Memories, like the corner of my mind

In the past weeks, I have been working on compiling my education and experience in real estate since 1987. An amazing set of opportunities have always presented themselves, and for that I am extremely blessed.

Crazy as it sounds, eating an elephant one bite at a time has resulted in almost 1,400 classroom hours I can document (more than a few missing certificates) and better than 40,000 hours of work in my field.

Still, every day, I learn something, and many days, I learn quite a lot. Ever grateful I am and continue to be for all the wonderful, knowledgeable, patient and considerate people with whom I have been blessed to work. If you think you are on this list - a very long list - you are right.

Thank you!!

tools are cool

Reinvestigation and renewal is most always good.  I have been much more focused on real estate brokerage over the past nine years and had drifted away from using the Institute and the IR/WA tools and resources.

The good news . . . while I was away, they were BUSY!

Remember the world before GIS, iPhones, and iPads?  Applications were what we filled out for lenders from whom we wanted assignments.  We looked through Deed Books page by page for data.  All that has changed.  Did you know that the Appraisal Institute even has a podcast - with some great topics and speakers?

The IR/WA is leveraging social media to connect with all right of way professional disciplines - a changing industry for certain.  If you worked for Georgia DOT back then, you will remember the brief push for metric plans and calculating awards in hectares.

Like slipping into a pair of the most current version of your favorite old Cole Hahn driving mocs, it is exciting and comfortably familiar at the same time.

To buy or not to buy

So my current analysis of land values in a certain southeastern metro Atlanta county revealed that over the past 24 months, the majority of vacant land transfers have been, NOT.  What does that mean?  Well, looking at the thirty some odd sales of vacant land, more than twenty were deeds under power - you know, foreclosures.  That is a pretty significant number for a county with a land size more than 300 square miles and two major interstates running through it.

Although we are seeing some return of commercial market activity, it seems that land ownership is still mostly speculative.  And, lenders seem unwilling to continue taking the risk of a loan without payment and are taking property back for resale, sometimes, apparently, for $0.30 on the $1.00.  If you still have cash, now might be a great time to speculate.