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Bad, Bad Real Estate!

As the Real Estate market turns the corner and begins the ascent back to sustainable numbers, we are starting to see increased inventory. With this increase we are also getting new photography ideas. While spending hours per day viewing hundreds of listings and images for clients, there seems to be a great number of Agents who should have their picture taking license revolked.

Understandingly, it is extremely difficult to get a perfect picture to successfully market a home online. To be honest, some  are not even trying. A simple smartphone takes better pictures than a large part of what can be found online.

For the ones who do use a camera that does need to be wound after each click or dropped off at a discount store for processing, a simple scan of your surroundings first could go a long way. Take a look at a few images recently compiled from a local MLS. These homes are currently being marketed online with these photos.

If any of these images are of your house or you took the photo or know who did please keep the identity hidden. This is in no way a solicitation of business nor an insinuation to hire a different Realtor. It is simply a lighthearted light shedding exercise to help increase the quality images used for Real Estate marketing online.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

cluttered-real-estate-photo
A little decluttering maybe?
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People in the picture?
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Dirty sinks, clutter, blurry, time stamp on the picture?

 

 

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YIKES!
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What is this even of?
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This could be a scary ghost sighting? When you see it.
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A Blair Witch project?
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Showing the great small space perfectly?
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Looks like a picture was taken of a picture?
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Ready for spaghetti and syrup?
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Guess what this is and WIN?
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Must be a flip phone?
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Former Foreclosed Home Owners are Buying Again

boomerang-buyers

 

 

 

With analysts giving statistics that the peak of the foreclosure era is in our rear view mirror now, a new set of home buyers are coming back.

Boomerang buyers: Buyers who lost a home to foreclosure during the housing apocalypse are safely trying to re-enter the buying market. This time around, however may not be as clean cut for securing a mortgage.

During the Real Estate craze several years ago Mortgage companies had a plethora of buying options which didn’t mandate a 20% or more down payment to secure the loan. Today’s market and issuance of new Mortgage requirements are making a substantial down payment almost inevitable. That is not to say you cannot secure a mortgage with $0 as a down payment, however it does suggest your buying credit and history needs to be mostly clean.

Real Estate professionals agree these buyers are essential in developing a sustainable Real Estate market. What do we see that draws this conclusion?

RealtyTrac notes (via North Carolina State University) that:

From January 2007 to December 2011 there were more than four million completed foreclosures and more than 8.2 million foreclosure starts …

That is a huge number of folks who had their dreams of Home Ownership slip out of their hands. the majority still have those dreams that will eventually drive them back into the housing market. Another data linking this possible influx of Boomerang Buyers to the market is the stats  reported this past year by CoreLogic:

Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in the national foreclosure inventory as of May 2012 compared to 1.5 million, or 3.5 percent, in May 2011 and 1.4 million, or 3.4 percent, in April 2012. The foreclosure inventory is the share of all mortgaged homes in some stage of the foreclosure process.

boomerang-buyers-back-to-houseing-market

How are they able to get back in the Home Ownership picture with a foreclosure on their record? Well, some information out there is a bit misleading. Some reports tell a buyer who has had a foreclosure must wait a minimum of 7 years in order to be able to secure a new loan. Not totally true.

Here is the information I use when dealing with clients who have a foreclosure on record.

The wait times for qualifying for a loan can vary depending on the former home owners’ circumstances. Typically, the wait times following a short sale or foreclosure are as follows:

  • Seven-year wait for home owners with a previous foreclosure before they can qualify for a new mortgage through mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If the foreclosure was  included in a bankruptcy, the borrower has to wait only four years.
  • Two-year wait for home owners who underwent a short sale before they’re eligible for another Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loan.
  • Three-year wait for home owners seeking a Federal Housing Administration loan after a foreclosure or short sale. Some home owners who underwent a foreclosure because of at least a 20 percent cut in their pay may be able to qualify for a new mortgage after just a year through FHA’s Back to Work program.

As you can see form the data above, we are quickly moving into that magical time  of 4 years. The height of the foreclosure nationwide was in 2010. So keep in mind when preparing your offers for buying your next home, you may have a new kind of competition. Talk to your Real Estate agent today to stay up on trends to consider when negotiating offers or contracts.

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New Home Buyers Beware of the Deed Processing Scam

Buying a home is suppose to be a wonderful time in Home Buyers lives. You search online for months and call your Realtor® (ME) Huntsville-real-estateeveryday, probably twice a day until you find that perfect Home you have been dreaming about. So now begins the dirty work. There is the offer(s), counter offers, inspections, mortgages, re-inspections, negotiating the contracts, attorneys etc, etc… You finally get to the closing and take possession of the Home of your dreams. Now a week or so later you get a bill in the mail saying something about remitting payment of $83 (apx) to said Deed Processing co. so you can receive the deed to your new home. So without thinking or calling your Realtor® (ME) again to ask what it is, you just send it in. It’s a scam!

home deeds

So here is the skinny. There are these illegitimate companies who are putting together an elaborate scam taking advantage of folks who just completed the purchase of a home. They are taking public records of recently purchased homes and sending out professionally crafted letters that would be hard to question as fake.

 

 

First, at any point you have questions or do not remember a conversation about a home or home purchase, call a Realtor® (ME). That is what I am here for. Simple questions to complex questions, I want to help.

Next, these letters asking for this fee, reportedly are being addressed form an out of town business.

Another thing, Your Realtor® (ME) or the closing  Attorney should have explained in detail where and when to expect your deed (free of charge) should be arriving to you and exactly what you need to do with that deed.

