Real Estate Bloggers Looking for the Best Real Estate blogs around? Wether you're looking for homestaging advices, real estate agents, fsbo support, you're at the right place. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 0 5043

Articles from Real Estate Bloggers

New York Among the Top Greenest Cities 2007-09-26 02:39:17 It’s not easy being green — for a city, that is. It’s tough enough to simply keep up with the endless trash, traffic and pollution generated by urban life. To actually get the better of it with good public transportation, smart recycling programs and the kind of well-kept streets, parks and playgrounds that make cities fun and healthful places to live, that’s the true challenge. So who measures up? Yahoo! picked some places — in no particular order — that they think are doing a great job at putting residents first. New York is among them. New York Surprise! Thanks to its storied (and widely used) public transportation, energy-efficient housing and good water quality, New York rates a place among the nation’s green cities. Central Park makes it even greener. Considered a folly of epic proportions when its 843 swampy, muddy acres were set aside in the 1850s, Central Park is a wilderness within the urban core. More than 80 percent of NYC resid ...

Why People Are Afraid To Buy Your Home (FSBO’s) 2007-09-26 02:25:10 Attention: For Sale By Owners! Why People Are Afraid To Buy From You! Many homeowners believe to maximize their home sale they should sell it themselves. At first glance, they feel selling a home is simple. Why should they pay a broker fee for something they could do themselves? However, close to half of the FSBO’s said that they would hire a professional next time they sold. Thirty percent said they were unhappy with the results they achieved by choosing FSBO. Why? Many FSBO’s told us the time, paperwork and everyday responsibilities involved were not worth the amount of money they saved in commissions. For others, the financial savings were even more disappointing. By the time they figured the fees paid to consultants, inspectors, appraisers, title lawyers, escrow and loan officers, marketing, advertising, they would have been better off to have paid the broker?s fee that would have included many of these charges. Selling a home requires an intimate understanding of the ...

Tiny details count as much as the big things when you’re trying to sell a home. 2007-09-25 14:48:28 You can’t always predict what will capture buyers’ fancy (or what will turn them off). But most buyers respond to certain things, such as a clean, clutter-free home in good repair. Homes that owners keep in tip-top shape for showings garner higher offers than homes that aren’t ready for showtime. You might have already suggested that clients paint their homes or do some major repairs. But other small-scale details can prove just as important in creating a salable home. Here are ten small-scale suggestions that you can give to help sellers prepare their homes for showings. 1. Have a garage sale before the home is listed. Get rid of clutter to allow the buyer to really see your home. Pack away everything you can and clean out items you won’t need in your next home. Homebuyers will expect you to be preparing to move, so a few packing boxes in the basement or other storage area can be used to your advantage. They could be a good visual stimulant to someone who is ...

When people get desperate, all bets are off. 2007-09-25 14:24:03 In my podcast interview with mortgage fraud expert Rachel Dollar we discussed whether incidences of fraud had peaked in 2005 and 2006, which have been deemed the worst vintages of mortgage loans and known for their dubious underwriting quality, or whether we were set to see a spike of fraud cases as home owners became more desperate. Ms. Dollar, co-author (with Ralph Roberts) of Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud: Preserving the American Dream of Homeownership, argued that fraud levels should increase as homeowners, desperate to qualify for lower-rate mortgages do “whatever is necessary” to keep from being shut out of the market by tighter underwriting guidelines. It makes perfect sense - when people see their subprime adjustable rate mortgage payment exploding upward and find out from a mortgage broker that the stated income loan that they qualified for last time is no longer available they have to choose between losing their house and their credit ratin ...

