Millions of homeowners are getting ready to rebuild damaged property now that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have moved out of Florida, Texas, and other affected areas. But media reports warn of a new threat: storm scammers.“We’ve seen it after every significant disaster, and we don’t expect anything different once the Harvey-induced floods recede,” Frank Scafidi, spokesman for the nonprofit National Insurance Crime Bureau, told CNN.Indeed,
Homes sold quickly across the U.S. this summer. Properties that sold between May and July typically were on the market less than 31 days in 29 states and the District of Columbia, according to the July 2017 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey.Fifty-one percent of properties that sold in July were on the market for less than a month. Only nine percent of properties were on the market for six months or longer, according to the report.Properties sol
A severe inventory shortage may be allowing your clients to believe selling their homes will be quick and easy. That can lead to sellers who believe that they can do less to prep their homes for the market and that buyers will still be willing to pay top dollar. But buyers are still fairly picky, and they will be quick to pass over an unsightly or outdated home.Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of REALTORS®, says that ma
Real estate professionals meet with a lot of different personalities in navigating complex transactions. Some home shoppers are a joy to work with, while others can make you want to scream. A recent realtor.com® article highlights some of the most difficult personalities you may encounter on the buy side, including:Serial lowballersAll buyers want to get a home at the absolute best price, but some take that too far. Rachel Foy, a real estate pro
iPro currently deals throughout the states of California and Texas with new offices in New York and Florida. We continue to strive to broaden opportunities for real estate professionals and consumers. Visit www.iprore.com for the latest information and links.Click here for information on how to become a salesperson
The Houston Association of REALTORS® has launched a housing section on its website to help victims of Hurricane Harvey find a temporary place to live. It allows real estate professionals, property owners, landlords, and property managers to post homes they will make available.Some of the homes posted may be available for free or reduced rent, depending on the owner, HAR notes. The HAR.com site will display properties for sale or lease across th
Fifty-nine percent of real estate professionals say staging a listing contributes to receiving higher offers from buyers, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2017 Profile of Home Staging. Sixty-two percent of agents also say staging “slightly” or “greatly” decreases the time a listing spends on the market.The amount of money sellers stand to gain from staging their home is significant. Thirty-one percent of practitione
The impact immigrants have on U.S. real estate is growing, as 13 percent of the nation’s population—about 42 million people—hails from foreign countries, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “Immigrants are a big driving force for housing markets across the nation,” Kusum Mundra, an economics professor at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J., told realtor.com®. “Most want the American dream, which is to own a hom
More home buyers have co-signers on their mortgage loans in order to help defray the rising costs of real estate, according to a new report released by real estate data firm ATTOM Data Solutions. In the second quarter of this year, 22.8 percent of mortgage applications involved a co-borrower, up from 20.5 percent a year earlier, the report shows.Dozens of programs and private companies are emerging to act as co-borrowers for consumers by offering
Homeowners who have decided to stay put in their current properties may soon be ready for a move, helping to relieve stubbornly tight housing inventory. The evidence is in Fannie Mae’s latest Home Purchase Sentiment Index, in which the number of consumers who say now is a good time to sell a home neared an all-time high. The index—which is a measure of about 1,000 consumers’ attitudes toward housing—rose 1.2 points in August to a reading
This website includes images sourced from third party websites including Adobe, Getty Images, and as otherwise noted.
