Category Archives: Pound Ridge

LendingTree, Zillow Clash over Housing Credit | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Two companies that compete with each other in housing finance clashed this week over the critical issue of access to mortgage, releasing reports that were in direct conflict with each other and served to increase confusion and tension rather than clarify anything.

According to LendingTree’s report, its Credit Accessibility score is benchmarked at 100, using data from the full year of 2012.  It reported the average accessibility score for the US was 106 in August, compared to 103 in July and 100 in June, indicating that borrowers had an easier time accessing mortgage credit in August compared to prior months, reported a LendingTree news release.

“Over the past few years, potential borrowers may have found it difficult to get approved for a loan.  But as home prices rise, refinance activity slows and government programs change, potential borrowers are finding it easier to gain access to credit,” said Doug Lebda, founder and CEO of LendingTree.  “Lenders are easing down payment and credit score requirements while still adhering to conforming loan guidelines.  And as the private securitization market starts to bounce back, borrowers who didn’t qualify in the past may now have that opportunity.”

On the same day, Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace reported that:

“Despite a healing housing and mortgage market, three out of 10 Americans remain unlikely to qualify for a mortgage, according to a Zillow® Mortgage Marketplace analysis.

“The research analyzed 13 million loan quotes and more than 225,000 purchase loan requests on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace in September 2013, and compared it to a similar study conducted in September 2010.

“Borrowers with credit scores under 620 who requested purchase loan quotes for 30-year fixed, conventional loans were unlikely to receive even one loan quote in September 2013, unchanged from three years ago, even if they offered a relatively high down payment of 15 to 25 percent. Nearly 3 out of 10 Americans, or 28.4 percent, have a credit score of 620 or lower, according to data provided by myFICO.com.

“Meanwhile, the bar has risen for borrowers to get the lowest available mortgage rates. The best mortgage rates are typically reserved for those with credit scores of 740 or higher, compared with 720 in 2010. According to myFICO.com, 40.3 percent of Americans currently fall into this category. In 2010, 47 percent of Americans had credit scores over 720 and were able to get the best rates. Borrowers with credit scores above 740 did not receive significantly better mortgage rates.

“In the 2013 study, borrowers with credit scores of 740 or above got an average low annual percentage rate (APR) of 4.42 percent for conventional 30-year fixed mortgages. Borrowers with mid-range credit scores between 620 and 739 received APRs, on average, between 5.09 and 4.47 percent, with the APR rising as the credit score drops. Those with credit scores below 620 received too few loan quotes to calculate the average low APR.

“Despite all-time high levels of affordability in the housing market, tightened lending standards mean that nearly one-third of Americans are unlikely to be able to achieve the American Dream of homeownership because they can’t qualify for a mortgage due to a low credit score,” said Erin Lantz, director of mortgages at Zillow. “Your credit score is the single most important factor in determining your mortgage interest rate and monthly payment. To avoid any surprises when buying a home, check your credit score and report at least six months before you intend to buy to see if there are any costly inaccuracies, pay down high-balance lines of credit and make sure your bills are always paid on time.”

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/09/lendingtree-zillow-clash-over-housing-credit/

6 Amazing Social Media Productivity Tools | Pound Ridge Realtor

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6 Amazing Social Media Productivity Tools

Social media is a great place to  waste time, and many of us do. However, there are also some great tools and apps  that can help to actually save time and help users to be more productive and  successful.

The good news is that these 6 tools  are actually fun to use, and most importantly, they motivate you and your  employees to keep moving forward and increasing your value.

A motivated and productive person is  someone we all admire. Here are 6 social media productivity tools to help you  manage your social media marketing activities.

#1. Buffer

Scheduling tools are great ways to do more than you normally ever could. This  is because they allow you to post on many different sites, at all times of the  day, even if you’re not connected to the internet. They do just what it sounds  like, apps like Buffer will post at a  specified time in the future.

