Virtual Staging Technique Helps Homeowners Sell Vacant Properties
December 28, 2009
Realtors and Homeowners are raving about www.virtualstagingsolutions.com, a low-cost, innovative, home staging site that’s helping them sell vacant properties faster than ever before with a new technique that virtually displays the properties furnished in order to show its potential.
Today’s technology is letting the team at Virtual Staging Solutions do things that have never been done before. Virtual Staging Solutions has taken advantage of that opportunity and has become a leader and role model for the new and upcoming virtual home staging industry. “It is becoming a key marketing tool for real estate agents around the world,” says Bryan Bittner, co-CEO of Virtual Staging Solutions.
What exactly is virtual staging?
Today’s technology has allowed the team at Virtual Staging Solutions to take uploaded photos of a home and warm up the home by putting almost any type of furniture in the photo so that it appears as if the furniture is actually in the home.
Selling a vacant home has been a major problem for homeowners and real estate agents in particular. Home staging is a proven way to increase the appeal of any vacant home on the market and provide an enormous amount of value as a marketing tool. Virtual Staging Solutions now helps assist in real estate marketing efforts by providing home staging easier and at low-cost. “Our aim is to stimulate the housing market and assist realtors by offering a staging service that’s 1/3 of the cost of actual staging. “Vacant Home Sellers are now able to do staging on a low budget,” says Dennis Miller, co-CEO of Virtual Staging Solutions.
As added value, Virtual Staging Solutions.com provides a free listing of the property and agent profile suitable for search engines.
Launched in late 2008, Bryan Bittner and his partner Dennis Miller are rapidly dominating the Virtual Home Staging market and have developed a systematized approach to working with their team of home staging designers and becoming one of the industry leaders for virtual home staging.
“The value that this company provides is not only fair, but it delivers far more return on investment,” says Sean Carroll of Team Carroll at RE/MAX Real Estate in Berkeley Heights, N.J.
For more information, visit www.VirtualStagingSolutions.com or contact Dennis Miller at 888-201-9042.
Popularity: 2% [?]
10 Trouble Spots to Consider When Purchasing a Foreclosed Home
December 21, 2009
It’s easy pickings out there for many potential homebuyers. Housing prices are at their lowest in more than a decade, inventories are high, analysts are predicting a new wave of foreclosures and the government is offering two substantial tax credits for which many homebuyers qualify.
But bargain buyers beware, warns Vince Mastronardi, whose property preservation business has been busy preparing foreclosed homes for sale.
“Buyers need to educate themselves about the potential pitfalls of purchasing distressed property,” says Mastronardi, president of On-Site Specialty Cleaning & Restoration. “It’s not so much what damage occurred, but the source of that damage and how long before the problem was addressed.”
These 10 signs may indicate that trouble is around the corner.
1. Unheated house in winter months. If the home has been properly winterized, there’s no need for heat. But if the home has not been properly winterized, pipes will burst and cause water damage.
2. Missing sinks, toilets and other fixtures. Make sure they’ve been properly removed and not ripped from walls and floors.
3. Peeling, bubbling, and discolored paint; swelling in walls or ceilings (especially around kitchens and bathrooms) or a musty odor all indicate water damage and, potentially, the presence of moisture and mold.
4. Fungus growth inside cabinets, behind drawers and built-ins. Fungus could mean that there has been water damage. Since water falls down, look for the source above the mold.
5. Blocked drains or pipes will cause future problems and may have already created sewage backups.
6. Black cobwebs, greasy gray residue on walls and/or a strong oily odor. This could point to potential soot damage or a malfunctioning furnace.
7. An older home with extensive renovations. Check with the city for pulled permits in order to get remolding details. If asbestos is present and has been disturbed, be sure it’s been remediated by a certified specialist.
8. Excessive painting of every nook, cranny, door and floor may mean that the seller is covering up mold.
9. Discolored subflooring. From the basement, check the subflooring above for stains and small holes, both caused by mold.
10. Air Quality. The air quality within a home tells a lot about the home’s condition. Be sure to include air and surface testing in your home inspection. It’s a few hundred dollars well spent.
“Time and technique are the most important factors of effective clean-up and preventing future problems like mold or contamination,” Mastronardi explains. “Ideally, professional cleanup begins within a few days of the damage; technicians are trained, certified or licensed; and equipment is specialized and up to date.”
