Tag Archives: South Salem Homes

Ugly Houses Boom as Foreclosures Dwindle | South Salem Real Estate

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While declining numbers of foreclosures are slowing down most investors, the leading homes-for-cash company is expanding into new territories.

HomeVestors, the number one buyer of houses in the U.S. opened 64 new franchises in the past three months, which is almost double the highest number of franchisees that have previously enrolled in a single quarter.  “This number is remarkable and attests to continued strong interest in real estate investment and the opportunity for investors in today’s market,” said HomeVestors Co-President David Hicks.

Hicks said a lot of their growth is coming from properties in older neighborhoods where houses are 30 years older or more, not newer homes more typical of those that have dominated distress sale inventories.

“Our franchises are buying from homeowners who are selling for a variety of reasons.  Hedge funds don’t have access to those homes and mom and pop investors want to buy in newer neighborhoods,” he said.

HomeVestors’ rapid growth comes amid the housing comeback. “The number of additional new franchisees during the second quarter of 2013 is an indication that investors increasingly believe what we know is true — that there is continued opportunity in the market,” said HomeVestors’ co-president, Ken Channell.  “We are committed to our franchisees to help encourage continued growth and success this year.”

Among the new franchises HomeVestors have added are in new territory for the company such as Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Lower Hudson Valley, New York; and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. HomeVestors of America, Inc. is also known as the “We Buy Ugly Houses” company.

 

read more…

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/08/ugly-houses-boom-as-foreclosures-dwindle/

 

 

 

How Do Digital Marketers Engage On Twitter? | South Salem Real Estate

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Social media has made it possible for us all to be digital marketers.How do digital marketers engage on Twitter

The reality is that if you are on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ you “are” a digital marketer whether you like it or not. You are publishing  and promoting a brand. It might be brand “you” or it maybe be a  business or organisation you represent.

If you publish you are a digital marketer.

Publishing is now marketing and the mind share that content marketing has  garnered reveals the power of social content and crowd sourced sharing.

Marketing also involves two key activities.

Publishing and promotion

Social media provides the means, the technology and the platforms to do  both.

Don’t underestimate Twitter’s brevity

Twitter’s role in the digital marketing pantheon was often seen as about  breaking news. Used correctly it can accelerate your brand message and content  to a global waiting audience that will pass it on. Don’t underestimate Twitter’s  marketing horsepower because of its 140 character brevity.

It can be a focused marketing platform that drives brand awareness and  content discovery. It is a low friction network that moves multi-media content  in real time….fast.

Some questions

So if you see yourself as a digital marketer then you may be asking some  questions. This will provide you with some ideas on the sources you may need to  be reading to keep up to date. It will also enable some insights into the  sources, apps and people that you may need to follow or check out.

  1. Which social networks are they on?
  2. What apps and platforms do they use to share on Twitter?
  3. What mobile apps do they use for sharing ?
  4. What types of content do they share?
  5. What are the mainstream media sources?
  6. What industry sources are they sharing?
  7. What are the social media media sources are they reading, viewing and  sharing?
  8. Who are the people most retweeted by digital marketers?
  9. Who are the people that are most mentioned?
  10. What are the brands most retweeted?

A recent report on  Leadtail looked at 143,856 tweets and 69,657 shared links to provide a  snapshot of how digital marketers engage on Twitter. It also provided  answers to those 10 questions.

How do digital marketers engage on Twitter?

Here are some insights into Twitter engagement as performed by digital  marketers. It reveals resources, tools and people that you may not have heard of  that you may want to add to your reading, viewing and watch list.

 

Read more at…

 

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/08/13/how-do-digital-marketers-engage-on-twitter/#lDMbWKAz2bVfL841.99

Will rates kill the building rebound? | South Salem Real Estate

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McBride & Son had so many people waiting to buy houses in its new subdivision in south St. Louis County that it held a lottery last week to allocate the lots.

“We had 47 people give us checks,” McBride Chief Executive John Eilermann said. The lottery determined the order in which buyers could pick their home sites.

“I’ve been doing this 27 years, and that was the biggest demand I’ve ever seen,” said Eilermann of his new subdivision near Grant’s Farm.

Home building has been rising rapidly in St. Louis — although higher mortgage rates put the future in doubt.

From January through June, home construction permits were running 38 percent ahead of last year on the Missouri side of the area. Permits issued in June were up 66 percent from June 2012.

“The industry is healing. It’s getting better, and we’re putting more people back to work,” said Pat Sullivan, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri.

