Upscale Apartment Trend

I feel as though large and lavish apartments have been a big trend in large cities at the moment. One building I was reading about on bloomberg was about Sulzberger's Fifth Ave. apartment in New York City. The "apartment" itself has 11 rooms, that's right, eleven. At what size does a dwelling stop being an apartment and becomes a mansion? It comes with three maids' rooms, and has a private library, all for the extremely reasonable price of $12.5. Did I mention that it also has a wood-burning fireplace? Just in case that would do the trick for you.

Which Property Type I'd Invest In

I'm choosing single-family detached as the area I would go ahead and invest in. I'd do this in the Lake Travis area, just outside of Austin, 20 minutes or so away from downtown.

When looking at statistics on vacancy rates for Austin/Lake Travis I found that the area was among the 20 best for lowest vacancy rates among U.S. cities. In fact, with an 8.2% vacancy rate it ranked 19th. However, that vacancy rate is .2% higher from 2011, a possible sign of an increase in vacancies, but it doesn't seem likely. On the other hand, net absorption in the area was down slightly in 2012.

Seeing all of the development in the area first hand, especially as my parents are building a house in the area themselves, I've begun to see just how much the Austin area has grown in under a decade. 15 minutes outside of downtown used to be a fair distance from the city, now many consider that a stone's throw away from the city center. As this expansion has ceased to grow, and Austin/Lake Travis continue to get raving reviews from both homeowners and housing surveys, another sign of continued expansion. Most of the land has brilliant views, and comes at a premium price. A typical house in the Lake Travis area can range from $50k to a few million dollars or so.

Interesting Farm Foreclosure - With A Twist

Here's an extremely interesting story I found on a foreclosure that dealt with the farm owner's pet being too big to move to the new property the owner purchased after his property was foreclosed upon. This pet, a 1000-pound pig, was "destined" for the slaughter house as the news reporter states, was saved by the neighbors after they found out he wasn't going to have a place to stay anymore.

Sadly, it doesn't say whether nor not it was judicial or non-judicial. I would have to assume the process was handled outside of the courts, making it a non-judicial case, as he defaulted and handed the property over to the institution that held his mortgage. It also did not state why he lost the farm, but as the farming industry goes, a small-Joe farmer has a hard time in a tough economy, especially with severe droughts in many areas of the U.S. within the past few years. Thus, I'd have to conclude he couldn't pay the bills that he had through his farm.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2193852433001/foreclosed-1000-pound-pig-saved-from-slaughterhouse/

Austin, Texas

Here's a few facts about where I was born and raised, Austin, Texas.

Area: 297.9 sq miles (771.6 km²)

 Founded: December 27, 1839

 

Weather: 61°F (16°C), Wind SE at 10 mph (16 km/h), 93% Humidity

 

Local time: Wednesday 11:11 PM

 

Population: 820,611 (2011)

 

Austin is a town that I will always love. It's one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, and constantly ranked on top 10 places to live in the United States. The city itself has grown outwards, in all directions, and I have seen in grow extremely quickly to the West. Westlake, where I grew up and where my parents still live, was easily considered out of the city when we moved to Texas in 1990. Now, being 15 minutes from downtown is considered quite close-in.

Economics of the town are quite diverse, and the city is seen as fairly "recession-proof", but clearly it was still affected by the 2008 crisis. The main industry that drives economic growth would have to be the tech industry, with Dell's headquarters located in Austin and many other large tech companies having a significant presence. Another major driver would have to be the University of Texas, as much as we may hate it.

Here's a few pictures of my hometown: 

The first of which is of Hula Hut, one of my all time favorite restaurants ever.

Boonville Project and Oil Spill

The two gentlemen who gave a guest lecture on Jan. 28, 2013 were Mike Gentry and Dr. Harrison came to class on January 28, 2013. Mr. Gentry is currently a lawyer, and the one overseeing the legal issues for Dr. Harrison, the owner of the land in what was formerly Boonville.


The land that Dr. Harrison owns was inherited through his family, who won it in an early 1900's poker game. Part of the land is being developed into a hotel, which had a somewhat small oil spill underneath that had to be totally cleaned up. That took quite a while and a decent investment in order to clean it completely and have it ready to be sold for development.


Something else that I found to be quite interesting was when Dr. Harrison spoke of the tax laws regarding his property. I wasn't aware that you were allowed to have "ranch land" classifications with minimal amounts of cattle, costing pennies on the dollar to what the real tax would be for developing land. I was also surprised that when converted back to a zoned area, you'd have to pay back taxes on the land for a number of years, amounting to huge sums of money in order to prepare it for sale.

Private restrictions on Real Estate are restrictions typically created by land developers themselves. They can be both positive and negative in regards to their nature and intent. Some examples of private restrictions include common easements, fees and restrictive covenants.

Private restrictions are the restrictions formed by two or more private parties through covenants, restrictions, and conditions contained within the tools of conveyance or in specific planned community rules.

Here is what I found to be a good example of some private restriction easements in the news, an Enhanced Easement Incentive -

https://www.landtrustalliance.org/policy/tax-matters/campaigns/the-enhanced-easement-incentive





public restrictions are those which are imposed by a governmental authority, which has the appropriate jurisdiction, in the form of zoning. The are usually in place in order to keep a safe a healthy community. For example, some buildings or billboards may not be allowed over a certain height in any given area.

An example in the news would have to be this Conservation easement conundrums within the High Country News - http://www.hcn.org/issues/367/17604/print_view.

As well as this one in Washington on easements in a township.


http://newjerseyhills.com/observer-tribune/news/washington-township-residents-miffed-over-easement-violations/article_77db6ee4-c98f-11e0-841a-001cc4c002e0.html

Most Fascinating to Me

 

To me, one of the most fascinating piece of real estate would have to be Richard Branson's Necker Island (seen above).

The island currently is owned by Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin brand. The island acts like a resort, able to hold up to 28 guests at a time, while still holding the feeling of being one's own private island.

Many years before it was built up into a luxury property, two reporters once spent two weeks on the island in 1965, describing it as "... inhabited by snakes, scorpions and tarantulas (…) The mosquitos and other insects were more venomous and persistent than any I had encountered in Vietnam or the Congo." - Don McCullin

Clearly that's not the sort of real estate a luxury property would want to be associated with, and the fact that Richard Branson was able to turn the island into such a stunning resort was quite impressive, and one of the main reasons that I find this place so fascinating. He was able to purchase the island itself in 1979 for £175,000, totally undeveloped. He spent approximately $10 million developing the island, and the result was tremendous. The main building, a Balinese-style villa crowning a hill above the beach, has 10 bedrooms, each of which has open walls giving a 360 degree view of the surrounding island and ocean. Exotic hardwood from Brazil, local stone, Asian antiques and Indian rugs, Branson made the island a getaway fit for the rockstars who had signed with his record label.

Now the island resort is staffed by 60 and is ready and waiting for you, as long as you're fine paying $53,000 a day. If that's not an issue, I'd suggest taking the next flight to the island.