Reaping What We Sow By Tracy Eisnaugle Getting your hands dirty and relying on the earth can be just the inspiration that one needs to realize that with some hard work, patience and a lot of love you too can reap the rewards from your own garden full of fresh fruits and vegetables. Last February I decided to give gardening an honest try. As a certified over-planner and known germaphobe this was going to be a challenge for me, but I knew I had to get over all my internal dilemmas and just dig in. After some late fees on […]
Real Estate Investing For Baby Boomers By Jeff Riddell Last article, we discussed middle age real estate investing. Next is the 50-65 bracket—I’ll call them the baby boomers. In my opinion, this is the time to become more conservative in your real estate investing; and more diversified in your real estate holdings regardless of whether you are a beginner or long term investor. If you started your real estate investing career earlier while you were in the 20-35 bracket—or even in the 35-50 bracket—by now you have probably accumulated a pretty nice portfolio of real estate holdings such as houses, […]
RESPA/Regulation X Changes Information Courtesy Of C. J. Coury The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced significant revisions to the lending requirements under RESPA/Regulation X. These changes impact the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and HUD Settlement Statements (HUD-1 and HUD-1A) and will be effective with new first mortgage applications taken on or after January 1, 2010. These important regulatory changes will place new requirements on lenders to ensure that borrowers are better positioned to understand their mortgage transaction. Following is an overview of the four key changes associated with the new Regulation X requirements. 1. Good Faith […]
Desires, Goals And Dreams By Clifford M. Scholz In the steps that we use at CMSA in order to unfold the “Process” for our clients, the following step is the most subjective and most likely one of, if not the most important step in the “Process”. All of the steps are critical and important in creating a great final product, but this is undoubtedly, the one that will either make the creation the perfect solution for the client, or make it just another structure. This step is to understand the client’s desires, goals and dreams. We accomplish this understanding through […]
Middle Age Real Estate Investing By Jeff Riddell Last article we discussed real estate investing by young folks. But what if you are older and your time horizon shorter? Let’s discuss the 35 to 50 age bracket next—I’ll call it middle age. Although many people are well into real estate investing by the time they are in this age bracket, let’s assume you are just getting started. If you’re 40, you likely have at least 25 years before retirement; probably more because I believe the days of retiring by 65 are numbered. The entry strategy for this age bracket depends […]
Go Global – Coming to America By Pat Tan Many of us will remember the hilarious antics of Eddie Murphy in the film Coming to America, where he plays an African prince trying to understand the American way of life. As an international REALTOR®, I regularly work with individuals and families who wish to emigrate to U.S.A. and settle here. Having gone down that route myself in 1990s when we emigrated here from England, I try to make my clients’ journey as smooth as possible and find myself giving advice on many different matters. To emigrate to another country is […]
Ready Set Market Part II By Tracy Eisnaugle Last month we started discussing design consultation or staging techniques to assist in the process of getting your home or listings ready for the market. This month we will continue the discussion with additional tips and pointers remembering that our goal is to de-personalize and de-clutter the residence. Potential buyers need to be able to visualize their own style and furnishings in the potential home, if a home has too much stuff even if it is great stuff buyers can become overwhelmed and distracted. Here is a list of additional pointers to […]
Appraisal Reconsideration Requests – How To? By C. J. Coury In accordance with the new Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) lenders are no longer allowed to select the appraiser or question them on their evaluations. While this will certainly all but eliminate fraud in the evaluation process it has caused some new concerns for lenders and Real Estate professionals. Any time change occurs in our lives there is a certain learning curve that takes an unspecified amount of time to run its course. The HVCC is one of those changes that we must learn to navigate around while the […]
A Guide to Financial Fitness By Rhonda Coblentz Part one of a four-part series on your financial fitness. Imagine if you were as healthy and fit as…well, say, that guy you saw in the gym. You know, the one with the six-pack abs and the tan. Or that woman running on the beach. Sure, she was probably over 50, but she had the body of a woman half her age. Healthy, strong…she probably sleeps great at night. What’s her secret? How did he get started? More importantly, where do I begin in my own journey to fitness? A few quick […]
Why Does The Buyer Need A Survey? By Steven R. Greenberg Surveys are involved in almost every real estate transaction, except for transactions involving the sale of a condominium. The Contract for sale of real estate will give the Buyer a limited period of time to both obtain the survey and to put the Seller on written notice of any survey defects. A survey map depicts the shape and size of the lot and all improvements located on the lot. It should also show all setbacks, easements, and other matters observed by the surveyor. Of course, the survey map will […]
Site Characteristics For Southwest Florida Coastal Properties By Clifford Scholz CMSA has been designing residential and commercial properties on the coastal regions of Florida for the last 17 years. I personally, with partnerships prior to the formation of CMSA, have been designing coastal properties for approximately 30 years. I am fortunate to be involved in the development of these properties, as they are some of the most beautiful in the world. Coastal properties are also accompanied by ramifications with regard to guidelines from the federal, state, and local jurisdiction levels. These need to be followed very carefully and as a […]
Go Global Panama – Is it For You? By Pat Tan We often hear stories about attractively priced properties in Central America. Regular readers may remember my articles on Costa Rica, Belize and Mexico. Well now it’s the turn of Panama to come under the magnifying glass. Panama lies between Colombia and Costa Rica in Central America, forming a natural isthmian bridge between the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Settled by the Spanish in 1500s, and separated from Spain in 1821, Panama became a department of Columbia. With the support of the United […]
Ready Set Market – Part I By Tracy Eisnaugle Over time as we live in our homes we tend to accumulate clutter, adding the latest trends, attaining things we just have to have or gifts we didn’t necessarily ask for. Somehow we find the space and incorporate more and more into our homes. One of my professional duties is to provide design consultation services to real estate agents. Some people use the term staging, but I do not offer furniture or design services to my agents’ clients, eliminating any sales pressure for the homeowner. My goal is to assist the […]
Real Estate Investing For All Ages By Jeff Riddell In the next few articles, we’ll talk about the approach of different age groups to real estate investing. Let’s start with the 20-35 age group; let’s call them beginning wealth builders or BWBs. Unless they won the lottery or inherited a lot of money, BWBs are usually capital challenged. Most people in this age bracket are finding it difficult enough to make a down payment on a home, let alone enough to make an investment real estate down payment. But for those who have the discipline to swing it, this is […]
Understanding HVCC By C. J. Coury As you all know, the Federal government has now implemented the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (a.k.a. Appraisal Independence) and all lenders must adhere to it if they are going to sell the loan to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The rules, regulations and requirements do not apply to FHA or VA loans. The pressure that appraisers felt to hit a predetermined figure when appraising real estate is what ultimately led to this momentous change for our industry. We now must work our way through some new routines while we develop a clear understanding […]
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Monday, November 23, 2009
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