Area CPA's

Several weeks or even months ago, on a local networking message board, everyone was asking for recommendations for a good CPA. I took down all the recommended names and numbers and did a little digging. From conversations with them here is what I have found out, other than those who did not call back or just did not do much of anything we might need, they all seemed like services you should at least sit down with for an hour to check out.

Rick Hughey -

• referred by Rick Simmons
• 816-554-9422
• Located in Lee's Summit
• Will Manage your payroll systems
• Is Familiar with Kansas City Missouri's paperwork
• Has many clients with real estate
• Does not use quick books
• So will not be able to do your year end adjusting entries in quick books
• Does have a book keeping service
• Spoke with directly

Scott McRuer

• referred by Troy Meyer
• 816-741-3249
• Located in Parkvill
• Offers Payroll Services
• Familiar with KCMO papweork
• Has Real Estate Cliens
• Uses Quick Books
• Has Book Keeping Services
• Really Connected Well on the phone, seemed very proactive
• Answered his own phone

Tom Prater

• Referred by Nicole Daney
• 816-753-3460
• Located on the Plaza
• offers payroll serfvices
• Familiar with the KCMO paperwork mess
• Has Real Estate Clients
• Does not use Quick Books
• Has quick books specialists to make your adjusting year end entires
• Has a book keeping service
• Also connected well on the phone, recommended meeting with a client several times through out the year to make sure they are on track, and look at ways to help them save on taxes - seemed very proactive

Jeff Katz

• Referred by David Nachman
• 913-451-4510 x 105
• Located in Leawood
• Does not offer payroll services & recommended PayChecks a payroll service
• Did not seem to be very familiar with KCMO paperwork
• Had Real Estate Clients
• Used Quick Books
• Could complete year end adjusting entries
• Had bookkeeping serivces
• Did not connect well on the phone, and wanted to argue with me that I had any clue how to do my own bookkeeping or that I knew how to use quick books.
• Marked him off my list, but it could have been me - I was in a bad mood

Carl Heinz

• Recommended by Nicole Daney
• 913-491-1040
• Located at College & Roe in Leawoos
• Offers Payroll services
• Familiare with KCMO paperwork
• Has real estate cliens
• Use Quick books
• Can complete your adjusing entires
• And I forgot to ask about book keeping services
• I have not yet talked with Carl, but do have an appointment with him. Had to leave a message and they called back several days later - but it was a holiday week. Spoke with his daughter. Carl teaches other CPA's about the latest and greatest in the CPA world.
• His daughter Hillary is in the business with them, small office with Carl, his daughter, an office manager and 3 other accountants - not to big or too small.
• Thing I liked the best so far - at the end of the year they give you a book with all your papwerwork from the entire year enclosed so you have good records.

Craig Chance

• Recommended by David Nachman
• 913-491-7200
• Located in Overland Park
• Offers Payroll
• Familiar with KCMO paperwork
• Forgot to ask about the real estate clients
• Uses Quick Books
• Could do adjusting entries
• Has Book keeping services
• connected well on the phone

Ron Minda

• Recommended by David Nachman
• 913-649-9222
• Located in Prairie Village
• Left a message, but no return call - maybe I didn't press the right button, but he was my list call of 7 and I really needed to narrow my list

From all my interviews on the phone

I would go and sit down with Rick Hughey, but I don't want to drive to Lee's Summit.

I would definitely sit down with Scott McRuer, but again - I don't want to drive to Parkville.

I really liked Tom Prater, but Don used to use him a long time ago and they did not connect well, but he seemed very well worth an interview.

Jeff Katz, turned me off with arguing with me, so I guess he really didn't want any new clients and they didn't offer a lot of things that we needed.

Carl Heinz will be my first interview.

Craig Chance will probably be my second interview, if Carl does not work out.

And I am still waiting for a return call from Ron Minda.

I hope this will help you narrow down your search for an area CPA in Kansas City.

Fort Riley

Posted on Wed, Dec. 19, 2007 10:15

PMreprint or license print email Digg it del.icio.us AIM

Engineering battalion to be based at Fort Riley

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON More than 1,300 additional troops will be calling Fort Riley home as part of the 1st Infantry Division’s relocation to the Kansas Army post.

The post had expected to grow to more than 18,000 troops by 2013, but Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, said Wednesday that a new engineering battalion would boost that number.

“The big story is that this is a final statement that the Big Red One is in the process of moving from Germany, and it will be here as we grow the Army and protect national security,” Roberts said.

The engineering battalion will maintain equipment that returns from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 1st Infantry Division had been at Fort Riley for about 40 years, but its headquarters moved to Germany in 1995 before returning to Kansas last year as part of the national military base realignment process.

Nearly the entire division will be at Fort Riley, except for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which is stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.

The return of the Big Red One is expected to double the post’s military population.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said support from the local community played a key role in the decision to place the additional troops in Kansas.

Sebelius said Defense Department officials also planned to send 274 military police to Fort Leavenworth as part of the Grow the Force initiative.

Media Coverage of Housing Trends

Posted on Wed, Dec. 19, 2007 10:15 PMreprint or license print email Digg it del.icio.us AIM Media coverage of housing trends faulted
By JEFFREY SPIVAK
The Kansas City Star

The media report too much on nationwide real estate trends, usually without perspective, says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.
Falling supply of homes for sale raises hopes for KC housing market
Media coverage of housing trends often gives the impression that the market is worse off than it really is, according to the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Lawrence Yun, in presentations Wednesday to Kansas City area real estate agents, said the media’s biggest mistake was too much reporting on nationwide real estate trends. National trends alone, he said, don’t apply to many parts of the country, and reporting of them usually lacks perspective.

