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How to protect your home equity in a falling market 2007-09-22 12:11:54 If you own a home with a substantial amount of equity the recent news reports of potential home price drops of 15% to 50% in the next year must be alarming. Particularly if you were planning on using your home equity to fund retirement, college or other large obligations in your future. Watching equity that you were counting on disappear in to thin air makes everyone queasy. But don’t feel powerless - there are a couple of ways to protect your home equity from a falling home market. The No-Cost Home Equity Line of Credit is one excellent vehicle that can be used to protect your equity. There are others, which we’ll cover in future posts; but today we are going to focus on using the Home Equity vehicle as a way to protect equity in your real estate. Of course, there isn’t anything that you can do to control the proclivities of your local market and the capricious way in which the housing recession (and we’re headed that way) will wipe out thousands of dollar ...

Sponsor Love 2007-09-22 09:03:28 Something we do weekly around here (missed a couple because of the vacation) is give a little link love to our sponsors that help us provide the fuel to the Blown Mortgage fire.  Thanks to all of our sponsors and all of our readers - I am deeply appreciative of each and every one of you. MyFICO.com - Credit is king these days. MyFICO.com lets you manage your report and keep an eye on your score, with out presky trigger-lead phone calls. An invaluable service. My wife and I use it ourselves. I’ve raised my personal score over 100 points in less than two years (through hard work and being cognizant of my score) using MyFICO.com. OfferAngel.com - Blown Mortgage is all about transparency and honesty. OfferAngel.com offers both. Consumers - is your head swimming from the myriad mortgage offers you’ve received? Get clarity and insight in to what each offer really is. Loan officers - tired of dealing with bait-and-switch bozos promising the moon to unwitting customers? Wipe th ...

Toronto’s condo corridor 2007-09-22 02:49:16 Here is information on the condo deveopments on the market in central Toronto from Bloor Street to Davenport Road, between the Don River and the Humber River. Parking space and storage locker are not included in price unless indicated. 1. THE BELLAGIO ON BLOOR: 300 Bloor St. E., northwest corner Bloor and Mount Pleasant Ave. Builder: Pinnacle International and Mondiale Developments. A 33-storey, 279-unit glass building with precast stone. Prices: $1.795 million for 1,820 sq. ft. Fees: about 46 cents per sq. ft. Sales: six left. Status: built. Occupancy: immediate. Sales centre: by appointment only, 416-925-3325 or 416-587-2218; bellagiopenthouses.com. 2. BROWNSTONES ON WALLACE: On Wallace Ave., west of Perth St. Builder: Montevello Developments. Four-storey, stacked brick townhouses with about 134 units. Prices: from $255,000 for about 800 sq. ft. to $270,000 for 1,000 sq. ft. Fees: 16 cents per sq. ft., plus heat and hydro. Sales: about 75 per cent sold. Status: construction to star ...

The future of real estate? 2007-09-21 07:45:39 Buying or Selling a home from your computer A new Website from California will debut on Sept. 25 that will allow home sellers and buyers to haggle, cement a deal and see it through completion — all online, and all without the help of a real estate agent. RealUmbrella is a patented system that will guide sellers and buyers through the home-sale process, from the initial listing to the final closing. Using a secure server, sellers who list their home through RealUmbrella will be able to view comparable listings on the site to set an asking price for their property, post their home listing on popular Web sites like Zillow and Trulia, and upload a schedule online of open house dates for buyers to see. Using contract forms that are legal in each state, buyers will be able to make offers on homes, secure financing, and arrange for inspections and title searches. Because the site will allow for electronic signatures, the entire process will take place online. Theoretically, a transactio ...

Toronto Real Estate Board: 2007-09-21 01:57:42 Autumn Market Going Strong With 3,236 sales so far in this mounth, re-sale housing activity has increased 11 per cent as compared to the first half of September 2006, Toronto Real Estate Board President Maureen O’Neill announced today. The past five consecutive months have been record-breakers and September is on track to follow suit. It is four per cent ahead of the 3,112 recorded during the first half of September 2005, which became the best September ever. “Some economists who predicted a soft landing may have to revise their forecasts, said O’Neill. The real estate market continues to prove its strength month after month. There simply is no better investment.” The average price for a home in the Greater Toronto Area currently stands at $364,364, an increase of nine per cent compared to first half of September 2006. Neighbourhoods throughout the Greater Toronto Area reported strong sales in the first two weeks of this month. The High Park area of Toronto (W2 ...

Decision One Closed by HSBC (Updated) 2007-09-20 19:36:09 Update: HSBC did, in fact, shutter Decision One today in an announcement. The move will affect 750 workers.  Read Bloomberg’s coverage here. Rumors have been swirling over at thetruthaboutmortgage.com and ml-implode.com that voices within Decision One have confirmed that HSBC is planning on shuttering the company tomorrow. From thetruthaboutmortgage.com: I’ve received multiple e-mails today from sources close to Decision One who say the lender will be shutting its doors tomorrow. The subprime lending unit of HSBC has been struggling like many other wholesale mortgage lenders in recent months, and it looks like they may finally be calling it quits. I reported Decision One layoffs just over a week ago after a source mentioned that the lender had cut a few hundred employees and closed its Phoenix sales center. HSBC acquired D1 (as Decision One is known) in 2003. The subprime lender was known for getting “tricky loans” done and from the people I spoke with was o ...

Article on phantom bids 2007-09-20 09:45:34 The Toronto Star recently wrote about real estate agents and the practice of phantom bidding tactics. Here is a link to the article: The secret’s out on phantom bids: Registry, open bidding needed to stamp out phony offer scams, some realtors say. www.bytheowner.com ...