Ask the seller to explain how the damage was fixed. Plus, check out the company that performed the repairs to ensure it has industry-recommended certification. If needed, follow-up with the seller or repairing company for specific repair details.
For more information, visit www.on-sitecorporation.com.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Housing Starts Regain Ground in November 2009
December 18, 2009
Nationwide housing production rose 8.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 574,000 units in November 2009, according to figures released by the U.S. Commerce Department. The gain represented a partial bounce-back from an exceptionally slow month for housing activity in October, and was largely attributed to a big increase on the multifamily side.
“The fact that both starts and permits for new housing production rose last month is a good sign that we’re headed in the right direction, albeit slowly, on the road to a housing recovery,” said Joe Robson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Tulsa, Okla. “That said, the November improvement was primarily on the multifamily side, and poor job markets and other economic factors are still keeping many potential buyers on the fence for the time being.”
“Home builders remain very cautious about starting new homes, and overall housing production is still down on a three-month average basis,” noted NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “Understandably, it will take some time for the newly extended and expanded home buyer tax credit to start boosting sales in individual markets–just as it did the last time such an incentive was enacted. However, the fact that permits increased in November is a hopeful indication that the desired impact of the tax credit on housing demand may be forthcoming early in 2010. In the meantime, credit for new housing production remains extremely difficult to come by, posing significant obstacles to builders with viable projects.”
Single-family housing starts made up some of the ground they lost in October, posting a modest 2.1% gain to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 482,000 units in November. Meanwhile, multifamily starts rebounded from an all-time record low in the previous month with a 67.3% gain to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 92,000 units in November.
Gains in housing production were registered across all regions of the country in November, with a 16.4% increase in the Northeast, a 3% gain in the Midwest, a 12.3% increase in the South and a nearly 2% gain in the West.
Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, rose 6% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 584,000 units, its highest level in a year. Single-family permits rose 5.3% to 473,000 units, while multifamily permits rose 8.8% to 111,000 units.
Three out of four regions posted gains in housing permits for November, with a 4.7% increase reported in the Northeast, a 10.7% increase posted in the South, and a 2.7% gain registered in the West. The Midwest posted a 1.9% decline.
For more information, visit www.nahb.org.
Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-12-17/housing-starts-regain-ground-in-november-2009/#ixzz0a3l8s8N1
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5 Questions to Consider Before Purchasing a Home
December 17, 2009
Interest rates on the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dipped to a 38-year low recently, giving consumers another reason to consider purchasing a home or refinancing their current one.
Freddie Mac recently stated the average rate on a 30-year loan was 4.71% with an average 0.7 point, the lowest rate since the agency began its weekly tracking of long-term interest rates in 1971. A point is equal to 1% of the loan amount, payable as a lump sum at closing. While the decline wasn’t overly dramatic, the dip is likely to get people wondering whether it’s time to sign on the dotted line.
The 5 following questions may help you decide if now is the time to go ahead and purchase a home or refinance your current home.
Q: Why are rates so low?
A: Since early January, the Federal Reserve has been purchasing mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae in an effort to stabilize the housing market by making homes more affordable for consumers. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which is managing the program, plans on purchasing $1.25 trillion of securities.
Q: Are rates expected stay this low?
A: It’s hard to tell, but don’t count on it because the lending landscape is likely to change next year. In September 2009, the Fed said it would gradually wind down the purchase program, ending it by March 30, 2010. That has some in the mortgage lending industry worried.
In a recently published mortgage survey, more than 60% of Bankrate.com’s panel of experts predicted that rates will move higher over the next 30 to 45 days. How much higher is anyone’s guess. Last year at this time, the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 5.53%.
Q: Why do different mortgage surveys come up with different average interest rates?
A: It depends on which lenders are in their sample, when the survey was taken and whether the rates quoted are the posted rate, the application rate or the commitment rate. Also, some surveys take into account the points paid to secure the rate.
But regardless of the survey, the general consensus is that rates are ultra-low right now and may be the lowest the market will see.
Q: What else does a consumer need to know?
A: The lowest rates are offered to the most credit-worthy customers who can make sizable down payments. Shop not just for the interest rate and the points involved but also for the fees involved, which can vary widely from one lender to another.
