Estate and mortgage
Question: What can you do with the investment property you have obtained by way of a Starker exchange? Everyone I know that has done an exchange has not, in my opinion, kept the property as investment.
The Kamstra family is the new face of homelessness. They are white collar parents with three children who have lost their home due to catastrophic events and job loss. Sharon Osbourne featured the Kamstras in a segment on her new television show "The Sharon Osbourne Show," proving to the world that she is more than a personality -- she"s a sympathetic listener with a heart.
Forbes magazine ranked Austin, Texas, #3 in its Best Cities for Jobs in 2008 and that makes Austin a great target area for real estate. The Texas state capital city came in #1 for income growth in the Forbes list and #2 for job growth. When you consider that houses are where the jobs go at night, then Austin homeowners are sure to rest well, knowing they"re in a good spot for equity growth.
Silicon Valley"s housing market is rearing its volatile head again.
Single-family home prices in Silicon Valley are among the last in the state to avoid year-over-year declines, but that"s likely to end this year.
An influx of displaced Gulf Coast residents, as well as those setting up shop to provide rescue, relief and rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina -- along with the obligatory group of speculators circling for real estate carrion -- may be creating a small Baton Rouge housing bubble that"s as fragile as New Orlean"s century-old levee system.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan"s latest speech on the housing market should lift the spirits of home owners who have been repeatedly warned of impending doom, but that doesn"t mean the market won"t bite you in the bucks if your timing is off.
Realtors Jeff and Debby Adler have seen a further decline in home sales in New Jersey towards the end of 2007.
The latest forecast for the California housing market"s reversal of fortunes jibes with a previous outlook predicting flat, rather than falling home prices in California for the next few years.
The national condo market has a problem -- too much inventory. That from the National Association of Home Builder’s top economist, David Seiders. A report released last week, shows that builder confidence eroded in third quarter of 2007 in the Multifamily Condo Market Index. Current conditions in the condo market have hit its lowest level since the index was created five years ago, according to NAHB.
The housing downturn has come with media critics proclaiming real estate news coverage is too slanted in the direction of real estate market doom and gloom.
As the residential real estate market slows down on a national basis, real estate investors are asking themselves, how will this affect me?
Forget the Super Bowl. Forget the upcoming elections. There"s one subject that has everybody"s attention riveted on Capitol Hill right now: The Economic Stimulus Package. What"s in it? What"s been left out? When do we start cashing our rebate checks?
Green Living is a popular movement developing in the wake of growing fears about the changing of our environment.
San Jose, California, is on its way to a brighter economic picture, according to the city"s latest Economic Center Report. Job growth rose through 2007 and commercial real estate vacancy has dropped by nearly a third, creating opportunity for those selling and buying in the nation"s 10th largest city.
In a growing number of areas in the tiny, historic town of Aspen, CO, it feels a lot like an empty movie set. The lights are on, but in many cases, well, nobody"s home.
IKEA is doing for Scandinavia and Northern England, what Home Depot is doing for America"s Gulf Coast region -- offering affordable "kit homes" off the shelf.
Question: Do most homeowner associations allow window air conditioning units?
Is this a great time to buy in the Southwest? In Reno, Nevada, Broker Thomas Lee is reporting that with a vibrant economy -- this is a good city to buy in.
Recent pronouncements indicate there may be good news on the horizon for builders who have been plagued by the subprime mortgage meltdown, slow sales and softening prices. Only history will tell if the espoused optimism for 2009 is correct. We do not, however, have to wait till then to see community success today. The Intelligent Community Forum announced last month its list of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year, each a model for economic development in the 21st Century, at PTC"08 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Each provide broadband technologies and secure local government support as the engines for community growth.
The current downswing in mortgage rates isn"t just good for homeowners refinancing.
Does it take seasoned sales experts to sell new homes in a challenging market like this?
Baja Mexico -- an area surrounded by water -- with flat lands and mountains, covered by sand and cactus is home to Mexicans and vacationers alike. Those that love sun, come here. A recent visit unravels fascinating details.
