Technology Transactions
Since NAR"s Member Services negotiated a REALTOR™ VIP agreement with Chrysler/Jeep a year ago in April, Realtors have purchased thousands of new SUVs, minivans, and cars, and saved an additional $500 off the best deal price. In April 2002, over 500 new vehicles were sold to Realtors.
"These meetings are an important part of the communication process within the office," said Doris, a broker with 30 years experience.
For you to master this great speciality of real estate finance qualifying buyers is only part of the challenge. Almost as important is to keep up to date with changes in the industry. The lenders I have asked agree that you are smart to qualify a buyer by calculating the buyer’s front-end (housing) and back-end (debt) ratios.
"Help me understand," said the young homeseller, "why does six percent of the sale of our house go to you and the buyer"s agent? After all, the buyer can find the house on the Internet. You two are simply doing the paperwork. I don"t want to be rude, but it seems to me that $12,000 to show our house a few times and complete some forms is a little steep."
Sometimes you are probably fortunate enough to generate all the business you want without much work, but other times, you may hit the down side of that roller coaster ride where it takes some chugging to get up to the top for the next downhill ride! This is when you know you need to get into action. Often, I find ANY action will stir up the cosmic dust and attract business to you.
The challenge with the real estate business is that often when you work the hardest is when you get paid the least. In real estate you don’t get paid when you call a client, you don’t get paid when you list a house, you don’t get paid when you do a mailout, you don’t get paid when you work on your marketing, and you don’t get paid when you do CMA’s. You get paid when a listing sells and when a buyer purchases, that’s it! This can lead to some very frustrating time for the real estate agent. Often times when you are working the hardest you are setting up tomorrow’s business today.
In over 2,000 Time Management seminars, which I have conducted for more than 100,000 people from around the globe during the last 20 years, I have shown people how to get more done in less time, with less stress; to help them have more time for the things they want to do in their work and personal lives.
There are many reasons why we are in the business and we need to remember each and every one of them. When real estate markets are changing, we sometimes focus on what is happening at the time, especially when it isn"t positive, instead of focusing on what put us in this crazy business in the first place. You can probably add much more to this list, but these are the highlights from my career:
If you believe much of what you read, then you believe that a great many real estate agents are sitting around wringing their hands and waiting nervously for the next "shoe" to drop, probably right on their heads…
Question: Our board, is dealing with a difficult situation. A former board member (Tom) has expressed an interest in being on the board again. During his former tenure, the board was totally dysfunctional. No small wonder. He is very aggressive, confrontational and difficult to deal with.
Giving a toast strikes fear in many people. Ever find yourself worrying, “I don’t know what to say.” “I hate making toasts.” And yet, especially at this time of year at both social and business events, you may have to give a toast. At company holiday parties, at a retirement party, at a New Year’s celebration, toasts are an important part of the occasion. So be prepared.
In a recent workshop I gave on high impact business writing, a real estate agent complained how difficult it was for her to write e-mails and letters. She said she made a lot of errors, and it frustrated her that she couldn’t catch them more easily.
Once the domain of home buying and home equity rip-offs during the boom market, mortgage fraud is muscling in on subprime loans, foreclosures, reverses mortgages and insider trading related to mortgage securities in housing"s down market.
Every year, at about this time, I am often asked by home owners if it is prudent to put their home on the market during the upcoming holiday season, or if they should wait until after the first of the year. My answer, always, is that they should definitely consider putting their home on the market, because November and December offer a higher exposure ratio compared to other months.
“ Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind…….what we sow is what we reap.” Deepak Chopra, M.D.
With some Realtors, you get more than real estate advice. You get to discover your higher self and pass your wellness on to others. Meet Agent News" newest writer, Morgan Cowan, GRI, a Realtor and educator for Deepak Chopra, M.D. Morgan will teach readers how to combine wellness principles with business principles for a more abundant life.
As today"s consumer gets more informed every day, competition for listings is tougher than ever! As top flight agents offer more services and value, it will be necessary for all of us to re-examine our systems and strategies to meet the new consumer demands.
Nashville market expert Bruce Jones says that while prices appear to have leveled off in his area, the increased number of homes on the market has put pressure on sellers to price their homes lower.
Real estate agents are professionals. Have you ever stopped to really think about what that means? We go to school, we receive specialized training, we take a test, and we earn a license to do what we do. Not every Jane or Joe on the street can sell real estate. That makes us professionals. So why don"t we act like professionals?
