Stocks are up 50 percent from the March 2009 bottom. Some commodities have risen dramatically. The only asset class left in the cellar is real estate, says Michael Murphy, editor of the New World Investor stock newsletter.
As a result, Murphy is advising investors to buy now for these three reasons:
• Desperate sellers: Both home owners [...]
July pending home sales in the Twin Cities are down from last year. Most likely due to July buyers making their purchase in the Spring prior to the tax credit expiring. I expect activity to pick up after Labor Day. Although, most think it will remain slow.
Read more »Excellent advice from the pages of Inman News:
You’re not just buying a house — you’re also buying a neighborhood. Sometimes, though, one resident’s “neighborhood glories” are another resident’s “neighborhood warts.”
Take, for example, close proximity to clubs and nightlife.
For some homebuyers, that would be a turnoff. But a few years ago, Austin, Texas, broker Kimbrough Gray [...]
This is a great tool that will let you know how many down payment assistance programs are available for the area or property you are looking at, and of those, how many assistance programs you could qualify for based on the information you enter about yourself!
Check it out:
The trend in firming home prices solidified in the second quarter with more metropolitan areas showing increases from a year ago, aided by a surge in home sales driven by the home buyer tax credit, according to the latest survey by the National Association of REALTORS®.
In the second quarter, 100 out of 155 metropolitan statistical [...]
Some great advice from the pages of Trulia:
1. Get – and stay – clear on what “bargain” actually means. Learn the difference between the asking price and the fair market value of a home. Many buyers think a bargain is any sale price below the asking price. But a home’s asking price is an indicator [...]
By Dave Hill
Prime Mortgage
Misconception: If you pay list price, you’re paying too much. If you don’t know what the current market value is for homes in the area and whether the market is appreciating or depreciating, you don’t know what a fair price is and you’re likely to miss out on a great deal by [...]
By Dave Hill, Prime Mortgage
Short sales continue to rise! Short sales, a sale in which the homeowner sells for less than the mortgage amount, continue to rise. Market survey data indicates that, nationwide short sales are growing, although the rate of growth varies, typically in sync with the underlying health of a region’s housing market.
The [...]
Great market update from Inman News.
With distressed homes accounting for a smaller proportion of sales nationwide, median prices for existing homes were up from a year ago in nearly two-thirds of the 155 metro markets tracked by the National Association of Realtors during the second quarter.
Distressed homes accounted for 32 percent of sales, down from [...]
What a fantastic article from the pages of Real Trends. I couldn’t agree more!
Why do we tend to take something simple and complicate it? Selling real estate is comprised of these four basic steps:
1. Consistently find people that need to buy or sell.
2. Provide them with excellent service.
3. Tell the world you did it.
4. Repeat [...]