Category: Real Estate
-
AI Is Replacing Real Estate Professionals: True or False?
AI tools have been automating real estate sites, personalizing home searches, and handling a good deal of desk work for some time now. AI (artificial intelligence) gleans information from government records, the Multiple Listing Services, and other data sources. It’s used in marketing, budgeting, and communications. The vast majority of brokerages surveyed this year say…
-
Which Is the Better Starter Home: House or Condo?
You’re shopping around for a home of your own, in an area where houses cost close to half a million dollars. Along the way, you’ve found a nice-looking condo complex, with available units from $260K. You could buy a condo now, build home equity, then make a larger down payment on a house later on.…
-
First Home Struggles: Parents Find New Ways to Help
Getting on the homeownership ladder has never been more challenging. Prices have soared in the past five years; wages haven’t. In expensive housing markets, young adults are approaching midlife with many resigned to renting forever. Parents, in-laws, grandparents or close friends may want to help young adults become deed holders. But they, too, are daunted…
-
Buy Safely. Learn From Others. Anticipate Pitfalls in Manufactured Home Deals.
At Royal Village, a manufactured home community in Toledo, Matthew Caton fought hard for his rights. Matthew was among a number of residents who lingered in a rent-to-own status. They’d been promised their titles 180 days after they bought in. But they’d been waiting more than a year when they heard they’d finally receive their…
-
Christie’s New Crypto Real Estate Announcement Picked Up by New York Times
Real estate in the United States just passed a new milestone. The luxury firm Christie’s now has a $1 billion portfolio of homes whose owners will accept cryptocurrency from interested buyers. And the firm has just opened a division exclusively for buyers who want to pay with the digital coins. As you might imagine, the…
-
When Some Buyers Are More Equal Than Others: Will the U.S. Government “Reboot Redlining”?
Not long ago, New Jersey-based OceanFirst Bank agreed to pay more than $15 million in a settlement with the federal government. This was to resolve the government’s allegations that, for several years, beginning in 2018, the bank violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Fair Housing Act. The problem involved an alleged pattern of ignoring…
-
How to Use Mapping to Buy a Home
Thinking about buying a home? Online maps can offer plenty of details about the major investment you’re about to make. Let’s get started, because there’s much to map.
-
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: No Need for Home Buyers to Walk Away Over These Common Issues
Understandably, house hunters look for “issues” as they search for the right homes. They wait with bated breath to scour the reports from inspectors, appraisers, and title reviewers. Any time a mortgage is involved, a lender requires a title search. Through this process, the deed’s history is traced, to check its integrity. The key question?…
-
With a Million Homes Now on the U.S. Market, Why Aren’t Prices Falling?
This year, for the first time since 2019, a million homes are on the market. Listings are up more than 7% from last year, According to Realtor.com. Inventory is rising nationwide, with the southern and western parts of the country actually back to 2017-2019 levels! And homes are starting to linger on the market for…
-
Time’s Up! MV Realty Ordered to Lift Its Claims From Thousands of Property Records
The party’s over! States are now rushing to ban listing agreements that tie deed holders to particular brokerages to sell their homes in the future. One big reason for this appears to be their residents’ complaints about a certain “MV Realty” company. Several states are acting on MV Realty agreements as you read this. The company has…
-
Could Climate Change… Your Credit Score?
Since the 1980s, climate-related disasters have gradually ticked up. And the annual dollar cost of disaster losses and recovery has risen 1,580%. This statistic comes from First Street, a firm known for its analyses of climate risks to real estate. The firm researches the costs of wildfires, storm winds, and water infiltration. In a year…
-
And “America’s Most Affordable Big City” Is…
In this beloved city, today’s typical deed holder needs a yearly income of $60K to live comfortably. Considering it’s a big city, this is a modest income. So this news is impressive. And so is the city itself. Frank Zappa even did a jazzy song about moving there, so you know there’s something to this.…
-
Shakeup at Freddie and Fannie: Update
How is that shakeup going so far? When we last checked in on things, new director William Pulte was slashing jobs at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. That’s the umbrella agency for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Additionally, Pulte claims to have saved millions of dollars by eliminating programs related to climate effects and diversity.
-
Why People Who Could Pay With Cash Get Mortgages
If you happen to have half a million dollars, you could buy the typical U.S. home with cash. But would you? Do the current mortgage interest rates impact your decision? Let’s take a walkthrough, Q and A style.
-
“We Buy Ugly Houses” (And Other Ponzi Schemes)
We’ve all stumbled into bad deals at some point — but maybe not as painfully as Ronald. In 2017, a retired Texan named Ronald took some very questionable advice. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Ronald invested with a certain Charles Carrier, who owned (what appeared to be) a hugely successful franchise…