Don’t buy into the notion that sales and production for the fourth quarter should slack off due to the “holidays”. If your business development plans are not in order to finish off your year with high numbers, this is the perfect time to insure ending this year on a more productive note!
As any good teacher knows, we often teach what we need the most. Real estate brokers or managers learn to ride the waves or wipe out, and there is one tsunami out there that is crashing down - the need for massive recruiting.
Giving great customer service is difficult because each person you are
You may be well intended about getting things done during your day at work or during your personal time, but there are big time wasters that will conspire against you to take your productive time away. It has been said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. In conducting my Time Management Seminars over the last 20 years, I have identified five Big Time Wasters that you can attack.
The business environment is getting more competitive everyday. New
A negative attitude has a way of giving your face and body a whole new look. I call it “the hound dog effect.” Your eyes, mouth and overall posture begin to droop, and before long you start looking like a Bassett Hound. The next time you feel disappointed or discouraged, look in the mirror and you"ll probably see a touch of hound dog in your eyes. Fortunately, it"s a temporary condition for most people, and will disappear as new opportunities and experiences bring a new perspective.
As a help in recruiting the technology-adept assistant, let me share with you the ad I ran when I hired my most recent assistant. Keep in mind that I’d already been through several assistants who were basically incapable of using even basic technology and that it had hurt my business severely.
The hot garden color this year is yellow, and it is spicing up home sales across the country. Annuals abound in every shade and hue from butter to dayglo! Some garden experts suggest choosing bright shades for sunny spots, and using pastel yellows for the shady areas of the garden.
I recommend taking time each evening to do Daily Planning for the next day.
Following the brutal and senseless murder of one of Windermere"s most well-liked agents, Mike Emert, the company is issuing the following memo today to alert agents to use caution while showing properties. On behalf of Windermere, the company would like to share these tips with all Agent News readers.
Unless you"re a top producer with a number of assistants, you may believe your real estate business is pretty much a solo effort. In actuality, you have more people on your team than you realize, but are they pulling their weight?
Agents know that they have to ask for the sale, but many have a hard time knowing when and what to say. If you put yourself in the buyer"s shoes it makes it easier to do. In other words, how many times have you wanted to buy something and the clerk that was helping you says, “do you need anything else?” That"s a close! You expected the clerk to say that; well, the buyer expects to be asked to buy the property. Let me share some simple ideas that may just make your closing ratio a little better.
Buyer Brokers are exploring more and more ways to work with their buyers, and their fiduciary responsibility is to save "the buyer" money. The professional buyer agent (BA) works by direct buyer agency contract with the buyer client. The buyer broker fee is, of course, negotiable and various options are being used such as fee-for-services (menu), flat fees, rebates, percentages, etc. Some fees come direct from the buyer, some via the multiple listing offer to cooperate, and others via the seller while declining the cooperative.
Whoops. I see a lot of contracts that provide for the seller to remain in possession for a day or two after closing and the occasional "pre-occupancy" by the buyer. I would first have to ask: "How do you occupy something before you get there?" In other words, the concept of pre and post occupancy is an oxymoron.
Marketing new homes online is no different than existing homes. Or is it? There are some differences that you need to know, whether you are a Realtor representing one or more builders and their properties, or whether you are builder"s agent working for one builder.
How many $300,000 four bedroom, four bath, three-car garage homes on a-half acre can you sell in the Northeast section of Your City, USA? Do you know how quickly these homes are being absorbed by the market on a monthly basis? Knowing the Rate of Absorption, or "AR," is a second-nature skill to the best builders and realty professionals, who know that sales are built not only on consumer demand but are also heavily influenced by market availability.
Because the timeline is speeded up for a relocation, you have to work smarter, not harder.
It"s possible to break into the relocation industry without any experience as a REALTOR®, but you would definitely have to start on the bottom rung. The broker for long-standing, sophisticated top-producing agents generally reserves relocation clients.
Are you having enough fun? Are you learning something every day and gradually getting better and better? Do you have to make yourself pick up that phone to initiate new business or do you come in excited and jazzed about it? If the joy, learning and curiosity are missing, let’s take a look at re-energizeing.
Still not coming to terms, getting your way, or resolving a conflict in a win-win manner? Here are some tips to help all sides get what they want.
There is a delicate balance that exists today for agents in how they should prospect using technology and also offer personal service. The agent who has developed a program to combine the two is the agent who has "staying power" in this new real estate industry.
