Top Real Estate in Usa

Role Of The Hardship Letter In A Short Sale

2010-03-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

What happened? Seriously what happened? When you took the loan out everything was great. You were making money, your credit was good and by all accounts you appeared financially sound.

Now you’re in default and telling your lender you need to sell the property short to avoid the home being repossessed by foreclosure? Ok, then tell us what happened.

We hear this all of the time and we tell the homeowners this is exactly what the bank is thinking and this is what they will have to explain. So just how do you explain it…you write a very compelling hardship letter.

Bad things sometimes happen to good people. It is highly doubtful that the homeowner intended to default on his / her mortgage and end up in foreclosure.

Most likely their enjoyment of the American Dream of homeownership was interrupted by some tragic event.

Maybe the loss of a job, a bitter divorce, or the unfortunate untimely illness or death of a family member caused the homeowner borrower to default on his mortgage.

Whatever the catalyst, the lender wants to hear from the borrower just what happened to cause them to be in the financial situation they are in.

If the bank is going to consider taking a short sale, they need to be convinced that something drastic has happened to the borrower that will make it impossible for the borrower to recover and that it is in the bank’s best interest to accept a short sale on the defaulted mortgage.

Top 10 Home Buying Mistakes

2010-03-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

1. Doing it alone. Buying a house is a complex transaction. Even if you don’t use an agent, you’ll need a complete, dependable team: lender, lawyer, inspector, insurer, as well as referrals and advice from friends and family. Enlist the help of these individuals early in the buying process.

2. Buying at first sight. You may be in love with the place, but does it fit your family’s needs and budget? Make a list of your needs and wants and make sure the house fits your requirements. Check out the neighborhood and the community before you buy by visiting at different times of the day and week to learn about noise and traffic patterns. Even if you don’t have kids, check out the local schools to make sure your resale value will be good.

3. Not getting pre-qualified and pre-approved. Being pre-qualified gives you a general idea of how much you can afford to borrow. Being pre-approved means a lender has verified your information and credit rating and agreed to provide you with a specific amount of money. You are in a better position to go house hunting knowing exactly how much you can afford and that you have financing.

4. Overbuying. You may qualify to borrow more, but can you afford to? Analyze your monthly costs: debt, food, transportation, entertainment, and savings. As a general rule, your total monthly debts, including your mortgage, should not exceed 36 percent of your income before taxes. Be sure to budget enough to cover closing costs (often two to five percent of the home’s purchase price), plus moving, redecorating and maintenance. Allow for increases in ongoing expenses such as utilities and taxes.

5. Misplacing your trust. No matter how much you like the agent, sellers, inspector, or the guy down the block who vouches for them, remember this is a business transaction. Your decision is binding. Do your own research and know your support team’s roles and responsibilities.

6. Relying on oral agreements. Get it right and get it in writing. Written agreements almost always trump oral ones when it comes to contracts. If the offer says the lawnmower is negotiable, but the agent says it’s included, get it in writing.

7. Skipping the fine print. You need to understand what you’re signing before you pick up a pen. Ask for documents in advance, make time to read them and ask questions. Get copies of your mortgage papers a few days ahead of closing.

8. Forgetting or betting on resale. Avoid buying a home that costs 50 percent more than neighboring homes and think before buying the most expensive home on the block. Your neighbors’ lower home values will weaken yours. Remember, markets change. If you buy intending to flip your investment and the market falls and you have to sell, your selling price may not be enough to even cover your mortgage.

9. Making an unconditional offer. Protect yourself with at least two of these contingencies in your offer:

* Mortgage financing -- You’re pre-approved, but is the house? Before a bank will lend you money, it will want a formal appraisal of the property to confirm that there is sufficient equity in it to warrant the loan. If the house appraises lower than the sales price, the loan may be declined.
* Inspection -- never buy an existing or new home without a thorough home inspection. Walk through the home with the inspector to learn more about the house and any concerns he or she may have.
* Insurance -- confirm you can get adequate coverage. In some areas, it’s difficult to get hazard insurance.

10. Having buyer’s remorse. No place is perfect. There will always be surprises. Don’t let a few initial blips spoil the whole ride. And don’t miss a great house waiting for the perfect one!

2010-03-18T05:44:00.001-07:00

Quiz School - Try this quiz and get your own certificate

Rose Realty Joins Realty USA

2010-03-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

Rose Realty has entered into an agreement to merge its Sidney Real Estate Firm with RealtyUSA’s Otsego/Delaware region. Rose Realty in Sidney NY has served the region proudly for over twelve years. Owners Steven and Jacqlene Rose and their team will join RealtyUSA’s Sidney Office at 39 Main Street.

Steven Rose states, "It is with sincerest gratitude that we recognize, appreciate and thank the customers and clients that have made our office so successful over the last 12 years. This new partnership will make it possible for us to offer much more services and products to them and to continue the relationships that we have built and will continue to build for many years to come. We are pleased to partner up with such a professional and successful organization."

Merle Whitehead, Broker/Owner of RealtyUSA, said “I am excited to add such a great team to our current Otsego/Delaware family. This is a great fit that will help us continue to serve the Southern Tier market with distinction.”

RealtyUSA is the largest, independent real estate company in New York State with over 55 offices and nearly 2,500 agents and employees. RealtyUSA is ranked #5 in the United States in terms of the largest independent real estate firms.

Merle L. Whitehead, CRB

President / CEO

RealtyUSA.com, Inc.

6505 East Quaker Street

Orchard Park, NY 14127

(716) 662-2000

(716) 662-3385

France’s Carrefour Negotiating with Indian Cos for its Indian Retail Venture

2010-03-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

French retailer Carrefour (CARR.PA) is in talks with Indian companies for a partnership and expects to start its business in India with cash-and-carry activities, the company told Reuters. The world’s second largest retailer, however, declined to give names of the companies it is negotiating with and also did not confirm whether it was in talks with Future Group, which runs Pantaloon Retail (PART.BO), India’s largest listed retailer.

“Carrefour and some Indian companies have been discussing partnerships but we do not want to comment on any of the company we have been talking to,” Carrefour said in a emailed statement to Reuters. Indian media has speculated on a tie-up between Pantaloon and Carrefour to launch franchise stores in India. Earlier this week, Future Group Chief Executive Kishore Biyani told Reuters that his company was in talks with several overseas retailers but declined to specify whether Carrefour was one of them.

Indian regulations do not allow foreign direct investment by multi-brand retailers although they can come in through franchise agreements with local players. Foreign retailers are allowed to invest up to 51 percent in single-brand retail and 100 percent in cash-and-carry ventures. India’s robust economic growth at more than 7 percent and its burgeoning middle-class with greater spending power are magnets for foreign retailers who are facing declining demand in their home markets.

The Indian retail market is estimated to be worth about $450 billion, of which organized retail with a share of 6 percent is growing at more than 20 percent. The restrictions on foreign investments in retail have left overseas players with no choice but to enter the Indian market with domestic partners, or set up cash and carry ventures. “Carrefour will develop its activities in India with the start of cash & carry activities in 2010,” the company said. The French firm has set up two entities in India - Carrefour WC&C India Pvt Ltd to carry on cash and carry business and Carrefour Master Franchise Company Pvt Ltd for its retail business.

Carrefour, which has been scouting the Indian market for nearly seven years, has been meeting local vendors and suppliers to finalize sourcing arrangements for food and non-food items. The company already sources supplies worth about $2 billion from India, according to industry estimates. Wal-Mart which has a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises has set up its cash-and-carry store in north India while Germany’s Metro AG (MEOG.DE) operates around five cash-and-carry stores in the country.

Foreclosures Keep Rising Despite Prevention Efforts

2010-03-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

Foreclosure prevention efforts and moratoria that were in place in January and most of February do not seem to be effective in reducing foreclosures across the nation, especially in Sunbelt areas.

According to Realty Trac, the number of houses under foreclosure process has risen by 30 percent in February as compared to what it was a year ago. It has also increased 6 percent from January 2009.

A total of 290,631 properties were facing foreclosure nationwide, the report said. The states with highest foreclosure rates included Nevada, California and Arizona. Closed on the heels were Florida, Michigan, Idaho, Georgia, Illinois, Oregon and Ohio.

The states where the highest number of homes were under the process of foreclosure included California, Arizona and Florida. They were followed by Nevada, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, Texas and Virginia.

Impact of Budget 2010 on Real Estate Sector in India

2010-03-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

The Budget 2010 presents a mixed bag for real estate sector in India.

With the recession fading out gradually and fund raising showing gradual and steady increase once again, the Indian real estate sector was clearly looking at 2010 as a year to build on its 2008 run. While concerns over liquidity and demand constraints have eased, developers were looking to execute the planned projects to maintain cash flows rather than raise more debt. The industry was therefore looking at Budget 2010 for “boosters” like tax breaks for townships / affordable housing sector, allaying the ambiguities on the real estate mutual funds to heal the bruises that the sector suffered in 2009. While the “infrastructure” status still alludes the real estate sector, a clear lean towards low-cost real estate especially housing was seen. It would be interesting to look at both sides of the coin flipped up by the Budget 2010.

The Positives

The pending housing projects have been granted a one year extension for completion, from the existing four years to five years, for claiming a 100% deduction on their profits under section 80-IB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“Act”). This extension is available for housing projects approved by a local authority on or after April 1, 2005.

In addition, under section 80-IB of the Act the built-up area of shops and other commercial establishments in housing projects has been relaxed to 3% of the aggregate built-up area of the housing project or 5000 square feet, whichever is less, from the existing 5% of the aggregate built-up area or 2000 square feet, whichever was less.

A 4 month extension has been provided for setting up and commencing operations of hotels and convention centers in National Capital Territory of Delhi and specified surrounding regions. Such hotels and convention centers would now be eligible to claim specified deductions, where such facilities are set up and commence business by July 31, 2010.

Investment linked incentives have been proposed for the business of building and operating new hotels of two-star or above category, anywhere in India, which start functioning after April 1, 2010. The incentives are in the nature of 100% deduction with respect to capital expenditure, incurred wholly and exclusively, for the purposes of such business, provided such expenditure is incurred prior to commencement of operations and the amount is capitalized in the books of such undertaking.

One per cent interest subvention on housing loans up to Rs.10 lakh (where the cost of the house does not exceed Rs.20 lakh) has been extended till March 31, 2011.

There has been higher allocation under Indira Awas Yojana and other rural development/infrastructure schemes.

What it means:

The extension of time period for completion of existing projects will give the industry players the comfort of time and help developers whose projects were held up during the slowdown of last year.
The relaxations regarding commercial establishments in the housing projects would enable basic facilities for the residents and help developers and real estate companies to make their projects more viable. Whilst the demand for “infrastructure” status to hotels has not been acceded to, inclusion of hotels for eligible deduction, through an investment linked incentive and not a profit linked one (as demanded by the industry players) does sweeten the deal and is likely to stimulate investments in this sector.
The interest subvention along with increase in the tax slab rates for individuals should provide the necessary demand boost for low-cost housing. It may also encourage the developers to build more houses in this segment to benefit from this demand pick-up.

And The Negatives

Budget 2010 in spite of positives like incentives to hotel business, housing projects, higher allocation under Indira Awas Yojana and other rural development/infrastructure schemes, is unlikely to meet the expectations of the industry primarily due to some of the service tax proposals such as.

Service tax on commercial rentals: The High Court of Delhi in the case of Home Retail Solution and Ors. v. Union of India had clarified that renting of commercial property would not be subject to the levy of service tax. The Budget has amended the scope of ‘Renting of Immovable Property Service’ to directly overrule the High Court judgment and to explicitly cover the activity of mere renting as well and this has been done with retrospective effect from 1st June 2007.
Moreover, renting of vacant land where the agreement of contract between lessor and lessee provided for undertaking construction of building/structure on such land for furtherance of business or commerce during the lease period will also be subjected to service tax.

Construction of real estate complexes will now attract service tax, unless the entire consideration for the property is paid after the completion of construction, that is, on obtaining the occupation certificate from the concerned authorities.

Service tax will now also be levied on additional services provided by a builder to buyers for extra charge like preferential location, internal and external development of complexes.

Increase in the standard rate of excise duties to 10% and also on cement, which is a major input for real estate construction.

What it means: Service tax on the activity of construction would primarily mean, buyers paying higher price for property which is under construction.

The expansion of scope of ‘Renting of Immovable Property Service’ is likely to be one of the most controversial proposals. Pursuant to the Delhi High Court judgment, most industry players refrained from paying service tax pursuant to such transactions. This amendment would have a significant impact on both the real estate sector as also sectors which rely on lease of immovable property for running their business. Further, retrospective nature of the amendment will now result in an adverse impact on the sector and may lead rise to a large amount of litigation.

In an industry where agreement of contract between lessor and lessee providing for construction of building/structure on vacant lands are a common phenomenon, an imposition of service tax on such transactions is not likely to go down too well with the real estate sector.

The increase in the standard rate of excise duty and increase in duty of cement and petroleum products will increase the cost of construction and it is expected that per unit cost for prospective buyers will also increase. But, the industry may also have to bear the pinch of such increase in excise duties, as at present, when the demand is on a slow recovery path, it may not be able to pass on the entire increase in the cost of construction to the buyers.

Conclusion

From demand boosters and other reliefs, to far-ranging service taxes and higher excise duties, the Budget 2010 presents a mixed bag for real estate sector in India. However, it has failed to address some of the key demands of the real estate developers, including infrastructure status to the real estate sector, relaxation of external commercial borrowings to fund projects, provision of separate deduction of Rs. 1 lakh for housing loan repayment or increasing the overall 80C deduction to Rs. 2 lakhs et al.
Though the positives mentioned above will indeed ease the burden imposed by widening the service tax net and rise in excise duties, it is difficult to be clairvoyant on the impact of the policy announcements at this time. However, it seems the service tax implications, especially from renting of property that are now required to be reckoned from 2007 are likely to be the dampeners in the growth driven and growth stimulated Budget 2010.

Indian Real Estate Sector Cautious about Expansion

2010-02-25T21:19:00.000-08:00

It’s at the cusp of a recovery, but India’s usually aggressive real estate sector is being cautious about expansions this time. Excesses by large realty firms—such as aggressive land buying, massive projects with long gestation periods, and venturing into new territories such as power and logistics—as well as the downturn had pushed the sector into a deep slump in 2009.

Now, as growth returns, developers are ordering feasibility studies before launching projects, entering into strategic tie-ups for raw material and labour, appointing project management consultants, and outsourcing construction work for quicker delivery, say property consultants.

Such measures are fairly new for a sector dominated by family-run businesses. “Builders are back with a bang,” said Aditi Vijaykar, executive director (residential) at Cushman and Wakefield India, a property advisory. “They want to try out new locations for projects and are trying to test market a product before launching it.” DLF Ltd, India’s largest developer by market value, said it will not buy land in 2010-11 or launch projects until it has regulatory approvals.

Its working capital model will depend on cash flow from pre-sales, customer advances and bank debt. “It is difficult to stop speculative buying, but a system like one home per family is required,” DLF executive director Rajeev Talwar said. “The chances of end users exiting projects are less because property investments are usually a lifelong affair for them.”

Mumbai-based DB Realty Ltd, which has aggressive plans in suburban Pune, is conducting feasibility studies on the sizes and pricing of homes to ensure the right profile for its projects. Consultants said this was rarely done earlier. Shahid Balwa, managing director of DB Realty, did not respond to queries.

Also, realty firms that are raising money though initial public offerings (IPOs) are aiming to use the funds for ongoing and proposed projects or to retire debt, said J.C. Sharma, MD of Bangalore-based Sobha Developers Ltd. The firms are monetizing land banks and reworking sales strategies to reach a larger clientele, he said. “This is very different from what realty IPOs in 2006 and 2007, including Sobha, did. That time, everyone was raising money only to buy more land,” added Sharma.

In February, Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), the country’s third largest developer by market value, announced a 1.2 million sq. ft slum redevelopment project valued at Rs2,000 crore. HDIL, which had turned its focus from slum projects to residential development last year, has big-ticket launches coming up this year.

It plans to launch another two or three slum projects in the next six-seven months. Hari Pandey, assistant vice-president (finance) at HDIL, said execution has become crucial for the firm. If pre-sales account for more than half the units of a residential project within three months of its launch, it has a high chance of being self-funded, he said.

“We are outsourcing about 80% of construction work to contractors, which we would do ourselves earlier. This is for speedy delivery as we are also scaling up our plans,” Pandey added. Developers are also looking at special purpose vehicles or joint ventures instead of purchasing land outright. Parsvnath Developers Ltd is looking at a month-on-month delivery target for faster completion. The company wants to construct around 45 million sq. ft of space in the next 24 months, and build around 1.25 million sq. ft in the last quarter.

The company has outsourced construction and appointed a project management consultant to keep a check on the work, as well as tied up with vendors for long-term supply of key materials. “We are also looking at a project-on-project basis of funding either through debt or private equity (PE) channels,” said Pradeep Jain, chairman of Parsvnath Developers. PE investors are also enforcing some good practices. Ramesh Jogani, MD and chief executive of Indiareit Fund Advisors Pvt. Ltd, said developers need to ensure their projects are rational in profile. “Even in residential projects, what is the need to build 30-40 storeyed towers which take five-six years to finish?” asked Jogani. “One needs to travel the middle path and offer mid-range products which assure quality.”

Micro-blogging - Breaking News for Real Estate

2010-02-24T21:28:00.000-08:00

Pat Kitano, over at Transparent RE, posted about micro-blogging for real estate. Micro-blogging is being defined as immediate posting of breaking news, with little or no delay using Twitter and other immediate posting sites.

Pat mentions the delay in RSS feeds, as they are dependent upon the subscriber's reader, and how often it requests to be updated. He also differentiates between the two types of blogging, as one is much more immediate than the other, allowing a real estate professional to release "breaking news" type items for immediate display, say on a Twitter page. As Twitter feeds can also be displayed on other networking sites, such as Facebook, this would create an instantaneous, or close to it, breaking real estate news service some people would like.

I'm not sure how many real estate professionals actually have enough "breaking news" type of items to release in this way, or how many people actually would want to get them, but some may choose to receive them as text messages or in other ways that are very immediate in nature. Here are two ways to get this done:

* Immediate WordPress Post to Twitter - Using the Birdfeeder plugin, I've tested and a post is immediately fed to Twitter from a WordPress blog. However, unless you want all of your posts to go out immediately, this plugin won't help. It doesn't allow selecting posts for immediate release to your Twitter account. If it's truly "breaking news" you want to treat this way, you could have a blog set up just for these releases, thus all posts would apply.

* A 5 to 30 Minute Release - I know of one way to get blog posts to Twitter in 5 to 30 minutes. I use Twitterfeed, which takes my RSS feed and sends the posts to Twitter. Twitterfeed will check your feed every 30 minutes (sorry no quicker), and send the post to Twitter.

* I have found most getting there in under 30 minutes, many in five or so. If it's been 25 minutes since the last check, and I hit the publish button, then the post will get there faster. I send all of my posts there, but you could create a category just for "breaking news," and use that category to feed a special Twitter account just for this purpose. I think that I don't have any news that can't wait a half hour.