There are many scheduling tools available today, but they are not all created  equal. Buffer is one of the easiest to use because it is simply a scheduling  tool with a few features that are very helpful:

  • Integration with browsers- extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and  Safari, which allows you to access Buffer from your social media profiles
  • Scheduling- Buffer allows you to add content that you find  interesting throughout the day, and it then post it at certain times to keep  your posts spaced out and online during prime social media hours.
  • Variety of Sources- Buffer can take post from Facebook and Twitter  easily, but it can also take posts from apps such as Pulse News, Tweetdeck and  many more popular apps
  • Simplicity- Other apps require you to pick a date and time to  schedule when your post will be posted, Buffer already has time slots to make  posts, and so it is much simpler and saves time

social media productivity tools

Buffer is a simple, and did I mention  FREE way of gathering a larger  and more engaged audience online. Buffer allows you to do more work than you  normally would because it is always online and knows when the peak posting hours  are. Buffer is a very helpful tool to simply take whatever interesting story you  find online, send it to the Buffer list, and not have to worry about it.

It is a great way to save time while adding to your social media presence and  keeping you motivated by watching how much attention your posts can actually  receive. Once I started feeling the success of having more popular posts, it got  me thinking a lot more about how to craft the perfect post and made me start to  become more creative.

It is interesting how success can start building on itself that  way.

#2. Glyder

Glyder has come a long way and fills  a need that seems daunting to many people without very much business knowledge.  This tool and app allow small businesses, such as startups, to bump up their  marketing game. When starting out online, you hear about social media marketing,  the importance of a good design, and many problems and costs associated with  them.

You know that it takes more than an entertaining message to succeed but may  not have the resources to devote to this, this is why Glyder exists.

Glyder helps with all of these things through its many features, such as:

  • Visual Messaging- create messages for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest  but also SalesForce contacts, Mailchimps contacts and other connections
  • Templates- keep your messages entertaining with pre-set  templates that can be customized for your audience
  • Weekly Updates- connect regularly with customers by using new  templates, customizable content, and photos that are updated every week.
  • Automatic Formatting- Glyder formats all of your messages for you so  they look great everywhere

social media productivity tools

The founders Allan Wells and Eddy Ayling worked at Zynga and Globant  respectively and saw the need for small business owners to have better marketing  and design, but these business owners couldn’t afford to hire services. They  created Glyder to solve this problem and consistently add more to the app’s  capabilities.

Soon there will be a dashboard so that users can access the metrics from  social networking sites and better craft their message to their customers.

Glyder can really solve a lot of time and especially money without having to  worry about bad results. I think this is the main benefit of Glyder, because  with a small business there are so many headaches and reasons to worry. This  option can free up a lot of time in your day for tasks that only you can do, and  keeps you motivated by knowing that you are doing what is right for your  business and not skimping on areas that others do.

The confidence and motivation that Glyder can bring to a business is  something that adds value in ways that are often hard to calculate, but easy to  recognize.

#3. LikeHack

We all have many sources of social media news coming at us from all  directions. There are Facebook feeds, Twitter feeds, RSS feeds and so many  others. It is easy to get overwhelmed and let important information slip through  the cracks and waste hours sifting through all of the junk until you find what  you need.

This app allows you to consolidate all of your news on one app, from a really  diverse selection of sources.

LikeHack has a lot of  features that sets it apart from similar services:

  • One central location– it gathers your news into one place
  • Importance ratings– it organizes your news into levels of importance  and interest
  • Intelligent ratings-the app learns as you read news to find what is  most interesting to you
  • Access to history– it saves all stories you have liked and shared  with full text searching
  • Offline capability – it allows you to sync your device with your news  for offline access

social media productivity tools

The app is also quick to figure out because of a nice user interface which is  something we’ve come to expect from the new generation of user friendly apps. It  allows you to quickly get started gathering and organizing your news, and it  does this in an interface that is nice to look at.

The layout and design of an app is something that is often underestimated,  but is very important because no one wants to use and look at an ugly app…like  many other things in life.

The nice thing about apps like this is you don’t realize how much time you  are actually saving. It is interesting to be conscious of how much time you  actually waste looking for important pieces of information each day, and then  you will realize why apps like LikeHack are worth it. It is akin to a Netflix  binge watching your favorite new show, and seeing how much time you actually  saved by not having constant commercial breaks.