Housing Glut, Lennar Revenue off 44%, Other Goodies 2007-09-25 08:14:08 A bunch of big news out of Wall Street today with the high (low?) lights being the following: Consumer sentiment falls to 2-year low after peaking in July (a massive reversal of sentiment) Lennar (a large OC-based home builder) sees its revenue fall 44% and miss even the most pessimistic analyst estimates Housing rises to an 18-year high as unsold home inventory sky-rockets amongst weakening existing home sales Consumer Sentiment Consumers are finally starting to realize that their homes are no longer the never-ending ATMs they thought they were, as mortgage equity withdrawal fueled seemingly unsustainable consumer spending.  Now that housing and job losses begin to mount consumers are not as confident as they were just two short months ago, when consumers were very confident in the direction of the economy.  From Bloomberg: Consumer confidence slumped to the lowest level in almost two years and home sales weakened, threatening U.S. household spending and bolstering the case for t ...

Discount real estate agents face tougher mls rules. 2007-09-25 05:49:44 MLS is changing the rules in order to “protect their MLS trademark”. Here is a recent Real Estate Article from an Ottawa based writer for Canadian Business Magazine. The author also posted some info on his blog about his own experiences selling For-Sale-By-Owner. www.bytheowner.com ...

Slow American housing recovery 2007-09-25 05:31:20 America’s housing slow down will be a long haul and a full recovery won’t occur until at least some time in 2009, according to a new report by Housing Predictor, which forecasts more than 250 local housing market futures in all 50 U.S. states. The report comes on the heals of a Yale University economist warning to Congress that there may be future shocks to the nation’s housing markets. Economist Robert Shiller, who authored a book warning of the real estate market collapse four years ago told Congress he feared that “the collapse of home prices might turn out to be the most severe since the Great Depression.”� “The decline in house prices stands to create future dislocations, like the credit crisis we have just seen,”� he told the Senate’s joint economic committee. The present real estate slow down has evolved into a crisis with tightening credit standards for home buyers seeking mortgages. The slow down in the housing market is gaini ...

Home Staging “? show me the money! 2007-09-25 04:12:56 Home Staging has become an important and, often, necessary marketing tool to sell a property successfully. What do we mean by success? Usually, the clients are looking to achieve two objectives when putting their property up for sale: they want to sell it quickly and they want to make MONEY, as much money as possible. The return on investment can be sizeable but, like any other business venture, success requires a strategy, a budget and a concrete action plan (preparation). How can Home Staging contribute to these objectives? Each marketplace being different and each client’s situation unique, Home Staging techniques need to be flexible and adjustable. Nevertheless, the only goal is to sell the property faster and for more money than the competition based on the local market statistical averages. For example, in Montreal, Canada, between January and July 2007 a single family home took on average 79 days to sell and sold for 95% of the listed price. A condominium took on avera ...

PSA: Help out a devastated family”¦ 2007-09-24 14:58:53 One of our fellow real estate bloggers, Lani Anglin, tragically lost her brother in a car accident; and her brother’s family lost a father and husband.  Obviously an unexpected loss like that is devastating and I extend my heartfelt sorrow and hope for healing and peace for the rest of Aaron Anglin’s family members. Aaron has two small children and a wife; and they will face some tough days ahead, while the demands of life tick on.  If you’d like to make a small donation to a nice family who was hammered by inconceivable loss please read more here. Information on donations is as follows: If you can spare something for them, put it in the form of negotiable funds “? cash, cashier’s check or money order “? and overnight it to: Aleisha Anglin c/o Lani Anglin 2719 Costa Azul Cove Leander, TX 78641 April is working on setting up a donation account with Bank of America, and I’ll amend this post when that account becomes available. While I do ...

Bernanke - we’re watching you! 2007-09-24 13:14:47 A great little spoof on Ben Bernanke’s interest rate policy to the music of the Police…enjoy and thanks for one of our friend’s of the site for sending it in; a Monday gem. Share This ...

