Mike's Blog

Blount Development Group, LLC is based out of Leesburg, Fl. From this base of operations, this company has continued to expand across Florida and into the Southeastern US. The company specializes in locating housing developments that have stalled due to financial issues and then acquiring them for themselves or their investor partners. They also aquire large land tracts suitable for future development.

I have known the Rick Blount, President of Blount Development Group for nearly 20 years. Recently, we have been discussing the pursuit of  local subdivisions in the Lake County and Sumter County area that are failing. For those who don't know, over the last decade, Blount Development has successfully purchased and resold millions of dollars worth of land in the area, and has been expanding to other areas of Florida, Georgia, Texas, and a fairly large development in Tennessee.

Rick Blount, President of Blount Development Group, LLC explained that his company's success has caught the eyes of many financial investment firms, and raising money is no longer an issue. He went on to say that most of the investment firms that are backing his firm are looking to invest heavily in Florida Real Estate, and are very actively seeking primarily pre approved subdivision projects in the 5 to 25 million dollar range. The consensus is that the right projects in Central Fla are quite a bargin and these investment firms have huge resourses to buy now and hold for the future market rebounds.

Jason Blount, Vice-President of Blount Development Group LLC, is also heavily involved in Project Research and Acquisition. He also explained that finding troubled projects is getting easier due to the market slowdown, but choosing the correct ones to invest in what has made Blount Development Group successful. Our job is to Find, Fund, and Finish these projects. So site selection is extremely important. At this level, making mistakes is not an option! We have to determine why the first developer failed, and research the data to determine if the project can be turned around with a profit. That is our goal on every project. Once you have proven your company can find and fund some larger projects on your own, from start to finish, then other companies will want to be involved with you in the future.  

Blount Land Development, LLC is growing rapidly. Recently, Rick Blount called me to discuss if I thought my expertise in finding and performing deal analysis on distressed homes would transition over to doing the same with whole subdivisions. After careful examination of the business model, I have made the decision to accept this challenge, and will actively seek the support of my Active Rain Associates. This is a big step for me, and I am very focused on making this transition. The stakes are much higher at this level, but till now my biggest hold up was in finding the money to get deals done.

That apparently will no longer be a problem....We will make the move officially by March 1, 2008. I will need a few weeks to get up to speed, but from what I have seen, Blount Land Development Group is soon to be a very recognisable name in Land Acquisition Business in the Southeastern States.

I am proud to have been chosen as part of their growing team...

The time is coming to go forth and prosper. The end of the bad market is starting to come into sight. Yes, its time to get busy with finding cash!!

Investors are beginning to think this a great time to start jumping out of the stock market and start buying in the housing markets. For every success, there is a corresponding failure. Foreclosures are creating super deals for buyers, while ruining the credit of the previous homeowners. This is just a fact of life.

 But, this time its not just the investors beginning to swoop in capture the deals.

Individual, end user home buyers are jumping back in now with a greater degree of sophistication than their predecessor did in the last market run up. Many buyers have not been able to buy a home for so long now, and they have been saving cash. The surviving Realtors who did not bail out in 2007 will have a better go of 2008 is they will look where the action is.

I want to make an analogy..........I love fishing. I look at working Real Estate like I would a day of fishing in the Gulf. Buyers, like fish, tend to move around, and if you just sit in one spot all day you have cut your chances by considerable margins. Realtors, my brothers and sisters, take your head up out of the proverbial sand and begin to track the buyers.  Track them down..... Get Moving...Change your bait.

Look for investors to make up a bigger percentage of your business this year. Use the localism features here on Active Rain and start fishing for buyers. Know your market. Learn your area. Move with the tides.

There is a great onslaught of business coming and the aggressive, the flexible, the Re-educated will find their way to their share of the pie. We may not see a run up of pricing like we did in 04-06 for many years to come. So, get over it, and lets go back to work. Pass out cards, ask for business, attend chamber meetings and become visible again. Stand out from the crowd. Go find the money...It's our job, go get it!!!

I will see you in the future, and I will be working with cash investor buyers because thats the only bait I'm using. In my area, thats what I have chosen to do, and thats what I see for the foreseeable year or two more down the road...Like it or not, we must change our tactics to attack what is facing us.

If not, then get out and get a job with a weekly check.

I see way too many Realtors names on the foreclosure list lately.

What do we do with these homes?

This one is a brand new home, never lived in , that has never been sold since the investor bought it over a year ago in pre construction!!

Well, the time is running short, and we need to get some exposure here on Active Rain, as well as anywhere else the Google juice will get it out there. This is a 55 plus community, with every amenity either in place or coming on line soon. This subdivision is the latest Pringle Development, and if history is any indicator, this development will sell out and increase in value..