Marco Island sits 10 miles off the coast of Naples in the Gulf of Mexico.
You don"t have to try to be Tom Sawyer the next time your fence or house needs a fresh coat of paint. Instead, maybe you need a new product that will enable you to hang up the paintbrush for good.
Make sure your 2008 vacation home marketing includes an international outreach effort.
If you refinanced your home recently, you"re not alone. According to Plunkett Research, approximately $1.1 trillion dollars in mortgage loans was refinanced in the United States in 2006. But did you remember to take an increased mortgage interest deduction on your tax return if you were entitled to one?
San Antonio, Texas, known as The Alamo city, has seen prices rise in recent months.
If fence-sitting new home buyers way out West wait much longer for the bottom of the market, it could very well slip out from under them.
If you"re looking for a safe haven for real estate investing, you just might want to go back to school.
Question: I"m an investor presently buying two pre-construction homes in Florida. I"m concerned about the downturn in the market. Are the sales and prices holding up, and what is the inventory of homes for sale?
It"s getting tough for tourists to find homey vacation rentals on several Hawaiian islands -- and owners who operate the rentals say they are getting a raw deal.
Housing market conditions are squeezing the equity out of homes, but the right home improvement on the right home can help shore up equity and even improve the home"s value.
Many people probably don"t think too much about how important it is to name a beneficiary for their IRAs. However, as my family recently found out, ignoring this important detail when setting up your IRA can be costly from a tax perspective.
You"re fresh out of college and into your first real job – a position that affords you more than your weekly ration of Ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese. That"s good news.
Realtor Frank J. Mosca, of Stony Brook, New York -- located on the North Shore of Long Island, reports that "for the first time in the last five years, Long Island home prices are rising by less than 10 percent annually. That"s giving home sellers pause, because they can"t expect huge jumps in values anymore, while buyers have some reason to rejoice, because they have more time and more choices."
Summerville, South Carolina, is on course for this time of year.
On a cold winter day, there"s nothing quite like snuggling by a cozy, wood-burning fireplace -- right? It"s comforting and when you go to resell your home it can add value depending on how your particular fireplace is set up.
Question: My lender has gone bankrupt but has not sold my loan to another lender. The interest rate continues to rise every month. How I can get the loan transferred and then modify the current loan into a fixed-rate loan?
Freddie Mac is using YouTube drama to get the word out about foreclosure fraud.
Maybe all the criticism and jokes about Senator Chris Dodd being AWOL from his housing and mortgage legislative duties on Capitol Hill -- while he runs for President at the back of the pack -- are financially getting his attention.
Question: We recently read that names should not be included in the minutes. Can we legally go back over the past few years and strike the any names from the minutes which have already been approved?
Today"s Interest Rates from Realty Times are based on a 30 year amortization rate, with good credit and no origination fees.
Most real estate sales training is focused on: Focusing. Or perhaps more aptly: Laser-focused prospecting.
Your past clients can be an absolute gold mine of future business if worked properly. You don"t need to reward them with elaborate gifts for their support of you and what you do. A few simple well thought-out systems will enable you to hit the mother load of referrals.
There may be one in a neighbourhood near you.
If you"ve decided spending more time on family, career, education or other interests in or out of the home is more important than doing chores, hire a housekeeper.
Almost half of all Americans believe Chicken Little has a right to be hysterical.
Canadians intent on adding "Achieve a successful real estate transaction" to their list of New Year"s resolutions would do well to adopt scientist Louis Pasteur"s view of the future.
So long as your creditworthiness is pristine and the property you want to buy appraises for the loan you seek, high-leverage mortgages, which some have considered among the riskiest, will continue to make easy mortgage money, well, easy.
The VOW debate is back. Like a vampire at daybreak, this is a dispute which should have been finished long ago. Rather than handing out wooden stakes, the federal government is instead continuing a potent consumer nightmare by raising the wrong issue for the wrong reasons.
Question: A year and a half ago, when the market was hot, we purchased a home in Virginia which we thought would be ours for a long period of time. However, I have just been transferred to the West Coast, and we are now facing a loss when we sell our home. Fortunately, we do not think we will have to come up with cash to sell it, because we put down a large down payment.
