Maclennan Investment Group

The Contra Costa Times is reporting that More East Bay buildings in mortgage default.
Specifically, Jackson Center at 1111 Jackson Street in Oakland and Berkeley Tower at 2120 University Ave in Berkeley.
The bank seeks to foreclose a delinquent loan totaling $47.1 million. The affiliate of Portland, Ore.-based Scanlan Kemper Bard, commonly known as SKB, [...]

Occasionally I pop over to Yahoo! Finance to check on the stock market’s behavior for the day. Once of the other features on the website is commentary from financial advisors.
Today, Laura Rowley had an article entitled Starving for Yield on Savings. She writes:
Americans who chose to save instead of buying homes they could not [...]

The Contra Costa Times is reporting Construction to resume on stalled Pittsburg project.
After 18 months of inactivity, construction on a housing and retail project regarded as the centerpiece of Pittsburg’s downtown revitalization could resume next week.
Vidrio as the project was named by developer A.F. Evans has been under construction since 2006. The developer [...]

This is a post I began writing in June 2009. I thought it still had merit and should be shared.
Social Security’s Inadequacy
According to the 2009 Social Security Trustees’ report if you plan to live for the next 19 years, your Social Security benefits will be dependent on the income tax deduction from those in the [...]

The post on Warren Buffett made it into the Carnival of Real Estate over at 7DS Associates.

Here are some pictures from today of what used to be the building attached to Baja Fresh and Kentucy Fried Chicken in Walnut Creek, California.
The owner of the property, Hall Equities Group, is redeveloping the property at the corner of S. California and Olympic Boulevard. By demolishing the old Warehouse Video store and golf shop, [...]

Property managers are very important to passive investment property owners, to out of town property owners, and property owners with multiple real estate investments.
Passive owners, as opposed to active owners, generally don’t want to deal with the three “T”s of real estate investment ownership; toilets, tenants, and trash. Passive real estate owners are not the [...]

The New York Times’ Bucks Blog is relating the details of a Merrill Lynch Affluent Insight survey that asked What Retirees Would Have Done Differently.
Topping both advice categories, for people between 10 and 15 years from retirement and those more than 15 years away, was “build a plan around what is most important to you [...]

Did you ever notice that Warren Buffett seems to make very few bad investments?
On September 23, 2008 Mr. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs preferred stock. Goldman offered a 10% annual return on the investment in preferred shares, $500 million per year. In addition, Berkshire Hathaway was given the option to [...]

The Contra Costa Times, Contra Costa County’s major newspaper, is reporting today that Higher Bay Area home sales, prices offer hope. It is important to notice the first paragraph of the article.
The Bay Area real estate market continued to show improvement in November due to fewer sales of bargain-priced foreclosed homes and more sales of [...]

Real estate investment has been very rewarding to many intelligent and strategic investors. Investors that have the patience to take the long view have been well rewarded for their patience and diligence.
Many people view the purchase of their personal residence as a “real estate investment”. Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki has challenged this [...]

One of the benefits of holding real estate for investment is the ability to defer taxes on capital gains through what is known as a 1031 exchange. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for investors to delay capital gains on the sale of property as long as they invest the proceeds in a [...]

A note is a signed document between two parties acknowledging a debt and promising repayment. Simply put it is a promise to pay.
Bob borrows $10,000 from Paul to buy a house and signs a note for $10,000 agreeing to repay the debt in one year with 6% interest.
A note can be secured by real estate. [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

Are we there yet? Have we reached the bottom of the market?
Dave Kansas for the WSJ.com writes: Is It Time to Get Back Into Real Estate?
What I find especially interesting is where most of my risk-taking friends are headed. It isn’t the stock market; in fact, the only folks I know who have waded back [...]

Enoch Lawrence, Senior Vice President at CBRE Capital Markets, has written an article Deconstructing the Downturn in the Commercial Real Estate Capital Markets. While the title led me to believe it would be an analysis of how we got here, I was surprised to find a commentary on where commercial real estate investing is headed.
The [...]