We are about 50% built from what I can see, and this street in particular is nearly built out. Thats important for not being next to a home being built that has crews arriving at 7:00 Am to start work while you may be trying to sleep in!

Take a look at this home...It is available now thru a SHORT SALE, and this could save you thousands over buying from the developer!! This won't last much longer, because if it doesn't sell it will go back to the lender and your potential savings may be lost!!

Hello to all from The Home State of the Daytona 500!!

We live in Lake County,Fl about 40 miles away from the track. My brother and I have been to many of these races. My sons, for some reason, never picked up on Nascar, but we do enjoy football and basketball together.

We made the decision not to go to the Daytona Race Week again this year. Reasons are varied, but it basically centers around unbelievable traffic and crowds. When picking a place to live, isn't it nice to know that here in Lake County, we are just an hour or less from Orlando. We are in normal times about an hour from the beach in  Daytona. Yesterday, there was a 20 mile back up leading to the track!! What a terrible thing for those who aren't going to the race.

Daytona Beach is a wonderful place. I love the beaches. I grew up there. I have a lot of great memories from there. I still go over may times thru the year. But on Race Week, there in only one place I would ever want to be:

ANYWHERE ELSE!!!

In Lake County Fla, which includes Leesburg, Tavares, Mt. Dora, Fruitland Park, Clermont, and The Villages, we have the benefit of being close to many great destinations, without the traffic of Orlando or Daytona, or Ocala. We have every major store, restaurant, and motel chain to service the area. So, why live in the middle of all that congestion when Lake County, Fl has a wonderful family atmosphere and none of the traffic.

So did I watch the race. Absolutely!!! My brother in law is a general contractor, and our whole family that enjoys the race went to his house. Why..because Tom Lowrance has a huge HD TV screen. In this day and age of bid TVs, what size does it have to be to be considered HUGE??

How about 9' ft wide and 6' ft high...Tom has a theater room with great chairs, and a superb built in Dolby sound system that makes it better than being there. Anyone who has been do Daytona Speedway knows you don't get this kind of comfort. We did greatly enjoy the race, and when it was over, Lake County, Fl has no traffic jams on the way home.

I think it means that living in Lake County, Fl is better than living in many other places. We do have plenty to do, did I mention that Lake County, Fl gets its name from all the lakes?? Anyone considering making a move to Central Fl should consider Lake County. We are growing, but we really have a nice pace of life here.

Give me a call if you know of someone needing a second home, or primary residence. I deal in foreclosures and distressed properties, and have a handle on all the local gated communities...Deals, deals, deal...just bring cash and we can get it done quickly....

Mike Norvell Sr                  Specializing in Below Market Properties....   Even New Homes......

I am working for a super great buyer/investor right now. He is a retired commercial broker that did very well buying and leasing huge commercial projects in the midwest. Now he plays golf , day trades, and has chosen me to represent him on a number of investment properties. He has freinds with cash and believe this is a great time to get out of the stock market and into something more stable. At long last, after all this time, Investors are coming off the sidelines and want to play again.

Its about time...

We have been busy working on finding deals. Deals are everywhere, but they are not simple. There are some with serious complications, some that look sooo good and then you see the hidden traps...Ohhhh, thats why it won't sell.. Others have appraisals, and well written, beautiful CMA's that I now see were using very flawed, loan fraud type comps even then. Many of these deals are in foreclosure now, and with good reason..

We have to be very careful. Tax issues, and other clouds on titles don't go away. We must know how to make them go away, and it will take time and money. Thats where the rubber hits the road..What seems an insurmountable problem for some is just another day at the office for others....Thats what experience will tell you. Our job is to know the difference between difficult and impossible..

My latest issues are all the people who spent good money on appraisals for the property they are attempting to sell. My crystal ball has very good backward vision, and is looking pretty clear on the 60-90 day forecast as well.

 But I am now experiencing a negotiation with a lender who is using a two year old commercial appraisal as a weapon. I know they read the paper. I know they see a nightly news cast every once in a while. Every other person I meet on the street is willing to tell me how bad the market is, but this lender rep is sticking to his story like I might convert over if I hear it often enough. Its a perfectly done, $ 3000.00 appraisal that is good for making paper airplanes now. thats it. Its 26 months old...It has no bearing on current situations..

I had the lender tell me, what do you know, you are only a Realtor. This is a Certified Appraisal!!

My buyers group is having a ball with this one. They are all retired from big business, this is fun for them. I went on  a fishing trip with  some of our investors and learned more about what they really are interested in. Some of these guys made really big money, and playing Real Life Monopoly with a few hundred thousand is not a big deal..Some are really needing to recover back their positions lost in recent stock crashes. 

