Learn about real estate here: buying, selling, and financing.
Click this link to see real estate blogs tagged in Technorati.
Realty Times - Real Estate News and Advice
From buying and selling advice for consumers to money-making tips for Agents, our content, updated daily, has made Realty Times a must-read site for anyone involved in Real Estate.
Home and Garden: From Home Improvement to Decorate to Gardening
Home and garden articles.
All about gardening. Includes a forum and an exchange for buying or selling special items from other gardeners.
Buying Home Insurance - Part 1
Buying Home Insurance - Part 2
Print these pages, and take them with you as you inspect homes for buying, or use it to see how your own home checks out.
Is It Better to Buy or Rent? - New York Times
Although other factors need to be considered, this article concludes that if the price of the house is more than 20 times the cost of the annual rent, then renting is cheaper.
The 6 Percent Solution: Skip Real Estate Agents - New York Times
A good article from the New York Times about selling your home without a realtor, or reducing their fees.
ChoiceA.com: For Sale by Owner Site
This is a great site for selling and finding homes on your own. It is free to use and to list. It has many great features that make finding a home a breeze.
REALTOR.com: Real estate listings & homes for sale
A good place to search for homes all over the country, with over 2,000,000 homes listed.
Homebuilder.com: New Home Builders, Floor Plans, Manufactured and Custom Homes.
The official website of the National Association of Home Builders, this site has a search engine for new homes, a library for advice and ideas, and over 11,000 home blueprint plans.
This shows real estate listings superimposed on Google maps.
Senior Housing - Assisted Living Facilities, Nursing Homes and Independent Living
Includes a search engine for senior housing. The search can be restricted to the following categories: Independent Living, Assisted Living, Alzheimer's Care, Nursing Care, and Continuing Care (CCRC). Also includes a search engine for new homes for active adults.
RENTNET: Find Apartments for Rent
This site is about apartment rentals, and includes articles about roommates, renting, and moving, and a search engine for finding an apartment anywhere in the country.
The ins and outs of title insurance - Jan. 11, 2006
Here's a good article about what I consider to be a major rip-off: title insurance. Some key facts:
Home Buying Tip: Obviously, in other states, the best way to save money is for the home buyer to buy her own insurance, and to get prices well before closing.
Selling a house after the market has turned south - Jan. 13, 2006
Some websites mentioned:
USATODAY.com - Sellers put their homes on the 'range'
A marketing method that originated in Australia, and used in the U.S. to a small degree since the mid-'90s, there seems to be an upsurge in this method as the number of real estate listings increase, and buying interest diminishing. Proponents of this marketing method say that its main advantages are that it gets buyers and sellers talking, which obviously could lead to a sale, and listing a price range will allow the listing to show up in more searches when pricing is used to filter the search.
Although there is 1 or 2 examples of sellers getting even more than the price range, seller beware. An article in The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics stated that homes with a range take longer to sell, and with little effect on actual selling prices.
http://www.protectyourmove.gov/
Consult this government site—the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration—before hiring a mover, especially one that you found on the Internet.
One of the best resources on all aspects of homes, published by The Wall Street Journal. Search more than 1 million active home listings; get in-depth information on 100 of the largest metropolitan areas; and find the best places to live. Includes information on buying and selling, relocation, home design, home improvement, and lawn and garden. The general articles that are published every weekday are excellent. http://owners.com/
Resource for home owners, including help with buying and selling a home without an agent, and, if wanted, finding an agent.
REALS.COM - Real Estate Directory
This site has many links related to real estate. Categories include agents and brokers, apartments and rentals, career training, commercial real estate, construction, finance and mortgage, for sale by owner, real estate foreclosure, international real estate, moving, property management and listing, and vacation homes.
One of the best resources on mortgages. Find the best rates for buying or refinancing your home, or look for the best rates for home equity loans.
Everything you always wanted to know about home inspections--and more. Includes how to find reputable home inspectors, and what to expect.
List of articles about all aspects of buying and owning a home.
Topics: buyer tips, financing, insurance, home inspections, selling tips, title and escrow, and much more.
REITs: Explanation and Demystification
An excellent explanation of REITs—what they actually are, and how they differ from other investment companies, such as mutual funds. REITs have a good dividend yield and good growth potential at a lower beta, or volatility, than the rest of the market. Because REIT values have a low correlation, or even an inverse correlation with stock values, it is an excellent investment for asset allocation.
Invest in REITs: Reasons to Invest - Why Invest in REITs?
This page presents a good comparison of the market performance of REITs compared to other investments, but at the bottom, is an excellent tool for comparing different REITs who are members of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). Select a name from the dropdown box to get a performance report of that REIT compared to others in its sector. The drawback to this is that you cannot just pick a sector; you have to know the name of a REIT in that sector. Selecting the name from a dropdown box then displays basic facts in a table along with other REITs in that sector, with your selected name highlighted. The REIT Performance Report includes the REIT name, ticker, price per share, dividend yield, price per FFO estimates for the current or next year, and total returns for the month, year, 3 years, and 5 years, as well as total market value.
Consumer Information on Reverse Mortgages
Reverse Mortgages: Get the Facts Before Cashing In On Your Home’s Equity - FTC page about reverse mortgages.
An article about the hazards of dealing with mortgage workout companies, sometimes called foreclosure service prevention companies.
Homestore Moving - Find Movers and Locate Self Storage Units
Has articles about moving, and a search engine to get quotes for moving.This is a very innovative use of databases and maps, in this case, Craigslist and Google maps, for renting or selling real estate. Pick an area of the country then zoom in on your desired area. The map is in the left column, real estate listings are in the right. The map has 3 command buttons in the upper-right corner: Map, Satellite, Hybrid. Map displays a typical street map with small balloons where there is real estate for rent or sale. Click on a balloon on the map, and it will display detailed info in a bubble that pops up. You can also click on the yellow or red circles to the left of the real estate listings, which will take you to that area on the map. The Satellite command button displays a satellite view of the area, and Hybrid displays a map overlaid on the satellite image, which you can see in the screenshot of Raleigh, North Carolina below.
The listings on the right can be sorted by price, number of bedrooms, description, city, or date listed by clicking on the column headings. Click once for a lowest to highest sort, click the header again to reverse the sort.
Privacy Policy For thismatter.com
Information is provided 'as is' and solely for education, not for trading purposes or professional advice.
Copyright © 2005 - 2008 by William C. Spaulding
Consumer Finance
Investments
530 Tax Information for First-Time Homeowners
587 Business Use of Your Home, Publication 587
523 Selling Your Home, Publication 523
527 Residential Rental Property, Including Vacation Homes