Jason talks with Mark Nash, real estate author, broker and syndicated columnist, about what’s hot and what’s not in real estate investing. They also discuss the bubble hype that’s often mentioned in the media.
Announcer: Welcome to Creating Wealth with Jason Hartman, President of Platinum Properties Investor Network in Costa Mesa, California. During this program, Jason is going to tell you some really exciting things that you probably haven’t thought of before and a new slant on investing, fresh new approaches to America’s best investment that will enable you to create more wealth and happiness than you ever thought possible.
Jason is a genuine self-made multimillionaire, who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. He’s been a successful investor for 20 years and currently owns properties in 11 states and 17 cities. This program will help you follow in Jason’s footsteps on the road to financial freedom. You really can do it. And now, here’s your host, Jason Hartman, with the complete solution for real estate investors.
Jason Hartman: Welcome to Creating Wealth. I’m Jason Hartman, your host, and you are in the No Hype Zone where we talk about the real world of real estate investing and how you can actually implement a prudent, legitimate strategy for real estate investing over the long haul. We have a fantastic guest today. He is a real estate author, broker, and journalist, Mark Nash. His fourth and latest book is Tips for Buying and Selling a Home. He’s been featured on CBS Early Show, CNN, and in the New York Times. Mark is a broker associate in the Chicago area and a contributing author to Broker Agent News, Realtor Magazine, and Realty Times. Mark, welcome to the show.
Mark Nash: Hi. Thank you, Jason. I think a lot of people in today’s market need to understand that real estate investing is still a good investment, but you really have to know what’s hot and what’s not.
Jason Hartman: So what is hot and what is not, and let’s talk about that thing we keep hearing about, the real estate bubble.
Mark Nash: Yes, well, I think the bubbles I think we’re all a little bit tired of the media expounding about the bubble and I think that people have to start focusing back on markets that I call bread and butter markets, markets that are priced under $200,000.00.
Jason Hartman: Below the median price.
Mark Nash: Yes, below the median price and really where most of America lives and not these overheated East Coast, West Coast resort markets that kind of seem to get most of the attention in the media. And maybe they’re going to deflate a little bit price-wise, but no crash, no bubbles there. But I think that I’m sure middle America’s so tired of hearing about $20 million homes in the Hamptons that they’re like how does this apply to me? And so we can talk about what applies to them.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely. I agree with you. You know, Mark, we refer to that as the linear versus the cyclic markets, and in these kind of linear markets that don’t get much media attention, that seems to be where the real prudent investments are nowadays, where there’s a lot of upside left, the cash flow is great if you rent them out, and I’m in complete agreement with you. Well, so, there’s all this hype about the bubbles and it’s definitely cooled in some of the hot markets that you mentioned. What’s hot in today’s market? I mean specifically.
Mark Nash: I think Houston, Austin, Texas, are very hot and I think that Houston actually started to take off before Hurricane Katrina and obviously, there was a lot of demand that shifted from the New Orleans area to Houston. But towns like Austin, Texas, some smaller cities in Georgia; there’s coastal areas in both North and South Carolina. And I think that as well as there’s parts of Idaho that have really started to get really pretty – a lot of attention by investors that are really searching out for new markets. And I think talking about specific towns, there’s Round Rock, Texas, Fort Hood, Texas. That’s really driven by military there, so that’s a great buy. Ashville, North Carolina, Augusta, Georgia, Boise, Idaho, Columbia, South Carolina, so there’s really a lot of options out there.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely and you know, many of those markets you mentioned, plus some others, are markets that we’re doing a lot of business in, in taking our clients and getting them out of the overheated California market and helping them reposition that equity into these prudent, stable, linear, or as you call them – I love the phrase you use for it – the bread and butter markets. And I completely agree. Can you expand on that at all? When you talk about real estate investing, what about familiarity of areas?
Mark Nash: Well, I think that a lot of people – there’s been a lot of newspaper and magazine articles lately about looking for the next growth real estate markets and that’s great, but by the time it gets into a national media publication, you might have missed a lot of upside, and so I think a lot of people should really look in their own backyard when they’re thinking about real estate investing. And it’s something that you’re familiar with. You know what the growth possibilities are, employment opportunities, and long-range community plans.