Every real estate investor should have a team of trusted professionals that advise them on real estate investments. It is best to have an attorney and a tax professional on your team. As well, you should have a real estate broker and a real estate finance expert on your team of advisors.
Jeffrey Hare, an attorney [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

As an investor makes plans for Retirement Freedom, they should keep in mind where they are in the wealth building process.
Investors, generally, can be put into one of two phases depending upon their financial needs and their employment status. I will call these the Accumulation and Income Phases.
Accumulation Phase
During the Accumulation Phase an investor is [...]

Dear Bay Area Real Estate Investor,
If you are reading this and you still have equity in your real estate investments, Congratulations! (I apologize if that offends others of you.) You have managed to buy at the right time and have kept your property performing well.
However, at the current time you face an important juncture. What [...]

Why?
Spend much time around children and you will inevitably here the question “Why?”.
“Why do we have to go now?” “Why is the sky blue?” “Why did Johnny hit me?” “Why can’t I have candy?”
A Key to Understanding
While many adults find incessant “why’s” bothersome and tiring, for children it is a key to understanding.
Their young minds [...]

CNN is reporting:
A woman in Tel Aviv, Israel, gave her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise gift, throwing out the old tattered bed her mother had slept on for decades. The gesture ended up bankrupting Annat’s mother, who had stuffed her savings of nearly $1 million inside her old bed for decades, [...]

…Then you should read David Shafer’s analysis on why he hates mutual funds.  (HT: Jeff Brown)
There are three reasons:
1.  Diversification sucks.  There I have said it.  There is an open secret in the investment world that diversification is for suckers or at least for folks that will never capture wealth.  You see, mutual funds were [...]

Have you ever been in a car when someone releases the steering wheel?
When I was in the seventh grade, I had a youth leader that was a little on the wild side. His antics endeared him to the guys in the group. He would jokingly try and take corners at double the posted speed. He [...]

Real estate is an excellent tool to build and accumulate wealth. There are four benefits to real estate that can make it more appealing than other investment opportunities.
Maximizing as many of these benefits as possible will help you on your way to retirement freedom.
Cash Flow Before Taxes
When you own a rental property the goal is [...]

Freedom is something that most of us strive for in many areas of our life.
Merriam-Webster defines “freedom” as:
the quality or state of being free: as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence c: the quality or [...]

This morning I walked downtown to Starbucks for coffee. The cool morning air and the quiet allowed me to think and observe as I walked through the center of the city of Walnut Creek.
When you walk by yourself before the hustle and bustle of the day it is amazing what you notice.
Comings …
Walking past the [...]

Here are a couple of items from today’s Contra Costa Times.
First, in Circuits to seafood: New tenants plug into empty buildings the Contra Costa Times shares about the new uses for former Circuit City stores.
A Seafood City Asian market is due to a open in a shuttered Circuit City store in Concord, and another retailer [...]

For most small or beginning real estate investors, the purchase of a rental home is the only option. Investors that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest, are likely going to start with a rental property or two until their capital accumulates to buy something larger.
Many new investors look to buy a foreclosed [...]

Here are a couple of items from today’s Contra Costa Times.
First, in Circuits to seafood: New tenants plug into empty buildings the Contra Costa Times shares about the new uses for former Circuit City stores.
A Seafood City Asian market is due to a open in a shuttered Circuit City store in Concord, and another retailer [...]

Dear Bay Area Real Estate Investor,
If you are reading this and you still have equity in your real estate investments, Congratulations! (I apologize if that offends others of you.) You have managed to buy at the right time and have kept your property performing well.
However, at the current time you face an important juncture. What [...]

The Contra Costa Times, Contra Costa County’s major newspaper, is reporting today that Higher Bay Area home sales, prices offer hope. It is important to notice the first paragraph of the article.
The Bay Area real estate market continued to show improvement in November due to fewer sales of bargain-priced foreclosed homes and more sales of [...]

Here are some pictures from today of what used to be the building attached to Baja Fresh and Kentucy Fried Chicken in Walnut Creek, California.
The owner of the property, Hall Equities Group, is redeveloping the property at the corner of S. California and Olympic Boulevard. By demolishing the old Warehouse Video store and golf shop, [...]

The Contra Costa Times is reporting Construction to resume on stalled Pittsburg project.
After 18 months of inactivity, construction on a housing and retail project regarded as the centerpiece of Pittsburg’s downtown revitalization could resume next week.
Vidrio as the project was named by developer A.F. Evans has been under construction since 2006. The developer [...]

