Residential Real Estate
A Q Environmental, Los Angeles, California is announcing new methods for analyzing air for Mold Spores. A Q uses an inexpensive new method. An air filter cassette is used to collect air in a room, the process takes a few minutes, and the sample cassette is then analyzed. The results will show the type of mold, how many mold spores are present in the air and the concentration per cubic meter of air. The levels of hazardous mold can be determined and the health risks associated with the mold.
While most of us relish the summer months because it"s time spent on
If it seems that home values represent more and more of your personal wealth, it"s likely that you"re right. A new study shows that for most of us real estate is plainly our largest financial asset, an asset which has grown by $1.5 trillion in value during just the past two years.
In a highly unusual step, the Department of Energy has quietly rescinded a final rule on minimum energy efficiency standards for residential central air conditioners and heat pumps that was published in the final days of the Clinton Administration, replacing it with one calling for a slightly lower seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER).
Let"s say you own a house that is located in an older part of town. The are some businesses nearby as well as some homes. Some are abandoned, some are somewhat rundown, and some are in pretty good shape. And let"s say a new mayor is elected based on a sweeping redevelopment platform. He wants to knock down your neighborhood, and start over again with new high tech businesses, luxury condominiums, parks, and coffee bars. What can you do? What should you do?
Despite all the recent tax cuts, most homeowners are continually looking for another way to reduce their tax bills. If you operate a home-based business, you may be able to do that through deductions for a home office.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th drove home the truism "It takes a village".
The national economy keeps plodding along, but even that slow pace is better than what the experts predicted last year -- that we"d be knee-deep into a serious recession by now.
You live in an apartment and it has a lot of mold. Good news? Bad news? News at all? The answer is all three.
With the unseasonably warm weather in much of the country, it"s easy to forget that if it"s cold where you live in winter, it will be cold again.
I"ve just bought a house, and I"ll need to bring a homeowner"s insurance policy to the settlement table.
Sometimes -- no, most times -- it pays to hire a professional to work on your house instead of trying to save those few dollars. I was reminded of this as I was adding RAM to my computer. How difficult could it be, right? Well, I"m now writing on a borrowed computer as mine awaits transport to the computer repair shop.
Selling real estate in today"s market -- particularly those properties at the high end of the price spectrum where most of the action is -- requires a new set of skills to close the deal.
For last year alone, the total spent on remodeling exceeded $140 billion. But with $930 billion in refinancings this year and the volume of cash-outs remaining high even in the face of the economic downturn, last year"s numbers will probably pale by comparison.
It’s summertime. It’s hot. And you’re sitting in your living room with a bead of sweat on your brow. The air conditioner is running. In fact, your electric bill reflects the fact that your air conditioner must be doing one heck of a diligent job trying to keep the house cool. So what’s the deal? Is there something different that can be done to help beat the summer sizzle and cut those fuel bills?
The blackouts and brown-outs in California during the last year appear to have been a wake-up call for the nation.
For much of human history mankind has sought not only shelter, but also a reliable stream of hot water. And the good news is that in our era we typically have hot water on a regular basis -- until that one magical day when the hot water heater bursts and oceans of water suddenly fill once-dry spaces.
In Washington, D.C., Bruce F. Webster, an information technology expert witness, wasn"t aware how much his heating costs had risen this winter until he was asked to take a look and discovered a 30 percent hike.
U.S. consumers and businesses are expected to save $19 billion during the next 30 years as a result of new efficiency standards for household appliances.
Here"s reason to give thanks: Home equity could provide some savings-poor baby boomers with an unexpected soft landing when they retire.
Vacation home security: the mere term may make you snicker, because let"s
You"re confused. You"ve decided to add on a master bedroom suite and expand your garage. The lender says it would be best financially to use an equity line of credit to make the improvements and refinance later. But wouldn"t you be duplicating your borrowing costs?
Celestial events this month say I"m due to entertain with place settings of expensive linens, fine china, fancy crystal and sterling silver.
Relatively speaking, major appliances play a minor role in the home buying process, but they are worth considering.
