Buy a Home
« Previous EntriesWashington 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
No-Down-Payment Mortgages Gone for Good? No - There are options available.
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008“While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still have products that allow borrowers to finance 100% of their home purchase (albeit at a higher cost), recently the major private mortgage insurance companies have backed off from insuring these loans, said Bruce Brown, a certified mortgage planning specialist with First Security Mortgage Co., in Kansas City, Mo. [...]
Bank Owned Do’s & Don’ts - Information on Foreclosures
Friday, April 4th, 2008For thousands of people shut out of the Northern Virginia housing market as prices doubled between 2001 and 2006, bank-owned homes are real estate’s new gold rush.
But buying houses from a faceless bank is different than buying from the neighborhood couple moving to Charlotte. “Buyer beware” is the watchword with a bank-owned home sale.
Unlike a [...]
Fed Drops Rates - Mortgage Lenders say so what - Keep Rates same…
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008The difference between the 10-year government bond yield and the average U.S. fixed mortgage rate was 2.7 percentage points last month, the widest spread since 1986, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Banks are defying Bernanke and hoarding cash after writing down the value of more than $200 billion of mortgage-related securities since July.
“The Fed [...]
Northern Virginia - 10 Best Places to buy a Foreclosure!!!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008Washington DC / Northern Virginia has been ranked by Forbes Magazine as one of the 10 best places to buy a foreclosure home.
Here is the List as compiled by Forbes:
Charlotte, NC
Raleigh, NC
Nashville, TN
Oklahoma City, OK
San Antonio, TX
Albuquerque, NM
Knoxville, TN
Seattle, WA
Indianapolis, IN
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (Northern Virginia)
“Many exurbs of Maryland and Virginia were drastically overbuilt during the housing boom. [...]
Northern Virginia / Washington DC NOT among 10 riskiest Foreclosure Markets
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008Forbes Magazine recently ranked the riskiest foreclosure markets. (More…)
The riskiest were those that had the highest foreclosure rates, slow job growth (or job loss) and a rash of listed homes.
Washington DC / Northern Virginia was not on the list.
Detroit, MI
Orlando, FL
Cleveland, OH
St. Louis, MO
Miami, FL
Las Vegas, NV
Sacramento, CA
Denver, CO
Tampa, FL
Phoenix, AR
Social Bookmarking
The flavor of the Month is Foreclosure Tours - The Earl Team has been offering tours for Years.
Monday, March 31st, 2008Tour of Homes, Foreclosures offer by The Earl of Real Estate Team
The latest gimic in the real estate community are bus tours to visit foreclosure properties.
We have been offering tours of homes for years and feel that our approach is done in such a way to protect and serve the home buying consumer.
We don’t just [...]
Northern Virginia Area Reports & Loan Info
Saturday, March 29th, 2008Buyers’ Dollars Are Going Further
The slowest real estate market in years appears to be translating to nicer houses for Washington area buyers.
Throughout the region, the number of single-family houses and townhouses sold fell sharply last year, dropping by almost a third from 2006…
(More…)
Jumbo Loans Are Reborn, But Terms Are Stiffer
The economic stimulus plan’s new super-size [...]
Northern Virginia Real Estate Roundup
Friday, March 28th, 2008Housing Troubles Grow
Long-established and new residential communities both feel pinch of housing market.
The current economic trends, including higher energy costs and a depreciating housing market, are affecting different communities at a different level. Although foreclosures — a measure of an area’s ability to repel economic pressures — have not impacted Reston [...]
Comapany with the Big Yellow Auction Signs being Investigated
Friday, March 28th, 2008The State of Massachusetts is investigating a November auction of foreclosed homes by Real Estate Disposition Corp. to determine whether some homes were sold before the foreclosure process was completed.
The Massachusetts Division of Standards, which licenses auctioneers, also sent a letter to four of the company’s employees warning them against including such homes in a [...]
Articles of Interest about National Real Estate news
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008Articles of Interest about Northern Virginia Real Estate news and the overall real estate marketplace:
Wave of Foreclosures Drives Prices Lower, Lures Buyers
Oversupply Triggers Lenders’ Fast Sales
A glut of foreclosed homes of historic proportions is starting to drive down U.S. home prices faster as lenders put more properties on the market and buyers show signs of [...]
Articles of Interest about Northern Virginia Real Estate news
Monday, March 24th, 2008Articles of Interest about Northern Virginia Real Estate news and the overall real estate marketplace:
Alexandria Proposes Increase in Real Estate Tax
Alexandria is the latest northern Virginia jurisdiction to consider a real estate tax increase.
The City Council voted yesterday to propose a tax increase of up to 3 cents. That could raise the tax rate to [...]