Keep it simple and keep it safe. When a question or concern comes up call a Realtor® (ME)

 

 

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Reports Indicate Another Housing Slowdown | Via Inman News

New reports point to housing slowdown | Inman News.

 

Economic reports released today show that activity in two sectors of the housing market dropped to its lowest levels in more than a year, providing some of the latest evidence that elevated mortgage rates and home prices may have slowed the pace of the real estate recovery.

Housing slowdown before real growth

“Housing is not about to collapse into another bust, but it is due for a pause after a strong rebound since the first half of 2012,” wrote David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, explaining the thrust of the reports.

For the week ending Feb. 14, a seasonally adjusted purchase index from the Mortgage Bankers Association hit its lowest level since September 2011, the trade group said today. On an unadjusted basis, demand for purchase loans for the week dropped 17 percent from the same week a year before.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today that housing starts in January hit a 17-month low, falling 7 percent year over year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 573,000, a figure that dovetails with the National Association of Home Builders’ finding yesterday that builder confidence plunged in February.

Other indicators also point to a slowdown. Pending home sales and existing-home sales have trended down in recent months, though one of the few brights spots in recent housing data are new-home sales, which grew at a fast clip in January.

Some trade groups and analysts have said that the unusually cold weather has contributed to weakening activity in the housing market.

“While we don’t want to dismiss out of hand the downbeat message of these measures of residential construction activity, we think that they largely reflect a correction from the sharp gain in starts in November and the recent unseasonably severe weather,” Capital Economics, an economic research firm, said in response to the report on housing starts.

The biggest impetus for the recent slump, however, may be substantial increases in both home prices and mortgage rates. The combination of both has pushed up the cost of financed homeownership by roughly a quarter from last year in more than 300 counties nationwide, according to a report data aggregator RealtyTrac is set to release tomorrow.

“Last year was a nice bounce-back year for the housing market, particularly home prices, but we cannot expect to see the patterns of 2013 repeat in 2014,” said RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist. “This year will be more of a reality check type of year as home prices and sales slow down to allow incomes and confidence to catch up.”

More from Teke Wiggin

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/02/19/new-reports-point-to-housing-slowdown/#sthash.hGvhs6HV.dpuf

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What buyers want?

Times of needing to have a formal dinning area may have come and gone, but having a space to dine and entertain hasn’t.

Years ago folks wanted to have a formal dinning room so they could have a nice gathering over a meal and entertain guests. Well, that hasn’t changed except where it is located. Today buyers are wanting a warm comfortable open kitchen design where they can entertain guests and still be where the action is- “The Kitchen”. Even with the influx of restaurants in local places folks still want to have guests over for entertaining.
Today’s buyers want an updated kitchen area, generally overlooking a dinning area or den area.
So there is something to think about when you are updating your house for a market analysis. Should you take down that wall or simply update the kitchen. My recommendation is, if you’re going to update the kitchen then probably go ahead and take out that wall and open things up. Otherwise, leave the kitchen to attract a different buyer wanting a fixer upper.
Call me if you would like a Pre-market analysis and or “on the market ready” analysis.

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North Alabama Area school closings for Winter storm

EXIT

 

 

 

Alabama A&M Universitydelayed until 10am Tuesday
Albertville City Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Arab City Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Athens City Schoolsdelayed 2 hours Tuesday
Athens State Universitydelayed until 10am Tuesday
Bethel Baptist Schooldelayed 3 hours Tuesday
Boaz City SchoolsClosed Tuesday
Cherokee County Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Colbert County Schoolsdelayed until 10am Tuesday
Cornerstone Christian Schooldelayed 3 hours Tuesday
Country Day Schooldelayed until 10:30am Tuesday
Covenant Christian Schooldelayed until 10am Tuesday
Cullman City Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Cullman County Schoolsclosed Tuesday
DeKalb County Schoolsdelayed 3 hours Tuesday
Etowah County Schoolsclosed Tuesday
First Baptist Child Dev Centeropening 9am Tuesday
Florence City Schoolsdelayed 2 hours Tuesday
Franklin County Schools (AL)delayed 3 hours Tuesday
Ft Payne City Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Gadsden State Community CollegeAll campuses closed Tuesday
Guntersville City Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Hartselle City Schoolsdelayed 3 hours Tuesday
Huntsville City SchoolsDelayed 2 hours Tuesday
J. F. Drake State Technical Collegeopening 10am Tuesday
Jackson County Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Lauderdale County Schoolsdelayed until 10am Tuesday
Lawrence County Schoolsdelayed 2 hours Tuesday
Limestone County Schoolsdelayed 3 hours Tuesday
Madison Academydelayed until 10am Tuesday
Madison City Schoolsdelayed 2 hours Tuesday
Madison County Schoolsdelayed 2 hours Tuesday
Mars Hill Bible Schooldelayed until 10am Tuesday
Marshall County Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Muscle Shoals City Schoolsdelayed 2 hours Tuesday
Northwest-Shoalsdelayed 3 hours Tuesday
Oakwood Adventist Academydelayed until 10am Tuesday
Russellville City Schoolsdelayed 3 hours Tuesday
Scottsboro City Schoolsclosed Tuesday
Sheffield City Schoolsdelayed until 10am Tuesday
Snead State Community Collegeclosed Tuesday
St Bernard Prep Schoolclosed Tuesday
Tuscumbia City Schoolsdelayed until 10am Tuesday
Virginia Collegeopening 10am Tuesday
Wallace State Community CollegeClosing at 3 p.m. Monday, evening classes cancelled