There are a lot of really big real estate blogs out there, Active Rain being one the biggest... Today they posted about leveraging Zillow's 5 million monthly visitors to your advantage. It's all part of taking better advantage of the world of social networking, something agents really don't capitalize on enough.
That's for another time...
Zillow is a media site, or a marketing platform for real estate professionals to utilize to connect with buyers, sellers, and each other. Each month more than 5 million people come to Zillow with one common interest, real estate.
Here are the top 10 ways that real estate agents can use Zillow:
1) Post your listings on the site, for free. There are three ways you can do this: manually add each listing, if you have the technical capabilities you can send us a direct feed (best for 200+ listings), or work with one of our syndication partners to populate your listings to the site (free service).
2) Create a free Profile. This is basically like creating an interactive business card online. Not only can you display all of your contact information, but it also centralizes all of your contributions on Zillow and makes your photo appear on all of your listings. Also, the profile gives you great search engine juice.
If you work for a company that is already feeding listings to us, make sure to set up a profile with the same email address your company has on record for you. This too will ensure that your photo appears your listings that they are sending us.
3) Listing presentation fodder. Include your listing distribution plan in your presentation to home sellers. Another benefit to the seller is not just that you are going to put their home on the site, but that you are going to handle all of the incoming phone calls and emails for them. We created this listing presentation piece to help articulate the value of being on Zillow.
Located in the Portola district of the city, this newly remodeled home is a MUST HAVE. Just listed at $559,900, this home includes 3 remodeled bedrooms, 1 remodeled bath, living/dining room combo, hardwood floors with crown moldings, eat-in kitchen with custom cabinets, and granite tops. Includes new plumbing, yard with patio and last but not least, 2 car tandem parking. Also a few blocks from public transportation. Come take a look today! Click here for the complete listing...
I can smell the blood in the journalistic waters... Over the weekend the NY Times reported that the next round of bad home loans are about to come due... Affluent buyers who got in over their necks... If you ask me, you can't get better video than Mr. & Mrs Affluent sitting around in the Porsche, kids crying in the backseat while the sheriff auctions off their goods.. I can already see the local press digging around in the foreclosure notices looking for the perfect Noe Valley family they can make the poster child of the second round of loan troubles...
Below you'll find the story that kicked off the the next round of bad news stories...
While subprime loans deeply penetrated low-income and minority groups, a new study suggests that more upper-income borrowers and more whites took out such loans than any other groups.
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Compliance Technologies, a lending-industry consultancy, last month analyzed more than 1.9 million subprime loans originated in 2006, the height of the subprime lending frenzy, and found that roughly 56 percent went to non-Hispanic whites. Affluent borrowers, those with annual income at least 120 percent of their given area’s median income, meanwhile, took out more than 39 percent of the loans.
“I was surprised to see that non-Hispanic whites received more subprime loans than all minority groups combined,” said Maurice Jourdain-Earl, a founder and managing director of Compliance Technologies.
Still, African-Americans and Hispanics received subprime loans in a greater proportion than whites. Whites made up 71 percent of the borrower population in 2006 and received 56 percent of the subprime loans originated that year. Blacks, meanwhile, made up 10 percent of the loan pool, yet received 19 percent of the subprime loans. Hispanics constituted 14 percent of the borrower community and received 20 percent of the subprime loans.
The reasons behind the disparities have been hotly debated. Some lenders have argued that minority populations were merely less creditworthy than whites, while some minority advocates claim lenders and brokers discriminated on the basis of race. Mr. Jourdain-Earl, whose company is minority owned, did not speculate on the cause.
Researchers in the lending industry have not tracked how well members of different demographic groups have kept pace with subprime loans made in 2006. Lenders keep such data, but they have not shared it publicly.
Report: Real estate agents willing to cut commission
When it comes to residential real estate these days, it seems everything is subject to negotiation.
That includes the real estate broker's cut on the deal, according to a report issued Monday by Consumer Reports. Based on a recent survey of home sellers, 46 percent of people trying to sell their homes through agents tried to negotiate a lower commission rate. Of those home sellers, 71 percent succeeded in getting the real estate agent to take less.
Haggling, the nonprofit Consumers Union publication noted, didn't mean home sellers were getting less from their agents or were less satisfied with the outcome. Sellers who paid commission rates of 3 percent or lower were just as satisfied with their broker's performance as those who paid 6 percent or more, the report noted.