So what you look for as an investor, as I do, are is there manufacturing, are there a lot of blue collar jobs there, as well as to those blue collar jobs, are they supported by mid-level managers that can transfer in and out of a market? And sometimes when you have that unique information very close to home, you probably feel a lot more confident, too, about investing in that market than in some market that you really don’t know a lot about.
Jason Hartman: I agree with you, Mark. The only problem is that I don’t live in one of those areas and I think my area here in beautiful Southern California is not the place to be investing now, and I’m guessing you in Chicago, neither do you. We live in wealthier, sophisticated areas that they just don’t make sense right now.
Mark Nash: Right. That’s absolutely right.
Jason Hartman: So if you’re in one of these areas listening to this show, then invest there where you understand it. But if you’re not, you’ve got to look outside into these undervalued markets.
Mark Nash: So you’re absolutely right, Jason. I’m kind of expanding on that in that just because these cities are listed in, like, newspaper articles or magazines, don’t think those are the only hotbeds of new investments. You really have to – like, if you know – I wouldn’t call them sleepers, but sometimes, the media, if they’re not sexy, they haven’t heard about them. They don’t get on their radar. But maybe you should look for things that really fit this scenario, but are on your own radar.
Jason Hartman: I completely agree with you, those bread and butter markets. Now, you mentioned before, Mark, when you talked about blue-collar jobs, middle management, why do you favor manufacturing and blue-collar type of employment? What’s the big deal there?
Mark Nash: Well, I think with the blue-collar, typically, they have a higher percentage of renting, especially if they’re starting out early in their careers, and sometimes they don’t necessarily make enough to qualify to purchase housing in the market or they don’t have enough for a down payment. And so I like the blue-collar profile for renters.
Jason Hartman: Sure, because you’ve got a good rental base, absolutely.
Mark Nash: Yeah, they are a great rental base and then they work for this company that has a lot of mid-level management and you should look for a company that has more of a national perspective because they’re going to transfer these mid-level managers in and out. So that’s going to create a purchase and a sale flow in that market.
Jason Hartman: It also creates a lot of renters because some of those people know that they’re going to be moved and they don’t buy. They just rent.
Mark Nash: Right, that’s correct. Or sometimes they’re just there for a year.
Jason Hartman: Yeah.
Mark Nash: We have a lot of temporary corporate relocation in many markets today, and that’s kind of like this whole submarket that I don’t think a lot of people really understand or know about.
Jason Hartman: What is that? Tell me about that.
Mark Nash: Well, these companies are moving people all the time and once you understand how the flow of corporate relocation works, let’s say you join the company as a salesperson and then you get promoted to a sales manager. Then you move to a new market to take that position. And then you become a regional and you move to another market, so these big companies are always moving people around and it doesn’t seem that you can stay in the same place and get promoted.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, yeah, good point. Well, remember the old IBM used to stand for “I’ve Been Moved.”
Mark Nash: Yeah. Yes, I actually have a couple friends with IBM.
Jason Hartman: Yeah and that’s all changed now, I think, but that was the old saying. So you like these blue-collar type job bases because that gives you a good rental pool, which is terrific, and expanding on your comment, we see that extensively in the Houston market, which we’re very active in, with the oil companies. It’s like the energy capital of the U.S. and you get people that are scientists and people that are geologists and things like that. They come in, they do a year’s stint in Houston, and then they move on. They go to ANWR; they go to other places.
Mark Nash: Right, right.
Jason Hartman: So amazing. Yeah, even the Middle East.
Mark Nash: And I have friends here in Chicago that work with BP and I know that they’re – I’ve actually had a couple clients that started out in Houston, moved up here, and now they’re moving back.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, absolutely, so that’s good. That transient population is good in some ways for a rental base. Now, we’ve got about two minutes before the break here. Let’s talk about fair pricing, Mark. What do you mean when you talk about fair pricing?
