FSBO Jane

According to this article from the Chicago Tribune, 40 percent of home sellers in the Chicago area took a loss in March. That means that even though home sales increased because of the end of the home buyer tax credit, 40 percent of sellers still sold their houses for less than they paid for them. Nationally, 23.3 percent of single-family homeowners had mortgages underwater at the end of March, which means they owe more on their mortgages than what the house is worth.

With the continued decline of home values, it is not proposed that the real estate market will bottom out until the third quarter of this year, which was initially proposed to occur by the end of the second quarter. Then it will slowly improve from there.

What do you current home sellers and buyers have to say about this? Do you think the market will finally hit rock bottom later this year, do you think it’ll continue to decline or do you think an improvement is coming?

I know the housing market is difficult now, to say the least. Stick with me and my posts. I’ll offer you as many helpful tips as I can so that you can gain the most value from your sale or purchase as possible. And I’ll lend you support, which is what a community of bloggers with common interests is great for.

Builders, take note: Single women are buying more homes than ever. New home builders and home sellers will want to know about this demographic. Gone are the days of women just being passive spectators in a home purchase, so don’t ignore them. Smart, driven, professional females are in the market, and they don’t show signs of leaving, so be aware of how you’re marketing to them.

Here are the facts, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article: In contrast to 20 years ago, when single women accounted for 10% of home buyers (as did single men), in 2009, unwed women made up 21% of home buyers. In fact, single women have held the 20% mark for the last five years.

What’s changed that more single women are buying real estate? According to the article, some of these young, house-buying women make more money than their male peers, are looking to safeguard their net worth and often have thrifty mindsets. “‘Men are much more interested in consumption,’ said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.”

To read the complete article, click here.

It’s no secret that today’s economy has made selling difficult. Last month, an article in the Las Cruces Sun-News explored exactly what that means.

In part, the article points out, this economy demands more of sellers, from updating and decluttering to flexibility and savvy pricing.

“Howard Dukes, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Las Cruces, said that potential buyers need to walk through the door and feel a connection to the home.

‘Create a wow factor so that when somebody comes in they say, ‘I can see myself living here,’ Dukes said.”

The article goes on to list five specific ways to improve a home’s appeal, borrowed from about.com. To read the full article, click here.

When it comes to the question of roommates, the pros and cons are obvious. On the plus side: more space, lower costs, often in a nicer area than one individual roommate could have afforded. On the minus side: living with other people and all the problems, compromises and inconveniences that can bring.

In Japan, according to a December Wall Street Journal article, the idea of roommates is gaining steam, particularly among young, female professionals:

Japan has no real tradition of roommates: People have preferred to live in their own tiny places. Now, fed up with a dearth of reasonably priced apartments in desirable Tokyo neighborhoods, a growing number of relatively affluent women in their 20s and 30s have started to create demand for a radical new segment of the Japanese real-estate market: apartments to share. (Wall Street Journal, 12/30/09)

The article goes on to say that these women sometimes find shared spaces a little uncomfortable, but that’s not to say they can’t work.

And finding roommates in order to afford housing is not only common in Japan. According to a study done by the Pew Research Center, an increasing number of young people are either moving in with parents or needing roommates to get out on their own.

So is it possible? Are roommates the new affordable housing? What do you think?

According to this recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, it’s not just born-and-bred country folks who are into farming these days.

In fact, with the current economy, in which big-name companies have downsized or folded and in which many Americans (young and old) have experienced job loss, the idea of heading to the country—and yes, farming—is making a comeback.

“Motivations can vary, but typically there are three groups: young people buying land as an asset or investment, with vague hopes to live on it someday; exurban commuters who have jobs in big towns or cities but want to escape the sprawl; and back-to-the-land types who want to dabble in hobby farming.”

What was most interesting to me though was the focus on young people. This new generation of rural America isn’t solely made up of ex-corporate types, burned out on their nine-to-fives.

Read this, for example:

“Kathryn O’Shea-Evans, a 25-year-old freelance writer, moved from Portland, Ore., to New York on Dec. 31, 2006. When the economy began floundering, she was frugal—living in a $650-a-month boarding-house room, buying clothing in resale shops, and socking away part of each paycheck.

Then, this past August, she flew to Montana to look at a place to invest those savings: a $12,000, 12-acre parcel of land.”

or this:

“Younger buyers, such as Jesse Ptacek, 27, have time to reap payback from such investments. For the past few years, Mr. Ptacek has watched the U.S. economy flounder from Kuwait, where he’s a firefighter for a U.S. Department of Defense contractor. Knowing he will likely face bleak job prospects upon his return home in January, he recently bought 62 acres of land in Montana.”

