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Dallas Real Estate: How Much $$$ To Live at the Ritz Towers?

How much will it will set you back to live in one of those new Ritz-Carlton  Towers? And yes, the model we stayed in had a round central hallway. Catering trays fit around the central table like a charm:

“Candy,  You stayed in #1601K and it is priced at $2,360,000.  Your reader asked about #1301K which is the same floor plan and finish package.  It is priced at $2,165,000.  We have this exact plan priced from $1,625,000 on the 6^th floor.  The HOA fees are $.77 per interior square foot.  This plan has 2,490 interior sf, so the HOA fees would be about $1,917 per month.  HOA fees include all common area maintenance for the building and grounds, the parking garage maintenance, and hazard and liability insurance for the building.  In addition to HOA fees the owner of the residence is responsible for utility fees, property taxes (2.6% of assessed value), and contents insurance.”

So $2000 ish per month in HOA fees. Homeowner is responsible for his utilities, cable, etc. and maintenance/repairs on their unit. Regarding those taxes — 2.6% of assessed value. I don’t understand how Dallas County can be losing tax revenues when all these downtown dwellers are doling out the big bucks in property taxes: property taxes on “my” unit’s DCAD appraised value would be $16,774.

Subprime Loan Meltdown: Goldman Bet It Both Ways

Must read/see, this report by McClatchy Newspapers’ Greg Gordon, a five-month investigative report on how Goldman Sachs, otherwise known as Government Sachs, peddled more than $40 billion in securities on 200,000 risky home mortgages, but at the same time it was peddling these as investments, the company also bought $20 billion in insurance betting that the real estate market would tank. Did the customers know that? One of the insurers was AIG, the huge insurer the government bailed out. How AC/DC of them.

Ask Candy: How About A Preston Towers Condo for our Student Daughter?

Dear Candy,

My daughter is starting Baylor Nursing school in January and we are looking at places for her to live.  I am trying to decide whether to rent or buy.  In order for her to have a safe place to live, we will be paying what seems to me like a lot of rent, plus utilities.  So then I started to think about buying some place and I was considering Preston Towers. I know it is full of senior citizens, but it is really safe, really convenient, and I if I wish to sell when she finishes school, it seems that that Preston Hollow always has a built in base of people who simply do not want to leave the area for Turtle Creek or elsewhere and equally do not want to live in an assisted living situation, so they look at Preston Towers and The Athena.

I would jump at the new units on Bandera, but your post last week indicated that $215 might actually end up closer to $350, and I am not up for that kind of investment right now.  So if I bought something and re-did it I thought that might be a good plan, especially if we have a unit with a south view. Some friends in real estate do not like condo ownership, esp. older condos, because of the assessment issues with on going maintenance. I do believe P.T. is in that category of probably needing the owners to chip in on some items to update the place.  Other Realtors say “oh this is a great time to buy.” To which I say, when you’re a hammer, everything is a nail.

So what to do, what to do?

Gratzie,

Marisa

Dallas Real Estate: Condo Auctions Netting Good Deals?

I told you two weeks ago about the upcoming auction that Drexel Development has cooked up for some Drexel Park Hollow condo units. Well, I just found this little tidbit from Curbed about another condo auction that recently took place in Boston. Industry experts tell me we are going to see a lot of real estate auctions in the next couple years, and it looks like some folks in Boston got themselves a fair deal, nothing extraordinary. (Or maybe these units just sell at more realistic prices, which makes you wonder why the developers don’t just slash and reduce.) But remember, the developer usually reserves the right to a “reserve” price, a bottom line threshold. As one agent told me, the nice thing about auctions for the developer is they get all pre-qualified buyers, so no tire kickers wasting anyone’s time.

Dallas Real Estate: Why Does Preston Tower Look Like A 1960’s Christmas Tree?

Simple: to make it more appealing to those younger folks who grew up in the 60’s. Karen Lukin, who lives in Preston Tower, tells us:

“I have lived in my building for 11 years. Imagine my surprise to drive up and see that they’ve added uplighting, blue-revolving-to-green, that shines up 30 floors on the sides of the building. Was told it might make our 1960’s high-rise appeal to the “younger folks.”

The 29-story Preston Tower was built in 1966 and was one of Dallas’ very first high rise buildings. Only the very cool need move in.

