As 2016 comes to a close and I reflect on the reasons for various real estate transactions going into an adversarial mode, a couple of trends stand out: Real Estate Closings, despite centuries of experience and practice, can be complex monsters. . . and Dodd Frank and all previous attempts at consumer protection consistently…
Among the more common “creative financing” alternatives in Virginia are the “Contract for Deed”, or “Land Contract”, and the “Land Trust”. Creative financing often becomes necessary when you have a Seller very motivated to Sell, but who who has very little equity and does not want to do a Short Sale or rent the house…
Christine Parrish, Another Friend of our Firm submitted this very informative article article on Solar Energy, the Pros, Cons, and ways it affects the value of your real estate investment (Let us know if you’d like to submit an article to this blog for consideration and republication!) Dear Charlie, In many parts of the U.S.,…
One of the Friends of the Firm, Realtor Dale Hirst, posts this today: In case you didn’t notice yesterday, the FOMC (Federal Reserve chaired by Janet Yellen) raised rates .25% yesterday and said they expected to do so again 3 times in 2017. How does that effect you? For those who are already home owners,…
This year’s (11-8-16!!) ballot has the potential to be a little more complex than usual. In my city there is a referendum on Light Rail, a question on exempting widows of First Responders killed in the line of duty from real estate taxes, and a constitutional amendment on keeping Virginia a “Right to Work”…
The ever entertaining and thought provoking NREP (National Real Estate Post), formerly known as TBWS (Think Big Work Small) challenges our national leadership and loan regulators to promote home ownership by easing qualification regulations. /Shocking Zillow Renter Report The NREP blog also points out that the 50 year low in the home ownership index may…
For most divorces, a driving objective is closure. One or both of the parties has generally reached the state of being “over it”. Child custody, division of assets, and support issues are challenging. But there is another issue which can rain frustration on a divorce like a monsoon, and that is the disposition of real…
Kudos to one of our legal network affiliates of Attorney Short Sale Negotiators who answered this question as succinctly and accurately as you could ever ask: Should real estate agents negotiate short sales? No. Absolutely not. It is replete with legal issues, risks, deficiency issues (amounting to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of…
Newsflash! HUD (the Department of Housing and Urban Development) has declared June as National Home Ownership Month! Some believe the hype is a way of trying to generate better economic figures and arguments for the incumbent party to convince voters that the incumbent party deserves another four years in the White House. According to DS…
Recently, a client wrote us: “I am currently living in a condo in which my landlord was foreclosed on. We have been paying the condo fee, but haven’t heard anything from the bank. The bank has been in possession of the property for quite some time now and has never communicated with us in any…
