Apartment complexes are going up throughout the tri-county and a major reason is the financial crisis that has both made people less inclined to invest in homes and has dropped construction prices because fewer new homes are being built.

The economic downturn has created economic opportunities for apartment developers, those opportunities made it the perfect time to build high-end apartment complex.

The largest recent development of this kind  are doing well,  it looks like that kind of apartment is going good right now.

“That kind of apartment” is an apartment for people who could easily afford homes.

Garrett said his 11-year-old firm develops high-end multi-family units across the country and its research showed a big shortage of such units in Mont?gomery.

“This industry is supply and demand,” he said. “We found there is a very high demand for multifamily housing in Montgomery.”

Part of that demand was created by the housing crisis. Garrett pointed out that most of the tenants who can afford to rent at a place such as Watermark EastChase can qualify to purchase a home.

Right now, they just don’t want to.

Garrett said a typical renter would be the kind of person or family that would buy an entry-level or step-up home to hold for a few years, then sell for a profit. With homes not gaining value as they did before the housing crash, many of those people are electing to rent rather than spend money on a home that might lose value.

“No doubt about it,” Garrett said. “Nationally, we are seeing that in all our properties.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the market. They are renters by choice, not because they have to.”

It is a trend that makes sense to Kyser, a developer whose residential and commercial properties include some rental units. His units are more in the middle of the market rather than at the high end, but he said it appears more people are renting by choice.

“I would think that is going to be a lot of it,” he said.

While the housing crisis created the demand for the apartments, the banking crisis largely opened the door for Watermark to build in Montgomery.

Kyser said one of the rea?sons for the lack of commercial construction is difficulty in getting bank funding for any tenant-occupied property.

“I don’t know of anybody in Montgomery who could go to a bank and finance that project today,” he said of the Watermark.

That, Garrett said, gave his company an advantage. Watermark’s investors are able to generate enough capital to fund the project without asking commercial banks to carry the full bur?den.

The simple fact that any company is willing and able to commit to a deal gives that company an advantage. There are few, if any, competing offers on the property or contractors.

“We were able to use our equity to fund that project when others could not,” Garrett said.

Both Kyser and Garrett said the Watermark’s location will be among its biggest selling points. It is within sight of huge retail developments at EastChase, has easy access to Interstate 85 and is in popular east Montgomery.

The developers are adding upgrades associated with owner-occupied housing or rental units in larger cities.

Watermark is meeting the company’s expectations so far, Garrett said.

Rentals will begin Jan. 1, although the complex won’t be complete for another six months after that date, and Garrett said the complex already had 128 candidates for the units.

“We have only had our rental office open three weeks,” he said.

In this economy, Summit Property Management has the $3.8 million Woodmont Boulevard home on its list of leasing properties, said Summit Property owner Cory Willms.

Homes For Rent by Owner for $11,000 per month.
Willms, who has been in the rental industry for 10 years, said Green Hills? rental market has thrived partly because of the lagging real estate market.

Homes in the million dollar-plus range sell less often, but property managers are assisting homeowners with leasing their homes until selling is more plausible, said Richard Courtney, managing broker with Fridrich and Clark Realty.

Summit has 100 townhomes and single-family homes rented or available to rent in the 37215 ZIP Code, many of which are worth between $1 million and $4 million.

The high-end properties have changed the rental market in Green Hills, and given homeowners a way to financially benefit without selling their homes.

?I know what people are willing to pay, and I know where they?re willing to pay it, and that?s Green Hills,? Willms said. ?The owners I work with are educated and savvy. They can hold onto a property, even if they lose a few hundred a month to lease it.?

Newcomers like to rent
Green Hills? properties rent for between $1,000 and $14,000 per month, Willms said.

Condominiums, apartments and homes have always drawn in professionals of all ages to the Green Hills neighborhood.

The typical renter is a Nashville newcomer, who wants to get a feel for the city before he purchases a home here. Others may be in the city for a short time because of a job transfer, Willms said.

?A lot of individuals are being transferred here for two to four years, but they want to maintain a certain lifestyle,? Willms said. ?They like the privacy here like it?s far from the city, but it still has the convenience of being close to downtown.?

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Though homeowners see the financial return, the rental rates rarely match their mortgage, Willms said. Rental rates are based on square footage and location, he said.

?We rent for between 70 cents and $1 per square foot, and the price per foot goes down the larger the home,? Willms said. ?Our homeowners rather rent their property for a while, rather than lose hundreds of thousands just to move the property in this housing market.?

Lease now, sell later
Homeowners are also more often becoming tenants in the suburban neighborhood, said Courtney, author of Buyers are Liars and Sellers are Too! While waiting for the economy to improve, some homeowners are leasing their homes in hopes that it will eventually sell.