A Streetcar Named Dallas

I thought Clayton McCleskey’s take on Zurich streetcars or, more aptly, trams, was terrific. And I agree with him that a downtown streetcar network (which the Transportation and Environment Committee is reviewing) would be a great plus in Dallas. But right now, it’s hard to compare Dallas to Zurich when it comes to public transportation. I mean, these are the Swiss: the trains are spotless, sleek, and efficient beyond promptness. We traveled the country entirely by train a few years ago. No wonder Zurich has the best public transit system in the world. Zurich can certainly be our city’s ideal, a far-reaching mentor. In the US, we can look at San Francisco’s cable cars to see how efficient mass transit can be.

“DART’s light rail does a great job of bringing people to downtown.”

Well, except for Texas-OU weekend on top of The State Fair.

“But it’s not efficient for moving people around once they get here. Streetcars do just that and would provide the seamless connectivity downtown desperately needs.”

Agreed!

Dallas Real Estate: Buy In A Neighborhood With A Fiscally Sharp City Council Rep

Maybe this should be one of the things you consider before signing on the dotted. Maybe we here at DallasDirt (um, that’s me) could and should offer more info on our city council reps and what they do for their districts. In any case, here is why the folks in Mitchell Rasansky’s district love him so much:

“We received an amazing letter yesterday from Mitchell Rasansky, the Dallas City Councilman who represented our area until this year, when he retired because of term limits. Because he has been so helpful and responsive to our neighborhood’s (and our) needs, we sent him a check two years ago to help with his campaign.

Yesterday he sent us a check for 40% of the money, saying he had managed his campaign responsibly and did not need all of the money we sent him.

“Unlike our city” he wrote, “I find I have a surplus.”

He sent 1,013 checks to every person or entity who had ever given him a dime. The checks totaled $160,000. He said he hopes his act restores our faith in elected officials.

Normally, politicians who have money left in their coffers simply send a check to some charity … or another politician. But in this case, Mitchell chose to return it to each contributor so they could decide what to do with it.

“I think it’s your money, “ he said.

In a time when politics has divided and discouraged us, we thought this amazing act of integrity was worth passing along. And the best part of the story? It’s absolutely true.”

Morgan Stanley Renegotiating $2 Billion Crescent Equities Loan

Bloomberg reports that Morgan Stanley is working with Barclays Capital to renegotiate a $2 billion loan to avoid default. The loan was apparently taken out in 2007 to fund the $6.5 billion purchase of the REIT Crescent Real Estate Equities, based in Fort Worth. Crescent purchased 54 office buildings with that loan, including several in Dallas, including the Ritz Carlton Dallas. As we all know, the commercial real estate market is not exactly steroidal these days but The Ritz has sold 65 out of their 95 new Tower units. No comments from my friends at Crescent Real Estate Equities.

Folks With Chinese Dry Wall Issues Now Uninsurable

The Wall Street Journal reports that at least two home insurers in sunny Florida are dropping policy holders who have filed insurance claims linked to bad drywall imported from China. (The Chinese drywall is under investigation for emitting sulfide fumes which could cause corrosion of electrical wires and plumbing — lovely way to make your house disintegrate.) All of which could set off another huge round of disputes with homeowners and insurance companies, kind of like that four-letter word in the industry, M-O-L-D. I have not heard of any Chinese drywall used in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but I have heard of some in Houston during the post-Rita rebuilding period. If you have had any experience with Chinese drywall in Dallas, please let us know  at DallasDirt.

Is Dallas (Like America) Getting Less Mobile?

Moving companies, earmuffs. Are people NOT switching houses every few years to move up, are Baby Boomers NOT abandoning the ‘burbs to move to downtown condos where they can have it all? No, they are – -we all are — staying put more than ever, says Joel Kotkin in this week’s Newsweek:

“…in reality Americans actually are becoming less nomadic. As recently as the 1970s as many as one in five people moved annually; by 2006, long before the current recession took hold, that number was 14 percent, the lowest rate since the census starting following movement in 1940. Since then tougher times have accelerated these trends, in large part because opportunities to sell houses and find new employment have dried up. In 2008, the total number of people changing residences was less than those who did so in 1962, when the country had 120 million fewer people. The stay-at-home trend appears particularly strong among aging boomers, who are largely eschewing Sunbelt retirement condos to stay tethered to their suburban homes—close to family, friends, clubs, churches, and familiar surroundings.”