Despite the nationwide slump in residential real estate sales, 86 percent of Consumer Reports' readers who put their homes on the market made a sale, while only 8 percent gave up and took their homes off the market.
Agents with large brokerage firms scored just as well as independent brokers when it came to customer satisfaction, but the magazine recommends home sellers base their choice of agents on factors that include personal recommendations.
The magazine recommends home sellers price their homes realistically, and drop their asking price between 4 percent to 6 percent if they don't receive an offer within four to six weeks.
The Washington (D.C.) Business Journal is a sister publication of The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee.
Coming on the market this week is a BRAND NEW home in downtown San Anselmo... Saw the place myself and it's stunning.... nearly 2,600 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths and a spectacular kitchen... asking price is $2,400,000
that's all the details i have for now... i'll post more as i know more...
It could never happen to me. That's the common attitude whether the subject is shark attacks, black market organ theft or, apparently, housing price declines.
Despite plummeting values across the nation, 62 percent of homeowners believe their property's worth has actually climbed or stayed the same during the past year, according to a confidence survey commissioned by real estate Web site Zillow. In reality, the market price on 77 percent of properties has dropped and only about 24 percent have risen or held firm, the Seattle company estimates.
Residents of western states are only a little less self-deluding. Fifty-six percent acknowledge the market value of their home fell, while 44 percent believe it maintained or gained worth. The reality is closer to 88 percent and 12 percent, respectively, Zillow said.
"The results are pretty eye-opening," company spokeswoman Amy Bohutinsky said. "They're taking the attitude of, 'not my house.' "
The gap reflects the mind's capacity for denial when, say, evidence suggests someone's largest single asset lost 20 percent of its worth in a year, said Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist at Golden Gate University. Assisting the denial is the subjective nature of home values, which - unlike most products - don't come in shiny boxes stamped with a price tag, she said.
I wanted to show you a video I came across this morning while researching a story for my monthly technology column for Real Estate Executive magazine... Even if the video isn't your thing, kudos to the agent for trying to stand out in a crowd... i'll be the first to admit, i watched the whole thing... My column this month is on agents who use Twitter... if you Tweet, drop me a note... i'm still looking for more agents...
This is just a brilliant story about the experiences a reporter for the Wall Street Journal reporter went through to sell his house... great perspective from not only the seller's side, but how he saw the agent in the process...
When we put our Dallas house on the market for $490,000 in February, we thought it would sell in weeks with little discounting.
Talk about being delusional.
We ended up lowering the price of our house five times before it finally sold last month. We didn't get our first offer until late June, and it was $102,000 below where we had started.
All the uncertainty made us delay buying a new home near New York City, and we've been scrambling to find a place before the school year starts. During my 28 years as a journalist, I've moved 11 times for my job. This was in some ways the hardest one.
The whole experience made me a tiny part of a huge story -- the collapse in housing prices -- affecting millions of Americans. It was humbling for me, your typical know-it-all reporter, to find myself caught up in a situation where I had no ready answers.
In previous columns, I've waxed about my penny-pinching approach on everything from restaurant meals to vacations to buying new books. But all that pales in comparison to the stakes during a home sale. In our case, we needed to extract as much money as possible from our Dallas home so we could afford the higher prices in the Northeast.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of pending homes for sale rose in June, a rebound from the previous month, according to a report released Thursday.
The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index rose 5.3% in June to 89 from a downwardly revised reading of 84.5 in May.
The index remains 12.3% below its level in June 2007, when it stood at 101.4, but it's at its highest point since October 2007, when it was at 89.9.
The number of homes under contract for sale fell more than expected in May, after a surprising spike in April.
However, this month's report isn't necessarily good news for the average home seller. That's because many of the pending home sales are for foreclosed properties being sold at a steep discount by lenders, according to Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research.
"It's bad news if you're a regular home seller because you're competing against institutions that are willing to undercut you - in some cases, by a large margin," Larson said in a statement.
Just Listed! Wonderful wood frame house in West Portal!
Located in the West Portal neighborhood, this fully remodeled 1960s home is amazing. It’s a detached 2 story home with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and 2 car garage with plenty of storage room with a laundry area. Located on the main level is a living room with fireplace, formal dining room leading to backyard, updated kitchen with dining area and a family room. Second floor has three bedrooms with a bathroom. Within walking distance to public transportation! Just Listed!
For those of you who don’t read Nielsen online they’re reporting some good news about real estate.
The business of real estate is moving online faster and faster everyday.