Often, we can build our business by making presentations or doing buyer/seller seminars. Does the fear of speaking in front of others stop you? Fear of public speaking rates higher than fear of death for a large part of our population. Mastering the art of feeling confident in front of others can give you a real sense of confidence in yourself and further your goals. Relax and enjoy!
As an independent contractor and Realtor, it is your duty to uphold your professional image and look out for your clients" best interests. However, it is sometimes difficult to avoid nasty confrontations. Before you give your client a black eye and quit the real estate business, look over these ten suggestions on how to act honorably and productively when you are faced with a conflict.
Are you interested in selling real estate and want to know more?
A visitor to my philosophy-enhanced web site e-mailed me, asking: “You talk about achieving aliveness in business. What does that mean? And if recreation time impacts our professional lives, what can we do to make that impact a positive one?” Here’s what I answered:
How simple it was a year ago when low unemployment, low inflation, low interest rates, and high
An exciting vision for the future that connects your passions, your unique talents and has a clarity of purpose is the foundation of planning an awesome year. The creation of your strategies, goals and action steps provide the framework to determine your daily, weekly and monthly priorities. But don"t stop here!
Softly, I put down the phone. My old friend in Atlanta called to tell me in a weighted voice that a former classmate had a serious form of cancer. She was to begin two years of chemotherapy and radiation immediately.
Imagine that you are one of the four out of five homebuyers fishing among listings online. An email alert arrives in your inbox that tells you that one of the homes you like has just had a price reduction.
Helping associates and employees to become more productive means they are getting more done in less time and with less stress, burn out, and turnover. It also means recruiting and retention costs go down, enhancing the bottom line. (And, it" s not a bad way to run a business!) Over the years, I found these five suggestions as valuable principles to help employees to increase their daily productivity.
When we listen to professional athletes they often talk about "the zone." The zone is the place where they can"t miss the basket or all the putts just fall. I was reminded of this performance zone watching David Duvall shoot a 59 in the last round to win the Bob Hope tournament. He truly was in the zone. His longest putt that day was about 10 feet. His mind and body were working together in a masterful performance.
For almost two years, the national real estate market has gone from recovery to a record boom. Home sales across the nation are at record levels and more people, over 69.6 million in the first quarter of 1999, are homeowners than any other time in history. Brokers and agents are doing record numbers of transactions. Business is great. In fact, it"s so great, that many Realtors are burning the candles at both ends. Are you finding that you are working harder and enjoying it less? If you think you are close to burn out, read on.
Wherever you are, there you are! You may not find that statement deep or
Call it the backlash after the boom: Major lenders and mortgage insurers are turning off the money spigot for investors who want to buy rental houses or condos with minimal downpayments.
Business can make for some strange bedfellows, especially among those that sleep together. There are successful husband and wife teams who work together beautifully and others who appear to bring out the worst in each other. What are the benefits vs. the pitfalls of working together?
Editor"s Note: This is the second part of a two part series that started on Monday Novemer 2, 1998. If you missed part I, you can read it here: How Hard Should You Work for an Unrepresented Buyer?
In Part I of Finding the Right Assistant, Monica Reynolds covers the first three steps to finding an assistant - establishing your needs by writing the job description, writing the advertisement, and reviewing resumes.
While you want to get the hiring over with and return to work, you"ll lose time and money over the long run by being hasty. Plan on spending two weeks to find the right assistant. It"s worth the effort - after all, you might end up spending more time with you assistant than you do with your family! To find one, you"ll need to be able to spot these essential elements.
A funny thing happens to home owners on the way to the bank.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa has been one of those housing markets that doesn’t get a lot of attention because it’s so stable. But in a world of tumbling home prices, foreclosures and short sales, stability is the name of the game.
Many real estate firms and other businesses once saw disaster recovery plans as a waste of time and money. But now it"s time to dig out those plans, dust them off and update them for the new millennium.
With a number of mortgage reform bills in Washington now under consideration, it"s interesting to see what progressive consumers and business folk can pull off by working together.
Since the Internet first became commercially viable in the 1990s it"s been driven largely by a single principle, the idea of pushing prices to zero. If you can make money by not charging then you"ve likely got a winner.
As 2006 draws to an end I notice that my local real estate broker has sent along a calendar.
Jane Bartlett, our market expert for Wayne County, North Carolina, says due to the negative national news causing home buyers to be more cautious, she saw a little sluggishness for the first quarter, but overall figures have remained stable.
Hardly a week passes without more revelations of illegal flipping. Typical of what you see has been the recent situation in Cincinnati where more than three dozen people have been convicted in a $50 million illegal flipping scam.