Think about whether you really have information that will have enhanced value if immediately delivered. If not, you may risk losing followers who find that your "breaking news" isn't useful news.

Home sales 27% higher in 4th quarter over last year

2010-02-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

Home sales posted strong gains in the fourth quarter and prices rose in nearly 45% of U.S. metropolitan areas compared with a year earlier, more evidence of an improving climate in housing.

Bolstered by low interest rates and a first-time home buyers tax credit, existing-home sales rocketed 27.2% from the fourth quarter of 2008 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.03 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

The national median price for an existing single-family home was $172,900, or 4.1% below the median price in fourth-quarter 2008. That was the smallest price decline in more than two years.

Prices rose in 67 out of 151 metro areas in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier. Only 30 areas had annual price increases in the third quarter.

Sixteen areas had double-digit increases last quarter, led by Saginaw, Mich., up 53.5% to a median of $67,400.

"There's a growing body of evidence that the housing market has stabilized. The question is how quickly can it recover and will we bump along at the bottom for a couple of months?" says Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. "In the first couple of months of 2010, we should see a healthy turnaround."

Baumohl says the combination of low interest rates and tax credits for qualifying home buyers should lure buyers, further stabilizing prices and boosting sales.

But the market could falter once the tax credit expires April 30 and if interest rates begin to climb later this year as many economists expect.

The credit is worth up to $8,000 for first-time buyers and up to $6,500 for repeat buyers. But they must have purchase contracts signed by April 30 and close by June 30.

The national average mortgage rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan fell to 4.97% this week, down from 5.01% a week ago, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

But foreclosures are expected to climb, which could further depress prices. Foreclosure filings were reported on 315,716 properties in January, 15% more than a year ago, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.

"It's premature to say the coast is clear. The housing credit really played a role in juicing up sales," says Mark Zandi at Moody's Economy.com. "We're closer to the end of the downturn than the beginning, but we're not there yet."

Real Estate Firms Concerned Over Diminishing NRI Interest in Indian Property

2010-02-19T21:09:00.000-08:00

Apart from biting cold weather of the capital, lack of enthusiasm among overseas Indians to buy properties in India has further dampened spirits of some of the realty firms, as well as around half a dozen banks, which put up impressive stalls outside the venue of the recently concluded Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) at Vigyan Bhavan. Of course, realty firms were trying to woo the ‘pravasis’ to buy their products while banks were ready to clear their home loans, then and there. But, both got a rude shock. In a way, it was a departure from earlier PBD meets when a large number of NRIs used to book their properties in various parts of the country.

So, what went wrong this time round; why aren’t the NRIs taking any interests in the upcoming projects of realty firms? Are they facing a financial crunch? After taking to several NRIs at the meet, one thing has clearly emerged - that a reallife version of “Khosla ka ghosla” is being played out with an increasing number of NRIs. A furious Naresh Chopra, a NRI from America, said that he had booked one flat in Gurgaon in a project of a very well-known realty player. He had also been paying whatever money the realty firm was asking of him. Despite that, there was no progress on the project. The realty firm failed to deliver the flat to him, which they promised to hand over almost a year ago. While narrating his tale, he also said he would take up this matter with Vayalar Ravi, overseas Indian affairs minister.

Complaints of real estate deals going sour, illegal encroachment and unauthorized occupation of properties have flooded the officials of ministry of overseas Indian affairs during this PBD. Property dispute is one of the most common complaints by NRIs. They are unable to protect their property due to long absences or lack of awareness of laws, Vayalar Ravi admitted. Moreover, some realty firms are not delivering them their flats on time. The largest number of complaints is from major real estate markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore , and also from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab. The nature of the complaints are mainly over protection of properties that have been forcibly occupied or encroached, disputes relating to division of property or inheritance, and cases where investors have been cheated by real estate developers.

Though there was a session on property disputes at the PBD, only assurances were given to harassed overseas Indians by officials. Navin Raheja, CMD of Raheja group, who had a stall at the PBD venue, admitted that the NRI response was rather cold. “They seem to be reluctant to invest here as some unscrupulous developers have duped them of their money by not delivering projects at all, or in some cases, projects have got inordinately delayed as well. These factors have contributed towards a comparative lack of interest on part of overseas Indians,” he admits.

R K Arora, CMD of Supertech group, admits that NRIs are buying fewer properties now as compared to two-three years ago. “They buy properties in the range of Rs 60 lakhs to Rs 80 lakhs. They buy properties for purely investment purpose. There is hardly any emotional factor that is involved. As and when they get good appreciation on their properties , they dispose it off,” he says.

After not-so-great response from NRIs last year, at the PBD held in Chennai , realty advisory Century 21 India did not put up its stall in Delhi this time. Sanjay Singh, marketing director of Century 21 India, says that NRIs can again start buying properties in India provided authorities ensure that their interests are not compromised. “It is also not true that they are not buying properties here at all. They are still buying , but not in a big way. My advice to them would be to stick to metros and major cities only, as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities still face uncertainty on the oversupply situation,” says Sanjay. Samir Jasuja, CMD of PropEquity, has a word of caution.

“They must see to it that they invest with developers with a proven track record and not be taken in by glitzy ads or aggressive media campaigns,” he says. According to him, unlike the general perception, NRIs do not invest in properties in a big way. “Indian realty market would not crash if they desert it. There are basically two types of NRIs who invest in realty market. One, those who buy property from a purely commercial angle. Two, those who send money from some European country or US to their parents or close relatives to buy properties. In both cases, the number is not that really big,” he says.

Chandrasekhar Tiwari, an eminent scholar on Indian diaspora affairs, says that perhaps only those NRIs are buying properties in India who have migrated to other countries during the last 25 yeas or so. They are still very much close to their roots. “I am pretty sure that those who had shifted before 25 years or so are not buying properties. Only the first generation NRIs are coming back to India. All stakeholders should see to it that NRIs keep their ties with India intact. We should create a situation which is ideal for them so that they keep on investing here,” feels Tiwari. Ashish Jindal, regional head (North) at Knight Frank India Pvt Ltd, says that the current situation is right for NRIs to enter the market as the market has started its upward movement and prices would definitely harden over the next few months.

Experts also say that NRIs have always been active in the Indian real estate sector. They have always bought into built up units in major cities or purchased land in their ancestral city or town. The global boom till 2007 witnessed a lot of investment by NRIs in India . The global recession, which also hit India majorly, saw some NRIs scout Indian cities for distressed assets sale. An officer of Punjab National Bank admitted that there were not many NRIs looking for home loan from them during PBD. “As economic slowdown has also badly hurt them, it is possible that when things started looking up again, they would start to buy properties here,” he says. Till recently, NRIs from the US, the UK, Canada and Gulf were the cynosure of realty sector. Among NRIs settled or working in these countries, Punjabis and Malayalis used to buy properties in a big way, every year, in all the major parts of the country. It is a well-known fact that Malayalis and Punjabis have migrated in hordes over the years. Some of them are also buying commercial space.

Samy Velu, a leader of the Malaysian Indian Congress and former minister in his adopted country, said that the purpose of PBD would be defeated if the government only looks at the dollars part of overseas Indians and fails to address their genuine woes and issues. He was referring to the speech of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the PBD in which he urged NRIs to invest in India.

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2010-02-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

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Florida Court Decision Could Impact Builders and Bank Foreclosure Processes

2010-02-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

A ground-breaking South Florida court decision has paved the way to a legal solution for condominium and homeowners associations to address the under-reported but highly commonplace practice of banks stalling their foreclosures.

Banks may engage in this tactic in an effort to delay taking title to financially upside down units and avoiding payment of past due assessments and legal fees due to associations. The new legal approach puts an end to this practice and is poised to dramatically strengthen the financial health of communities throughout the state of Florida.

From the firm that innovated "blanket receiverships" last year, now Association Law Group (ALG) has created the "reverse foreclosure" procedure in cases where an association has already acquired title to the property by its own foreclosure, but the bank’s foreclosure action is still pending or stalled. Under ALG’s new reverse foreclosure procedure, the association intentionally admits, in response to the bank’s foreclosure lawsuit, that the bank is entitled to take title to the financially upside down unit immediately.

Under such procedure, the association knowingly waives its right of redemption and its right to a foreclosure sale, requests the court to grant a partial summary judgment against the association immediately, and further requests that the court direct the Clerk of Court to issue a certificate of title to the bank immediately, thereby making the bank the owner immediately and responsible for the association dues.

Attorney Ben Solomon of Association Law Group explains, "ALG’s reverse foreclosure procedure will finally help associations force banks to take title to financially upside down units much faster than ever before. This innovative new legal strategy holds banks accountable for paying their fair share of assessments and significantly reduces the amount of bad debt incurred by such associations." ALG’s new reverse foreclosure procedure cuts down on the bank’s opportunity to stall such foreclosure proceedings for an additional six months to a year or more (by intentionally delaying the setting of hearings, taking advantage of prolonged sale dates, etc.) because it forces the bank to take title to the upside down unit much quicker than usual because both parties agree they are immediately entitled to the property.
Stalling by the bank typically adds to the amount of bad debt write offs an association eventually incurs when the bank finally does foreclose because by statute the bank is only obligated to pay the lesser of 12 months of past due assessments or 1% of the original mortgage for an HOA or 6 months of assessments or 1% for condos. The balance of past due assessments is then typically written off as bad debt and becomes a common expense to be paid by the rest of the unit owners.

This landmark case, HSBC Bank USA, et al. vs. Keys Gate Community Association, Inc., A Florida Non Profit Corporation, et al., was decided on January 12th in the 11th Judicial Circuit of Miami-Dade County. ALG represented Keys Gate Community Association, Inc. (Keys Gate), a homeowners association in Miami-Dade County with over 3,000 homes.

In this precedential case, Keys Gate was awarded a partial final summary judgment of foreclosure against itself and in favor of HSBC Bank USA. As a part of that judgment, Keys Gate waived its right to public sale and requested a certificate of title be issued directly and immediately to the bank. Pursuant to the judgment, the Clerk of Court issued a certificate of title to HSBC the same day making the bank immediately liable for the payment of past due assessments and legal fees.

Based on the issuance of the certificate of title, the bank also was required to pay all current assessments as they become due. This new legal strategy saved Keys Gate a minimum of eight months or more of bad debt write offs because the association did not have to wait for the bank to get a foreclosure judgment, schedule a foreclosure sale, and sell the property at public auction. Importantly, this case sheds light on a little known banking practice that has been paralyzing homeowner and condominium associations across Florida -- namely that banks are significantly stalling their foreclosures to avoid paying the liabilities to the applicable association. This particular bank foreclosure case had been pending since 2007.

Specifically, in this case, Keys Gate filed and foreclosed its own claim of lien on the property and acquired title to the property through its own foreclosure sale back in April of 2007. The bank filed its foreclosure against the property in June of 2007 and through repeated stall tactics has still failed to complete the same for more than two and a half years. As a last resort, in November of 2009, ALG initiated its first reverse foreclosure procedure and moved the bank's foreclosure case forward by setting a hearing for summary judgment against its client Keys Gate. ALG then asked the court to issue a partial summary judgment in favor of the bank and to immediately grant the bank's request to take title to the unit as stated in its foreclosure complaint.
As part of such reverse foreclosure, Keys Gate waived its rights to the property and, as the current unit owner, waived its right to public sale. The motion was granted and the Clerk of Court issued a certificate of title the same day transferring ownership of the property to the bank. The certificate of title then triggered HSBC Bank's requirement to pay its share of past due assessments, legal fees, court costs, and all assessments going forward. The bank's claim as to the other defendants is still pending.

The practice of banks delaying in foreclosure proceedings is not uncommon but it has a severe detrimental impact upon associations. Under the current law, a bank is not liable for condominium or homeowners associations' assessments until it takes title. As such, once a foreclosure is filed by a bank, there is little incentive for it to complete such foreclosure and take title to the unit until it has a buyer for the property or is otherwise ready to take responsibility for the liabilities associated with the property. It is this critical step in the process where banks have delayed -- sometimes for years -- to avoid having to pay assessments.
Every month of delay equals another month of potential bad debt write off for an association. Until now, associations were left to fall further into debt and were powerless to encourage the banks to complete their foreclosures and collect back assessments. Some judges have tried to make banks liable for assessments if they did not aggressively pursue the foreclosure by granting a motion to compel, but that attempt to hold the banks accountable was recently ruled invalid by the Third District Court of Appeal.

ALG's innovative new legal strategy of reverse foreclosure has been enthusiastically endorsed by the Clerk of Court as another method to reduce their backlog of foreclosure sales. ALG has already been successful in implementing its "reverse foreclosure" procedure in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties and has plans to file dozens more in the upcoming months in multiple other counties.

Building Permits and Inspections

2010-02-15T20:47:00.000-08:00

Building Permits and Inspections - Necessary For Your Protection
Probably the most intimidating part of building your own house is the permit process. Not only do the requirements vary from township to township, but at times the decisions made seem so subjective that we find ourselves seething in frustration. However, permits and inspections are a necessary step, and they are in place predominately for your protection.

Ask any earthquake victim in Iran. Because I am concerned here with new construction, I won't go into the permits required for renovation; that's another story. In a new development, the buyer usually doesn't have to think about permits; the builder takes care of all the details. With independent projects, you may end up engaging a contractor who hires all the sub- contractors and takes care of the permits.

This makes life infinitely easier for the buyer, but you'll pay for that convenience. In rural areas, because township officials are usually volunteers, they tend to work only one or two hours a week, and often after five o'clock. If you miss their time, you'll probably have to wait another week. This could run your builder ragged and cause unwelcome delays.

If you decide to get the permits yourself, the first thing you want to do is go to the township office and acquire their Code Requirements for Single Family Dwellings, and also their Building Permit Requirement Checklist (or whatever they call these documents).

The Code Requirements will cover everything from smoke detectors to egress windows, from stair requirements to insulation, from foundations to chimneys and anything in between. It wouldn't hurt to send a copy to your log home manufacturer, just in case. The Building Permit checklist, though more simply worded, will be the most important document to familiarize yourself with. If even one of these items are unchecked, you won't get that permit that day!

Once you start the process, you come to realize that the Construction Permit is the most important, the most sought-after, and the most critical objective in your immediate scope. Without it, you cannot even break ground. Since everything ties together, the township wants to make sure you have your "ducks in a row" before they "permit" you to start. There will usually be a one-year time limit to the permit or a six-month time limit if construction is stopped in the middle.

You should budget about $1500-$2000 for your average building permit, unless there unusual circumstances attached to your project (wetlands delineation, variances, etc.).

Here is what may be acquired to qualify for the building permit:

1. TAX CERTIFICATION: This document is to verify the ownership of the land and that payments are current.

2. TWO SETS OF SEALED BUILDING PLANS: What they want is an Architect's or Building Engineer's stamp on the plans that come from the home manufacturer. Do not assume that the plans will come pre-stamped. Not all manufacturers have the ability to apply a seal from every state. Included in the building plan will probably be a separate foundation plan, since most log homes do not provide a foundation as part of the building. If there is a separate foundation plan, it too will need to be stamped by a qualified engineer or architect.

3. SIGNED, SEALED ELECTRIC PERMIT APPLICATION: Don't expect the log home manufacturer to provide electrical drawings. Once you hire an electrician, you'll have to sit down with him and determine where you are putting your outlets, light switches and fixtures. Local code will determine how close together your outlets will go. Do yourself a favor and put in many more outlets than you think you will need; retrofitting could be unsightly. Also, plan on twice as many light fixtures than a standard home - wood sucks up light like a sponge. While you are at it, it helps to include your cable wires, phone wires and CAT5 in every room; even though you may not think you'll need it. Once you move into the house, you may change a room's usage from your original conception - we did, and regretted our shortsightedness.

4. SIGNED, SEALED PLUMBING PERMIT APPLICATION: This is another set of drawings that will not come from the home manufacturer. You and the plumber must figure out where the fixtures are going, and if you live in the country remember that the plumbing needs to hook into your septic. (This permit is separate from the septic design permit).

5. APPROVED COUNTY SEPTIC DESIGN: The septic design comes from the local civil engineer. The permit application comes from the township, but the septic approval came from the county. HVAC DIAGRAM: Showing where your ductwork is going.

6. DRIVEWAY PERMIT: In some cases, this comes from the Director of Public Works.
7. STATE WELL PERMIT and TOWNSHIP WELL PERMIT (if you are digging your own well): If there is a drought going on, they might put a hold on new well permits, which will put a hold on the whole project. So get it as quickly as possible.

8. PLOT PLAN AND ZONING APPROVAL: The Plot Plan will come from the local civil engineer. This is not the same as a survey, which will be required by the mortgage company. The plot plan shows the location of the house, driveway, well and septic as well as the perimeter of the building envelope.

9. WATER TABLE INVESTIGATION these are the big ones. You might have local wetland delineation issues, easements or setbacks to worry about. Once you get that Construction Permit, treat yourself to a celebratory dinner. You'll have earned it! The Construction Permit needs to be prominently displayed on the job site. You also need to keep one of those sealed sets of building plans on site at all times, just in case you get a surprise visit from an inspector. Hopefully by now you will have made friends with the township inspector, because he's going to have a big say in the ease or difficulty of your project.

10. ON REPORT: This will help you determine whether you can dig a basement, or do you need to raise the house up?

The inspections are all spelled out and will be required at each step in the process before you can move on. This could cause a delay of one to several days (not counting bad weather), so think ahead - but not too far ahead.

The first inspection will come pretty quick. When your excavator digs the hole for your foundation, the township may inspect the bottom of the footing trenches before placement of footings. If you are using a Superior Walls precast foundation system, there will be no footings so this inspection will be unnecessary.

However, the footings for your deck and porches will need to be inspected. There will be a foundation inspection before the backfill is shoveled in. The big inspection will be the framing inspection. This must be done before the insulation is added. Then, there will be an inspection for the plumbing, the electrical panel and wiring, the septic or sewer service, then insulation.

At the end of the project, there will be a final inspection before issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy; the inspector will look at the finishing work, the smoke detectors, fixtures, etc. There may be other inspections in between, depending on the township. Unless you are acting as your own general contractor, inspections should not concern you, except that if something fails the whole project grinds to a halt.

If you are the Homeowner Builder, you will probably be arranging the inspections yourself, and it helps to know what the township is looking for.

Benjamin Bratt Exits the Village

2010-02-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

SELLER: Benjamin Bratt and Talisa Soto

LOCATION: New York City, NY

PRICE: $2,500,000

SIZE: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES:

We read with great interest today on the always informative City File that actor Benjamin Bratt and his model/actress/stay at home mommy wife Talisa Soto sold their lofty apartment in the Village for $2,500,000.

Your Mama carries a warm spot in our cold heart for Mister Bratt. See kiddies, once upon a time, back when Your Mama was still hawking high priced home furnishings to scads of rich and famous people, we did a bit o' bizness with Benjamin Bratt. Besides being much taller and far more dee-lishusly juicy in real life than on the boob-toob, he was just so incredibly nice and refreshingly free of any of those annoyingly entitled and haughty airs famous people sometimes put on when they're dealing with the help. And, make no mistake butter beans, we were definitely the help, nothing but a shop sitter in a good pair of shooz charging large sums of money to a parade of black Amex cards. Yes, we may have owned the shop, but we were still just a lowly shop sitter to most of the famous folks we dealt with.