Mark Nash: Well, I think from an investment standpoint, you need to look at something that is fairly priced so you’re going to get some rate of return and not have negative cash flow. A lot of people will look at a property and I’m like let’s look at the numbers because the numbers in the end aren’t going to lie. And that’s what I think a lot of people forget is, well, it’s a nice property, but it’s $400,000.00. Well, that’s not necessarily a fairly priced property for a real estate investor, especially, if for some reason, you have to carry that property a couple months without a tenant in it.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, that can be very onerous, especially the more expensive it gets. Now, one of the things that we do with our clients, we coined a term for this, – we call it the RV ratio or rent-to-value ratio – and our metric is .7 percent. I’d be curious to see if you agree with it, which basically means that for every $100,000.00 in property value, we want our investor to get $700.00 a month if possible. They’re doing great if they do that, but $500.00 a month or a .5 RV ratio is about the lowest we want them to go.
Mark Nash: I would agree totally with that.
Jason Hartman: So a $200,000.00 house renting for $1,400.00 a month, they’re doing great. And renting for $1,000.00 a month, they’re not doing too bad.
Mark Nash: Absolutely. I think that’s a great way to look at it. That whole ratio is the bottom line.
Jason Hartman: Yeah and you know, I just see people – I’m sure you see this in the Chicago area – but in overvalued California, they’re buying $700,000.00 properties that only rent for $2,300.00 a month.
Mark Nash: What’s the point?
Jason Hartman: It’s crazy. We’ll talk more about that after the break. Stay tuned everyone. We’ll be right back.
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Are you winning the rat race? Would you like to get off that treadmill and retire early with real wealth and some steady passive income? Well, here’s Jason Hartman, President of Platinum Properties Investor Network.
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Jason Hartman: Welcome back. This is Jason Hartman on Creating Wealth. We are here with Mark Nash as our guest today. He’s an accomplished author, real estate broker, and contributing writer to several magazines. Mark, welcome back.
Mark Nash: Welcome, Jason. Thank you for having me.
Jason Hartman: When we took the break, we were just talking about the RV ratio and how investors should evaluate the rent versus value to see if they’re really getting a good return, kind of a quick rule of thumb. Any more comments on that?
Mark Nash: I think that you hit it right on the nail when you use those ratios and you do have to stick to tried and true ratios and equations and really look at the numbers hard and long, and don’t get mesmerized by an attractive property at a price point where you’re going to have negative cash flow every month.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely. Well, when we’re talking about this price issue, Mark, what about lower purchase prices? I mean do they bring you more appreciation necessarily or are some properties are just cheap and they’ll stay cheap forever?
Mark Nash: My investing rule of thumb is I like to get into a market at the lower price points and if you really look at how these markets are driven appreciation wise, you’re letting the rest of the market a.) take the risk, and b.) drive your appreciation. And a lot of investors don’t get that. I bought several properties in South Florida a couple years ago, right as the market there started to just gently take off, and I bought all studio and one bedroom, so I had a lower amount invested and I reaped the same appreciation percentages as the big boys did.
Jason Hartman: You know what’s interesting about that, too, that a lot of our listeners may not really realize is that during the last Presidential election, you know who was the largest voting block this time? It wasn’t the AARP. It wasn’t any particular racial group or anything like that. It was single Americans, the largest voting block. They say there are now 99 million singles in America, single adults.
Mark Nash: That’s staggering.
Jason Hartman: It is staggering and I remember 20 years ago when I was starting to invest. You’d never touch a one-bedroom. But now, you’ve got a different demographic out there because people are staying single so much longer, if not forever, and that’s very appealing when you look at these small studio and one-bedroom type apartments, especially the more upscale ones.
Mark Nash: Right and I think that they actually are good rental options, too, if you’re looking at it from an investment standpoint. So getting back to talking about the lower prices, I think it’s the only way to go from an investment perspective. You have the least amount of leverage and you have the most upside as far as appreciation and you’re letting everyone else with all those larger investment dollars drive your appreciation. I think it’s – another analogy is I always say buy the smallest house on the best block.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, the cheapest house in the best neighborhood. That’s the principle of progression. The more expensive properties pull your property up in value.