While the real estate business is in flux, how and where people search for homes is not. They’re headed online to do their searching.
It goes without saying June brought some of the worst news ever about the real estate business, yet at no time in online history were more people looking on online.
If you aren’t online, you’re really not in real estate anymore.
Real Estate from an Online Perspective
Nachi Lolla — Tags: loan, online advertising, real estate The volatility in the real estate market is concerning, nay alarming, across the board from home-buyers, to lenders, to builders. Moreover, the recent upward trend in home foreclosures has compelled President Bush and the Congress to pass the Housing Bill, which comes as a huge respite to hundreds of thousands of homeowners on the brink of foreclosures and to mortgage lenders who bet heavily on sub-prime mortgages, especially two giants in the game - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now with books full of bad mortgages.
We looked at the trend in visitation across all Web sites within the Real Estate category and mapped it with the movement of the Case-Schiller Home Price Composite-20 Index. While the average price/value of a home in the US has been decreasing since the summer of 2006 (down more than 36 points), we see a significant growth in unique visitors (>11 million) to sites within this category during the same period. With the downward turn in home sales, it is likely that current homeowners may be visiting real estate sites to check their home’s value, keep tabs on interest rates, and keep abreast of other relevant information. Moreover, it is also possible that potential home buyers may be increasingly on the lookout for affordable homes
The most traffic has been across a few key sites. Realtor.com has historically had the highest number of visitors and continues to do so. Yahoo! Real Estate and MSN Real Estate sites have seen some steady growth in visitors since 2005, while Yahoo! Real Estate has had a sharp rise in visitors since early 2007. Overall, AOL Real Estate has seen a decline in visitors.
While the number of visitors to real estate portals is on the rise, there has been a steep decline in advertising in the “Financial Services, Lender and Home Equity” category since December 2007, as reported by AdRelevance. For instance, in January of 2008, Countrywide Loans was the top advertiser delivering close to 6 billion impressions online, but since February it has maintained fewer than one billion impressions online. Other top contenders in the category (Citi Mortgage, GMAC Mortgage, Bank of America, Wachovia, etc.) have either completely withdrawn or drastically reduced their online advertising in this category, though the category experienced a slight up-tick in July.
It seems like online research content and news sites are drawing a steadily growing audience, but the advertisers are taking a step back with their investments in online advertising. Stay tuned for how the year winds up!
The good folks at Zillow are out with a new series of charts this morning that are suppose to help us make sense out of the real estate market.
They're not the most help charts in the world, but click here if you're interested int seeing more of them...
The one chart I did like, (see below) listed the percentage of homes sold for a loss or sold in foreclosure...
Now if the chart is to believed nearly half of all homes sold in the City sell for a loss.. For me that's hard to believe... and considering Zillow's track track estimating home prices I'm going to guess the chart skews a little high... and as far has 30 plus percent of all homes that sold were foreclosures, that to seems a bit high too from talking to agents...
love to hear anyone's thoughts on the numbers...
Below is Zillows summary of the Second Quarter...
Zillow Real Estate Market Reports
Second Quarter: April-June 2008
Median U.S. home values continued to slide during the second quarter, declining 9.9 percent from a year ago. This quarter, Zillow has expanded its market report beyond the Zillow Home Value Index and rates of negative equity to incorporate additional housing data in 165 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), including:
Market Peak Data - the national and local reports now identify when the market peaked, the median value at the peak and the change in value since the peak.
Market Distress Signals - the national and local reports now break down the percentage of homes sold for a loss and percentage of homes that sold in foreclosure along with the housing turnover rates of less than one year. These are detailed by quarter since Q1 2003.
To see home value trends, negative equity data and other new data, click on the Excel icon* below to view the designated report or click the graph icon to see related graphs and maps. Details for each market may also be accessed by using the interactive map below.
For more information about Zillow's Q2 Real Estate Market Reports, including the press release, additional graphics, and quarterly conference call dial-in and replay details, or to access the Zillow Q2 Homeowner Confidence Survey, visit the special Real Estate Market Reports section in the Zillow press room.
* These spreadsheets may not load properly in some versions of Excel. You may save a file to your computer then open using Excel or contact press@zillow.com to receive a file via email.
The good folks over at Roost just sent me an email to let me know they've launched their new home search service for San Francisco...
Three things stand out about the new service...
1. it's not terribly intuitive - instead of simply inputting numbers they have a series of sliders
2. compared to other services service like Trulia, it seems light years behind the times
3 Roost doesn't offer anything new...
I understand sometimes you go for a completely different look and feel to stand out in the crowd, but this was it wasn't for the better....
