Category Archives: Kansas City

November 14, 2007 · 7:53 am

Kansas City Foreclosures: Right In The Middle

Living in Kansas City means growing up with a chip on your shoulder. We aren’t New York. We aren’t Los Angeles. Heck, we aren’t even Dallas, Atlanta or Denver.

No, we’re right in the middle…of everything.

We’re in the middle of the country geographically. Housing prices hover around the national median. Sales of units…middle of the pack. Check out the rates of growth here during a real estate boom and you’ll find we’re right about the middle.

But also, during the foreclosure crisis facing much of the country where will you find the Kansas City housing market? Number 54 out of a 100. (The linked table comes from kansascity.com.)

I’ve said 1,000 times and here it comes again. Do you want your real estate investments in a safe harbor? Nothing fancy. Just predictable growth? Think about the Kansas City area.

Give me a call.

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Filed under Kansas City, Real Estate Investing

October 17, 2007 · 12:05 pm

College Basketball Experience: A Hall Of Fame For College Basketball

The College Basketball Experience updated 7.23.2008. See below.

Frequent readers of this blog know my passion and love for the game of college basketball and my beloved Kansas Jayhawks. Today is a special day in Kansas City and around the country for those that love the game of college basketball. The College Basketball Experience opened today. It’s adjacent to the new Sprint Center and it’s fantastic.

There is no way I’m going to do the place justice with one blog post. Let me just say that if you live in and around Kansas City you need to check this place out. Tickets are just $10.00 for adults and you will get your money’s worth even if you are just a casual fan.

Upstairs I got to:

Shoot baskets against a clock.
Take free throws staring into the Illinois student section.
Listen to the crowd groan when I missed a last second three for the win.

I passed on the dunking areas. Unless I can do it on the 10′ rim I don’t see the point. And that wasn’t going to happen. My heart raced, my breathing grew heavy and I worked up a sweat pretending I had any talent what-so-ever. After evaluating my performance, it’s no wonder Larry Brown didn’t spend any time recruiting me.

There are photos of everybody and anybody who has left their mark on college basketball. There are computer screens everywhere to hear from your favorite coaches. There are areas for the little ones to get into the game, too.

Make the trip to Kansas City and make sure you visit The College Basketball Experience. It is sure to be an attraction in our city that will bring folks from around the world that love college basketball.

update: The College Basketball experience is still a total blast! Today I took my four kids ages 3 thru 15 and they all had great fun. Total cost for the five of us? $31.00. Reasonable for an hour and a half’s entertainment. The kids loved the display where you had 5 seconds to run to a spot and shoot before time expired.

As usual, I loved reading all the history on the walls. And with the Kansas Jayhawks winning the 2008 National Championship there were updated photos and trophies and everything. A big treat for a guy like me.

I love the history and present of college basketball. We all know I’m a nut for the Jayhawks. But people are constantly amazed at my knowledge about their schools, as well. Some people collect stamps. Some people build boats. I watch and read about college basketball. It’s a great experience.

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Filed under Kansas City, Kansas City entertainment, Kansas City Sports

October 10, 2007 · 7:06 am

More Growth News For Olathe, Kansas

Looks like I’m doing a week long series on how real estate, and therefore real estate investing, is affected by the influx or outflow of jobs in a given region. Since I live in Olathe, I’ve been focusing on Olathe and southern Johnson County, Kansas. (Which includes Overland Park and Leawood and maybe some of Lenexa.)

***

From today’s Business section of the Kansas City Star comes an article by Kevin Collison that states U.S. Bank is building a 100,000 square-foot facility that will house technical equipment to support this bank’s nationwide operations. The western Olathe site was chosen from 93 possible sites and was chosen for reasons including “competitive utility costs and availability of labor.”

While the contractor building the site will be from Minneapolis they are expected to use as much as 70% local subs . This new business in Olathe should bring at least 80 long term jobs.

***

From today’s Olathe Neighborhood News section of the Kansas City Star there is an article written by Sarah Benson that talks about the continued growth of the Olathe School District.

Here are some choice sentences;

The district is growing at an unprecedented rate.

The district (Olathe) gained 842 students this year, bringing it’s enrollment to 26,385.

Quoting Superintendent Pat All: “We’ve had straight-line growth for 41 years.”

And my favorite paragraph of the article: Olathe’s growth isn’t just because of new subdivisions. All said that student population in older, established neighborhoods is up, too. That’s because of young families with small children are finding affordable housing in older neighborhoods.

As a real estate agent who lives in works in Olathe that last paragraph goes along with what I’m seeing. Do date the older neighborhoods aren’t decaying. In fact, many buyers are buying low and fixing up to build their equity and live closer to where they choose.

As Olathe steams towards the projected goal of 300,000 people by 2050 we are going to see a lot of changes. It will be important to keep our schools healthy as well as our job growth. Olathe, like Overland Park, can be a strong city in it’s own rights. Not just living off of the jobs provided by Kansas City.

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October 9, 2007 · 7:15 am

Forsee Out At Sprint: What This May Mean In Kansas City

Coming on the heels of yesterday’s post about the growth and expansion of Garmin is last night’s news that Gary Forsee has stepped down (fired?) as CEO of Sprint. It seems that Sprint has been hemorrhaging customers and has lost it’s way concerning customer service, vision and execution.

