Recycling isn't just a trend.  It is here to stay.  The Reno real estate market is seeing a huge increase in buyers looking to purchase "green" homes.  This is understandable, especially when you consider that energy costs are on the rise.  It would appear that "green" is the new "black" when it comes to selling your Reno home. In September 2010, Reno was named as one of the 22 Smartest Cities for Energy by the National Resources Defense Council.  The City of Reno began its Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Initiative to take advantage of the natural, renewable resources at the City's fingertips.  With an average of 300 days of sunshine every year and a lot of windy weather, it made sense to harness these resources and turn them into usable wattage for Reno residents.  In fact, Reno ... 02/25/2013

The Reno City Council met last Wednesday as part of their regularly scheduled meetings.  They discussed City issues and voted on agendas placed before the council to enhance and enrich the lifestyle of its residents.  A summary of the Reno City Council's meeting for February 13, 2013 is as follows: The council approved certification to designate the Wells Avenue neighborhood (bounded by Ryland, Vassar, Holcomb and Locust) as a conservation district.  This helps maintain and preserve the integrity of some of the City of Reno's valuable history as it pertains to Wells Avenue.  It is only the second conservation district designated in the entire city. Desert Heights Elementary School's PTA was granted $10,500 from the Community Pride Grant (CPG) funds to purchase new equipment for their pl... 02/18/2013

You don't have to travel all the way to New Orleans to celebrate Fat Tuesday.  Take part in a southern tradition right here in the Sierra Nevadas.  Reno is holding its own Mardi Gras celebrations and they want you to join in on the fun! This Tuesday, February 12th, the Eldorado Hotel and Casino in Reno is letting the good times roll at their Fat Tuesday Party.  The Brew Brothers, located inside the Eldorado, will be giving away free beads for all who attend.  From 9:30pm to 11:30pm, DJ Chris English will be playing the hottest tracks and guests can enjoy libations from the $10 open bar.  For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Eldorado's website. Squaw Valley is holding a Mardi Crawl from 2pm to 7pm on Tuesday, February 12th.  Participants get to hop from bar to bar a... 02/11/2013

~Why selling your Reno home now is a good idea~ If you are a Reno homeowner struggling with the decision of selling your home now or waiting for the market to improve, now may be the right time to sell. The real estate market here in Northern Nevada is improving but you may be one of those homeowners who still owes more than what your home is worth. If you are like many Reno homeowners who is currently underwater on your home, or you owe more thatn what your home is worth, or maybe you have had a recent loss of income, or have tried the loan modification process or perhaps you are simply tired of wasting your money on an asset that will never recover its deficiency, you want to consider short selling your property. Why a short sale? A short sale may be your last chance to redeem your op... 02/10/2013

Catherine Cortez-Masto may have some competition for her future gubernatorial bid as Bruce Breslow is trying to woo the hearts of Nevada residents. Bruce, Director of the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, is putting together a little program to dent the shadow inventory issue. Media articles can be read here... RGJ.com, LVRJ.com, LasVegasSun.com. The articles are pretty good overviews but the actually press release gives the most information. View the press release by clicking the picture below. How It Works The State of Nevada creates a non-profit that will use $150 million in funds from the National Mortgage Settlement to give certain home owners the opportunity to refinance out of their current loan to a current market value loan. The underwater loans will be obtained in po... 02/09/2013

Very encouraging indications of improving market.  The biggest concern is the tighter lending requirement. 02/07/2013

If you've been looking for houses the past 6-8 months you've noticed there isn't much inventory and prices are going up. Well, Fannie Mae is onto this and has been trying to prop up the market even more. Go ahead and search the Fannie Mae listings. Search Here Now run a search on closed and even active comparables around it. Anything look funny? Yeah, Fannie Mae is adding anywhere from 20-30% of market value to their listings. While the market is going up there is only a slight chance most of these will appraise. Not only are they doing this with REOs but there are reports of this happening with short sale approval prices. View here, here, and here. The Why And The How Fannie Mae holds the majority of serviced and delinquent homes (GSEs and HUD own or insure 90% of all loans). By holdin... 02/04/2013

