5 results for tag: real estate

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 sale.  Two of the most important things are (i) to prepare the house for the market ...

How NOT to Select a Real Estate Lawyer

If you will be purchasing or selling a home this year you will need a real estate lawyer for the legal work. There are a few things that you should look for when deciding on the attorney. First, you should always employ the cheapest attorney you can find. That way, after spending hundreds of thousands on a home, you will be able to save a few dollars on the only person in the transaction whom owes a fiduciary duty to you and may be able to identify issues that can save you thousands of dollars in potential future costs if they are experienced and diligent. Penny-wise anybody? Second, if you have a family member who is an attorney but does not ...

The Party is Over for the Lowest Mortgage Interest Rates

If anybody is in the middle of the mortgage process now, either refinancing or purchasing a home, you are probably aware that the mortgage rates have increased dramatically (i.e. .25-.5%) since mid-April. If you are not aware, then you certainly are not working with me or anybody else who is watching out for your best interests. For everybody else, you will know soon since the newspapers are very good at writing stories about interest rates (either up or down) when it is already "Old News." The "new normal" is likely going to be interest rates in the low to mid 4s for the short term and probably upper 4s by the end of the ...

New Regulations Make Life More Difficult and Expensive But Mortgage Lending Goes On

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “(CFPB”) is a new federal agency which is in charge of protecting consumers in financial transaction. Since it was formed in 2011, they have spent a great deal of time investigating and then fining mortgage banks for violations of various lending laws. Unfortunately, the CFPB has spent a lot of time fining banks and mortgage loan originators; this has not really ended up helping consumers.  It also has not hurt the lending business as much as people thought it would. Though, it did result in driving many small mortgage companies out of business which left us only with the larger companies in a ...

“Don’t Buy a Home As an Investment” A Faulty Logic and Fuzzy Math

While I was reading the Sunday paper I came across this article from The Wall Street Journal and got intrigued by the title. Don’t Buy a Home as an Investment: After Costs, It Typically Doesn’t Yield Much. Think of It as a Place to Live. I always enjoy the Wall Street Journal’s columns and generally agree with them. However, in this column listed above, the author came to his conclusion first and then tried to justify it. He neglected to include several important factors and then he discounted his extraordinary return on his Manhattan apartment for no apparent reason. Read more here: Don’t Buy a Home as an Investment Dear Mr. ...