You are going to read your news anyways, so you might as well make it easier  and stay motivated that you read more articles and got more news than anyone  else in the office. This leads to a feeling of accomplishment and also a feeling  of confidence because you will know what your coworkers are talking about and  also have something important to add to the conversation and your work

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/10/04/6-amazing-social-media-productivity-tools/#dJGtq24CxKuYl5Yr.99

Susan Sarandon hands over Clinton Hill pad to rocker son | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Famed actress Susan Sarandon has unloaded one of her three New York City apartments to her musician son, by way of a trust overseen by the ex-wife of television personality Geraldo Rivera and a veteran Hollywood actress.

Sarandon transferred the apartment at 334 Grand Avenue in Clinton Hill for $900,000 — the same price she paid for it in January 2012 — to a trust named after Miles Robbins, her son with long-time partner, the actor Tim Robbins, property records filed with the city today show.

The trustees of the Lancaster, Pa.-based trust are Edith Vonnegut, the daughter of noted novelist Kurt Vonnegut and Rivera’s former wife, and actress Lynn Cohen, who has appeared on the television show “Sex and the City” and is part of the cast of the upcoming “Hunger Games” film.

Sarandon won an Academy Award in 1996 for her leading role in “Dead Man Walking” and is a four-time Oscar nominee. Her more memorable film roles include “Thelma & Louise” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

Miles Robbins, 21, is a musician and has appeared in a few of his mom’s films, including “The Greatest” and “Dead Man Walking.”

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,500-square-foot apartment includes 17-foot ceilings, a vaulted skylight, a working fireplace and 25-foot long rooms, according to the most recent listing.

Artist Danny Simmons, the older brother of music maven Russell Simmons, was the apartment’s previous owner. He put it on and off the market over the course of six years, beginning in May 2006, when it was priced at $1.25 million, StreetEasy and city property records show. Russell’s name was on the deed of the apartment until 2005, records show.

Toni Martin of the Corcoran Group had the listing when Sarandon purchased the home. She could not immediately be reached for comment.

Sarandon also owns a West Village penthouse at 61 West 9th Street, which she purchased in June 2011 for $1.75 million, as previously reported. She also owns a co-op at 147 West 15th Street in Chelsea, which she purchased from Tom Robbins for $3.2 million in June 2011 after they split.

 

 

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2013/10/03/susan-sarandon-hands-over-clinton-hill-pad-to-rocker-son/

Larry Bird’s Party-Ready Florida Mansion Listed For $4.8M | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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17 images

After an injury-induced hiatus, former Celtics star Larry Bird is back in commission as the Indiana Pacers team president, and is thus selling his Florida mansion, which he built from the ground up in the late ’90s, for $4.8M. The design scheme for the 6,000-square-foot, four-bedroom home leaves a lot to be desired—unless you love beige drapes and columns—but with a 10-person home theater, an infinity pool, a tiki hut, and a full-service bar with the obvious—a built-in aquarium—the Bird’s Naples hideaway is nothing if not a roarin’ good time. No word yet on whether Bird plans on dropping by for a little one on one, but one can dare to dream.

 

 

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2013/09/26/larry-birds-party-ready-florida-mansion-listed-for-48m.php

Mortgage Rates decline again | Pound Ridge Homes

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Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates falling for the third consecutive week amid declining consumer confidence and the onset of the federal government shutdown. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is at its lowest level since the week ending June 20, 2013.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.22 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending October 3, 2013, down from last week when it averaged 4.32 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.36 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.29 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.37 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.69 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.63 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, unchanged from last week. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.57 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Quotes Attributed to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“With the onset of the federal government shutdown and declining consumer confidence, fixed mortgage rates fell for the third consecutive week. Consumer sentiment fell for the second month in a row in September to its lowest reading since April, according to the University of Michigan. Moreover, a recent Bloomberg survey of professional forecasters suggests that a partial federal shutdown lasting one week would shave 0.1 percentage points off of GDP growth in the fourth quarter and even more if the shutdown lasts longer.”

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation’s residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Today Freddie Mac is making home possible for one in four home borrowers and is one of the largest sources of financing for multifamily housing. For more information please visit www.FreddieMac.com and Twitter: @FreddieMac.