Caught in a buyer"s market with excess inventory, swooning prices and lots of competition, a Florida "flipper" asks for advice.
You can mitigate the effect of tighter mortgage underwriting standards by improving your credit report profile and, as a result, your credit score.
The IRS has just issued a new ruling that sets forth the guidelines for those taxpayers that wish to do a 1031 exchange involving a vacation home. By way of background, you can only exchange property held for investment or used in a trade or business. Up until last year there was no guidance from the IRS that said whether vacation homes were investment or personal use property, but that changed when the U.S. Tax Court disallowed a taxpayer"s exchange from one vacation home into another. The court case immediately gave rise to the question of what has to be done to qualify a vacation home for a 1031 exchange -- this ruling is the IRS attempt to answer that question.
Stashed away amid the tons of paperwork generated each day in Washington -- reading what no one argues is a threat to Shakespeare -- is HUD"s 2007 Budget Summary, a document which ought to make a lot of people take notice.
In my presentation at the National Association of REALTORS convention in November, "Stop It! The EGO Marketing Mania," I delivered my perception that we are now in the age of the Evolved Consumer. First by defining the difference between a Fad and a Trend -- a Fad is revolutionary and a Trend is Evolutionary. And, second, uncovering three identifiable stages of evolutionary trends overlaying these trends on today"s real estate consumer to illustrate that the real estate industry is in a far better position to assist the Evolved Consumer than it has been in the past 100 years.
How do you feel about spending your upcoming summer nights sifting through piles of displaced paperwork? What about working through weekends to recover information lost from your client database? Or spending your hard-earned vacation money to redraft key legal documents?
If you are refinancing this year, the odds are good that you are also tapping your home equity -- "cashing out" additional money for investment, large consumer purchases or for other purposes.
Often maligned because it makes it tougher for consumers to erase their debts, the new federal bankruptcy law also contains provisions to help make it tougher for consumers to slip into another personal financial recession.
High median home prices in Silicon Valley"s inverted housing market continue to belie soft market conditions, including falling prices, swollen inventories, and tight mortgage money in some areas.
Americans were more likely to pull up roots in the Northeast and across the Rust Belt and put down stakes in the West and Southwest last year, according to a migration study by the nation"s largest mover.
You"ve probably already been drilled on the three most important aspects of a vacation home investment -- "location, location, location" -- but once you"ve chosen a hopefully lucrative location, the "what" becomes just as important as the "where."
Landlords can put a damper on your decorating flame. Your contract may forbid you from nailing up your favorite paintings, but according to Cia Clinton, there"s no need to leave your walls naked! She offers the following tips:
If a basement is musty, if there are black, green or purple blotches on or behind the walls and ceiling tile, or if there is any kind of growth thriving under the carpets or rugs, then the home is probably living side-by-side with a colony of mold.
One of the most popular techniques pitched by cable TV real estate gurus and seminar sponsors -- "rent to own" or "lease option" contracts -- is coming under increasing scrutiny by state legislators and regulators.
Subprime loans can be risky mortgages in the wrong hands, but you can learn to live with them.
A growing number of mortgage companies are choosing not to wait for federal reforms of home mortgage settlement rules expected this spring. They are plunging into the market instead with their own consumer-friendly "guaranteed settlement cost packages" designed to take the uncertainty out of loan closings.
The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.46 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.47 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.77 percent. This is the lowest the 15-year FRM has been since Freddie Mac started tracking it in 1991.
In the brave new money-tight world of housing, the growing inventory of homes is prompting more and more sellers to stage the deal so it stands out from the pack.
A real estate agent is your liaison in the home market. Not only will they be able to smooth the buying process, from negotiating with sellers to taking the house to closing, they can help you determine what kind of home would best fit your lifestyle (condo, townhouse, rural single family, investment property, etc.).
Currently my local real estate market is officially a buyers market with more than a 9 months supply of homes. What this means is that out of the 7,814 single family homes, townhouses and condominiums on the market right now, it will take 9 months to sell them all at the rate they have sold in the last 30 days (which was 840 units sold in the last 30 days).
