psychologist

"I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through
honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain,
those you deal with should gain as well."
-- Alan Greenspan, Former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve


"If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If
you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever
good things we build, end up building us."
-- Jim Rohn, Motivational Speaker

"In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim
with the current. "
-- Thomas Jefferson, third president

"Ideas must work though the brains and the arms of good and brave men,
or they are no better than dreams. "
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet


"Man must search for what is right and let happiness come on its own. "
-- Johann Pestalozzi, educator

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph
over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who
conquers that fear."
-- Nelson Mandela, Civil Rights Leader

"If you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They
come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will
always lead to something else. "
-- Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even
though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who
neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight
that knows not victory nor defeat. "
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. President

"I learned that we can do anything, but we can't do everything.. at
least not at the same time. So think of your priorities not in terms of
what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything."
-- Dan Millman, Author


This is from Forbes.com


Nationally, home prices are falling, unemployment is on the rise and the economy is expected to grow slowly--or even contract--in the first half of the year.

But some cities are doing just fine.

Take Oklahoma City, Okla. With falling unemployment, one of the country's strongest housing markets, and solid growth in agriculture, energy and manufacturing, it looks best positioned among the nation's largest metropolitan areas to ride out the current crisis.

Affordable home prices that continue to rise. Its industries are growing; it can't hurt that the new AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) was formed when San Antonio-based SBC Communications swallowed the old AT&T Corp. and BellSouth.


The others holding steady or improving include Austin, Texas; Houston; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; San Jose, Calif.; Raleigh, N.C.; Salt Lake City; and Seattle.

Behind The Numbers
To find them, Forbes.com examined the country's 50 largest metros and looked at several key measures.

We examined unemployment data supplied by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the year ending in February 2008 to see which areas are most adding or subtracting jobs. Next, we looked at the BLS data on job growth in non-farm payrolls, through February 2008, for construction, education and health services, financial activities, information, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, natural resources and mining, professional and business services, trade, transportation and utilities, and the BLS's catch-all category, "other services."

We also took into account median home price data from the National Association of Realtors--from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the fourth quarter of 2007--to see which areas posted the largest annual gains. Our data don't account for the impact of declining sales in the first several months of this year.

Finally, our rankings were adjusted using data from a November 2007 report, "U.S. Metro Economies: The Mortgage Crisis," by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. It lists each city's estimated gross metropolitan product growth by projecting how rising foreclosures and falling home prices would affect overall levels of productivity in local economies.

Sunny Southern Skies
Texas cities fared best under these measures. San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth have benefited from historically lower home prices, which have been affordable to a large segment of the population. The availability of land--and, in some cases, little zoning--helped keep prices in these cities low. Instead of competing for homes, Texans could move to a new subdivision a little farther out.

What's more, all four boast falling unemployment rates, with Austin dropping from 3.8% to 3.6% and San Antonio from 4.3% to 4%

Cities that are expected to see growth in non-farm payrolls include Raleigh, which is expected to see 7.4% growth in professional and business services and 6% growth in education and health. In Salt Lake City, where the median home price rose 2.5% and unemployment, at 3.1%, is below the 5.1% national average, growth in education and health services is expected to be 5.5%.

How are you planning on weathering the impending recession? Weigh in. Add your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below.

Some cities have seen increasing home prices but otherwise continue to struggle. Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., have seen home price growth (from a low base) but still contend with high unemployment--around 6%--and slow-growing or shrinking industries.

And in the San Jose area, the median home sale price is over $830,000. That's 11% higher than it was in the fourth quarter of 2006, helping to land the area at No. 4 on our list. Problem is, that growth has since cooled, and it remains to be seen whether pricey homes coupled with a 5.3% unemployment rate will cause trouble for homeowners this year.

To be sure, even in the most resilient cities, the mortgage crisis has caused suffering. People everywhere got into bad mortgages. Similarly, even in the most battered cities, the majority of people are employed and making their mortgage payments. The extent of recession or resilience is very much in the eye of the beholder, and this list represents only one of many ways to take a snapshot of economies that are standing tall.

In his statements to Congress' Joint Economic Committee earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicted the economy would possibly move into recession in the first half of 2008 but begin to rebound in the second half.

6. Salt Lake City, Utah

Median home price: +2.5%

Unemployment: 3.1% (from 2.6%)

Key growth: Education and health services, +5.5%

Though Salt Lake City's unemployment rate is rising, it's still among the lowest of the country's 50 largest cities. The state is still creating jobs, just not as quickly as its labor force is growing. A November 2007 report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors projected that Salt Lake City would be one of the few large cities in the country not to suffer a decline in gross metropolitan product from the mortgage crisis.