To each their own, plenty of internet searchers using Yahoo instead of Google... whatever works for you..
In response, here's what Roost had to say about themselves...
Roost (www.roost.com) this morning announced the launch of service in the San Francisco and Seattle real estate markets, giving local home buyers the most accurate and up-to-date listings of single-family homes, new construction and for sale by owner properties on the Web.
Roost is a blazing fast search engine with intuitive filtering controls to customize your home searches and find exactly what you’re looking for – with the confidence that the listings are completely accurate and up-to-date. Unlike other search sites, which often contain inaccurate or out-of-date information, Roost’s listings are powered by the Multiple Listings Service, the industry-standard database used by agents and brokers to share listing information.
RealtyTrac®, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its July 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 272,171 U.S. properties during the month, an 8 percent increase from the previous month and a 55 percent increase from July 2007. The report also shows one in every 464 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month.
“Bank repossessions, or REOs, continued to be the fastest growing segment of foreclosure activity in July, posting a 184 percent year-over-year increase — compared to a 53 percent year-over-year increase in default notices and an 11 percent year-over-year increase in auction notices,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The sharp rise in REOs, combined with slow sales, has resulted in a bloated inventory of bank-owned properties for sale. RealtyTrac now has more than three quarters of a million properties in its active REO database, a number that represents approximately 17 percent of the inventory of existing homes for sale reported in June by the National Association of Realtors.”
Nevada, California, Florida post top state foreclosure rates
Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate in July, with one in every 106 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the month. Foreclosure activity in Nevada was up 15 percent from the previous month and 97 percent from July 2007, pushing the total number of properties with foreclosure filings to over 10,000. Bank repossessions in Nevada were up 384 percent on a year-over-year basis, while default notices were up 59 percent and auction notices were up 31 percent.
One in every 182 California properties received a foreclosure filing in July, the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate, while one in every 186 Florida properties received a foreclosure filing, the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate.
Despite increasing foreclosure activity, Arizona’s foreclosure rate dropped from the nation’s third highest in June to fourth highest in July. Foreclosure filings were reported on 13,350 Arizona properties during the month, a 3 percent increase from the previous month and a 127 percent increase from July 2007. One in every 195 Arizona properties received a foreclosure filing, a rate that was more than twice the national average.
Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the top 10 were Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, Utah and Virginia.
California, Florida, Ohio report highest foreclosure totals
Foreclosure filings were reported on 72,285 California properties in July, the highest total among the states. The state’s foreclosure activity increased 5 percent from the previous month and was up 85 percent from July 2007. On a year-over-year basis, bank repossessions in California were up 427 percent, while auction notices were up 67 percent and default notices were up 34 percent. However, default notices declined 4 percent from the previous month.
Florida foreclosure activity in July increased 14 percent from the previous month and 139 percent from July 2007. The state posted the nation’s second highest number of properties with filings — 45,884. On a year-over-year basis, bank repossessions in Florida increased 678 percent, while auction notices were up 180 percent and default notices were up 100 percent.
Ohio’s total of 13,457 properties with foreclosure filings in July was third highest among the states despite an increase of just 2 percent from the previous month and 1 percent from July 2007. On a year-over-year basis, bank repossessions in Ohio were still up 33 percent, while auction notices were down nearly 20 percent and default notices were up nearly 8 percent. One in every 375 Ohio households received a foreclosure filing during the month, the nation’s fifth highest state foreclosure rate.
After Arizona, Michigan documented the fifth highest state total in July — 11,591 properties with filings — but the state’s foreclosure activity decreased 4 percent from the previous month and 17 percent from July 2007. The state’s foreclosure rate — one in every 389 households received a foreclosure filing — ranked seventh highest among the states.
Other states with total properties with foreclosure filings among the 10 highest were Texas, Georgia, Nevada, Illinois and New York.
Top Metro Rates in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona
The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., metro area registered the highest foreclosure rate among the 230 metro areas tracked in the July report. One in every 64 households in the metro area received a foreclosure filing during the month — more than seven times the national average.
Three California cities followed in the metro foreclosure rate rankings: Merced was at No. 2 with one in every 73 households receiving a foreclosure filing; and Stockton and Modesto were in a virtual tie, each with one in every 82 households receiving a foreclosure filing.