Mark Nash: Yep, yes, that’s what I’m talking about is progression.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely. Okay, so you want good tenant pools, you want quality resale buyers when it does come time to sell. You want it all. How do you get it?
Mark Nash: Well, I think what you do have to think about is you have to know how to screen tenants and you have to know how to be a landlord, and being a landlord is a business and so there’s several good books out there on how to manage rental properties and I would probably say that’s the first thing you need to do is to pick one or more of those up. You even might take some courses through your local community college in land lording or in rental practices or Fair Housing. There’s a multitude of things. But I think, too, what you have to think about, especially in 2006, is we’re not in the same market we’ve been the last couple of years and so your expectations of appreciation need to get much more realistic than what you’ve read about or heard about in the last couple of years.
Jason Hartman: I agree completely.
Mark Nash: It was like a runaway freight train. I mean I stood around here at cocktail parties and dinner parties and all I heard about was 27 percent annual appreciation, and I think a lot of people thought that was going to go on forever and the F.Y.I. is it’s not. It’s over.
Jason Hartman: You know, Mark, one of the things I always say is everybody’s a genius in a bull market.
Mark Nash: Yeah, yeah, oh, my gosh. So many armchair quarterbacks. It’s unbelievable.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely and just because you got lucky, doesn’t mean you’re smart.
Mark Nash: Yeah, yeah, and so I think people have to really understand that if they’re seeing 3 – 5 percent annually, that’s great.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, and the nationwide average since World War II is about 6.7 percent, I’m told, so we only project 6 percent on any of our investments, and with 6 percent appreciation with the right cash flow metric that we talked about before the break, people can get upwards of 40 percent return on their investment pretty reliably. It’s just a nice thing, but it does take some study, like you mentioned. You’ve got to learn how to be a landlord. And one of the comments I just want to make about that is that so many people think, well, they aren’t that interested in real estate because they had a bad experience or because it’s not a passive investment.
And I would challenge those people and I don’t know if you’ve thought about this before, to if they invest in the stock market or pick mutual funds, look at how much time they spend watching CNBC, reading Money Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Kiplinger’s, all of these financial magazines. They study this, okay? And if they don’t study it, they study the person that studies it for them and they are constantly relying on them to make their decisions, which is a whole other subject that may be very imprudent.
Mark Nash: Well, I think that those people always have an agenda and I think the problem with the whole stock investment thing is that so much of that industry is driven by these investment people. They’re out to sell product and their product is the stock or the bond of the day. And I think real estate markets are pretty easy. People have forgotten. Real estate is a fixed thing. That’s why it’s called real property.
Jason Hartman: Real estate, yes.
Mark Nash: Yeah, and so it’s not going to go anywhere. It’s not a piece of paper and if you do some research, if people take your course, they’re going to learn. I think real estate’s actually a very easy investment strategy to understand.
Jason Hartman: It is, it is, yeah.
Mark Nash: But the problem is that it’s not get-rich-quick, it’s not weekend millionaire. There’s a recipe and if you work the recipe, you’ll bake the cake.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, I agree. That’s great advice. I love the way you put that, too. So doesn’t everyone want appreciation? Is that all that real estate’s about? Isn’t it or no?
Mark Nash: I don’t think so. I think that from an investment standpoint, you’re looking at cash flow and you’re also looking at it might be a good way for tax purposes.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely.
Mark Nash: I always don’t know what motivates people to purchase and so I say, well, what are you looking to get out of this? Sometimes they say tax purposes and so once you get in, you might at some point use a 1031 to exchange it.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, and the nice thing about real estate is throughout the course of a lifetime, you can buy, you can make your money in appreciation, manage your cash flow well, manage your property mangers or your tenants well, and then you sell via 1031 exchange and you just keep deferring that gain, whereas in the stock market, you’ve got to pay gains every time you move your money around.
Mark Nash: Right, right, right.
Jason Hartman: So yeah, I agree.
Mark Nash: Real estate’s been very – the Congress has always been very nice to real estate from an investment standpoint. And believe me, we would not have the economy we have and the wealth in this country without real estate and I’m not so sure I could say the same thing about the stock market.
