The era of real estate-focused reality television is encouraging too many homeowners to put aesthetics before function in their remodeling projects, industry experts note in a recent Forbes.com article. For example, the trend toward no-door kitchen cabinetry, which has been made popular by home improvement shows, isn’t a smart choice for a homeowner who isn’t a neat freak or who doesn’t have matching dishes.“Everyone wants a kitchen or ba
Knowing the lifespan of appliances and home fixtures can help home buyers get a realistic look at replacements or repairs they may need to make. It can also be a point of negotiations between a buyer and seller: If the buyer expects that an aging appliance will need to be replaced soon, they may want that factored into their offer.Some of the priciest components of a house for replacements or repairs tend to be the roof, electrical, plumbing, fur
Home purchasing activity among investors has reached the highest level in the past two decades, shows a new report, “Investor Home Buying,” released by CoreLogic. The increase isn’t from the big institutional buyers of recent years, the report says, but from more smaller investors entering in.Investors appear to be homing in on the starter home tier for their purchases, which is giving first-time home buyers more competition, CoreLogic note
As homes age, more homeowners are looking to remodeling to spruce up their properties. Of the nation’s stock of 137 million units, nearly 80% are at least 20 years old, and 40% are at least 50 years old.Freddie Mac says its new mortgage product is to help home buyers finance or refinance fixer-uppers. Eligible buyers will be able to finance the purchase of their home and the cost of renovations into a single-close mortgage.“Research indicates
Lower mortgage rates are proving to be a boon for home shoppers this summer. The 30-year fixed-rate loan has stayed near a 3.8% average for the third consecutive week, after consistent declines in late spring.“While the continued drop in mortgage rates has paused, home buyer demand has not,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “This is evident in increased purchase activity and loan amounts, indicating that home buyers still h
Google is the latest tech giant to make a big financial pledge for easing housing affordability.This week, Google announced a pledge of $1 billion in land and money to build homes to help ease the housing crisis in the East Bay area. Google officials estimate that the fund the company will make to repurpose land could potentially add at least 20,000 homes in the Bay Area.“We hope this plays a role in addressing the chronic s
Builders constructed fewer single-family homes last month, but permits are on the rise, a signal that more new homes are eventually coming.Total housing starts, including for single-family and multifamily construction, dropped slightly by 0.9% in May compared to the month prior, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday.But builders were hopeful for a turnaround from last month’s uptick in permits, a gauge of future construction. Single-famil
For Sale signs in front of places of worship are becoming more common as attendance at smaller churches dwindles. Some developers and home buyers are stepping in to transform the churches into their new home. A handful of former churches are being converted into single-family homes or apartments.In the U.S., church membership has been decreasing over the past two decades. About 50% of Americans belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque in 2018,
A mortgage may be Americans’ biggest amount of debt, but they view it as the best type to have. Americans with mortgages have the highest level of life satisfaction than those with other forms of debt, such as medical, student loan, or credit card debt. The findings come from the Ascent team by The Motley Fool, who surveyed more than 1,000 Americans with debt to learn more about the psychological impact of debt.Consumer debt has been on the ris
When you walk into a listing appointment with confidence, you instill confidence in the homeowner that you’re up to the job. Kase Eller, president of brand development at Mainframe Real Estate, writes in a recent column at Forbes.com that confidence is key in being triumphant in a listing presentation, whether you’re already a top producer or a new agent just starting out.And after years working in real estate, Eller has broken that confidenc
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