Imagine shopping for your dream home in the hot Seattle area market. You go to an open house, it’s crowded, you know there are multiple offers. But you feel like this is it, your dream home. It even has a great swath of vacant land behind the home for added privacy. The situation is tight, there isn’t time for a traditional inspection, and emotions are running high. This is the type of scenario in which reason tends to fly out the window and one of the reasons to have an agen

Thanks to partisan political gamesmanship by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, struggling homeowners who sold their homes in a short sale in the past eight months will be further penalized by being forced to pay state income taxes on money they never received, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) said today. Senate Bill 30 conforms California tax law to federal tax law, which already says sellers can’t be taxed on forgiven mortgage debt. SB 30 failed to pass

The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) applauds California Congressmen Gary Miller (R-Brea) and seven other California congressional members for introducing legislation that calls for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to cease its plan to sell Fannie Mae-owned foreclosed homes in California to large investors. H.R. 5823, the “Saving Taxpayers from Unnecessary GSE Bulk Sale Programs Act of 2012,” prevents the FHFA from implementing an initiative to sell Fanni

Retirees’ decreased monthly incomes may make it more difficult for them to meet the stricter underwriting standards that lenders have in place in order to qualify for a mortgage, according to an article in The Washington Post. Whether refinancing their current mortgage or applying for a new loan to purchase a home for the golden years, more retirees are saying they are increasingly facing roadblocks when it comes to applying for a mortgage. One 68-year-old home owner, with a

Bargain home prices have jump-started sales on second homes, but more purchasers are opting to buy properties much closer to their primary residence. In the past, second-home buyers tended to buy properties out-of-state or were lured to vacation homes near far-flung resorts and tourist destinations. But second-home purchases these days seem to be more restrained, as more purchasers opt for vacation spots that are within a relatively short drive of where they live. Moreover, t

As the number of for-sale homes listed on the multiple listing service (MLS) drops, the number of single-family homes up for rent has been gradually increasing, RISMedia reports. Single-family home rentals are a growing business, as more investors buy up foreclosures at bargain prices and then transform them into rentals. About 16 percent of all listings on the MLS are rentals, which is more than double the number of rentals listed in 2006, RISMedia reports. Single-family ren

You come home from a long day at work and while channel surfing, you come across a show in which guys are buying run-down houses, fixing them up and reselling them for huge profits before the first mortgage payment is due. Wow. What's more, they claim they make as much money on this one house as you have in the last year. They don't look or sound any smarter than you are and they're raking in the cash. You start crunching numbers and before you know it, you're thinking about

Buyers may be swayed by the big bargain prices that foreclosures often offer. But before they jump in, some housing experts say they need to be warned that it may not be as big of bargain as they believe. “Brokers who specialize in the foreclosure market say there are good deals to be had, but they advise buyers to look beyond an alluring list price and do the research to avoid getting into trouble,” an article in the Buffalo News notes. For example, often times, foreclosed h

More sellers who are tired of their home lingering on the market or don’t want to have to take a loss on their home are opting to become landlords instead. For example, according to an article at NPR, one couple describes owning a two-bedroom bungalow in Oakland, Calif., which they purchased for $500,000, that was appraised recently at $260,000. When a job relocation was sending them across the country, they decided to rent instead of sell. But becoming a landlord isn’t an ea

When Stephen L. Green started his career in the early 1980s, he openly admitted that he “knew nothing about real estate.” But today, SL Green Realty Corp. owns interests in 57 Manhattan properties totaling more than 33.6 million square feet, making it the first and largest publicly-traded REIT solely focused on New York City. However, Green’s foray into the commercial real estate space had humble beginnings. “I took old buildings that very few people buy, took capital and ren