The Contra Costa Times is reporting that More East Bay buildings in mortgage default.
Specifically, Jackson Center at 1111 Jackson Street in Oakland and Berkeley Tower at 2120 University Ave in Berkeley.
The bank seeks to foreclose a delinquent loan totaling $47.1 million. The affiliate of Portland, Ore.-based Scanlan Kemper Bard, commonly known as SKB, [...]

Real estate is an excellent tool to build and accumulate wealth. There are four benefits to real estate that can make it more appealing than other investment opportunities.
Maximizing as many of these benefits as possible will help you on your way to retirement freedom.
Cash Flow Before Taxes
When you own a rental property the goal is [...]

Have you ever been in a car when someone releases the steering wheel?
When I was in the seventh grade, I had a youth leader that was a little on the wild side. His antics endeared him to the guys in the group. He would jokingly try and take corners at double the posted speed. He [...]

CNN is reporting:
A woman in Tel Aviv, Israel, gave her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise gift, throwing out the old tattered bed her mother had slept on for decades. The gesture ended up bankrupting Annat’s mother, who had stuffed her savings of nearly $1 million inside her old bed for decades, [...]

A note is a signed document between two parties acknowledging a debt and promising repayment. Simply put it is a promise to pay.
Bob borrows $10,000 from Paul to buy a house and signs a note for $10,000 agreeing to repay the debt in one year with 6% interest.
A note can be secured by real estate. [...]

One of the benefits of holding real estate for investment is the ability to defer taxes on capital gains through what is known as a 1031 exchange. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for investors to delay capital gains on the sale of property as long as they invest the proceeds in a [...]

Did you ever notice that Warren Buffett seems to make very few bad investments?
On September 23, 2008 Mr. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs preferred stock. Goldman offered a 10% annual return on the investment in preferred shares, $500 million per year. In addition, Berkshire Hathaway was given the option to [...]

Occasionally I pop over to Yahoo! Finance to check on the stock market’s behavior for the day. Once of the other features on the website is commentary from financial advisors.
Today, Laura Rowley had an article entitled Starving for Yield on Savings. She writes:
Americans who chose to save instead of buying homes they could not [...]

For most small or beginning real estate investors, the purchase of a rental home is the only option. Investors that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest, are likely going to start with a rental property or two until their capital accumulates to buy something larger.
Many new investors look to buy a foreclosed [...]

Here are a couple of items from today’s Contra Costa Times.
First, in Circuits to seafood: New tenants plug into empty buildings the Contra Costa Times shares about the new uses for former Circuit City stores.
A Seafood City Asian market is due to a open in a shuttered Circuit City store in Concord, and another retailer [...]

One of the benefits of holding real estate for investment is the ability to defer taxes on capital gains through what is known as a 1031 exchange. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for investors to delay capital gains on the sale of property as long as they invest the proceeds in a [...]

Real estate investment has been very rewarding to many intelligent and strategic investors. Investors that have the patience to take the long view have been well rewarded for their patience and diligence.
Many people view the purchase of their personal residence as a “real estate investment”. Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki has challenged this [...]

This morning I walked downtown to Starbucks for coffee. The cool morning air and the quiet allowed me to think and observe as I walked through the center of the city of Walnut Creek.
When you walk by yourself before the hustle and bustle of the day it is amazing what you notice.
Comings …
Walking past the [...]

The Contra Costa Times, Contra Costa County’s major newspaper, is reporting today that Higher Bay Area home sales, prices offer hope. It is important to notice the first paragraph of the article.
The Bay Area real estate market continued to show improvement in November due to fewer sales of bargain-priced foreclosed homes and more sales of [...]

Here are some pictures from today of what used to be the building attached to Baja Fresh and Kentucy Fried Chicken in Walnut Creek, California.
The owner of the property, Hall Equities Group, is redeveloping the property at the corner of S. California and Olympic Boulevard. By demolishing the old Warehouse Video store and golf shop, [...]