For instance, Yun reported that the national median (or midpoint) home price this year was on its way to its first overall decline since the Depression. Already, he said, the media drumbeat is repeating the word “depression,” thus depressing consumer confidence and keeping potential homebuyers out of the market.

A more accurate perspective, he suggested, was that this year’s down market was merely a blip in the long-term growth of housing prices in the area and elsewhere. He said anyone who has owned a home for more than a couple of years has seen good housing appreciation overall.

“It’s been 50 steps forward and two steps backward,” he said.

Yun noted a recent newspaper article about the high level of foreclosures in Ohio.

“People read it and think the situation here is the same as there,” Yun said. “… All real estate is local, and what’s occurring nationally, particularly on the coasts, may not be indicative of what’s happening locally.”

Metropolitan Kansas City, he said, has never

Falling supply of homes for sale n KC

Posted on Wed, Dec. 19, 2007

Falling supply of homes for sale raises hopes for KC housing market

By CHRIS LESTERThe Kansas City Star

The total supply of homes for sale in the Kansas City area during November dipped below 20,000 for the first time since March, raising hopes for an improving real estate market.
The Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that the total inventory of new homes for sale declined in November to 4,773, down 14.5 percent from a year earlier. Existing home inventory in November stood at 14,731, down 11.7 percent from the recent peak in August.

It remains a buyer’s market, with 11.1 months of supply of new homes at the current sales pace and 8.4 months of supply of existing homes. But recent tightening suggests the area market is moving back toward a more even balance between buyers and sellers.

“It’s a positive,” said Kelley Babb, president with K.C. Builders & Design, which built about 45 homes in Johnson County this year. “These numbers sound good to me. This goes to show the stability of the Kansas City market. It’s still a fair place to live. We just overbuilt for so many years, and the market is correcting.”

The average sales price of 431 new homes sold in the area during November was $291,015, up 3.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the regional group. The average price of 1,747 existing homes sold during the month was $154,789, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier.
Separately, the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City reported that area residential building permit activity declined in November after a surprisingly strong October.
A seasonally adjusted total of 423 single-family housing units were permitted in an eight-county area last month, down 23.5 percent from a revised total of 553 units issued in October. November activity was down 31.3 percent from 616 units during the same month a year earlier.

Slowing construction activity reflects a concerted effort among local builders to work off an accumulation of unsold inventory available for sale. During the first 11 months of the year, area builders have obtained permits for 5,926 single-family units, down nearly 33 percent from the same period last year.

One result is that new-home inventory in the area has declined in 11 of the last 12 months. The supply of new homes on the market — obtained by dividing the inventory by the recent sales rate — was 11.1 months in November, down from a recent peak of 14.4 months in September and 12.1 months of supply in November 2006.

The housing industry considers anything above a six-month supply available for sale as constituting a buyer’s market. Forecasts call for new-home starts to remain subdued going into early 2008.

Home builders point to declining mortgage rates and a recent Mid-America Regional Council forecast that the local economy will outperform the slowing national economy next year as indications the area housing market will recover in 2008.

“Lower interest rates, improved housing affordability and a growing job supply are critical to boosting new-home ownership,” said Tim Underwood, HBA executive vice president and CEO, in a statement accompanying the monthly permit report.

“It is taking longer than many of us expected for consumers to respond to the factors in their favor in the current housing market,” Underwood said. “The optimism is that sales will pick up after the new year. The recent favorable news regarding interest rates and the local economy should ease concerns about a downturn and highlight the opportunities available for new-home buyers.”

Kansas City leads the list of top-permitting area cities with 1,207 single-family homes permitted year to date through November. Olathe ranks second with 574 units, followed by Lee’s Summit with 476. Rounding out the top 10 are Overland Park, 338 units; Kansas City, Kan./Wyandotte Co., 318; Blue Springs, 236; Platte County, 217; Shawnee, 213; Gardner, 208; and Lenexa, 207.

INSIDE Media coverage makes the housing market seem worse than it is, an economist says. C3

Online Networking for Real Estate

Home Equity Line of Credit

Saw an ad the other day. Get a home equity line of credit and give your family the best Chrismas ever?

And we wonder why the lending institutions are having problems. Seems to me they shot themselves in the foot and now wonder why it is bleeding.

What do you think?

Online - Christmas Shopping Tip

Are you new to shopping online? Or shop online a lot?

Have you discovered online coupons?

Many retailers have a list of subscribed users that they send coupons to, buy online, use the coupon code and save a ton of money. Well cyber penny pinchers found a way to help the retailers along and at the same time save you and me some money. You see they have started discount coupons sites all over the internet and no you don't really need to know what they are.

But before you rush to the mall, you might take your shopping list online.

Kids like Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle,. Holister?

Go to www.google.com and do a search for the store name and add the words coupon or discount code. You may just get back several responses that will save you 10% to 50% and get you free shipping. You never know. I tried it and got 35% off at American Eagle, plus free shipping. It let me enter two different coupons - stack them is what it's called I guess.

When I find a great discount code that a Real Estate Investor might use, I am posting these on the MAREI web site under vendors. Then only really great one so far is for vista print and 75% off the price of premium business cards plus a few other coupons and they are posted at www.MAREInet.com in the Vendor section, under Printing.

Plus shopping online, saves you a bunch of gas, no time spend standing in line, and walking by the Mrs Fields shop so many times that you break down and spend $5 for a soda and a cookie. For the life of me I can't see what is in their cookies to make them cost that much?

Happy Shopping, and Merry Christmas.