As Fort Worth, Texas, so dramatically illustrated last week, "tis the season for unpredictable and often ferocious storms that leave homes battered. Water damage is often the result of these springtime storms. Homeowners are left to cope with a tremendous mess. Not only are
Can"t we all just get along?
If the nation"s growing legion of telecommuters is any indication,
In neighborhoods across America, the contest is on: Which household will
The holiday season is the most exciting time of year for your pets.
Thanksgiving has passed, thank goodness. You opened up your house to 10
Oh, the perils of ... winter? Yes, winter. It"s a time of year when
When you"re choosing a pet, you never consider the mark that your new dog
Once you"ve arrived home from your weekly grocery expedition, you can
CHICAGO -- A few years back, Beverly DeJulio, noticed gallons of sudsy
You"ve decided to remodel your kitchen. Or you"re building a new home. In
When you are interviewing REALTORS® to market your home, you"ll be
When Uncle Sam gave home owners a big tax break when they sell their homes
When most people think of lung cancer, they think of people smoking cigarettes. Granted, this is a common way to contract lung cancer. But, do you know what the second leading cause of lung cancer is in the United States? Radon.
The growing supply of unsold homes and lackluster demand from buyers has put more of Silicon Valley"s housing market firmly in buyers" corner.
Chances are good that if you"re not being hit by one of our nation"s
Rental furniture is a subject of contention among apartment-dwellers and others, perhaps because renters already spend a significant portion of their monthly incomes on property that ultimately won"t be theirs. The concept of renting one"s furniture, too, makes some people feel a little unsettled -- and frivolous with their budgets.
As we approach the end of February, most of us heave a sigh of relief, glad that the worst of yet another winter is over. But that"s not necessarily so -- for two reasons. The first affects those of us who reside on the East Coast. One word -- Nor"easter -- sends chills up the spines of everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line. The month of March is, in fact, sometimes the worst month of all for East Coast residents. That"s when severe blizzards, known as Nor"easters, are subject to occur at a moment"s notice. That"s not to say that these blizzards can"t wreak havoc earlier than March -- they can, and they do -- but springtime seems to bring them in more frequent numbers, and with more ferocious intensity, generating high winds and snowdrifts that literally shut cities down.
Our market expert for the Inland Empire and High Desert Areas of California says that prices have continued to improve for the first time, and affordability has returned to his market.
Canadian laws have regulated Canadians into "thinking inside the box"
If you choose a lender and a mortgage based entirely on the interest rate, you
Canada has entered a new era in housing.
"The market is so slow and I don"t even know where my next sale is coming from."
If you are out in the market trying to make a living in real estate, I don"t need to tell you that our industry is going through some tremendous changes right now:
Short sales are the most expensive aspect of any real estate transaction, due to the negotiations involved. It is extremely important to ask for more commission and reduce your time invested. It can easily be done by being more selective with the short sales you choose to work.
Successful closing is fundamentally an extension of other steps in the sales process. You must be proficient in all phases of new home selling if you hope to close consistently. Therefore, your first move toward sharpening your closing skills is to improve all your selling skills, especially your ability to discover and qualify. The more proficient you are in the critical area of questioning, the more successful you will be in closing.
Wouldn"t it be nice to know that you had the power to attract only those clients that you really love to work with? Imagine the joy and satisfaction you"d feel getting up in the morning knowing that your day would be filled with people you like to be around! What feeling does that give you that you didn"t have before?
Question: So far in my real estate career I"ve worked exclusively in residential real estate. I"m doing very well and I really enjoy working with home buyers and sellers, but I"ve heard that specializing in a specific area, such as investment real estate or commercial properties, is the road to the really big bucks. Any suggestions?
For years, New York City has prohibited propane barbecue grilling on a balcony, terrace or roof. Residents can barbecue with charcoal on a balcony or terrace provided there"s sufficient clearance and a source of water to douse any flare-ups.
The Law of Attraction is potentially one of the most powerful tools you"ll ever have as a Real Estate Agent. Why? Because it helps you to train your mind into a successful and prosperous mindset. In other words, if you practice the Law of Attraction you"re always looking at the opportunities for growing your business rather than the obstacles.