If you’re refinancing, remember the bigger the loan, the greater the payoff for finding a lower interest rate. Savvy customers put in their paperwork with a lender and set a “strike” interest rate at which to lock in the loan, a good move considering rate volatility.
Several refinancing calculators are available online that let borrowers plug in all the required numbers and determine the monthly savings and how long it will take to recoup the expense of a refinancing.
Q: So is now the best time to buy a home?
A: It depends on personal situations. Homebuyers certainly have a lot of factors working in their favor right now—low interest rates, plenty of marked-down homes for sale and an extended and expanded federal tax credit that will expire in the spring.
On the flip side, there’s growing sentiment among analysts that housing prices, which are showing ever-so-minor improvement, may fall further. The reason? Lenders are expected to get better at determining which borrowers will qualify for loan modifications. That means lenders also will get faster at moving homes through the foreclosure process.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, recently predicted that housing prices nationally will hit bottom in 2010’s third quarter. That means anyone buying a house now could see the value of their investment initially depreciate.
(c) 2009, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-12-14/5-questions-to-consider-before-purchasing-a-home/#ixzz0ZykmxpPC
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Reuters: Bernanke Says Banks Stabilized, But Lending Still Weak
December 16, 2009
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that U.S. banks have been stabilized but lending remains too weak to support a healthy recovery.
“We have told the banks very clearly that we want them to make loans to creditworthy borrowers, where there are borrowers who can repay the loans,” Bernanke said in an interview with Time magazine.
After a “near-death experience,” banks are wary of taking on the kind of risk that led to the crisis although they have rebuilt capital, he said.
The Fed has taken steps to loosen markets through programs that allow investors to invest directly in various forms of credit, such as auto loans and credit card loans.
But further steps are needed to pull the sector out of the “convalescent stage,” he said.
“We need to have extensive reform in the private sector, in the public sector, to eliminate these risks in the future,” he said.
The Fed, along with the administration and Congress, still has a lot to do to get the economy back to stability and start creating jobs again, he said.
“Even though the recession may be technically over, in a sense that the economy is growing, it’s going to feel like a recession for some time, because unemployment remains very high, about 10 percent,” he said.
Congress and the administration needs to develop “a credible medium term interest strategy for fiscal policy,” he said.
Time magazine named Bernanke its “Person of the Year” on Wednesday, a day before a U.S. Senate committee is due to vote on his renomination for Fed chairman.
President Barack Obama also this week urged banks to lend more to assist the U.S. economic recovery.
Bernanke said the Fed had never proposed that it become a regulator for the entire financial system, although he argued that no other agency in Washington has its expertise.
“We have a wide range of expertise that makes us the natural supervisor for these large complex firms,” he said.
Banks have yet to broadly understand the need for more restraint on pay after they were bailed out with taxpayer money, he said.
The Fed instituted policies “which we’ll be enforcing on banks” that require them to structure pay in ways that align it with performance and discourage excessive risk taking, he said.
“We are going to be looking at that as part of our supervision of banks,” he said.
The central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee will conclude a two-day meeting later Wednesday with a statement expected at about 2.15 p.m.
Source: Reuters
Popularity: 1% [?]
U.S. Home Value Losses Stabilize in 2009; Homeowners Lose Nearly $500 Billion in Value
December 15, 2009
U.S. homes lost $489 billion in home values during the first 11 months of 2009, significantly less than the $3.6 trillion lost during 2008, according to analysis of recent Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. Forty-eight of the 154 markets tracked by Zillow showed gains in home values during 2009, with the Boston metropolitan statistical area (MSA) showing the largest gain of $23.3 billion. The Providence, R.I. MSA was second on the list, with a gain of $12.4 billion.
The stabilization in home values led to easing rates of negative equity in the third quarter of 2009, with 21% of all single-family homeowners with mortgages underwater, compared to 23% in the second quarter.
“Home values stabilized significantly during the second half of 2009, with the total dollar value of U.S. homes increasing since June,” said Dr. Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist. “Most housing markets across the country had a good summer, spurred largely by the government’s tax credits for homebuyers combined with very low mortgage rates. Unfortunately, we believe that demand will come under downward pressure as mortgage rates creep back up after the first quarter and that housing supply will experience upward pressure as the volume of foreclosures continues to remain high. Both these factors will challenge the recent stabilization of home prices.”
