Like a lot of blog readers every morning I check my Google Reader for the latest RSS feed updates. I came across this blog post yesterday about Title Fun on the Minnesota Investment Property Blog.

The communique below is between a title lawyer and the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) over a loan application in New Orleans, Louisiana. It’s actually pretty funny read:

You have to love this lawyer……..

Part of rebuilding New Orleans caused residents often to be challenged with the task of tracing home titles back potentially hundreds of years. With a community rich with history stretching back over two centuries, houses have been passed along through generations of family, sometimes making it quite difficult to establish ownership. Here’s a great letter an attorney wrote to the FHA on behalf of a client:

A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply.

(Actual reply from FHA):
“Upon review of your letter adjoining your client’s loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.”
Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:

(Actual response):
“Your letter regarding title in Case No.189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 206 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France, in 1803 the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella.

The good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus’s expedition. Now the Pope, as I’m sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God’s original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our loan?”

The loan was immediately approved.

Put this under: Things Real Estate Professionals have to deal with to get you the home you want.

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Considering investing in apartments or multi-familes? Trying to decipher the different markets our country has to offer? Let me be of service and explain Boston, MA and why it’s such a great market to own apartments in.

Boston has often been quoted as the “Athens of the West” due to the many liberal art educations available within the city limits. Cambridge has often been called the “original college town” seeing that Harvard is the oldest university in America and its crosstown rival, (MIT) happens to be the most prestigious technical college in the world.

There are over 110 colleges in the New England Region of the United States. Half of these campuses are claimed by its largest urban center typically known as Greater Boston and geographically describe as inside the Route 128 Highway.

In Boston, Massachusetts about a quarter of the city’s population alone is dedicated to higher learning. That’s about 200,000 students cycling in and out of the city every year. These simple facts accompanied by tight development laws and a very small amount of undeveloped land has formed an economic perfect storm over the decades for those who own multifamily and apartment complexes located near a campus or mass transit station.

Even in the “Great Recession” as some have come to call this current economic climate. Rents in our area have fared far better than other major metropolitan cities. Consider the collateral damage taken into effect by a major recession: Foreclosure, Credit Tightening, Layoffs, Very Low Job Growth and you begin to see an uptick in renting (and rents) as people no longer have the means to buy a home.

Even in a great economy when typically apartment complexes are battling with defections due to easier mortgage terms and rising salaries Boston is still a great place to own apartments. Evidence of this is when multi-families and apartment complexes suddenly go condo and are sold instead of rented. Suddenly the stock of apartments for college students to rent goes down forcing them to out bid each other in order to live off campus.

I hope that in your effort to locate and area in which to invest this quick brief on our markets put to rest any concerns you may have. To get more detailed information or to look at properties currently for sale please feel free to email me at JamesM@nextgenrealty.com

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If you’re a landlord in Massachusetts take 5 minutes and read this article by John Ellement of the Boston Globe SJC changes rules on snow removal.

The Massachusetts Supreme court has broken from the 125 year old precedents that have existed in slip and fall cases caused by snow and aligned these lawsuits with the same standards and precedents of other accident suits.

Now I’m not a lawyer so I can’t comment on how the comparison is good or bad. I do however know that if your a landlord who doesn’t want to drive to your rental properties in a Nor’easter you may want to check out this website.

BostonSnowRemoval.com

They handle everything from plowing driveways, to shoveling sidewalks and even sanding.

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April Absorption Rates:

Absorption rates are a calculation of how long it will take for all homes on the market to be sold, or absorbed, at the current rate of sales. This is the major indicator that real estate professionals use to determine whether it’s a buyers or sellers market.

How to determine which market we are in:

Sellers’ Market - Absorption Rates 1-4

Neutral Market - Absorption Rates 5-6

Buyers’ Market - Absorption Rates greater than 7

Currently it will take 6.7 Months for Boston to sell all the listings currently on the market. Which means we are trending from a Buyers Market into a Neutral Market

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I want to bring some attention to a post the guys over at Paper Economy posted yesterday. They examined a report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis which tracks rental income in the United States among other things.

Long story short the report shows that since 2007 the people who receive rental income as a portion of their income has jumped 140% from $121 billion to $292 as it stands today. A case can be made that this jump has occurred from many people becoming accidental landlords (people who rent instead of selling) because they bought property at the top of the market.

Going forward I think that this report will continue to show growth. More people are diversifying their retirement portfolio’s by purchasing rental properties to generate cash flow as well as equity. Many accidental landlords may become permanent landlords as they realize the financial benefits of owning rental property.

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