Mortgages and Real Estate
When a picture is worth .... the asking price: Why pro photos will pay off when selling your home
It's been long established that curb appeal has moved to your computer screen. For at least two years now, the National Association of Realtors has been saying that at least 85% of all home buyers first saw the house they wound up buying on the Internet. We can't think of a better reason to get the best possible photos taken and posted online. Yet the realty industry's reaction has been slow and curious: Agents continue to shoot listing photos with their cell phone cameras.OK, that's a slight exaggeration to make a point. Sometimes, Realtors actually invest in a digital camera and shoot the photos themselves. But as professional photographers like to say, "Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer; it makes you a Nikon owner."
Million Dollar Listing: Don't let Realtors fool you with listing presentation BS
On a recent episode of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing, Ben Bacal of Keller Williams Realty teamed up with one of the show's stars, Chad Rogers, to sell a potential client on the benefits of listing a house for sale with the pair.Bacal launches into a spiel about how great his firm is: "Keller Williams is totally tapped into the internet market. . . A lot of the top reasons to move to Keller Williams Real Estate: We also put you on Trulia, Google, Yahoo! Real Estate, HomeScape, Zillow, FrontDoor. . ."
Homeowners may be able to rent rather than lose home to foreclosure
If you're having trouble making your mortgage payments, but want to stay in your home, you may get the option if your loan is held by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae announced a new program recently that will allow you to stay in your home as a renter if you hand back the deed to the lender. This new "Deed for Lease Program" will allow families to stay in their home rather than being displaced. It will also help to stem foreclosures and prevent further deterioration of neighborhoods filled with vacant foreclosures, according to an announcement from Frannie Mae.
College town housing remains affordable, according to Coldwell Banker
Instead of sitting on the couch watching college football, make yourself useful: go buy some college-town real estate!According to a new report from Coldwell Banker, "Every fall, college football fans feel nostalgic for the tradition, lifestyle and spirit of their college towns as they cheer on their favorite teams. This year's Coldwell Banker(R) College Home Price Comparison Index (HPCI) reveals that these school-centric areas also sport very affordable homes, in addition to the culture and economic stability associated with higher education institutions - making them great areas to purchase real estate."
Hey y'all! Index finds happiest U.S. states are in nation's vast heartland
Think you're seeing a lot more glum faces in your neighborhood? That's likely the case if you live in one of four states with high home-foreclosure rates: Florida, Nevada, California and Arizona. Those normally majestic, carefree states ranked as the least happiest, at least when it comes to money matters, a new survey shows.And where might you find some of the most smiley people? According to Mainstreet.com's Happiness Index, dead in the center of the country, where some of the country's least densely populated states can be found. Nebraska was at the top of heap, followed by Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Montana.
Emerging real estate trends: Buy infill, avoid suburbs
Buy apartments, hotels, land and distressed properties, but focus on infill while avoiding the fringes; hold onto office buildings until the market improves; look for deals in shopping malls, but only in upscale areas.Oh, and go ahead and grab that Miami Beach ocean-view condo you've had your eye on.
That was the advice to real estate investors from experts in a webcast release WalletPop tapped into this week for the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010 Report, co-sponsored by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Ready to gamble that your home value will tumble more?
Queasy-stomached home owners who can't bear to watch the equity in their homes continue to dwindle have an option: Equity protection policies. These policies, will, for a fee that generally ranges from 1% to 3% of your home's equity, guarantee against further losses when it comes time to sell. Most of the policies work like this: At the time the contract is purchased, the company takes a snapshot of the average home price in the customer's ZIP code. If, at the time of sale the ZIP Code property value has declined, the company would make up the difference -- in most cases, less a 10% "deductible."