Jason Hartman: That’s why I think that the government, the Fed, which is a pseudo-governmental agency, and all of the other established interests will do their best to keep the real estate market at least somewhat on track because there are just way too many things that depend on it as far as the economy goes.
Mark Nash: Oh, yeah, I mean they’re even worried now and I think the big revelation was that if interest rates go up too much, it’s going to start to impact Lowes and Home Depot and it’s a whole trickle-down thing. So much of our economy now is built on real estate and people get – it’s a huge economic engine.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, it absolutely is.
Mark Nash: And another old analogy is people still need somewhere to live. You can’t live in a stock certificate.
Jason Hartman: Yep, that’s why I say it’s right on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, food, clothing, shelter.
Mark Nash: Yeah.
Jason Hartman: Mark, we got a couple more questions and just a little more time here. Why won’t we see 20 percent annual appreciation for a while? Why is that gone? Do you think it’s gone?
Mark Nash: It’s gone because the bottom line is that personal incomes have not kept up with these inflated appreciation rates. I mean you start to look at what the cost is. If the price of a property goes up, the pool of buyers declines. And so that’s getting back to why do you buy the more inexpensive properties in a market if you have a bigger pool of buyers.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely, good point. Well, Mark, your approach is very practical, very common sense, and I really like it and it’s reflected in your book, 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home. Where can people get the book and what do you want to say in closing? We’ve got just about a minute here.
Mark Nash: They can purchase it online at Amazon.com or they can go to Borders or Barnes and Noble and pick it up, and I just want to say that real estate is a great investment vehicle if you follow some of the basic rules and research what you don’t know.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely. Good advice there. Mark, thank you for joining us today and I hope all of our listeners will take advantage of your book. And everybody, we will see you next time. Thanks for joining us.
Mark Nash: Thank you, Jason.
Jason Hartman: This is the Platinum Investor Finance Update. Please to welcome Jennifer Donnelly who heads up Platinum Investor Finance. Jennifer, welcome to the show.
Jennifer Donnelly:
Good afternoon, Jason.
Jason Hartman: Thank you. What is the difference in looking at mortgage options between a bank and a mortgage broker?
Jennifer Donnelly:
Okay, well, as you know, I’m a mortgage broker and the difference is a bank can either be more restrictive or have more flexible underwriting conditions, depending on the scenario. But with a bank, for instance, you only get one shot and limited loan programs and criteria. With a broker like myself, I can shop many different lenders for better rates and underwriting conditions, depending on the specific needs of the client and their specific loan scenario, which is really important when you’re looking at an investment property to finance.
Jason Hartman: Absolutely. So you can take and if the borrower isn’t accepted by one lender, you can just take them to another lender, take their package there?
Jennifer Donnelly:
Exactly, and if they were to walk in off the street to say a Wells Fargo, they would only have one shot. So if it was denied there, they would have to go to another bank altogether, where if I have their file, I have it in one spot, a central location, and then I go out and shop it from there to alleviate them from having to do so.
Jason Hartman: That’s the advantages of using a good mortgage broker, especially someone who is very knowledgeable in dealing with investor finance, which is quite a bit different than homeowner finance. Jennifer Donnelly, thank you for joining us. We’ll see you next time.
Jennifer Donnelly:
Thank you, Jason.
Jason Hartman: Attention agents, brokers, and mortgage people. Do you know that we cooperate? Do you know that our network is an open system that you can refer clients and outsource your investor clients to us and receive passive income? It’s a really great opportunity. All you have to do is register your clients at www.jasonhartman.com and tell them to attend one of our live events, our live educational seminars. Listen to our podcast, go to the website, and request our free CD at www.jasonhartman.com.
And if they invest with us per the terms listed on the website, you will get a referral fee. We have lots of agents, brokers, and mortgage people that receive surprise referral fees that they weren’t even expecting. They get a check in the mail and they are just happily, happily surprised. It’s a nice extra supplement to your income. So be sure to take advantage of our broker cooperation. Agents are welcome. We cooperate with outside people and we’d love to help you with your investor clients.
