Real Estate - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

REALTORS: 4 Ways to Ramp Up Your Online Cred

You can build your business online on a shoestring budget, if you’re savvy enough, a recent article at Forbes.com notes. Columnist R.L. Adams offers some of the following tips on cost-effective ways to market your business better online:1. Blogging.“It does require passion, persistence, along with an inherent understanding of the subject matter and the ability to connect with your audience,” Adams notes. To be successful at it, you need to

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REALTORS: 6 Tips for Hosting an Open House in Winter

When the days get darker and colder, an open house may not be as inviting to those living in colder climates. But there are some things you can do to warm potential buyers’ up to your open house.Broker-owner Joe Moshe with Charles Rutenberg Realty offers the following tips:Keep driveways and walkways clear. On snow days, make sure to shovel the walkway and driveway so the path to the home is clear. Apply rock salt or ice melt on pathways to hel

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Builders Return to Once-Abandoned Projects

The supply of buildable lots is shrinking. That has prompted home builders to return to the abandoned lots left behind during the housing crisis in efforts to revive dwindling inventories of homes for-sale, The Wall Street Journal reports. A surplus of vacant lots and half-built subdivisions still remains across the country, serving as reminders of when the housing boom took an abrupt halt.Nearly two-thirds of builders reporting low to very low s

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LATEST MORTGAGE SCAM: Owners Pose as Renters

A new mortgage fraud scheme is taking a reverse approach to traditional occupancy scams. In the past, prospective investors have claimed they intend to take owner occupancy. Then, they are able to qualify for a better interest rate, lower fees, a smaller down payment, or higher loan amount than if they applied for a mortgage as an investor.But CoreLogic analyst Willa Wei is sounding the alarm on the growing incidence of a “reverse occupancy sch

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Where It’s Easier to Keep Financial Resolutions

Here’s a sobering stat: 80 percent of us fail to achieve our New Year’s goals by week two of February, according to clinical psychologist Joseph J. Luciani.Unless you can back your resolutions up with the “capacity to either sustain motivation or handle the inevitable stress and discomfort involved in change,” you’re doomed to fail, Luciani says.That also may mean being in the right place to effect change. WalletHub researchers crunched

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More Equity Likely Coming to Owners

Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, rose year over year by 7.1 percent in November 2016 compared to November 2015, CoreLogic’s Home Price Index shows.Expect more price jumps ahead too, although at a more modest pace. Home prices likely will increase by 4.7 percent on a year-over-year basis from November 2016 to November 2017, according to CoreLogic’s forecasts.“Last summer’s very low mortgage rates sparked demand, and with

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Mortgage Applications Plunge 12% End-of-Year

Mortgage application volume dropped sharply over the holidays, despite a drop in mortgage rates at the end of the year. Loan applications fell 12 percent for the week ending Dec. 30, 2016, on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to two weeks earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. (The MBA did not report weekly volume last week.)"As mortgage rates continued their upward climb reaching the highest levels in more than two year

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A Homeowner's Worst Nightmare: Bed Bugs

Bed bugs can make a home inhospitable. They can be a huge cost to remove as well.Orkin, a nationwide pest control services company, says its revenue from bed bugs treatments are up more than 10 percent over last year. The problem is growing.“We have more people affected by bed bugs in the United States now than ever before,” says Ron Harrison, Orkin entomologist and director of technical services. “They were virtually unheard of in the U.S.

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The Next Big Thing in Smart-Home Tech

Talk to your home, and it may now hear you. Voice control is the next game changer with smart-home tech. In fact, it may be just the piece that fuels higher adoption of smart-home gadgets.“By simply saying aloud what they want to happen with their locks, lights, thermostats, and security system, consumers spend more time living and less time managing,” says Jeff Lyman, chief marketing office for Vivint Smart Home, which integrates with Amazon

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FOREIGN BUYERS: U.S. Is Tops for Real Estate

The United States remains the world’s most popular choice for foreign real estate capital, according to the latest annual survey of overseas investors by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate.Ninety-five percent of global investors surveyed said they planned to increase or maintain their level of U.S. investment.Nevertheless, investor caution is slowly growing surrounding U.S. real estate. The caution is being sparked over the unc

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