The W.I.R.E Blog

 random thoughts we hope will be helpful to women

The Baltimore Board will be posting here initially.

The Baltimore Board is excited to be able to stay in touch with you more regularly through the Blog. We are hopeful you will find some of the comments useful and thought provoking.

W.I.R.E has some of the brightest women in Baltimore and without a doubt will expand on our thoughts. Please take the time to add your comments.


May 17th, 2011
 
The three minutes for someone to get a first impression, not only happens to people, it can apply to your house.
 
Do you want a potential buyer to look at your house or investment, shake their head and walk away?
 
According to Prepare Your House For Sale*, that seeing with a buyer’s eye is crucial.
“The sense of security and comfort your house has provided will have skewed your vision and you will think everyone will love your house as much as you do. You’ve gotten used to living with little defects such as creaky doors, dings in walls, and broken light fixtures. But buyers will notice these problems because that’s what they will be looking for. As much as looking for the perfect house to buy, prospective buyers are just as quick in crossing off houses that don’t immediately appeal to them.”1
Read more...
April 22nd, 2011

Today is the first time I have emails with “positive news” in articles about the current real estate market.

What do you think?

In Existing-Home Sales Rise in March 2011, by RISMedia, optimism is consistent throughout the whole article, stating the market could be stronger and grow more if we went back to the past when loans were done “the right way” and using an example from VA and FHA loan programs that didn’t need to be bailed out by the federal government and made a profit.

USA Today’s article, Housing ...   Read more...

March 22nd, 2011

I recently downloaded and read Marcel Umphrey’s e-book and his daily tip emails; so I knew I liked the way he presented himself in the “word format”.  I was eager to hear him speak.
 
What a fabulous time I had at the WIRE Meeting. 
 
Beginning his talk with a “reminisce” of 2002 when he started out, he mentioned he always wanted to go to a WIRE event to learn, but didn’t because he was a guy. He was honored to be able to speak at our meeting.
 
The WIRE topic of the night was, “Wholesaling... Making a Small Investment Produce BIG Gains!”  Nine lucky women (and 2 men), got to listen to Marcel give a whole workshop of information stuffed into a couple of hours.  We let him teach, and give advice until eleven o’clock, the meeting had to end, we all were so saturated with information, no more would ...   Read more...
January 15th, 2011

The January meeting was certainly an interesting meeting regarding bank funding for the purchase of investment real estate.

Karen Gouker, Assistant Vice President of Sandy Spring Bank assured us funding is getting more accommodating but as might be suspected, it's riddled with caveats. 
  • Lending standards are back to the 80's with regards to documentation (not a bad thing).
  • An investor can not have more then 4 "leveraged" rental properties.
  • Credit scores above 740 seem to be the level that an investor starts looking "good" in the lenders eyes.
  • Lenders are likely to require 6 months of capital reserves for emergencies (hey commercial property owners do this)
Our personal feeling is that until the banking sector lightens up on investors, real estate or the economy for that matter, is never really going to get back into full swing. Investors are the grease that keeps the ...   Read more...
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