Have you ever wondered why even the very best, in any profession receive coaching? Have you ever thought about why a top-notch athlete, like Tiger Woods, would need coaching? Why is it that so many successful real estate agents have used coaching to get to the top?
As a business coach for real estate agents, I often hear my clients say to me, "I just can"t pick up the phone and call my sphere of influence." "Why not?" I ask.
Are you in a rut? Ever played musical chairs? A lot of folks in real estate do, but sometimes the way they play it … it"s more like playing Russian roulette! Sales are off, your broker is too busy to assist you, and voila! You decide why are you putting up with this? The grass is always greener at the new real estate office across the street! They"ll really appreciate you, and besides their corporate logo is a real eye catcher, and the cheery office dûcor is "To die for!" So why not change real estate offices? It sounds like a real plan, but is it? As a survivor in real estate, it may not be such a good idea!
I"ve got three words for you when it comes to securing buyers in today"s tough market: Sell Yourself First.
Leading up to the current mortgage meltdown, one of the most common forms of real estate and mortgage fraud being perpetrated was cash back at closing. Unfortunately, even after we have witnessed the fallout from bad loans, cash back at closing continues to be a problem. Many people, even real estate professionals, consider it to be at its very worst a victimless crime. They see nothing wrong with it.
There is a sense in which the term short sale is a bit of a misnomer. That is because short sales often take a very long time. This is just one of the things that principals and their agents need to be aware of if they are intending to be involved in a short sale -- i.e. a sale in which the proceeds will be less than the balance owed on the mortgage loan(s).
A challenging fact about condominium owners associations is that the COA creates another layer of rules and regulations on unit owners on top of the city, county and state laws that already govern community developments.
Like it has done with so many aspects of our lives, the Internet has transformed that tiny little word that you and I have used probably 10,000 times without even thinking about it.
"If you don"t know where you"ve been, you"ll never get where you want to go," my Grandpa Gooder always said. It"s especially true with real estate marketing in today"s market. Using the hindsight of year-end benchmarks is the best way to guarantee success in the coming year.
You know the stat. Everyone knows the stat. These days, 80 percent of consumers begin their search for real estate information online, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Do you go through the same slump every year? It begins somewhere in November. Your business slacks and you realize that your income is going to come way down at the very time when you want to be spending and buying. You get sad and then you get scared and before you know it, you"re in a full blown depression. Somehow the thought, "Desperation doesn"t sell" finds a way into your already crowded brain. How can you turn this around, or better yet, nip it in the bud? Here is a way to survive, even thrive this Holiday Season:
As buyers sit on the sidelines in the housing market -- how does the rental market fare? The two markets are more closely related than some may think. Both are strongly affected by local and national economic trends.
Expanding your real estate Sphere of Influence (SOI) can be a bit like dating, trying to attract the right matches around each corner. Here are ten fun ways how:
One of my clients shared a great quote with me the other day. "Lack of preparation on your part doesn"t create an emergency for me."
In the May 23, 2007 edition of USAToday there appeared a feature article about the growing number of workaholics in our country. My experience with my clients confirms that it becoming an epidemic in the workplace where employees are given increased tasks and then achieve increased performance by paying for it out of their hides, putting in more time rather than acquiring better time management skills to learn how to get more done in less time.
Question.
I was reading an article by Blanche Evans the other day, Editor of Realty Times, that made an excellent point on how New Agents can get more business right away.
The 15-year FRM this week averaged 5.65 percent with an average 0.6 point, down very slightly from last week when it averaged 5.66 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 6.22 percent.
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of a radio show interview conducted by Peter L. Mosca, host of Income Property Investment Talk dot com, with Michael Anderson, CCIM, founder and co-owner of RealSource who is filling in for Nate Hanks who is the co-owner at RealSource; Bob Turner, Owner, Southern Properties, LLC, and Mindy Williams, President, RentandRetain.com, will explore proven practical ways to hold on to your valuable customer base, win repeat business and maximize assets. To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/102809.]