When last we left off with the Kelo case, arguably the worst Supreme Court decision in decades, Congress and various local governments were promising to legislate a way around a ruling that would let government take your home for virtually no reason at all. But now something more remarkable has happened, the Ohio Supreme court has effectively challenged our nine top justices.
For a long time the biggest real estate rumble in Washington has concerned the question of whether or not banks should be allowed to offer real estate services.
Consumers in New York state are getting a bonus, thanks -- as usual -- to their crusading attorney general, Eliot Spitzer. After taking on banks, stock brokers, insurance companies and others, Spitzer has now struck a glancing blow at the title insurance industry -- an industry that collects $1.1 billion in annual premiums just in New York state. Why he can"t go further should be on the front page of every real estate section.
What should a smart home seller do with that fat federal tax rebate check?
The news that new home starts dropped 7.4 percent in April raises two interesting puzzles: Why the decline and what does it mean?
This one is hard to miss: Huge numbers of loans are being refinanced with larger mortgages. In the first quarter of 2006, Freddie Mac says that 88 percent of its loans that were refinanced were replaced with loans that were at least 5 percent larger. This is the highest rate of equity withdrawal in the past 15 years.
It"s getting harder and harder to keep the buying fires lit during the year-end holiday season. Savvy shoppers know the drill: Those 25 percent discounts that look so good after Thanksgiving will soon morph into 30 and 40 percent reductions -- and maybe more. Just delay your year-end shopping urges and you can save big money.
Last week we discovered that the "flat" market reported in Denver by The New York Times was actually producing price gains.
"You cannot completely trust the advice your broker gives you," said Christopher J. Mayer, a professor of real estate at Columbia Business School. "You have to become more educated as a buyer." Why a Real Estate Agent May Skip the Extra Mile, The New York Times, February 20, 2005
In the world of the future, telephone lines, Internet access, electric power and cable services will all be delivered to us by a single provider, if we are to believe a growing number of seers, soothsayers, power companies, cable firms and electric utilities.
Hold the phone. Or better yet, hold that $400 billion dollar check the Federal Government is about to mail out to cities around the country to buy foreclosed homes. This $400 billion dollar experiment with the taxpayer"s money is just part of a proposal designed to prevent the mortgage "crisis" from getting worse. After all, foreclosures are still on the way up and we need to do something. Anything.
The National Association of Realtors has some one million members and a huge political action committee, but what it does not have is the ability to prevent the further swelling of the federal government.
The full-color photo on the front page of Sunday"s New York Times could not be ignored: It showed a gargantuan Burmese python -- something roughly as long as the Ohio Turnpike -- in the clutches of an enormously fat and happy alligator.
Mortgage Rates Rise
Here"s a question which ought to cause some thought: Why is it -- if we"re in the middle of a mortgage meltdown -- that interest rates are both low and falling?
Mortgage Rates Tend Lower
Mortgage Rates Edge Upward In Late March
Mortgage Rates Hit New Lows
The news from Ohio on the brokerage front is not good -- and more alarmingly, it may set a woeful example for other states.
If you are a first time home buyer, you have a lot to learn.
Mortgage Rates Remain Near Long-Term Lows
NAR"s mid-year meeting and exposition will be held in Washington this week, a good time
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with Brenden C. Faber, President of First American Exchange Company in Salt Lake City [www.firstexchange.com]. To listen to, or download the show archive MP3, go to IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com.]
It used to be that buying a home was a great
Some things in life ought to be certain. We should be able to rely on the fact that gravity exists, the world is round, and also that cul-de-sacs are one of the better concepts to emerge from suburban planning.
Joanne Brown is reporting that California home sales decreased 28.5 percent in February compared to the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 26.2 percent.
Imagine that you see a house you like. It"s listed at $300,000 but you really like it. You like it so much you"re willing to pay a premium to get it -- even though you know that like properties in the same area are selling for not more than $300,000.You offer $330,000. The seller is elated and your offer is accepted.
If there"s one subject which never goes away it"s the matter of wealth and how to get it -- preferably with great speed and as little effort or risk as possible.
E-mail. It"s fast, efficient, and postage-free. That"s the good news.
HUD has a new secretary, Mel Martinez, and if changes on the Department"s web site are any indication of his approach to running the big federal institution, we may like this guy. What"s more, we may actually be able to find information on the site.
