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Transwestern fund lands 333,000 square feet

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Transwestern Investment Co. LLC, on behalf of investment fund Aslan Partners III LLC, acquired a 333,000-square-foot office building in Arlington, Va.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The 12-story asset known as Presidential Tower is located at 2511 Jefferson Davis Highway.

"This investment is a continuation of our strategy of buying high-quality real estate in markets that have a propensity for strong job growth and office space absorption," said Erwin Aulis, CIO of Transwestern Investment Co.  more...

STAG Capital adds space in Southeast

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

STAG Capital Partners purchased a 450,000-square-foot industrial building in Graniteville, S.C., for an undisclosed price.

The subject property is a class A warehouse/distribution facility located on 30 acres at 1043 Global Avenue in the Sage Mill Industrial Park.

At the time of sale, the building was 100 percent leased to Kimberly-Clark Corp., a manufacturer of health and hygiene products, including Kleenex, Cottonelle, Scott, Huggies and Pull-Ups.

Standard Properties LLC sold the property, which is STAG's fourth acquisition in the state.  more...

Seagis expands New Jersey portfolio

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Seagis Property Group acquired a 200,000-square-foot industrial building in East Rutherford, N.J., for a purchase price of $12.8 million.

Situated on 13 acres at 13 Manor Road, the masonry building features a clear ceiling height of 22 feet, 16 tailgate dock doors, and active rail service.

At the time of sale, the property was fully leased to Foamex L.P.

The purchase marks Seagis' eight in New Jersey, where the company owns "approximately 1.75 million square feet of existing buildings, in addition to 225,000 square feet currently under construction at Exit 8A."  more...

New service aims to nix bad mortgage leads Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

A group of marketing professionals has formed a company they say is making it easier for mortgage brokers to buy leads from trusted sources.

While other companies help connect lead buyers with leads, they typically charge lead sellers to advertise on their sites or take a cut of their profits.  more...

H&R Block to close branches at home lending unit

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

H&R Block Inc. will close 12 branch offices of its home lending unit, Option One Mortgage Corp., and is considering putting the business up for sale.

Irvine, Calif.-based Option One originates subprime residential mortgage loans through wholesale and national accounts and through H&R Block Mortgage Corp. offices.  more...

HomeGain resurrects home-valuation tool

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Online real estate service HomeGain is resurrecting a Web-based home-valuation tool the company created six years ago.

The company has revamped www.homevaluecma.com and made it live in beta, or test, form and plans to offer an API -- which stands for Application Programming Interface -- to its 300 partner sites, which include various newspaper Web sites and other portals.

An API enables those sites to place the home-valuation tool on their pages, attracting consumers t  more...

Microsoft announces 3-D mapping imagery

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Microsoft Corp.  more...

Century 21 launches mobile search tools

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Century 21 Real Estate LLC has launched mobile tools that allow consumers to find properties, agents, offices and financial resources on the go.

Consumers can access Century 21 Mobile via their PDAs, cell phones and other handheld devices that have Internet access. The tools are available at mobile.c21.com or mobile.century21.com.  more...

Home sales cool further in D.C.

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Home sales in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area dropped considerably between September 2005 and September 2006, while prices in some counties tumbled, according to statistics released by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.

In Washington, D.C., home sales declined 15 percent in September from a year ago, falling from 738 to 627.  more...

'NARdi Gras' expected to draw 30,000 attendees

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

New Orleans will be tested again this week, but not by a hurricane.

An annual National Association of Realtors conference, scheduled Nov. 10-13, is expected to draw about 30,000 attendees to the city -- that would make it the largest conference since Hurricane Katrina washed through the region last year.  more...

Overnight real estate rates post gains

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Long-term mortgage interest rates edged up again Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield slipped to 4.7 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.85 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate increased to 5.57 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5.36 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield sank to 4.79 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...

Trends in mortgage fraud schemes exposed Premium Content

By Inman News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

A new analysis of a decade of suspected mortgage fraud cases shows a rise in identity theft and Internet or telephone-based loan approvals to obtain fraudulent loans, and warns that debt elimination schemes may be the new frontier for scam artists as interest rates rise and growth in housing equity slows.

The study, by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also found a dramatic increase in the number of suspicious activity reports filed by lenders involving mortgage fraud.  more...

New-home buyers seek compensation for faulty floors

By Barry Stone, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Dear Barry,

We've got a brand-new, two-story home with floors that squeak and groan. We've asked the builder to do something about it, but he says, "It's normal." Can you believe that? Our previous homes never had squeaky floors, so it's not normal, and he needs to realize that. So first, how can we fix the squeaks and groans? And second, how can we fix a builder who refuses to take care of business? --Don

Dear Don,

Some builders have an unfortunate habit of saying, "Oh, that's just normal," whenever construction defects are pointed out.  more...

How to sell property held in living trust

By Robert Bruss, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

DEAR BOB: You have said several times the way to convey title to real estate into a living trust is by a quitclaim deed signed and notarized by the owner. That's what we did. But now we want to sell our house, which is in our living trust. How do we do that? --Janet Y.

DEAR JANET: That's easy. Presuming you are the trustee of your own revocable living trust, you simply sign the deed as trustee.  more...

Leave your day job, become a real estate millionaire

By Robert Bruss, Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

Although he had a great job for 10 years in the "dot com" industry working long hours at Internet pioneer Lycos, author Matthew A. Martinez of "Two Years to a Million in Real Estate" realized there was little security for him as he watched his co-workers losing their jobs. He soon discovered real estate investing offers long-term advantages such as market-value appreciation, leverage, tax savings, cash flow, reliability, and freedom from a 9-to-5 job.  more...