Category: Real Estate
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Buying My Grandmother’s Home. What’s My Game Plan?
Your grandma is selling her paid-off home. Perhaps your grandparents have moved into a retirement home and you’d like to buy their home. Or perhaps your grandparents have passed on, and you are purchasing the home from a grandparent’s estate. Very often, an estate sells a home to young relatives of homeowners who’ve passed away.…
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What AI Is Doing for Real Estate—From Very Detailed Property Searches to Climate-Smart Construction
Homebuyers can speak in conversational language to the AI-boosted Tomo Real Estate app, taking the AI-powered home search up a notch. The mortgage platform can even tell you how much mortgage debt is left. The founders of Seattle-based Tomo came from Zillow. Seems they know what information potential buyers want. Not just the number of…
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Time for a Move? Sellers Are Perking Up.
Home sellers are back. It’s an important sign of confidence in the U.S. housing market. Fannie Mae keeps tabs on people’s feelings (“sentiment”) about the market. And people are feeling better about it — if they happen to be potential sellers. Two-thirds of the people surveyed told Fannie Mae this is a good time to…
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It’s Election Year. How Will This Affect Sellers and Buyers?
As we enter an election year the current administration points to how strong the economy is. But there’s a disconnect between these regular public assurances and people’s life experiences. So many are either locked into their current mortgages or just completely sidelined from the market. This is no joke: High mortgage rates. Wages lagging while…
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Legal Update: NAR’s Ready to Settle Its Lawsuit. Here’s What Home Sellers and Buyers Stand to Gain.
Sellers could soon be spending less to sell their homes. This month, after previously vowing to fight, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) gave in and made a major change, in order to release itself from lawsuits. NAR and several brokerages were claimed to have colluded to keep agent commissions high. But soon, if a…
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State of the Home Buyer: White House Promotes New Set of Tax Credits
Housing affordability remains out of reach for many in the U.S. population today. What’s the matter? Joe Biden’s March 2024 State of the Union address laid out the latest plan to help. Here’s an update on the issue, and how the administration intends to deal with it.
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Anti-Money Laundering: Federal Rule Coming to Track Real Estate Cash
The federal government wants all-cash home buyers to be easy to find. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is part of the U.S. Treasury Department. FinCEN has proposed a new reporting rule. It wants real estate professionals to submit forms with details about cash sales when homes are sold to legal entities — like LLCs and…
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What Makes a Good Real Estate Agent and How Do I Find One?
Industry pros think home prices could easily rise 2%-5% this year, judging by the Spring 2024 home buying rush already underway. If you want to take the best advantage of a promising market, you might be thinking of hiring an agent. Anyone selling or buying a home can benefit from a good agent’s support. The right…
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Core of the American Dream? Three-Fourths Call Buying a Home Goal #1
The U.S. population has all sorts of goals. But of all that we strive for in our lives, seems we place the highest priority on owning a home. In recent surveys, three-fourths of respondents said owning a home is “the leading component of the American dream.” And yet, just about the same percentage of people…
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Could a Home Swap Turn Out to Be a Win-Win? Here’s How It Works.
Well, it’s one way to transfer property deeds between people! Yet trading homes with someone else isn’t your typical deed transaction. In a prolonged tight market, deed exchanges are drawing growing numbers of curious and creative homeowners. Here’s a bit more about the concept.
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Do I Have to Pay Off My Student Loans Before Buying a Home?
This month, 150,000+ people received emails that say some of their student loan debt will be forgiven. The latest $1.2 billion worth of debt forgiveness is a ray of sunshine for many potential first-time homebuyers. It impacts a person’s access to mortgage loans, and therefore the ability to acquire property deeds. But what about the…
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Ready, Set…Here Comes a Real Spring Home Buying Rush
Seasonal trends have an impact on home selling and buying success. Whether you’re receiving a real estate deed for the first time, or conveying your deed to a new buyer, having a sense of the market is helpful for planning. The housing market stalled in 2023. Can this new Spring season reactivate it? Anything can…
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A New Generation of Renovators? Boomer Sellers Are Putting Younger Buyers to Work.
Some interesting findings came out this year: Leaf Home, a company focused on accessibility and upgrades, together with market researchers at Morning Consult, warn of a looming burden for younger generations. Our aging U.S. housing stock will depend on buyers to carry out repairs. The silver lining for these put-upon home buyers? At least fixer-upper…
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The Hacks Keep Coming: Private Customer Data Exposed at Four Major Mortgage Companies
Remember that Halloween cyberattack on Mr. Cooper? Hackers got customers’ names and birth dates, Social Security numbers, addresses and phone numbers. They even got access to people’s banking details. Some customers — new and longtime — tried to log in and could not access their accounts. They could not make payments. Even worse, the breach…
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Buyers Are Back. Are Small Towns Their Best Bets?
Affordable homes for sale are still scarce. And yet a recent Realtor.com survey shows a strong hint of optimism. Four in ten hopeful first-time buyers think 2024 will be their year. “In a year of expected interest rate drops,” says Architectural Digest, “real estate could come roaring back from its beauty sleep.” Well, that’s one…
