The new Realtor.com Channel will debut in the second half of 2012 and bring millions of property listings into 55 million U.S. homes starting with the Cox cable network. Realtor.com says it’s the first company anywhere to deliver to consumers’ top three screens: computer, mobile devices and television.

Based on location, Realtor.com Channel property listings will be displayed by price range and include photo-based videos and descriptions provided by agents. With a Continue reading post…

Tweet Foreclosure Homes for Sale Livermore CA April 2012 Market Report

The full report shows Livermore CA real estate trends in charts for the year to date history of Single Family and Attached Foreclosure Homes For Sale in Livermore CA, Pending and Sold by month as well as the single family and attached Foreclosure Median Home Price in Livermore CA and Average Days on Market data.

Continue reading post…

We had the chance to sit down with Ty Perry, a sales consultant with Ivory Homes. He told us, The current housing market has nowhere to go but up. Consumer confidence is the highest it has been in several years.

Continue reading post…

According to the MBAs Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey (data for week ending April 27, 2012), mortgage applications stayed relatively even increasing just 0.1 percent on a weekly basis amid mortgage rate fluctuations that saw the average interest rates of two mortgage products reach new historical lows.

Purchase activity showed better results than refinance activity in this latest data. The MBAs Purchase Index increased 3.7 percent from the previous week and sits 3.0 percent above results seen during the same week last year.

The MBAs Refinance Index, on the other hand, decreased 0.7 percent from one week earlier. In addition, the total amount of mortgage activity associated with refinancing fell week-over-week.

For week ending April 27, 2012, the refinance share of all mortgage activity declined to 72.6 percent of total applications.

Continue reading post…

IT’S the last remaining site in Sydney’s iconic East Circular Quay precinct – now a storm is brewing over a proposal to build what has been dubbed by angry opponents as the “Toaster on steroids”.

Continue reading post…

Purple Leads, one of the top lead generation companies, is offering clients high quality HARP 2.0 Leads to help build their respective businesses.

A Purple Leads executive said This is a quality lead product were offering. HARP 2.0 is of interest to millions of homeowners in danger of foreclosure and we will deliver these leads to our clients.

HARP was developed by the federal government to help homeowners facing foreclosure and financial ruin.

Continue reading post…

NAR’s 2012 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2011, shows investment-home sales surged 64.5 percent to 1.23 million last year from 749,000 in 2010. Vacation-home sales rose 7.0 percent to 502,000 in 2011 from 469,000 in 2010. Owner-occupied purchases fell 15.5 percent to 2.78 million.

Vacation-home sales accounted for 11 percent of all transactions last year, up from 10 percent in 2010, while the portion of investment sales jumped to 27 percent in 2011 from 17 percent in 2010.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said investors with cash took advantage of market conditions in 2011. “D Continue reading post…

• If you are hiring a moving company, be sure to pack your personal valuables.

Continue reading post…

As I write this article about the home sellers property disclosure, I want to start with an apology for the continual omission of the apostrophe that you will observe when I write sellers and sellers.

The funny thing about all of the different browsers on the internet is that many of them cannot handle that apostrophe so again my apology to our English language purists.

OK, so back to the topic at hand, which is why homeowners need to be smart about how they compose and provide the required home sellers property disclosure statement to all potential buyers.

Home Sellers Property Disclosure What It Is

Every home seller is required by law to disclose to a buyer all known facts that materially and/or adversely affect the value of the property being sold.

Continue reading post…

The award, designed to recognize Houston’s best residential master-planned community, uses a panel of judges from outside the industry to judge the communities based on master plan, amenities, landscaping, product variety and success in the marketplace.

Falls at Imperial Oaks was recognized for its outstanding amenities like The Lake Club, which won a “Houston’s Best” award in 2010 for best reception center. Other emphasis from the judges was on tree preservation and natural landscaping, along with a strong feeling of resident involvement, according to the paper. Continue reading post…

After the Rehab – Get a Realtor

Now you have the repairs completed, and you  need to market the home.  I always advocate the use of a Realtor.  He only gets paid if he sells your house, and his fee is well worth it.

