Read an interesting blog by San Diego’s Roberta Murphy. She pointed out that the first government-challenged like-for-like property exchange occurred when two farmers agreed to exchange horses. One owned six white horses, the other six black horses.

After the amicable trade the federal government claimed that a taxable event had occurred. Not so, claimed the farmers. They challenged the government and (more…)

The National Auctioneers Association’s latest data shows the incredible real estate slowing, which previously was the auction industry’s fasting-growing niche. Residential real estate was the organization’s (more…)

Longtime California real estate titan Fred Sands, speaking to a group of Realtors at the Southern California region of Sotheby’s International Realty, was very candid because “he was no longer in the home-selling business.” (Sands now leads Vintage Capital Group, an investment firm that focuses on commercial real estate,)

Here is a capsule of Sands thinking:

1) The last five or six years were not normal. So if you’ve been (more…)

If you are interested in learnng more about a self-directed 401(K) plan for the self-employed you will want to read this free white paper as it outlines some of the key reasons to consider this alternative investment strategy and how it works.

This white paper is written to explain the opportunity in using this type of 401(k) as a vehicle for alternative investments such as buying real estate or private (more…)

According to RealtyTrac, foreclosures jumped 30 percent from last quarter. While this usually makes properties more affordable for buyers, today’s scarcity of credit makes home ownership difficult for those with limited assets.

According to David Nilssen, president and CEO of Guidant Financial Group (Bellevue, Wash.), this situation presents a golden opportunity for both buyers and sellers via an often overlooked strategy of the real estate market: the “lease option” (a.k.a. “lease to purchase option”). It also presents a unique possibility for homeowners facing foreclosure to remain in their homes.

Nilssen, who helps one of the country’s leading providers of self-directed IRAs, reports that many clients have discovered that lease options can help them avoid losses on (more…)

New research shows the recent jump in the rate of homeownership was tied largely to loose lending. In short, after three decades of stability, the national rate of homeownership suddenly began rising in the mid-1990s, going from 64% in 1994 to 69% in 2004. But new research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta concludes that the bulk of the increase was caused by looser mortgage-lending practices rather than demographic factors such as more households of home-buying age.

That raises an important question: How much of the growth in homeownership is sustainable now that (more…)

A section of the Internal Revenue Code, referred to as “1031 exchanges” is increasingly being used by investors to defer taxes. Under a “1031″ participants are allowed to defer, or sometimes even avoid, capital-gains taxes when they sell a business or investment property and replace it with a similar asset within a specific period. (Some people have used the basic concept to defer taxes on gains in other types of properties, including art and collectables.)

Like-kind exchanges have, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, surged over the (more…)

Ivy Zelman 41, a former housing analyst at Credit Suisse, warned about the housing crisis months before the downturn. Now on her own as head of a research firm (Zelman & Associates) she sees this recession in housing as more severe than the 1990 and 1991 downturn and she also believes it could have a much (more…)

A consulting firm in Chicago, the Spectrem Group, reports that until August, U.S. residents with more than a $1 million in investment assets were shrugging off worries about the housing crisis. But now the rich too have caught the property jitters, with 43% saying it is their biggest investment worry, up from 9% in May.

Their concerns are valid…the S&P/Case-Shiller index of U.S. home prices plummeted more in the second quarter than at any other time in the past two decades.

What does this mean for (more…)

In the barter industry, undeveloped land that has no water, electricity, sewers, roads and other amenities is referred to as “currency land,” meaning it’s used for trading rather than actual use. And the buyers (traders) certainly are aware of such caveats.

Such isn’t the case in the cash world these days, according to a (more…)