The Contra Costa Times is reporting Construction to resume on stalled Pittsburg project.
After 18 months of inactivity, construction on a housing and retail project regarded as the centerpiece of Pittsburg’s downtown revitalization could resume next week.
Vidrio as the project was named by developer A.F. Evans has been under construction since 2006. The developer [...]

The Contra Costa Times is reporting that More East Bay buildings in mortgage default.
Specifically, Jackson Center at 1111 Jackson Street in Oakland and Berkeley Tower at 2120 University Ave in Berkeley.
The bank seeks to foreclose a delinquent loan totaling $47.1 million. The affiliate of Portland, Ore.-based Scanlan Kemper Bard, commonly known as SKB, [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

For most small or beginning real estate investors, the purchase of a rental home is the only option. Investors that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest, are likely going to start with a rental property or two until their capital accumulates to buy something larger.
Many new investors look to buy a foreclosed [...]

Freedom is something that most of us strive for in many areas of our life.
Merriam-Webster defines “freedom” as:
the quality or state of being free: as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence c: the quality or [...]

Real estate is an excellent tool to build and accumulate wealth. There are four benefits to real estate that can make it more appealing than other investment opportunities.
Maximizing as many of these benefits as possible will help you on your way to retirement freedom.
Cash Flow Before Taxes
When you own a rental property the goal is [...]

Have you ever been in a car when someone releases the steering wheel?
When I was in the seventh grade, I had a youth leader that was a little on the wild side. His antics endeared him to the guys in the group. He would jokingly try and take corners at double the posted speed. He [...]

…Then you should read David Shafer’s analysis on why he hates mutual funds.  (HT: Jeff Brown)
There are three reasons:
1.  Diversification sucks.  There I have said it.  There is an open secret in the investment world that diversification is for suckers or at least for folks that will never capture wealth.  You see, mutual funds were [...]

CNN is reporting:
A woman in Tel Aviv, Israel, gave her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise gift, throwing out the old tattered bed her mother had slept on for decades. The gesture ended up bankrupting Annat’s mother, who had stuffed her savings of nearly $1 million inside her old bed for decades, [...]

Why?
Spend much time around children and you will inevitably here the question “Why?”.
“Why do we have to go now?” “Why is the sky blue?” “Why did Johnny hit me?” “Why can’t I have candy?”
A Key to Understanding
While many adults find incessant “why’s” bothersome and tiring, for children it is a key to understanding.
Their young minds [...]

Dear Bay Area Real Estate Investor,
If you are reading this and you still have equity in your real estate investments, Congratulations! (I apologize if that offends others of you.) You have managed to buy at the right time and have kept your property performing well.
However, at the current time you face an important juncture. What [...]

As an investor makes plans for Retirement Freedom, they should keep in mind where they are in the wealth building process.
Investors, generally, can be put into one of two phases depending upon their financial needs and their employment status. I will call these the Accumulation and Income Phases.
Accumulation Phase
During the Accumulation Phase an investor is [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

Every real estate investor should have a team of trusted professionals that advise them on real estate investments. It is best to have an attorney and a tax professional on your team. As well, you should have a real estate broker and a real estate finance expert on your team of advisors.
Jeffrey Hare, an attorney [...]

Enoch Lawrence, Senior Vice President at CBRE Capital Markets, has written an article Deconstructing the Downturn in the Commercial Real Estate Capital Markets. While the title led me to believe it would be an analysis of how we got here, I was surprised to find a commentary on where commercial real estate investing is headed.
The [...]

Are we there yet? Have we reached the bottom of the market?
Dave Kansas for the WSJ.com writes: Is It Time to Get Back Into Real Estate?
What I find especially interesting is where most of my risk-taking friends are headed. It isn’t the stock market; in fact, the only folks I know who have waded back [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

This post is one in a series of posts featuring my wife, The Mrs. I asked her to pretend that she was a wealthy woman with $2,000,000 (million) to invest. This money was needed to provide her for the rest of her life. She is to ask questions that might come up in the course [...]

A note is a signed document between two parties acknowledging a debt and promising repayment. Simply put it is a promise to pay.
Bob borrows $10,000 from Paul to buy a house and signs a note for $10,000 agreeing to repay the debt in one year with 6% interest.
A note can be secured by real estate. [...]