?We hope that their homes sell eventually, but until they do, we help find them property managers,? Courtney said. ?Leasing is becoming more and more of our (Realtors) daily experience.?

Real estate sales are down 20 to 25 percent in the greater Nashville area compared to 2008, according to Greater Nashville Association of Realtors’ numbers Courtney cited. Between January and August, 35 homes were sold in the greater Nashville area, compared to 93 units sold in the same time period in 2008.

The impact of the economy is even greater for high-end homes, with sales down 50 percent compared to years past.

?It?s happening all over the place,? Courtney said. ?Chris Simms tried to sell his $2.3 million in Green Hills, and now he?s leasing it. That?s the way thing?s are going.?

Less than a million
Even below the million-dollar mark, renting has become a remedy for stalled house sales, said Bill Owen, who owns five homes in Green Hills.

He and his wife Jeanie renovated two of the homes, a $479,000 home on Springdale Drive and a $376,000 home Sharondale Drive, in hopes of selling them in the spring.

?We decided to start putting them on the market, and there was no market,? Owen said. ?We don?t owe anything on them, but it?s still the drawback of not being able to sell them.?

Both homes have since been rented, Jeanie Owen said. Their homes rent for between $1,900 and $3,000 per month.

The cash flow from the rentals is substantial, but the couple said they hope to see the economy bounce back.

?We?re getting older, so we would like to eventually just sell the homes,? Jeanie Owen said. ?Until we can, we?re glad to have great tenants and see that the rental market is still strong.

I am uncomfortable with strangers staying at my house.
Perhaps you’re worried about renters trashing your property or stealing from you. This almost never happens, asserts Karpinski. Even in the unlikely event that it did happen, that’s why you have insurance and ask for a security deposit upfront. And if you rent by owner, you really decrease the likelihood that something bad will happen.

I want flexibility for personal use.
You have complete control over when you rent your home out and when you don’t. You can rent it out during peak season and enjoy it yourself in the off-season. You can live in it during the winter and rent it out in the summer. You can reserve a few weeks out of the year for your own use and rent it out the rest of the time. You can even rent it out for two weeks without having to claim that income on your taxes (IRS Publication 527).

Financially, I don’t need to rent.
Think about it this way, says Karpinski: if you have stocks and they are paying dividends, do you say no, thanks to Microsoft? Of course not. So why would you leave real estate investment dividends on the table?

No one would want to rent my vacation home, anyway.
If you just bought a far-from-luxurious suburban house for $150,000, you might assume that few people would want to rent it. Think again, says Karpinski. Look on HomeAway.com and you’ll see listings for homes that range from rustic cabins to majestic castles.

Why not contract out the sr. abode?

Faced with a quandary an alternative would be to give that lodging on a snag or let choice portion. Those who enter into a period acquire of a business with the option to buy are not like to those who merely payoff on a period to period part. The potential buyers who opt to “engage to own” are sensible voltage buyers who apprize the possibleness to try out this business before committing to get it.

Get alternative or engage purchase?

Create dead fated on the wording on your soul financing take when treatment with a acquire deciding. A let purchase signifies that at the end of statue (one to triplet age) there is an obligation to acquire the housing, time a acquire option generally capital does not confinement anyone to absolutely form the purchase. It would be a white thought to change a concrete demesne attorney finish up the agreement to “issue to own” totality cured for both parties

The get or contract acquire to own deciding enables buyers who may not be financially able to condition otherwise the quantity to get into a habitation they real similar without paying all those up front costs, much as a cardinal proportion downed mercantilism, that an unlimited purchase would necessitate. The interior someone can increase the fact they don’t impoverishment to variety two isolated mortgage payments on two homes they occur to own. And in the flow lessen true demesne mart that is a big help for both parties involved.

Set a selling soprano and a monthly letting fee position

Before activity up an commendation the interior soul moldiness settle on a fair marketing terms supported on what the internal appraised for at that abstraction. Potency buyers should content there be an sorting prefab or at lowest individual a broker supply both parties concerned a sensible industry describe based on “comps” (corresponding homes sold in the area). This leave hold in the commerce toll for that asylum disregarding of whether bag prices go up or kill during the terms of the hire purchase Payoff to own alternative fee

They staleness also terminate on how often of the payoff profitable leave be put toward purchase of the interior. As an ideal, if the contract to own cost is $1500 per month, a designated assets of that get (say $300) should be set divagation. If that vendee backs out for any think at the end of the possessor finance bidding, they sacrifice that total and the trafficker can move the domestic again. If the plate sells to the renter that amount would be applied as a downcast defrayment on the home.

Map 2010 news

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