The Housing and Economic Recovery Act (H.R. 3221) was signed into law by President Bush on July 30. IAR President Kay Wirth said:This legislation and particularly the tax credit will help first-time homebuyers who have been on the sidelines waiting for the economy to improve to take that important step up to homeownership.
The significant provisions of this bill should bring some stability back to the housing market in Illinois and across the country. Below are links to FAQs on the tax credit and information about the new law’s provisions prepared by NAR Government Affairs.
The new version of the site, which has just emerged from private beta testing, allows real estate agent members to feed property listings information to the site and “basically use it as a calling card of existing and previous inventory,” said Brian Columbus, founder and CEO of HomePerks LLC, based in Oak Brook, Ill.
The site also has added business networking components, and allows users to connect with other professionals. “In some ways it is similar to Facebook but more business-related,” Columbus said.
Sabrina Simpson, a Realtor for Prudential California Realty in Moorpark, Calif., said she decided to sign up for a HomePerks membership and she has invited other agents from her office. “I personally like the program. I think it has a lot of potential,” she said, noting that she can use the rewards as an incentive for visitors to open houses, and as an incentive for other agents to refer business to her.
RISMEDIA, May 30, 2008-(MCT)-Generation Y is growing up fast. The average age of a first-time home buyer is 26, three years younger than for Gen X or baby-boomer buyers. So what’s up with that?
So, Who is Generation Y?
Those born between 1978 and 1994. They’re also called Millennials, the Internet Generation, Echo Boomers, Nexters and the Digital Generation. Generation Y follows Generation X, a term coined by fiction writer Douglas Coupland to describe those born after boomers, roughly 1965 to 1978.
REALTOOLS for REALTORS®
By Brad Andersohn | May 27, 2008
In the never ending quest to find new and useful tools to Blog about, and to share with REALTORS® all across the Country, I thought it might be useful to list some of the Top sites I have discovered over this past year. If you’re a “Techy” like me, then you understand the time and effort we invest looking for, testing, and reporting back about these Industry related sites, tools, products and services. Take a look at some of the these that are available online, and in most cases, at no cost.
There are so many sites that we Real Estate Industry Tech “Geeks” come across on a daily basis. It’s difficult at times to sift through the ones that are just cool, versus those that truly bring value to you and your online business. Some of these have been around for a while proving themselves to be competitive and valued in the marketplace, while others are somewhat new, and still trying to withstand the test of time.
Todays Featured Blog is by Marc Davisson of 1000 Watt Consulting.
“If you think your customers know you because of your website bio, think again.
If you think you create loyalty from a simple brand statement, think again.
If you think all this innovation separates you from tradition, please think again”.
“Your establishment is online. This is where conversations must now take place. To fight this inevitability is to buck the very tradition you hold dear. Real estate begins with a conversation, and what better way to start and carry one than with the array of free 2.0 tools at your fingertips?”
Gas prices have climbed to record highs for many reasons, including expensive oil, cheap dollars, and strained refineries. But some have offered an especially novel explanation for consumers’ pain at the pump: credit card interchange fees.
Government guarantees, global capital flows, and a consumption binge add up to a national mortgage crisis.
By Robertson Morrow
From the security of their own homes, many sneer at the get-rich-quick crowd that lost money when the tech bubble burst. But many who would throw stones are living in glass houses—barely maintained by fragile second mortgages.The brash sales pitches, reckless spending, and short-sighted decisions that fueled the dot coms’ rise and fall have taken over the mortgage market. Everyone now knows about the tech bubble because it has already burst; fewer recognize its near neighbor, the mortgage bubble because they are living in it.
Generations have bought homes by borrowing 80 percent and paying it down over 30 years. No longer. Now the American home is just one more credit line to be tapped. The problem is not that we have been assuming larger mortgages in order to live in larger houses that we can afford because of larger incomes. The problem is that Americans have had roughly the same incomes and the same houses but have been mortgaging a larger percentage of those values.
One problem with borrowing all this money is that people might not be able to pay it back. Another is that, for the foreseeable future, Americans will be spending a large proportion of their income on debt service. This will constrain consumer spending—two-thirds of the economy—which will retard economic growth for the remainder of the decade. Slow economic growth will inhibit income growth, preventing us from earning our way out of the hole into which we have dug ourselves.Moreover, at some point, we will exhaust the supply of money available using homes as collateral. In 2001 and 2002, Americans extracted $300 billion in cash from their existing homes through refinancing and home equity loans. This infusion of cash is what has fueled rising consumer spending in the face of recession.