Anyhoo, the very bizzy actor recently finished up a long, long, long run on Law & Order. Since then he's made just one appearance on an episode of Modern Family–one of the better new sitcoms as far as Your Mama and our friend Chow-lee are concerned–but previous to and concurrently with his run on Law & Order, Mister Bratt appeared in tee-vee programs such as The Cleaner and E-Ring, and also worked his beautiful light brown skinned stuff in films like Blood in Blood Out, Miss Congeniality, Traffic and Piñero. We can't honestly say we've seen any of those programs or films besides Traffic, but we adore Mister Bratt anyway.

Property records show that Mister Bratt and Miz Soto scooped up their 7th floor apartment in September of 2003. Unfortunately Your Mama doesn't have any idea what they paid for the 3 bedroom and 2 pooper place, which carries monthly maintenance costs of $2,443.

The airy and open plan main living space has hardwood floors, a 13-foot ceiling and tall and wide windows on two walls. What it does not have, as evidenced by the through window air-conditioner, is a central heat and air system. Your Mama would have gladly suffered through such an inconvenience during our many years in Noo York City in exchange for a direct and dramatic view of the Empire State Building and a 900 square foot living/dining area that is, quite frankly, more than twice the size of most 1-bedroom apartments in the Village.

Technically, as per the listing, there are three bedrooms, but one of them was used by Mister Bratt and Miz Soto as an office/library. Besides, given that there's not actually a closet in there, it's not really, legally, a bedroom anyway. None the less, we love that narrow space with the shelves that go to the ceiling and the wee reading room tucked back into a quite corner. The one switch up we'd make in here is to haul in and hang that capiz shell chandelier in the living room, which is dwarfed by the voluminous space into the library, and where it would have an lovely over-sized appeal. Then we'd take that lovely little green glass pendant and put it in the reading nook along with a couple of very cozy chairs and little else. Your Mama can think of few luxuries we'd love more than to have a wee room with some natural light whose only purpose was to provide a comfortable and serene spot to read.

The kitchen, oddly shaped and with a column right in the damn middle, is separated from the main living space by a mahogany breakfast bar–at least we think it's mahogany–and the white cabinets with a raised panel give it a slight country house thing going on. We don't care for that country house in the city look and we're quite sure we'd smack right into that pole over and over and over again, particularly after a we get a few cocktails in us. And when don't we have a few cocktails in us, you know what Your Mama is saying?

The two bedrooms that function like bedrooms are tucked back up into the back of the apartment and the master bedroom includes a nice big dressing room and a pooper with two gigantic windows, an exhibitionists dream.

Mister Bratt hails from good ol' San Francisco where until 2007 he and the Missus owned a residence on Page Street in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood. However, that's been sold and we read somewhere but can not confirm that Missus Bratt–and we presume Mister Bratt and their two shorties–lives somewhere in hills above Los Angeles in a house without swimming pool. Wherever they live, it's not on West 13th Street in New York City.

It’s likely closing time for these chains in 2010

2010-02-11T21:45:00.000-08:00

Tight-fisted consumers, plunging sales and shuttered stores. That was pretty much the retail story during the bulk of 2008 and 2009, when a drab market brought the headaches of overcapacity, liquidity problems (in some cases) and a round of consolidation.

Will 2010 be better? To a degree. A lot of excess inventory has been drawn down, aligning supply with demand. Analysts hold up Starbucks, Foot Locker and Jones Apparel as healthy companies that are getting healthier because they've been smart enough to rid themselves of excess by shutting down locations.

Most economic forecasters are anticipating a modest recovery this year. That, combined with consumers' voluntary rationing during the last two years, could spike demand for more goods. Industry economic consultant Retail Forward, part of Kantar Retail, forecasts 1.5 percent to 2 percent sales growth during the first half of 2010, with a pickup to 3 percent or more during the second half. That's promising but still below pre-recession levels.

Revival in real estate could come as a boon for float glass industry

2010-02-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

When major sectors in the economy do well, it augurs well for several ancillary industries that depend on them. A case in point is the Rs
5,500-crore Indian glass industry, which has shown good growth in the past few quarters driven by an uptick in demand from user-industries such as infrastructure, construction, automobiles, food processing, beverages, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, among others. The past four quarters have seen a steady growth in the fortunes of glass companies —with some of them swinging to profit.

For the industry, FY09 was not particularly favourable. During the first half, when demand was relatively buoyant, companies faced soaring prices of key inputs. And during the second half, when commodity prices stabilised, demand stagnated due to the economic slowdown.

In FY2010, with economy coming back on track and input costs remaining benign, the industry is again witnessing a revival as reflected by the improving financials.

Robust growth in automobiles, infrastructure, liquor & other beverages, boom in building and construction have enabled the companies in the glass sector to post healthy results over the past four trailing quarters.

Hindusthan National Glass, the market leader in packaging glass, has reported 4% Y-o-Y increase in its revenues and flat growth in profit. With its prime customers in food processing, liquor and pharmaceutical industry registering growth in volumes, the company is already seeing signs of recovery in demand. It’s expecting to close the fiscal with a 75% increase in profit and more than 20% increase in revenues.

Asahi India Glass, a major supplier of float and sheet glass to the auto industry, has posted a 8% growth in its consolidated net sales over the past four trailing quarters and significantly reduced its loss to Rs 5.5 crore against Rs 58.3 crore a year ago. With auto sales growing at a healthy pace, the prospects for this company also are bright.

Piramal Glass, an export-oriented specialty glass player, has started showing signs of recovery and swung to reporting profits since the past two quarters. Catering to the packaging needs of the fast-growing cosmetics and perfumery sector, the company is steadily gaining market share in the overseas market on account of being a low-cost manufacturer. With crude oil prices remaining stable over the past couple of quarters, the industry has seen an expansion in the operating profit margins.

With stability on the cost side and good outlook on the demand side, the packaging glass segment has good prospects. The float glass segment, with its primary use in the real estate industry, is seeing good demand pick-up from the residential real estate segment. With commercial real estate sector showing signs of revival, the prospects of float glass industry are likely to improve over the next few quarters.

East Hampton Launches CPF Website To Provide Transparency

2010-02-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

East Hampton - East Hampton's Department of Land Acquisition, the division that manages the Community Preservation Fund (CPF), will be launching a new website on Friday in an attempt to provide increased transparency and accountability to one of the most controversial town offices.

The site, which will be accessible through the town's website (www.town.east-hampton.ny.us) by choosing the "Departments" tab and finding the Department of Land Acquisition, seeks to provide East Hampton's resident will access to the department's budget, the meeting schedule and minutes of the CPF Committee, which rates potential properties for acquisition and sets priorities for stewardship and management, graphs of the monthly revenues that fuel the fund through a two percent tax on real estate transactions and the state and town legislation that created the fund, as well as information on the acquisition process.

Visitors to the site can also see photographs of properties purchased through the CPF (organized by hamlet) and the restoration efforts that have gone into maintaining the town's open spaces.

The website is in its first iteration, according to Department Director Scott Wilson, and should be set to go as soon as the Town Board signs off on it. "The key word is 'Transparency,'" CPF Committee chairman Tim Brenneman asserted, voicing his approval of the site and its goals. Both the committee and the department are hopeful that this first step will help bridge the gap between bureaucracy and the people.

Pending Home Sales Dropped This Month

2010-01-18T21:24:00.000-08:00

A drop is observed in the number of contract signed for pending home sales in November over the preceding month, though the sales are still higher from what was recorded in the same month last year.

This is the finding of a report made public by National Association of Realtors (NAR).

According to the report, which is based on a Pending Home Sales Index maintained by NAR, pending home sales recorded a drop of 16 percent from 114.

3 in October to 96 in November this year. The sale percentage of November when compared to the same period of the previous year is found to be higher by about 15.5 percent.

The officials at NAR are optimistic about the gains in sales activity again in early spring as a response by the first time home buyers to the recently expanded tax credt.

Green Buildings: Fewer Sick Days, Higher Rents

2010-01-12T22:10:00.000-08:00

Environmentally-friendly construction practices have gotten a lot of hype over the past few years but do they really pay off as an investment? A new study found that tenants in green buildings experience increased productivity and fewer sick days. The research also found that that green buildings have lower vacancy rates and higher rents than non-green counterparts.

The study, conducted by the University of San Diego and commercial real estate broker CB Richard Ellis Group, found that tenants in green buildings such as the Behnisch Architekten-designed Unilever offices in Hamburg above are more productive based on two measures: the average number of tenant sick days and a productivity change. Respondents reported an average of 2.88 fewer sick days in their current green office versus their previous non-green office. About 55% of respondents indicated that employee productivity had improved.

Based on the average tenant salary, an office space of 250 square feet per worker and 250 workdays a year, the decrease in sick days translated into a net impact of nearly $5.00 per square foot per year. The increase in productivity translated into a net impact of about $20 per square foot. The study also showed that green buildings have 3.5% lower vacancy rates and 13% higher rental rates than the market.

The work was based on surveys of 154 buildings under CBRE's management, totaling more than 51.6 million square feet and housing 3,000 tenants in ten markets across the U.S. The study defined a green building as those with LEED certification at any level or those that bear the EPA ENERGY STAR ® label.

Another report out in the past week concluded that constructing new green buildings or retrofitting existing structures with energy efficient air conditioning, solar panels and the like will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs and pump $554 billion into the American economy over the next four years. The study, by the U.S. Green Building Council and Booz Allen Hamilton, determined that green construction spending currently supports more than 2 million American jobs and generates more than $100 billion in gross domestic product and wages.

The economic impact of the total green construction market from 2000 to 2008, the study found, was $178 billion. It created or saved 2.4 million jobs and generated $123 billion in wages.

The U.S. Green Building Council certifies LEED buildings and obviously has an interest in the movement, but Rick Fedrizzi, chief exec of the group said something remarkably down to earth in releasing the report: “Our goal is for the phrase ‘green building’ to become obsolete, by making all building and retrofits green – and transforming every job in our industry into a green job.”

Can't argue with that.

Home Inventories Expected to Rise Due to Bank Foreclosures

2010-01-11T22:04:00.000-08:00

Home foreclosures are expected to cause the housing inventory to increase in 2010 as a rising number of homeowners are defaulting on their home loans.

In 2009, a record three million homes went into bank foreclosure. Analysts predict 3.1 million home foreclosures in 2010. The federal home loan-modification program, which is part of the stimulus package, has not improved home foreclosure rates.

Many financial institutions did not have the resources to modify defaulted home loans. Additionally, the program doesn't work for many people, as 61 percent of modified home loans in 2008 still went into bank foreclosure.

Why Will Bank Foreclosures Continue to Rise?

The projected number of bank foreclosures will continue to rise for many reasons, including:

* continued high unemployment.
* the expiration of stimulus package programs that have helped the housing market.
* the large number of adjustable rate home loans that are due to be reset to higher interest rates.
* the postponement of repossessions in 2009 due to pressure from the federal government to modify home loans.
* very low home prices in the real estate market, which cause many homeowners to owe more on their home loans than their homes are worth.

Will the Stimulus Package Programs for the Housing Market Be Extended?
The real estate market has shown some positive signs in late 2009 due to low home sale prices, low mortgage rates, and a home tax credit program that has been extended and expanded.

However, many of the housing portions of the economic stimulus package are scheduled to end in the spring, which is a crucial time for home sales. For example, the home tax credits for first-time home buyers and repeat home buyers expires at the end of April unless they are extended again.

In addition, the Federal Reserve stimulus program that is buying back mortgage-backed securities and agency debt is scheduled to end on March 31. However, there are indications that the program may also be extended, depending on the economy.

Mortgage Rates Start the New Year Slightly Lower Than They Ended the Old Year

2010-01-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

McLean, VA today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.09 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 7, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.14 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.01 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.50 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.54 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.62 percent.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.44 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, unchanged from last week when it averaged 4.44 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.49 percent.

The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 4.31 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.33 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 4.95 percent.

(Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total cost of obtaining the mortgage.) "Mortgage rates eased slightly this week after rising consecutively through December," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "Current interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages are just about at their annual average for 2009, while ARM rates are considerably below their averages for last year."

"As the economy strengthens further and the Federal Reserve (Fed) decides to raise its overnight target rate, ARM rates will follow suit because they are typically tied to shorter-term interest rates. However, the federal funds futures market does not anticipate any Fed action until the second half of 2010."

Megan Fox Gets A New House

2010-01-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

BUYER: Megan Fox

LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA

PRICE: $2,942,500

SIZE: 5,200 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In late November, sultry and sexual Transformers ack-tress Megan Fox went on the boob-toob and told the world that she bought her on-again/off-again boy-beau Brian Austin Green a red 1966 Ford Mustang Fastback. A few weeks later, according to Freddie Feedsusinformation who knows all things real estate in Los Feliz, Miss Fox also bought herself a new home in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles for, according to property records, $2,942,500.

Listen children, Your Mama has never seen a Transformers movie nor do we intend to see one. Therefore, what little we know about Miss Fox is, for better or worse, based on what we've read in the gossip glossies and on the interweb. Our completely meaningless assessment of Miss Fox is that beehawtcha has a tendency towards verbal diarrhea, frequently whining to the press about everything including Transformers director Michael Bay, her absent boyfriend, the Hollywood grind, and how men are "scared of confident vaginas." Oh, lo-ward have mercy on Miss Fox. Your Mama will slap the sexy right off her 23-year old damn face if she starts complaining about the fat paychecks she pulls in from her crappy acting jobs that allow her to spend millions on a fancy new house.

Listen up her little Miss Fox because Your Mama is going to give you some free and sage advice about how to remain viable in Tinseltown when you've yet to reveal any real acting chops: Bitch and bellyache all you want to your friends and family about how terrible it is it be pretty and how tiresome it it to be compared to Angelina Jolie–who, Miss Fox, is actually an Oscar winning actress, something you'd be so lucky to be–but we suggest you put a sensor in your large-lipped mouth when talking to the press because listening to rich and privileged 20-something year old celebrities complain about their success tends to grate on fans' nerves like nails on a chalkboard and, at the rate you're going, you're going to blather your way to the graveyard of forgotten starlets.

Anyhoo, property records for the mini-manse Your Mama is told Miss Fox bought indicates the 1936 Mediterranean measures 4,052 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms and 5 poopers. Listing information for the recently re-worked residence, however, states the there are 5,200 square feet with 5 bedrooms and 4 poopers including a master suite with walk-in closet, private terrace and a spa-like bathroom with lots of Carrara marble, a free standing soaking tub and a terlit closet that, we are happy to report, has a window.

The house also includes a formal living room with fireplace and several French doors that open to a tiled terrace that runs along the back of the house, a formal dining room, family room, media/pool table room, and a newly done dee-luxe kitchen with wood floors, snow white flat-fronted cabinetry, a Hyundai-sized Viking range, Carrara marble counter tops, and a huge window above the sink with a view of downtown L.A. that is so lovely that it could probably even entice the Dr. Cooter–who avoids dishpan hands with a fervor akin to a middle aged first wife avoiding a much younger plastic boobied second wife–to do some after dinner dishes.

The walled and gated home, according to listing information, also has custom hardwood floors, dee-ziner poopers, restored vintage details, whole-house audio, panoramic views that stretch from downtown to the ocean, a pill-shaped swimming pool with several terraces and lawn areas surrounding it, and–natch–state-of-the-art security which means any of you moe-rons who have the dumb-ass idea to knock on Miss Fox's new door will be greeted with some serious and deserved unpleasantness.

It's unclear if Miss Fox's former fiancée and current man-friend Brian Austin Green, he of Beverly Hills 90210 fame, will be moving his underpants into her new digs but, given that he currently has his 1920s Tudor style house in the Hollywood Hills on the market at $2,395,000, there's a pretty good chance he'll soon need a place to park his Ford Mustang.

Real estate market expected to remain strong in first half of 2010

2010-01-07T05:18:00.000-08:00

A new Royal LePage survey predicts Canada's residential real estate market will remain unusually strong through the first half of 2010.

The real estate firm says as confidence in the economic recovery grows, average prices are expected to continue to increase.

Royal LePage executive Phil Soper says the real estate market enters 2010 with "considerable momentum from an unusually strong finish to the previous year."
He says the stimulus effect of low borrowing costs has contributed to a sharp rise in demand that has driven activity to new highs.

Royal LePage says house prices appreciated in late 2009, with fourth quarter price averages higher than fourth quarter 2008.

The average price of detached bungalows rose to $315,055 (up 6 per cent), the price of standard two-storey homes rose to $353,026 (up 5.2 per cent), and the price of a standard condominium rose to $205,756 (up 6.4 per cent).

Regions that saw the strongest declines during the recession are now showing marked gains. Those regions include Toronto and the Lower Mainland, B.C. Vancouver in particular experienced a robust quarter, with home prices rising across all housing types surveyed.

"No other sector of the economy has been as highly affected by economic stimulus as housing," said Soper.

"As consumer confidence has improved, Canadians have shown a lingering reluctance to acquire depreciating assets such as consumer durables, but have embraced the opportunity to invest in real property."

Maharashtra State Govt Increases Real Estate Value by 10-20%

2010-01-05T21:16:00.000-08:00

Property in Maharashtra just got more expensive. The state government has increased the market value of real estate by 10-20 per cent in its Ready Reckoner 2010. The ready reckoner is a guide for the market price of residential and commercial properties, based on which stamp duty and registration fee for their sale and purchase are calculated. Under the revised rates, a land owner would have to pay more stamp duty because his land got more expensive; the developer would raise the sale price of his finished property since his land acquisition cost got higher; and a retail buyer would have to cough up more for property, stamp duty and registration fee.

This is likely to have its rippling effect on redevelopment of old, dilapidated buildings in Mumbai and surrounding Tier II cities, too. With the upward revision of rates, properties being developed on textile mill land would also see a sharp rise as the ready reckoner raised their value on an average by 13 per cent. “The state government expects to mobilise Rs 5,075 crore through stamp duty and registration fee by the end of 2009-10,” a senior state government official, who did not want to be quoted, said, justifying the rate revision. A large number of builders and developers representing the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association (Credai) and the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) expressed their dissatisfaction over the decision.

“The increased rates in the ready reckoner will be applicable for land, residential and commercial properties and various premiums charged on additional floor space index (FSI), staircase, etc. This will adversely affect redevelopment of old buildings, chawls and rented houses. There are over 19,000 old and dilapidated buildings in Mumbai alone, in addition to the fresh properties being developed. Same is the story for other Tier II cities,” said a Credai official, requesting not to be quoted. The revised rates would be applicable in Nagpur, Pune, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nanded as well. The Credai official added that with the revised rates, the land that cost Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) would now be valued at Rs 1.15 crore (Rs 11.5 million). A flat of Rs 20 lakh would cost Rs 23 lakh, not to mention the extra Rs 15,000 that one would haave to shell out for stamp duty and other charges.