 All of them are looking at me, as the proffessional, to do my job.

In this market, we need to do our homework. We need to make it our business to know with certainty what is a good deal, and why. We have to power to change lives, and we need to be more careful with our customers money. We don't have to look back very far to see what happens when we get caught up in the hype.

Its time for us as professionals to act like we are proffessionals. Its only then that the public perception will change toward us in this business.

How much is your time worth...Is sitting on the phone on hold, or burning up the fax lines to some lender who cna't find your faxes worth the effort..I have my doubts some days...

As we acquire more and more short sale listings, it becomes more apparent that we will have to improve on our communication skills with the lenders.

We need a hot-line after the tenth call to get the same person back. We need a way to charge the lenders for dropping our calls as they transfer us to India. For those of us doin short sales, I am here to tell you that having less than 20-30 listings is very similar to having tons of overpriced listings. You have a very high percentage of working your butt off and not selling a thing.

I am seeing some surprising issues though...We are tracking over a hundred good equity properties thru the process, and like clockwork, most are going to auction and being retained by the lender.  The homes are coming out the other end for less recently than they were when we first began our tracking analysis. One in particular turned down our "lowball" bid for 129k in November, just got placed on the market for 109k...Yes we sent in a new bid.

SO, is this what the lenders want...They must want to go to auction. There is no other explanation for all the road blocks, I am making changes to my game plan with our investors.

My time is valuable, I for one have decided not to spend our time talking to India any more. We have the banks seeing us fighting over all these shorts sales, we are doing all their advertising, all the leg work....This will end up with the lobbiest's for the banking industry using the present situation to go directly into the sales business and-into direct competition with us...You watch...I give it less than a year...

 I was researching something on the old Planet Realtor, now Called The Far Site...It basically has lost the spark it used to have...I believe the spark went to a place called Active Rain.  Funy thing, when I was looking for something I read a post about agent support in brokerages, and began reading some of the comments.

One comment was very familiar, and when I got to the bottom I was surprised to see my name as author..I was responding to  Mr Scott Daniels, who is a valued member of this forum...My thoughts haven't changed on most of this, but I do feel differently on the role of Brokers, and somewhat about Real Estate in general...

Anyway, I have posted this to remember me, and the changes in my thoughts over the last year of never ending learning and growth!!

Nice letter, well put. I have to commend you on taking the time to write the letter. While it is not totally inclusive, it does lend itself well to the point that you intend to suport your agents so that they can have more time to do more business with new clients.

The fatal flaw with most brokerages is in thier effort to gain more Realtors, they miss the point of adequeetly training and supporting the good agents that they already have.

A small firm of 6 or so well trained agents, that operate as a team, can out perform most of the big box franchise operations that claim to have 60-80 agents. I have seen that the brokers want to proclaim that they have truckloads of agents in all theirs ads. They seem to leave out that most of them are not doing any business, and that taking the time for individual mentoring is out of the question due to the fact that they have so many agents. Do you see the paradox??

The insurance industry that I used to belong to took a different tack on bringing in agents. They brought in one or two at a time trained them in a classroom for weeks, and them put them into the field with an experienced agent that was being paid to take the new agent under his wing for about 30 days or so. Constant support and tutoring/mentoring gives the new agent a fighting chance to make it. Even more importantly, the customers of the new agent get quality service on very important finacial matters.
Not so in the case of most new Realtors. They lose deals, mess up deals, and in general put the home buying and selling public at risk until there is some lessons learned.

Scott, I commend you on recognising the importance of training and support for new and experienced agents.If I had known of your training and support, I would have driven to your area for my start up. Instead, I wasted the first six months of my Real Estate career. Just before I was going to quit, I found a mentor to help me get basic hands on mentoring and training. The next few months of proper support and training produced a pile of listings and 5 deals that closed. We split company after that(literally) but I saw the difference in a quality mentoring project.

I used to write about this stuff in the old Planet Realtor, and have been passing on the knowlege I have gained onto new Realtors. I have taken the time to work in a mentoring capacity for a few Rookies that seem to be needing help. I also joined the education committee at my local board and am part of a great new project that teaches hands on training of the many software programs that we as Realtors must use to be successful. Its off to a slow start, but like the small child tossing starfish back into the sea, the ones we can help are making a difference, to them.

Thanks for you and the other few brokers who seem to care about the survival of the Realtors who come to work for them. It seems to make good business sense to do what you are doing, I think it would actually be more profitable in the long run and short run.

I look to build a team such as you have done, I would love to visit your operation and see it first hand. In the meantime, if I have any reason to refer business in your area, I would not hesitate to send it to your firm.

