Jim Randel's (jimrandel) Blog

The new Administration is seriously considering a revision to the bankruptcy law that will allow Judges to "cram down" mortgages on residential properties. Actually bankruptcy judges already have the power to modify mortgages on vacation homes - just not primary residences. Consumer advocates arg...

In the real estate transactions world, we are operating in new territory. Buyers are nervous ("are we overpaying?"). Lenders are skittish ("are we overfinancing?"). Appraisers are ultra-conservative. And so on. It is for this reason that I have been suggesting to my clients for more than a year t...

Repost from 1-12-09 It seems like just a year ago I was speaking with a buddy of mine who specialized in investment sales of large real estate properties. As I was performing due diligence on some of these properties for an acquisition group I represented, I was very familiar with the numbers. Wh...

Notwithstanding a lot of negative information about housing prices, I believe we will see stabilization in the markets by mid-year. Here is my thinking:The speed in which our economy crashed (housing and stock prices) is unprecedented. There were no economic models to predict what happened.Once t...