Ranjan Bandalkar, vice-president, MCHI, said residential property buyers would have to pay more transaction cost. “There is a possibility that prices of houses may increase 10-5 per cent in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra. The government will have to reconsider its decision.” Rajani S Ajmera, former president of MCHI, said the government should not have increased the ready reckoner rates when the real estate sector was just looking up. “We have in fact demanded that stamp duty should be brought down to 3 per cent from 5 per cent. The rationalisation of these rates is necessary.” Credai Vice-President Dharmesh Jain, too, said the government needed to reconsider the decision as the real estate sector was yet to recover from the global economic meltdown.

Credai members also warned that there could be less takers for commercial properties. “Development of commercial properties has already been affected due to the global meltdown and it has yet to see the revival.” Otherwise an annual exercise, the ready reckoner was not revised after January 2008 due the economic downturn.

Invest In Foreign Real Estate Using Your Retirement Funds

2010-01-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

U.S. stock markets have rallied recently. If you’ve recouped some of your losses, now could be a good time to consider diversifying a portion of your IRA funds out of U.S. markets by putting them into a home—maybe a winter retreat—overseas.

You can think of it as an investment...or as an insurance policy. There’s no saying what the U.S. markets will do over the next few years and diversifying internationally this way can help limit your U.S. exposure.

The good news is: You can find the property of your dreams anywhere in the world, purchase all or part of it with your retirement assets (gaining the tax advantages that delivers), and eventually take ownership of it—completely legally.

The IRS allows a great deal of flexibility when it comes to investing the assets of your retirement account. As a U.S. citizen, you can use your IRA or other self-directed retirement account to buy international real estate.

The rules governing the ownership of real estate are simple. You can own virtually any kind of real estate you could name in your IRA or other retirement account, including: raw land, condos, office buildings, single-family homes, multi-family homes, apartments, and improved land.

You can own the real estate fully, you can purchase an option on the real estate, or you can buy outright using a land trust, L.L.C., or similar entity.

All of these options are allowed for the kind of investment I’m describing. You can pay for the property in full using retirement assets—or you can finance it.

Commercial Real Estate At Lowest Level Since 2002

2010-01-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

The commercial real estate market has been in free fall the past couple of years. We think that residential real estate took a hit, but the commercial markets are down 44% since the peak in October 2007, a scant 26 months ago.

On a good note, declines are expected to slow down in the coming months. But the caveat is that tight lending markets are going to continue to impact the commercial real estate market. Since commercial debt is cyclical commercial borrowers need to refinance much more often than residential property owners.

2010 is shaping up to be a rough year for commercial real estate property owners.

He Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices fell 1.5 percent in October from September to the lowest since August 2002. Prices were down 36 percent from a year earlier and are 44 percent below the peak in October 2007, Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said in a statement.

Values are dropping as U.S. unemployment climbs and consumers cut spending. Office vacancies may approach 20 percent next year as employers hold off hiring, commercial property brokers Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. and Grubb & Ellis Co. said last month. via Bloomberg.

Forced relocation takes bite out of blight

2009-12-30T21:09:00.000-08:00

A number of older East Coast and Midwest cities have experienced severely declining populations as traditional industries close down or move elsewhere around the globe.

In so many ways, the loss of residents sits heavily on those who stay on, from a decline in services and educational opportunities for children to diminished tax rolls and boarded-up stores.

It doesn't matter if you have a good job with high pay in a city that has been in decline -- it will still be a burden to your pocketbook because the value of your home has probably peaked and in some cities like Detroit, has been dramatically slashed.

Even if you lived in a "good" area of a city like Detroit, home values can't be maintained as more and more of your neighbors go elsewhere looking for jobs.

The question is, can't anything be done to help?

My suggestion is a radical one.

In cities where the loss of jobs has been so dramatic that residents have been moving away for decades, the city government needs to make the drastic decision to reduce the areas within its boundaries where housing is available. The concept means selectively zoning out housing, removing existing individual residents and returning a specific section of the city to green space.

Let's say, for example, your city once boasted a population of 400,000 people crowded into 25 square miles of space. That was back in 1950, but now your city counts only a populace of 200,000 all still living within the same 25 square miles. Populations rise and fall, but on the East Coast and Midwest, the boundaries of the cities never change.

I say keep the boundaries and create parks. If your city of now 200,000 people has most of that population living in the 15-square-mile southwest corridor, while the 10-square-mile northeast corridor has experienced the biggest population loss, and, indeed, fewer than 100 families are now inhabited there, I say boost the southwest corridor and return the northeast corridor to nature.

There are a number of once flourishing cities east of the Mississippi that have been in a steady decline for decades, from Newark, N.J., to Youngstown, Ohio, but Detroit seems to be the most egregious example. In the 1950s, Detroit was one of the country's largest cities with 1.5 million people, but has seen those numbers diminish to 750,000 as the city has declined along with the U.S. auto industry.

What has that meant for the local housing market? The Chicago Tribune reported the median price for a home sold at the end of 2008 in Detroit was $7,500. That's right, just $7,500! In thriving cities, people pay that much for a parking space.

Nikkei lifted by trading houses and real estate

2009-12-29T20:59:00.000-08:00

Japan's 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average spent most of Tuesday morning in negative territory as investors sought out issues that would likely flourish in the New Year, such as those related to emerging markets.

The benchmark Nikkei, buoyed in late trade by commodity-related issues, trading houses, retailers and real estate shares, finally added 3.83 points, or 0.04 percent, from Monday to close at 10,638.06, marking a fresh four-month closing high.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was up 1.09 points, or 0.12 percent, to close at 915.87, a new three-month high.

Japanese trading houses and resource-linked issues gained after oil touched a five-week high of more than 79 U.S. dollars a barrel on Monday, as demand for fuel is expected to rise in the U.S.

Nippon Oil Corp. added 0.46 percent to 439 yen and Osaka Gas Co.Ltd. gained 1.58 percent to 322 yen as domestic demand increases in the winter months.

Nippon Paper Group Inc. advanced 1.47 percent to 2,415 yen, whilst rival Oki Paper Co. Ltd. rose 0.51 percent to 392 yen.

Metal and mining issues also rose Tuesday, with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. edging up 0.29 percent to 1,399 yen and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. gaining 1.19 percent to 254 yen.

Import and export firms added to market gains, with Mitsui and Co. Ltd. advancing 2.07 percent to 1,329 yen and fellow trading house Mitsubishi Corp. adding 1.53 percent to close at 2,315 yen.

"Investors seem to be using the last days of this year to search for theme stocks -- companies connected to emerging markets,which are likely to remain strong next year, as well as resource-linked shares," said Noritsugu Hirakawa, a strategist at Okasan Securities.

Real estate issues faired well in a day of indecisive trading as fresh cues were lacking ahead of the year-end. Positive sentiment regarding Japan's rising industrial production output in November and the perceived gradual emergence from recession continued to resonate through the market, analysts said.

Daiwa House Industry Co. Ltd. rose 0.70 percent to 1,008 yen, whilst Heiwa Real Estate Co. Ltd. gained 0.34 percent to 298 yen. Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd. closed up 1.36 percent at 1,486 yen and building developer Sekisui House Ltd. added 0.96 percent to 845 yen.

Banking issues weighed on the market Tuesday as investor consternation about equity financing mounts as banks are faced with meeting the demands of regulators calling for tighter capital standards.

"There are still concerns about banks raising capital," said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management Co.

Japan's second largest bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. lost 2.8 percent to 2,655 yen as the institution considers the prospect of share issuance to raise capital.

"We have to stay competitive," Sumitomo Mitsui President Teisuke Kitayama said in a televised interview. "It's not a case of copying somebody, but we need to fully examine the matter to make sure we're not slow off the block."

Larger rival Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., which has already raised 1 trillion yen (11 billion U.S. dollars) by way of new common share issuance, dropped 1.09 percent to 454 yen and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. relinquished 1.18 percent to 167 yen.

Struggling carrier Japan Airlines Corp. was a notable decliner on today's market, plummeting 8.3 percent to 88 yen, amid rumors of liquidation and bankruptcy court proceedings, which would effectively render their stock valueless.

Find home for renting or Rent-out what you own easily!

2009-12-28T21:04:00.000-08:00

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Homeowners Stepped Up in November to Take Advantage Of Tax Credits

2009-12-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

While first-time home buyers are reducing their buying activities; existing homeowners have stepped up their home purchases, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey of Real Estate Market Conditions.

Existing homeowners accounted for 41 percent of home purchase transactions in November -- an increase from 38 percent in October, according to the survey. At the same time, the number of first-time home buyers dropped from 47 percent in October to 45 percent in November.

"Our survey statistics are showing the effect of Congress’ delay in extending the homebuyer tax credit and then its eventual extension," said Thomas Popik, research director for the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Survey. "The first-time homebuyers started to lose interest in October when it appeared that Congress wouldn't extend the credit. When the credit was finally extended in early November, current homeowners jumped at the new opportunity for a tax credit on their home purchases."

Before Congress decided to extend the $8,000 home tax credit, first-time homebuyers were rushing to homeownership eager to take advantage of the tax break and historic low mortgage rates.

However, in October when it looked uncertain that Congress would approve the extension, interest waned, leaving many to wonder what would happen to the fragile housing market.

Eventually on Nov. 6, Congress approved the tax credit extension to April 2010, but many experts believe that there will not be another rush of first time home buyers until closer to the deadline.

In the meantime, existing homeowners, who have been hesitant about changing residence, saw an opportunity with Congress adding a $6,500 credit for current homeowners who purchased a new primary residence, when it passed the extension in November.

Another factor as to why existing homeowners are now jumping into the housing market is an increase in the number of non-distressed property available for sale. The survey found the purchase of non-distressed property home jumped from 58 percent in October to 63 percent in November. The theory is existing homeowners tend to purchase non-distressed properties.

HOME BUYERS… YES YOU CAN!

2009-12-23T21:04:00.000-08:00

FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER TAX CREDIT DEFINED:

The tax credit is equivalent to 10 percent of the purchase price of the home–although it’s capped at $8,000–and applies only to first-time home buyers and principal residences. The credit is claimed on the homebuyer’s federal tax return. The credit is refundable, which means that the homebuyer receives a refund for the amount of the credit minus any federal tax liability.

For the purposes of this tax credit, a “first-time home buyer” is defined as someone who hasn’t owned a principal residence for three years before buying a home. The date of purchase is determined as the day that the title is transferred. Simply speaking…. if you’ve owned a vacation home–but not a principal residence–within the past three years, you would still qualify for the credit.

Only buyers who purchase a home on or after January 1 and before December 1, 2009 are eligible for the credit.

Income limitations: $75,000 for single earner, $150,000 for two-income families. Buyers earning more than these limitations may be eligible for a reduced credit.

Here are some examples:

Home purchase price of $60,000 – $6,000 tax refund

Home purchase price of $80,000 – $8,000 tax refund

Home purchase price of $100,000 -$8,000 tax refund

A home buyer can file in 2009 for refund OR they can amend their 2008 returns and get the money now! The money can be used for whatever the home buyer chooses and doesn’t have to be paid back! The refund is in addition to whatever refunds already expected.

The other stipulation for this tax credit is that buyers have to own the home for at least three years in order to capitalize on the credit. If the home is sold before then, the buyer would have to return the credit to the government. Some exceptions would be made in certain instances… such as death or divorce.

Lenders in some states have successfully petitioned state government to create legislation allowing them to create loan programs where the tax credit could be used for the down payment for the buyer’s mortgage. So far, Florida is not one of the states offering this type of loan program, but lenders in Florida are trying to change that…. more updates on that in future postings!

Home resales surge to nearly three-year high

2009-12-22T21:33:00.000-08:00

Home resales surged last month to the highest level in nearly three years, reflecting an extraordinary level of federal support that has pulled the housing market back from the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Buyers were racing to complete their sales before the original expiration date of a tax credit for first-time buyers that was scheduled to expire Nov. 30. Last month, Congress decided to extend and expand the credit to ensure the housing market could sustain its recovery.

The Realtors estimated that about 2 million homebuyers have taken advantage of the credit so far and forecasts that another 2.4 million will use it by the middle of next year. First-time buyers made up about half of all transactions last month, driving sales up 44 percent above last year's levels, a record jump.

Botched commute: First two inches wreak havoc

2009-12-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

Commuter vehicles driven without appropriate equipment or skills are scattered like toys tonight, as the first two inches of what could become a two-foot snowfall brought Charlottesville-Albemarle transportation to a near standstill.

There were two vehicles stopped on westbound Route 250 Bypass just west of the McIntire Road exit around 6:15pm, turning the normal commuter artery into a capillary. Meanwhile, on Interstate 64, traffic never got above 30mph, and several drivers— apparently traumatized by the concept of driving in snow— were running with their emergency blinkers.

The situation in Albemarle on Dick Woods Road bordered on the ridiculous, as a reporter counted nine vehicles nosed into ditches along a half-mile stretch near Ivy Depot.

Two cars that smashed together head-on on Route 250 west of Morgantown Road stalled traffic and made for a 3 1/2-hour commute from downtown Charlottesville to Crozet for those leaving around 4:30pm. On Ivy Road heading west, speeds at times reached 5mph until grinding to a soul-deadening halt for hours. Route 240 and its uphill trajectory also proved tricky for autos without four- or front-wheel drive, causing further delays.

“It’s surprising that the salt is not doing as good a job as it usually does,” said City spokesperson Ric Barrick, who reserved blame for the havoc on commuters who waited downtown too long and set out without four-wheel-drive vehicles.

“We’ll start plowing when it gets to three inches, so that should start shortly,” Barrick said at 7:25pm. “VDOT hasn’t started plowing yet either.”

Barrick explained that plows require sufficient snow to create a buffer between blade and pavement to avoid injuring the asphalt.

Federal Reserve Holds Interest Rates at Record Lows

2009-12-16T21:13:00.000-08:00

The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged Wednesday, December 16, to hold interest rates at a record low rate to help drive down double-digit unemployment, turning an economic crisis into an economic recovery. Seeking a second term as Fed chief, Bernanke has made it clear sustaining an economic recovery is his top priority.

The Fed Chairman said that while the economy is growing, it is occurring a very slow pace. He also sounded hopeful saying the pace of layoffs is slowing. That’s why the Fed kept a target range for its bank-lending rate at zero to 0.25 percent. This historic low level has been in place since last December. Bernanke repeated his pledge to keep interest rates at "exceptionally low levels" for an "extended period." The Fed says it can hold rates at super-low levels since it expects that inflation will remain "subdued for some time."

The Fed knows overall weakness in the economy remains due to sluggish spending, the weak job market and tight credit. That’s why the Federal Reserve Board delivered a bold and clear message that interest rates will remain low for the foreseeable future as long as economic confidence remains weak due to an economic crisis.

In response, commercial banks' prime lending rate, used to peg mortgage rates on home equity loans, certain credit cards and other consumer loans, will remain about 3.25 percent, the lowest point in decades.

Encouraging Signs During The Nation's Economic Crisis:

* Economy grew in the third quarter, after four straight losing quarters
* Historically low mortgage interest rates allow more home buyers to get loans
* Layoffs slowed as employers cut 11,000 jobs last month, the best since the recession started two years ago
* Unemployment rate dipped nationwide to 10 percent in November, down 0.02 percent from October

The Fed’s moves have definitely worked at driving down mortgage interest rates. Freddie Mac says mortgage rates on 30-year fixed loans averaged 4.81 percent last week, a big drop from last year’s 5.47 percent.

With signs of financial and housing markets stabilizing, the Fed said that it would end several emergency-lending programs next year, including support for money market mutual funds, short-term corporate lending, money to investment banks, and money to other nation’s banking systems.

The Fed in on track to buy a total of $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the end of March. So far, it has bought $845 billion.

The greatest real estate turnaround ever

2009-12-14T21:12:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK -- Charlotte Street was an apocalyptic nightmare version of urban life.

Weed-choked, junk-filled lots flanked the three-block stretch. Burned out tenement buildings punctuated the sky, and abandoned cars littered the landscape.

The street, like much of the rest of New York City's South Bronx, had fallen to epic lows by the late 1970s. The area had disgorged nearly two-thirds of its population as living conditions declined and arson fires raged. Some landlords, unable to find tenants, torched their properties for insurance money. Other blazes were set by junkies, while still more were set by residents of public housing trying to get moved into nicer apartments.

"Charlotte Street was burning," says Genevieve Brooks, a former resident. "Every day, I'd see the fires and smell the smoke. I slept with my shoes by my bed at night because you never knew if your building was next."

Just three miles away, at Yankee Stadium, is where Howard Cosell uttered his famous line: "There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning."

No longer.

In the three decades since Cosell introduced the world to the plight of the Bronx during the 1977 World Series, Charlotte Street has morphed into a haven of single-family ranch houses accented by backyards flourishing with fruit trees and flowers. Boats sit in driveways and above-ground swimming pools are common. It's a slice of suburbia in one the country's most urban -- and poor -- counties.

What happened to the Charlotte Street that President Carter called "the worst slum in America?" Or the Charlotte Street that President Reagan visited during a 1980 campaign swing? The one he compared -- unfavorably -- with London after the Blitz.
One of the greatest real estate turnarounds ever.

"Charlotte Street is thought of as quite a success story, particularly considering its context: It rose, phoenix-like, out of the ashes," says Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard's Joint Center for Urban Studies.

Baby steps

One of the primary catalysts was Brooks, who had moved to Charlotte Street from South Carolina in the 1960s, when the neighborhood was racially mixed and thriving. But as the 1970s dawned, she watched the deterioration take hold.

When she asked her landlord about maintaining her building, he dismissed her. "He told me I should move to Queens, or Park Avenue," she remembers. "I could have left. But I was single at the time, no children, so I didn't have as much to lose."

Instead, she knocked on neighbors' doors and asked if they noticed the change. When they said "yes," she formed a tenants association. Then she helped form a block association to lobby the city to pick up trash and abandoned cars, and to crack down on crime.

"We went down to the cellars and bagged tons of garbage, brought it upstairs and got Sanitation to pick it up," she remembered. "The kids were excited about sweeping the streets. I would give them money for snacks. They would ask, 'Miss Brooks can we sweep the street today?'"

Bigger strides
By 1974, tired of the small scale efforts, a host of neighborhood volunteers formed a group they called the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes to lobby for improvements throughout the community.

"There was a tremendous amount of community action," says former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer. "That was the secret ingredient. The community refused to give up. They needed allies. They needed people who took the decline of the South Bronx as personally as they did."

One of those people was urban planner Ed Logue, who was hired in 1978 to run a city agency called the South Bronx Development Office. The city was trying to erase the shame of its worst slums, and to do that Logue knew he would need the assistance of local organizations. The Desperadoes, headed by Brooks, were ready to step into the breach.

Brook's and Logue's vision was to go to the rotted core -- Charlotte Street -- and work outward. But most everyone advised them to rebuild starting from the healthy fringes. They wanted single-family homes; critics wanted density and multi-family dwellings, saying it would promote a lively, safe neighborhood and attract merchants.

"The conventional wisdom was that no one would invest their life savings in such a devastated area," says Julie Sandorf, who worked with the MBD and is now president of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, a New York City-based charity.

Brooks, though, knew most of the families in the area were African Americans from the South, Caribbean blacks and Puerto Ricans, and she was convinced that the long home-owning traditions of these groups would help make a community of single-family homes work.