Questionable tactics in the hot GTA market 2007-09-20 09:28:22 The Toronto Star writes about Bidding and Bitterness : Anger and uncertainty linger in debate over questionable tactics in the hot GTA market. The Toronto star also writes about cheaper ways to sell you home. www.bytheowner.com ...

O Canada! Your dollar shines like thee.. 2007-09-20 09:13:33 Above sung to the Canadian National Anthem. For the first time since the 1970’s the US Dollar and the Canadian dollar have reached parity. That’s right - no hopping north of the border for some cheap smokes and booze! See what happens when the Fed flirts with a total dollar accident with a “market saving” 50 basis point cut to the fed funds rate? From Market Watch today: The dollar has fallen significantly against most major currencies since the Fed made a larger-than-expected half-point cut in both its federal funds target as well as the discount rate on Tuesday, in a move aimed at preventing the credit woes from the subprime mortgage meltdown from dragging down the broader economy. Lower rates erode the returns on dollar-denominated assets, so the Fed’s announcement sent the dollar into a tailspin against every major currency except Japan’s low-yielding yen. “The U.S. dollar is clearly being sacrificed by the Federal Reserve in a last d ...

Homes.com Posts Record Web Site Traffic 2007-09-20 01:37:42 Homes.com, announced its highest Web site traffic in the company’s history. Based on comScore Media Metrix’s monthly analysis, Homes.com experienced significant growth in both Web site visits and unique visitors, showing an increase of nearly 13% in unique visitors between June 2007 and August 2007, and a 40% increase in year-over-year unique visitors. According to the company, Homes.com attributes its growing success to a number of business initiatives, including redesigning the Web site and carving out a niche for itself in customer service. “It has always been our goal to facilitate relationships between home buyers and REALTORS,” said Jason Doyle, Homes.com general manager. Stevan Cirkovic, Homes.com director of product development explains, “Our steady and continuing increase in traffic indicates that the Homes.com redesign in April 2007 was a turning point. We are utilizing the same principles to improve our site that we recommend to our clients. The ...

If Craigslist Were Raising Money, What Would It Be Worth? 2007-09-19 22:46:44 Zillow announced today that the real estate media company raised $30 million in a round led by private-equity firm Legg Mason. What’s interesting to us is how the world is reacting to one of the biggest venture investments since the 1990’s. Becky Buckman at the Wall Street Journal speculates that the valuation was $350 million, but without mentioning whether this includes the $30 million in cash. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is the only one to notice that Legg Mason was the same investor that led the other mammoth Web 2.0 investment this year, the $44 million round in Marc Andressen’s Ning from July 2007. VentureBeat reports the news on the heels of a depressing announcement that a 6th-grader raised $6.5 million. Seattle’s John Cook goes deep with a Rich Barton interview in which the Zillow CEO describes a money-raising effort that wasn’t an effort at all. What struck me most about this interview though was Rich’s reaction to Web 2.0 startups, whi ...

Completing a real estate transaction 2007-09-19 05:35:54 What you should know about a real estate closing The Agreement of Purchase and Sale (the “Agreement”�) has been signed by both you and the other party and now you are contemplating your next step. The first thing that you should keep in mind, whether you are a seller or a buyer, is that there are usually conditions in the Agreement that benefit the buyer and allow the buyer to do certain things before the Agreement is “firm”�. For instance, there is usually a provision in the Agreement where the purchase of the property is made conditional upon the buyer obtaining satisfactory financing, or conditional upon a home inspection that is satisfactory to the buyer. If the purchase is of a condominium, the buyer will likely make the Agreement conditional upon the buyer’s solicitor reviewing a status certificate which outlines the status of the condominium including its financial stability and liabilities. If you are purchasing a re-sale home or a condominium, y ...

House-hunting for the über-rich 2007-09-19 04:56:14 For house hunters at the highest echelon of the housing market “? we’re talking properties valued in the millions “? touring homes may involve being escorted in a private jet or helicopter for an aerial view, according to the website for the Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom. Buyers of such homes often acquire their residences through private sales, “low-key transactions”� in which the availability of the residence is known only to a select few, and the home never actually hits the public market. Buyers can be charged “house-search fees.”� For instance, one company, Quintessentially Estates, charges clients 1.5% the price of a property “? or £30,000 for a £2 million property, the website says. The real-estate agents who facilitate such sales often do more than just initiate and close the transaction “? they often stay involved, helping with details like finding furnishings, introducing families to local schools and host ...

US Prime Rate Cut Unlikely to Spread North 2007-09-19 03:44:00 Yesterday’s announcement of a cut to a key US interest rate is unlikely to be mirrored in Canada, say financial experts, as the loonie soars and the Canadian housing market holds strong. The U.S. Federal Reserve announced a half-point cut to its federal funds rate on Tuesday, in hopes of avoiding a nation-wide recession. The move comes in the middle of a spiralling housing market and the first slump in the labour market in four years. U.S. recession fears have wreaked havoc with stock markets worldwide, but Canada’s Central bank is expected to hold interest rates steady to ward off inflation in the midst of a strong economy, according to the Canadian Press. ...

PSA: Traveling Today 2007-09-19 03:28:41 Hey Everyone - Today is the last day of my vacation which will be spent aboard several aircraft criss-crossing back from Hartford, CT to Los Angeles, CA.  We’ll be back up with plenty of Fed commentary and more tomorrow. - Morgan Share This ...