Connect2Agent - Home Buyers and Sellers

Three steps to an easier home buying experience (Part II)

Are you in the market to purchase a house, but dreading dipping your feet into the water? In Part I of this two-part series, we discussed how to build your dream by beginning your research process on the Internet. Not only will this help you get the lay of the home buying land, but it can be done on your time frame, on your terms and without any drain on your gold-gilded gas tank.

Next, we recommended you document your findings. Keeping written record of the good, the to-be-desired and the wish-it-were of your housing trips will help you decide whether you need to keep looking or if you can narrow down your choices. Tracking the details will allow you to make an educated decision and save you from serious buyer's remorse.

Need help in keeping all this house information together? That is where we go to Step 3.

Three steps to an easier home buying experience (Part I)

Are you a home buyer flushing out your choices in a real estate market saturated with fat inventory? If so, a little patience and organization can go a long way to help you to get the cream to rise to the top. 

In this first of a two-part series, we will outline a three-step recipe for house hunting success:

Step 1: Start with the Internet. Your first step is to start researching houses online. This is guaranteed to make a difference in your home buying experience. If you are in the real estate market as a first-time buyer, you may not realize the convenience the Internet has brought into a real estate buyer's life. Prior to this, if you wanted to see a listing, you needed to go to your local real estate agent and have them drag out a big hefty book of listings currently in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service).

...Not to mention the fact that you needed to hope the agent was hooked up with new house listings hitting the MLS.

Now, as an Internet buyer, you have the advantage of viewing houses online before you grace the front doorstep of a prospective abode. Take time to view videos, virtual tours and interior photos. Many real estate agents will also set you up on their email program, which will deliver real estate listings that meet your criteria to your inbox.

Not all properties are created equal: What you need to know about defects in foreclosed houses

The real estate market is upending with foreclosure properties. The flood of inventory has spurned a keen interest from real estate buyers who are seeking a good deal.

With every type of real estate transaction, there are unique circumstances. There are also traditional methods and differences that only an expert educated in your needs should be helping you with. There is a difference between buying a house from the homeowner and buying a house from the bank.

A good read on this topic is a post from Kacey Sides and Andy Hodes, "Want to Buy a Foreclosure? Read this First." I recommend this read to anyone interested in purchasing a foreclosure property. As an avid reader of blogs, especially of the real estate kind, I took particular notice of two points made:

1. "Keep your inspection period short."
2. "Don’t ask for repairs."

Relocating? Choose a real estate agent who can read your signs

When you are relocating to another city and/or state, the stress factor kicks up a few notches. It is important to work with a real estate agent who has worked with out-of-town real estate buyers and understands their needs.

Sometimes these needs are expressed up front and are clearly defined. Sometimes the needs of a relocating buyer are found through careful observation. Lynne Eliopoulos, a Connect2Agent member who services the Metro West area of Boston, shares her story of finding a house for an out-of-town buyer by listening and reading between the lines.

"When recently working with a buyer who is relocating to Massachusetts, I paid attention to the buyers' criteria and interest in several particular areas. Since I happened to live very close to the towns the buyers were interested in, I felt very comfortable guiding them through the process. 

Real estate recap: Week of real estate in review (Edition VIII)

We are back again for this eighth edition of Real estate recap: Week of real estate in review. 

This week's news centered around housing bailout bills HR5818 and H830, so we will touch on that. Then we'll jump over to the Senate's dish of the week and wrap up with a stroll down foreclosure lane. 

Sit back, relax and travel with us through some of the week's most captivating real estate news.

The bailout heard 'round the House

Massachussetts Democrat Barney Frank's housing bill passed the House 266-154. This bill allows the FHA to insure homeowners' refinanced mortgages and become an "investor" in the homeowner's property. FHA would insure homeowner's mortgages after their mortgage company forgave a portion of their mortgage debt from their current mortgage. The proposal cost weighs in at $2.7 billion. Speculation is that the bill will keep 500,000 homeowners from foreclosure. 

Although 39 Republicans sided with Democrats to allow the bill to pass the House, look for a major facelift before President Bush gets a good look.

Is a real estate agent just a gatekeeper of information?

The entrance of the Internet into today's real estate industry is making investment specialists and newscasters alike speak of the death of 6% full-service commission brokerage services and a new reality to real estate. 

This week I came across three pieces that reference this New Age tune of real estate agents as the gatekeepers of information.

In "A new reality for real estate agents", Money Magazine senior writer Stephen Gandel describes the services of real estate agents as information doorways. The advent of popular websites that provide real estate home values and the popularity of do-it-yourself real estate websites like FSBO.com are making homeowners take a second look at the real estate landscape and empowering them to save money and "go it alone."