As I said in an earlier post, aging baby Boomer’s driving is going to very interesting. Joel says the trend is to not just stay put in your home but to enjoy it, too, fill it up with boomerang kids, even work there.

Does this mean D Home needs to launch a home-office column?

Park Hollow Preston Center Condos To Be Sold At Auction

Downtown condos are not the only units moving as slowly as molasses. That new condominium community at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest, the hot “behind the pink wall” area, is ablaze with yellow signs describing the November 5 auction of these units: Park Hollow. To be clear, these are not foreclosures. The developer, Drexel Development, has apparently decided that an auction might clear out more units so they don’t linger. This advertised starting bid is $215,000 for a unit that “retails” at $620,000 — 1962 square feet, 1/1.5/den. The auction house is Kennedy Wilson out of Los Angeles, and I’ve got interviews with them scheduled tomorrow. Apparently there will be more inventory in this auction that just Park Hollow: raw land for five homesites and 15 luxury homes in McKinney.

Before you get too excited over the prices, the developer has a reserve – -that is, he reserves the right to set the sales price in his head and reject that starting bid. So let’s say I buy that 1962 square foot unit at $215,000 — the developer (who knows what he wants to clear) can refuse or make me a counter offer. According to my sources, that magic number is $150 to $175K more than these low starting bids. All buyers must be pre-qualified for financing, unless they bring cash.

I went through the units, too, and have some opinions — stay tuned.

Dallas Real Estate: Is The North Texas Condo Market Finally on its Knees?

The Fort Worth Star Telegram’s Mitchell Schnurman says yes, that both Dallas and Fort Worth share a glut of condos but that Dallas is in more trouble because we have more unsold units — more than 400 vacant properties, a host of million dollar plus homes, and about one foreclosure for every four condo units posting.

It could be worse — we could be Miami. And I’ve heard that condos in Austin are moving like molasses, this in a town where parents often buy real estate for their UT undergrads.

I agree with Schnurman and the folks he consulted — Residential Strategies’ Ted Wilson and RECON’s James Gaines: too many condos were built. They knew it, we all knew it. As I was purging papers for our move to Saint Paul Street last week,  I found a brochure from the Cresta Bella — remember that? And Museum Tower was supposed to break ground this spring or fall. Schnurman says Mandarin Oriental pulled the plug last summer; I heard the writing was on the wall last March. And a reader asked me this week what, if anything, could be done with that sad Stoneleigh Residences shell — the ghost condo is the view from her front window. The Ritz opened The Tower Residences last Tuesday — all of phase one sold, though re-sales are slow and have seen two foreclosures, and the new 95-unit Tower Residences has 30 units left to sell. (David Farmer reminded me how bullish I was on the Stoneleigh; I still think it’s an excellent location for a high-rise. I asked what they thought would happen to that shell — nothing, I was told, until someone starts lending some money.) What was their secret to success? Great timing.

Here are the problems: a lack of financing in the jumbo market  ($417,000 or above in Dallas); if you do obtain funds, getting an appraisal through the new Home Valuation Code of Conduct; and in fact getting any money at all. Buyers are also skiddish over HOA’s, which I hope to examine more on this blog.  But why do lenders get the heebie jeebies still with Dallas condosl? Last Wednesday night at The Travis, one of the developers told me it was like pulling teeth to obtain financing on those units, but they did get a bank to sign on. I maintain that the real estate market would be a whole lot healthier if the lenders would just start lending again — not to anything that has a pulse, but to qualified people.

The good news is that Dallas now has 30,000 people living downtown — and I saw with my own eyes last weekend how we are becoming a city that never sleeps. (Yes!) The units will get absorbed, but it will take time, a few foreclosures,maybe even an auction or two.

Meantime, hold the cranes, please. Just please pass the credit.

