It seems that times are getting harder for mortgage brokers. First, they can’t in most cases use their appraiser of choice and now, they have to give you a close estimate of closing costs when you purchase a home. No longer will you be given an approximate closing cost. Than find the final closing costs [...]
More than 80 percent of new single-family homes have at least two bathrooms, which occupy an average of 300 square feet of floor space, or 12 percent of the total area, according to a study by the National Association of Home Builders. The home builder’s study reports a major return on value for extra bathrooms: [...]
It seems that people are always trying to make money by illegal means. If they would put as much effort into doing something legally as the schemes they come up with, they would in all probability make more money. At least they wouldn’t end up in jail. A case in point is the scheme by [...]
The latest figures from ForeclosureRadar show that the number of distressed filings in California, one of the worst hit states in the country, fell in August. Notices of default in California, which is the first step in the foreclosure process, dropped from July to 36,396 filings, a monthly dip of 19.1% and a 14.2% decrease [...]
More people are becoming landlords in an economy where selling a home can be challenging. The nation’s second-largest home insurer, Allstate Corp., says the number of homeowners converting their homeowners insurance to landlord policies rose 27 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Jim Bass of Jim Bass Real Estate Group in Frederick, Md., says [...]
There are a lot of things driving the real estate market in California. The affordability index has increased to 67%. That is, 67 percent of potential buyers can now afford to buy a home. Prices driven down by short sales and foreclosures, have a dark side, but have created buying opportunities for investors and first [...]
The Nevada County Multiple Listing Service (MLS) breaks Western Nevada County into various areas. As a result, I can give you sales data for different regions of Nevada County. The data that I give you below represents the time period difference in sales from July 2009, to the same period last year. Different areas of [...]
Prices in Nevada County residential property continued to drop overall from July of this year compared to July of 2008. Overall, there was $290,919,175 in residential sales compared to $355,118,054 for the same period last year. The median price dropped from $414,858 to $347,989. Sales decreased only 2% compared to a median price drop of [...]
I recently wrote an article about National Community Reinvestment Coalition filing a complaint with the Federal Trade commission about the accuracy of Zillow.com. In their complaint, a NCRC, a group for advancing appraisers, stated that Zillow.com gave false and mis-leading values of homes. Zillow.com has prepared a video to address this issue and I found [...]
Ready to sell your home, than how do you value it? I’ve worked with many sellers over the years and here’s what I hear from some of them. But first, a funny video from Youtube that illustrates our perception of values: . Some comments I’ve heard from sellers: 1. I built this home and I [...]