Mike Norvell Sr


Mikenorvell.com
Mikenorvell@earthlink.net

The joy of lease option in todays world. To those of you who don't like, or don't understand the power of lease option, then here is a short story.

Over 18 months ago I got a call on a sign. The property was a large double wide with about 3/4 acre and a beautiful huge deck. The mobile had been a model home for a development, and was very unique in how it was built...Well this couple were in love with this home, the location, the landscaping...everything.

So I get them started. We work with a friendly mortgage broker, who comes back with bad news. We have an issue with them when they lived in the west coast of Fl..The problem is, they never did live there..But her daughter did....

You got it, Identity theft. From your kids....Long story short, she won't press charges, and they take money out of savings to clear up the names. During this time, the Daughter is arrested on drug charges and is put in jail. My customers, who have been happy empty nester's for about 4 years now and saving for a house, are now in a dilemma. They of course step up and take the two children, aged 7 and 12.

They now need a bigger place, I still can't help them in traditional Real Estate until the credit is cleared. So they answer an ad and do a lease option for a very old 4 bedroom house and put down 8000. of their savings for the option.  I figure I have lost the deal, and just let it go.

Two months later, the wife is calling me. The sheriffs department has just given them 45 days notice to move...the house is in Foreclosure....their landlord is a scammer!!!!

I begin to study foreclosure, lease options, and all this non traditional Real Estate.. I find a listing of MINE that is running behind three months, and who is getting ready to just walk away from the house..I ask if they would help out a nice couple who was in a jam, and they agreed. The home is about 10 years old and in super shape. Its 3 bed, 2  bath, with a 1/2 acre fenced in back yard...They have enough money left to catch up the mortgage and be one payment ahead, and the deal is made. Everything was done very legally,  I would not let them get screwed again!!

One thing I have not mentioned is the wife , now full time mother to her grandkids, is on the liver transplant list. She has never had a home of her own. This is the first time she felt like she was in her own house, and is finally happy. Her husband is very supportive, and is of course troubled by the extra burden of raising their grandchildren as she slips away a bit more every month. Last week I was back in the home with them, and it appears we will finally be able to get them FHA financing with the First Time Home Buyers Assistance program.

She is smiling and tears are flowing. She and her husband are thanking me for making it possible to get a home set up for her family. She acknowledges that she will not make it without a transplant, its just a matter of months now at best. But her dream of being in a nice house is realized, and she and her grand kids gave me a Homemade Valentine for Sticking with them all this time. The husband, a proud, yet humble man who has worked hard all his life has to turn his head so that no one will catch him crying too.

Its an emotional scene, and I am proud to have been a part of helping this family finally get their house. The lease option idea made it possible for it all to happen, and done properly, may help someone you know too.

Thanks to Todd Clark (of AR Fame) for the neat graphic and some ideas months ago on Lease Options

Short Posts can be valuable..........I am married to living proof that good things come in small packages. The book, "Who Moved my Cheese" Is very powerful and can be read in 20-30 minutes. ....However...War & Peace is supposed to be good, but I will never have the patience to read it.

Recently I have seen some very short posts that are very helpful. Some are not as good. I saw one on how to pack boxes for moving...part one thru four, and each part was about a paragraph and contained such gems as: Place the heavier items in stronger boxes, and load them on the bottom of the truck.

I'm telling you, I could barely contain myself while I waited on the next segment, which went into detail about stranded versus unstranded packing tape.

So Today I see a Post that advocates minimum words in  a post to gather the 200 points. Here is my Reply, and I don't care if someone flags this one...i have had a few stupid things happen this week already, so losing 200 freakin points is not really at the top of my priority list right now.

Ps...Did every one else know they can clear aa check and then pull the funds out later that day...Oh yes...The beauty of sweep accounts .. & Whiskey...You know, whiskey , it's not just for breakfast anymore.

I have seen post with just a thought..and it gathers commentss.....i have seen posts that go on for screen after screen...and they get squat...sooo...I just put out a post yesterday that had Exactly 6 words including the title...it has got about 20 comments..**** Romney resigns... Now I AM mad...*****that was it.. the post, the title, the thatsss alll folksss

Some other valuable pearls that have only a few words, yet they shape the world many of us live by

1. If It Is To Be Its Up To Me
2. Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You
3. THou Shalt Not Kill
4. Helmet Laws Suck
5. Love The One you"re With
6. Where's The Beef
7. Elvis Has Left the Building
8. Hey Bubba...Watch This
9. You Can't Have It Your Way Here Either
10. I Am The Walrus, Hu cu che coo, hu cu chee coo

Feel Free to respond,,,please keep it brief

now i am mad.......