Real Estate - Karen's Perspective

Open House – it’s time!

Open door

If you’re planning to sell your home, it’s time to get ready for Open House.

The nicer weather is bringing people out and you want to have your home’s best face ready to be seen! Even if you’re not putting it on the market for another month, now is the time to be getting it ready. Here are some things you need to do:

1) Clean up the clutter! Clean out cabinets and closets. Throw out what you can; give away what can be passed on; box up what you want to keep that you won’t be using often. This gives your home a more open and airy feeling for buyers who will be coming through. It also gets you closer to being ready to move! Read this: Cleaning Out!

2) Clean up the yard. Get rid of all the winter debris – anything dead or dying. Rake the yard well and throw out new seed. Freshen up flower beds with bark or straw and plant flowering plants when the weather allows. Cut back overgrowth.

More Unique Ways to Sell Your Home

If you have a home for sale today, you’re not alone, by far!

How do you get your home to stand out so it will sell? First of all, read my post, Unique Ways to Sell a Home.

Then, listen to Barbara Corcoran on this Good Morning America video.

03 / 07 / 2010
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Real Estate Investing – Do You Need Training to Invest?

Do you need training to be a doctor? A teacher? A computer programmer? Have you ever started a job where someone didn’t show you what to do, even if its flipping burgers?

Of course you need training. I’m always amazed at the number of people who decide to make money buying real estate and insist they don’t need training. I guess its because you can buy any house that has a for sale sign in the yard and to sell it, all you need to do is put a for-sale-by-owner sign in the yard. But will you really make money that way? Consistently? Safely?

Real estate is a very expensive and very risky business. Even if you inherit a property and owe nothing on it, you still have costs like taxes, insurance, maintenance. If you decide to put in a tenant, you’d better be familiar with landlord-tenant laws which vary from state to state. And, you’ll need to know something about contract law. Its far better to learn ahead of time than to learn with a lawyer standing beside you and a judge seated in front of you.

HUD SAFE Mortgage Act

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new bill out there called the HUD SAFE Mortgage Act. From what I understand, it passed and became law in the summer of 2009, but states were given up to two years to implement the bill. This legislation makes Owner Financing illegal. If you are not a licensed broker, you will not be able to do owner financing.

This bill is huge. They are considering Lease to Own as a possible owner finance and, if determined to be so, this bill could immediately outlaw lease to own. So many buyers are not able to buy a home with traditional financing and this could eliminate options to those wanna be homeowners.

If you have ever purchased or sold a property using seller financing, you need to take a few moments to read the following message. After you have reviewed the information, send your comments to HUD per the instructions to help stop this devastating proposal. Please, get involved and make your voice heard. Please, help us Make a Difference.