This is from The Wall Street Journal


The Housing Crisis Is Over

By CYRIL MOULLE-BERTEAUX

May 6, 2008; Page A23

The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now. How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won't happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.

Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005. New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50% and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982. Furthermore, residential construction is close to 15-year lows at 3.8% of GDP; by the fourth quarter of this year, it will probably hit the lowest level ever. So what's going to stop the housing decline? Very simply, the same thing that caused the bust: affordability. The boom made housing unaffordable for many American families, especially first-time home buyers. During the 1990s and early 2000s, it took 19% of average monthly income to service a conforming mortgage on the average home purchased. By 2005 and 2006, it was absorbing 25% of monthly income. For first time buyers, it went from 29% of income to 37%. That just proved to be too much. Prices got so high that people who intended to actually live in the houses they purchased (as opposed to speculators) stopped buying. This caused the bubble to burst.

Since then, house prices have fallen 10%-15%, while incomes have kept growing (albeit more slowly recently) and mortgage rates have come down 70 basis points from their highs. As a result, it now takes 19% of monthly income for the average home buyer, and 31% of monthly income for the first-time home buyer, to purchase a house. In other words, homes on average are back to being as affordable as during the best of times in the 1990s. Numerous households that had been priced out of the market can now afford to get in.

The next question is: Even if home sales pick up, how can home prices stop falling with so many houses vacant and unsold? The flip but true answer: because they always do. In the past five major housing market corrections (and there were some big ones, such as in the early 1980s when home sales also fell by 50%-60% and prices fell 12%-15% in real terms), every time home sales bottomed, the pace of house-price declines halved within one or two months. The explanation is that by the time home sales stop declining, inventories of unsold homes have usually already started falling in absolute terms and begin to peak out in "months of supply" terms. That's the case right now: New home inventories peaked at 598,000 homes in July 2006, and stand at 482,000 homes as of the end of March. This inventory is equivalent to 11 months of supply, a 25-year high – but it is similar to 1974, 1982 and 1991 levels, which saw a subsequent slowing in home-price declines within the next six months.

Inventories are declining because construction activity has been falling for such a long time that home completions are now just about undershooting new home sales. In a few months, completions of new homes for sale could be undershooting new home sales by 50,000-100,000 annually. Inventories will drop even faster to 400,000 – or seven months of supply – by the end of 2008. This shift in inventories will have a significant impact on prices, although house prices won't stop falling entirely until inventories reach five months of supply sometime in 2009. A five-month supply has historically signaled tightness in the housing market.

Many pundits claim that house prices need to fall another 30% to bring them back in line with where they've been historically. This is usually based on an analysis of house prices adjusted for inflation: Real house prices are 30% above their 40-year, inflation-adjusted average, so they must fall 30%. This simplistic analysis is appealing on the surface, but is flawed for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, it neglects the fact that a great majority of Americans buy their houses with mortgages. And if one buys a house with a mortgage, the most important factor in deciding what to pay for the house is how much of one's income is required to be able to make the mortgage payments on the house. Today the rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is 5.7%. Back in 1981, the rate hit 18.5%.

Comparing today's house prices to the 1970s or 1980s, when mortgage rates were stratospheric, is misguided and misleading. This is all good news for the broader economy. The housing bust has been subtracting a full percentage point from GDP for almost two years now, which is very large for a sector that represents less than 5% of economic activity.

When the rate of house-price declines halves, there will be a wholesale shift in markets' perceptions. All of a sudden, the expected value of the collateral (i.e. houses) for much of the lending that went on for the past decade will change. Right now, when valuing the collateral, market participants including banks are extrapolating the current pace of house price declines for another two to three years; this has a significant impact on the amount of delinquencies, foreclosures and credit losses that lenders are expected to face.

More home sales and smaller price declines means fewer homeowners will be underwater on their mortgages. They will thus have less incentive to walk away and opt for foreclosure. A milder house-price decline scenario could lead to increases in the market value of a lot of the securitized mortgages that have been responsible for $300 billion of write-downs in the past year. Even if write-backs do not occur, stabilizing collateral values will have a huge impact on the markets' perception of risk related to housing, the financial system, and the economy.

We are of course experiencing a serious housing bust, with serious economic consequences that are still unfolding. The odds are that the reverberations will lead to subtrend growth for a couple of years. Nonetheless, housing led us into this credit crisis and this recession. It is likely to lead us out. And that process is underway, right now.

Mr. Moulle-Berteaux is managing partner of Traxis Partners LP, a hedge fund firm based in New York.


