Just Real Estate. The Best of ActiveRain ReBlogged. No recipes, no jokes, no SEO, no fluff

I hate to say it, but some of you agents are soft!I see a fair number of homes that are up for sale in my travels, and I have to say that some of you listing agents out there are not educating your sellers on what it means to be competitive!  I know it is hard to tell your sellers that they need ...

I just got off the phone with a borrower who is a bit hesitant about locking rates for the simple fact they/he believes the rates could go lower and while there is plenty of information out there to determine, with some certainty, the movement of rates I always respond with my opinion and then th...

One of the things I want to talk about is FHA loans.  This program up until earlier this year had maybe 2% penetration into the market place.  Reason for this is the influx of money, from investors, into the mortgage market thus creating a plethora of alternative loan programs that were giving bo...

Not all sellers understand that their asking price is the ultimate determination of whether they will sell their property or not. Not only does the asking price affect if you'll sell, but when and for how much. The longer it takes you to get to the correct fair market value asking price, the gre...

Usually about once a week I have someone call me inquiring about whether they need a home inspection. You see their Uncle Bob, who was a ______ for 30 years, walked through the house and he said everything looks fine structurally. They trust and love their Uncle Bob and really are kind of uncerta...

I know everyone likes to complain about Countrywide Short Sales, but you know what, I like them.  They are consistently inconsistent.  I've had approvals from them in five weeks, without even a phone call from the negotiator, to five months, after them losing information, switching negotiators fo...

We just got a call from one of our sellers that we have listed as a short sale in Port St Lucie Florida. They were just served with foreclosure papers. As soon as the foreclosure process became a matter of public record at the county clerk they started getting calls and direct mail from all these...

Depreciation This is an excellent question.  There are many taxpayers who do not fully understand exactly how depreciation works, how it reduces their income taxes by sheltering some of their rental income, and most importantly what happens to the depreciation when they ultimately sell their rent...

How would you like to have a home manager be running an escort service from your home that you're trying to have them help you sell?  Watch all three segments.  Amazing, truly amazing.Wow.  I don't know what else to say, but... Wow. Back around the end of June, I found out that the Fox 5 iTeam wa...

With all the doom and gloom in the reporting on the current real estate market, don't you think it is time for some good news? Well, I do. And, oddly enough, it is the same as all that bad news we have been hearing. You know, about real estate prices tumbling in California. For people who have no...