Tag archives for Mean Time

Moody’s Reports that HAMP Modifications Succeed About Half the Time

The US Treasury reported recently that it's loan modification program (HAMP) has “extremely low conversion rates” from trial to permanent in their most recent report on the program, according to Moody’s Investor Service. While that number still equates to the conversion of nearly 300,000 permanent loans, it also indicates the cancellation of 277,640 trial modifications and 3,744 permanent modifications. Interestingly, it Read full article »

Structuring Your Real Estate To Minimize Taxation

With yesterday's victory of Barrack Obama, one thing is certain:  Taxes will rise.  Whether you like him or not, Obama has no history whatsoever of cutting taxes (despite his promises).  Expect more of the same. That's the reason for this post.  I want to begin a discussion about best ways to minimize your own tax burden. (Note - President-Elect Barrack Obama has Read full article »

Back To Basics – How To Sell A House In A Slow Market

In today's market, it can be pretty darn difficult to sell a house, even if you're offering a good price on a good property.  That's a function of two huge issues:  (1) a huge supply of available houses and (2) a shortage of easily available mortgage loans, even for reasonably well-qualified buyers. The fact is that this is a marketing issue.  Read full article »

The Economy Of The United States Is Stronger Than Congress’ Desire To Thwart It

(Poll of real estate investors near the bottom of this post...) The economy of the United States is at its best when most free.  The government is at its best (economically) when it guarantees transparency and accuracy and is otherwise uninvolved. Unfortunately, neither of these are the case at present. The U.S. economy has been hamstrung by insanely foolish regulation for many years Read full article »

About The Instant Internet Domination Webinar REPLAY

Last night we had a really great turnout for the Instant Internet Domination Webinar. I would like to offer you my sincere appreciation for this, because I know your time is valuable and I do not take that lightly. I recorded the webinar and the video turned out reasonably well. There was one scary moment for me last night: While Read full article »

The Politics of Real Estate

Few industries are as profoundly impacted by the political machinations in Washington as the real estate industry. Whether it's old legislation like Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act or Barack Obama's massive mortgage bailouts, the U.S. political machine has a huge impact (usually bad) on the business of real estate.

Ideally, we could ignore politics. But here at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter, we insist on seeing the world with clarity - including the reality of Washington's aggressive involvement in every facet of our business, from mortgage lending to real estate sales license; from loan modification regulations to appraisal requirements... every piece of our business is profoundly impacted by politics. So rather than stick our heads in the sand and ignore reality, readers of the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter choose to be informed and prepared.

About Bryan Ellis

Bryan Ellis is an Atlanta-based real estate analyst and publisher of the widely read newsletter "The Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter". With over 200,000 subscribers - including real estate investors, agents, brokers, appraisers and other real estate professionals - the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter is among America's largest sources of unbiased coverage of politics and public policy for the real estate industry.

Bryan Ellis serves as editor in chief for the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter and is assisted by an extraordinary staff of writers, researchers and editors who are each real estate experts in their own right and who assure that the news we report is well researched, factual, and highly relevant to today's real estate industry.

Bryan is very happily married and has two wonderful daughters. He makes his home in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. You can contact the team at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter here.