Overseas housing too pricey for most Americans
Krakow, Poland may be a real estate steal, but it's arrevederci Roma and ciao to Milan and Florence, too, for anyone expecting to roll U.S. home sales profits into a European domicile -- except for those already living in such high-cost enclaves as Beverly Hills and Greenwich, Conn. A recent home price comparison index by Coldwell Banker Real Estate found those Italian cities out of reach for most anyone not already living in stateside luxury.Milan and Florence weighed in at over $1.6 million for a home, on average; Rome just under $1.3 million. And that's dollars, not lira (which, of course, don't even exist anymore).
Also out of reach for many Americans these days are the pink sands of Hamilton, Bermuda, Bucaresti, Romania and Shanghai, all averaging above $1.3 million, not to mention Vancouver and Dublin at $1.1 million -- and Dubai trailing not far behind.
The most expensive market is not in Italy, however. It's in Singapore, where homes average nearly $1.9 million. Coldwell Banker points out that is "10% lower than La Jolla" but fails to mention it is also 10 times the average home value in everyday places like Phoenix, Mobile, Ala, Lexington, KY, and Syracuse, NY.
Cracking open the real estate market in Krakow; Is Poland the new Park Slope?
Time was when the sage advice was to "go west young man" in search of fame, fortune and nifty real estate deals. But in 2009, heading east may be a better idea. At least if you are starting out in the U.S. And, when I say east, I mean like all the way to Poland! Now hold on to your Polish zlotys while I explain this one:
Seems Poland, Krakow in particular, is a darn good place to not only indulge in a sausage or two, but also to buy up chunks of real estate at prices that are down anywhere from 9% to 17%.
Why the Home Buyer Tax Credit should be allowed to expire
It appears Uncle Sam will keep propping up the still shaky real estate market for months to come. The Senate last night voted to extend the $8,000 first-time home buyers tax credit, and the House followed suit today. The president is expected to soon sign it into law. But is the bill good for real estate? Not at all. What better way to fix a bubble caused by way too much home ownership than to encourage more home ownership?
Extending the home buyer tax credit is a bad idea because the real estate market doesn't need it. The panic phase of the housing crisis is essentially over. Americans know full well that house prices are no longer in free fall, but still have a ways to go before resembling anything close to a recovery.
Bad actors continue to prey on seniors
Amy Pyle
Nov 4th 2009 @ 5:00PM EST
Filed Under: Banks, Borrowing, Home, Insurance, Real Estate, Retire, Fraud, Mortgages
Bad actors have solidly shifted their attention to reverse mortgages, causing a top consumer organization to warn seniors to choose such loans carefully. A new report by the National Consumer Law Center likens the aggressive lending practices in today's reverse mortgage lending to those common in the sub-prime mortgage heyday -- featuring some of the same players.
"Well-funded marketing campaigns and perverse incentives to brokers are targeting seniors' home equity and using reverse mortgages as their tools," attorney Tara Twomey said in the NCLC news release.
Recession tales: Housing bust has improved sense of community
Once upon a time, two or three years ago, when the housing market was robust and homes sold in a matter of days, people seemed to move a lot. Or ,even if they didn't move, they thought they might. Everything seemed so temporary. We had "starter homes" and people were "trading up." Homes were financial investments rather than investments in something far less tangible -- our community.
If there's one side effect of the recession that warms my heart, it's the fact that people are less mobile, less likely to move so much.
Homes aren't selling, employers aren't recruiting and paying relocation costs at the same high rates, and people are settling into their homes with the knowledge it's going to be awhile before moving becomes an option.
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Lita EpsteinNov 5th 2009 @ 9:00AM Filed Under: Borrowing, Credit, Debt, Saving Money, Recession, Credit cards
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There's no doubt that the current downturn has changed people's spending habits. Since the peak in housing wealth, homeowners...
Bad actors continue to prey on seniors
Bad actors have solidly shifted their attention to reverse mortgages, causing a top consumer organization to warn seniors...
Ryan MinickNov 2nd 2009 @ 2:00PM Filed Under: Borrowing, Real Estate, Video, The2MortgageGuys, Mortgages, Refinancing
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Homebuyers did not have to truly be first-timers in order to qualify for the "first time homebuyer" tax credit, expiring...
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