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Monday, February 25. 2008Time Magazine on real estate & stocksTime Magazine article by Dan Kadlac in full here. An excerpt relevant to home buyers is shown below: But let's say you are emotionally ready to be a homeowner. You have good credit, plan to stay put for five years and have been waiting for the perfect entry point. It's time to get serious--before an inevitable rise in interest rates wipes out your advantage. "The thing that will make home prices stop falling is the very same thing that will push mortgage rates higher," says Jim Svinth, chief economist at mortgage firm Lending Tree. So anything you gain by a further drop in prices might be offset by rising financing costs. Consider a typical home that sells for $218,900. You put down 20% and get a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at today's rate of 5.5%. Monthly principal and interest come to $994.31. Let's say that 12 months from now the same house goes for 10% less, or $197,010. But by then the recession is history and the Fed is jacking up rates to stem inflation. If mortgage costs rise a point, to 6.5%, your monthly payment would be $994.94 and you'd have saved nothing. Meanwhile, home prices might steady and sellers might become less willing to negotiate. And you have spent a year living someplace you'd rather not be. It's more complicated if you must sell before you can buy. But that logjam won't persist forever--and if it appears you'll be trapped for a few years, try to refinance at today's lower rates. Risks always seem most acute when the headlines give you ulcers. But that's exactly when you should think long term--and get off your thumbs.
Monday, February 25. 200896 million sold by one agent?!Incredible. Most entire brokerages don't sell almost 100 million dollars of real estate in a year but Molly Abrohams, The #1 agent in Southeast Wisconsin for First Weber Group, sold 96 million dollars of real estate herself in 2007. What an accomplishment! Congratulations to Molly. Monday, February 25. 2008Tuesday, February 19. 2008Customer Care center handles almost 39,000 requests for real estate information off firstweber.com in 2007
2007 Data:
In 2007 our website generated almost 39,000 (38,983) information requests, generated by over 22,000 unique individuals. Thanks visitors! Over 6,500 of these passed along to a First Weber agent for followup on a particular property and/or continued contact to buy a home. Over 20,000 web leads were responded to by the Customer Service Center, a full time division of First Weber Group. Ever send and email on a web site and have no hope you'd ever get a reply? Won't happen with our web site so, search over 5 MLS systems of properties on our site and let us know what else you need. Tuesday, February 19. 2008Monday, February 18. 2008Luxury Market faring well
Wisconsin has our fair share... But not too many like these. The good news about the Luxury market is home prices are on the rise in the high end market and luxury home buyers typically do not need to rely on a mortgage loan - so they can bypass that mess. Two articles that go into more detail can be found at the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing and the original article by Newsweek is here. Thursday, February 7. 2008Build now for less- check out First Weber's Builder's Marketplace"With Building Costs Down, Now is the Time to Build a Custom Home" from rismedia.com makes a great point. Just as it is a good time to buy an existing home at today's lower prices, the cost for building custom are down as well. If either has been in the back of your mind, take advantage of today's opportunities. First Weber Group has long had relationships with many reputatble builders and even have a special section on firstweber.com devoted to those who want to build. Check out First Weber's Builder's Marketplace to search for a builder in your area or price range. Thursday, February 7. 2008What's in - What's Out. Home trends for 2008Our homes reflect our personal style yet are often influenced by trends as well.
According to the article and it's sources the following are on the way OUT:
And the following are IN, or upcoming trends:
Now I am sure few will rush out and change their "OUT" features to be "IN", but before remodeling talk to an expert about trends such as these to make sure your money is well spent in a remodel.
Monday, February 4. 2008Home Staging can go too far...very funny.This is a real home for sale, with fake people...Thanks to a Redfin forum writer and BlueCollar Agent blog for making my Monday morning with these pictures of staging gone too far!
Friday, February 1. 2008 |
rismedia.com
