Going Mac

Well, I suppose that title is a little misleading. I have always had an Apple computer on my desk. At least since about the sixth grade. However, I have also had either a DOS or Windows based system sitting right next to it.

A Leading Edge Model D

The Apple II+

I started off with a Leading Edge Model D running DOS right next to my Apple II+. I was a geek of historic proportions. As time went on, the hardware got better, but never dedicated to a single platform. I have always had both.

As things shook out, my DOS/Windows machine ended up being for games. My Mac, for serious work. Back when I first got started in real estate, I was one of those guys that treated the old Mac Plus as a “portable” system and even bought one of those cases designed to let you carry it around!

A Mac Plus

I even had a case for my Imagewriter II! I would bring it into my real estate office and set it up. Or even in the back of my car – with the help of a power inverter to run it off the power from the lighter!

The Mac Plus Carrying Case

I had scanned in all the important real estate documents and would print them out on my dot matrix printer after filling them out on my Mac Plus! This was back in 1989 and NOBODY else was doing it – at least nobody was willing to admit it.

With my external disk drive, and later my highly sought after 60 megabyte external SCSI drive, I was hell on wheels!

So I tried to live in both worlds, but it got annoying. Particularly in the world of real estate. The office I used to work with had a system that required the latest version of Internet Explorer – available only for windows. The association of Realtors had some good software for creating forms, but it only ran on windows as well.

So, I had to continue my split existence. I could not just do all my work on a Mac – I had to do some of it on windows. At least, that was the case until Apple switched to the Intel processor a while back. Now I can install windows onto a Mac and run all the apps I need for business!

Not only that, I can choose a variety of ways to do it. I can create a “Boot Camp” volume on my mac where I can install windows, then I can boot up right into the windows operating system as if I am on any other windows based machine. Or, if I want to keep my Mac OS running, I can run Windows… IN a window! Using an application called “Parallels”, I can open windows in a window and run whatever I need. I can print, use devices connected to my mac via usb, firewire – whatever! It is fantastic!

Even better, I can easily move documents from my Windows Window to my mac environment to use my Mac applications to open the file!

So is there a downside here? A bit. I like to play computer games. Most of the really compelling games come out on windows. So, if you want the best performance, you still need to run on a windows machine. This is really because of graphics cards more than anything else. Once graphics cards manufacturers start building in Mac compatibility to their cards – I suspect it won’t be long before I can toss my windows dedicated machine out the window.

I can’t wait!

New Home Builders Continue Spiral

While some areas of the country start to feel like their feet are firmly sitting on the bottom of this market, there are segments of the housing market that continue to get hit hard. We are not just talking about little mom and pop players here. Some of the biggest names in new home construction are taking hard hits that some fear could cause some of these familiar names to fall by the wayside.

First up is Lennar homes. As reported by the Mercury News on June 26th, Lennar posted a 61% drop in revenue. What is worse is that these folks are expected the market for new homes to continue its downward trend at least to the end of this year.

Lennar is a publicly traded Miami based company. So when a company like this goes down, it also takes down vast numbers of investors.

Lennar has had to write off $5,400,000 in losses on land sales which includes $2,100,000 in land sale losses. They also took a hit in options on property they now do not intend to buy to the tune of $6,600,000.

As for overall revenue, Lennars total revenue dropped from $2.8 billion to $1.1 billion.

Then there is KB homes. KB is one of the nations largest home builders. Based in Los Angeles, KB has had to report a larger second quarter loss which represented a 55% drop in revenue. They are also having to lower the value of unsold homes and take the same kind of losses as Lennar by not exercising options on land.

KB is another publicly traded company that has seen a loss of $3.30 per share for the three months ending May 31. The loss last year over the same period was $1,93 per share.

What is worse for these new home manufacturers is that even when the market does start to recover, as it seems to be doing in some key areas, the benefits of that shift will not immediately lift their sales.

Part of this is their own fault. Such a large number of homes have been built over the last few years tha few buyers are motivated to purchase a brand new home when ones that are just a few years old are plentiful. At least that is what I am seeing in my area.

Let me give you an example. As is true with most devlopments, homes are often built in phases. Not long ago, I was holding an open house in a home from the first phase. I found myself seeing buyer after buyer who had just come from the newest open model homes in the new phase and wanted to reap the benefits of buying a home from the earlier phase with the same basic layout. With the market as it is now, there is simply too much distance between an existing home price and a new home price for buyers to be drawn into the new homes. In many cases, in order for new home builders to compete with what these homes from earlier phases are selling for, they would have to sell at a loss.

There is more to that is pushing buyers away from the new home construction. For too long, builders were focusing on how to cram the largest amount of home onto the smallest lot. We are at the tail end of the “Decade Of The McMansion”.  Fewer and fewer buyers are responding to this type of new home. Builders can no longer survive on a “build anything and they will buy it” proposition. When demand is this low for housing, those that do buy want more than an 8 foot strip of backyard or a cookie cutter with few if any distinguishing characteristics from any other house on the street.

I mean really, how many two story entry arches did you think you could build before people got tired of it?

So what I am seeing is buyers, who when given the ultimate in choices are not moving toward the high density developments but want a little space around their home.  They want some tree lined streets, some parks. When they find these places, it is rarely a new home that fit the bill.

Builders need to wise up and realize we are no longer in a time when buyers “Have” to buy what they build. When they continue to build a home as if it was 2002, they deserve what they get.