Last week I received an e-mail asking about my predictions for the San Diego real estate market. When asked real estate opinions, I always tell my clients that the only thing I can assure them of is getting them the best possible price whether buying or selling, for the current market conditions! I"m not paid for my opinion on the market or its direction, but with that said, I"m certainly not afraid to express my opinion developed over three decades of residential real estate sales in New York, New Jersey and California.
About ten years ago, I was working with a minority couple to help them find a home -- a pair of young professionals, both of whom had solid incomes. They were excellent, highly qualified buyers, whom any seller should have felt fortunate to find.
Many agents are having trouble finding their footing in today"s swiftly changing market. Standing inventory, unrealistic sales prices and a dynamic economy require agents to get organized, adopt a winning mindset, hone their sales skills and provide a sense of realism for both buyers and sellers.
The first rule in a real estate brokerage business is GET LISTINGS! As many other speakers before me have said, "List to last!" As you remember job one, it is important to understand that you can control more listing sides than you can control buyer sides. It is faster and less expensive to obtain a commission from a listing than it is from a buyer. Buyers just take more personal hand holding than listings. Obtaining a listing is the least expensive and most effective way to find a buyer. Listings promoted geographically by signs, word of mouth, and worldwide through the internet put you in front of more buyers.
Recession or no recession? That"s a key question for real estate because any sort of deep or prolonged recession would choke off all hopes of a housing recovery anytime soon.
In the past 10 years of coaching real estate agents to market themselves, I"ve noticed a simple mistake that can cost you a transaction. Do you know which one I"m talking about?
"Housing Prices Plummet!"
Commission objections, home inspection problems, financing falling through, and getting price reductions are just a few of the challenges Realtors® are faced with everyday. When they happen, the human instinct for survival often kicks in and causes us to either avoid the issue, dance around it, or postpone having to deal with the bad news.
Having been a business coach for more that 10 years, I often hear my clients say things like, "Why does this have to be a struggle?" or "I"m feeling desperate, I need more clients."
With recent announcements from United of grounding planes and cutting employees, will this affect vacation and investment hotspots that require air travel? According to the AP, United will retire 94 decades-old Boeing 737 jets -- and ground another 70 aircraft. Not to mention cutting 1,100 jobs.
Congratulations! Your digital masterpiece has just been completed -- a brand new "killer" website and it is beautiful! You carefully thought it through and hired the right people to make sure your site sees major traffic. You can almost taste the flood of new leads, sounds good doesn"t it?
Many refund delays, time-consuming correspondence and audits are triggered by taxpayer carelessness. Here are some IRS reminders about items to check in advance of filing your return, along with some steps to take afterward.
Decades ago, Napoleon Hill, an American author known for his work, "Think and Grow Rich," identified and published thirteen steps for success. With a little modern updating, here they are:
The local, state, and national associations of Realtors® rightfully take pride in the Realtor® Code of Ethics to which all of their members subscribe. Indeed, this past year the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has spent a considerable amount of money on a public awareness campaign designed to better acquaint the general populace with the fact that members of the Realtor® associations are governed by the Code in their business dealings.
The California Association of Realtors® (CAR) is planning to release a new disclosure form that will help to provide information to buyers of lots and vacant land.
According to the National Association of Realtors" report released late last month existing-home sales slowed during the month of April.
The phone is one of the most powerful tools in your sales arsenal. Once properly trained on the most effective phone sales "protocol," your closing ratio will skyrocket. However, if you attempt to use a similar approach online, you will likely only succeed in driving the Internet Empowered Consumer (IEC) away from you. Here"s why and what to do about it.
Why do you have a real estate website? Is it because everyone else has one or because you"ve been told that you must be "on the internet?"
In Part I of this series we covered the basics of what podcasting is, how you might use it and the first steps to getting started on doing your own podcasting. This month we will see the different ways some top producers are using podcasting to boost their credibility, marketing results and even streamline their operations.
From time-to-time I have commercial agents I"ve never even spoken with before call me or e-mail me asking me the following question:
When you"ve been in the commercial real estate brokerage business long enough, you can almost count on changing companies one or more times throughout your career.
