Museums and Investment

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The Guggenheim Effect

When you are buying a house to fix up or lending money for that fix-n-flip project you hope to profit from, the value the property has now and will have after the renovation is complete is what you are focusing on. You will be thinking about neighborhood and what makes a neighborhood a good place to live. These days, according to Alina Dizik of the WSJ, you should look around for a nearby museum.

Museums are revitalizing neighborhoods all over the world. The neighborhood revitalizing phenomenon of a museum is called the Guggenheim Effect. According to the Economist and the WSJ the Guggenheim Effect is the phenomenal revitalization of an industrial town that was dying, Bilbao in Spain in this instance, into a “sleek tourist destination” by the construction of a museum (Economist).

Walkability, and Safety, Interesting Things to Do

According to research done by Stephen Sheppard, an economics professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, “property values of homes near museums rise between 20% and 50% over the course of five years (WSJ ). ” Homebuyers, according to Dizik, are drawn to a museum building’s bold architecture, its rotating exhibits, “its guest lectures, and attractive indoor and outdoor common areas.” Some are looking for safety and amenities in one place. Entertainment and restaurants that you can walk to are also big draws.

There are museum districts in several towns in Texas. Look around your town and see if a museum is raising property values near you. This may be where you want to invest next.

Patrick@InvestorsLendingSource.com

512-213-2271

Austin, Texas

Mercedes-Benz_Museum_201312_08_blue_hour.jpg

Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, during blue hour.  Julian Herzog [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 4.0

Austin Museums

In Austin, the museum district is more of a museum partnership and there are many museums in the downtown. There is a plan here to connect the walking and biking trails into a big loop of urban trails that will extend 30 miles, traversing the city from Lady Bird lake to Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park, creating a safe walkable and bikeable commute route through downtown. So living near or on that route may be attractive. http://www.austinmuseums.org/

Mexic Arte Museum, 419 Congress Ave

The Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas Campus

The Harry Ransom Center, 300 W. 21st street, University of Texas Campus

Mondo Gallery, 4115 Guadalupe St

Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum

Yard Dog Art Gallery, 1510 S. Congress Ave.

Arthouse at the Jones Center, 700 Congress Ave.

Houston Museums

There is one in Houston and it boasts 4 walkable zones, 19 museums, and over 2,300 residents according to http://houmuse.org/. Homes in the museum district sell faster than average compared to other neighborhoods in Houston. Realtor.com The neighborhoods and surrounding area are a mix of historic homes with character and charm, to modern townhomes, and high rises.

Museum of Fine Arts Houston Expansion

Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University

The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

Czech Center Museum

Buffalo Soldiers National Museum

Lawndale Arts Center

Houston Museum of African American Culture

Children’s Museum of Houston

Houston Museum of Natural Science

Dallas Museums

In Dallas, the museum district is the Arts District downtown. It is a cultural hub of music, art, and theatre. The Dallas Arts District is bordered by St. Paul Street and Ross Avenue as well as major throughways Woodall Rodgers Freeway and Central Expressway. http://www.dallasartsdistrict.org/

Dallas Museum of Art

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Nasher Sculpture Center,

Perot Museum of Nature and Science

Kimbrel Art Museum

Dallas Contemporary

Meadows Museum

San Antonio Museums

In San Antonio, a river walk extension completed in 2009 is called the Museum Reach. It extends past the zoo, the Japanese Tea Gardens, Brackenridge Park, the Pearl District, and three of San Antonio’s museums, all listed below. https://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/explore/museum-reach

The Do Seum, San Antonio’s Museum for Kids, 2800 Broadway

The Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway

San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 West Jones Avenue

 

What do all these neighborhoods have in common, interesting things to do, walkability, and safety.

References

Dizik, Alina, To Discover an up-and-Coming Neighborhood, Look for a Museum, The Wall Street Journal, November 25, 2018

The Economist, The Guggenheim Effect, Can other cities imitate Bilbao’s cultural-tourism success? August 18, 2018

 

 

 

 

Houston Adds 117,800 Jobs

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Good News for Houston  –—  Jobs Up 3.9%

According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land was one of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas showing an increase in the rate of job growth between October 2017 and October 2018.jobs report graphic

All 12 of the areas considered “largest metropolitan areas” had job growth during the last year with seven of the areas exceeding the national increase of 1.7%.

Good News for Dallas too  –—  Jobs Up 3.0%

Houston posted the largest gain of 3.9%, and along with Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale (+3.7%), and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (+3.0%) had the fastest rates of job growth.

Other posting slower rates of job growth included Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (+0.9%), New York-Newark-Jersey City (+1.1%), and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (+1.2%) had the slowest rates of job growth.

