Buyers seeking multi family homes

According to several news articles, there is a dramatic spike in the real estate world, and

it’s not for the traditional. More and more potential homeowners and renters are seeking

out multi-family residences rather than single family. In fact, World Property Journal

reports the rise was 29.4% in multi-family properties and single family properties declined

by .9%.

Today’s generation has an affinity to seek living quarters in and around the city rather than

in a suburban neighborhood, and would much rather rent than buy according to the

reports of Christine Jordan Sexton at Realtor.org.

What are the benefits of renting the multi-family verses owning the single family?

Less worry over maintenance: yard work, appliance fixing, structural malfunctions are just

a few of the up sides to renting, that’s the land lords job to maintain and fix. Whereas with

owning your own property, the responsibility to fix things lands with you.

Living inside the city in a multi-family means less of a work commute and easy pedestrian

access to entertainment and take-out for the young who are not ready to settle down. It

also means easy access to hospital or emergency care.

However, there is no investment in renting as there is in owning. The hundreds of dollars

wasted every month in rent go into the pockets of the landlord, so when you decide to

move there’s nothing there for you. Owing your home means equity; a sold investment

even for a fluctuating market like real estate is always a better option.

To more information in this trend check out the full articles here at:

http://www.realtor.org/articles/the-rise-of-multifamily-housing-multiple-family-

residences-are-dominating-new-construction

http://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/real-estate-news/united-states/new-home-

construction-july-2015-housing-starts-us-department-of-housing-and-urban-

development-new-home-construction-nahb-david-crowe-9234.phpB

Solutions for Staying Safe With Social Media for Realtors & Other Professionals

Problem: Savvy real estate professionals like yourself frequently update your presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, because of the nature of your work, you are likely to have “friends,” followers, and connections whom you don’t know.

Solution: Following these basic steps can help you avoid exposing yourself or your data to risk through social media tools. It is vital to consider what you are sharing through the Internet!

Keep Business Separate

One way that you can make sure you are not revealing too much personal information is simple: set up a business account on each platform. Sure, anyone can figure out that Sally Field, REALTOR®, is the same person as Sally Field—but Sally will only accept requests to connect to strangers on the business account, whether Facebook or Twitter. Her personal account stays private (especially once she familiarizes herself with privacy settings), protecting her family photos, links to her kids’ pages, and personal posts from people she doesn’t know.

Tag... You’re It!

When a friend posts your photo, you may be “tagged” against your will. If you don’t want clients or others to find a reference like this—such as a less-than-flattering photo taken at a late night party—you can remove the tag and/or ask the person who posted it to do so. And be sure to follow up and ask friends to check first before tagging.

Don’t Give Away Passwords

Consider this: One way that hackers manage to crack personal passwords is by searching Facebook for easy answers. They know they may find answers to common security questions such as “What high school did you attend?” and “What are the names of your children?” So keep information about family members, household details, and past events to a minimum in order to help prevent this.

Guard Against Identity Theft

These days, anyone can find all kinds of personal information about anyone else. That doesn’t mean you have to make it easy! For example, if you who want to post your birthday, don’t include the year. (And delete any public comments that indicate their exact age.)

Tweets Are Forever

Social media usage has an impact on your safety, as well as your reputation. Carefully consider each item you share, and be aware that old posts, even if they’ve been deleted, may be copied or saved—and the Library of Congress is actually recording every single Tweet.

As a savvy real estate professional, you can maximize the business-building potential of social media while minimizing the unique risks it poses. Just follow these basic steps to help safeguard yourself, your data, and your reputation.

To learn about more safety strategies, and access free safety resources, including safety expert Andrew Wooten’s webinar Social Media and Cyber Safety, visitwww.REALTOR.org/Safety.

(Sources: Andrew Wooten’s REALTOR® Safety webinarSocial Media and Cyber Safety; www.ftc.gov/infosecurity)

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Get Smart And Follow These Tips On Selling Real Estate

 When you decide to sell your property, you get what you put into the process. The sellers who is most informed and educated will often reap the best in real estate arm themselves with information.This article has many tips and methods to ensure you become smarter about real-estate selling.

Make sure all the rooms in your home are well-lit before inviting potential buyers for a viewing. A well-lit home will not only appear larger, and will put buyers at ease about potential problems in a home that is darkly lit.You may see more interested buyers if you turned on the lights.

If you are going to resell your home, you should look at it as a valuable commodity and take better care of it than you would your own home. This allows you break your expectations and negotiations once you the ability to market it to its fullest extent.

Use as many different channels as necessary to find or market your real estate. You will want to exercise every option available in order to achieve the avenues that are open to help you find the success you are seeking.

Try to sell your old house before moving to your new one if possible. It can be extremely difficult to keep up payments on two residences while waiting to obtain a buyer for your previous home.

A newer investor will likely to learn the hard way that there are serious downsides to being new to the game.

Clean up your yard to boost your home for sale. Things like busted fences, like broken fences, overgrown plants, giant compost heaps and dingy garden furniture can quickly turn off potential buyers and lower the overall value of the property.

Select a real estate agent with care before selling your home.You should know that your agent you are working with knows what they are doing. An experienced real estate agent with good credentials will make your transactions run more smoothly and at the best price.

Price your home fairly to save yourself time and trouble.

Get rid of the clutter if you show your home.

Just by making some small updates to your kitchen you can have a big impact on the value of your home. You may want to switch out one appliance to update the look and provide a focal point. It's quite expensive to install new kitchen cabinets, so try repainting them for a new look.

The little efforts involved in keeping up with painting, painting, and other small repairs can be a bother for many homeowners. However, if you don't keep these items up to date, the home will require a great deal of work and expense before it is ready to sell.

New flooring could be an expensive investment in which you won't be able to enjoy it.Instead, just do a thorough cleaning of the existing flooring, so that they do not reflect negatively on the house.

Once the interior is ready, try going outside and walking around to check the exterior of the house. Focus on your home's "curb appeal." The exterior of your house must create a good impression on the home will make or she approaches your house for the buyer's first time. If you see problems that would put potential buyers off, then you want it taken care of as soon as possible.

written b
y: Clark Kasun

Home Prices up in 41 states

• FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Agency) price data shows that home prices across the United States rose 6.7 percent from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013. In 41 states and the District of Columbia prices were higher than the fourth quarter of 2012, and from one year ago the District and all states except Connecticut and West Virginia showed higher prices. In Connecticut and West Virginia, prices were weaker by less than one percent.
• Price gains were largest in the West. Nevada, Arizona, California, and Idaho each saw gains exceeding 15 percent from one year ago. The map above shows the breakout of annual gains for each state.
• Nationally, prices rose 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter. Note that this is seasonally adjusted, but not annualized, meaning that if prices continue to gain at this pace, it would imply an 8 percent gain for home prices nationally in the course of a year.
• FHFA uses a weighted repeat sales index that compares the prices of properties that involve a conforming conventional mortgage purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Thus, the FHFA index is based on a broad geographical sample of home transactions, though it misses out on transactions involving cash, jumbo or FHA/VA loans. In spite of this limitation, its price trend is usually similar to that of other price measures.