Dallas Real Estate: Haute Night at the Travis at Katy Trail

Whoa, see what I mean? A great hot crowd Wednesday night for the debut of The Travis at Katy Trail Condominiums, the one-time apartments converted into condominiums by a Canadian developer, acquired by Hall Financial Group earlier this year. The space has been reconfigured somewhat — larger, lighter & brighter lobby, expanded fitness facility, and re-vamped units decked out by Dawn West Interior Design, Baron and J, Minivir, Jesica Sharp Designs, Rachel Dauphinee, Abi Ferrin, and Geoffrey Henning. Really interesting building: I was a little confused by the hallway configuration, but impressed with all the designers work. The price is right for these units, starting at less than $300,000 though the 3600ish penthouse is available for $700,000. I’m told four sold Wednesday night, and real estate management guru Worth Ross is moving into one of the units — stay tuned. Best attribute: location, right off Knox Street, stone’s throw from both Central and Highland Park, and an Uptown resident’s very best friend, Toulouse.

Dallas Real Estate Memory Lane: Best Deals of 2004?

“Visible corner: Hotel Palomar and Residences will be constructed on the site of the Hotel Santa Fe at the busy intersection of… ”

I really need to pack!

Dallas Real Estate Greatness: Memories of the Boom

Cleaning my cubicle for our move downtown, and all these home and estate brochures make me long for the boom days…

Newsweek Hearts Dallas Arts Center But: “Time Makes Cities Beautiful”

In the latest edition of Newsweek, Cathleen McGuigan lauds our new Arts District — telling New Yorkers to watch out, that the premiere cultural complex of Lincoln Center is getting Big D competition — and that we’ve done it right, avoiding the grandiose errors of our New York forebear. What have we done right? A lot: stunning architectural design — check. But the new Winspear Opera House is also pedestrian-friendly, open and inviting everyone to come in, a true urban renaissance project. Says project architect Spencer de Grey about his first trip to Dallas in the 80’s: “when I emerged from a restaurant at 9 o’clock there wasn’t a soul on the street.” That was my reaction also when I moved here from NYC in the early 80’s — at one point I wondered if a calamity had sent everyone for cover. But my stay this past weekend at The Tower Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas proved that Dallas has evolved into a city that never sleeps. Time makes cities beautiful and busy.

McGuigan also warns that just because you build art doesn’t mean people will come: case in point, LA’s Disney Concert Hall. We are also a car-centric city and must keep LA’s lesson in mind: whatever we plan, whatever we build, you gotta take care of the darn cars that get people to the event. Make that parking inconvenient enough, those valet lines too long, folks will be tuning out to art, tuning into their PDA’s, heading back to their McMansions. And let’s be nice to our feet: one of the biggest selling points of every downtown residence is the walking proximity of the Dallas Arts Center (and yes, Victory) to all of them. So let’s also make sure we are foot friendly as well as car friendly.

Dallas Real Estate: Teardowns Bring Land Values Up, Structure Values Down?

Not sure I follow the logic in this Advocate piece from May, saying that tear-downs push land values up and home structure values down. Do you see what I am missing?

The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas Versus the Cattle Barons Ball

The perfect cocktail party, a five star dinner. We return to our new home in the heavens to find love in the air: someone has turned down our bed and strewn it with fresh rose petals, forming a heart right in the middle. Ah, the empty nest: my husband is asleep in five seconds; he delivered babies the night before. So I do something I’ve wanted to do since I toured the very first Dallas high rise in a hard hat: take a nice soaking bath overlooking the lights of the city in that stunning white and black veined marble bathroom.  (Just lock me in there.) The Ritz jetted tubs are by Kohler with platinum Kallista fixtures — and the  jets are perfectly placed. Robert A.M Stern is a genius, but please, no hand-sprayers? I make do with the excellent water pressure — which was also perfect when the shower was running. A-plus plus bathrooms. (And no scalding flushes — like when your spouse flushes the commode and whoever in the shower gets scorched?) So I was soaking, enjoying a magazine, breathing in the city lights and noticing for the first time that it was still raining.

Then the phone rang.

I was out of the tub within minutes of learning that my daughter and son in law had wrangled themselves out of the mud at Cattle Barons, while the D Magazine crew had to abandon their car. (”Go back” I told my daughter.) Frantic phone calls had created an image of what would become a Woodstock for thousands of Dallas millennials, an event that they would relay to their grandchildren: I survived Cattle Baron’s 2009. I got into my suitcase and found that black lounging outfit — I was going to call for the car just like a real resident, go rescue those folks, bring ‘em back to The Ritz.

“You don’t understand, we are covered in mud,” said SweetCharity Blog editor Jeanne Prejean.

Towels, they’ll need towels: I looked at the pristine white Ritz bath sheets embossed with the regal lion brand.

