Lowe’s Partners with Strategic Realty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Since its humble beginnings in 1952, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. has become one of the largest home improvement retailers in the world. With over 1,600 stores in the US and Canada, Lowe’s stocks over 40,000 products for contractors and home improvement do-it-yourselfers.  Now the retail giant has partnered with Strategic Realty, LLC to promote its services to those customers that are actively buying and selling real estate.

Beginning today, Strategic Realty will  offer its clients special 10% discounts on Lowe’s purchases up to a maximum purchase of $5,000. The offers are available to both Strategic’s current and past clients. According to Strategic Realty’s founding member, Kerry O’Neal, “A lot of home improvement decisions occur as folks are either readying their house for market, or have just purchased a home that they now need to personalize. Lowe’s is smart to realize this, and we hope that by saving our clients up to $500 on their improvements, that we take a little stress out of their lives.”

As a sign of the recent real estate market, there is also a special Foreclosure Coupon that Strategic can have emailed directly to their client’s contractor after the  purchase of a foreclosed property. The 10% savings are then awarded to the client’s contractor when they order remodeling supplies from Lowe’s.

According to the latest numbers from national housing indices, the US home market continues to struggle. Strategic Realty is focusing their efforts on innovation. “The lessons of the past market are not forgotten, but a lot of them are also no longer useful,” adds O’Neal. “We’re forging into uncharted territory everyday, and, as a company, we will prosper through our  creativity, determination, and dedication to our clients.”

Financial Tsunami?

You have to love that phrase. Unfortunately, when it comes to the commercial real estate market, it might be more descriptive that we’d like to hear. We’ve been predicting a rocky road for commercial buildings for quite some time.

“Huge commercial real estate lender may file bankruptcy, heightens meltdown fears”

As more businesses struggle in this economy, it certainly affects their ability to pay what is often their largest expense, rent.  We know several local landlords that have had to forgive rent, lower rent, and still lose tenants. And, when you’re dealing with commercial buildings, their value is all based on the rents they generate.

That loss in value is never good, but it is certainly worse for those that borrowed the money for their building. It affects “the ratio”, or the amount of debt on your property in relation to what it is worth. In the past, this wasn’t as big a problem. You could know that your property was worth less than you owed on it, but that fact was not something the bank wanted to think too much about. Today, with the FDIC making frequent visits to banks, auditing their files and checking their loans, bankers are much more keen to watch these ratios.

So how do you get your “ratio” back in compliance? Simple…the bank calls you up and asks you to write them a check in order to make up the lost value. Ouch! And in the recent real estate market, depending on when you bought or built your building, that check could be a whopper.

So now, your building is costing you more than it’s making you every month, its value is decreasing and picking up speed, and to top it off, the bank wants a huge check.  Some borrowers are saying to heck with this, stopping their payments, and now their banks gets to hire expensive attorneys to go through the foreclosure process so that they can take possession of an almost vacant building which they essentially paid well over market prices for.

You can’t run through that scenario too many times and still call yourself a business. Don’t believe me? Ask Capmark.

Latest Tax Rates

Want to look at comparative tax rates around the Central Oregon area? Deschutes County Title just sent me this handy flyer.

The values you see in the flyer are what we call millage rates, or tax dollars per $1,000 of property valuation. For instance if the tax assessor says your home is worth $200,000 and you live in an area where the millage rate is 15.3276, you could expect to pay taxes equal to $200,000 / 1,000 x 15.3276, or $3,065.52. There can be a number of other factors that will affect your final tax bill, but this will give you a general idea. For real expert information, call Deschutes County Tax office at 541-388-6540.

One thing that most folks are struck by when looking at the area tax schedule is how much higher Redmond’s taxes are than Bend’s.  This is an important factor when assessing a property as an investment.  For more ideas about what’s important in investment properties, give me a call, at 541-647-1491.