Once you leave your kids’ soccer game to go meet someone at the house on Saturday morning, and they don’t show up, you will believe me.

Make sure your Realtor has a marketing plan.  You don’t want a Realtor that is just going to stick up a sign and put the property on the MLS.

You want to work with a professional.  They should be actively using all the online tools to market your house.  They should also be doing traditional marketing such as mail outs to prospects and open houses.

Ask for a written marketing plan before you sign the listing agreement and make the plan an exhibit in the listing agreement.  This is the best way to make sure what you are told gets done.  If it doesn’t, then he is not living up to his end of the contract.

Marketing Your Flip

When you are marketing the home, make sure you keep the yard cut and the inside clean.  If you are having a lot of showings, then someone is going to have to use the bathroom at your home, so make sure the water is on.

Also, have your Realtor check the home at least once a week to make sure it is clean.  If it is not, have it cleaned.  This is a small price to pay for losing a sale because the bathroom was left messy.  No one wants to picture a messy stranger using the bathroom in her new home.

Your First Offer

Now you have the home fixed up and listed with your Realtor.  You start to get showings, and then the glorious day arrives in which an offer comes.

You jerk the papers from your Realtor’s hands and start to sign them as fast as possible, but wait a second.  What message does that imply?

Unless the offer is for full asking price and very tight terms, I always negotiate something, and I would encourage you to do the same thing.

Let’s put ourselves in the buyers’ shoes.  They are going to make an offer that is not quite what they are willing to pay so that when you come back with your counter, they have room to negotiate.

But what if you don’t come back with a counter?  Then they are going to subconsciously think that they paid too much for the home.

Even though they may be excited at first, when they get home that night, as they lie in bed, they are going to start to question whether they paid too much.

This doubt starts to transform into other doubts such as, will the house even appraise for that much?

Did we look at everything in the city in the price range and on and on.  Avoid this!  Negotiate on all but full price offers that have 30 days or less closings and no contingencies.  Make your buyers work for the deal.  They will appreciate it more.

What to Negotiate

You don’t have to negotiate on price.  It could be on closing or inspection dates, occupancy dates or any of the details of the contract.  So if you don’t want to scare the buyer with a price counter, pick other details to change.

Verify Buyer’s Funding

One thing that you must always insist on having with your offer is an Approval Letter from the lending institution your buyers are going to use.

I typically like to see these from a major bank, not a mortgage broker.  I also look at the wording carefully because I want to make sure that the banker or broker has checked the buyers’ credit and verified their income.

If the letter of credit is subject to either one, I will reject it and ask for a letter that specifies that both have been audited and approved.

The last thing you want is for your property to sit off the market and then not close.

Other buyers get suspicious whe

Continue reading post…

According to the MBAs Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 23, 2012, average rates for both fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) took to the upward trend.

Mortgage rates have been showing increases in recent weeks after plummeting into new record-low territory in early February.

In this latest MBA data, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (those with conforming loan balances of $417,500 or less) increased to an average of 4.23 percent, up from 4.19 percent the previous week. This is the highest average 30-year fixed mortgage rate since November 2011, the MBA said.

Other 30-year fixed mortgage products also saw increases.

Continue reading post…

“With a range of housing opportunities at affordable prices and continued low mortgage rates, now is a great time to become a Florida homeowner,” says 2012 Florida Realtors President Summer Greene, regional manager of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Florida 1st in Fort Lauderdale. “On April 28 and 29, people will have a chance to conveniently see many homes for sale in communities across Florida and the entire nation. The ev Continue reading post…

The goal of redesigning the website www.movewithnasi.com was to make it more focused on providing useful information and online tools to those searching for waterfront homes in Lewes and other towns of the Delaware shore, seniors retiring to the Delaware Beach area, as well as those who are interested in either purchasing a home in one of the Sussex Countys senior living communities or simply finding a great house that addresses their needs.

The website is loaded with great features.

Continue reading post…

Continue reading post…