The association counts the hours that carpenters work building houses in St. Louis. At the current rate, carpenters will work 2.1 million hours this year, up from 1.4 million last year.

But that’s still far below the 4.7 million of 2005, before the housing bust. And it’s below the 5.4 million record set in the late 1980s.

 

 

Will rates kill the building rebound? : Business.

1 in 3 buyers would bid above asking price | South Salem Real Estate

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One in 3 buyers are willing to bid higher than a home’s asking price, according to a survey conducted by Trulia in partnership with Harris Interactive.

That was just one of several other findings of the survey that appear to show that homebuyers are feeling the squeeze of market conditions that are significantly altered from those of a year ago. At the same time, they capture improved sentiment towards the housing market.

Today’s tight home inventory appears to be pushing some buyers to use aggressive tactics to beat out competing buyers, the survey found. In addition to a third of buyers being willing to make above-market offers, 1 in 4 said that they would offer to pay a seller’s closing costs.

“Tight inventory means slim pickings for buyers. Even though inventory is starting to expand, and rising home prices should bring more for-sale homes onto the market, people who actually want to buy within the next year are feeling the pressure of competing buyers and limited inventory,” wrote Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko in blog post about the survey.

Also seemingly a symptom of today’s limited housing stock, homebuyers who plan to buy within the next year said that finding a home that they like is their biggest worry.

And highlighting two other defining characteristics of today’s market, consumers who said they might buy someday indicated that their two greatest fears were that mortgage rates and home prices would rise further.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/07/25/one-in-three-buyers-would-bid-above-asking-price/#sthash.rgSe8GhB.dpuf

 

 

1 in 3 buyers would bid above asking price | Inman News.

So far, it’s a lucky ’13 for rebounding home values | South Salem Real Estate

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The first six months of 2013 brought a remarkably fast recovery to Sacramento’s real estate market.

Figures from DataQuick, a San Diego real estate information firm, show median single-familyhome prices jumping anywhere from 15 percent to 50 percent across much of the four-county Sacramento region.

“I don’t recall anyone predicting prices would rise this much” in so short a time, said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage.

There were a few exceptions, mainly in the region’s most sought-after residential areas. The college town of Davis, the leafy neighborhoods near downtown Sacramento, and the upscale foothill communities of Granite Bay and El Dorado Hills held their value better in the crash, LePage said. Those areas saw more moderateprice increases during this year’s rebound, he noted.

“The spectacular appreciation tends to be in areas where prices got beaten down the most during the downturn,” LePage said.

Parts of south Sacramento, West Sacramento,Tahoe Park, North Sacramento, North Highlands and Arden Arcade were among the places that saw the biggest leap in prices, with appreciation of about 50 percent over the same period of 2012, according to DataQuick.

The median price is the point at which half of homes sell for more and half sell for less.

Most of the rise in median home prices has been driven by an increase in values, as more buyers compete for a relatively small number of homes for sale, LePage said.

Investors paying cash and snapping up cut-priced homes for rentals spurred the upward price pressure, he said. The realization that the market had hit bottom and turned upward also unleashed a wave of pent-up demand from mid-level and high-end buyers, he added.

Combined with a record-low inventory of homes for sale and record low mortgage rates, it pushed prices skyward.

“In six months people went from thinking prices might fall to thinking they would go up,” LePage said.

Another big factor was a sharp drop in the number of foreclosed homes on the market. There was a huge decrease in foreclosure resales in the first six months of this year compared with the first six months of last year, LePage said.

In Sacramento County, for example, the number of homes on the market that were foreclosures dropped from 41 percent in the first half of 2012 to 16 percent in the first half of this year. El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties also saw the percentage of foreclosures on the market drop by more than half.

Whether such huge price gains can continue is another question. Rising mortgage rates and rising prices could moderate demand, LePage said.

“It’s easy to imagine a temporary pause where people have to think more carefully because (those factors) are affecting affordability,” he said.

 

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/04/5620257/so-far-its-a-lucky-13-for-rebounding.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

So far, it’s a lucky ’13 for rebounding home values – Real Estate – The Sacramento Bee.

Hot Real Estate Market Causes Unexpected Glitch For Buyers, Sellers | South Salem Real Estate

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The real estate market in the Boston area has been crazy lately and that’s adding up to trouble for both buyers and sellers.

Demand is way up and inventory is way down. That means buyers are all chomping at the bit to bid on the few houses that are on the market. “I’ve had clients this spring who have offered on properties without even seeing them,” explained realtor Kerrianne Ciccone.