Can you believe that Valentine's Day is only 10 days away?  Do you have a special someone you want to celebrate this day of love with?  What are you going to do?  Never fear.  Luckily, Reno always has something going on and Valentine's Day is no different.  Here are a few ideas of ways you can show your guy or gal a great time on Valentine's Day in Reno this year: Eldorado Hotel Casino - The Eldorado loves love so much, they couldn't contain it to just one restaurant.  That's why their Roxy, La Strada and Prime Rib Grill all will have special menus available on Valentine's Day.  Enjoy a four course menu at Roxy, beginning with "Fondue is for Lovers" followed by champagne oyster bisque, leading into Beef Wellington and finishing with a gorgeous chocolate souffle, chocolate covered strawb... 02/04/2013

All from the RGJ.com except 1. Well 2 10 Reno Trends For 2013- RGJ.com 3-5 are directly related to real estate.   Storm Coming To Nevada Housing- KnoxNews.com It's pretty bad when the AP sees your state's bubble.   Nevada 4th Worst State To Buy Foreclosures- LasVegasSun.com The RGJ article is gone so I guess there's two non RGJ articles. From top 5 best to top 5 worst in a year's time.   Reno Foreclosures Drop in 2012- RGJ.com Data on why Nevada is one of the top 5 worst places to buy a foreclosure.   Home Prices Up 8% in 2012- RGJ.com See the two posts above for the why. Also, don't know what stats RSAR gave them since they've been sending us reports of 20% increase in median sales price.   For more information on the Reno and Sparks housing market contact Broker Ricky Beach at (775) ... 02/01/2013

On April 1st, 2013 FHA will be raising their mortgage insurance premium (MIP) by .1% and requiring it to be paid for the full term of the loan. View the press release here. An FHA loan created before April 1st will only require mortgage insurance until the loan is 78% of the original balance (around 7 years of payment). Let's see the difference between buying before and after the deadline. $200,000 Home Before The Deadline Monthly mortgage insurance: $201.04 7 years of mortgage insurance: ($201.04 x 12) x 7 years (average time)=? $16,887.36 $200,000 Home After The Deadline Monthly mortgage insurance: $201.04 +.1% premium= $221.14 per month Only $20 more per month but now let's add in the full 30 years of payment. 30 years of mortgage insurance: (221.14 x 12) + 30 year payoff= $79,610.40... 01/30/2013

When someone like me looks at homes all the time you start to see where some of the common areas Home Owners fails to do maintenance. One of these areas is furnace filters. When was the last time you changed yours? A dirty filter can slow the air movement down and reduce comfort in your home and put wear on your system. I prefer to buy the washable ones myself. I keep a disposable one handy for when the washable one is drying. During some of my Energy Audit testing I have to remove the filter. As a courtesy I will replace the dirty one with a clean on when they are available. So it's always a good idea to have a spare handy for a quick change. When replacing them make sure the flow or arrow is pointing the right direction. Your filter is usually located either behind the return air gril... 01/30/2013

The Nevada Association of Realtors published the award winning 2013 Face of Foreclosure report for the State of Nevada. The report provides foreclosure stats, correlating maps to the data, mortgage delinquency information, and resident opinions on the state of foreclosures in Nevada. It's a pretty great report except the data is put into congressional, senate, and assembly districts instead of county, city, etc. I might break down some of the information in the future but there's too much to dissect right now. To view the full report click on the picture to the right or the link below. Face of Foreclosure Study For questions or more information on the Reno housing market and buying or selling a home contact Broker Ricky Beach at (775) 750-1437 or Ricky@Resnv.com       01/29/2013

Only the Super Bowl could interrupt Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  But that's exactly what's happening this Sunday, February 3rd, when the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers challenge each other for the title of Super Bowl champs.  If you're looking for somewhere to enjoy the game live with other football enthusiasts, here's your guide to some of the official 2013 Reno Super Bowl parties: Eldorado Hotel Casino - The Eldorado doesn't believe you can fit all your sports fun in one day.  So, they've extended it throughout the entire weekend.  There will be a Collegiate Boxing event on Friday, February 1st, classic rock gods The Who play live in concert on Saturday, February 2nd and the big game comes to five 30 foot HD TV screens in Reno's Eldorado Convention Center on Sunday.  Form... 01/28/2013

While performing Home Inspections and Energy Audits in the Reno area I do come across Vermiculite insulation on occasion. Vermiculite insulation around here is usually found in the attics of older homes. Vermiculite was sold in bags which made it easy to pour into the attic, even by home owners.  It’s R Value is about R-2 per inch. Used for many different purposes it is a naturally occurring material that is mined. The large majority of the Vermiculite came from the Libby Mine in Montana until the mine closed in 1990. The EPA states that unless it is tested you should always treat Vermiculite as if it does contain asbestos. The EPA doesn’t recommend its removal and it is thought to be low risk as long as it's not messed with since it’s in the attic which is ventilated. Do not disturb Ve... 01/23/2013

