Orjana Beck and I are going to be attending ICG's first advanced seminar in San Diego. We are also bringing builders and developers with us tom explain to this new group what construction is like in the Oklahoma City area. We are also bringing good news. Out of over 300 properties sold, we only have 12 not rented at this time. Considering that this is just the beginning of the hot rental time, this is extraordinary. In Edmond, we only have one house available! This comes from over two years of consistent advertising, well maintained rental property that shows like an owner-occupant home, and keeping the number of properties down in a given area or subdivision. In San Diego we will have special incentives like homes on a golf course with no extra charge for the lot, homes in Oklahoma's number one school district that is definitely under inventoried for rentals, duplexes at great prices and special incentives for multiple property purchase, and single family homes starting at $139,900 with deluxe features like granite counter tops. I hope to see some familiar faces, and to meet new people who we can introduce to the most stable market in America.  

NAR statistics have just been released and home sales are down the largest percentage in 16 years. They reported an overall 8.7% drop. How has Oklahoma City fared through this "bursting of the bubble"? We have set records for January, February, and March in volume, units sold, and average price per home. This is even with enduring the worst winter in over 30 years! This has been accomplished in with a rapidly growing economy, low cost of living, and affordable housing that most people use regular financing for on a 30 year fixed mortgage. Quite a contrast to the overheated markets that required people to go to the sub prime lenders that now threaten the housing industry with record foreclosures. Oklahoma City is just on the average in this category. For once, steady and boring are good housing traits. All we do is appreciate on a gradual basis. So for the serious long term investor who is not a get rich quick and take a big risk person, this is the answer for the boom and bust cycle.

That was a provocative title. What does it mean? Besides learning to plant trees for wind breaks, the 1930's taught agriculture in Oklahoma to not overuse the soil. If you plant in the same field over and over, eventually the nitrogen in the soil will get sapped, and the crops become weaker and weaker. What this has to do with investment homes is that like rotating the fields and leaving some fallow for a season, one has to be careful about over selling a neighborhood, or an area. Last year, I did not sell but a few homes in Edmond and Deer Creek Schools becasue other investors were not paying attention to this rule. So we sold elsewhere. Now Deer Creek and Edmond Schools have terrific opportunities becasue the rents have been maintained by laying low for a year. We will keep rotating to different suburbs, as well as switching gears into condos, townhomes, and different types of rental pools. We also will be offering some commericial opportunities this year.