So she and Logue focused on convincing the Local Initiatives Support Corp., a newly launched nonprofit that had a $10 million grant from the Ford Foundation to assist burgeoning neighborhood revivals.

"There was so much devastation in the Charlotte Street area, it needed a big infusion of dollars," Brooks remembers. "We were in the financial disaster stage."
Convincing skeptics

LISC was indeed interested in assisting in the South Bronx, but the foundation had its doubts about the plan. "People at LISC were skeptical about the notion of doing single-family homes in the South Bronx," says CEO Michael Rubinger. "It was thought to be a crazy idea."

But Logue and Brooks dazzled then-director Anita Miller with a vision of white picket fences. She agreed take a gamble and put up the $125,000 the groups needed to purchase two model homes.

Those first three-bedroom, two-bath ranch homes were manufactured in Pennsylvania and trucked over the George Washington Bridge one night in 1983. Sandorf and her husband were on site waiting for the trucks. The first people they saw was a rough looking street gang -- whom Logue had hired to secure the grounds.

Still, Sandorf says, her husband was a little spooked. "He kept asking, 'Where are all the lights?' I had to tell him all those buildings are abandoned. There are no lights."
The homes were priced at about $50,000, and they sold like hot cakes. "We got more than 600 applications from potential buyers in the first three weeks," says Sandorf.
Within three years, 92 homes would be built on the street and the area re-christened Charlotte Gardens. About 90% of the buyers were from the Bronx, according to Sandorf; many were low-income.

Homeownership was made possible by discounting the houses: Each property sold for between $50,000 and $59,000 even thought it cost an average of $110,000 to build. The difference was funded through federal dollars, but the City of New York and various foundations also helped subsidize buyers.

"The houses in Charlotte Gardens were very deeply subsidized," says former borough president Ferrer. "But it wasn't just city money: That provided a stimulus for financial institutions who were reluctant to lend. We told the banks they had to get involved, they had to get up here and lend. Some admitted they had to eat crow: They never expected the complex to succeed."

Shining example

But succeed it did. Original buyers invested and stayed; fewer than a dozen homes out of the 92 have ever been sold. Plus, while the rest of the country is being wracked by foreclosures, Charlotte Gardens has lost just one home to the plague.

"The selling of Charlotte Gardens is the extreme opposite story of what happened in the recent real estate debacle," Sandorf says. "It is a shining example of how to do it right. House buyers were carefully selected and vetted. They were subjected to strict credit checks and homeownership counseling."

Property values, too, have soared. Homes that originally went for $50,000 now sell for ten times that -- when one is available. Currently, there is only one for-sale sign on all of Charlotte Street. The owners, who are original, have retired and are moving to Florida. They listed the property for $459,000 -- which is still inexpensive by New York standards. Just across the river, in Manhattan, buyers pay that for a studio apartment.

"Sales are so rare that finding comparables to make an accurate appraisal is very hard," says Tina Gordon, the Century 21 real estate agent for the property.
Genevieve Brooks and her husband retired several years ago and returned to South Carolina, where they have family. But they still come back often to visit friends in Charlotte Gardens.

Housing Prices Increase in Third Quarter:FHFA

2009-12-10T20:49:00.000-08:00

The first quarterly increase of housing prices since the second quarter of 2007 has some hoping that stabilization is on the horizon.

monthly change from July to August was estimated to be negative 0.3 percent but was changed to negative 0.5 percent. Seasonally adjusted prices dropped 3.8 percent during the 2009 third quarter, compared to the third quarter last year, and prices of other goods and services fell 2.8 percent. As a result, the inflation-adjusted price of houses fell approximately 1.0 percent from last year.

“These data provide some evidence of short-term stabilization in housing prices, a likely result of the many ongoing efforts to stabilize markets,” DeMarco said. “Given the headwinds facing markets, including high unemployment rates and continued high levels of delinquency and foreclosures, the longer-term view remains uncertain.”

The most significant price movements during the third quarter were seen in the Mountain Division where prices dropped 1.4 percent and the Pacific Division where prices increased 1.9 percent. Seasonally adjusted, purchase-only indexes indicated that prices rose in 19 states and the District of Columbia during the last quarter. Only seven of these states saw price increases over the last four quarters.

For the 25 most-populated Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States, purchase-only indexes showed four-quarter price declines were most prevalent in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona MSA, where prices dropped 22 percent between the third quarter of 2008 and this year’s third quarter. During the same time period, prices remained strongest in the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Colorado MSA, where prices increased 3.3 percent.

According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI), released Tuesday by FHFA acting director Edward J. DeMarco, housing prices grew modestly in the third quarter. Calculated using home sales price information from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the HPI, on a seasonally adjusted basis, was 0.2 percent higher during the third quarter than during this year’s second quarter.

Unlike the purchase-only index, FHFA’s all-transaction HPI, including date from mortgages used for both home purchases and refinances, fell 2.4 percent between this year’s second and third quarter and 4.1 percent over the four-quarter period.

Second homes: Base village brings Winter Park ski resort to its peak

2009-12-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

Despite being more than 50 miles from Denver, the Winter Park ski resort is actually part of the city. Back in 1939, city officials bought the mountain, located west toward the Rockies, so Denver residents would have a local place to ski.

Although ranked in the nation's top 10, the mountain never made much money from the Denver day-trippers. Without private investment, facilities were tired and the area lacked resort amenities such as hotels, retail and dining. So in 2002, the city partnered with ski operator Intrawest, which has already invested more than $50 million in on-mountain skier improvements.

The bigger change is the new pedestrian base village, with condo hotels, restaurants and shops. Now Winter Park — which had only 230 condos in 2000 — has base-area condos for sale, and more on the way, at prices lower than most Western competitors. The average home price of $450,000 in Grand County is nearly half of nearby Summit County (where Breckenridge, Copper and Keystone are located) and even less compared with Eagle (home to upscale Vail, Beaver Creek).

These dramatic changes have also spurred development in downtown Winter Park, 2 miles away, and for 30 more miles up the road, as the popularity of the resort — the closest large mountain to Denver and its airport — has grown.

"Customers coming to the valley now are expecting more in the way of nightlife and restaurants — and they are getting it," says Realtor Lance Gutersohn of ReMax Peak to Peak. Gutersohn estimates that over 90% of residential real estate built in the last decade are second homes, and several new communities are a direct result of the base-village expansion. The ski resort itself has approvals for 1,300 more residences and, should it get too crowded, for another entire mountain also owned by Denver.

A look at three Winter Park neighborhoods

• Slopeside Village: New condos are in two hotel-style complexes and in luxury lofts above the new retail and dining storefronts in the pedestrian village. Since there are no hotels at Winter Park, these can be rented out through the resort to generate income. Two-bedroom condos start around $350,000, while the lofts cost around $670,000. In older buildings, studio condos begin under $150,000. The most luxurious options are the custom homes in Bridger's Cache, averaging about $3 million. (lovewinterpark.com)

• Town of Winter Park: Two miles from the ski area, Winter Park has a store- and restaurant-lined Main Street and numerous condos and single-family houses. The most notable is Grand Park, a 1,700-acre community at the northern end of town with its own village underway. A new four-bedroom house meeting Colorado's "Built Green" certification costs $549,000. (grandparkco.com)

• Granby Ranch: This 5,000-acre golf and ski community is 15 miles north in the Highway 40 development corridor. Granby Park has its own small (33 trails) ski resort, SolVista Basin, and many residents use both the skiing here and Winter Park. Slopeside condos start under $200,000, and lots for new houses can be found in the mid-$100,000s. (granbyranch.com)

Real Estate Activity Picking Up in Mumbai after Long Lull

2009-12-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

Real Estate Activity has picked up pace after a long lull in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) as valuations in commercial property across the city recover from the economic slowdown. An unlisted pharmaceutical chemical company has bought 15,000 sq ft of space at Rs 31,000 per sq ft in the 16-storeyed Crescenzo, a standalone corporate building at BKC. Although the valuation of the deal is only around Rs 45 crore, analysts say this is an important deal as it marks the return of commercial realty. Dhaval Shah, director, Parinee Developer, which owns Crescenzo, confirmed the deal, but refused to disclose the buyer’s name. “With the prices in BKC bottoming out and now looking up, this is the perfect time for investors and corporates to take a fresh look at buying space in BKC,” he said.

BKC had seen a decline of up to 45% in capital and rental values, but finalised a deal last week that is around 30% higher than values prevailent in the area and almost on par with 2007 valuations. The slowdown between 2008 and May 2009 hit the Indian real estate market hard. While the residential market gradually stabilised, the commercial market continued to suffer and prices in Mumbai and New Delhi-NCR saw a 45% drop. This was fuelled by a lot of supply hitting the market, with several corporates putting their property up for sale. However, the situation seems to have improved by December.

Ravi Ahuja, executive director, development services, Cushman & Wakefield, said: “After witnessing a significant correction during the first two quarters of 2009, rental and capital values in BKC bottomed out and are gradually stabilising. They could even see a moderate rise. This can prove to be the right time for both investors and end-users to enter the market at an advantageous level, especially since there has been an increase in leasing demand by 35% in the thirdquarter of 2009 over the previous quarter in BKC. This is likely to push rental and capital values northwards.” BKC, which was planned to be developed as an alternate corporate location to Nariman Point, has been seen as a corporate hub. Buildings with modern amenities, large floor plates and more contemporary designs have added to the attraction of this location.

BKC is also expected to gain in terms of connectivity through the planned Metro and Mono Rail, Sion-Kurla flyover, Santacruz-Chembur Link Road and Bandra-Worli Sea Link. All this is in addition to the existing and proposed social infrastructure in the location such as schools, consulates, hospitality, health care and multi-storied car parking facilities.

REAL ESTATE- ON THE BLOCK- Queenly blue: Stucco turns heads in Belmont

2009-12-07T21:33:00.000-08:00


	Address: 710 Belmont Avenue Neighborhood: Belmont Asking: $519,000 Assessment: $420,200 Year Built: 1920 Size: 1,895 fin. sq. ft. / 200 unfin. Land: 0.12 acres Agent: Sonja Casero, 296-0134, Frank Hardy Inc. Curb Appeal: 9 out of 10

A house isn't always just a house. Some have only walls surrounding space, while others have an ineffable something— we could call it heart— that makes the place a home. It's hard to put a finger on what that element is-- or a price tag, for that matter.

While visitors may quibble about whether that element is evident in this Queen Anne at the corner of Belmont Avenue and Church Street, it does have curbside presence. Its blue stucco exterior catches a passerby's eye, and a new copper roof extends over a romantic turret that makes one imagine a cozy space for reading or other private endeavors.

When the current owner bought the place in 2004, there was not a single plant on the property. Today, all the landscaping has resulted in lush gardens, even in November. Shrubs and young trees provide height and counterpoint to low herbs and grasses. A stone walkway through a small seating area leads to the front door and around the house to the fenced yard in back. Stones from two log-cabin chimneys surround raised beds that look authentic enough to be original.

Although small, the backyard is an oasis, with a koi pond and soothing waterfall, and the covered back porch is big enough entertain a small group. (Prospective buyers shouldn't get too attached to the fish, though, as they do not convey.)
Inside, warm pine floors and a gas-converted hearth create a lived-in feel in the living room beside the generous foyer. A wide doorway leads to an updated kitchen with the dining room beyond. Painted a vibrant red, it's quite dramatic, but the current clunky furniture shrinks the size of the room. New owners may probably want to shift to minimalist to give the appearance of a larger space.

Space in the back on this floor, currently used as a second living room, would make a striking master suite with a new spa-like bath and tiled shower sporting two showerheads and a built-in bench. Two steps down from the bath, what could be the bedroom leads directly to the covered porch. If new buyers wanted to make this space the master suite, they probably would add a second door to the backyard.

In the renovation, the staircase was opened up on the second floor to create a potential office or play area. Here, built-in shelves take the place of a railing and sit low, again creating a feeling of space. Two second-story bedrooms are connected by a bath with a claw-foot tub. A washer and dryer are also up here behind closet doors.
Some extras, like plantation shutters and antique and handmade light fixtures, are in keeping with the character of the house, while a whole-house water purification system is an update for contemporary needs. Two heat pumps have also been installed.

The detached garage, accessed from Church Street, could be converted into a carriage house-- the owner has an architect's plans for the conversion that will convey and might be useful for a buyer seeking some rental income.

Beyond the obvious beauty and character of the house, the price does reflect updates and the owner's personal investment. Finding an older house in turn-key condition is a boon, though, and character is hard to price.

Hong Kong worried about real estate bubble

2009-12-06T21:07:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong's government is "very concerned" about the risk of an asset bubble developing although a bubble is not apparent yet, Financial Secretary John Tsang told legislators on Monday, referring to a surge in the city's property prices this year.

Residential property prices have jumped 30 per cent this year, and price gains for luxury property have topped 40 per cent, as the city has drawn massive capital inflows - amounting to a record $US73 billion between October last year and November 13 this year - with foreign investors attracted by its low interest rates. Wealthy mainland Chinese have also been snapping up luxury Hong Kong apartments.

Tsang said the financial system was sound and the city could cope with capital inflows and outflows but echoed chief executive Donald Tsang and central bank chief Norman Chan, who have also warned recently about the risk of an asset bubble developing.

"We are very concerned about the risk of an asset bubble," Mr Tsang said. "The risk is there but it is not very apparent."

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority recently reduced the mortgage limit for luxury property to 60 per cent from 70 per cent to try and cool the market, and mortgage demand has eased from a few months ago.

A government economist told legislators that speculation in the property market was not too heated and demand mainly user-oriented, with 90 per cent of transactions for mass-market property. Housing affordability meanwhile was above a 20-year average.

Mr Tsang said the government would monitor the situation but did not comment on the possibility of further measures to reduce the risk of an asset bubble.

Intuit to sell real estate software business

2009-12-02T21:11:00.000-08:00

Software maker Intuit Inc. said Tuesday that it will sell Intuit Real Estate Solutions to private equity firm Vista Equity Partners for $128 million in cash.

Intuit Real Estate Solutions, which used to be known as Management Reports Inc., offers software and services to real estate management and investment companies.

The business is based in Highland Hills, Ohio and has 340 employees.

The deal is expected to close by the end of January, and Intuit said the sale will boost its earnings by 10 to 12 cents a share.

The company said it still expects its revenue to grow 4 percent to 8 percent in 2010, even excluding Intuit Real Estate Solutions revenue.

The business contributed $74 million to Intuit's overall fiscal 2009 revenue and was expected to contribute $80 million in fiscal 2010. Intuit reported total revenues in fiscal 2009 of $3.18 billion.

Intuit shares fell 3 cents in after-hours trading, after finishing regular trading up 24 cents at $29.45.

160% Increase in California Real Estate Foreclosures

2009-12-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

According to an article in CNN, foreclosures are spiking everywhere. Nationally they are up 53% over last year but for us in California, the article states that there was a 160% increase in July 2006 vs. July 2005.

Can this be an indicator of a famous "bubble" or just a hiccup?

Remember, the NAR's July Existing Home Sales Report had this to say about the West...

Existing-home sales in the West dropped 6.4 percent to an annual pace of 1.32 million in July, and were 18.0 percent lower than a year earlier. The median price in the West was $348,000, down 0.3 percent from July 2005.

Will the California real estate market weather the impending storm or will this be a repeat of 89-91?

Twitter Can Help You In Your Real Estate Business

2009-11-30T20:56:00.000-08:00

At every real estate conventions, boot camps, or seminars the topic of marketing comes up. Someone will mention Facebook (that’s a whole different story) which is always closely followed by a comment about Twitter. So… let’s evaluate is Twitter worth it? If it IS worth it, how can you best use it for great results? First, lets look at just what Twitter is and what it can do for your marketing efforts.

Twitter.com is a site where an investor can create a profile and become a “micro-blogger” Twitter is like a typical blog (aka web-log) in that it lets you say anything you want to say to anyone and everyone who will view it - with one exception. Twitter only allows a subscriber to express themselves–0 characters at a time. So it’s a kind of like using you cell phone to send the world a brief text message. When you locate a profile of someone whose “tweets” you are interested in, you can “follow” them - whenever they post anything new, it will be visible on your Twitter home page. If anyone finds YOUR profile and follows YOU, then you will be alerted that someone is “following” you. Now that you are aware of the basics, let’s discuss making this a powerful and PROFITABLE tool for you.

Because the old adage “Out of sight, out of mind” is always true, you’ll have to keep active with your “tweeting”. You should post at least one time a day. Find information to say specific to real estate - information that other people will deem useful. If you just start putting info about properties you in your portfolio for sale, it probably won’t get you as far as you desired. After all - when have you last opened and read an email from someone trying to sell you something?

When you give your followers something they can use or something they find fascinating (even if it ISN’T about the real estate industry) then you’ll have a chance to maintain their attention. When you gain their friendship, they’ll be more open to review what you have to say when you want to offer them something you’ve listed.

Twitter, like other social networking sites, is a great way to connect with people - just keep in mind that they’re people and want to be treated like people. They aren’t dollar signs. So connect! when someone follows you, send them a short personal message letting them know you appreciate it.

Remember that being real with others and giving thoughtful content is what Twitter is made for - the profit will follow if you treat people like people and post routinely so that your Twitter marketing is constantly on the radar! The more you “Tweet”, the larger your following will become - and the larger your following, the better your opportunities of communicating with a person who is interested in making a deal - which, of course, means a greater opportunity for you to profit!

REOGoldMiner.com is a site that helps you identify REO deals and valuate them at the click of a button. We have a passion for Real Estate, internet marketing, and helping investors become the most success they can be in their real estate business.

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The first in a series of studies conducted by Kansas State University has shown that RGF Environmental’s Photohyroionization (PHI(TM)) Cell inactivates H1N1 (Swine Flu) or 99+% under controlled laboratory conditions. The study was conducted on stainless steel surfaces and Released jointly from RGF Environmental and Kansas State University.

The PHI(TM) Cell, also known as the Guardian Air, is designed to eliminate sick building syndrome risks by reducing odors, air pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), smoke, mold and viruses. The PHI(TM) Cell is installed into a building’s heating and air conditioning system air ducts and it uses light, water and oxygen to produce “Mother Nature’s friendly cleaners” - hydro-peroxides, super oxide ions and hydroxides. These cleaners circulate through your conditioned air space and kill airborne and surface viruses, bacteria, mold, odors and VOCs before they can spread.
For thousands of years humans have been breathing these “Friendly” cleaners. These naturally produced cleaners kill bacteria and viruses, leaving only oxygen and hydrogen behind which means no chemicals or residue are left anywhere.

In order for a standard air cleaner to work, bacteria and viruses have to bypass all people, surfaces, and objects in the room. Then go directly into the vent to pass through the air cleaner. With the PHI(TM) Cell technology the cleaners are already present in the air and has been tested to shows a reduction of microbials by 78% within 3 feet of a sneeze. The Guardian air is an aggressive system compared to other air cleaners which are passive.

The Indoor Air Quality protection plan of America’s largest restaurant chains, hotel chains, theme parks, cruise lines, public schools and hospitals includes using the technology of the PHI(TM) Cell. The recent tests for the H1N1 virus or Swine Flu are allow business owners to feel more comfortable concerning their indoor air quality.