If home sellers don"t deploy marketing efforts necessary to move a home in a tightening market, they will condemn their listing to open house purgatory where selling gets really hellish.
Reports across the country suggest that real estate in most areas of the country is no longer appreciating at the rates seen in the past few years. In fact, the National Association of Realtors reports that nationwide August existing home prices were actually down 1.7 percent from a year earlier.
Let"s get a few things out of the way about the job of those who choose to sell their own home.
It seems during a slowing market, the last person to get the message that the house needs a lower price is the seller. After all, the seller has the most to lose by "improving" the price and it"s a tough decision to let go of a dream of cashing out.
When and where do you give yourself time to listen to nothing and to think about what drifts into your over-stimulated mind?
Buying or selling a house -- or at least the decision to do so -- is fraught with emotional bombshells. As you approach the prospects of buying your next home or investment property or selling either, for that matter, keep in mind that you"re about to go through a Grand Canyon of emotional ups and downs.
I wrote about Value Range Marketing a couple of weeks ago and then promptly received numerous emails from readers wanting more information on the concept. So in this column, readers" questions are answered in order to provide you with more information from agents who use VRM, so you can determine if it"ll work to sell your home.
There has been an increase in inventory in the "hot" San Diego real estate market. That is not to say that it"s turned cold. Even with more homes listed on the Multiple Listing Service, price adjustments and slightly longer market times before a sale, experts still think good times remain ahead.
When placing a house on the market, the seller must remember early and often that there are going to be three "buyers" who must be satisfied with the eventual price of the property. The buyer, appraiser and underwriter must all agree with the price of the house before it can go to settlement (particularly if there is no large down payment involved.) Here"s how it happens.
Not only are real estate sales slowing a bit in many areas; the market is heading into what typically is a holiday slowdown.
The share of Realtor clientele who are foreign buyers is smaller than in previous years, but among those purchasing nearly half paid all cash – bypassing the mortgage process. Twenty-three percent of survey respondents served at least one international client in the 12-month period between the end of May 2008 and the end of May 2009, down from 26 percent in the 2008 study. During this period an estimated 154,000 homes were sold to foreign nationals, which is down from approximately 170,000 international transactions during the previous 12 months.
The number of Silicon Valley home sales are down and inventories are rising -- conditions that can generate downward pressure on prices.
When does a house outlive its use and is better torn down than repaired? This question is creating controversy across the country where a shortage in the housing pool has forced this type of infill development.
The price of gas might affect American"s love affairs with their cars, but probably not their romance with garages. Indeed, despite the fact that most folks don"t actually park their automobiles in their garages, they still gotta have "em. So much so, that a garage can add more than 10 percent to the resale price of a house, according to a recent study by Florida State University Professors G. Stacy Sirmans and David Macpherson. That"s more than a fireplace (8.9 percent), extra bathroom (8.7 percent) or extra bedroom (3.7 percent).
Whew!
It"s a huge article, the kind you can"t possibly miss, located on the front page of the nation"s most significant business section -- an article that says the real estate market is headed down, down and down.
Low mortgage rates, a short supply and over-bidding buyers kept the pressure on Silicon Valley"s housing market in June, pushing the median single-family detached home price tag up another $11,000 to a record $760,000.
As goes the housing market in the Golden State, so goes its economy.
Keeping in touch with friends and family after a move can be difficult.
I enjoy receiving feedback or getting questions over my columns for Realty Times.
You may think that investing in real estate is simple, but you first must decide what your investment objectives are. This is equally important for sole owners of real estate, those investing in Tenant in Common investments (TICs), and those with limited or general real estate partnerships.
Financing the purchase of a home could be the most complex financial decision you"ll every endure.
Question: When our mother died, my father subsequently remarried. He added his new wife as an owner of the family home, and they now own our house as "Tenants by the Entirety." My father has told my sister and I, on several occasions, that upon his death the home will go to both of us. To assure that this will happen, he showed us his Will, which appears consistent with his desires. Are we protected? Is the Will sufficient. Is there anything more we should be doing?