The article likens this trend to the pioneer spirit of generations past and also very smartly points out what much of this represents for those who are making the move: something to put their hope in.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

If you thought home prices were bottoming out, you may be wrong. They’re expected to head a lot lower.

Home values are predicted to drop in 342 out of 381 markets during the next year, according to a new forecast of real estate prices.

Read the rest of the article from Yahoo! Finance here.

In today’s economy, many past homeowners have resorted to paying rent and steering clear of the mortgage crisis. Others have decided to purchase homes as investment opportunities, supplying them the job of collecting rent from others. Whether you’re the one paying the rent or the one earning the rent, there are definitely perks in both circumstances.

As a tenant, you know you won’t lose money by purchasing a house that might lose value later on. You don’t have to come up with a large sum of money right now; you just start with the same payment that you will make each month. When a repair is needed, you most likely can call your landlord and have him or her deal with the issue.

As a landlord, you know that you always have a steady income coming from your tenant. This income could act as your main income, extra income or a retired income. You could own multiple properties, or just one. You could live in a multi-family complex while renting out other parts of it, making the lifestyle as simple as possible.

What’s the downside? You need to keep up with the payments. As a tenant, you need to write a personal check to a landlord and hope that he or she is responsible enough to keep track of what you’ve paid. As a landlord, you must make sure your tenant is paying you each month. You must also keep track of repair work.

What’s the solution? Visit PayYourRent.com. This new website brings renting into the technological age, creating an arena strictly for paying rent. Much like PayPal.com, this site offers a merchant account that allows tenants to directly send funds from their account to their landlord’s account. Unlike PayPal.com, this site also allows tenants to post repair needs, to pay utilities, to pay renter’s insurance, to talk with other renters and to even download a change of address form. Only renters are allowed on this site, giving it one purpose: to take the stress out of renting.

Visit https://www.payyourrent.com/, and see the Realty Times review of this site by visiting http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20090925_landlord.htm.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign just recently created a very helpful website for people going through tough financial times right now. It is so needed! They offer advice on how to cut everyday costs, how to relieve stress after a job loss, and lots of helpful ways to reduce costs in your home or how to deal with foreclosure. If you feel like you aren’t too knowledgeable in that area (most people are unfamiliar with their homeowner or rental rights and how a foreclosure process works) then you should definitely check out this website.

Here are some samples of their advice that I found to be the most helpful advice for homeowners:

*Definitely talk to the people you pay your bills to. Whether it is a landlord, a lender or a utility company, it’s always a better idea to discuss your current situation than to just fail to pay a bill.

*When talking with these people, have a financial plan ready. Show them how you plan on cutting costs and that it will be possible for you to pay this money at a later date. Believe it or not, this way is easier for them too than putting together a foreclosure!

*If you can’t pay your mortgage for months to come, plan ahead. Move in with family or friends in order to save on energy bills and food. Move to a cheaper home and rent your current home out for extra income. This site offers tons of ideas!

*You can save on insurance costs by making little changes like installing security systems. The same goes for utility costs.

*Check out all the advice this website offers by clicking here.

This recent article at BiggerPockets puts the whole bailout situation in a new light, and I highly recommend checking it out. If you’ve wondered what the bailout means for foreclosures and what real estate investors are thinking now, and if you want to hear it in plain English, go take a look.

(The article was written by Tom Koziol, author of http://www.homeforeclosureprofits.com/hfp.html.)

Here’s a clip:

“The [bailout] bill has made the big boys whole and left the little guys holding the bag.

The big boys can now give their loans to the government and walk away. They never have to concern themselves with short sales, loan modifications or workouts. If a homeowner is in trouble, so be it. They do not have one iota of incentive to work with him or her.

I can no longer work with the homeowner because the lender won’t talk to me. Oh, they’ll talk to me but only to tell me to have the homeowner fill out a handful of meaningless forms and submit them for review.”

When is the best time to sell your home? The short answer is that there is no answer. The best time to sell varies for different regions, based on the current inventory of homes for sale, economic conditions, mortgage rates and a host of other factors.

However, one general principle worth considering is season. Especially in regions that experience pronounced weather changes, paying attention to annual trends makes good sense. Usually, the market tends to slow down for the colder winter months and pick back up in spring, around March. Sales may continue to be strong until mid-summer, when they’ll dip again until a small surge in September. Then in November, with the holidays, the market tends to soften again.

That being said, though, the truth is, people will always need places to live, and, thus, they’ll be looking for houses to buy. The best thing you can do, as a seller, to make sure your home gets noticed at the right time is this: make it always available, ready to show anytime.