With one in every 85 households receiving a foreclosure filing, the Las Vegas metro area’s foreclosure rate ranked No. 5, followed by three more California metros: Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield and Vallejo-Fairfield.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., documented the ninth highest metro foreclosure rate, and the foreclosure rate in Phoenix took the No. 10 spot.
Here’s a great condo located just off Third Street! Unit features a gourmet kitchen and an in-unit washer and dryer. You can walk to AT&T Park, Safeway, Caltrain and MUNI. Community features gym, spa private theatre and an outdoor pool so you can train like Michael Phelps! Click here for the complete listing...
Sometime back I mentioned that Ed McMahon was about to lose his home to foreclosure... Like the Lone Ranger himself, The Donald has come to the rescue... Call it an investment or a PR move, but I can tell you I had plans to save the man for the being thrown out on the mean streets of LA... Props to the Donald..
Mega-developer and TV personality Donald Trump has agreed to buy Ed McMahon's Beverly Hills house for an undisclosed amount and allow McMahon to continue living in it. Details of the deal are still being ironed out.
"I don't know the man, but I grew up watching him on TV," Trump said in an exclusive interview with The Times.
McMahon, 85, was facing foreclosure within two weeks on his Beverly Hills home of 18 years. The aging television icon, who was Johnny Carson's sidekick for three decades, defaulted on $4.8 million in mortgage loans with Countrywide Financial Corp. He said in interviews that he was unable to work because of a neck injury that occurred about 18 months ago.
I always like to point out an agent's effort to stand out in the crowded market place by offering something a little different. Ron Park's of Vision Real Estate here in the City as well as in Marin does a fine job of doing just that....
Bay Area home prices plunged to a 53-month low in July as a brisk business in foreclosed properties depressed prices and buoyed sales volume, according to a real estate report released Tuesday.
The median price for both new and resale homes and condos stood at $470,000, down 29.3 percent from a year ago, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. The last time the median was lower was in March 2005, when it was $469,500. For resale homes, the median was $485,000, a 34.3 percent drop from last July.
A full 33 percent of all resale homes were foreclsoed properties, which banks generally sell at a discount - further depressing prices in the vicinity. In July 2007, just 4.2 percent of existing home sales were foreclosed properties.
The highest percentage of foreclosed sales was in Solano County, where two-thirds of all resold homes were foreclosures. The lowest was in San Francisco at 4.6 percent of existing-home sales.
A total of 7,586 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in the nine-county region in July, up 2.2 percent from a year ago. For resale homes, a total of 5,585 sold, up 11.9 percent from a year ago.
Bargain-hunting home buyers scooping up foreclosure properties deserve credit for some rare good news about the battered Bay Area housing market: Home sales in the region were better last month than they were a year ago, the first time that's happened since 2005.
But in Santa Clara County, where the foreclosure problem is less severe, home sales were down 13 percent compared with July 2007, according to a report Tuesday from MDA DataQuick. That decline was less pronounced than in recent months.
Median prices, meanwhile, took a dive throughout the nine-county Bay Area, partly as a result of surging sales of low-priced homes. Of the previously owned homes sold in the nine-county region in July, one-third had been foreclosed upon in the past year.
"The good news about this is we're able to put first-time home buyers into all these REOs," said Joe Brown, president of realty brokerage Coldwell Banker Silicon Valley. "REO" means the property is "real estate owned" by a bank that has foreclosed upon it.
Bargain-hunting home buyers scooping up foreclosure properties deserve credit for some rare good news about the battered Bay Area housing market: Home sales in the region were better last month than they were a year ago, the first time that's happened since 2005.
But in Santa Clara County, where the foreclosure problem is less severe, home sales were down 13 percent compared with July 2007, according to a report Tuesday from MDA DataQuick. That decline was less pronounced than in recent months.
Median prices, meanwhile, took a dive throughout the nine-county Bay Area, partly as a result of surging sales of low-priced homes. Of the previously owned homes sold in the nine-county region in July, one-third had been foreclosed upon in the past year.
"The good news about this is we're able to put first-time home buyers into all these REOs," said Joe Brown, president of realty brokerage Coldwell Banker Silicon Valley. "REO" means the property is "real estate owned" by a bank that has foreclosed upon it.
Newly remodeled contemporary condo just listed in Duboce Triangle!
Just listed in Duboce Triangle, a newly remodeled contemporary condo! This top floor condo includes 2 bedrooms and 1 bath with new bamboo floors, museum-style Mecho shades, silestone counters and glass-tile backsplash. Both kitchen and bathroom include skylights! Centrally located too! Just listed at $668,000. Come take a look today!
