Category: April – 20

CCIM Commercial Real Estate Forecast Competition – February 2020

Posted on by Sarah

Keynote Speaker: Mark Dotzour, PhD We should have a solid economy ongoing in Houston and Texas, with a few ‘clouds’, such as election year uncertainty, China trade issues, and the Covid19 virus scare. Energy exploration and production will be curtailed due to lack of capital from investor/lenders, which should eventually lead to an upward trend in oil prices. Our current economic expansion is into its 129th month, and going strong. 2020 will be a little slower but consumer confidence and most other economic indicators remain strongly positive. Commerce is so interconnected on the planet that trade disputes will inevitably need to be worked out. Even if 2020 is a little slower, it should create pent-up demand for 2021. Wages are up about 3.5% a year, and lots of job openings remain, despite steady increase of hiring, which has been in the range of 200-300,000 new jobs per year in recent years. Housing starts are up and household debt is down; corporate profits are leveling off-companies did not reinvest savings from last tax cut but instead bought own stock. Unemployment claims are way down, and interest rates are low and going lower. It is a ‘given’ that we will have a recession in next five years but it is not on the immediate horizon. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.

Real Estate Brokers: What To Do with the “Leftover Equity” in a 1031 Exchange

Posted on by Sarah

As a Real Estate Broker, do you ever have clients who do a 1031 exchange, secure a replacement property but find that the amount of the new acquisition leaves them short of the total exchange amount? Maybe they are short by as little as $50,000 to $100,000? In most cases like this the client ends up paying taxes on the remaining amount (Boot) of the 1031 exchange. However, in many cases they pay quite a bit more than the current 15% capital gains tax on that remaining amount. In fact, when you consider the recapture (of depreciation) that the IRS requires plus any state tax, it ends up being significantly more. There is another option to explore. Present them with an acquisition of the OTHER real estate, mineral interests. What are mineral interests? Like the surface real estate, mineral interests are a titled position recorded in the county clerk’s office, often in the same instrument. The difference is, mineral title conveys the rights below the ground. What value do they have? It can be significant value, especially in states like Texas where Energy Companies extract oil and natural gas from below the surface and pay the mineral owners a royalty off the gross production. There are millions of people who own mineral interest in the United States and billions of dollars are paid out to them each year in the form of royalty payments. The U.S. is the only country in the world where mineral interests can be privately owned. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.