I’m here with a previous guest, Randy, and we are excited today to announce a new joint venture, a new seminar that we are offering for pre-retirees and retirees, entitled, “Fatten Your Golden Goose.” Now, I kinda think we should call that the Platinum Goose, but we’re going to call it “Fatten Your Golden Goose – Real Estate Strategies for Seniors and Pre-retirees.” Randy, tell us more about this exciting new seminar.
Randy:
Jason, thank you. Yeah, we’re very excited about this opportunity to talk to people that are about to retire. They’re in that area, maybe five or ten years at the most away from retirement, or they just entered retirement, and they’re looking at all of these opportunities, or I should say stresses, in their life of what to do in terms of making sure that they’re minimizing their taxes, that they have enough money to last their retirement. They’re looking at things like the IRAs and the 401ks that they put together over these years and they’re wondering, what’s really the best way to plan and use that money effectively as they go into retirement.
So what better to do is utilize real estate strategies to help these people minimize the taxes, increase their safety and liquidity, and help them to increase their income that they’ll have when they get into retirement?
Jason Hartman: Excellent and this is on May 27. It’s a Tuesday evening here at our office in Costa Mesa and it’s from 5:30 – 9:00 p.m. What else can you tell us about this event?
Randy:
Well, aside from the ideas that we just mentioned, I think a big thing that people need to understand is that 2010 is going to be a very special year. In that, it’s going to be an opportunity for people to convert their regular IRAs or 401ks into Roth IRAs. And you know the benefit of a Roth IRA is that the money can continue to grow income tax deferred. But now, because it’s in a Roth, you can pull that income tax-free. The challenge is how do you move it from your traditional IRA or your rollover IRA to the Roth IRA without paying a bunch of taxes, and we’re going to give the people that attend this seminar some strategies to help them potentially eliminate 100 percent of that tax.
Jason Hartman: And you know, Randy, that is a great strategy and folks listening, this is a big deal, a very unique strategy Randy has come up with and I think you’ll really like hearing more about it. So be sure to join us on May 27. We will look forward to seeing you there. Go to www.jasonhartman.com to get registered. Thanks, Randy.
Randy:
All right, Jason.
Jason Hartman: I’m here with Nancy and wanted to talk to you about two of our fantastic markets. One is our tried and true market that we’ll talk about in a moment that is strengthening and has gotten better. And one is a newer market. Nancy, welcome.
Nancy: Thank you.
Jason Hartman: Tell us about Gulfport/Biloxi area and Long Beach area. That’s Long Beach, Mississippi, not California. We were there a few weeks ago. What’s the scoop?
Nancy: Yeah, we had a great trip. Jason always talks about out of a disaster comes an opportunity and I really believe that’s what’s happening in Biloxi. The economy there via the casinos and the major boom on the ocean, they are now allowed to build on land. Biloxi is now the third largest gaming revenue area in the country, behind Atlantic City and Las Vegas.
Jason Hartman: So what you’re saying is that before, the casinos had to be built on barges.
Nancy: That’s right.
Jason Hartman: And when Katrina came along and wiped them out, the city said, hey, let’s let them build on land. Let’s change the law. And that made the casinos so much more substantial. They’re huge now. They’re like 50 – 60 percent the size of a big glamorous Vegas casino.
Nancy: Right and there are 11 casinos currently up and running and they’re employing about 17,000 people. That’s about 2,000 more than all the casinos that were open pre-Katrina.
Jason Hartman: Tell us some of the big corporate names in the gaming business who are in Biloxi. I mean it’s amazing.
Nancy: Yeah, Harrah’s is there right now with the Grand Casino in Biloxi and they’re also building a $700 million resort with Jimmy Buffet, the new Margaritaville Casino that will be open in 2010. MGM Mirage is there with the Beau Rivage, which is the sister casino to the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Jason Hartman: These are all big corporate names and those casinos, we were there on that trip, and they are unbelievable how swanky and glamorous they are.
Nancy: The Hard Rock is there. Interesting tidbit about the Hard Rock: it was there before Katrina. The whole casino got destroyed. The guitar remained standing. It was the only thing on the beach that remained standing.
Jason Hartman: Long live rock and roll.
Nancy: And they are – they have rebuilt the Hard Rock and it’s just amazing inside there.
