Archives for Mortgage Rates
How to Sell a House!
Still a tough market. Words of wisdom: Listen to your Realtor. If he or she isn’t talking – get a new one. Getting your home sold requires effort. If you have your home on the market and there are no showings – there could be a number of things wrong. Price, condition (people see the photos online), poor marketing (poor photos), bad location or all of the above. To get your home sold now for TOP DOLLAR, your home has to have “WOW” factor. No “wow” factor and you’re just a plain Jane! Granite, travertine, stainless appliances, iron stair railings,
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Short Sale Guidelines are Making a Difference
The theory behind short sales seems simple enough: If a homeowner owes more money on a house than the house can sell for, and the homeowner is struggling to pay the mortgage, the lender will allow the house to be sold for less than is owed. For obvious reasons, lenders are not big fans of short sales and often make it a complicated process. In April 2010, The Home Affordable Alternatives Program (HAFA) released new guidelines designed to streamline the short-sale process and allow more delinquent homeowners to sell their homes and move on with their lives. In its first
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Updating your Home to SELL!!!
There are so many things that you can do to update your home – where do you start? What gives you the best bang for your buck? Do I need a designer or permits? Start inside or outside? Lots of good questions. Here are your best answers: The first rule of thumb: Use the 10% rule: Ensure that your home is not too terribly different from the rest of the homes in the neighborhood. If hardly anyone else in your neighborhood has new cabinets and granite, then adding that won’t give you as much of a return. Don’t add that
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Selling Your Home in a Down Market…
Follow these rules - get your home sold. Think that your home is so special - you get to keep it
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New Job Report – How it affects Homes, Mortgages & You
New Job Report – a Mixed Bag of Treats ( or Tricks) The Labor Department, today, released the latest government data for Non-farm payrolls ( employment data ) which revealed jobs losses of 20,000 for January. This was a surprise as the consensus expected a gain of 15,000 – 20,000 jobs. Surprisingly, the unemployment rate dipped to 9.7%. However, employment numbers for December were revised to 150,000 job losses as compared to initial reportings of 85,000. Furthermore the Business Survey threw in another revision that indicated an ADDITIONAL 900,000 job losses from March 2008 – March 2009 from what was
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Mixed News as Bonds and Mortgage Rates Flip Flop
Jobs Report indicates improvement ___________________________________________ Last Friday’s Jobs Report indicated surprising results. Instead of 125,000 job losses that were expected, the Labor Department reported only 11,000 jobs lost in November. And if that were not enough, the Unemployment Rate improved to 10% – down from 10.2%. It was also reported that the previous two months were revised to 159,000 fewer job losses than previously reported…strange, how the initial reports can be so skewed. Stocks were up sharply on the news, but have recently fallen back from comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. The Fed Chief commented that inflation will remain
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