Archive - Columnist Article | Real Estate and Technology News for Agents, Brokers and Investors

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Sellers, don't fret over repairs

By Bernice Ross, Thursday, October 22, 2009.

DEAR BERNICE: My husband used to work in the construction industry before he earned his college degree. He's pretty handy and can fix most things around the house. We recently listed our house and received an offer. When the buyers did their physical inspection they came back with a laundry list of things for us to fix. My husband can handle most of the work, but our Realtor was really against it. She recommended giving the buyers a credit and letting them do the work. She also recommended that we pay for a home warranty for the buyers. My husband isn't thrilled about her ideas. What do you recommend? --Cathy Y.

DEAR CATHY: It's your house and your decision about how you handle this. However, I'm inclined to agree with your agent on both accounts. A number of years ago I had an attorney client who purchased a home. The roof was leaking and needed repair. The seller provided us with receipts stating that the roof had been repaired, and we closed the transaction. more...

Best buyer's agent: stranger or family?

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Thursday, October 22, 2009.

Q: Do you think it's OK to use a member of your family as a buyer's agent? What kind of problems do you think we will run into using a family member as our Realtor?

A: I am aware of the old adage cautioning against doing business with family members and friends. However, I am also aware, from personal experience, that when the stakes are as high as they are in a homebuying transaction, it is critical that your agent care intensely about you and your best interests. Who would care more than your relative?

But you are right to have concerns and to think about the pros and cons. There are a number of implications to take into consideration before working with your family member as your buyer's agent. more...

The builder-boomer disconnect

By Tom Kelly, Thursday, October 22, 2009.

The move-down market is really moving across … and it's keeping its money closer to home.

Homebuyers aged 55 and over are seeking homes approximately the same size as their present home and, unlike six years ago, they no longer prefer to pay cash. In 2002, 60 percent of builders reported that buyers paid cash, while only 23 percent of builders in 2008 described their customers as cash buyers.

Fixed-rate loans dominate a new 55-plus homebuying market study with adjustable-rate mortgages running neck-and-neck in popularity with reverse mortgages. more...

Who gets security deposit in divorce?

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, October 22, 2009.

Q: Our tenants are currently on a month-to-month rental agreement and apparently have just gone through a separation and divorce. He left several months ago and she and the children have been in the house for the past nine months. She has paid the rent and the utilities and has maintained the place in good order. She had more money coming in during the separation and now that the divorce is final, she tells me that she has less income from her ex-husband so she needs to move to a less expensive home.

She gave me a written notice last Friday that she is moving at the end of the month, and the ex-husband showed up last night at my house and angrily demanded that he get the full security deposit back right then and there. more...

Branding: just another buzzword

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

McDonald's is a great example of a brand. The company has a logo that most 2-year-olds can easily identify and I can't imagine that there is anyone in the country who doesn't know what a McDonald's restaurant is.

Most people don't need to "trust" the brand to buy a burger; it is just a burger, not a major purchase that will have an impact that lasts longer than a couple of hours.

When it comes to services, like the services that a real estate agent offers, I refuse to believe ... more...

Losing home to lender fraud

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

In the case Martin et al. v. Harpaz et al., homeowners Isaac and Lizzette Martin were building a new home and took out a series of construction loans to fund the project. The lender, Yair Harpaz of Private Investors Financing, claimed to have funded the third loan, but in fact only partially funded it.

Because the third loan was never fully funded and the lender refused to cooperate with the homeowners' efforts to refinance the loans, the homeowners could not complete the construction and the lender foreclosed on the home despite the fact that the loan was not in default. more...

Foam roof a 2-for-1 deal?

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

Q: We would appreciate your advice regarding our San Francisco home's roof.

We have a 1915 Edwardian with a flat tar-and-gravel roof in one of the "sunny" San Francisco neighborhoods. We've had the home for a dozen years, and while we don't know the date of the last roofing job, my husband thinks it's time to reroof.

I would like some insulation on our top floor -- insulation seems an afterthought in the house as a whole -- and my husband is thinking of installing tubular skylights called Solar Tubes to bring light into the two north rooms of the house. There is some blown-in insulation -- not sure how extensive because the access to the attic is via a small space I can barely poke my head into. more...

Those who lack, innovate

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/2151361243/" target=blank>Craig Anderson</a>.

I am not writing a review of the 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

First, such a task would require several books containing details that likely may lead to lawsuits in several jurisdictions.

