Low Inventory: The Big Real Estate Story Of 2013?
- 10
- February
- 2013
We’ve heard it on the street, we’ve seen in on Facebook and Twitter, and we’ve seen it in our own neighborhoods: low inventory is a major story in the real estate market right now. While it is not a universal condition, a low inventory of homes on the market seems to be prevalent in many […]
read moreUsing Gift Money for a Down Payment
- 29
- January
- 2013
It’s not uncommon for first-time home buyers to ask: “Can my mom and dad give me money to help me buy this house?” The good news is yes, you can receive a gift from your parents to buy a house, but the way that you actually receive the gift is very important. Mom and dad can’t just […]
read moreQ&A: Can A Retired Person Qualify For A Home Mortgage?
- 28
- December
- 2012
Q: Can a retired person qualify for a mortgage? A: The good news is that Federal law makes it illegal to deny a loan just because of someone’s age. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 protects elderly people from unfair bias when applying for a home loan. Lenders allow retirement income when they approve mortgages. […]
read moreHome Prices: Biggest Rise in More Than 2 Years
- 28
- November
- 2012
In another sign of a housing market rebound, home prices posted the biggest percentage gain in more than two years in the third quarter, according to the closely followed S&P/Case-Shiller index…
read moreDIY or Pro: The House Always Wins
- 02
- August
- 2012
When do you need a professional for a home repair? That’s always a challenging call in our house – and I suspect we’re not alone among novice homeowners. Some repairs are an obvious pro job, like the time a pipe on our sprinkler system blew in the backyard. (And on Mother’s Day. That emergency appointment […]
read moreInventory Shortage: Move Along; Nothing to See Here
- 05
- June
- 2012
We’ve written about feisty buyers, shown data on multiple offers and told the story of Mid-Peninsula Madness. That opened up the floodgates, and now we’re hearing from our agents across the country: Buyers are frustrated with the lack of homes on the market, and the few sellers out there are using scarcity to their advantage. […]
read moreDo Open Houses Help Homes Sale?
- 18
- April
- 2012
With the National Association of Realtors’ big Nationwide Open House Weekend just around the corner, we thought it would be interesting to dig into Redfin’s stash of real estate data to answer the question: Does holding an open house make a home more likely to sell? To answer this question, we analyzed over a quarter […]
read moreHomeowners Getting Better About Mortgage Payments in 2012
- 17
- January
- 2012
A story from Main Street reports that serious mortgage delinquencies — home payments 90 days or more late — are declining. Late delinquencies are down from 10.4 percent to 9.3 percent from December 2009 to June 2011. Advocacy group Foreclosure-Response.org, who released the report, also noted that home foreclosures may be stabilizing as well. The […]
read moreSelling your home, How to Set A Fair Price
- 10
- November
- 2011
When talking about setting a price to sell your home, we have to talk about setting a “fair” price. One that will make buyers feel that they are indeed getting a good deal, and one that will enable you to move closer toward your goal. Let us get one piece of housekeeping out of the […]
read more5 Financing Essentials for Buying at an Auction
- 04
- September
- 2011
With foreclosures flooding the market, it’s “standing room only” at real estate auction sales these days. “Foreclosure sales accounted for 28 percent of U.S. home sales in the first quarter [of this year],” Inman News states, with those properties selling for nearly “27 percent below the average sales price of properties not in foreclosure,” data […]
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