For the first time in financial history, a major debtor nation owes its debt in its own currency. This means that rather than exporting goods to buy foreign currency to repay that debt, we can just print the money. We inflate the dollar to pay off foreigners in money that is not worth very much. Creditors will oppose destroying the dollar, but they lack the political clout of millions of American debtors. This opens the possibility of major inflation or polarization of the American political system between those serving the interests of foreign creditors and those representing American mortgage-holders. Neither is an attractive possibility, for either means the U.S. economy should be prepared to take a bubble bath.
Robertson Morrow is a financial analyst in San Francisco.http://www.amconmag.com/2003/02_10_03/cover.html
The state is expanding help for homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages.
Governor Rod Blagojevich says a pool of money lenders are putting up to help homeowners refinance their mortgages has grown to $310 million.
The Governor also announced that he is working with state Sen. Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago) to introduce legislation that will make sure borrowers are notified when they’re at risk of losing their homes, and given a grace period of up to 60 days to work with counselors on payment or refinancing options before a lender can move to foreclosure.
The Illinois Homeowner Assistance Pool can help homeowners get into fixed-rate mortgages and stabilize their payments to help save their homes. You can get more information at: http://www.ihda.org/
Here is what the Accredited Home Staging Council refers to as the Seven Deadly Sins of Staging. Some Home Sellers may be guilty of many of these potential deal breakers.
1. Failure to thoroughly deep clean your home – especially the kitchen and bathrooms. A dirty house is an immediate buyer turn-off and the two most important areas are the kitchen and the bathrooms. If there has not been a deep cleaning of all counter and tile surfaces to a spotless condition, you stand the chance of having the buyers walk right back out the door. Another critical area is the floors - all carpets and rugs. Without question they must be either replaced or steam cleaned as a dirty carpet is the number one buyer turn-off. If they’re hardwood and scratched or marred you might want to have them refinished.
2. Failure to de-clutter your entire home.Clutter, both inside and outside, makes it extremely hard for the buyers to visualize moving in. The disorganization will directly affect the buyer’s ability to focus on the house and they will most likely overlook its key selling features. In addition, clutter has the affect of making the house appear smaller than it is as the “open” feeling is gone.
3. Failure to de-personalize your entire home.The seller’s home is their comfort zone and it is filled with all of their personal memorabilia, but to the buyers it represents a huge distraction. People are generally curious and when you want them to notice the beautiful entryway they may be focused on all the family pictures on the piano or all the “stuff” stuck to the front of your refrigerator. Your objective is to change the view of the house from the sellers “lived in home” to the buyer’s “ready to move in house.”
4. Failure to use neutral colors when painting both inside and outside.While the seller’s favorite colors may be the exact complement to their living style, the shades and hues may be a complete distraction and turn-off to the buyers. Their favorite wall paper may not be on the buyer’s “best” list. The best way to present a home is for the wall colors to be painted a neutral color. This goes for the outside as well – a loud or non-neutral color may just keep the buyers from even stopping to see the inside.
5. Failure to spotlessly clean the windows and window coverings.Nothing is more distracting to a buyer than to be looking at a view through a dirty window. This area, as in cleaning the carpets is best left up to the experts. The same can be said for the kitchen and bathroom counters and tile. A little investment here will pay big dividends … what you don’t see is often more important than what you do see.
6. Failure to make the pets disappear.While pets are a loving member of the seller’s family, for the buyers their presence, food and boxes are generally a turn-off. Every trace of their presence should be removed so, once again, the buyers are not distracted from the prime objective – viewing the house in the best possible light.
7. Failure to spruce up the number one calling card – the landscaping.A healthy, neat, trimmed and well maintained yard and flower beds are the keys to getting the buyers up to the front door. The last thing they want to see is the seller’s “stuff” all around an uncut and untrimmed lawn. A little effort in this area with perhaps the help of a professional gardener will pay big dividends. A well maintained exterior sows the seed of a well maintained home in the mind of the buyer.
If you have questions about this topic or any other real estate topic, send your question to:info@NewHomeExecutives.com
