Archive for August, 2008
Top 10 Most Expensive States To Insure A Home
If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! It is not just tornado’s and hurricanes that make insuring a home expensive. Hail and wind damage cost insurers more each year than hurricanes and tornado’s.
So when figuring out where the most expensive places to insure a home are [...]
A Shipshape House on a Shoestring Budget
Perhaps thinking of improving your home with a view to either selling it or just giving it a new look and feel, and maybe you’re having second thoughts because you’re feeling a pinch when it comes to money matters. Home improvement does not have to be expensive, not if you’re willing to plan a lot, [...]
23Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued
Real Estate Marketing - Back to School Schedule
I was at my son’s karate class this morning and on the counter I saw a stack of these postcards.
It was done by a local Realtor with all of her contact information on the front and set up so she could also do it as a mailer. But the part that I love about [...]
23Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued
Too Much Housing Inventory, Call In Overstock.com
Sure we have a housing inventory problem in the United States, but does it really require Overstock.com to come to the rescue? The company that bills it self as Your Online Outlet thinks teaming up with auctioneers Williams & Williams makes good sense.
Well, buying blenders that a manufacturer made too many of is a wonderful [...]
Housing Magazines Dropping Like Flies
The market for home improvement magazines is either horribly over saturated or the market for them is evaporating.
Home Magazine just announced that the plug is being pulled on them. In the past year House and Garden and Martha Stewart’s Blueprint both shut their doors, now with Home Magazine this officially makes a trend.
Not [...]
Damon Dash, Hip Hop Mogul, Facing Foreclosure on 2 NY Apartments
The latest celebrity to get the ol’ foreclosure notice is Damon Dash. Co-founder of Rock-A-Fella Records with Jay-Z has been served with a foreclosure notice on 2 of his Manhattan apartments.
Damon Dash’s net worth was estimated at 50 million dollars, but my hunch is that it has dwindled if he is being chased for [...]
Japan Real Estate In Huge Credit Crunch
If you think we are having troubles with credit, check out Japan. With banks holding 14 percent of their debt in real estate, they have cut way back on lending to the real estate sector. If they do lend it is with much tougher terms than they have in the past.
The percentage of debt [...]
Why Was Appraisal Fraud So Easy To Accomplish?
Appraisal fraud was so easy to accomplish in the housing boom because there was (and is) no oversight to catch the bad apples. According to an AP report that has come out by Mitch Weiss today, appraisers do have a specific set of criteria to follow and remain within the law.
The problem is when [...]
Royce Builders Stops New Construction
(For the record, I have nothing to do with the company or anyone associated with the company, but I do share the name with them.)
Affordable home builder Royce Builders in the Houston, Texas region is shutting it’s doors after creditors brought the squeeze to their operations.
While I have said countless times that we have [...]
17 Year Low For Housing Starts - HOORAY!!!
Housing starts have hit a 17 year low.
While many are moaning about this number, I am ecstatic!
Why, because the construction industry has finally gotten on board that we have an inventory problem and putting more inventory out there right now is counter productive.
Consumer confidence in the real estate industry will only improve when they feel that [...]
I saw this earlier today and thought the exact same thing, Tom. The politicians have been pushing homeownership for ...
I just found your blog and it's filled with great information. One of my goals this year is to update ...
Thanks for the kind words. I promise you the first year we did not have this level of readership. It ...
The limit on jumbo's is either 417,000 OR it is 115% of the median house price, not to exceed 150% ...
I like your blog and I have read many of your articles. I agree that it is amazing the ...
Yes, there are some deals out there. While there are some deals out there, I'm an agent looking for ...
With mortgage rates poised to drop to 4.5 percent all we need now is some tax incentives to help home ...
I think the overall interest in refinancing was definately high recently. However the problem is that although the rates dropped, ...
I have had great success using craigslist. Renters need to be careful and make sure they check out their landlord ...
This is the start of where the market can begin to level out.
Home owners will start to be able to ...