Question: I have signed a contract to sell my house, but it appears that the buyer is having a case of "buyer"s remorse." I believe she wants to back out from under the contract. My real estate broker has asked me to determine if she is in default on the terms of the contract. How do I do this and what exactly constitutes a "default?"
Question: You recently wrote about tenant rights for single-family houses. I am a landlord and own two properties in the District of Columbia -- one has four units and one has 10 units. Do my tenants have any rights if I want to sell my properties?
Every seller knows that there home should have "curb appeal." But what exactly does that mean.
Question: I am in the military and will be transferred across the country in three years. We will certainly be selling our home at that time and I"m wondering if refinancing makes sense if we are going to hold the loan for only three years. We are paying 7.25 percent and have a balance of $220,000. Our principal and interest payment is $1,535. Our property is worth at least $300,000. Isn"t it true that you need to hold the loan for a long time if your refinance?
As we enter the sweltering days of late spring and early summer, homebuyers"
If we could sell our houses under ideal conditions, our lives and those of our real estate agents would be much easier.
Since Sept. 11th there has been a tendency to cocoon -- spending more time at home.
The real estate title industry has made its position clear on the controversial practice of "upcharging" home buyers and refinancers at mortgage settlements: it strongly opposes the practice.
Manhattan Mortgage"s managing director Barry Habib says the real estate market is going down.
Dear George: "We rented an off-base house from a rental agency. They sent us a notice that our rent was going to be raised. Our lease agreement is not yet up. We"ve signed no new lease agreement. My husband thinks I should report this to JAG. Do you have any advice? -- Concerned Tenant
The Bush administration"s new team at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is working on ways to solve one of the agency"s most embarrassing, long-running problems: It has hundreds of millions of dollars that it wants to give away to homeowners who have used FHA mortgage insurance. But it"s been unable to locate thousands of those homeowners, even though private "finders" seem to be able to do so.
You’re gathering information to list your house so you contact your mortgage company’s service center for loan information. Their representative tells you how to obtain your loan payoff balance and then adds, “Don’t worry. The closing agent will collect the prorated principal and interest due on the loan as of the date of closing”.
Every year at about this time, I am often asked by home owners if it is prudent to put their house on the market during the holidays, or if they should wait until after the first of the year. It"s true that February and March produce the highest amount of home sales, but when you compare the percentage of sales to the total number of new properties that come onto the market, November and December have the best exposure ratio of any other months of the year.
As a motivated seller, you need to ask buyers for what you want. Conversely, it"s important to stand your ground on what you don"t want in a sales agreement---especially contingencies that could tie you to a prospective buyer for months.
In the vast majority of markets tracked by RealFacts, renters who didn"t lock in rents for the long term are now pinned squarely behind the eight ball with little room to maneuver.
After nearly a year of slow but steady growth, a large segment of the national rental market has yielded an unexpected drop in occupancy rates and experts aren"t quite sure why.
Real estate investors are playing a key role in the housing recovery now underway, buying up bank REO property, wading into distressed neighborhoods to turn around boarded-up foreclosures into rentals.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the number of condos for sale in North Texas has jumped by about 26 percent this year and while pre-owned home prices are flat, condo prices are up 6 percent.
The nation’s apartment builders and managers have come up with a series of legislative goals for the year to encourage the development of multifamily housing.
If you"re trying to get on that first rung of the homeownership ladder – I"m referring to renting your first house – there are a couple of government programs that pack a powerful punch for low-income home shoppers. Section 8 is the most popular, geared toward low-income renters, and Section 42 helps developers create affordable housing communities, thus increasing the pool of housing opportunities for low-income families.
If you are considering investing in multifamily, here"s the scoop on what renters want:
Planning to move out of your parents" house and into an apartment is a
Most people realize there are millions of households in this country who cannot afford to pay for decent housing. But how of many of us actually know the extent of the affordability problem in our own communities?
Question. Our community association is brand new. The developer has just "turned over" control to the owners and I am the new Board President.
The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.56 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.68 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 6.00 percent.