Here Now, a Look at ‘Outlandish Homes on Impossible Sites’ | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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While Brooklyn-based painter Dean Monogenis is obsessed with architecture—an interest that began after 9/11, when he “realized that [buildings] were like people in that they could live and die,” he recently told Wired—he has zero interest in actually learning the technical aspects of design. He much prefers to keep his work in that middle-gray area between the surreal and real, where the ultra-modern homes he paints look somewhat possible at first, yet perhaps less so as one looks a little closer. “In a painting you can completely ignore things like gravity and engineering,” he says. “As a painter I am free to make a building as plausible or implausible as I like.”

Gizmodo sums up Monogenis’ scenes, which often feature scaffolding, cranes, and other construction elements, as “outlandish homes on impossible sites,” adding, “it’s as if the entire series is based on an architect’s renderings for a massive speculative development planned for a growing population, unearthed long after that civilization had vanished.”

ku-xlarge-6.jpgPainting by Dean Monogenis via Wired

Head to Wired for more of Monogenis’ work. For other eye-popping examples of architectural paintings, see: Paul Davies’ Pop Art-esque midcentury houses, Sunga Park’s dream-like watercolors of European buildings.

· Gorgeous Architectural Paintings From a World Without Gravity [Wired Design via Gizmodo] · All Artistry coverage [Curbed National]

Enjoy Cider Saturday At New Canaan Nature Center | Pound Ridge Homes

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The New Canaan Nature Center is celebrating cider season with a series of autumn-themed events on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Cider press demonstrations will be held 15 and 45 minutes after every hour, and the apple sling shot will be fired at the top of every hour.

There will also be a pumpkin scavenger hunt and seasonal crafts activities for children.

Fresh local cider will be available for purchase by the cup, half gallon and gallon.

Admission is $5 for nature center members and $8 for nonmembers. Children under age 2 are free.

The Nature Center is located at 144 Oenoke Ridge in New Canaan.

For more information, contact the nature center at 203-966-9577 or online at http://www.newcanaannature.org.

 

 

http://newcanaan.dailyvoice.com/neighbors/enjoy-cider-saturday-new-canaan-nature-center

Mortgage Bankers Association reveals new branding | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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The Mortgage Bankers Association revealed its latest rebranding strategy Wednesday, which includes a new logo, revamped corporate messaging and updated web and email domains. The trade group’s signature MBA logo will now be shown with a lower case ‘a’ to emphasize the group’s work in mortgage banking.

“This new brand reflects MBa’s forward looking approach, and brings us fully in step with who we are now, and where we will lead our industry into the future,” said MBAs President and CEO David H. Stevens.  “Our message behind the brand is simple: We put our members first. We are constantly evolving to better support and serve our members. We pull strength from the broad diversity of our membership – by bringing them together – in one voice with one vision – on behalf of a vibrant and sustainable real estate finance system.”

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26897-mortgage-bankers-association-reveals-new-branding

Considering or Dreaming About Buying a Home? How to Pick the Best Mortgage Rate for You | Pound Ridge Homes

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Even though the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was just 2.5 percent last year, the lowest in recorded history, and three-quarters of a percentage point below the 30-year fixed-rate loan, more than 85 percent of the home loan market was dominated by 30-year fixed-rate mortgages.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been popular particularly in recent times after the housing bubble and crash, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors.

Yun said consumers want certainty, and by getting a 30-year fixed rate mortgage while they are in their homes is protection against the uncertainty of other economic factors.

As for the second reason, stability, a fixed interest rate over 30 years also means a monthly principal and interest payment that is predictable to homeowners.

“Moreover, by avoiding payment shock and negative amortization, fixed-rate borrowers are less likely to fall behind on their payments, – a plus for investors too,” Nothaft writes.

Why not a longer period than 30 years?

Yun says institutions and homeowners rely on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for both tradition and history.

Also, “People view more than 30 years as lifetime of payments,” Yun said. “Thirty years offers a term limit to say,  ‘At a certain point in my life, I will not have to pay a mortgage.’ I think that assurance is comforting.”

Yun adds that given the mortgage’s standardization and popularity, it makes it easy for Wall Street, or Fannie and Freddie to guarantee those mortgages.

Nothaft said 30-year fixed-rate loan is flexible because it is generally prepayable at any time without penalty.

If homebuyers choose to pay off the loan before maturity, in the case of refinancing or selling the home, for example, they can do so without paying an early prepayment fee, Nothaft said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/