In the most popular neighborhoods, sellers are routinely getting multiple offers above the asking price. While that may sound like great news for Ciccone’s clients like Neil Maniar, it can create some problems. “You never quite know what you are going to get into when you sell your house,” Maniar said.

One of the biggest unknowns in the current market is the appraisal. If a bidding war pushes the price above asking, the appraisal may come in too low.

 

 

Hot Real Estate Market Causes Unexpected Glitch For Buyers, Sellers « CBS Boston.

4 sexy trends to add fun and inspire visitors to your real estate website | South Salem NY Homes

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Sometimes it’s just too easy to let your website presence slack off a little. Especially with today’s fast-moving market. There are many mixed messages about what you should have on your website; content; videos; or even if you should HAVE a website. Blogging falls off; we don’t add our listing photos or videos; and there it sits. Yawn.

But, there are some exciting new trends happening, and, truth be told, agents are business owners who need to market their services online. It’s the billboard, the storefront, the treasure trove of your expertise and personality. It could be time to find ways to inspire your website visitors in NEW ways, with new content, and shift the perspective of the old website. Engaging your visitors in new ways can increase traffic, inspire them to take action, and give them a little fun at the same time. Below are some colorful finds with fresh ideas that turn old websites into new, sexy, trendy places to find a home.

1. Check out the newest website trends: FUN! Color! Action!

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DC Lifestyles by Real Living at Home

Some of the newer WordPress or Tumblr themes (or custom-developed ones) have fun new layouts. For the most part, they take the “categories” of your website and turn them into visual destinations, rather than the old drop-down menus in navigation menus. Add in some fun graphics or photography, and suddenly you have eye-catching calls to action that are discoverable rather than just “Communities.” Check out DC Lifestyles’ new home page. As a site visitor, my eye draws me in to all the things I can search; I want to stay and play, and see what’s under all the fun “windows.”

2. Bring in your reviews from other sources.

Real Estate Reviews.jpg

GlendaleandBeyond.com

Reviews on sites like Google, Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia and Yelp are yours and yours to keep. Display them proudly on your website. Kendyl Young of GlendaleandBeyond.com has integrated her reviews with a WordPress plug-in, and then LINKS BACK to the original review on the associated site. This is a great way to add some extra SEO juice to your site as well. Alternatively, using your own user-generated reviews through a service like RealSatisfied, you can bring in widgets, plug-ins, and other tools to display your great service. Make your visitors search easier by giving them exactly what they want: information about you.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/4-sexy-trends-to-add-fun-and-inspire-visitors-on-your-real-estate-website/#sthash.UxHJVeH5.dpuf

 

4 sexy trends to add fun and inspire visitors to your real estate website | Inman News.

Mastering the new real estate rules | South Salem Real Estate

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The housing market is getting hot—and that is changing the game for both home buyers and sellers.

In many cities, including those hard hit by the downturn, bidding wars are breaking out and winning offers often exceed the asking the price. A relatively low inventory of homes for sale is feeding the scramble.

Existing-home sales were up 13% in May compared with the previous year, reports the National Association of Realtors, and the median home price was up 15%, to $208,000, the biggest jump since October 2005. Average home prices for the most recent S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index were up 12% in April over a year ago.

For first-time buyers and those eager to move up, it could be a good time to buy. Prices still are well below the mid-2000s highs. Interest rates have shot up, but they remain low by historical standards. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.37% for the week ended Thursday, up from 3.35% in early May, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey. Until 2009, rates were above 5% going back to the early 1970s.

[Click to compare mortgage interest rates from multiple lenders now.]

Initially, rising rates could drive potential buyers into the market before mortgage costs climb more. But if rates continue upward, they could help put an end to the boom.

While an active market can be good for both buyers and sellers, a sizzling market poses challenges. In some areas, real-estate agents have been accused of holding back choice homes for sale from the Multiple Listing Service database so they can market them first to their own clients. Bidding wars can leave potential buyers feeling bruised and frustrated. And climbing home prices mean appraisals might come in below the agreed-on price.

Here are some tips for navigating this evolving market:

Cash matters. It helps to have a bundle of cash to get the home you want. Down payments today range from 3.5% for a loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration to as much as 40% for homes over $1 million.

A typical down payment on a regular mortgage is 5% to 10%, says Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans. Buyers who need a “jumbo” loan—or one bigger than $417,000 or $625,500, depending where you live—might have to put down 20% or more.