One of the benefits of holding real estate for investment is the ability to defer taxes on capital gains through what is known as a 1031 exchange. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for investors to delay capital gains on the sale of property as long as they invest the proceeds in a [...]

Real estate investment has been very rewarding to many intelligent and strategic investors. Investors that have the patience to take the long view have been well rewarded for their patience and diligence.
Many people view the purchase of their personal residence as a “real estate investment”. Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki has challenged this [...]

Did you ever notice that Warren Buffett seems to make very few bad investments?
On September 23, 2008 Mr. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs preferred stock. Goldman offered a 10% annual return on the investment in preferred shares, $500 million per year. In addition, Berkshire Hathaway was given the option to [...]

Property managers are very important to passive investment property owners, to out of town property owners, and property owners with multiple real estate investments.
Passive owners, as opposed to active owners, generally don’t want to deal with the three “T”s of real estate investment ownership; toilets, tenants, and trash. Passive real estate owners are not the [...]

The post on Warren Buffett made it into the Carnival of Real Estate over at 7DS Associates.

This is a post I began writing in June 2009. I thought it still had merit and should be shared.
Social Security’s Inadequacy
According to the 2009 Social Security Trustees’ report if you plan to live for the next 19 years, your Social Security benefits will be dependent on the income tax deduction from those in the [...]

Occasionally I pop over to Yahoo! Finance to check on the stock market’s behavior for the day. Once of the other features on the website is commentary from financial advisors.
Today, Laura Rowley had an article entitled Starving for Yield on Savings. She writes:
Americans who chose to save instead of buying homes they could not [...]

Freedom is something that most of us strive for in many areas of our life.
Merriam-Webster defines “freedom” as:
the quality or state of being free: as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence c: the quality or [...]

Real estate is an excellent tool to build and accumulate wealth. There are four benefits to real estate that can make it more appealing than other investment opportunities.
Maximizing as many of these benefits as possible will help you on your way to retirement freedom.
Cash Flow Before Taxes
When you own a rental property the goal is [...]

Have you ever been in a car when someone releases the steering wheel?
When I was in the seventh grade, I had a youth leader that was a little on the wild side. His antics endeared him to the guys in the group. He would jokingly try and take corners at double the posted speed. He [...]

…Then you should read David Shafer’s analysis on why he hates mutual funds.  (HT: Jeff Brown)
There are three reasons:
1.  Diversification sucks.  There I have said it.  There is an open secret in the investment world that diversification is for suckers or at least for folks that will never capture wealth.  You see, mutual funds were [...]

Why?
Spend much time around children and you will inevitably here the question “Why?”.
“Why do we have to go now?” “Why is the sky blue?” “Why did Johnny hit me?” “Why can’t I have candy?”
A Key to Understanding
While many adults find incessant “why’s” bothersome and tiring, for children it is a key to understanding.
Their young minds [...]

As an investor makes plans for Retirement Freedom, they should keep in mind where they are in the wealth building process.
Investors, generally, can be put into one of two phases depending upon their financial needs and their employment status. I will call these the Accumulation and Income Phases.
Accumulation Phase
During the Accumulation Phase an investor is [...]

The New York Times’ Bucks Blog is relating the details of a Merrill Lynch Affluent Insight survey that asked What Retirees Would Have Done Differently.
Topping both advice categories, for people between 10 and 15 years from retirement and those more than 15 years away, was “build a plan around what is most important to you [...]

This is a post I began writing in June 2009. I thought it still had merit and should be shared.
Social Security’s Inadequacy
According to the 2009 Social Security Trustees’ report if you plan to live for the next 19 years, your Social Security benefits will be dependent on the income tax deduction from those in the [...]

This morning I walked downtown to Starbucks for coffee. The cool morning air and the quiet allowed me to think and observe as I walked through the center of the city of Walnut Creek.
When you walk by yourself before the hustle and bustle of the day it is amazing what you notice.
Comings …
Walking past the [...]

Here are some pictures from today of what used to be the building attached to Baja Fresh and Kentucy Fried Chicken in Walnut Creek, California.
The owner of the property, Hall Equities Group, is redeveloping the property at the corner of S. California and Olympic Boulevard. By demolishing the old Warehouse Video store and golf shop, [...]