The biggest home value losses, in terms of total dollars lost in 2009, were in the large MSAs of Los Angeles (down $60.8 billion), Chicago (down $49.6 billion) and New York (down $49 billion). The large overall losses were due to a combination of the high number of homes in these metro areas, along with decreases in median home values.
For more information, visit www.Zillow.com.
Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-12-09/u-s-home-value-losses-stabilize-in-2009-homeowners-lose-nearly-500-billion-in-value/#ixzz0Zm6OfoIq
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Foreclosure Filings Fall for Fourth Month
December 14, 2009
Foreclosure filings fell 8% in November 2009 from October, the fourth straight month of declines, RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif., recently reported.
With one filing for every 417 houses nationally, November saw the lowest amount of foreclosure activity since February. The numbers, while 18% higher than the same month last year, were a result of “loan modifications and other foreclosure prevention efforts,” said RealtyTrac chief executive James J. Saccacio. He said the recently extended and expanded homebuyer tax credit was keeping a lid on home value depreciation.
Saccacio warned, however, that a full recovery will come only “when unemployment recedes to normal, healthy levels and when availability of credit reaches a more rational balance between the extremes of the past few years.”
Data from Integrated Asset Services of Denver showed values continuing to decline despite the buying boom fostered by the tax credit.
Home values actually declined 0.05% nationally in October from September, with the Northeast, especially metropolitan Boston, dragging the numbers down. The Northeast region fell 1.6%; the Middle Atlantic, 0.06%.
“I have no doubt that the tax credit persuaded some buyers to make their purchase sooner than they otherwise would have,” said Dave McCarthy, president and CEO of Integrated Asset Services. “It’s reasonable to think the broader market will reflect that reality at some point down the road.”
Although Saccacio credited loan modification efforts as helping slow the rate of foreclosures, a recent Treasury report on the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable program showed the effort coming up woefully short in getting lenders to alter mortgage terms permanently. Programs to mitigate foreclosures are not having the desired impact, said Michael Feder, president of Radar Logic in New York, which tracks the housing market.
The Treasury Department reported that just 31,382 loans of the four million mortgages targeted had been modified permanently since the program began in February. There are 728,000 loans in “trial” modification. By some estimates, there is as much as $1 trillion in potential foreclosures already delinquent, Feder said. Lawmakers have been critical of the program, which they say is still focusing on the subprime-loan crisis of last year rather than mortgage foreclosures related to rising unemployment. They also have taken lenders to task, especially those who have taken government bailout money, known as TARP funds. Those lenders, however, have been reporting great success in modifying loans independent of the government program.
Resets of thousands of so-called exotic mortgages such as option adjustable-rate loans in 2010 “will undoubtedly lead to another wave of foreclosures as payments begin to double and triple,” said Sylvia Alayon, vice president of the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“When principal balances go up and house values continue to plummet, refinancing will no longer be an option for homeowners in negative amortization,” she said.
(c) 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-12-13/foreclosure-filings-fall-for-fourth-month/#ixzz0ZfxMpKNf
Popularity: 2% [?]
30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Increases for First Time Since Mid October
December 10, 2009
The weekly average rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for 30-year fixed mortgages increased five basis points last week to 4.67%, up from 4.62% the week prior, according to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor, compiled by real estate website Zillow.com. Rates for 15-year fixed mortgages rose one basis point to 4.20% from 4.19%, while 5-1 adjustable rate mortgages remained flat at 3.74%.
The volume of mortgage requests last week rose 10% from the prior week. Of last week’s requests, 51% were for refinance loans, 48% were for purchase loans and 2% were for home equity loans. The prior week, 49% of requests were for refinance loans, 49% were for purchase loans and 2% were for home equity loans.
Rates for 30-year fixed purchase mortgages were higher, with the average rate on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 4.74%. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates varied by state. Ohio mortgage rates and Michigan mortgage rates increased the most, from 4.63% to 4.78% in Ohio and from 4.6% to 4.72% in Michigan. New York mortgage rates (4.81%) and Illinois mortgage rates (4.81%) were the highest in the country, while Texas mortgage rates (4.58%), Colorado mortgage rates (4.63%) and Minnesota mortgage rates (4.63%) were the lowest. California mortgage rates were the most requested among all states.
For more information, visit www.zillow.com.
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