Jason Hartman: I mean that Hard Rock Casino is gigantic, five, six levels of parking outside. I remember going through that parking garage. It was packed. I mean it’s just huge inside. It’s amazing how much money they have dumped into this area.
Nancy: Right. They have actually inked about $1.3 billion in casino revenues last year. Prior to Katrina, the gaming revenues were about $800 million. So they’ve just almost doubled the revenues in just a couple years. They’re also, because of the casinos and the tourism, they do $100 million in golf each year. There’s 20 golf courses there. This industry is just spurring all kinds of job growth, not just from the casino workers, but also construction workers to build these places. There is a major military installation there with Keesler Air Force Base, the CB naval base, a couple Army and Navy National Guard installations and also the Stennis Space Center, which is NASA’s backup space shuttle installation. So there’s just a ton of activity there that we really think is going to make this one of our booming higher appreciation areas, and we’re very excited about that.
Jason Hartman: And a shortage of housing because we had to look around a lot for that, Nancy. That’s excellent. Tell us real quickly about one of our tried and true markets, the market where I own and the market where many, many of our clients have invested, and it’s actually improving in terms of the rental market being very, very strong. Stronger than before, and this has just been a real dependable market. What’s the name of it? Everybody’s wondering.
Nancy: This is Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City is the 13th largest metro in the U.S. The statistics in Kansas City are just excellent. This is a strong, stable rental market. We talk a lot about our rent-to-value ratios and it’s .7 percent being ideal. All of the properties that we have in Kansas City, we get at least a .8 percent RV ratio.
Jason Hartman: On my property, my four-plex in Kansas City, I’m getting about a .82 percent RV ratio, so it’s phenomenal. It’s just a great property.
Nancy: There are some positive cash flow opportunities in Kansas City, which we haven’t seen for a few years. So if you’re looking for a market with some positive cash each month and a .8 rent-to-value ratio, Kansas City is your market.
Jason Hartman: Excellent. Thank you, Nancy.
Hey, I just wanted to announce a couple of quick things for you. If you are able to come to one of our live events, we would love to see you and meet you in person. We’ve had people fly in from all over the U.S. for them. So hopefully you can join us for some of those events.
I wanted to mention to you that we have a new offering, a free CD, a free audio CD, that you will really, really like. We’ve had so many people that have given us really good comments about them, and you can go to our website at www.jasonhartman.com and just fill out a little quick web form and you can either download it or you can have the physical CD mailed to you in the postal mail. But get the free CD, especially if you are a new listener. You need this. And if you are a regular listener and you’ve listened to all the other old shows, you don’t need the CD so much, but it will be a nice review for you either way. But if you’re a new listener, you definitely want to go to www.jasonhartman.com and request the free CD.
Remember that Platinum Properties Investor Network has moved. We are in our beautiful new office in Costa Mesa, California, 555 Anton, Suite 150, in Costa Mesa, California, 92626, and we’re right by world-famous South Coast Plaza. So come in for a visit and a little shopping.
Also, we just uploaded another video podcast and I’d highly recommend that you subscribe to that. There’s some stuff that just lends itself better to video than audio. If you want to see what’s on that, subscribe to it, you can go to www.jasonhartman.com. If you use iTunes or an iPod and you’re an Apple person, then you can go to the iTunes Store, type in Jason Hartman, and two podcasts will come up, the video podcast and the audio podcast. And you’re probably already, if you’re listening, a subscriber to the audio podcast, so make sure you get yourself a free subscription to the video podcast as well.
And this particular one that we just loaded in the video podcast is about Naked Short Sales and what goes on with this short sale and manipulation of the stock market. It’s a very interesting report from Bloomberg News and I think you’ll really learn a lot from that. So be sure to tune in and watch that.
Be sure to see appropriate disclaimers and disclosures on our website at www.jasonhartman.com. Remember that we are not tax or legal advisors.
Anyway, we’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening.
This material is the copyrighted creative work of either Jason Hartman, the Hartman Media Company, Platinum Properties Investor Network, Incorporated or the J. Hartman Company, all rights reserved.
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Duration: 36 minutes