I remember visiting one of the early rent vs. buy calculators online more than five years ago. I was amazed that by plugging in a mere three to five snippets of financial information such as my current rent, house price and tax bracket and then -- instantly -- the site could spew out a cursory answer like "makes sense to buy now".
What is a turn-around apartment? One that you spin on the tip of your finger? Nope, usually a turn-around property is one that"s distressed -- but has potential. Can you fix all properties and make them better? I don"t think so, but this article will give you an idea of how to do it successfully.
The profile of the typical renter has changed dramatically throughout the last decade. The number of renters who are professionals aged 30 and above keeps growing. Baby boomers, it seems, like their apartments.
If you want to know the value of a property, if you want to know whether it"s competitive in your marketplace, then one important index to consider is its vacancy factor.
The lease says specifically that no dogs or cats are allowed in your apartment... but the animal kingdom has lots of choices, including one which may be acceptable to landlords and other owners.
If your rental application was rejected due to a black mark on your credit report, don"t just ignore the situation out of embarrassment... get a copy of the report and see what you can do to tackle the problem. You may find your credit report has errors or marks you didn"t even know about.
When tenants move out of a rental unit, you’re responsible for cleaning, spraying for pests, repainting and attending to anything else in order to prepare for the next renters. When you have a painter, a fumigator and a cleaning crew bustling in and out of the apartment, it’s difficult to remember who has the keys. A sign out sheet may work most of the time... but if someone forgets to sign out, how are you going to track down the key? The process is time consuming and can leave you, your employees and your tenants frustrated.
There’s nothing more irritating than coming home to find a “Sorry we missed you!” sticky note on your door. Not only do you have to track down your package and pick it up, but you’re probably going to have to pay some kind of inconvenient fee for missing the delivery.
The nation"s apartment owners are quietly celebrating what they say are a couple of recent victories - one at the Republican convention and the other in the nation"s newspapers as the issue of "rent vs. buy" is being reopened.
Investors who own units in condominium projects could benefit if a push by the National Association of Realtors to change FHA funding rules proves successful.
Summer is fast approaching, and college students throughout the world are rejoicing. Whether you"re spending your summer working or playing, the thought of moving out of those smelly dorms and into an apartment has probably crossed your mind more than once. If so, you"ll need to learn a little about subleasing.
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with Alethea Cox, loan specialist, Kingston Management Services, an FDIC qualified bidder and Michael Anderson, Founder and Co-owner of RealSource, who’s company has a track record of placing thousands of investor/clients in the right properties in the right markets at the right time. To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/071509.]
Your lease is up and you"re moving out of your apartment. You"ve packed your boxes and stuffed your bags, and now all you need is to retrieve your security deposit. By law, the landlord cannot refuse to return your deposit without reason. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a dispute over how much the tenant should be refunded or whether the tenant should be refunded at all.
In the event that a landlord decides to evict their tenant, he or she
Tenants and landlords are expected to fulfill certain duties, but what are they? It"s sometimes hard to distribute the chores and responsibilities between landlords and tenants. Typically, these things are mutually agreed on once the lease is signed. However, Dessen, Moses & Sheinoff, Attorneys at law say that residential tenants are granted with at least one inalienable right regardless of what the lease says: the implied warranty of habitability.
According to Diane L. Silva, an attorney at law in California, "The purpose of filing an eviction action, an "unlawful detainer," is to obtain possession of the premises. The landlord may also obtain a judgment for rent owed, court costs and attorney"s fees (sometimes). The award of rent in the action is considered to be incidental to the primary purpose--the recovery of the premises."
You"re sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon, reveling in a few
While examining a potential apartment, it"s important to listen while you look. You don"t want to discover your noisy environment after you"ve already signed the lease. Follow this advice to make sure the apartment is the right one.
If you are moving into an apartment you may want to consider investing in insurance. Along with the first month"s rent, chances are you will be asked to pay a security deposit. This is a type of insurance for your landlord. The landlord can use this deposit to pay for any damages caused during your residency. For you, security comes in the form of renter"s insurance.