Houston added 117,800 jobs, followed by Dallas at 109,000. In the Houston area, professional and business services added the largest number of jobs, 30,600, between October 2017 and October 2018. Construction added 25,600 jobs over the last year, with 15,900 of those in the construction of buildings. Area employment in the construction sector climbed 11.6% compared to the 4.4% gain in the rest of the nation.

Manufacturing added 16,100 jobs in Houston over the last year, and trade, transportation, and utilities added 16,000 jobs during the same period.

New metropolitan area employment data for November 2018 are scheduled to be released on Friday, December 21, 2018 at 10:00 am (ET). Stay tuned for more good news from Texas.  U.S. Department of Labor, 2018

Patrick@InvestorsLendingSource.com

512-213-2271

Austin, Texas

10 Things You Really Need to Know about Poinsettias

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At Christmas time, poinsettias make their festive appearance in the flower shops and Christmas stores. When I have time to throw a holiday party, I like to decorate with lots of big poinsettia plants and then give them away to my guests as they head home. A good gift idea for an adult is a poinsettia, a bottle of wine, a bag of cracked pecans, and a pound of fudge, arranged in a basket with or without a bow. You can throw in a Christmas western for good measure and envision them sitting in their favorite chair reading, sipping the wine, and eating pecans and fudge as they gaze at their poinsettia between chapters. Of course, their feet would be propped up and a fire would be crackling in the hearth nearby.

So, what started this daydream? Oh, yes, the poinsettia.

flower-poinsettia-pulcherrima.pngLena Lowis [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons

Did you know?

  1. Poinsettias came to America from Mexico and Central America?
  2. Poinsettias are named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first Ambassador to Mexico.
  3. Today, December 12, is poinsettia day. Mr. Poinsett died on this day in 1851.
  4. Poinsettias are not poisonous.
  5. The bright colored leaves on the poinsettia are called bracts.
  6. Poinsettias are susceptible to frost.
  7. In the tropics, poinsettias grow to 10 feet tall.
  8. Poinsettias are propagated by seeds.
  9. You can set your poinsettia out in the garden in the spring.
  10. To make a poinsettia bloom for the holiday it needs a strict 12 to 14 hours of dark and 6 hours of light a day, starting in September.

Want to check my facts? Go to the gardener’s network http://www.gardenersnet.com/flower/poinset.htm

 

Patrick@InvestorsLendingSource.com

512-213-2271

Austin, Texas

 

Non-Recourse Loans for Self-Directed IRA

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This loan is designed for an IRA that holds a property as an asset.  Generally, these properties are rental units and therefore, are long term holds.  The only type of loan an IRA may have is a non-recourse loan.  This loan is one in which the IRA account holder is not personally liable for repayment of the loan.  In the event of a default/foreclosure the lender can only look to the property as the sole source of repayment.

The following properties are eligible for a non-recourse loan:

  • SFR
  • Warrantable Condo’s
  • PUD
  • Duplexes
  • TriPlexes / Quadplexes
  • Multifamily (5 or more units)1-4 Family (min $50,000)

Lowenstein_Apartment_Complex

Altairisfar [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Current Loan Options

  • 3,5 or 10 yr ARM
  • 10-20 yr Fixed
  • 70% Max LTV
  • Max Term 20 yrs
  • DSCR Min 1.2-1.25
  • Multifamily (min $300,000)
  • 5/1 ARM
  • 15-20 yr Fixed
  • 65% Max LTV
  • Max Term 20 yrs
  • DSCR Min 1.3

Patrick@InvestorsLendingSource.com

512-213-2271

Austin, Texas

 

 

How to Stay Afloat Buying a Mall

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Mispriced and Overly Negative

As online shopping puts brick and mortar retail stores into a tight spot, causing retailers to downsize or go out of business, some might think that buying a mall or a shopping center is not such a great idea. However, not all malls are in difficulty and according to WSJ writer Esther Fung, some private investors see the market as “mispriced” and “overly negative” on mall assets, “creating a buying opportunity.”

In August Fung reported that CBRE Global Investors was buying stakes in three malls from Brookfield Property Partners, which will retain an interest. Brookfield Properties Retail Group is an American real estate investment trust headquartered in Chicago and a subsidiary of Brookfield Property Partners. Its portfolio, according to its website https://www.brookfieldpropertiesretail.com/ includes 162 retail properties in the United States, comprising 146,000,000 feet of gross leasable area.The_parking_deck_at_The_Parks_At_Arlington

 

The Parks Mall, Arlington, TX  by Smarty9108 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons

The Parks Mall in Arlington

One of those retail properties is The Parks Mall in Arlington, Texas. The Parks Mall opened in 1988 at 3811 Cooper Street and Interstate 20 in South Arlington, between Fort Worth and Dallas (Wikipedia). According to the Brookfield Properties website, The Parks Mall is in a” highly visible location,” in the “heart of a growing market,” and hosts 22 million visitors annually.

