Category: Real Estate
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If, Why, and How to Donate Real Estate to a Cause
Wondering how to donate a house? Charitable donations can keep supporting your causes long after your lifetime. Gifts of land, homes, or easements make a lasting mark. Of course, there are various reasons for real estate donations. Some donors are less interested in the cause than they are in offloading an investment property, or in…
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The “Post-MLS” Market: Is Being Your Own Agent the Future of Real Estate?
Some hopeful home buyers don’t want an agent. “Why, in the age of online marketplaces and bank apps,” they might ask… “Can’t I find a home myself and make a deal with the owner?” Some write to owners, asking who wants to sell person-to-person — no agents. No bidding wars. No agent commissions. “And why…
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REALTORS® Reel From Burnett v. NAR Verdict
Bombshell Verdict Promises to Transform Home Sale Deals At the end of October, a federal jury in Kansas City found some of the largest U.S. real estate players liable for inflating agent commissions. The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and several large brokerages colluded to set commissions, the jury found. The verdict in the Sitzer/Burnett…
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Indianapolis Rising: Where the Investor Buyers Are Going and Why
Some say the investment boom has fizzled. But mostly, it has changed tactics. Reacting to a sharp increase in the costs of mortgages, investors have shifted away from certain housing markets and into others. Investors are keeping deed recorders very busy in Indianapolis. Suddenly, Milwaukee is feeling the love, too. Columbus, Ohio? Yep, buyers…
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Safe or Sorry? The Evolving Law of Disclosing Flood Risk (and How to Look Up Your Own Home’s Risk of Flooding)
How many of us ask about flood risk before buying a house or renting an apartment? In many areas of the country, whether we rent or buy, no one mentions flood risk. And yet, for millions of homes, flood risks keep increasing. Knowing whether a home has flooded, or is at high risk of flooding,…
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Some Offices Are Bringing Their Remote Workers Back. Will This Force Homeowners to Sell?
“They need us. They won’t force us to come back to the office!” Or will they? During the pandemic, remote work became a survival tactic. Some companies liked the new ways. They said they’d keep remote or hybrid working options available indefinitely. For a time, stories abounded of employees who went remote, moved out of…
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Latest in House Hacking: The Influencer Edition
Back in 2020, it seemed to be everywhere. But we wondered just how persistent “house hacking” would be. Turns out the trend has stayed popular on real estate investment websites, in spite of (or maybe because of) a hard-to-crack housing market. House hacking is really just about buying and renting out real estate. Yet it…
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First-Time Buyers, Get Ready for These Extra Costs
Seriously? Ordinary home expenses now cost the average homeowner more than $14K every year? That’s above and beyond the owner’s mortgage loan payment, according to Zillow and the home improvement estimate company Thumbtack, in their 2023 study. Mortgage interest and high property values aren’t the only price a buyer pays. And the totality of homeownership…