The Denbar Group

Buying again

info@denbar.com — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:28:00 GMT

It's been a while - you know, the recession and all that sort of thing. It's great that we can now blame just about every thing on the recession. I can tell how long it has been is because my last or second last post mentioned selling, and now we are back in a buying mode again - or so I am told. So anyone has something to offload ....?

Trying out a new content management product (Terapad)

info@denbar.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:53:00 GMT

Check out our new site layout and let us know what you think. We are considering investing in Terapad, and what better way to do any due dilegence than actually running the product ourselves! In the past we have developed our own content management systems (when the net was still young!). But with so many great products out there and many for free, it made no sense keeping up with ours or trying to productize what we had developed.

So instead, Steve stuck with developing financial and payment products. However there now seems to be a need to provide some kind of simple content management that can go along with our applications, especially for small business clients. So we are checking things out. If you are a techie web applications company, email and let me know if you guys are experiencing the same thing and if you are pursuing that also. Steven just wanted to leave it alone, but some of us convinced him that we should at least look into some options even if we don't develop it ourselves.

More Properties for Sale

info@denbar.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:10:00 GMT

In case you have not heard, our selling spree has not ended. No, we are not getting out of the business, but we are trying to make things easier to manage and not have so many small properties spread out all over the place. We are also trying to get away from 2nd level management of most of our properties and instead invest with equity partners or buy into other firms projects.

In addition, Steve wants to test a new concept of combining real estate and tech products into a joint portfolio and in order to do this he wants to get into some guaranteed cash flow projects - this is where the developer 'guarantees' a minimum cash flow which is based on the cumulative principal similar to preferred stock of public companies.

So here are the locations of what is on the block currently. Email back if you have any interest in knowing more.

State St. Ankeny, IA. Five 8-unit buildings whole block. Sell separate or all.
Belmont Av. Ankeny, IA. Four 12 unit buildings (not all adjacent)
The Plaza Kansas City. Four newer luxury condos
SV Rd. Mahim Bombay (India) - 6 unit co-op (condo)
Plano Parkway, Dallas TX. 1/20th TIC share of 250 unit corp housing apts.
University Park, Waterloo Ontario (Canada) - 12 unit student housing suites

Closing down the online wifi store

info@denbar.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:09:00 GMT

We are no longer selling Wifi equipment online. We are really not an online merchant, but wanted to try it out since we had so many request from small to midsize property management companies to set up something for them. Although we tried to make it a completely configured system that you could use out of the box, most people had different needs and wanted changes to the set up. This type of consultative sale does not lend itself very well to the web, so we decided to pull the store.

However, if anyone is interested in more information or education on how to set up Wifi for apartment communities we would be happy to reply via email or though this forum. We may even sell a few products as part of a long term contract. Right now, just ask for what you need and we can work something out.

Happy Easter

info@denbar.com — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:59:00 GMT

It seems like I just gave everyone Happy Christmas wishes and it is Easter already. Hope you all have a great Easter or great Sunday if you don’t celebrate Easter. I’m probably going to be off for a few days. For those of you in the Cedarloo area, you can take your kids to our annual Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Email back for more info.

Another Rate Drop

info@denbar.com — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:54:00 GMT

OK. This time I think we need to look at refinancing. We still have some at the 4+% rate, but since those expire in less than a year, might want to do those even though that is a higher rate. Anyone have thoughts about that? If we can fix for at least 5 years at say 5% or so, in the long run it may still be worth it. Of course, I am just a wannabe blogger shooting my mouth off. Don't know what the investors think of any of this yet. But very interested in knowing what other people think.

G'Night!

Belated Happy New Year

info@denbar.com — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:33:00 GMT

Been away for a while, so Merry Christmas and happy new year to all. Hope the year is fun for all

Thanksgiving Wishes

info@denbar.com — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:16:00 GMT

Have a great Thanksgiving!
Go out and shop your heart out on Friday. Our economy needs a boost!

Dubai Real Estate

info@denbar.com — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:27:00 GMT

From Mark J -

We get asked a lot about Dubai and why we invest in India versus a place like Dubai. I don't have any great business or financial reason to give you. Honestly, the answer is that when we first started looking offshore, India was one of the places we were familiar with. Steven's old business had a recruting and sales office there as well as a couple of small development centers. So he was familiar with the market and more importantly saw first hand the rate at which property appreciates over there.

Regarding Dubai, our main concern is that private ownership is very new. With all it's problems, India follows the rule of law and private owndership has been around for centuries. Even now, Dubai is still working out how to give actual ownship to individuals and also how this fits in with immigration, since there is no such thing as a "permanent resident".

I've just got back from a trip over there, and the stories are true. They are building like crazy - on land, on islands, right in the water - everywhere. The development of the buildings are mostly funded directly or indirectly by the Sheik, which is to say, the government. I still have not figured out who all are buying all these properties. I can see all the expats from all different countries who live there in rental homes may be interested in purchasing, but there are only so many of them. Most of the buying has got to come from outside the country.

Singapore Property

info@denbar.com — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:56:53 GMT

While everyone keeps talking about the real estate boom in India and China, you don't hear too much about Singapore, which is also experiencing crazy demand. It also is probably a safer place to invest. Check out this report on Singapore from USB.

Online Reservation System Beta launches

info@denbar.com — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:53:00 GMT

Another product we can use ourselves as well as sell to other companies. Our online reservation system for our hotels and vacation rentals launched today. This beta test is available only to employees and our software partner. After a few months of testing and bug fixing we will start putting all reservations on this system. We don't plan to make this available to the general public until next year.

India Fund I Distribution

info@denbar.com — Sun, 06 May 2007 05:24:00 GMT

Not really sure if I should be posting this here, but since Steven asked us to add anything we think is news worthy, here goes.

We have our first distribution of the year planned for June 1, 2007. We will be distributing $2,000 per unit (share) owned. That of course is 8% of the initial investment share amount of $25,000. It looks like we will be able to make at least one more distribution of the same amount before the end of the year, and still be pretty conservative with our investments. All funds are in well diversified mutual funds that are reasonably conservative.

Online payments service service launched

info@denbar.com — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:19:00 GMT

Beta launched with FF and First Bank as sponsors

Denbar Group Site Launches

info@denbar.com — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:23:00 GMT

Not much else to say. Here we are. Happy New Year!