Real Estate Market Prediction 2007-09-24 12:01:27 Housing crash in US could soon ripple here: Turner Canada’s booming housing market could feel a chill by the end of the year, thanks to a real estate crash and mortgage crisis south of the border. As up to a million and a half US homeowners walk away from their houses and mortgages, the result has been a credit crunch, a construction bust, sagging car sales and an expected American recession. According to financial author and Member of Parliament Garth Turner, Canadian families should expect to see an impact in this country, including a real estate softening and economic slowdown. “Many people think that somehow Canada is immune to all of this,”� Turner says, “but the likelihood is they’re wrong. The US is clearly struggling right now to contain a financial crisis and a meltdown in consumer confidence, and a recession in the States is going to have a significant impact on all of us.”� Turner says this is already happening. Recent layoffs at General ...

By the Numbers 2007-09-24 10:05:44 I hope you enjoy the following “By the Number$” summary provided by mortgage consultants Eleanor and Steve Thorne. If you or someone you know needs help with home financing, give them a call at 919.649.5057. 1) THE WHITE HOUSE AND WALL STREET - A presidential election will be held next year on 11/04/08. In the last 20 presidential elections (dating back to 1928), Democratic and Republican candidates have split the final results with each party winning 10 times . Republican victories have occurred in election years where the S&P 500 has gained +14.8% (total return) on average, while Democratic wins have taken place in years where the S&P 500 has gained +10.4% on average. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the US stock market (source: BTN Research). 2) ACTUAL vs. AVERAGE - The actual returns of the S&P 500 over the last 50 years ( i.e., 50 separate 1-year returns produced from 1957- ...

Terminator Asks for Fannie Loan Amount Exception for CA 2007-09-24 09:19:39 Hat tip to our friend Keith at Housing Panic, and you should be reading Realty Check by CNBC’s Diana Orlick, its a great blog. The Terminator, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a letter to Congress requesting an exception for California from the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac federally-mandated loan limits. The current loan limit for conforming loans is $417,000 in California. Schawarzenegger argues that California has market conditions similar to high-cost states such as Hawaii (whose loan limit is 50% higher than the remaining states). You could’ve seen this coming as the Governor put it in his letter: “The current GSE conforming loan limit for lenders willing to originate conforming mortgage loans for median-priced homes in California is $417,000; however, according to the California Association of Realtors, the median price of a single family residence in July was $586,030. Again, this disparity makes these products practically irrelevant in California,&rdq ...

Real estate search engines 2007-09-24 06:20:40 Trulia’s on top of real estate search Trulia.com, the Internet’s leading real estate search engine, announced today that the company ranks alongside Google and Yahoo! search engines as one of the top three contributors of traffic to real estate companies. According to the latest data released by online competitive intelligence service company Hitwise, Trulia was a top three traffic contributor to 12 of the largest residential real estate franchisors and brokerages in the past month (August 18 — September 15, 2007). Consistently outpacing fellow online real estate marketing sites Google Base, Craigslist, HomeGain, Realtor.com and Zillow, Trulia referred, on average, 11% of the traffic being directed to a diverse group of franchisors, regional franchisee firms and independent brokerage firms in the past month, including: Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, ERA Franchise Systems LLC, Keller Williams Realty, Intero Real Estate Services, Weichert, ...

Real estate market remains healthy 2007-09-23 03:32:19 Toronto-Dominion Bank reports on the housing market The pace of home sales in Canada is “likely to cool”� a bit next year, but housing market conditions will remain healthy, Toronto-Dominion Bank said in a report Friday. The TD economists predict that the pace of resale activity in 2008 will “pare back moderately by 4 per cent from this year’s peak; price gains will ease from 10 per cent to 7 per cent; and housing starts will continue to edge down, to 204,000 units.”� The bank said the current pace of activity across Canadian markets, particularly in Western Canada, is not sustainable “and some easing in activity is a good bet.”� However, “a U.S.-style correction is not in the cards,”�. “As we watch the unfolding of a severe housing market correction in the United States, Canadian homeowners and investors might be asking themselves if such a scenario is likely to occur in their own market.”� Reuters news agency rep ...