FHA Changes Rules on Buying a Second Property!

I've worked with many a first time homebuyers that have long term goals of building a portfolio of investment property. Often they start with a starter home with plans to stay there for just a few years. As they get more established in careers, they plan to buy a bigger and better home but retain the starter home for rental income. Well, that scenario is about to become a whole lot more

Investing in Rochester

With all the turbulence in the stock market the past few weeks, I'm starting to hear from investors again! As one client put it yesterday, he's losing money in his 401K but seeing a 20% return on his city of Rochester rental properties. He wants to buy at least one more property before the end of the year.What is nice about this particular client is that he knows that rental properties do not

Fannie and Freddie Under Control

What does the news about the Federal Government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mean to Rochester area home buyers and sellers? The biggest immediate news is a significant drop in mortgage rates.

Home buyers Kerry Ryan and Joel Jensen have an accepted purchase offer on a property with a scheduled closing of October 15. Their inspections are done and mortgage commitment received two weeks

The Real Estate Dog

I lost my business partner this week. Tasha, our beloved Lab and Rottweiler mix, loved to sleep in my home office and so we nicknamed her "The Real Estate Dog." And she was so attuned to my routines that as I would prepare to leave for a business appointment, she would plant herself at the back door, wag her tail and plead to go with me."No, Tasha, I'm not selling dog houses today. You'll going

Open House Lima, NY

Come on by 2084 Michigan Ave in the Village of Lima for an open house at a sweet little ranch. Everything is updated.....new kitchen, new roof, new windows, new flooring and more, all for the price of $124,900.This property features 3 bedrooms on the first floor and one (possible two) in the walk-out lower level. Two full baths!The kitchen is super nice with lots of counter space and storage.

Sunflowers at Highland Park

I've been working with a number of families relocating to Rochester and they have suggested that I add some blogging posts about fun and/or unique spots to visit in Rochester. I've added a tag line of Discover Rochester so click on it for fun places to explore.If you are near Highland Park this summer, you may want to check out the sunflower patch that was planted near the corner of Goodman St

Getting “PUNCHY” about Great Real Estate Reads

While many people think that a home stager’s job is just to be glorified interior decorators... we actually do much more. So while making a home look good is important, a stager’s job typically begins with a much less glamorous task of putting together a Punch List of repair and maintenance tasks sellers need to complete prior to going to market.

So whether you are a home seller or a real estate blog reader, a Punch Lists can be of great value. These lists simplify, guide and direct us as to where we should focus and invest tour time and efforts. That is why I am calling my top 5 choices the “Punch List of Real Estate Do Reads” submitted for this week’s Carnival of Real Estate.

Making my top 5 list (in no special order) for this week are:

DO READ: “3 Bogus Real Estate Statistics - Know Them or Be Burned By Them” by Joe Manausa at Really Better Real Estate. I gotta admit I enjoyed Joe’s discussion on why he feels the 80/20 Rule, 153 Days is the average market time, and Average Selling Price is 97.3% of List Price are all bunk.

DO READ:  “Every House’s Value is Dropping Except Mine!” by Amy Bohutinsky at the Zillow Blog. Amy, I can only say “from your blog to seller’s ears!” Nice job.

DO READ:  “When Do Schools Start In St. Louis” by Karen Goodman at St. Louis Real Estate Insights. While I don’t live in St. Louis, I gotta admit I found Karen’s post to be quite interesting, and would venture to bet that what Karen notes as a trend in St. Louie takes place all over the country.

DO READ:  “Fannie Mae Adds New Risk-Based Pricing and ‘Adverse Market’ Fees for All Conforming Mortgage Applicants” by Dan Green at The Mortgage Reports. If you have read any of his past posts you know that Dan is as prolific as the title to this post of his is long.  In this post he shares great insight as to why he expects that loan-level pricing adjustments will continue to increase for a 5th and 6th time before 2009.

DO READ:  “How to Sell My House” by Surfer Sam at Surfer Sam Online. With each new day a new seller comes to market. Because this is so, the advice Sam offers never is old. In this post Sam does a nice job breaking get a home sold down to the basics.

I hope find my list of 5 my “to do” list of real estate blogs for this week informative. However, I gotta admit reading through all the posts submitted to the 103rd Edition of the Carnival of Real Estate left me a bit punchy. But I am glad to be a host... cause each week the Carnival points to something that expands my knowledge and understanding to the ever changing, complex and multifaceted world of real estate.

Blog on!
Me