Ira Freireich's (bestbroker) Blog

One of our goals is to supply you with enough information to help you make an informed, intelligent decision. We provide you with all information that we can find out about the home, the schools, the crime rate, neighborhood problems, the condition of the home, an estimated sale price, etc., and...

                                    HomePath is a special designation given by Fannie Mae to properties in their portfolio that have been foreclosed on. Fannie claims their goal is to sell these properties in a timely manner in order to minimize the impact on the community. Houses labeled with a ...

The foreclosure crisis has pitted cash investor against home buyer even though both sets of buyers play a critical role in the vitality of a normal housing market. The incredible volume of foreclosures coupled with fire sale prices, listing agent and asset management practices and government inc...

Appraisal Cutting – A Simple Definition: When you buy a new home or refinance an existing home, you typically will be required to obtain an appraisal for the property.  Getting an appraisal done involves hiring a licensed appraiser who produces an opinion of value in the form of an “official” ap...

Would you be willing to pay the original builder a fee when you resell your home? That's what some developers are trying to do to homeowners in their communities. Many condo and townhouse dwellers are already familiar with the "flip tax," more formally known as a resale fee. Typically calculated ...

The Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, Inc. (MLSLI) reported a Long Island closed median home price of $380,000 for July 2010.  This figure is slightly higher than $373,000 reported by MLSLI in July 2009 and represents closed sales in Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens County.   Nassau County rep...

                              After several failed attempts to fix the country’s housing sector, the takeover of mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, $787 billion worth of economic stimulus money, a massive overhaul of America’s health care system, and the biggest re-write of finance rule...

  After months of hovering near 50-year lows, mortgage rates have fallen even further, into uncharted territory and to a level lenders say is finally igniting more homeowner refinancing. For this week the average interest rate on new 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was 4.44%, according to mortgage g...

A smaller percentage of U.S. homeowners were saddled with "underwater mortgages" in the second quarter as more homes entered the foreclosure process even as price declines slowed, real estate website Zillow.com said Monday 08/10/10. Fewer homeowners with so-called underwater mortgages, where the...

Main Street may be about to get its own gigantic bailout from the government. Rumors are flying from Washington to Wall Street, that the Obama administration is about to order government-controlled lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive a portion of the mortgage debt of millions of Americ...