How Much Is My Home Worth?

Figuring out how much your home is worth can take some analyzing. But, it isn’t that difficult to do. Use the following tools to figure out the value in your home. Understanding what your home is worth can be very useful if you are looking to sell your home, but it is important to know even if you are planning on staying put for a while. This is because for most people, a home is an important part of their financial investment and worth. You want to make able to track the financial asset of a home. First, you’ll need … Continue reading →

Plan Allowing Forclosed Families to Stay Put

According to the Los Angeles Times a “right to rent” plan will allow homeowners to rent their forclosed homes back and stay put. The basic idea is simple. In recognition of the extraordinary crisis, Congress would give families that took out mortgages at the peak of the boom and are facing foreclosure the option to remain in their homes as renters for a substantial period of time — five to 10 years — while paying the market-rate rent. Earlier this year, Freddie Mac launched a similar policy, giving former homeowners the option to lease their recently foreclosed properties, but on … Continue reading →

What Are Mortgage Points?

Whether you are thinking about refinancing or getting a mortgage for the first time, whether or not to opt for points can be a confusing and sticky decision. Here is a quick explanation of points and some general guidelines about whether or not it is worth paying down points to get a lower interest rate. What are points? When applying for your mortgage loan, you may be asked if you want to pay points. Points are a lump upfront sum of interest that you can pay at the initiation of your loan to lower your overall interest rate. The more … Continue reading →

Hiring a Professional Home Stager

These days, if you want or need to sell your home, you’ll need to do everything you can to make it stand out from the crowd. One of the ways to do this is to hire a professional stager who will stage your home the exact right way for your particular market. Here is some general information about professional home stagers. Within the last four years, the practice of staging a home has increased to the point where a majority of homes on the market feature some sort of staging, whether it is done by a home owner or a … Continue reading →

Get Fingerprinted to Sell Your Home

If you live in Cook County, Illinois, you might feel like a criminal when you go to sell your home. That is because a law quietly passed that requires anyone notarizing documents for selling a home in that area to provide a thumbprint. Lawmakers say that the legislation was put into affect to dissuade people from committing real estate fraud. Criminals may think twice about selling a home illegally if their thumbprint is on record, I suppose. The law, which was passed last October and goes into affect this June has residents of the county concerned about privacy issues. The … Continue reading →

Don’t Go Too Low When Buying a Home

We all know that it is definitely a buyers market right now. Anyone who is a good qualified home buyer has the opportunity to get so much more for their money today. Desperate home owners are throwing in all sorts of perks with the sale of their home, from free lawn service to fully stocked media rooms. With the situation being what it is, it may be tempted to make a really low offer on the house that you love. But this can wind up backfiring on you. A really low offer risks insulting an isolating your sellers, and it … Continue reading →

Quick Ways to Boost the Value of Your Home

The news for reselling a home is pretty depressing. Sales of existing homes are at their lowest point since the 1996, and home values are dropping faster than ever. But sometimes you just need to sell your home, and there is nothing else to do. If you are in this situation, or if you just want to boost your home’s value for a possible refinance, there are some smart moves that you can make. While redoing the kitchens and bathrooms are always a plus, they are expensive and time consuming. Instead focus on some quick tips that will pay off. … Continue reading →

What is a Serviced Condominium?

One trend that has been appearing in major cities in the last few years is now starting to go mainstream in not only cities but suburban areas as well. That is the “Serviced Condominium. And with recent downturns in home sales, you may find that you can afford the luxury of a serviced condominium for what you might have paid for standard condominium just a few years ago. Extra services and luxury are luring buyers. So what is a serviced condominium? Basically, you can add all sorts of hotel like amenities to your lifestyle. There are the goodies such as … Continue reading →

The New Small House

Gone are visions of McMansions and large impressive houses with top of the line amenities. Instead, buyers and builders are looking toward smaller homes with tighter floor plans in an effort to bring home ownership and sales in line with the economy. Typical new homes during the boom were along the lines of 3,400 square feet and featured expensive amenities such as Tuscan style kitchens with granite countertops and top-of-the-line stainless steal appliances, archive rooms, media rooms, etc. Today, builders of new homes say that they typically switched to putting in 2,400 square foot homes that may be more affordable … Continue reading →

Buy a Home for $1.75

It seems that the housing crisis has made some interesting news lately. While auctioning off homes is nothing new, especially with the rash of foreclosures that have been happening, and auctioning off homes on eBay is still not surprising, getting an entire house for only $1.75 is something noteworthy. The Saginaw News of Saginaw, Michigan is reporting that a Chicago woman won an eBay auction for a home. There were eight bids in total. Of course, the home will actually cost the woman a bit more than the $.75. She has to pay an additional amount of approximately $850 for … Continue reading →