Let’s see just how much they want us to make ourselves at home.

Dallas Real Estate: Behind The Doors of 1604

5:00 p.m. The glam begins. After a brief tour of our new home logistics — where we get our mail, store our wine, and work the state of the art elevators, all with champagne in hand — we jet up to 1604. Otis meets NASA: The Tower’s elevators are electronically synced to your key fob, so you don’t even have to punch in your floor number — it reads it for you. (And oh so hygienic.) If you are, say, a guest who actually has to touch the keypad, you simply tap in the floor number and up you go — the elevator will never stop at another floor, so Ritz security is supreme.  What do you do if you want to visit a neighbor, borrow a cup of sugar? Good question. (Friends will also have had to get by Willie, a 6′7″ former linebacker doorman.) En route we run into a friend, physician Dr. George Zoys — he LIVES here, actually, and loves it. Come on by for a drink, we tell him, if you can outsmart the elevator. (The Tower Residences are about 75% sold out.) Our home: 1604 is a two bedroom with study plus powder room, kitchen, laundry room, dining room and balcony extraordinaire, 2700 ish square feet. First thing we do is check out the view: wow! We spy Cowboys Stadium and even snatches of Fort Worth. Guests arrive. Conventionally, if I were at my home, I’d have made a frantic run to Whole Foods or Tom Thumb for cheese, fruit, or whatever they had on hand ready-made. But life at The Ritz-Carlton Dallas is different: you ring up the kitchen or Dean Fearings and they happily prepare your hors d’oeuvres, sending up a complete wait staff. And so we had folks stirring up pumpkin shooters and mini wasabi filets, serving vino. For two hours we nibbled and chatted as the rain settled in over Dallas and moved east — our balcony view of Dallas was nice and dry. Oh yes: at some point I said something about being  chilled, and like magic Thomas Smyth, Director of Residences, had a fire glowing in the fireplace at the touch of a button.

Next thing you’ll tell me, I said, is that I can turn on the fireplace from my key fob.

7:30 pm: Dinner for four at Fearings. By now our cocktail guests had departed — Halle and Ali to a concert, Pam to dinner, Anna to her babies, Jeanne, Glenn, Sara and Gillea to Cattle Barons. By now it was pouring but the four of us footed the skybridge that connects The Tower Residences to the hotel. Neither of us curly girls frizzed. In fact, I had no idea how much it was raining until later.

8:00 pm: We enjoy the meal of a lifetime at Fearing’s, one of the driving reasons why many people buy Ritz real estate: you’ve got the Number One restaurant in hotel dining (dry) steps away, available for in-home catering, and a boost on reservations. In fact, Barbara Capasso personally escorted us to the restaurant lest we get lost. Or wet.

“Are you doing this just because I am a writer?” I asked.

“No, we treat all our guests like this,” she said. “We are renown for our personalized, attentive service.”

And yes, when we finished dinner — a sampling of Dean’s signature Tortilla Soup, Cast Iron Alaskan Halibut on Gulf Lump Crab “Succotash”with Tabasco/Bacon Gastrique and Fried Green Tomatoes, Maple-Black Peppercorn Soaked Buffalo Tenderloin on Anson Mills Jalapeño Grits and Crispy Butternut Squash Taquito, Barbara was there to roll us escort us home.

In 1604 For Twenty-Four, Ctd.

Really my favorite hallway, this leads to the sky-bridge that saved us from Cattle Baron’s weather — it connects The Tower Residences to the hotel and Dean Fearings.

In 1604 For Twenty-Four, Ctd.

Vestibule to The Tower Residences pool.

In 1604 For Twenty-Four, Ctd.

The lobby of our new home on Saturday, The Tower Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas. That chocolate brown onyx floor is almost good enough to eat, and clean enough to eat off of!

In 1604 for Twenty-Four: Saturday Night at the Ritz-Carlton Residences’ Newest Tower

Saturdays go something like this: clean house, killer work out class, home to recover and hop in the pool with the dogs if weather permits, after which I usually walk around the exterior of my house and make note of what needs to be done. If I don’t get someone out to clean my windows the  mud wasps will have eminent domain. I have a dead juniper next to my front door. The yard man needs to pay more attention to the Japanese garden, which looks more like Hiroshima, the summer color is going going gone and it’s time to shell out money for think fall color. The pecans are raining on my sidewalk faster than I can sweep them, yielding enormous squirrel scat, and there’s a duck pooping in the pool, on my deck. So much for a swim. No wonder that by four pm, I’m hitting the bottle and re-thinking my love affair with home ownership.