It is clear that despite competition from online shopping, retail sales have continued to grow. Esther Fung’s WSJ article quotes a research note by Green Street Advisors, a real-estate research firm, “The spur in consumer spending has driven better-than-expected tenant sales (not just online), which should continue through 2018.”

Malls for the Future

This WSJ article has spurred me to do a little research and think about what might make a mall continue to be a profitable investment in the future. So I looked at https://www.theparksmallarlington.com/ to get some ideas about what The Parks Mall is doing to survive and thrive as a commercial entity in the future. Its strategies include:

  • Make the mall a community with opportunities for parties and skating.
  • Expand out of shopping into fun experiences, “learning, playing, and exploring” with activities like Camp Gladiator Fitness Camp that meets in the upper level parking garage.
  • Create Santa’s Toy Factory, where you can test and design online toys in Santa’s Workshop on Level 1 in Center Court.
  • Offer picture taking opportunities with special days like
    • Ugly Sweater Days, November 16 through December 13,
    • Holiday Pajama night, that special night when you dress up your whole family in their favorite holiday pajamas and come down to the Mall for pictures, November 30 -December 6.
    • Grandparent Day, November 29th; and
    • Pet Night every Monday from 5-8 pm.
dachshund dog wearing a red sweater

Photo by Studio 7042 on Pexels.com

  • Offer Food. Food and more Food. Although you can have food delivered and eat just about anything in front of your computer screen, eating out is still a treat and cannot be done online. The Parks Mall offers Share, Sip, and Dip with snacks, coffee, and full meals to indulge in.
  • Offer care of your person with hair and skin boutiques. You can’t get that personal care for your nails, hair, and skin online.
  • Keep the movie theatre hopping with snacks, drinks, and the latest films.

Whether you are looking at a large mall or small neighborhood mall, malls still have a role in American community life; and with imagination and marketing, they might just be a low-priced buy for investors interested in remodeling and re-enlivening commercial property in the downtown or suburbs.

References

Fung, Esther. CBRE Global Investors Buys Stake in Three GGP Malls. The Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2018. Accessed November 27, 2018.

Wikipedia. The Parks Mall at Arlington. Available online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parks_Mall_at_Arlington. Accessed November 27, 2018.

Brookfield Properties. website https://www.brookfieldpropertiesretail.com/en.html. Accessed November 27, 2018.

 

$105,000 Fix-n-Flip SFR in Houston Closed

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Happy Monday. A Loan Closing  — Investors and builders coming together to finish a project and potentially profit. This is what makes ILS tick.  I am taking this time to share this excellent news in the final month of 2018.

Patrick@InvestorsLendingSource.com, 512-213-2271

Recently Closed Private Loan
$105,000 Loan Closed
Single Lender First Note
Fix-n-Flip SFR
Houston

time lapse photography of fireworks display

Photo by ViTalko on Pexels.com

Not Too Late to Make Those Cookies

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Grandma Casper’s Old Fashioned Butter Cut Out Cookies Recipe

Here’s a truly old fashioned recipe, straight from Grandma’s kitchen. This cut out cookie recipe is most popular to make Christmas cookies. Try them for cut out cookies for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Val

sweet cookies christmas baking

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

entine’s Day, Easter and any other occasion.

From the Kitchen of: Grandma Casper

Yield: 6-7 dozen cut out cookies

Old Fashioned Butter Cookie Ingredients:

  • 3 cups flour, sifted

  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1 cup margarine, set out to soften

  • 3/4 cups sugar

  • 2 tablespoons milk

  • 1 egg, unbeaten

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla

Old Fashioned Butter Cookie Directions:

  1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

  2. Cream together well, the margarine and sugar.

  3. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Mix together well.

  4. Gradually add in the flour mixture. Add 1/4 at a time and mix together with a big spoon.

  5. Chill dough overnight.

  6. Preheat oven to 40 degrees.

  7. Take chilled dough from the refrigerator and divide in two.

  8. Roll out the dough to the thickness that you like for your cut out cookies. Use your favorite cutouts.

  9. Put cookies onto ungreased cookie sheets.

  10. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, depending upon thickness.

  11. Allow to cool.

  12. Use your favorite frosting recipe and decorate with colored sugars and candy balls.

Thank you holidayinsights.com

Why Lending May Be Your Investment Route to Profit and Revolution

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“Oh my God! This thing is going to the moon and I’m not in it?”Apollo_15_launch

Reid Hoffman cofounder of LinkedIn

In the September 2018 Wall Street Journal article, “LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman Talks About His Best and Worst Bets,” Chris Kornelis interviews Reid Hoffman who says that it is the missed opportunities, not losses, that he regrets.

His best bet, according to the article was joining the board of Confinity, the company that launched PayPal and revolutionized online payments. “It’s what led me to being able to do angel investing and what led me to essentially finance the first money in LinkedIn,” Reid said.