The running short sale joke is that no part of them are short. Freddie Mac came out yesterday and said that they can speed up FHLMC backed short sales by 50-75% (effective November 1, 2013). The full post is here... Fannie Mae Short Sale Time Frame Among the many reasons they believe their short sale will move quicker two are the most important. Servicers have 30 days to make a decision once the full short sale package is received. Though an additional 30 days are allowed for time to negotiate with third parties. Well guess what... This policy was already in place for the HAFA program and as part of the mortgage settlement. Read here.? As with any legislation the ability to enforce it needs to be there. More delegation for servicers. Delegation in short sales is where the servicer (bank... 01/23/2013

Shortage of homes, rising prices, and low interest rates. Now is the time to buy or sell a home in Reno and Sparks. Call Sandra for a consultation (775) 287-8222   Summary We have not see this escalation in home pricing for more than eight years. In 2003,2004 and 2005 the sharp increase in pricing could be attributed to high demand and overly relaxed lending guidelines. In today's market, credit requirements are strict, but demand is outpacing available inventory. Reno Sparks Homes Median Sales Price December 2012 median price was up 3.3% to $187,000 compared to $181,000 in November 2012 and up 20.5% compared to $155,000 in December 2011. Median price is defined as the mid-point, where, for the time period identified, the price for one-half of the sales are higher and one-half are lowe... 01/22/2013

The Reno/Sparks market stats, for December 2012, were released by the Reno/Sparks Association of Realtors.? You can view the full report by clicking on the picture to the right. If you're feeling lazy then the important stats are below. The median sales price rose again and rested at $187,000. This up 3.3% from November 2012 and up 20.6% from December 2011. Sales fell 7% from November 2012 but were up 9.2% from December 2011. There were 299 new listings. Down 21.5% from November 2012 and down 31% from December 2011. Expect prices to keep rising due to a lack of new listings. Of those 299 new listings, 54% were regular sales. That's good news for buyers. Months supply of inventory fell again to 3.5 months. This is down from 5.4 months in December 2011 and down from 4.0 months in November... 01/22/2013

Well not real zombies... Michelle Conlin, of Reuters, published an article on zombie title. Found here... Special Report: The Latest Foreclosure Horror: The Zombie Title While Conlin only cites one instance it's actually pretty common... The bank files for foreclosure. On the sale date at the courthouse the bank rescinds their foreclosure or extends it to another date. During this time the home owner has moved out of the property and thinks their responsibility (except for the deficiency) is done. With no actual foreclosure taking place the property is still titled under the owner and any responsibilities with it remains. This is one part of what is known as shadow inventory. It's not quite a bank owned/REO but it's also not in good standing. There are a couple reasons this happens. The... 01/21/2013

Young people aren't the only ones who can show off their athletic prowess.  The Reno Tahoe Senior Games takes place in and around Reno from February 4th through February 13th.  Anyone aged 50 years or older is welcome to compete. As part of the Reno Tahoe Senior games, athletes will be competing in events such as ice skate racing, hockey slap shot, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, ski racing, table tennis, pickleball, baggo, Texas Holdem Poker and bowling.  Registration and check-in will be conducted in the 3rd Floor Convention Center as well as the East Tower Lobby of Harrah's Reno.  For a complete list of event, times and costs, please click here. You can pre-register for just $20 until January 25th.  After that, the cost to register goes up to $30 per person.  There is an additiona... 01/21/2013

Images of snow covered roofs with icicles depict the typical winter scene. While many see the icicles as a thing of beauty they are the sign of a problem The formation of icicles is part of what’s called an ice dam. Ice damming occurs when the roof is covered with snow and the underside of the roof gets warm enough to melt the snow. The water under the snow runs down the roof and when it gets out to the cold air it freezes again and turns in to icicles. When the water can’t get to the roof edge it can back up under shingles or even under the sheathing and into the attic and walls. The cause of the ice dam is warm air and heat that escapes into the attic. So it’s a sign your loosing money. Air sealing the attic and increasing insulation are two of the more common things that could be don... 01/19/2013