Second, others have already done an excellent job: I'd recommend Morgan Brown's excellent (and brief) recap of BlogWorld as a starter, and David Thomas's recap of Chris Brogan's closing keynote hits pretty much all of the themes from this year's BlogWorld event. more...

Beware of real estate scammers

By Mary Umberger, Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

It's a jungle out there. You knew that already, of course. But there seems to be something about our troubled economic times that's bringing out the schemers, the scammers and the less-than-straightforward, many of whom have zeroed in on housing.

With the word "foreclosure" on so many lips, it's probably not surprising that con arts have found ways to prey on others' misery by promising to "fix" loans that have gone bad. But renters need to tread carefully these days, too, according to consumer advocates and law-enforcement representatives. more...

REO adventures in 'Lender Land'

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, October 20, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitchbuzz/3952689387/" target=blank>BitchBuzz</a>.

Talk about your unintended consequences. Two weeks ago, I was innocently watching Twitter when someone linked to a clever animated video spoof on social media. At the end of the video and to my surprise, I learned that I too could make a funny little video by visiting the site shown in the credits -- for free! Being me and all, I took the bait.

At the time, I happened to be in the depths of bank-owned despair. I had been wearing my buyer agent hat a lot lately, and it seemed like every home I encountered was owned by a bank. more...

Bad policies inflating new bubble?

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Tuesday, October 20, 2009.

Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=&pid=1441442" target=blank>Cato Institute</a>.

Somewhere I once read a description of homeowners' habitual equity-tapping before the bubble burst so vivid it embossed an image permanently on my brain. The exact words I don't remember, but my mental image is of a scientific laboratory, full of cages containing miniaturized homeowners, each pressing away at a lever on their mini homes to get their addictive fix of cash from their homes. Some of them go so far as to resemble Homer Simpson after scoring a doughnut, tongues lolling out as they drool, "Moneeeeeey. Goooooood."

That image came back to me afresh when I first read the title of Johan Norberg's new book, "Financial Fiasco: How America's Infatuation with Homeownership and Easy Money Created the Economic Crisis." more...

Best sales agent: individual or team?

By Bernice Ross, Tuesday, October 20, 2009.

DEAR BERNICE: We have a rental house we inherited from my Mom in 2007. Our tenants just gave us notice. The market has improved enough that we would like to sell the house. We plan to fix it up and list it after the first of the year. We see a lot of advertising for a "team" in our area that seems to do a lot of business. There is another agent who seems to get her listings sold fairly quickly. Which would be better for us? We like the idea of having a group of agents working to sell our property. Can an individual agent do as good of a job as a team? --Lucille J.

DEAR LUCILLE: There's not a simple "yes" or "no" answer to your question. Most properties sell through other agents using the multiple listing service. Nevertheless, whomever you select as your listing agent must have a strong marketing plan. more...

Bridging the divide on REO inspections

By Barry Stone, Tuesday, October 20, 2009.

DEAR BARRY: My friend is trying to buy a house and is concentrating on foreclosed properties. He usually makes an offer and then hires a home inspector. If the inspector finds many problems, my friend doesn't buy the house. So far, he's done this twice. What seems unfair is that the next buyer who comes along has to pay for a home inspection when one has already been done. This seems like a rip-off.

If an existing inspection report were available to download, a buyer could simply ask the seller if any repairs have been done since the last dated inspection. How many times must a home be inspected in such a short period of time? --Roy more...

A search index for the distributed Web

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, October 20, 2009.

The distributed Web is here: blogs and guest posts scattered throughout the Web; comments on all of those posts; Twitter posts; content-specific networks like Flickr and YouTube; and so on. As you participate and engage with your audience on sites that you don't own, your content and thoughts become literally scattered.

Lijit (www.lijit.com) is a tool that indexes your content and surfaces it to site visitors by way of a widget (yes, they stick with their naming convention and call it a "wijit"). So if you want to provide your audience with a way to search through all the stuff you've posted or commented this tool might be just the thing. more...

Buyers wary of recession's bottom

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Monday, October 19, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepocket/30464789/" target=blank>The Pocket</a>.

Connoisseur of highbrow culture that I am, last week I watched the Wanda Sykes standup comedy special on HBO. Hilarious, if more than a little ribald. Anyhow, she does this bit about how people from every country think their national customs are superior to all others.

Her South American tour guide described a particular bird whose behavior is viewed as a predictor of whether the weather will be the same the next day. Sykes' French wife tried to one-up the tour guide, telling of a bird that, in her native land, is believed to predict rain with its song. Sykes trumped them both, declaring that in America, we have meteorologists who can predict the weather for five days out! more...