Peter G. Miller
Peter G. Miller
There"s a remarkable article in The Washington Times of March 20th, perhaps the last public interview with outgoing HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson. Mr. Jackson, according to the paper, "said he has no sympathy for people with high incomes and education who knowingly took out risky loans with backloaded payments. That is the reason why the Bush administration is not offering such people assistance in avoiding foreclosure."
Peter G. Miller
Peter G. Miller
Peter G. Miller
Peter G. Miller
Peter G. Miller
For better or for worse?
Peter G. Miller
Peter G. Miller
When it comes to real estate, the Internet is usually seen in terms of listings, loans, and websites.
Antitrust officials at the U.S. Department of Justice lobbed another warning shell at a state legislature over "anti-competitive" real estate brokerage rules last week. Meanwhile in Washington, the war of words between NAR and the Justice department over Virtual Office Website (VOW) policies appeared to move toward a possible settlement.
Question: I"ve being in real estate for nearly 20 months. I"ve passed my ABR designation and completed my required hours for renewing my license. I feel that I"m ready to learn something new. Will you please share information about short sales?
Question: I"m planning to take out $60,000 as either a home equity loan or home equity lone of credit (HELOC). Assuming I use the entire amount of the credit line, which is preferable right now? Is there any way to tell if this will change in the future?
Question: With rising interest rates on mortgages, I managed to lock my loan at 6.5 percent for 60 days. My question is: Since the market is slowing down and home prices seem to be dropping, is it better to wait and buy a cheaper house at higher interest rate or to proceed now and make use of this lower interest rate?
Question: I am a new real estate investor. The homes that I rent out are owned by my LLCs. I want to deed my principal residence to a LLC, pay rent, have the LLC make the mortgage payments, pay the taxes, water bill, etc. Two CPAs have told me that I cannot do this because I am evading taxes. I believe that with the proper creative and can-do approach, one can do anything. What do you say?
Question: I sold a rental property to my son this year, but my husband and I are listed on the deed with 66 percent ownership and my son 33 percent. The loan was taken out in my son"s name to buy the property. Because my husband and I still have ownership in this property, despite the real estate sales to my son, are we still liable for capital gains tax?
Question: We are currently looking into selling our vacation rental home and purchasing a fractional beach front home (1/13th share). Can we do a 1031 exchange for this property? As we are we are allowed to use the home for only four weeks per year, what would be the rental requirement?
Allentown, Pennsylvania, became a household word in 1982 when rocker Billy Joel released his hit song, Allentown, about the city"s disintegrating economy with the exit in droves of the steel mills. Unemployment skyrocketed into the double digits. Acres of manufacturing buildings went dormant.
Question: I have an existing single-family residence we"ll call Property #1. It has three bedrooms, two baths and is financed with a $450,000 option ARM. I make $1,700 a month in rent from the property. In July of 2006, I purchased a second property. Property #2 is a tri-level townhome in which I currently live. The second property is brand new and I have a $467,000 first mortgage plus a $57,000 home equity line of credit. I make $1,200 per month in rent on this property which also has an option ARM on it. The current value of property #1 is $550,000. The second property has not appreciated much.
Question: I was told by our real estate broker that if the buyer fails to purchase the house per the terms of the contract, the house cannot go back on the market until arbitration is completed over the earnest money deposit, which can take months. Is this true?
Whether you"re getting ready to sell your home or you"re just in the mood for a spring spruce-up, learning to decorate on a shoestring budget can be rewarding both for your pocketbook and the aesthetics of your home.
Question: My husband and I both have commission-based work. He"s been working for three years at the same company and I"ve been working for less than a year. He has a job lined up in another state and we"re looking into buying a home there. Will we be able to close on our new home if my husband resigns from his current job before the settlement date? Or should he stay at his job now until after the closing? I feel we have enough money to survive a two-month transition period (even longer, if need be) but we need to know if temporary-unemployment will be an issue during the underwriting process.
Question: My wife and I are trying to buy a house. We were locked in at a certain rate with a specific lender (A) and wanted to approach another lender (B) to if we can save money. However, I was told by the 1st lender (A) that we could not use another lender and that we had to use them since the lock-in was a binding agreement.
Question: Do you know if trees add value to a home? If so how can I get more information regarding this issue?
Question: Our broker has agreed to cancel our 180-day listing contract two months early. However she is now telling us that she won"t release us from the contract unless we pay her marketing expenses.
Question: We bought our home in 2000 and the value has nearly doubled. How can we cancel private mortgage insurance?
With an economy that has flat-lined, but plagued with more high level jobs than qualified employees, the condo market in Hawaii is showing surprising strength. The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports February was a very good month for condo sellers with prices outpacing February a year ago as high as 19 percent in Kauai to $565,000.
