Posted by Eric - GA on December 21, 2002 at 09:09:54:
RobHAtl-
I’d call it flat right now. I agree that there is lots of opportunity for good purchases out there, but it seems like they are getting harder to move. My LPs take longer to put someone in, and a couple houses have been on the market for a few months. At a recent closing, I was going over the appraisal, and found that the appraiser actually discounted the figure, because all of the comps he used were from last year. Meaning that he considered the houses to be worth less this year than last year.
It don’t think it’s all bad though. There’s a lot of guys that are doing business, who, if it gets harder to find 'em, harder to sell 'em, or the economy picks back up, who will stop playing around with houses. That’ll reduce the competition we have for some of the good ones.
Posted by michaela-ATL on December 21, 2002 at 10:23:01:
there’s plenty of opportunity to buy, but you need to have some cash to be able to carry these properties longer than normal, whether it’s rental, l/o or retail sale. this being the slow time of the year and ga. reia having more than 3000 members (investors and wannabes) doesn’t help.
but as eric writes, i agree, that it’s survival of the fittest and there’ll be some weeding out. in fact i’m seeing foreclosures from large investors. i keep seeing the same names over and over in the foreclosure notices. it’ll be a different playing field for those, that can hang on.
