Today’s Kansas City Star brings a couple of articles that drew my attention. The first being that Pulte Homes is pulling out of Kansas City.
What took so long?
Seriously. Pulte was the only national builder in Kansas City. Meanwhile comparable cities like St. Louis and Memphis are dominated by national builders. I’m not sure why a culture of local builders has not only survived but thrived here, but it has.
When you would walk into a Pulte home it was “different” from anything else out there. That’s not necessarily bad. But their marketing and incentives were very different. Kinda flashy and direct. It just never fit in with Kansas City.
Kansas City is different than any other city I’ve lived in or visited. In many respects people here want to be like the big boy cities…but they don’t. Kansas Citians want the national recognition without the headaches that come from being a “big” city.
We’re just a little bit different. And that’s okay.
NovaStar Financial had good news to report considering their circumstances. NovaStar is our subprime lender that has found itself in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Watching them for the last year has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. But shares jumped yesterday because of the subprime freeze announcement and the fact that Wachovia Bank granted them dispensation to survive till a later date.
I still think it’s only a matter of time before they hit bankruptcy. But that’s a whole other post.
Spending four days in Los Angeles was quite an experience. I’ve written briefly about my trip there in previous blogs. What I haven’t told you was the curiosity that west coast real estate investors have with Kansas City. And their perceptions of Kansas City can be very eye opening. Some are rooted in fact. Some are rooted in the very fiction created on film there.
Kansas City is more than 1/2 a continent away from those two cities. It’s another world. We are not backwards here. Nor are we the cow-town depicted in the movies. But we are a product of the heartland. A place where nothing too exciting ever happens but where hopes and dreams grow and are nourished with care. Many of our young grow up and do great things in Kansas City. Many more move on to other parts of the country to seek fame and fortune. That’s just part of life here.
Many of those listed bullet points were the answers to the questions I was asked throughout my trip. Real estate investors, especially the smart ones, are after more than just the Cap Rates and Rates of Return. They want to know who their tenants will be and the likelihood that those tenants will be stable enough to buy them a property. 
Doug and I spent 7 hours on the set of Boston Legal tonight. The experience was fantastic and made better by the fact that we were very well cared for by two ladies that my contact knew. They gave us the tour. They let us sit in with the Directors and Producers while the balcony scene was being filmed. We got to sit in on rehearsal for the restaurant scene. 
BBQ Capital | Kansas City Real Estate Investing 