Having trouble with your furnace during the cold winter months? Metro Heating and Cooling provides Repair, maintenance and installation for Furnaces and Air Conditioning. Metro Heating and Cooling Providing Heating and Air Conditioning Repair to the following areas: Greater Dallas area including Mesquite, Garland, Richardson, Plano,Allen, McKinney, Addison, Rockwall, Carrollton, Grapevine, Arlington, Royse City, Forney, Terrell, Flower Mound, Lewisville
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Many landlords face regular issues with their tenants, to the point sometimes where an eviction is required. Before going ahead and beginning the process of eviction, it is important to understand all aspects of the laws so that they can be abided by. Here, we will discuss a few ways to explain how to write effective eviction letters for tenants.
Eviction laws can be very strict so it is important to do some research and ensure that they can be followed through with in a lawful manner. If your tenant is on a monthly rolling contract then you must give them a minimum of ninety days from sending of the letter to leave the property. Should they read the letter and refuse, then it is a landlords right to take the matter to the courts.

The latter should always be begun with your name, your full address and a contact number for yourself. Address the latter to the evictee using their full name and sign it off with your own, along with a written signature.

It is important for the latter to remain very professional sounding so that it will be taken seriously by all who read it or if it needs to be used as evidence in a court, should the situation be taken that far.

By running a very simple search on the internet hundreds, if not thousands of results will come up for writing eviction letters for tenants. Some may place a charge for writing these letters for you but some will also send the letters out, follow up responses and even deal with a potential court case for you.

There are multiple websites on the internet that offer the above services all for free. You can usually either download them and print them yourself, or you can customize them before printing a copy for yourself. Always ensure that the letter is sent out on good quality paper and is sent by recorded mail.

If you have a problem tenant that you need to get rid of, you may want to find Eviction Letters For Tenants or an Eviction Letter For Tenants to solve your problems.

One of the first things to look at prior to shopping around for a good mortgage rate is your debt to income ratio. The first thing a lender is going to look at is your ability to handle the potential debt of a home loan, followed by your credit score. If your debt is too high and you income too low you will not be approved for the loan.
It is a simple matter of how much you make compared to the amount you pay towards bills every month. When you approach a mortgage lender this will be the most important thing they look at.

Building Bridges between Cities

2009-11-29T21:35:00.000-08:00

Moved by graphic television images broadcast from hunger-stricken communities during the 1985 famine in Ethiopia, citizens of Amesbury – a small town in the American state of Massachusetts – decided to offer their "widow’s mite" by contributing towards easing the pain of at least some of the affected families.

For some 5000 villagers in Esabalu, a settlement in Western Kenya, the decision was the start of a unique relationship that was to assist in relieving the impact of starvation and famine within the local community. Through a farm loan programme organized under the umbrella 'Amesbury for Africa', the aid scheme was initially, intended to help the members become self-sufficient in food production.

In subsequent years, however, the focus of the relationship has been expanded, and today it consists of an open-ended bilateral "sister village" relationship, through which both partners are seeking to personalize the fight against world hunger and underdevelopment.

In Zimbabwe’s eastern border with Mozambique, the 150,000 strong population of Mutare has been learning multi-sectoral environmental management lessons from Holland’s eighth largest city, Haarlem. Elsewhere on the continent, it is the British post-war new town Crawley, that is seeking knowledge on the social, political and economic issues facing the developing world through direct interaction with local authorities in Malawi’s city of Lolongwe. While, on its part, Lolongwe is looking to benefit from access to British local authority networks of technical skills.

These examples are only a few of a growing catalogue of inter-community partnerships now forming across the globe, whereby local communities have been bridging gaps of distance and culture to learn from each other’s experiences in order to implement sustainable urban development.

By the turn of this century, global population growth had seen the number of people living in the world topping 6.1 billion. Of this about 3 billion people now live in cities and towns, and this figure is expected to increase particularly in the less developed countries, where the urban population is expected to double from 1.9 billion in 2000 to 3.9 billion in 2030. This has led to an urgent need for solutions to the emerging socio-economic problems in the cities of the developing world.

"Globalization is making the 21st Century the century of the cities. The challenge is how to make cities a better place for the majority of people", says Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN HABITAT. And to do this, she says, "partnership is indeed the key for successful implementation of the Habitat Agenda. We must collaborate if we must succeed".

This year, the World Habitat Day Celebrations acknowledges the need to encourage more cooperation between cities, under the theme "City-to-City Cooperation".

City-to-city cooperation initiative, or its acronym C2C, has been driven largely by city managers and local authorities themselves, in an attempt to project their role as partners in the international processes addressing urban issues. C2C programmes, also sometimes referred to as "Decentralized cooperation", generally all share a commitment to exchange between cities on the fundamental premise that cities have a great deal to learn and teach each other. There are, however, broad differences that reflect the wide diversity of interests, purposes, institutions, resources and situations.

UN-HABITAT has been working with many international organizations and associations of local authorities to encourage city to city cooperation. For example, it has been working with the World Association of Cities and Local Authorities Coordination (WACLAC) and the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA) and United Towns Organization (UTO), to encourage more city to city linkages. More recently, UN-HABITAT has been working with Sister Cities International (SCI). SCI is an organization whose members have built up decades of experience promoting this concept. It is a citizen diplomacy network creating and strengthening partnerships to increase global cooperation at the local level. SCI represents over 700 communities who are working in over 1,500 cities in 121 countries around the world.

Other recent examples include the city to city cooperation organised by a group of six European cities – Bielefeld and Essen (Germany), Delft (Netherlands), Evry (France), San Felix de Llobregat (Spain), and Sheffield (United Kingdom), who are working with a German non-governmental organisation, to form a partnership with the Nicaraguan town of Esteli, to assist with water, sanitation and ecological projects. Building on 10 years experience of cooperation, emphasis shifted to institutional reform, specifically to strengthen democratic governance during the transition to multi-party democracy. This attracted support from the European Commission and led to a series of successful local activities in Esteli, aimed at citizens and newly elected officials, including technical support for finance, administration, planning and international relations.

This was one of the first North-South C2C partnerships to focus on institutional reform and issues of governance. Its concern for operational aspects of local democracy was probably the strongest feature, giving the partnership a concrete purpose and leading to visible results.

Among the 54-member Commonwealth, a Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme (CLGF) was started in 1997/1998. It supports over 30 projects in 14 countries, linking some 60 councils and associations.

"The CLGF scheme draws on the skills and expertise of local government practitioners to find sustainable solutions to local problems. These often have wider impact for other councils having similar problems", says Carl Wright, Director of the scheme which was endorsed by the Commonwealth Heads of Governments at their meeting in March this year. A key feature of the CLGF programme is the dissemination of good practice at national level, as well as association-to-association exchanges, which enable the scheme to reach beyond the traditional C2C linking.

According to the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA), while most international cooperation programmes and projects today involve either one or a combination of the critical issues of good governance, capacity building and/or specific initiatives to secure sustainability, there are often other motivations that simply demonstrate the concept of human solidarity.

For example, when in 1998 ice storms devastated thousands of lives in Canada, elders in Sanankoroba, a 4,500 population community in Mali, raised 40,000 West Africa Francs (40 Pounds Sterling) in emergency aid from their subjects in support of Quebec’s Sainte-Elisabeth community. In doing so, the community acknowledged that "We are aware that the money is symbolic. It shows that giving has to do with the heart, not the sum".

Shine the Best Light on Your Kitchen By Rob Thomson

2009-11-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

Whether you are designing a new home, updating your current kitchen, or are purchasing a fixer-upper and are looking forward to putting your vision in place, deciding on kitchen lighting can be a significant undertaking. The kitchen is the heart of any home, so choosing the proper lighting to create a functional, yet inviting, environment is very important.

It is also a great way to increase interest during a buyer tour when you are selling your home. When professional stagers put their design plans together, one of the main focuses is on creating a clean, bright kitchen that looks move-in ready. Having the right lights to enhance the room is an important consideration.

Ideally, there are three layers to effective kitchen lighting: task, ambient, and accent. Each has its own purpose and can be used in combination or alone, depending on the lighting needs required.

Task Lighting is at the top of everyone's list when purchasing kitchen lighting systems. It is important to be able to have proper illumination for food preparation, such as when you are using sharp knives to cut vegetables, measuring and adding ingredients, and simply reading recipes. Task lighting usually requires higher wattage bulbs and can be set into overhead, directional lights for specific areas of the counter or mounted under the cabinets. Installing task lighting in the wrong place can cast shadows on working areas, defeating the purpose of the light.

Ambient Lighting creates a softer look, making the kitchen feel warm and inviting. This style of indirect lighting is sometimes overlooked, but it is important for homes with open floor plans as it adds to the overall look of the larger space. Types of ambient lighting include pendant lights that hang from the ceiling, or small tube lights installed under kitchen cabinets.

Accent Lighting is usually the last segment homeowners consider, but it is essentially the finishing touch to the kitchen decor. Choices like track lighting, directional display lights and a selection of wall sconces gives a complete look. Other examples of this lighting include include low-wattage bulbs inside glass cabinets to accentuate china and glassware, and recessed lights to focus on artwork.

Another consideration would be decorative lighting, just to add a little more sparkle to your kitchen. However, this could be overkill if your kitchen lighting is layered properly.

In today's world that includes gourmet appliances and granite-top islands in many kitchens, having the perfect lighting to show off all aspects of the room is essential. There are countless choices to make sure your home is the entertainment center for your friends and family.

Top 10 Home Buying Mistakes:

2009-11-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

Doing it alone

Buying a house is a complex transaction. Even if you don’t use an agent, you’ll need a complete, dependable team: lender, lawyer, inspector, insurer, as well as referrals and advice from friends and family. Enlist the help of these individuals early in the buying process.

Buying at first sight

You may be in love with the place, but does it fit your family’s needs and budget? Make a list of your needs and wants and make sure the house fits your requirements. Check out the neighborhood and the community before you buy by visiting at different times of the day and week to learn about noise and traffic patterns. Even if you don’t have kids, check out the local schools to make sure your resale value will be good.

Not getting pre-qualified and pre-approved

Being pre-qualified gives you a general idea of how much you can afford to borrow. Being pre-approved means a lender has verified your information and credit rating and agreed to provide you with a specific amount of money. You are in a better position to go house hunting knowing exactly how much you can afford and that you have financing.

Overbuying

You may qualify to borrow more, but can you afford to? Analyze your monthly costs: debt, food, transportation, entertainment, and savings. As a general rule, your total monthly debts, including your mortgage, should not exceed 36 percent of your income before taxes. Be sure to budget enough to cover closing costs (often two to five percent of the home’s purchase price), plus moving, redecorating and maintenance. Allow for increases in ongoing expenses such as utilities and taxes.

Misplacing your trust

No matter how much you like the agent, sellers, inspector, or the guy down the block who vouches for them, remember this is a business transaction. Your decision is binding. Do your own research and know your support team’s roles and responsibilities.

Relying on oral agreements

Get it right and get it in writing. Written agreements almost always trump oral ones when it comes to contracts. If the offer says the lawnmower is negotiable, but the agent says it’s included, get it in writing.

Skipping the fine print

You need to understand what you’re signing before you pick up a pen. Ask for documents in advance, make time to read them and ask questions. Get copies of your mortgage papers a few days ahead of closing.

Forgetting or betting on resale

Avoid buying a home that costs 50 percent more than neighboring homes and think before buying the most expensive home on the block. Your neighbors’ lower home values will weaken yours. Remember, markets change. If you buy intending to flip your investment and the market falls and you have to sell, your selling price may not be enough to even cover your mortgage.

Making an unconditional offer

Protect yourself with at least two of these contingencies in your offer:
• Mortgage financing -- You’re pre-approved, but is the house? Before a bank will lend you money, it will want a formal appraisal of the property to confirm that there is sufficient equity in it to warrant the loan. If the house appraises lower than the sales price, the loan may be declined.
• Inspection -- never buy an existing or new home without a thorough home inspection. Walk through the home with the inspector to learn more about the house and any concerns he or she may have.
• Insurance -- confirm you can get adequate coverage. In some areas, it’s difficult to get hazard insurance.

Having buyer’s remorse

No place is perfect. There will always be surprises. Don’t let a few initial blips spoil the whole ride. And don’t miss a great house waiting for the perfect one!

Las Vegas Sands to Restart Macau Projects

2009-11-11T21:06:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas Sands Corp. plans to begin preliminary work in January to restart two stalled construction sites in Macau, a person close to the company said Tuesday.

Financing problems forced the company a year ago to halt construction on Cotai, a stretch of reclaimed land off the main peninsula of Macau, laying off 11,000 workers.

The two parcels of land sit across the road from Las Vegas Sands' massive Venetian Macao casino-resort, and would be linked to the Venetian Macao by glass-enclosed footbridges. At 13.3 million square feet of net developable area, the new project, which currently has its concrete shape and some ceiling-work finished, would be even larger than the Venetian Macao, which the company said was the largest building in Asia when it was opened in 2007.

On Monday, Las Vegas Sands disclosed in a filing that it had secured financing from banks for $1.45 billion. The company says it needs around $2 billion to finish the halted portions of the projects. It is seeking to secure $300 million more in financing, the company disclosed.

A person familiar with the matter said Las Vegas Sands plans to hire 12,000 to 13,000 construction workers over the next 12 to 18 months to restart work on the project, which will feature Shangri-La, Traders and Sheraton hotels. There will also be limited retail space and some convention and meeting space in the first phase that is set for the mid-2011 launch.

All other subsequent construction on the site will be demand-based, the person said.

The company is also seeking to raise as much as $3.83 billion from an initial public offering in Hong Kong for its Macau assets. It plans to use roughly $500 million from that offering to finance Macau construction, the person close to the company said. Much of the additional money raised through the IPO is expected to go toward paying down debt and paying off intercorporate loans.

Las Vegas Sands operates casinos in Las Vegas, Bethlehem, Penn., and Macau. The majority of its revenues come from its Macau operations.

Construction has continued on a $5 billion resort in Singapore, which it plans to open next year.

Will California Real Estate Escapes Median Home Price Drop?

2009-11-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

Today the NAR released it's existing home sales data and nationally prices actually dropped 1.7% from the same month last year. Surprisingly California real estate actually was up a minor 1.6%. The biggest drop happened in the Northeast.

For August, California home sales have actually plunged 30.1% according the the California Assn. of REALTORS, which was the biggest year-over-year drop since August 1982.

As everyone already knows, California has lots of adjustable rate mortgages, many of which will be adjusting in the upcoming year. Will this have a significant effect and possibly cause an uptick in foreclosures which will drag down home prices?

Can the California continue to escape an actual down turn in actual prices or are we just setting up for a serious accident?

California Mortgage Defaults Trend Down Again

2009-11-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

The number of mortgage default notices filed against California homeowners fell last quarter compared with the prior three-month period, the result of lenders' evolving foreclosure policies, an uncertain legislative environment and an uptick in the number of mortgages being renegotiated, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 111,689 default notices were sent out during the July-through-September period. That was down 10.3 percent from 124,562 for the prior quarter, and up 18.5 percent from 94,240 in third quarter 2008, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.
The number of recorded default notices peaked in the first quarter of this year at 135,431, although that number was inflated by deferred activity from the prior four months.

"It may well be that lenders have intentionally slowed down the pace of formal foreclosure proceedings. If so, it's not out of the goodness of their hearts. It's because they've concluded that flooding the market with cheap foreclosures in this economic environment may not be in their best financial interest. Trying to keep motivated, employed homeowners in their homes might be the most cost-efficient way to stem losses," said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

The median origination month for last quarter's defaulted loans was July 2006, the same as during this year's first and second quarters. A year ago the median origination month was June 2006, so the foreclosure process has moved one month forward during the past 12 months.

"There's a batch of truly nasty loans that were made in mid 2006. There's another batch made in late 2006. These are worse than the mortgages before and after, and it's taking a long time to process them," Walsh said.

The lenders that originated the most loans that went into default last quarter were Countrywide (7,583), Washington Mutual (5,146) and Wells Fargo (4,425). Along with Bank of America (1,979) and World Savings (4,237), they were also the most active lenders in the second half of 2006. Last quarter's default rate on loans originated in the second half of 2006 ranged from 1.7 percent for Bank of America to 11.9 percent for World Savings.

Smaller subprime lenders had far higher default rates for that period: ResMAE Mortgage was at 73.9 percent, Ownit Mortgage 69.5 percent, BNC Mortgage 61.4 percent, Argent Mortgage 59.9 percent and First Franklin 59.4 percent. While these and most other subprime lenders are long gone, their loans were bundled, resold and now live on as "troubled assets".

Indeed, many, if not most, of the loans made in 2006 are owned and/or serviced by lending institutions other than those that made the loans. The servicers pursuing the highest number of delinquencies last quarter were ReconTrust Co, Quality Loan Service Corp and Cal-Western Reconveyance Corp.

While most foreclosure activity was still concentrated in affordable inland communities, the foreclosure problem continued to slowly migrate into more expensive areas. The state's most affordable sub-markets, which represent 25 percent of the state's housing stock, accounted for 52.2 percent of all default activity a year ago. In third-quarter 2009 it fell to 42.9 percent.

On primary mortgages, California homeowners were a median five months behind on their payments when the lender filed the notice of default. The borrowers owed a median $12,665 on a median $343,200 mortgage.

On home equity loans and lines of credit in default, borrowers owed a median $3,948 on a median $62,800 credit line. However the amount of the credit line that was actually in use cannot be determined from public records.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Notices of Default are recorded at county recorders offices and mark the first step of the formal foreclosure process.

Although 111,689 default notices were filed last quarter, they involved 108,372 homes because some borrowers were in default on multiple loans (e.g. a primary mortgage and a line of credit). Multiple default recordings on the same home are trending down, DataQuick reported.

Mortgages were least likely to go into default in San Francisco, Marin and Santa Cruz counties. The probability was highest in Merced, San Joaquin, and Riverside counties.
Trustees Deeds recorded, or the actual loss of a home to foreclosure, totaled 50,013 during the third quarter. That was up 9.5 percent from 45,667 for the prior quarter, and down 37.1 percent from 79,511 for third-quarter 2008, which was the all-time peak.
In the last real estate cycle, Trustees Deeds peaked at 15,418 in third-quarter 1996. The state's all-time low was 637 in the second quarter of 2005, MDA DataQuick reported.
There are 8.5 million houses and condos in the state.

Foreclosure resales continued to decline as a market factor, accounting for 42.8 percent of all California resale activity last quarter. It was 49.9 percent the prior quarter, and a year ago it was 47.5 percent. It peaked at 57.8 percent in the first quarter of this year. Foreclosure resales varied significantly by area last quarter, from 9.6 percent in San Francisco County to 70.2 percent in Merced County.

Of the homes foreclosed on statewide in an 18-month period ending this July, about 82 percent have re-sold on the open market, while 18 percent, or more than 57,000 homes, have not. Of those that have not re-sold, it cannot be determined from public records what portion is currently being marketed for sale, as opposed to, among other things, being used as rentals or being left vacant and not for sale. Over the past year California buyers have snapped up an average of nearly 18,000 foreclosure resales a month.