This is from Van Eck>;<B< span>r>
Adrian Van Eck's Mortgage and Property Hotline
For: Thursday, May 1, 2008

NOW THAT BANKS HAVE BEEN STABILIZED WITH AN INJECTION OF FUNDS FROM THE FEDERAL RESERVE, ATTENTION IS BEING TURNED TO THOSE WHO WISH TO BUY A HOME OF THEIR OWN. PERSONAL SAVINGS IN AMERICA ARE MUCH LARGER THAN MOST PEOPLE REALIZE, SO THERE IS AMPLE CASH WAITING ON THE SIDELINES TO COVER FHA-INSURED MORTGAGE DOWN PAYMENTS AND CLOSING COSTS. THE REASON NO ONE KNOWS OF THESE LARGE SAVINGS ACCOUNT BALANCES IS THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ISSUES EACH MONTH A REPORT ON AMERICA'S NET SAVINGS RATE. THEY DID SO JUST TODAY, FOR EXAMPLE. THEY SAID THAT NET SAVINGS LAST MONTH DROPPED FROM 0.4% (FEBRUARY RATE) TO 0.2%. WHAT THEY DO NOT TELL YOU IS THAT THE REASON FOR THE DECLINE IS THAT THE FEDERAL DEFICIT EXPANDED LAST MONTH.

THE GOVERNMENT IN WASHINGTON HAS BEEN BORROWING MONEY AT A SCARY RATE, DESPITE CONSTANT PROMISES THAT THE DEFICIT WILL BE CUT IN HALF WITHIN A FEW YEARS. THEIR BORROWING IS DELETED FROM A DIFFERENT MEASURE, THE ONE CALLED NET PRIVATE SAVINGS. THERE YOU WILL FIND TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. AS I SAID, THE SAVERS IN OUR SOCIETY HAVE ALWAYS FINANCED THE BORROWERS. BUT WHEN THE GOVERNMENT RUNS BIG DEFICITS THAT TIPS THE BALANCE. IT PROBABLY ALSO ACCOUNTS FOR SOME PART OF THE PRESSURE HOLDING UP LONG-TERM INTEREST RATES, INCLUDING MORTGAGES… ALTHOUGH TO BE FAIR MORTGAGE RATES ARE STILL IN THE LOWER END OF A RANGE GOING BACK YEARS.

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM TODAY, OTHER THAN THE FACT THAT POLITICIANS RUNNING FOR OFFICE ARE SCARING THE DICKENS OUT OF PEOPLE WITH FALSE WARNINGS THAT WE ARE HEADING INTO A NEW GREAT DEPRESSION, IS THAT BANKS ARE HOARDING EVERY PENNY THEY CAN – JUST IN CASE THEY MIGHT NEED THE MONEY LATER ON. WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN HOW BANKS ARE PULLING OUT OF THE FEDERALLY-INSURED STUDENT LOAN PROGRAM. THIS CAUSED A PANIC ATTACK IN CONGRESS AND THERE WAS PRESSURE ON THE FED ITSELF TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

AS WE HAVE BEEN TELLING YOU FOR MONTHS, THE LEGISLATION THAT CREATED THE FED IN 1913 GAVE THE FED AWESOME POWERS AS A LENDER OF LAST RESORT. THEY HAVE THE POWER TO LEND MONEY DIRECTLY WHENEVER THEY DECREE AN EMERGENCY SITUATION TO BE IN FORCE. THIS CERTAINLY WOULD SUFFICE AS AN EMERGENCY. BUT CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE WOULD LIKE TO AVOID DECLARING ONE, IF THAT IS POSSIBLE. IT MIGHT TEND TO SCARE PEOPLE AND UNDO EVERYTHING HE HAS BEEN WORKING TO ACHIEVE.

SO I WILL TELL YOU WHAT, IN MY OPINION, THE GOOD CHAIRMAN IS LIKELY TO DO NOW. HE IS MOST APT TO QUIETLY SEND THE WORD TO INDIVIDUAL BANK CEO'S, HINTING THAT HE WOULD PERSONALLY BE PLEASED IF HE GOT WORD THAT THEY HAD LOOSENED UP AND HAD STARTED LENDING MONEY TO THOSE WHO CAN PASS NORMAL CREDIT MUSTER. WHY WOULD THEY RSP0ND TO SUCH A GENTLE REQUEST? I'LL TELL YOU WHY. THEY KNOW THAT HIS QUIET MANNER IN PUBLIC COVERS UP A PERSONA CAPABLE OF ICE-COLD ACTION. HE ONCE TOLD A REPORTER THAT AFTER SERVING AS CHAIRMAN OF AN IVY LEAGUE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT, THE IDEA OF RUNNING THE FED SEEMED ALMOST LIKE CHILD'S PLAY.