These days I'm always hearing agents offering green tips to their clients... One of those tips is to install a tankless hot water heater... I'm no plumber, but if I was things would be going a lot smoother at my house.. that aside it appears going tankless is no guarantee...
STEVE BROWNELL has a dim view of his tankless water heater, and he's in denial about his utility bills.
Three years ago, the Irvine resident installed the heater in his 3,000-square-foot, single-story home with the goal that the unit would pay for itself fairly quickly through lower gas bills and provide an endless supply of hot water.
"At the time, I was thinking it would be a total utility savings -- gas, water and electric," Brownell said.
Think again. Instant energy savings aren't necessarily guaranteed. Although manufacturers estimate that tankless gas-type water heaters can save between 20% to 50% on annual gas bills compared with standard tanks, improper installation or product sizing can extend the payoff time. Also, large homes with long pipe runs may require additional equipment to speed up hot water delivery to fixtures and actually drive up energy costs. This was the case in Brownell's situation.
Although U.S. home prices fell faster than ever in the second quarter, the rate of acceleration slowed in June, according to a closely watched index released Tuesday. Experts hailed the slight deceleration as a harbinger of an eventual recovery in the dismal real estate market.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index plunged by double digits in the second quarter, falling a record 15.4 percent compared with the previous year. The index covers all nine U.S. census divisions. A 10-city composite index fell a record 17 percent, while a 20-city index fell 15.9 percent, also a record.
However, observers seized upon a sliver of good news: Those indexes posted a rate of decline for June that was only slightly more than the May decline of 16.9 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively. "I consider it good news that you're seeing price declines decelerate," said Terrin Griffiths, economist and industry analyst with the California and Nevada Credit Union League. "While the markets haven't reached bottom, we're getting closer to there."
Who doesn’t want a home with stunning views and a gracious lifestyle with premier services?! Two units have been combined to create this awesome penthouse condominium that has views spanning the North to South, from Huntington Park to the Bay. You even get your own elevator to bring you to your gracious and spacious formal living room and dining room, offering views of Huntington Park, the Pacific Union Club, Grace Cathedral and some of the most famous hotels in San Francisco. Living room also includes high ceilings with ornate moldings, limestone fireplace, and beautifully polished hardwood floors. This isn’t all! Penthouse includes large kitchen with granite counters, and multiple bedrooms with one serving as a home theater. What a perfect place to call my crib!
If you're wonder how folks go about finding the real estate sites they search for homes on, may i suggest the USA Today... having been on the road for the past two weeks i can safely say plenty of people are out there reading it... today the USA Today put together a list of real estate sites they deemed worthy... the story makes no mention of how the list was pulled together... it includes hotpads.com (never heard of them), but fails to mention hometown favorite, Trulia.com....
i always find stores like this one interesting because of the papers influence on readers...
Not so long ago, real estate websites offered little more than a thumbnail photo of a house and puffy prose about stainless-steel appliances. But with the housing slump making home buying a more considered investment — flippers and investors have all but faded from view — consumers crave more impartial information before they buy. And real estate sites are tumbling over themselves to provide the freshest, clearest data available.
The result is that buyers are empowered with more data about properties and neighborhoods than ever before. The bad news? You can lose days wading through it all.
On the websites spotlighted below, and many others, you not only get the price and square footage of the quaint neo-Colonial you've got an eye on. You can also access details about schools, photos of its fancy faucets, virtual tours of the kitchen and videos of a walk-through. You can even pinpoint locations of nearby hazardous waste sites and any sexual predators living in the neighborhood.
The sites are no longer limited to those strictly buying or selling, either. Several give estimates of home values and details on taxes, the number of fireplaces and recent improvements to homes not on the market. That can be of use to owners who are just considering selling or those who are buying next door.
Four out of five buyers used the Internet to search for a home last year, the National Association of Realtors says. The number of people who can access these multimedia sites — heavy with maps, pictures, graphics and video — is growing fast: 55% of Americans have a high-speed Internet connection at home, up from 47% in early 2007, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
This is one of those posts for which I'm looking to hear from others... I was speaking to an agent in Marin yesterday who told me he has a client applying for mortgages as a first time home buyer... he assures me they have no blemishes on their credit, which is in his words, "solid."
Here's where I'm stunned... total lenders fees come to $40,000...
Yep, $40,000... it's a local lender and I've confirmed the number with another local lender...