Hoffman’s investment strategy is long-term and hands on. He recommends that if you choose an investment based on talent, “that talent has to be so strong that you want to be working with them for a decade.”

Short-Term Investment Rewards

Although investing in real estate projects is a bit of a different beast than technology investing, it still offers rewards that include profit for your risk, and it may launch you into new directions, careers, and interests. As a private lender, you would expect a much more secure and short-term investment experience. Your investment in the form of a loan to a borrower interested in remodeling and reselling real estate would be secured by the real estate, and the project would be completed in a few months or a year. Of course, the profit is also less likely to go “to the moon” and would be more modest.

Ability, Schedule, Community

There are still judgments you would need to make that are like the ones Mr. Hoffman had to make. While Hoffman looked at market position, team, and momentum when he made his investment decisions, relying heavily on his feeling about the team, you as a lender for a real estate remodeling project would rely most heavily on the value of the property, the borrower’s ability to clearly communicate their ability and their schedule, and the desirability of the community that surrounds the project.

If you have money that is idle, you might want to put it to good use building not only a project, but perhaps your career, someone else’s career, or maybe even a revolution.

Read the full article by Chris Kornelis for more inspiration for your investing and lending goals.

Kornelis, C. 2018. LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffman Talks about His Best and His Worst Bets. Available at https://www.wsj.com/articles/linkedin-co-founder-reid-hoffman-talks-about-his-best-and-worst-bets-1536545341. Accessed November 2018.

How to Use a Hard Money Loan to Get Your Real Estate Property Ready to Sell

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How Much Money Do You Need?

There are some basic things you need to know before you can get a hard money loan. First, you need to know how much you need to borrow and how much collateral you have. You begin by finding out how much your real property (house or apartment complex) is worth as is.1 Note the words “as is.” You can get this information from a real estate appraiser. Then you ask them to make a second estimate about how much more the property will be worth if obvious repairs are made.

IMG_00003652Next, get a remodeling contractor to give you a bid on the repairs and a plan or time frame the repairs will take. You might want to get several bids and choose the one that looks best to you.

How Much Collateral Do You Have?

Second, find out how much you owe on the property. The difference between the amount you owe and the appraised value of the property is your equity. It is the equity that will determine how much the lender will lend you.2 Compare the amount of the cost of the repairs to your equity after the repair is make. If your equity is larger than the repairs, you might be able to make a profit after paying off the loan.

IMG_00003655

The amount of money you need to borrow is the amount the repairs will cost plus a cushion of maybe 15 percent. The amount of collateral you can offer the lender is the equity in the real property. If the equity value of the real property is larger than the amount it will take to fix the property up, you have collateral to get a hard money loan.

Who Are the Lenders?

Hard money loans are typically issued by private investors (individuals or groups) lending their own money to borrowers with real property. The real property is their protection for making the loan and will be taken if the loan is not repaid. The primary basis for making a hard money loan is the liquidation value of the collateral backing the note.3  While the bank on the street corner will check basically everything before issuing a loan, including your credit scores, your income, the stability of your income, any missed payments, the amount of outstanding credit you have, and how the internal revenue service feels about you, the hard money lender will be are more interested in the value of your collateral than in your credit history. The hard money lender will determine the value of the property by getting an independent appraisal.

How Much Will It Cost Me?

Interest rates on a hard money loan will start at about 7.7 percent.1 The rate will depend on several things, including the liquidity of the asset. If the house you are repairing is in a bad neighborhood, it might be hard to sell even after it is remodeled and thus the interest rate on the loan will be higher. Broker fees also apply if a broker helped you find the funding source.

IMG_00003705_edit

The broker offers personal service to the borrower and administrative service to the lender. They give advice, do the paperwork, and make the phone calls involved in the transaction. They will also have the day-to-day experience and contacts to find the best rates for you. They then pass on the completed application to the lender.

Summary

In summary, if you are in a bad credit situation, have equity in real property you own, anticipate a project that will not take too long, and need money quickly, the hard money loan is probably for you.

If you find a deal, give me a call for a quick closing fix-n-flip rehabilitation loan. You can e-mail too.

Patrick@InvestorsLendingSource.com

Austin, Texas

512-213-2271

References

1. Hard Money Loans: A Complete Guide. California Hard Money Direct. Available at https://californiahardmoneydirect.net/2017/04/21/hard-money-loans-guide/. Retrieved November 2018.

2. Justine Pritchard, Hard Money Basics, How Hard Money Loans Work. Available online at https://www.thebalance.com/hard-money-basics-315413. Updated October 31, 2018. Accessed November 2018.

3. Wikipedia. Hard Money Loan. Available online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_money_loan/. Accessed November 16, 2018.