Real Estate Tips
« Previous EntriesStrategies for selling your home in a Buyers Market
Monday, May 19th, 2008So an opportunity has arisen that you must act upon sooner, rather than later. And even though you know that it is a Buyers’ Market, you have to sell you home and you have to sell it fast. Waiting is not an option for you. No matter what the market conditions are, you need to [...]
Jose Conseco Strikes Out - loses home to foreclosure
Thursday, May 1st, 2008Former U.S. baseball star Jose Canseco said on Thursday he had lost his California mansion to foreclosure — one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis.
Canseco, 43, one of the most flamboyant U.S. baseball players until his retirement from the major leagues in 2001, told the celebrity [...]
Honey, do you know where I put that $6 Trillion I had? It was here just a bit ago
Thursday, May 1st, 2008Disappearing Now: $6 Trillion in Housing Wealth. “Center for Economic and Policy Research report, based on Case/Shiller Home Price Index: The annual rate of price decline over the last quarter was 24.9% in the 20-city index and 25.8% in the 10-city index. At this rate… the excesses of the housing bubble will have largely disappeared [...]
Washington DC in line with Averages reported on S&P / Case-Shiller Home Prices Report
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008The February S&P/Case-Shiller Median Home Price data was released Tuesday, and as shown in the table at right, the Composite 10-City and Composite 20-City year-over-year declines were once again extremely negative.
Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix all registered 20% year-over-year declines, while Los Angeles, San Diego, Tampa and San Francisco weren’t far behind. While Miami has [...]
Baron Earl comments on an actual photo found in the MLS System
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008Take a look at this photo that I found in a listing for a house.
A few days ago, my Daddy, The Earl made a posting about the number of photos that a property has and how it sells. Why is my house not selling? - Maybe because no one is seeing it?
Now, most of the [...]
Virtual Roundtable on the State of the Real Estate Market
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008USA TODAY QUESTION TO THE VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE: If you could use just one or two words to describe the housing situation right now, what would you say?
Brandt: Working itself out.
Youngblood: Correction.
Naroff: Sales are stabilizing, prices still falling.
Murphy: Work in progress.
Yun: 2008 is a year of clean-up. Afterwards, better conditions.
Murphy: Better days ahead.
Zandi: Not [...]
How these 5 steps can help you get the house you have always wanted
Monday, April 28th, 2008…and how The Earl of Real Estate Team can assist you in following these steps to get the home of your dreams in Northern Virginia.
The video above is an extract from Donny Deustch’s show titled “Million Secrets”.
It shows Dr Joe Vitale from the movie The Secret explaining the process of attracting wealth. We [...]
Is your Realtor still using a Typewriter???
Monday, April 28th, 2008We belong the the National Association of Realtors (NAR). We uphold and follow the code of ethics that the Realtor Association provides. We can honestly tell when we are working with a real estate agent that is not a member of NAR for a variety of reasons. That being said, there are [...]
The Youngest Victims of Foreclosure, keep them in your Prayers
Friday, April 25th, 2008When preparing a house for re-sale following a foreclosure, the most troubling times come when we see evidence that there were kids living in the property. The following brings light to this situation…(pardon the ad, but the story is worth it.)
Florida: “In Manatee county, 400 kids are homeless due to the foreclosure crisis. And [...]
A taxing issue - even if you don’t plan on selling - you are being effected by the Foreclosure Market
Friday, April 25th, 2008Faced with revenue shortfalls, local governments across the U.S. are raising property-tax rates, angering homeowners already hit by the housing slump and economic slowdown.
In the meantime, flat assessments and rising rates add up to higher bills for many. Arlington County, Va., recently raised its property-tax rate 4% in part to cover retiree health benefits.
THE SQUEEZE [...]
I have seen this Letter to the Editor a couple of times and wanted to get your take on this…
Friday, April 25th, 2008The posting is titled: “Why should taxpayers pay for real-estate roulette?”
I do not support “foreclosure bailout,” but please answer me the following questions ["House Democrats target help for homeowners," April 9].
Why is it that our elected officials and activist groups spend most of their time attacking and taxing businesses that provide jobs and strengthen our [...]
Despite all of the news - 31% of home owners feel their home is worth more than it was a year ago
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008Despite the troubles some Americans are facing, 31% of participants feel their home is worth more than it was a year ago and 56% do not think their home will be worth less in five years. This optimism continues with 69% of Americans seeing real estate as a viable investment. If forced to sell their [...]
The Hidden Market - Home Owners that want to sell - but are waiting
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008Real estate’s new hidden market
Unable to sell, a growing number of homeowners are simply pulling homes from market.
