Guidant Financial Group Blog

Although many people are optimistic about the property market in 2012, some economists say that the road to recovery may still be a few years away.

In an article from PropertyWire, Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries reports that "Overall, we are seeing encouraging signs in housing data such as sequential months of slowing depreciation rates, stabilizing markets and organic improvement in value trends, largely in the absence of government policy intervention."

Humphries continues, "However, we're not out of the woods yet. Supply and demand are still not in balance in many markets and we do expect higher foreclosure liquidation rates near term, which will put additional downward pressure on home values."

"Even with the anticipated increase in foreclosures, look for 2012 to be a transitional year in which home values fall modestly followed by a prolonged period of flat home values. We're still three to five years away from normal housing market conditions."

Read the full article here.

Check out the profile of Guidant Financial on the inc500 list.

In an article called 10 Questions for Jim Cramer, Time Magazine reported the spirited money man said that real estate was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He explained that because mortgage rates and affordability were the best he had seen in his life, coupled with the fact that there are no competitive buyers, real estate is a better investment than stocks right now.

We agree! The economic environment has created new opportunities for tax liens, private mortgages, foreclosures and income producing rental real estate. If you do your due-diligence there are some tremendous deals out there. Be patient and make sure you build a good team that can help you identify, evaluate, purchase and maintain those investments!

Have you considered buying real estate or other alternative assets inside a self-directed IRA? Guidant Financial Group is a leading provider of self-directed IRAs, facilitating hundreds of transactions annually, and the only 2008 Inc. 500 company in this industry! If you believe that real estate is a great place to invest all or part of your retirement funds - call us. We will gladly spend time necessary to help you understand how a real estate IRA works and how it could ultimately help you achieve your financial objectives.

Nuwire Investor published a "how to" article by Bryan Davis call, How To Buy Real Estate at Foreclosure Auctions. Given the rise in foreclosures, we thought we'd point it out as a potential area of opportunity.

Leading provider of self-directed IRA and small business financing services, Guidant Financial Group , has reportedly (official number coming soon!) seen a 23% increase in revenues in 2008 over 2007. That is really exciting!

Wait...Wasn’t 2008 a horrible year for American small businesses?