A year ago the percentage of foreclosures that had not yet re-sold was about twice as great, while the number of unsold foreclosures from the 18-month period ending in July 2008 was about 50 percent higher than it is now.

Notices of Default (first step in foreclosure process)

houses and condos

County/Region	2008Q3	2009Q3	Yr/Yr%

Los Angeles	17,073	21,850	28.00%
Orange	5,692	7,436	30.60%
San Diego	7,062	8,702	23.20%
Riverside	11,714	12,113	3.40%
San Bernardino	9,110	9,833	7.90%
Ventura	1,676	2,146	28.00%
Imperial	568	692	21.80%
SoCal	52,895	62,772	18.70%

San Francisco	353	607	72.00%
Alameda	3,482	3,940	13.20%
Contra Costa	4,103	4,753	15.80%
Santa Clara	2,814	4,035	43.40%
San Mateo	797	1,263	58.50%
Marin	258	428	65.90%
Solano	1,934	2,164	11.90%
Sonoma	1,021	1,282	25.60%
Napa	265	340	28.30%
Bay Area	15,027	18,812	25.20%

Santa Cruz	342	419	22.50%
Santa Barbara	593	739	24.60%
San Luis Obispo	370	539	45.70%
Monterey	1,260	1,115	-11.50%
Coast	2,565	2,812	9.60%

Sacramento	5,541	6,098	10.10%
San Joaquin	3,432	3,371	-1.80%
Placer	973	1,414	45.30%
Kern	2,774	3,166	14.10%
Fresno	2,202	2,758	25.20%
Madera	499	570	14.20%
Merced	1,399	1,245	-11.00%
Tulare	883	1,178	33.40%
Yolo	405	443	9.40%
El Dorado	342	629	83.90%
Stanislaus	2,636	2,482	-5.80%
Kings	140	247	76.40%
San Benito	202	210	4.00%
Yuba	307	312	1.60%
Colusa	68	62	-8.80%
Sutter	269	403	49.80%
Central Valley	22,072	24,588	11.40%

Mountains*	526	932	77.20%

North Calif*	1,155	1,773	53.50%

Statewide*	94,240	111,689	18.50%

* includes additional counties

Trustees Deeds Recorded (signal homes were lost to foreclosure)

houses and condos

County/Region	2008Q3	2009Q3	Yr/Yr%

Los Angeles	11,690	7,927	-32.20%
Orange	3,997	2,238	-44.00%
San Diego	5,797	3,601	-37.90%
Riverside	10,813	6,776	-37.30%
San Bernardino	7,930	4,999	-37.00%
Ventura	1,420	793	-44.20%
Imperial	476	365	-23.30%
SoCal	42,123	26,699	-36.60%

San Francisco	192	179	-6.80%
Alameda	2,521	1,760	-30.20%
Contra Costa	3,662	2,053	-43.90%
Santa Clara	2,165	1,237	-42.90%
San Mateo	515	370	-28.20%
Marin	149	110	-26.20%
Solano	1,754	1,025	-41.60%
Sonoma	933	585	-37.30%
Napa	202	143	-29.20%
Bay Area	12,093	7,462	-38.30%

Santa Cruz	276	158	-42.80%
Santa Barbara	629	340	-45.90%
San Luis Obispo	248	223	-10.10%
Monterey	1315	575	-56.30%
Coast	2,468	1,296	-47.50%

Sacramento	5,643	3,384	-40.00%
San Joaquin	3,862	1,919	-50.30%
Placer	766	610	-20.40%
Kern	2,488	1,855	-25.40%
Fresno	1,891	1,279	-32.40%
Madera	433	355	-18.00%
Merced	1,639	819	-50.00%
Tulare	687	536	-22.00%
Yolo	364	238	-34.60%
El Dorado	243	243	0.00%
Stanislaus	2,816	1,476	-47.60%
Kings	82	88	7.30%
San Benito	191	100	-47.60%
Yuba	297	196	-34.00%
Colusa	40	41	2.50%
Sutter	291	152	-47.80%
Central Valley	21,733	13,291	-38.80%

Mountains*	324	424	30.90%

North Calif*	770	841	9.20%

Statewide*	79,511	50,013	-37.10%

17th Century Lakefront Castle For Sale in Salzkammergut, Austria

2009-11-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Appointment Schedule

Property Group	Residential
Property Type	Castle
Built	1658
Lotsize	300000.00 sq/m
Price	Euro 4,000,000 For Sale

Add to Property List

Location	Salzkammergut
Nearest City	Salzburg
Living area	700.00 sq/m
Bedrooms	9
Bathrooms	3

This castle (built in 1658) is located in the heart of Salzkammergut at the sunny side of the lake. The world-famous Salzkammergut presents along with his beauty also the highest cultural values. The castle' origins reach the Middle Ages. Together with its adjoining buildings it is surrounded by forest and meadows. It offers gorgeous panorama.

Above 2 km of lake' shore without neighborhood belongs to this unique property.The castle has a living area of 700m2 and it has three floors with noble rooms.

The property includes its own chapel, manor, cottage at the lake and boathouse.
The heating is located separately in the barn. There is also a chalet with the right to pasture. Approximately 1 hour from the Festival town of Salzburg.

The castle have built in the year 1658. All area is 300 000 m2. Have 9 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Four stories and 5 park places.All that you can have for 4 000 000 euro.

For further details contact

John Wallace ,

143 Longview Drive ,

Chatham, 12037, NY,

United States.

Phone:+1-518-392-7062

Fax: +1-877-875-5704

http://www.worldrealtynews.com

Trouble Selling Your Home? Try Sweetening the Deal

2009-11-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

If you're having trouble landing a buyer for your home, maybe you need better bait.

A soft real estate market is a lot like the breakfast cereal aisle at the supermarket. Suppose you have two virtually identical boxes of corn flakes. They both offer the same nutritional value, similar taste and can be had for the same price, but, if you had to choose, chances are your hand would gravitate towards the box that that has the Secret Decoder Ring inside.

Crafty home sellers know incentives are the prize at the bottom of the box. By offering buyers something a little different, they can improve their chances of selling their homes quickly and for the price they want.

Here are just a few of the ways home sellers can sweeten the deal with extras.

Cover the buyer’s closing costs

Many buyers, preoccupied with saving enough cash for their down payment, overlook their closing costs which, at between 3 and 6 percent of the sale price, can amount to several thousand dollars extra. Offering to pay them on behalf of potential buyers may be just the push they need to close the deal.

Help the buyer get a better mortgage rate

Another potential deal sweetener is to offer to purchase discount points on the seller’s mortgage. Discount points are purchased up front in order to secure a lower interest rate on a mortgage -- the more that are purchased, the lower the rate. In most cases, one point is equivalent to one percent of the loan amount and will reduce the interest rate by .25 percent.

Discount points may make your home more attractive to buyers in that their monthly payments over the life of the mortgage will be lower. Plus, it enables you to advertise your home with the offer of “below market financing,” which may draw in more potential buyers.

Throw in some freebies

If you’re planning to purchase new furniture, appliances, curtains or light fixtures for your new place and the ones at your current home are in good condition, try including them as value-adds in your purchase agreement. This works particularly well with first-time homebuyers who may not have much furniture of their own. Plus, leaving some things behind may even reduce the overall cost of your move.

If you don’t want to part with any of your possessions or fixtures, another low-cost incentive is to include a home warranty. Offered through insurance companies for around $400 (depending on the extent of coverage), home warranties are contracts that cover the cost of replacing or repairing major appliances that break during the first year after the sale of the home. Plumbing, electrical and heating systems may also be included under the home warranty.

Other attractive incentives that may lure buyers in are gift certificates, golf club memberships, airline tickets and even cars. These types of incentives do cost money, but they can go a long way in helping to get your home listing noticed. You may also consider offering them to your real estate agent as an added incentive to finding a buyer.

Overcome objections or problems

A less glamorous but often equally effective tactic to help close a sale is to offer to rectify any concerns a potential buyer may have with your property. Something as simple as offering to repaint the front steps, re-sod the lawn or adjust the move-in date might push a potential buyer off the fence. You can either offer to make the improvements yourself or to include a renovation allowance in your purchase agreement.

FABULOUS PACIFICA UNIT IN DESIRABLE COURTYARDS AT QUAIL LAKE

2009-11-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

wonderful location across from central countyard with tables & community grills.
his unit shows like a model with numerous upgrades and lots of windows which make it light and bright.

The kitchen has 12 inch tile counter tops and floors , a convection oven, smooth top range , built in microwave oven , upgraded cabinets with pull out sheles.

"THE HOME HAS BEEN PRE WIRED FOR SURROUND SOUND. A GAS LOG FIREPLACE IN THE LIVING ROOM, UPGRADED 50 GALLON WATER HEATERS, UPGRADED CARPET, EXPANDED CONCRETE PATIO & GAS LINE IN PATIO FOR A GRILL. ENTIRE PATIO AREA IS FENCED IN AND THERE IS A POND WITH A WATERFALL IN THE CORNER. DON'T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO OWN THE NICEST UNIT AT THE COURTYARDS AT QUAIL LAKE!"

Home Facts

* Bedrooms: 3
* Full Bathrooms: 3
* Half Bathrooms: 0
* Living Area: 1,465
* Lot Size: 0 acres
* Type: Condo/Townhouse/Co-Op
* County: EL PASO
* Year Built: 1997
* Status: Active
* Subdivision: Courtyards At Quail Lake
* Area: --

Community Features

* Taxes: Estimated Annual Taxes: 820.00

Exterior Features

* Garage/Parking: Garage(s), 2 Car Garage
* Style: End Unit
* Topography: Level

Interior Features

* Amenities: Fireplace(s)
* Dining Room: Dimensions: 7X12
* Fireplace: Total: 1
* Heating/Cooling: Gas Heating, Central Air
* Kitchen: Dimensions: 12X13
* Master Bedroom: Dimensions: 13X13
* Family Room: Dimensions: 0X0
* Living Room: Dimensions: 13X16
* Appliances: Refrigerator, Dishwasher, Range and Oven
* Interior Feature: Laundry Area

Real Estate and Business Agents Act

2009-11-01T21:45:00.000-08:00

The Real Estate and Business Agents Supervisory Board is the independent statutory authority established under the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 to regulate people who conduct real estate transactions and certain business transactions.

The Board is responsible to the Minister for Commerce, and has the following functions under the Act:

administer the licensing system for real estate and business agents and the registration system for sales representatives;

conduct and promote education and provide advisory services;

conduct investigations into allegations about real estate agents and sales representatives;

provide conciliation services to consumers and agents in dispute;

administer the Fidelity Guarantee Account, which reimburses people for financial loss due to the criminal or fraudulent behaviour of an agent or sales representative;

administer the Homebuyers Assistance Account, which provides first homebuyers with financial assistance;

advise the Minister for Commerce on the administration of the Act; and
recommend amendments to the Regulations and the Act.

The Board is fully funded through the interest paid on the balance of money held in the trust accounts of agents, licence and certificate fees, and interest on investments held in Treasury. Funding is used to provide services to the industry and public in five major areas:

Licensing

o Involves the quality control of people seeking to enter the real estate and business broking industries and those already registered or licensed in those industries.

Compliance

o Ensures that licensed real estate and business agents and their representatives comply with the relevant legislation and financial reporting requirements.

Education and Awareness

o Aims to encourage awareness of real estate "best practice" through activities such as proactive visits, seminars and publications.

Fidelity Guarantee Account

o Centres on the assessment of claims for reimbursement from consumers who have suffered financial loss during a real estate transaction due to the criminal or fraudulent conduct of a licensed real estate and business agent or their sales representative.

Home Buyers Assistance Account

o Works to ensure that people who lodge a claim against the Fund satisfy the necessary requirements and receive funding in a timely manner.

London house prices 'on the rise'

2009-10-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

The September data from the Land Registry's House Price Index has revealed that Property prices in the UK are continuing to rise steadily, which could mean that becoming a homeowner is out of reach for some Britons.

Indeed, the average property price in September increased by 0.9 per cent, in contrast with the 0.5 per cent rise seen in August.

This means the average house price in England and Wales now stands at £158,377.

Meanwhile, in London, property values have risen the most, increasing by 1.3 per cent between August and September.

The average property price in the capital now stands at £314,954.

Such a figure could prompt Britons to consider flats to rent in Blackheath or another part of London as this could be a significantly cheaper option to buying.

Research by Lloyds TSB recently revealed that 23 per cent of parents plan to use their savings to help their children buy their first home.

Florida Existing Home & Condo Sales Up in May 2009

2009-10-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

Florida’s existing home sales rose in May – the ninth month in a row that sales activity increased in the year-to-year comparison, according to the latest housin May existing-home sales continue rising trend, says NAR.

Statewide sales showed gains over the previous month’s sales level in both the existing home and existing condominium markets. Also, for the first time in many months, the statewide median sales price in May for existing homes and for existing condos rose over the previous month’s figure.

Existing home sales rose 16 percent last month with a total of 13,921 homes sold statewide compared to 12,044 homes sold in May 2008, according to FAR. Statewide existing home sales in May increased 6.2 percent over April’s statewide activity. Florida Realtors also reported a 21 percent rise in statewide sales of existing condos in May; existing condo sales last month rose 3.8 percent over the total units sold in April.

“The improving sales of existing single family homes and condos is a trend we have been seeing for several months in Florida. What is new in this month’s data release is that we are seeing evidence of prices beginning to firm,” says Dr. Sean Snaith, director for the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness. “While one month of data does not a trend make, it is the first green shoot we have seen in some time as far as prices are concerned. Until prices stop declining, we cannot state with confidence that the housing market has stabilized. Sales have risen to levels we have not seen since 2006, though the economy still faces headwinds. As credit markets begin to thaw this will help speed along this process of recovery in the housing market.”

Thirteen of Florida’s metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) reported increased existing-home sales in May and 13 MSAs also showed gains in condo sales. A majority of the state’s MSAs have reported increased sales for 11 consecutive months.

Florida’s median sales price for existing homes last month was $144,400; a year ago, it was $203,800 for a 29 percent decrease. However, the statewide existing home median price in May was higher than the statewide median price reported in each of the previous four months. According to housing industry analysts with the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to lower the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less.

The national median sales price for existing single-family homes in April 2009 was $169,800, down 14.9 percent from a year earlier, according to NAR. In California, the statewide median resales price was $256,700 in April; in Massachusetts, it was $275,000; in Maryland, it was $255,587; and in New York, it was $185,000.

Parsvnath aims Rs 5,300 cr revenue

2009-10-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

Real estate firm Parsvnath Developers said it expects a revenue of over Rs 5,000 crore in the next two and half years and is looking to raise about Rs 500 crore this fiscal by selling equity at project level.

The company plans to cut down its debt to Rs 800-900 crore by March next year from the exiting Rs 1,420 crore.

"We have put construction of 42 million sq ft on fast track. In the next 24-30 months, we are expecting to realise Rs 5,300 crore from the sale of these areas," Parsvnath Chairman Pradeep Jain said on the sidelines of a NAREDCO function on affordable housing.

Jain said out of this 42 million sq ft area, 97 per cent is housing. The company has sold 35 million sq ft and expects to sell the remaining area in 6-9 months.

"From this 42 million sq ft of saleable area, we expect a total sales realisation of Rs 8,150 crore. The company has received Rs 2,850 crore from the buyers and the rest Rs 5,300 crore is receivable over the next 24-30 months," he explained.

Asked about company's fund raising plans, Jain said it was not looking to raise more funds through private placements of shares but is in talks with private equity firms for sale of equity at project level.

"By the end of this fiscal, the company will be able to raise Rs 500-600 crore by selling stakes at project level. We have already raised Rs 115 crore from a housing project in Delhi," he said, adding that the company is about to finalise two private equity deals.

Catch great opportunities with united states!!!

2009-10-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

Turkish-houses Real Estate Agents will help you find your ideal property in Kusadasi and Altinkum the most profitable Turkish investment properties available.

By offering you only the best quality, most desirable Turkish property developments at the best prices and at the earliest stages, we insure you get the best value for your money. Besides showcasing our Turkey investment properties, we are also able to provide potential buyers with a guide to buying property in Turkey as well as financial advice and assistance during your Turkish property purchase.

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Housing risks still lurk even as buyers return

2009-10-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

On the surface, a glimmer of confidence is returning to the battered U.S. housing market, after more than three years of gut-wrenching defaults, price slumps and foreclosures.

But investors and homeowners in California, the most populous U.S. state and a benchmark for housing across the country, are bracing for another fall as emergency government support measures fall short or expire.

"All that has been achieved is to put off the real pain until later on," said Mark Jacques, a mortgage broker in Corona Del Mar, California. "I'm hunkering down for the storm."

California led the United States when housing prices soared early this decade, spurred by an array of public policy incentives to encourage home ownership. The boom fueled a frenzy of lending and spending that drove the U.S. economy.

But California proved to be the epicenter of reckless lending that pushed housing throughout most of the United States over a cliff in 2007, triggering a credit crisis that plunged the world economy into recession.

The sobering view now from ground zero of the U.S. property market underscores the problems faced by President Barack Obama as he tries to fix the U.S. economy.

Washington is trying to stem rising numbers of homeowners who cannot afford their mortgages as job losses mount.

Housing prices have fallen to levels not seen since 2003. But even investors pouring millions of dollars back into real estate say it may take up to four more years for California's housing market to settle.

The reasons why -- rising foreclosures, joblessness and tight credit -- are not unique to the state and may have already slowed a recent recovery in places like Florida.

A first test of the U.S. housing rebound could come with the scheduled November 30 expiry of an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers.

Amaing Plat for Sale in Burns City

2009-10-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

Address: 146 NORTH MAIN ST, Burns WY 82053 Laramiecounty
Price: $152,000
As-Is Value: $152,000
Bed/Bath: 3/2.00
Sqft: 1,549
Year: 2004
FHA Financing: Insured (IN)
203K Eligible: Yes
List Date: 10/2/2009
Bid Deadline: 10/12/2009 at 23:59:59 Pacific Time
Eligibility: Owner Occupant
Government
Non Profit
Investors can bid on 10/13/2009
Property Condition: Click here to view the Property Condition Report
Status: Property Available for Bidding
MORE INFORMATION: Only HUD registered Brokers can place a bid.

Sun sets on Sole

2009-10-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

Sole, the Flagler Village condominium development is Fort Lauderdale's high-profile version of the housing bust, and many who had hoped to ride the housing boom to revamped urban luxury there are now in financial distress.

The city had declared the area a blighted slum, but many hip, affluent buyers were nonetheless willing to pay up to $440,000 for an urban pioneering opportunity in the new project. Ravaged by foreclosures, the development has since become a locus for renters and vulture buyers.

Units that sold at the top of the price range have changed hands more recently for as little as $125,000, a 70 percent discount.

Real Estate Investment World Brasil: Sao Paulo

2009-10-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Brazil is booming. Abundant natural resources, an investment grade rating, a rapidly growing middle class, increased availability of credit and significant infrastructure investment have placed Brazil at the forefront of the world's stage.