Question: I currently own a property worth around 500K but I bought it for 300K two years ago. Since I have 200K in equity I was thinking about taking out an equity line of credit for about 100K, leaving 20 percent in my current property. With this 100K, I would like to spend 60K (10 percent) as a down payment for a 600K new home. I would then use the other 40K to subsidize some of my income to make the new mortgage payment and at the same time give me a little spare cash in case my current residence doesn"t rent. I estimate that the 40K will subsidize my income for about three years. I am hoping that in three years time my new primary and rental homes" values would have risen enough to allow me continue this same process. Is my thought process sound? Is three years a good time frame?
This overall increase for the South was marked, however, by "substantial" declines in areas of the region that experienced booms in the early 2000"s, that don"t reflect by looking at the region as a whole. One such area was Sarasota, Florida.
Question: In looking carefully at our rental home we found evidence of water problems. We told the landlord, but he took no action to resolve the matter. Then we had a massive rainstorm and the basement flooded with six feet of water. Our possessions in that area of the house were submerged. We value our loss at $50,000 -- but our renter"s insurance does not cover flooding. The local housing authority has found numerous code violations. What can we do?
A record jump in pending home sales -- pointing to higher numbers of closed transactions in the next two to three months -- tops the housing economic news this week.
Question: I own a condo. Paid $130K in 1994. I owe $90K still. Condos identical to mine now sell for $279K. But if I sold merely to reap the profit, I would only be able to buy another condo just like it. Modest houses here are $350K up. (I make $50K/year and raises won"t be much in the future.) I plan to retire at age 67 in 2014, so I have been paying additional principal every month ($200) to be mortgage free by mid-2013. (Interest rate is 8 percent -- high, I know, but I haven"t wanted to pay the $2-3K quoted refi fees and figured $200 extra principal each month had the same effect.) I would very much like to move into a HOUSE. I have cats and dogs and want to garden. Advice?
Question: I"m a first-time home buyer earning approximately $100,000 in the NYC region. Although the interest rates are low, prices have escalated so quickly that I"m concerned I don"t have quite enough to cover the cost of a home. I"m only seeking a two or three bedroom townhome in Staten Island, yet prices often exceed $350,000.
Question: Our home is appraised for $239,000. It has been for sale for eight months with three brokers and we have dropped the price three times. There have been two open houses and three showings. We need to sell. What can we do?
Question: I"m selling my home in a great area. We had many offers and the one we took was $20,000 over the asking price. The buyers are putting in a lot of cash and are only financing $100,000 of the $600,000 sale price. We"re afraid that our house will not be worth that much, but does the lender care?
It"s the latest in Home Design -- a design which is both friendly to the environment -- AND cuts down on the cost of your monthly food bill.
Question: My friend works for a top financial firm, and the analyst are saying that the real-estate market is going to fall hard. They are foreseeing in the next 1 to 3 years that the cost of today"s $300,000 house will be worth half that. They say not to buy any real estate, cause you will be stuck with a $300,000 dollar mortgage, and a house only worth $150,000. Do you see any truth to this?
We have done a great job of polluting this world. Over the years, industry has poured millions of gallons of pollution into our drinking water and rivers. And industrial smoke stacks have belched tons and tons of harmful materials into the air that we all need to breathe.
Rumors were flying last week that Iggy"s House, a discount broker, is out of business. If they"re not, they sure are acting like it. According to one of their clients, Janice Dowden, of Burleson, Texas, they aren"t returning phone calls or emails.
It"s official. Wall Street has declared a bear market.
Maybe Amy Hoak of Marketwatch started something with her - pardon the pun - groundbreaking story "Home prices aren"t tanking everywhere" back in April. She pointed out then that there were really only five states in a housing recession -- California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Michigan. Other parts of the country are "doing fine," she wrote.
I like the way economist Dr. Irwin Kellner explains housing, because he"s sensible and straightforward. He says in his latest column for MarketWatch that housing could turn around quickly because it"s become affordable again.
It"s getting harder for you to impress buyers and sellers. Sellers are using sites like Zillow and YouTube because they can upload the same listing information as professionals can, if not better.
Spring is typically a good time for homeowners to start preparing to sell their homes because families interested in moving will often look now so that they can buy a home just in time for the kids to go on summer break.
As we"ve hammered home the point before, Americans have been scared witless by economists, most with personal agendas, that housing still has a long way to go before it hits bottom.