This is potentially very good or very bad news for Kansas City’s economy, specifically Johnson County and it’s housing market.

Should a new CEO come in and embrace Sprint’s Kansas City roots, turn the company around and cause economic growth/expansion those middle management houses will once again be in short supply and high demand. But if some east coast guy comes in who thinks of Kansas City as a liability more than an asset and decides to move more and more operations towards Reston, VA, well, there could be big, big trouble.

This is development worth watching. I have quite a few clients that are Sprint employees. Sprint is the single largest employer around Kansas City and pays very well compared to many other tech companies here, from what I’m told.

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October 6, 2007 · 7:58 am

Kansas City Part of Quiet Boom?

Will Kansas City be part of a quiet boom due to the commodities that flow through our region? I really hadn’t thought about it but after having read this post by THE GNOME OF ZURICH INVESTOR my gut reaction is that he may be right. I’ll have to think about it a little longer.

But let me say this. Since Kansas City is a central railway/trucking hub and transportation is a huge part of our economy along with all the agricultural products that come through our town, it does make sense. Think on this and let me know your thoughts.

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August 30, 2007 · 7:58 am

Kansas City Investment Property: Right In The Middle

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of meeting with three New York/New Jersey area real estate investors who had come to Kansas City to see what the potential of investing here. They had apparently spent the better part of the week researching tax lien houses and parts of the city, well, I’m not too crazy about from a real estate investing standpoint.

Yes, I realize I may upset them with that last sentence. But I believe I said the same thing as we sat and talked for about 2 hours in the Marriott Courtyard lobby area. All three were sharp. All three seemed to be well funded. And it was my impression that all three see the Kansas City area as a place for for at least part of the real estate investing portfolio.

You all know me to talk ad naseum about the benefits of Kansas City real estate investing. But I’m going to give you another reason. Silly as it may sound.

Ease of access.

Whether you are a real estate investor from New York, Florida, California or Texas you can get to Kansas City in two hours. Non-stop. Through multiple airlines. Take Express Jet, or Midwest Airlines. Those are my two favorites. Then there is are the big boys that you are used to.

A round trip flight to Los Angeles’ Ontario airport is only going to cost me $230 this winter, and it’s non-stop. At least on XJet. Kansas City’s airport has grown in passengers served, airlines and flights over the last two years. It’s an easy airport to get in and out of (though relatively boring compared to most other airports) sits at the junction of two highways that will get you anywhere in our area.

If it sounds like I’m promoting the Kansas City airport…okay. I just want you to know that if you are thinking about investing $25,000-$35,000 into a property anywhere in America, you can check out Kansas City for only a $230 flight. Sounds like a business trip to me. I’ll buy the BBQ.

There are, of course, many reasons to own income property in Kansas City. (Two of the ladies flinched yesterday when I said I could get them cash flowing duplexes with capital investments as little as $20,000-$30,000.) Cash flowing investment properties in good neighborhoods, that is.

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Filed under Kansas City, Real Estate Investing

July 20, 2007 · 8:12 am

Bleeding Kansas: Taxation Without Representation

Once again Missouri has figured out a way to stick it to Kansas. And once again, Missouri will lose if Kansas chooses to retaliate.

Reported in today’s Kansas City Star (go out an buy a copy)…

The first shot was fired by Missouri when Gov. Matt Blunt signed a bill this month providing an income tax break for Missourians who receive Social Security. It contained a little-discussed provision eliminating a deduction for real estate taxes paid outside Missouri.

That’s a $190 ding for the typical Johnson County resident who works in Missouri.

When someone asked Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri about the tax that screws Kansans his response was again reported in the Star as…

Blunt said he was the governor of Missouri and his focus was on reducing taxes for Missouri residents.

As someone who has to pay some Missouri taxes, this is just stupid. Why? Because when Kansas inevitably responds, here are the numbers

Based on commuting patterns, Johnson County’s Economic Research Institute estimates that more than 71,000 residents from eight nearby Missouri counties work in Johnson County. And at least 53,000 Johnson Countians work in those Missouri counties.

So by getting taxes from 53,000 JoCo residents the Governor will cost 71,000 of his residents higher taxes. Will Missouri ever learn? This is why there is so little cooperation between the “rich” Johnson County and the “incompetent” Kansas City/Missouri governments.

Nobody asked, and it has nothing to do with real estate investing… No wait, it has everything to do with real estate and real estate investing. More taxes cause higher expenses. Higher expenses cause higher rents and fees. Figure it out. Just my $.02 on the subject.

For you out of town readers Kansas City, Jackson County and the State of Missouri are always trying to figure out how to screw Johnson County, Kansas. When they did a study and found out the majority of ticket buyers to the Chiefs and Royals were Johnson Countians they added a per seat tax. Then they “locked out” Kansas ticket buyers for the perennially sold out Chiefs until all the Jackson County residents who wanted tickets had tickets. (Not that Jackson County can support the Chiefs all by themselves.)

Then there is the City payroll tax. The bi-state tax and the never ending attempt to get Johnson County to further subsidize Kansas City, Missouri. I’m all for civic cooperation, realizing we all have a stake in this metropolitan area. It would help is stupid policies like these weren’t instituted. It just builds further resentment.

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Filed under Kansas City, Social Issues