Brazil is expected to rebound more quickly. Across the country, population growth remains steady and demand for housing and retail centers continues. So far consumption trends in Brazil have fluctuated very little. The Brazilian real estate market continues to present many favorable long-term investment opportunities.

tart: 1 Feb 2010 - 00:00	End: 3 Feb 2010 - 23:59
Location Hotel Unique NA Sao Paulo, SP Brazil

Sales up and prices down in Florida

2009-09-24T05:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a topic covered in many Florida - and nationwide - newspapers today as figures for the second quarter of 2009 were revealed. They show that in the period ending 30th June, house sales in Florida rose by an impressive 23% compared to the same period last year. Sounds promising, but it's tempered somewhat by the accompanying news that median prices fell 29% during that quarter and now stand at $143,600. For condos, sales rose by 29%, whilst median prices fell even greater - by 38% - to $111,100.

Across various regions of Florida, sales increased by healthy margins whilst prices tumbled. The Fort Myers region saw the highest increase in sales, with numbers there almost doubling, whilst prices fell by over 50%. Part of the reason for such a high increase in sales is the current large supply of properties attributed to over-building prior to the property crash.

The area to post the second highest rise in sales was Miami, which saw a 73% increase, whilst median prices fell by over 30% to $195,000.

The greatest reason for these falling and currently low prices is the large number of foreclosed properties being sold this year, which are pushing prices right down.

Other areas to show increases in property sales for the second quarter of 2009 include Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville.

As a comparison, sales for the US as a whole fell by 2.9% for the period, but still stand in good stead for the year.

So, it seems that there's a healthy amount of demand out there. Prices may continue to fall, but low-priced foreclosure properties are a large factor as to why median prices are so low out now. If you're looking for a Florida property, you might consider waiting further to hope that prices fall even more - but I get the impression there won't be many larger price drops. Moreover, make sure you don't leave it too late to snap up the property that you actually really want - it may already go!

Telephone Fraud Scam by Persons Claiming To Be From the Board of Registration of Real Estate Brokers and Salespersons:

2009-09-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Board has learned that a few of its licensees have been targets of a telephone fraud scam. The caller seeks to obtain a licensee’s credit card number and/or a social security number by stating that the Board has implemented a fingerprinting requirement as mandated by Massachusetts state law. Please be advised that,

There is NO fingerprinting requirement under Massachusetts state law for the Board

The Board would never call and request any credit card or social security number information from a licensee.

Briefly, this is how the scam works:

A person claiming to be from the Board calls a licensee and states that there is a new Massachusetts law that requires fingerprinting of all real estate agents.

The caller then informs the licensee that he/she has failed to respond to a letter regarding this matter and that his/her license is scheduled for suspension if they do not comply.

The licensee is then asked for credit card information to process the “fingerprinting application” over the phone.

In at least one case, the person making the call then asks the licensee to “confirm” their social security number and gives them an incorrect number. When the licensee states that the number recited by the scammer is incorrect the caller then demands the correct one in order to “process” the application.

This is a scam and licensees should not give any information to the caller. These calls are fraudulent and the caller is NOT from the Board. Again, there is no fingerprinting requirement under Massachusetts state law for the Board and the Board would never call a licensee and ask for any credit card or social security number information. Any licensee receiving such a call should not give or confirm any information to the caller.
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Real Estate Encumbrances

2009-09-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

An encumbrance is a claim or liability against real estate, held by someone other than the fee owner of the property that affects the title to the property, and therefore its value. It does not confer any possessory interest, and therefore is not an estate, and does not necessarily prevent the transfer of title. Encumbrances can include liens against the property, deed restrictions, easements, and encroachments.

Deed restrictions are private agreements that restrict the use of the real estate in some way, and are listed in the deed—hence the name. The seller may add a restriction to the title of the property. Often, developers restrict the parcels of property in a development to maintain a certain amount of uniformity.

Easements

An easement is the right of someone other than a fee owner to use a particular parcel of land for a particular purpose—most often it is the right to cross the property.

An appurtenant easement (aka appurtenance) is a right to use adjoining property that transfers with the land. The parcel of land that benefits from the easement is the dominant tenement, whereas the servient tenement is the parcel of land that provides the easement. The appurtenant easement always transfers with the land unless the owner of the dominant tenement releases it.

An easement in gross is an individual interest to use the land—it benefits a person or an organization, in contrast to an appurtenant easement, which benefits the land. Often, businesses, such as railways and phone companies, hold commercial easements in gross so that they can conduct business. Utility easements, which allow utilities to run electric wires or pipelines across properties, are also easements in gross.

Commercial easements in gross can be assigned or conveyed. Generally, a personal easement in gross is used to allow a neighbor to cross someone else’s land, but unlike an appurtenant easement, does not transfer with the property and ends when the owner of the easement dies.

The Creation of Easements

Easements are created by either express agreement or by implication. In many cases, an owner creates an easement for himself when selling a parcel of his land or gives an easement to a buyer of the property to pass over his land because of convenience or necessity.

One of the rights of owning land is to be able to enter or leave it, but some parcels of land are isolated from public thoroughfares by other private properties. In these cases, an appurtenant easement is created by a court order as an easement by necessity, because the dominant tenement owner has no other way of entering or leaving his property.

An easement by condemnation is created by eminent domain—owners of the servient tenement must, however, be compensated for providing the easement.

The Termination of Easements

An encroachment is an extension of some physical structure, such as a building, driveway, fence, or tree over the property lines from an adjoining property. Encroachments can affect the marketing of the title, and should be noted in a listing agreement or sales contract.

Encroachments can best be determined by a spot survey, which is a survey showing the locations, sizes, and shapes of the buildings on a lot. Visual inspection is not as accurate and should not be relied upon if there is a question of an encroachment.

The owner of the land subject to the encroachment can either sue for damages or have the structure extending over the property lines removed or trimmed back. However, the owner of the encroaching structure may have an easement by prescription if the time period of the encroachment exceeds the prescriptive time stipulated by state law for an easement by prescription.

Rooming House Returns

2009-09-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

OVER the last decade, the image of Harlem as a place of vacant brownstones and broken-down rooming houses has faded, as many buildings have been turned into apartments and single-family homes.

But now Stanley McIntosh and his wife, Rosalinda Cooper, who live in the restored brownstone on West 132nd Street that he grew up in, are worried that the old days might be returning: A developer, caught short by the plunging real estate market, is converting a nearby 18-foot-wide brick row house back into a rooming house.

Mr. McIntosh, the president of the Neighbors United of West 132nd Street Block Association, has begun a campaign against the rooming house. The developer, Gerald Migdol, said that the rooming house was legal, and would provide needed housing “for the working poor and working lower-middle-class people who couldn’t afford a market-rate one- or two-bedroom.” He confirmed that the Department of Buildings was reviewing the permit.

Plans for the house, at 228 West 132nd Street near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, show eight single-room-occupancy units, each one about 150 square feet, with bathrooms but not kitchens, on the second and third floors. A ninth single room will be in the basement, along with a two-bedroom apartment. The parlor floor will house a two-bedroom apartment and a communal kitchen.

The plan for the rooming house began in adversity. Mr. Migdol, a longtime Harlem developer, had bought up five town houses on the block, renovating and selling them to families. He sold one house in 2005 for $1.5 million, but in July of this year he sold another for only $1.05 million.

He paid $875,000 for No. 228 in 2005 and filed plans to convert it to a two-family house, but soon realized the numbers didn’t work.

Neighbors became alarmed when they noticed 16 toilets being delivered to the house, and alerted city officials. The work was stopped, but not before neighbors noticed a new partition in the middle of a large arched window on the parlor floor facing the street.
Last year, Mr. Migdol filed new plans showing the rooming house units. He says that the city no longer permits residential property owners to create rooming houses, but that they can restore rooming-house units previously on the property. The window partition has been removed.

Federal Section 8 rent subsidies could make the rooming house very profitable. City officials say the government pays monthly subsidies of up to $930 for each small unit, and $1,500 for each two-bedroom apartment, for a potential rent roll of more than $11,000 a month.

Mr. Migdol said he hoped to rent to veterans and the elderly. But city officials note that the homeless, people displaced from their homes and victims of domestic violence get preference for the vouchers. The property awaits a certificate of occupancy, Mr. Migdol said, though building records show a stop-work order on it.

Luxury real estate vultures

2009-09-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

When an ex-managing director of hedge fund Fortress teams up with Sotheby's in a real estate venture, you know something funny is going on in the luxury residential market.

But that's basically what happened last month when George Graham, formerly of Fortress's Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund, joined a real estate auction house that works closely with Sotheby's (BID) International Realty and other firms to sell off luxury homes.

Graham is CEO of Concierge Auctions, founded in 2006 by a well-connected broker in South Florida. The company is looking to make hay from an uptick in luxury real estate auctions.

"There is a pipeline of multimillion-dollar properties that are underwater," says Graham. "In most of these areas the homes aren't selling. There's a multiyear supply."

Concierge's pitch to a seller is simple: Your house won't sell on the open market for years. You may not get the price you want with an auction, but it's better to have an exit than to be stuck with the carrying costs on, say, a $20 million home -- or worse, enter foreclosure.

But the real focus for Concierge is on the other half of the equation: the lenders, who in this segment of the market are increasingly looking for an exit too.

Since the costs to the bank when a luxury home goes into foreclosure are so much higher than on a regular home, lenders are open to negotiating short sales, in which the bank accepts less than the amount of the mortgage.

With home sales stalled, an auction is the fastest way to a price. "You get market value without dragging out the process," says Graham, who sees a "wave" of high-end mortgages headed for default.

Concierge is hoping Graham's relationships with lenders from his years at Fortress (FIG) and, before that, investment bank Salomon Bros., will generate business from banks looking for an out. (Concierge takes a cut of the final sale.)

In July the company auctioned off a Boca Raton, Fla., mansion owned by the head of private equity firm Royal Palm Capital Partners. The property was on the market for three years, cut from $24.9 million to $21.9 million. The final price won't be revealed until the deal closes, but it probably won't cover the mortgage, said to be $12.5 million.

Five Tips for Buying a Foreclosure

2009-09-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

We've been working with a number of home buyers whose home of choice happens to be a bank-owned property. Yes, it has been interesting.

walking into a home and finding an empty room where the kitchen should be, or finding rooms with missing light fixtures, etc.

But, for some the property they want to call "home" is part of the "distressed" sale market. And, with this type of property/seller, it can be quite a different transaction.

Here are five tips for buying a foreclosure:

Be patient. The banks work on their own time frame, and this does not include weekends or evenings. Most have files and offers stacked up, and are trying to get through them as quickly as possible. The banks don't want the properties on their books any longer than they have to.

Do your due diligence. There are fewer disclosures on bank-owned property, and as such, the risk is with the buyer. Have inspections so that you are comfortable with your level of knowledge about the property condition. Some lenders will provide a termite inspection/clearance, some will not. If not, consider paying for one yourself. Inspect - inspect - inspect.

Know your budget. Yes, bank-owned properties are generally below "market" value. However, we are seeing multiple offers on these properties, with the eventual sales price going for more than asking. When you combine the increased sales price, the amount of money you spend on inspections, and then include necessary repairs (that are funded with cash out of pocket) ... make sure the property really does fit your budget.

Pick yourself up and do it again. You may not get the first property you make an offer on - or the second - or the third. If your offer is not selected, then move on to another property. There are more homes coming on the market every day.

Use a real estate agent. Using a real estate agent will give you access to the greatest number of homes; and with their professional guidance and expertise, will help you succeed in today's real estate market.

Dubai house rents down 30% since March

2009-09-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

House rents in Dubai continued to decline this month by as much as 30 percent but there were signs of stabilization in some areas, a real estate consultancy firm has said.

Landmark Advisory said today that rents in many areas of Dubai have decreased significantly over the past five months, but despite this, there are exceptions to this trend with some unit types in preferred developments performing well.

Apartments in some areas have increased by 11 percent for 1-bedroom units and by 6 percent for 2-bedroom units while 3-and 4-bedroom villas and 3-bedroom villas in some areas have returned to March 2009 rents or increased marginally, Landmark's analysis showed.

Commenting on signs of rents increasing, Charles Neil, CEO of Landmark Advisory, said, "The increasing rents can be attributed to a lack of supply, many landlords have removed inventory from the market to avoid renting out at current market rates while others may be out of town during the summer period and consequently unavailable.

"We predict that the month of Ramadan will also affect the leasing supply as many landlords are waiting until Q409 to reassess the market," he said.

The report highlighted that demand for property was particularly strong during June and July due to a significant amount of rental contracts ending around this time.

Real Estate Outlook: A Bright Market

2009-09-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

The stock market may be jumping around and jittery, but housing numbers are headed in just one direction, and at least for the time being, that's better and better.

Pending home sales jumped again. They were up by 3.2 percent for the month of July, according to the National Association of Realtors. That's the sixth straight month of increases. The pending sales index is now at its highest level since June of 2007, and is 12 percent above a year ago.

Pending sales, of course, point ahead to closings scheduled within the coming two to three months. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, pointed to two key factors that are pushing up market activity - The near record affordability of house purchases caused by moderate prices and low mortgage rates.

Meanwhile, evidence continues to mount that prices are turning around in growing numbers of markets around the U.S. Freddie Mac's most recent home price index, released last week, showed national prices up by an average 2.7 percent.

Clear Capital's home price index, which digs into thousands of Zip codes and small neighborhoods, reported even larger gains. Prices were up by 7.3 percent during the period July 27th to August 25th. That may sound exceptionally high, but remember: Clear Capital was the first to detect the earliest hints of rising prices months ago, well ahead of Case-Shiller and others.

Boom-to-bust markets like Phoenix are even seeing higher prices along with huge sales increases. MDA DataQuick reports that sales of houses and condos were up 28 percent in Maricopa and Pinal Counties in July over year-earlier levels. And median prices inched up -- by two percent in July over June - as the percentage of distressed sales among total sales declined to the lowest level since last October.

There was more good news on the mortgage front with average rates on thirty year fixed rate loans declining to just below 5.2 percent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers association's national survey. Fifteen year rates averaged four point six for the week.

Looking at the larger economic picture, the Mortgage Bankers Association's top forecaster, Orawin Velz, continues to predict that the recession will be over shortly - or already is over. She cited rising consumer expenditures - up two percent in the third quarter compared with a minus one percent in the second quarter. Plus manufacturing output is up, and new layoffs declined last week.

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CALIFORNIA HOMEOWNERS ARE BEING TARGETED BY CON ARTISTS OFFERING FORECLOSURE ASSISTANCE:

2009-09-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today warned that California homeowners are increasingly becoming the target of "scammers" and con artists trying to loot families of their bank accounts with phony promises to avoid foreclosure.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today warned that California homeowners are increasingly becoming the target of "scammers" and con artists trying to loot families of their bank accounts with phony promises to avoid foreclosure.

"Foreclosures are hurting homeowners and communities, and now we see "financial looters" plying a "grab-and-go" strategy to con families out of their scarce dollars with empty promises and phony claims," said Caroline H. Krewson, HUD Deputy Regional Director for Region IX. "It's criminal when it happens in the wake of a natural disaster, and it's just as criminal when it happens to families facing financial disaster."

Congress has provided the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Treasury with resources to assist families facing foreclosure at no cost to the homeowner.

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Ten Tips for Homebuyers:

2009-09-07T04:53:00.001-07:00

What You Should Know Before Buying a Home

Before you start looking for a home, get pre-qualified for a loan.

If you have marginal or bad credit, consult your lender

You will need a down payment.

You will need funds for closing costs

Some loans have "points" and some do not.

Should you select a mortgage with a fixed rate or an adjustable rate?

Be aware of the two main types of loan categories.

If you are a low or moderate income homebuyer, there are special programs designed to help you.

Why might I have to pay mortgage insurance?

Many organizations offer home loan counseling to prospective homebuyers.

1.Before you start looking for a home, get pre-qualified for a loan. Banks, credit unions and mortgage bankers make home loans; mortgage brokers process them. The lenders will take an application, process the loan documents, and see the loan through to the funding stage.

2.If you have marginal or bad credit, consult your lender. You may be able to qualify for a loan depending on how long ago and what reason(s) caused the bad credit. A lender should be able to advise you on whether your credit history will prevent you from qualifying for a home loan.

3.You will need a down payment. Down payment requirements vary depending on the type of loan. Many down payment assistance programs exist. These programs may loan or grant you the funds necessary for the down payment. Consult with a lender about programs available in your area.

4.You will need funds for closing costs Closing costs are charges for services related to the closing of your real estate transaction. They include, but are not limited to:

Escrow fees charged by the company handling the transaction

Title policy issuance fees charged by the title insurance company

Mortgage insurance fees

Fire and homeowners insurance

County Recorder fees for recording your deed

Loan origination fees

5.Some loans have "points" and some do not. A point is a loan origination fee equivalent to 1% of the loan amount. Together with the interest rate they constitute the yield on your loan for the lender. Some lenders charge a higher interest rate to compensate for charging no points. It is important to comparison shop lenders to make sure your loan is at a competitive yield.
6.Should you select a mortgage with a fixed rate or an adjustable rate? The answer to this question depends on whether mortgage rates are at a high or a low point when you purchase, and on how long you plan to live in the home. If rates are high, an adjustable rate might be attractive since subsequent rate drops could reduce your monthly payments. Additionally, lenders may offer a low rate during the first few years of an adjustable mortgage to make it appealing to you. If interest rates are low you might want to take a fixed rate to protect yourself against the possibility of rising interest rates.

7.Be aware of the two main types of loan categories

Conventional Loans. Conventional mortgage loans are available with fixed or adjustable interest rates. Some loans may require mortgage insurance.

Government Loans. These include Federal Housing Administration (FHA) fixed and adjustable rate mortgage loans, and Veterans Administration (VA) fixed rate mortgage loan

8.If you are a low or moderate income homebuyer, there are special programs designed to help you. These loans are available through private lenders, as well as local and state housing agencies, like the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA). Most lenders specializing in real estate mortgage loans are aware of these types of loan programs.

9.Why might I have to pay mortgage insurance? Mortgage insurance protects the lender from potential loss if you should default on your mortgage loan payment. Generally, conventional loans that require larger down payments do not require mortgage insurance. Mortgage insurance is always required on FHA mortgage loans.

10.Many organizations offer home loan counseling to prospective homebuyers. These organizations provide classes for homebuyers to cover the steps to homeownership. They will cover home selection, realtor services, lenders, loan programs, homeownership responsibilities, saving for a down payment, and other important pieces of information. Many first-time homebuyer programs require homebuyers to attend this type of class to be eligible for selected programs.

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Real Estate Business Guidance

2009-09-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location.Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and include things such as commercial and residential real property transactions.

Broker Compliance Evaluation Manual

Broker Self-Evaluation (RE 540)

Ten Most Common Violations Found in DRE Audits

Most Common Enforcement Violations

Predatory Lending Prevention

Internet Business/Advertising FAQs

Internet Business/Advertising FAQs

Mortgage Loan Brokering in California FAQs

Sample Trust Account Review (TAR) Reports

Threshold Mortgage Loan Broker (MLB) Information (RE 4633)

Real Estate Law

Reference Book

Disclosures in Real Property Transactions

Trust Funds

Unlicensed Assistants

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