Real estate investors and income property owners may not know it, but they"re on the verge of getting some important federal tax benefits from an election-bound Congress.
2006 is on pace to be the third or fourth best year in history in real estate, so I know it is hard for you to listen to all the doom and gloom talk about the fact that the real estate market has turned.
The term "podcasting" is a Net-born neologism that refers to broadcasting audio information (i.e. music, spoken word, etc.) over the Internet specifically to be downloaded into and played from an MP3 player ("MP3" is a popular kind of compressed digital audio file that can maintain high sound reproduction quality with relatively small file sizes). Apple"s iPod® is the most famous of these devices, hence the term "pod" casting. Because these devices tend to be highly portable, they provide a unique opportunity for anyone to listen to anything, including your audio message, anywhere at anytime.
Culture is defined as the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.
Here"s a concept. At the outset of a listing the seller and the agent ought to agree to review the listing"s progress, and to consider reducing the price and/or making other changes, within a fairly short period of time -- perhaps a month.
Having exclusive listings to sell and lease commercial properties was not always the norm for commercial agents. Fortunately for me during my career, I worked in the industrial sector of Downtown Los Angeles, an area dominated by the AIR Commercial Real Estate Association (formerly known as the American Industrial Real Estate Association). This commercial real estate trade Association, which I became President of in 1994, is unlike any other commercial real estate Association in the United States, and maybe even in the world.
As a real estate agent, your success depends on the quality and durability of the relationships you build with your clients, and the one and only way to build solid, enduring relationships is to deliver excellent, unrivaled service. To be an outstanding agent you need to lavish your clients with service that exceeds their expectations -- from the get-go and throughout a long business relationship.
One of the basic requirements of a 1031 exchange is you have to take title to the new property in the same manner that you held title to the old property.
They call it the World Wide Net, so why just concentrate your firm"s search engine submissions on U.S. search engines?
Once again it"s the beginning of a new year, which means for a lot of us it"s time to set new goals. This can be a time to put last year behind us and create a brand new slate of opportunities to pursue for ourselves in 2006.
If you"re a new agent, you might not be sure what to do to get more sales during this distracting Holiday Season? Say no more as new agent Sales Coach Brian Hilliard takes this troubling issue head on, with some specific business building advice you can use this Holiday Season.
Understandably, many of us in the real estate industry love the end of the year. The holidays are quickly approaching, and with them cold weather and hearts warmed by the company of friends and loved ones.
"I am sick and tired of having tenants fail," yelled Mulroney at his property manager. "You need to do a better job screening those tenants," he exploded as he slammed the phone down.
In any market, there"s nothing worse than a listing that languishes unsold for weeks or months.
It"s been a long time since online lead generation companies provided free seminar-style training for their future customers and existing subscribers. Free seminars are profit drains, and training is the first weight to be thrown overboard when a company is in trouble, but HouseValues, an online lead generation company out of Washington, believes training is crucial to making their services better understood and better utilized by their Realtor customers.
For years, the Veterans Administration has allowed "Jumbo" VA loans; it"s just that hardly anyone knew about them. The current VA loan limit with zero down, is $417,000, matching the conforming loan limits set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But the VA does make allowances for VA loans above that amount … way above. Say around $700,000.
Have you ever had a shopping experience that left you fuming and frustrated? Ever been in a store when a sales clerk treats you with disinterest or disrespect? Recently, I was in a store and couldn"t find my charge card fast enough to apparently make my clerk happy. As I searched through my wallet, I apologized for the delay -- apologized several times. All the while she was visibly annoyed with my lack of organization and remained unresponsive to my conversation.
Do you second-guess yourself when you get an offer that it won"t be accepted? Sometimes you"re right and sometimes you"re wrong. Here are some ways you can avoid adding to the seller"s negative reaction.
It"s been a wonderful, spectacular ride for both real estate agents and investors these past years. Depending on where you"re located, you"ve probably experienced a solid improvement in your real estate market for the past five to ten years, as compared with what it was like for the five or so years before this great run began. But at the same time you may find yourself asking, "How long will this continue for?" Some things happening in the marketplace give pause.
