If you want to get to know somebody, check out their front entry. From early Chinese philosophy to ancient Greek architecture, front doors and entryways have always had a lot to say about the character of whoever lives inside. HouseLogic thinks this is rock-solid conjecture, so they’ve put together a handy guide to front door symbology, combining historic perspective with their own unique POV. Want to know your entry personality?
Your credit score is important. Those three little digits help lenders decide whether to loan you money and at what terms. The higher your score, the less of a credit risk you are to lenders. And that can mean you’ll pay lower interest rates on loans.
Believe it or not, you may have more than one credit score. The FICO® score, which is used by many lenders, ranges from 300 to 850. Your credit score(s) reflects how you handle financial commitments. And knowing what lenders see as risky can help you make smarter decisions and avoid big mistakes that can damage your scores for years.
You’ll be ready for winter’s worst and head off expensive repairs when you complete this checklist of 10 essential fall maintenance tasks.
CoreLogic recently reported that the number of underwater homes, properties worth less than what is owed on them, fell from 6.3 million to 5.3 million between the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2014. This change is large and important for the health of the housing market.
After a slow start this year, partly due to the frigidly cold winter, home sales are picking up steam. Existing-home sales have risen for four straight months and in July were at the highest pace of the year, 5.15 million. Pending contracts point to more gains, too.
Jobs are always important for home sales, and in the last 12 months they’ve grown by 2.6 million. North Dakota, Texas, Utah, and parts of California are good examples of job growth leading to healthy real estate activity. Amazingly, mortgage rates refuse to rise, even after the Federal Reserve has started talking about tightening its monetary policy, keeping the recovery intact.
The Federal Housing Administration’s rise in its mortgage insurance fees in recent years is pricing many “creditworthy Americans out of the market” and causing the number of first-time home buyers to reach new lows, housing analysts argue.
First-time home purchases have fallen to historic lows. They account for about 28 percent of existing-home sales year-to-date – well below the long-term benchmark of 40 percent, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
The 24- to 35-year-old cohort – which usually makes up the largest share of first-time buyers – has been faced with high levels of student debt and stricter underwriting standards that have made it more difficult for them to apply for a mortgage. But in an op-ed piece in American Banker, Richard A. Smith, CEO and president of Realogy Holdings Corp., also notes that the “biggest and most surprising challenge faced by today’s aspiring home owners come from the FHA, the very agency created to help them.”
You and your buyers should walk through every home like there is a nanny cam recording your private conversations. If you are recorded, the information gleaned from your private conversations with buyers could be used against you in negotiations, warns a new video by the Washington REALTOR® Legal Hotline Lawyer.
Lawyer Annie Fitzsimmons with the Washington REALTORS® says that more sellers are using nanny cameras to record video – and in some cases, even audio – when their home is on the market. The cameras may allow them to intercept conversations between agent and buyer inside the house that sellers can then use to their advantage in negotiations, such as the buyer raving about how much they loved the house and how they’d even be willing to pay full price for it, Fitzsimmons says.
On the verge of retirement, where will those aged 55 and over choose to live? Realtor.com® recently analyzed Nielsen Demographics data to find the metro markets that will see the largest percentage of growth in residents aged 55 and over within the next five years.
There are dozens of Internet sites out there that reveal how much your home is worth. They are called “automated valuation model” (AVM) sites, which use statistical modeling techniques that calculate the property value by comparing it with similar-sized homes that have recently sold in your area. These tools crunch their data with publicly available numbers from several listing services and combine them with regional trends to set a sale price for your property.
Cool, right? Now, here is the question that every seller asks themselves: Do I still need a real estate agent to help me through this “assessment” process?
Well, there is a reason for the existence of a real estate agent; actually, there are several reasons why these professionals are so important in any real estate transaction. Let’s review the reasons…
Managing The Real Estate Details 