THE FED DID NOT PASS MONEY OUT TO BANKS LIKE LOLLIPOPS. THE CASH WAS FORWARDED UNDER STRICTLY TEMPORARY CONDITIONS THAT CAN BE RENEWED AT THE FED'S DISCRETION. THERE IS COLLATERAL INVOLVED. BUT SOME OF IT MAY BE, SHALL WE SAY, OF QUESTIONABLE QUALITY.

BANKS HAVE BY NOW HEARD THAT BERNANKE FANCIES HIMSELF AS A MODERN DAY VERSION OF THE FIRST MAN TO HEAD THE FED IN 1913. THAT MAN, ACTING AS THE TOP AIDE TO J. PIERPONT MORGAN, HAD PERSONALLY ENGINEERED THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE ONCE-HUGE AND FAMOUS KNICKERBOCKER TRUST DURING THE 1907 PANIC. ONCE HE DID THAT, THE OTHER BANKS JUMPED TO OBEY ANY SUGGESTIONS HE AND J. P. MORGAN MIGHT HAVE FOR THEM.

I DARE SAY NO BANK WISHES TO BE THE ONE BERNANKE USES AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW RUTHLESS HE CAN BE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS. IF HE WITHDRAWS THE FED MONEY LOANED TO ONE OF THESE BANKS, HANDS BACK THEIR COLLATERAL AND TELLS THE PRESS WHAT HE HAS DONE, THEY MIGHT EXPERIENCE A DISASTROUS RUN BY DEPOSITORS – ENDING THEIR DAYS. SO MORTGAGE MONEY WILL BEGIN FLOWING AND HOMES WILL START SELLING AGAIN. OUR LATEST REAL ESTATE LETTER SAYS WE THINK THE FIRST MONEY WILL FLOW OUT TO REALTORS TO BUY EXISTING HOMES. THE NEXT STEP WILL BE TO FINANCE THOSE WHO WANT TO BUY FORECLOSED HOMES, CLEARING THEM OFF THE MARKET. AND THIRD WILL COME MONEY FOR THE PURCHASE OF NEW HOMES.

NOW I REALIZE THIS GOES COUNTER TO THE CONSENSUS THINKING ON WALL STREET AND ELSEWHERE. I AM SORRY FOR THEM. THEY – FOR THE MOST PART - DO NOT HAVE A CLUE WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. MOST OF THEM WERE SUPER BULLISH ABOUT HOUSING AT THE VERY PEAK OF GREENSPAN'S HOUSING BOOM IN 2005. WE WERE BEARISH, AS YOU KNOW – PREDICTING A "TIME-OUT" IN HOUSING, WITH HOME PRICE DECLINES. WELL, THE TIME-OUT HAS DONE ITS JOB AND NOW I BELIEVE YOU WILL SEE THE FIRST SIGNS OF A RETURN TO NORMALCY.

WE ARE IN A SITUATION THAT REMINDS ME OF THE BOTTOM OF THE LAST HOUSING RECESSION. WALL STREET WAS NOT ALONE IN 2002 IN EXPECTING HOUSING TO SLIDE FURTHER IN SALES AND PRICES, EVEN AFTER THE RECESSION LOWS WERE HIT. THE SHOCK OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 WAS STILL VERY MUCH WITH US AND THUS MADE MANY PEOPLE FRIGHTENED OF WHAT COULD BE COMING IN THE ECONOMY.

BUT THEN A STRANGE THING BEGAN HAPPENING. PEOPLE BEGAN FLOCKING ONCE AGAIN TO OPEN HOUSES AND PUTTING MONEY DOWN ON HOMES THEY CHOSE. THE VIEW REPORTED IN THE PRESS WAS THAT THIS COULD NOT LAST, AND THAT IT WOULD GIVE WAY TO A SERIOUS COLLAPSE BUT THAT DID NOT HAPPEN. SLOWLY BUT SURELY THE DEMAND FOR HOUSING EXPANDED. AND THAT EXPANSION – SLOW BUT SURE – WOULD LAST FOR YEARS. UNFORTUNATELY, NEW SPECULATIVE ELEMENTS CAME INTO THE MARKET IN 2003 AND CAUSED A RAPID ESCALATION OF SALES, MANY OF WHICH PROVED TO BE UNWISE AND UNREAL. TODAY WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH DIGESTING THE EXTRA HOMES BUILT IN THAT SPECULATIVE PERIOD. AND NEW DEMAND COULD FINISH THE JOB. MORE NEXT WEEK. ADRIAN VAN ECK.


As you all can tell, I stay up on whats going down in the market place. If you want a true pro to help you buy or sell your home, why don't you give me a call.

The only realtor you will ever want!

All "Betts" on Brian!

435-513-0973 C
801-858-3080 O