Top Real Estate Agents Tips for Sellers

As most of you know, we are now in the midst of the home-buying season. So, I wanted to provide people looking to sell their property this year with some information about how to maximize your selling price while minimizing your stress. To do this, I contacted some of the top real estate agents I know in the Metropolitan area and asked each of them for one tip.  Their incredibly insightful, unique and valuable tips are listed below. 1.  Prepare to Sell.  To get top dollar, it is important to spend the time upfront before listing your house for ...

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Tips for Backyard Landscaping

We are now in the heart of the spring and for many of us that means spending more time outside in our backyards. Therefore, for this email, I have turned to Mark Borst, the owner of Borst Landscape and Design the best landscaping company in Northern New Jersey (www.borstlandscape.com, (201) 258-7358). Mark will give us some ideas on how to turn your backyard into a stunning outdoor area with stylish features and an inviting atmosphere. I have listed the first two ideas in this email and provided a link at the bottom to Mark's website for the full article containing the ...

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A Bad Week For Rates Is About To End. 30 Yr fixed are up.

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30 year-4.5% up to $417k 30 year-4.75% up to $729k 15 year-3.875% up to $417k 15 year-4.25% up to $729k 5/1 ARM-3.625% (up to $417K) 5/1 ARM-3.875% up to $1.5M 7/1 ARM-4.0% up to $800K 7/1 ARM-4.125% up to $1.5M All rates are for 45 days with 0 points and made by third party providers.  They are arranged by FCMC Mortgage Corp. a registered/licensed mortgage broker with the NYS and NJ Departments of Banking/

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We’ve Broken 4% (on certain products). Who would have thought?

Biscuit icing sweet chocolate cake carrot cake gummi bears I love I love. Wafer cotton candy I love lollipop oat cake gummies candy canes brownie. Sweet pie chocolate jujubes. Candy canes I love carrot cake. Lollipop I love chocolate cake bonbon I love pudding.

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Continued Low Rates and Extension of Homebuyer Credit Do Not Help Housing Market

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We are seeing historically low interest rates.  But, these are neither (i) causing a new refinance boom or (ii) spurring on the housing market.  The lack of substantial refinancings are not for lack of interest by borrowers.  Rather, many people would refinance but are unable to due to tighter lending guidelines.  While traditionally, the fall-out rate (i.e. loans applied for but not closed) was in the 10-20% range, it is not somewhere between 30-50%.  This is the result, mostly, of decreasing home values which cause the appraisals to be too low to refinance.  In ...

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Rates Holding For Now

30 year fixed-4.875% (up to $417,000)/5.25% (from $417,000-$729,000) 15 year fixed-4.375% (up to $417,000)/4.625% (from $417,000-$1,000,000) 5/1 ARM-3.875% (up to $500,000)/4.0%(from $500,000-$850,000)/4.125%(from $850,000-$1,500,000) 7/1 ARM-4.375% (up to $500,000)/4.625% (from $500,000-$1,500,000) 10/1 ARM-5.0% (up to $1,500,000)

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