What"s the difference between creating a job and building a business?
Almost every top producing Realtor®, sales guru, and "How-To" book on building a financially successful real estate business will tell you one of the primary keys to success is a well-designed and executed business plan. A plan is the roadmap to success. Without it you"re likely to get lost on some real estate back road and end up either leaving the business or wandering aimlessly without ever getting closer to your goal. The mistake far too many agents make is developing and executing plans that end up requiring 60, 70, 80 or more work hours a week, leaving no time or energy for distractions like family, friends, community service or self-care.
Most real estate professionals seem to have a natural ability to talk — a way of connecting with people. These are the agents who always say, "If people just had an opportunity to talk to me about their real estate needs, I know they would want to work with me." And, it"s true! If people had an opportunity to talk with them, they would want to work with that agent.
Have you ever awakened to read a quote from a fellow Realtor in the morning paper? Have you ever watched another Realtor being interviewed on TV? And in either case did you ask yourself the question "Why wasn"t that me?" Well, next time it will be, as long as you learn the secrets to getting free publicity.
With the mass production and improved distribution we"ve experienced in our economy, many products have simply become commodities that we shop to find the lowest possible prices on. While similar products can be manufactured with different brand names, we still often perceive these products to be almost identical to each other.
We hear so much talk nowadays about "The Real Estate Bubble" and how it may impact all of us. Experts are lined up on both sides arguing whether or not real estate values are set to take a massive fall after so many years of solid appreciation.
As interest rates creep upwards, and hot markets like Las Vegas and San Diego start to cool, pundits predict that the nation may be headed more toward a buyer"s market in housing. And that"s the worst thing that can happen to the industry because it"s still woefully unprepared to work effectively with buyers.
Has growth stood still in your organization? Are you recruiting about as many as are leaving? Do you have more experienced agents leaving your company than experienced agents recruited? Is the majority of your recruiting based on brand new agents that you "sell" your service and product to? Once they get into the company and experience your products/services, do they leave?
You start out your year in January with the best of intentions of having a great year in your real estate business. And as the months progress you find yourself constantly busy, working on one thing after another to make this year the productive one you intended to have.
Ever feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new people you meet? Do you sometimes feel like you"ve got so many business cards on your desk (in your purse, on the kitchen table, in your car) that you don"t have the foggiest idea where to start cultivating those leads?
There"s always a lot of new business out there for you to begin working on. Just look at all the agents in your area who are closing transactions with clients you"re not working with. This in itself should show you there"s constantly new business out there waiting to be discovered. But if you don"t have a system in place to locate this new business, you may have a problem.
According to the National Association of Realtors, 76 percent of people who decide to sell their home with the assistance of a licensed real estate agent, interview only one agent for the job. Are you that agent? If not, who is?
Creating a solid networking strategy can play a large role in increasing the sales of your business. But not all prospects are created equally. Some are more likely than others to use your service, depending on how they “match up” with your area of expertise.
The vacation home rental game has changed.
Would you be more productive and happier if you had a coach? Here are some ways a coach could assist you.
Most agents in our industry work without partners. But there may come a time when you find yourself thinking, "Could I produce better results if I worked along with a partner instead of continuing to work alone?"
You"ve met the type already, because the Better Deal Buyer is suddenly everywhere.
When tax time rolls around, most filers receive refunds. Just because you receive one, does not mean your return passed muster with the IRS and you can forget about an audit. All it means is that IRS computers have checked arithmetic and other basic items.
There is no magic to making people feel special. Authentic concern and service will separate you from the pack in an instant. Here are some ways to make your buyers feel special while you are driving them in your car.
In some cities, you can attend between seven and twelve networking events on any given weekday.
And the second largest single-family price jump was in Peoria, Illinois -- which rose 10.4 percent to $119,000.
Those advertorials (free ads that masquerade as editorials) you get to post in the newspaper because of the advertising dollars you spend are a mixed blessing. You get additional publicity, but you have to supply the story to the paper as if your brokerage has a news journalist on staff.