If the lender’s appraisal of the home falls short of your purchase price, the buyer and seller must negotiate whether the seller will reduce the price or the buyer will pay the difference in cash—or some combination of the two.

Get prequalified. Mortgage lenders still carefully scrutinize borrowers’ ability to repay their loans, and sellers might be leery of bids that are contingent on getting financing. Potential buyers will be more attractive if they already have qualified for a loan, even in calm markets, like Connecticut, says Terence Beaty, director of the new-homes and land division at Prudential Connecticut Realty, based in Wallingford, Conn.

That means picking a lender and providing pay stubs, bank and brokerage statements and, for those who are self-employed, tax returns. Generally, you will need a credit score of at least 640 to get a mortgage, says Greg Gwizdz, executive vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, the nation’s largest residential lender—and it will need to be higher if you want the best rates.

 

Mastering the new real estate rules – Yahoo! Homes.

What Really Influences Your Credit Score? | South Salem Real Estate

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Your credit report is essentially your financial report card. It serves as a way for banks, insurance and lending companies to gauge your credit-worthiness and whether you’re likely to miss payments or default on a loan. It’s also common for landlords, employers and government agencies to check your credit before approving an application or confirming a transaction.

But, do you know where the information on your credit report comes from and how it impacts your overall credit score? It might help to know the next time you’re tempted to take out another credit card or just pay the minimum on your balance.

Here are the five most important things that make up your credit score:

Payment history: 31 percent

Paying your bills on time helps you avoid late fees and also helps your credit score. A good payment history shows lenders you have a record of paying on time. And the longer you have that, the better. Late or missing payments negatively affect your score, as do any collections, foreclosures or bankruptcies. Payment history usually pulls the most weight in your credit score calculation, so it’s important to stay current in this category.

Level of debt: 30 percent

It’s not a good idea to use up all your credit. By using most of your credit, or getting close to your credit limit, you can negatively impact your score. A good policy is to keep your credit card balance within 30 percent of your limit. In other words, if your credit card limit is $5,000, charging more than $1,500 can be risky even if you pay off the balance on time. Keeping your debt low shows lenders that you’re likely able to afford monthly payments and possibly take on more expenses.

Length of credit history: 15 percent

How well have you managed your credit accounts over time? Having a longer credit history helps your score. Lenders want to see that you’ve kept a good track record over a long period because someone with little or no credit history is more financially risky because it presents more of an unknown. This means that keeping that credit card you’ve had for a while open can help your credit (as long as you keep the balance low or at zero by paying on time every month).

Types of credit: 14 percent

Showing that you have a record of paying different types of debt helps your credit score. And different types of credit or loans can impact your score more or less. A healthy mix of credit includes credit cards, home loans and auto loans. Credit consisting of only one type, such as credit card accounts, won’t help your score, so diversity is important when it comes to credit accounts.

New credit: 10 percent

Having lots of credit inquiries within a short time lowers your score because it shows you’re actively searching for more credit, which makes lenders nervous. However, when you check your own credit or when an employer does, it won’t impact your score.

The major components of your credit score consist of your payment history and amount of debt. By knowing how the items in your credit report are weighted, you’ll have a better idea of the factors impacting your score.

 

 

What Really Influences Your Credit Score? | Zillow Blog.

Why are ‘steady’ Central Pa. housing prices lagging behind rest of the nation? | South Salem Real Estate

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They say slow and steady wins the race. If that is the case, then the all-but-flat housing prices in Central Pa. should be walking away with the title for most stable housing market. Area realtors insist this is the difference between boom and bust – and it’s a good thing.

 

But it’s hard not to be envious when one looks at the eye-popping housing price increases being realized at a national level. Consider these statistics, compiled by the National Association of Realtors (NAR):

 

The national median existing-home price – half the selling prices were higher, half were lower — hit $192,800 in April. That equated to an increase of 11 percent, compared to median national sale price in April 2012.

 

In May, the median national existing-home price zoomed up again, reaching $208,000, for an increase of 15.4 percent from May 2012. These are the most recent months for which national housing sale price stats were available.

 

Now, compare that with the just-completed quarterly numbers for Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties, as compiled by the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors.

 

Median home sale prices for the three counties did increase in the second quarter – but just barely: A scant 0.1 percent from the second quarter of 2012.

 

Basically, this means prices here held steady, overall. The median sale price of residential homes was $163,000 over the past three months, compared to the median cost of $162,900 in the second quarter of 2012.

 

 

Why are ‘steady’ Central Pa. housing prices lagging behind rest of the nation?: Boom & Bust | PennLive.com.