Then I read this blog post, "Ambulance Chasers Attack Realtors", in which Gretchen Faber, Realtor and blogger, discusses a new ballot initiative by the Colorado Association of Trial Lawyers to put restrictions on the commissions charged by real estate agents. 

The last update from Gretchen is that this initiative has been nipped in the bud.

Finally, adding insult to the reputation of real estate agents from a real estate agent, this blog post, "Take it from an agent -- sell by owner" discusses Dr. Dani Babb's advice to real estate sellers, which is to save the commission and sell FSBO (For Sale By Owner). Dr. Babb's description of selling makes it seem as simple as learning your ABCs. Babb's belief that the Internet can sell your home and save you thousands fuels her words to advise homeowners. Did I mention she is a real estate agent?

Do homeowners deserve to be foreclosed on?

In the wake of competitive over-list-price bidding wars and waiting lists for vacant lot purchases to build a new home on, some homeowners have found their dream in real estate has faded. Do these homeowners deserve to be foreclosed on?

There is much attention being paid to homeowners whose rate lock has expired and is resetting at a higher interest rate than they can afford. Some programs have been implemented on a local level, through major mortgage lending facilities and through governmental programs to help homeowners refinance into a more affordable rate. Do these homeowners deserve to be foreclosed on?

Then there are the real estate buyers who financed more than 100% of the current real estate market value of their house. Some real estate buyers got into loan programs that were interest-only--all in an effort to own a piece of the American dream, because they didn't have a bigger downpayment or the creditworthiness to qualify for a conventional mortgage. Do these homeowners deserve to be foreclosed on?

5 steps to a successful open house

When you have your house listed on the local real estate market, your real estate agent will probably employ a variety of marketing techniques to bring traffic through your house. Connect2Agent has discussed the importance of your real estate agent utilizing an online marketing strategy. Some more old-school styles of marketing may also be used to intrigue prospects to grace your door. One of these is the open house.

An open house is a time when you "open your home" to the public. Open houses are typically held on the weekend and are held for a block of time--some as few as 3 hours, some as long as all day--to allow enough opportunity for prospects to view your house. 

A tale of two property tax appeal websites

If you are not a "do it yourself" type when it comes to real estate taxes, you might find the help you are seeking right at your digital fingertips. Here's the skinny on two property tax appeal websites that might be helpful to you.

ShaveTax.com

This property tax appeal website keeps it simple. There is a form you are required to complete to get started. Once ShaveTax.com receives your form, if they find evidence that you have been assessed for too much they will send a proposal for you to mail to your assessor's office. The company charges a fee of $99 and claims a 90-day, unconditional money-back guarantee. 

I did not notice any references, case studies, testimonials or the like on this site. There is no physical address that I could see displayed on the website, although the phone number wasn't hard to get to via a small "contact" link at the bottom of the home page.

Real estate recap: Week of real estate in review (Edition VII)

This week, the Connect2Agent real estate recap week in review is taking it to a reform side. In this edition, we will be highlighting some of the reforms within the real estate industry that have swept across the country, while tossing in a story of high living. So sit back, buckle up and take a leisurely ride on our real estate ferris wheel.

FDIC throws out some life jackets

The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) has put a proposal to Congress aiming to help distressed homeowners. The proposal is for Homeownership Preservation Loans that would help delinquent borrowers pay down up to 20% of the principal on their current mortgage. To qualify, homeowners would have to have a mortgage that originated between January 1, 2003 and June 30, 2007. Curious homeowners can find more information by visiting the FDIC's website.

Pause for thought: If a homeowner does qualify for this loan, which requires them to pay the restructured mortgage and the amount of the HPL (Homeownership Preservation Loan) costs, will it end up digging them even farther into debt?

The 5 rights of a real estate seller

As spring starts picking up some real estate markets across the United States, we thought it would be important to address the rights of real estate sellers. Did you know there is a homeowner's constitution so that when you sell your house, your rights are fundamentally protected from overly aggressive real estate agents and low-balling real estate buyers? 

Here are the 5 fundamental rights of real estate sellers:

1. The right to multiple services. When you hire a real estate agent, you are not just hiring a local real estate expert. You are hiring a housekeeper, a dog walker, a grounds keeper and an interior decorator all wrapped up into the package commonly known as a REALTOR. If you do not receive all of these services and more, consider your rights as a real estate seller to have been violated.

2. The right to keep your house in chaotic disorder. Have you ever heard the myth that your house should be in pristine, clean, builder-ready shape when you put it on the real estate market to sell? Forget that. Who has time to keep up with real estate showings and messy handprints that grace your white walls? Certainly not a motivated real estate seller. Leave your house and its finer points alone. No worries, real estate buyers will easily be able to envision themselves in your house with your dirty laundry.  This is your right as a real estate seller.