Should you enter into a mortgage today, especially if the interest rates are higher due to low deposits or credit difficulties? A report released yesterday provides a clear indication that real estate prices are slowly recovering with averages already back to 1996 prices. While that may not sound too promising, it should be remembered that [...]
Searching for a house through the MLS can be a lot of fun and it can also be a right royal pain in the proverbial. BirdsEyeSearch makes it a lot easier to find suit properties and it’s pretty easy to use as well. Pick an area you want to search and it will dig out [...]
If you’re a first time home buyer looking to buy a home in Virginia then you may qualify for the Home Ownership Down Payment Assistance Program – a federal program that is administered in each state. There are certain requirements that must be met. The main criteria is that incomes are no more than 80% [...]
Looking at that title, you may be wondering what I am talking about. Let’s face it, most real estate agents don’t like closing at all – the more days they are open the more sales they can make. Of course, that could just be the wrong interpretation of “closing” too – and it is. By [...]
According to a recent report in Financial Times, real estate in Washington DC has risen almost two percent compared with falls of around 3 percent in another 20 large cities surveyed. This is a promising trend that has made real estate in DC very much in demand. Outlying suburbs have not done quite as well, [...]
One of the hardest questions to answer relates to pricing real estate. If someone walks in off the street with an address and asks us for a valuation, it is impossible to provide one without further information. This includes personally viewing the property as well. There are a number of factors that go into the [...]
Are you looking to buy a new home or perhaps in the market for a few investment properties? Technology is such now that you can view real estate listings from your cell phone – and more. Applications for cell phones are not new, particularly since the arrival of iPhones, so an application that features real [...]
There are a lot of people around at present who have not escaped the latest economic downturn completely unscathed. For those who have experienced problems starting again can be difficult, especially if lenders are not looking at your situation favorably. The danger in being in this situation is that you give up that home ownership [...]
Buying a home these days is fairly straightforward. You see the home you like, make an offer and then perhaps haggle a little before settling on a price. Once all the formalities are over, all the documents signed and the money paid, the home is yours. Or is it? I don’t want to burst any [...]
How does an $8000 or $6500 tax credit sound? If you are a first time home buyer and you buy before April 30 this year, you could be eligible for that $8000 tax credit. If you’re an existing home owner, don’t fret, you may be entitled to a $6500 tax credit. Sound too good to [...]
Buying investment real estate is high on the agenda for a lot of people at present due in part to low prices on offer. Tenanted properties can be quite attractive. From day one your property is providing an income. If you are using credit sources to fund your purchase, the income can go a long [...]
A recent letter to the editor makes several salient points when it comes to home inspections by anyone buying real estate. When is “as is” really “as is”. Technically, as is should be taken to mean just that. However, there is a difference between faults that are readily visible and faults that are hidden from [...]
Unfortunately, none of us have crystal balls and this makes it impossible to know where markets will go at any given time. Real estate has long been considered one of the most stable forms of investment. This reputation has a little mud on it following the economic problems in recent years. However, real estate has [...]
One of the benefits of the internet has been the rapid growth in specialist search engines or search tools. The real estate industry has one of the best specialist search tools available, especially when it comes to sites like The Best Home Search Ever. With maps from Google Maps showing you exactly where each property [...]
They say it’s a buyers market at present. This means that buyers have the advantages and sellers have to work hard to find those buyers and to get a decent price. It’s pretty tough out there in the marketplace but you can make life a lot easier on yourself if your property really stands out. [...]
Here is a question that always sparks plenty of discussion. “Do I need a Realtor when buying or selling my property?” Often, the general consensus from a discussion like this is – ‘yes you do, but watch them because they are only in it for themselves’. Often, this is true, but then it could be [...]
Did you know that home inspections come with a time limit? They do and if you’re a buyer and you fail to complete the process within the allotted time, you lose all rights under the inspection process. This can be a rather costly mistake to make and gives the seller a huge break. Home inspections [...]
Buying real estate is not the same as buying a car as there are many factors that need to be taken into account. If it is to be your home, how close it is to schools, public transport, shopping malls and employment are important factors. So too are intangibles like noise and air pollution from [...]
There are a lot of people who escaped the economic downturn with their credit ratings still intact despite really suffering from the consequences. Many were forced to sell everything to avoid bankruptcies or mortgage foreclosures. Unfortunately, having been through that experience, many are now reluctant to try again. That is an approach that is perfectly [...]
We don’t just live in a busy world, we live in a world where our time is often dictated by others. This is especially true of double income families. Because both partners are working, there is little time to wander through home after home trying to find the one that is ‘just right’. Fortunately, technology [...]
Foreclosures are fairly common at present and savvy buyers are finding real estate bargains everywhere. However, sometimes the real key to finding a foreclosure bargain is knowing when to act. The foreclosure process may be relatively short, however, you buying opportunities could be much longer. Traditionally, those looking for foreclosure bargains made their purchases on [...]
Owning a home is something that everyone strives for and for the majority of people it will be the single biggest expense in their lives. Virginia has long been a happy hunting ground for those looking for quality homes at reasonable prices and, with recent changes to property tax laws, will stay that way for [...]
The world of business can be a strange place sometimes and one of the strangest of them all is that of real estate and the real estate agents that operate in that area. Over the years we have seen agents who appear to have only one interest – their own. As any sensible person would [...]
Welcome to The Real Estate Briefings Blog. Our goal is to help you find the right home if you are a home buyer and to sell your home to the right buyer if you are a seller. On this blog we’ll discuss different real estate strategies and topics of interest to anyone who has any [...]