Was it only a year ago when hardly any of us Realtors knew anything about swapping reciprocal links with other sites? Then, boom, it was the rage. But why?
Have you ever noticed that when things are going great with your real estate career, your personal life seems to suffer?
I like to say that listings are the “gift of the real estate gods.” Listings give you the best possible control of your business and marketplace. Many mega-agents leverage the power of listings to ratchet up their sales and increase their visibility. Without a doubt, my experience has shown me that listings are the most effective way to market your services, generate leads, and leverage your time.
We need to rethink some of the stuff we put in ads, contracts, the MLS and flyers, and remember that writing should be concise and free of ambiguity, particularly with contracts.
Many wonder what it takes to be a workaholic. There is really no one
Real estate has a natural ebb and flow, with home values going up and down, and staying flat. But when a market begins to turn, is the real estate industry accelerating a downturn by indulging buyers and their fantasies of perfection a little too much?
In recent years, revocable living trusts have been touted as a simple, cheap supplement to wills. But are they? It"s called a living trust because you set it up and put some or all of your assets into it during your lifetime. Typically, you serve as trustee which gives you control of the assets until death. After your death, they are distributed according to the terms of the trust document and don"t go through probate, which can be costly and time-consuming.
If you"re a commercial/industrial agent who does any leasing the chances are very high that you"ve been experiencing a market that"s very different than the one the residential agents have been experiencing. While interest rates constantly hover near all-time lows the economy has been consistently lagging for about two years now. This has hurt the leasing market as many companies have had little or no interest in leasing and expanding into larger facilities. But at the same time these low interest rates have fueled a strong demand for companies to purchase properties as they can do so while keeping their monthly loan payments unbelievably low--sometimes even lower than what they would pay in rent for a similar facility.
Look in almost any desk drawer and you"ll likely find them - a collection
These days, everything seems more complicated.
According to the 2002 National Association of Realtors 2002 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, there were 6.2 million single family homes sold in 2001, an increase of 69 percent over a ten-year period, bringing home ownership to an all-time high. Eighty-seven percent of those homes purchased were single-family homes. A whopping 45 percent of those homebuyers were renters, and two percent of those purchased the home they were renting.
Agents report that it is getting more difficult to disclose buyers about agency, get buyers under representation agreements, and otherwise get them committed to working with just one agent. Some can"t even commit to a house, and demand escape clauses to be inserted into contracts, leaving the agent to sweat out the option period not knowing if the sale is real or not. Why is working with buyers getting to be so hard?
Recently, the airlines have initiated fees for passenger luggage that exceed new weight and size restrictions. This new source of revenue will supplement airline income stemming from a relatively simple step… taking a new look at how to increase profits. This "re-margining" strategy is critical for any business affected by the rising new costs of doing business.
Buyer"s agents are using several strategies to coax contract-shy buyers into agreements, but most still rely on the soft-sell. There are always agents down the street who are willing to cart buyers around to view homes without getting an agreement. That makes it harder for agents who make their livings working with buyers, but that only encourages them to work smarter.
In the "good old days," when most of us thought of mold in our homes we thought of the gunk growing in that jar in the back of the refrigerator. Today we worry about mold growing in the walls, or attic, or under the floor.
Many companies view seniors as a bunch of old geezers sitting
Working effectively with today’s buyers and sellers using real estate finance requires us to find the right loan officers and lenders. Meet with the loan officers you are most likely to suggest to your buyers. They need to understand the critical role they play in your approach to buyers. Personally, I like to set some ground rules so we are both on the same page as we move forward to develop a mutually beneficial relationship (Setting Referral Guidelines With Lenders, 7/5/02).
You’ve sold a house. The buyer and seller have agreed on a price. The mortgage has been approved. You probably already have the title commitment, which shows the results of the title search and examination, but in some cases you may not. There are some situations when title searches may seem to take longer than usual, and you may wonder what the title agent is really looking for anyway.
Every homeowner association has various methods available for establishing acceptable standards. As a benchmark, those standards must stand the test of federal law: For example, the board cannot enact a rule that flies in the face of the Fair Housing Act.