So when the Ritz-Carlton Dallas asked if we’d like to try on living in one of their newest homes — to be unveiled tomorrow — I said not just yes but HELL YES and told the squirrels to stuff themselves.

2:00 p.m We pack our bags for a night of elegance, dinner at Fearings,  and (yard maintenance be damned, or at least postponed), a Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas spa: I slip into a cocktail dress and fold up work-out clothes, tee shirts, bathing suit (which I ended up leaving on my dresser) and make-up. Also throw in an elegant black velour lounging outfit with tags still hanging — never worn since I never “lounge” in my own home.

3:58 p.m. Arrive at the 23-story Tower Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, pulling the car into the port-cohere at our new address: 2555 North Pearl Street. We are greeted by none other than Ritz-Carlton General Manager Roberto van Geenen; Joseph Pitchford, Senior Vice President, development, Crescent Real Estate Equities L.L.C.; and Barbara Capasso, Residences Manager, with champagne. The Robert A.M. Stern regency-style building exterior is similar — identical, actually — to it’s twin tower and the hotel, the pale brick and cast stone. Most definitely a New York City elegance. The interior lobby is dramatic with white onyx floors bordered by rich chocolate brown and, a concierge counter bearing the most beautiful russet-colored stone slab I have seen to date: rich maple wood paneling everywhere. Unlike Tower One, this lobby is more of a rectangle, with a warm residence sitting room, a library, Chinese-red dining/board room,  private exercise room with a cushioned floor, individual lock and key wine-storage units for each homeowner, and gateway to a gorgeous, 80 foot long pool and spa flanked by Jerusalem Palms. There is an exterior fireplace and the entire deck, chairs, chaise lounges, pillows are new, spotless, squirrel and duck-free.

There is a fireplace in the lobby as well, and it is lit, warm and welcoming on what will soon be an historically rainy day in North Texas.

And so begins one of my most amazing 24 hours ever…

Real Estate Investors Take Note: Two Texas Cities Are Hip

They would be Austin, called by many the “San Francisco” of Texas and number five on the list, and our fair Dallas, number nine.  These two  cities are youth magnets — places where young people in a recession might migrate to find jobs and flourishing businesses. No surprise that Washington, D.C. is number one what with all the federal funds flying out of the treasury doors. But I was surprised to see that Atlanta didn’t even make the list, and San Francisco was nowhere to be found while San Jose came in number six. This is the kind of news real estate investors want to hear — where young workers venture, housing is needed.

The Man Who Bought a Dallas House For $12,500

Yes, I said $12,500. OK, maybe it needs a little love, but this house was so cheap you could practically charge it on your Citibank card and reap half an airline trip in miles. The man who managed this feat: CPA and real estate investor Sean Walls, who hails from Australia. Though he works in oil and gas by day, the love of dirt runs deep in this Aussie’s blood. He also likes to “sharpen the pencils”.

So, a few months ago, Sean is sitting in Starbucks, surfing Ebby.com for cheap house porn, like we all do. He wants some investment real estate. He finds a duplex in the East Dallas historic district (209 Alcade Street) that needs refurbishment, but it’s a foreclosure that had an original note against it for — $180,000.

It was reduced for sale by the bank to $25,000.

“I called straightaway,” says Sean. But he had missed it — another buyer was already there.

“I told the agent,” said Sean, “watch that listing like a hawk because if that first contract falls through, I want it.”

The first contract fell through. Sean offered $18,500, then did an inspection, checked land value and found, among other issues, several liens against the house. No problem, he offered $12,500.

“The banks have thousands of these listings,” says Sean. “This is a massive market for investors if we can lock into it.”

It took three weeks to clear the liens on the home’s title, and now Walls is pouring about $50,000 into the duplex. The improvement loan and sales price should be paid off in 25 months, he figures, and he’ll have a tenant in there as soon as he can.

Now that’s what I call a real estate deal. But wait, it gets better. Now only does Sean invest in real estate, he has created a Twitter-based company for Realtors to announce open houses, new listings, and price sales reduction. It’s called Twitter_MLS…  stay tuned!