April, 2007
Many homeowners get into real estate investing by buying a home and using this home as a rental when they upgrade to a larger home. Called “serial purchasers”, they continue to buy (and hold onto) additional properties.
Other investors prefer to find a quicker path to real estate riches through one of the following ways…
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If you already own a house and have decided to move but don’t yet have your first house sold, there is the option of putting a contingency offer on the second house. This means that the second house is being held while you get your first house sold.
Keep in mind that contingency contracts usually only hold the house for a limited amount of time…
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According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) second-home sales (for vacation homes and investment homes) accounted for four out of 10 homes sold in 2005.
While vacation-home buyers purchase primarily for enjoyment, investment-home buyers are looking to generate income in the following five ways…
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The featured property this week is an older, but very nice and well maintained split foyer in Stafford County. This home features 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 1566 square feet of finished living space…
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Many people looking for a home have questions about buying foreclosure or potential foreclosure properties. That is no different here in the Fredericksburg real estate market. But there are some hidden pitfalls to purchasing these types of properties.
I will do a post soon offering extensive information on the foreclosure process, but for this post I want to discuss a common “preforeclosure” scenario…
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We are adding a new category to our list of categories on the blog. Once per week we will do an article on a "featured property of the week." There is no established criteria for the property of the week. It may be a typical listing, an auction property, an interesting or unique property, a foreclosure property or maybe just a great value in the local Fredericksburg real estate market.
To that end, we will be open to suggestions for properties of the week from our readers, real estate agents, and our contributing authors.
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I am writing this post as a sideline to Kim’s article posted yesterday on this blog “FSBOs – Do You Really Save Money In The Long Run.” In that article she mentions the FSBO property potentially not appraising for the sales price. And that started the gears churning for this post.
From the Realtor perspective, I have had the opportunity to work with some really good appraisers and then some others that I had to question their integrity and professionalism. For many, appraisals are the “law” as to the value of a home. For others, they don’t put any faith whatsoever in an appraisal, stating “They just say what the bank wants to hear.”
Recently, I had an online discussion with a gentleman in Chicago who could not even get an appraiser to come to his home to do an appraisal, because it was for the purpose of determining a listing price. The appraiser told him, “I don’t do that.” In fact, three appraisers told him, “I don’t do that.”
Here is the scary thing about the appraisal process…
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I have been hearing about and seeing a lot of homes "For Sale By Owner (FSBO)." In fact, I am working with a few clients that are trying to buy a FSBO. I am not sure if more FSBOs is a product of the type of market we are experiencing. I suspect many people are trying to get out of their homes and feel they need to save some as much money as possible.
There are a few things you need to be aware of if you are trying to purchase a FSBO…
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The last buyer workshop post I did focused on the real estate agent’s role in helping a buyer avoid buyer’s remorse (click here to read previous post.) In that posting I presented a very common scenario, in which the buyer agent really did nothing to understand or help the buyer understand the financial aspects of the transaction.
In this posting we are going to look at how that scenario should have been handled, so that the buyer knew exactly what they were approaching financially…
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Many years ago when I was a little guy, my Mom and Dad took me to Ben Franklin, what was known in my small hometown as a five and dime store. Whatever the occasion, they had taken me to buy a toy. After looking over the toys, I chose a plastic truck and trailer. But, my Mom simply said no.
I really, really wanted that plastic truck and trailer set. But Mom was adamant I was not getting it. Now, she wasn’t refusing to buy me a toy and she wasn’t pushing for me to buy a cheaper toy. I don’t remember the price difference, but Mom wasn’t shopping prices, she was shopping quality. Against my wishes, that day I came home with a big, red Tonka tractor-trailer set.
Had she been shopping the cheapest price that day…
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