Across the country, home sellers discouraged by the prices offered for their homes, or tired of watching people traipse through their bedrooms, are yanking their homes off the market. While it’s difficult to say how many houses this [...]
Existing Home Sales came in at 4.93 million for the month of March - Down 1.99% vs. last month
Wednesday, April 23rd, 20084.93 Million homes sold in March. 4,930,000. That is a lot of zeros. From the sounds of the Mainstream Media (MSM) you would think that no one is buying any homes. Well, 4.93 million did. The Earl of Real Estate Teams monthly real estate report shows that 2,260 homes went [...]
AOL Real Estate / Zogby Survey - How Americans Search for Homes
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008When looking for a home, 67% of Americans surveyed turn to the Internet first.
If your home had been listed with The Earl of Real Estate Team, it would have
been exposed to home buyers relocating from the following areas:
Visitor Locations - Since Apr. 1, 2008
The maps shows the location of visitors to our website and blog [...]
Someone appears to be making money - Homebuilder stocks are up in 2008
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008Much to many investors’ surprise, homebuilder stocks have been strong performers so far in 2008. The S&P 1,500 Homebuilder group is up 15.5% year to date, and many stocks in the group are up 25% or more. (seekingalpha.com)
In many states, new homes may only be purchased directly through the builder. However, in Northern Virginia, REALTORS [...]
Spring has always been busy for real estate. Even though buyers and sellers remain cautious, now could be a good time to make a move
Sunday, April 20th, 2008Spring is traditionally the busiest time for real estate, largely because parents, readying for a summer purchase, don’t want to move during the school season.
Where some see despair, others see hope. Sellers, who were once clinging to boom-time expectations, are trimming asking prices. But the news isn’t all bad for buyers. In fact, for some [...]
For some Northern Virginia Homebuyers - FHA loans may be the best alternative
Sunday, April 20th, 2008When the new Federal Housing Administration loan guidelines were discussed, many in the real estate industry expected it would nudge the slumping Northern Virginia housing market by creating new buyers and save many homeowners from foreclosure.
After about a month of exposure, the reality is that FHA loans won’t help many people, but are the best [...]
People can’t get enough of Realty TV - Called Real Estate Porn
Saturday, April 19th, 2008Nine of its top 10 programs on HGTV are focused on the real estate market, with the number one “Property Virgin” registering 1.5 million viewers for the past few weeks since it premiered last fall. The show’s target audience are first-time home buyers.
Encouraged by the positive response of televiewers, HGTV will launch more realty-oriented shows [...]
162 homeowners may be contacted about selling or giving up a portion of their yards facing Rolling Road in Springfield VA
Friday, April 18th, 2008Within the next few years, things are going to start looking a little different on Rolling Road in Springfield, VA.
A $28 million plan to expand the road to four lanes between Old Keene Mill Road and the Fairfax County Parkway, part of the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan for almost 20 years, is slated to begin [...]
New signs of life in US home market
Friday, April 18th, 2008While the data says “no end in sight” for the US housing crisis, real estate agents are beginning to see signs of life among people looking for homes to buy around the United States.
It’s too early to talk of a trend, but lower house prices and mortgage rates are bringing buyers out of hibernation, at [...]
Another Opportunity in this market - SHORT SALES / PRE-FORECLOSURE
Friday, April 18th, 2008A Short Sale (sometimes called pre-foreclosure) is a house/transaction in which a homeowner attempts to sell a property for less than its loan value. These properties provide a potentially great opportunity to get a good property at a fair price, but because of the nature of the transaction structure, they are many times tricky [...]
Why is my house not selling? - Maybe because no one is seeing it?
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008The National Association of Realtors statistics found that buyers want to see photos and lots of them. Over 70% of home buyers begin their home search on the Internet, photos for homes have become more important than ever.
Then why aren’t photos being posted for properties for sale?
We did a sample search of 3 different groups [...]
Can’t you just meet me at the property??? If I have heard it once I have heard it 1000 times
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008And the answer is no. Why? We need to take the time to find out exactly what you are looking for. In this market, we get about a call a day or every-other day from someone looking for a deal / bank owned / foreclosure home, not fully knowing what exactly that [...]
Great Article on the Ins and Outs of Buying Foreclosed Homes
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008Here is a link to a great article on the issues facing the Fresno, CA area with regards to bank-owned & foreclosure properties.
We are seeing many of these same issues when we are working with home buyers that are looking for foreclosure properties in the Northern Virginia real estate marketplace.
These include:
Lender-owned houses are [...]