Real Estate Envy - Everything you want and more

All Blog Posts (14)

Search Blog Posts

Kari Johnson FHA MIP Increase

Effective for FHA loans for which the case number is assigned on or after April 5, 2010, FHA will collect an upfront mortgage insurance premium of 2.25 percent. This policy change will increase premiums for purchase money and refinance transactions. Continue

Added by Kari Johnson on January 21, 2010 at 3:14pm — 2 Comments

Karen Ramsey Fannie Mae Announces Deed-for-Lease Program...A Good Idea?

Announcement 09-33 introduces Deed-for-Lease™, a new option for qualified borrowers facing foreclosure (or their tenants) to remain in their home by signing a lease in connection with the voluntary transfer of the property to the lender through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure transaction. Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? Does this not put more bad debt on the banks, thus making it harder for qualified borrowers to get a loan, encourage defaulting, and more importantly, lead to the… Continue

Added by Karen Ramsey on November 19, 2009 at 6:30am — No Comments

Karen Ramsey House & Senate Approve Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension!

This afternoon, the House voted 403-12 in favor of extending the first-time homebuyer tax credit through April 30, 2010. Today’s vote was following Wednesday’s 98 to 0 approval of the bill in the Senate. The bill is now en route to President Obama’s desk, where it may be signed as early as tomorrow (Friday). The Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment inclu… Continue

Added by Karen Ramsey on November 5, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Karen Ramsey Strategic Foreclosure - A Business Decision?

That's a trickier question than you might assume, according to new research from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. The study found that 26% of the record numbers of home mortgage defaults across the country are "strategic" -- that is, calculated economic decisions to bail out of loans by owners who actually have the money to make the payments but can't handle the negative equity they're carrying caused by local prope… Continue

Added by Karen Ramsey on October 29, 2009 at 10:24pm — No Comments

Karen Ramsey The First Two Foreclosure Mediations for Loan Modification Have Been Scheduled

In an article issued by the Nevada Supreme Court website: "The first two mediations under the landmark Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program (FMP) have been scheduled for September 14. One of the program’s newly appointed mediators has scheduled the mediations to kick off the program that was created by the Nevada Legislature to help keep financially struggling Nevada residents in their homes. Both mediations involve homes in Las Vegas. Under the FMP rules, mediators who are assigned… Continue

Added by Karen Ramsey on August 29, 2009 at 11:56pm — No Comments

Elizabeth L. Quinn New Website for Obama's Housing Plan

Per CNNMoney.com, the goverment just set up a new website to help homeowner's get more information regarding the new plan to help stop foreclosures. The banks admitted they were not ready to start the process to help over 9 million homeowner's stay in their homes but this will help answer questions while we all our waiting for the banks to get set up and get the ball rolling on this. Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase have all stated they will participate in this program. There a… Continue

Added by Elizabeth L. Quinn on March 19, 2009 at 10:42am — No Comments

Karen Ramsey Is the Reno/Sparks real estate market taking an upward turn?

This was an interesting week in real estate. I was working with three different buyer clients this week. To my frustration, all of the homes we wrote offers on all ended up with multiple offers. The price ranges were from $200-350k. After further probing of our entire Reno/Sparks market, I found that almost everything that I have been following had gone pending. I also ran into some short sales that were either taken off the market or had a "tempory off market" status. When I called the agents f… Continue

Added by Karen Ramsey on March 15, 2009 at 8:35pm — No Comments

Elizabeth L. Quinn Vacant Homes and Water Damage

I have heard horror stories about vacant home being flooded or having water damage due to the cold winter months here but unfortunately, I just experienced it first hand. I have an offer on a bank owned property and even though the water had been turned off and the home was winterized it still happened. How? you ask, because the listing agent had the water company turn the water back on with no one there. When the plumber came out to de winterize the home, he noticed water leaking out of a wall… Continue

Added by Elizabeth L. Quinn on March 10, 2009 at 12:39pm — 1 Comment

Elizabeth L. Quinn Move Inc. and ActiveRain

There has been a lot of talk about Move Inc. and Active Rain recently, in fact just this morning I saw it it in the headlines again. I have also heard recently that Active Rain is now going to charge new bloggers and people that have not blogged in a long time a fee of $29.00 a month. With so many internet social media groups out there, I want to know how they expect people to pay for that especially during these tough times. I saw a poll where the question was being asked if agents would pay fo… Continue

Added by Elizabeth L. Quinn on March 10, 2009 at 12:38pm — No Comments

Elizabeth L. Quinn Effects of the Recession

Last week, Oprah had a show on the effects of the recession. Her main focus was Sacramento. Since the show, I have had a real hard time maybe because I realized the extent of the damage from this recession. This recession has hit many people I know very hard. Whether it be someone I know lost a job or they lost their home, this has effected so many people even divorce rates are up. In the show, the showed a series on "tent cities" and how they are now all over the city. There was a few brief int… Continue

Added by Elizabeth L. Quinn on March 10, 2009 at 12:36pm — No Comments

Elizabeth L. Quinn HomeGain Releases REALTOR Survey; What this means for the West Coast.

Today, HomeGain released their results of their REALTOR survey and according to HomeGain, sellers feel that REALTORS are telling them their homes are worth less than what sellers fell they are. It seems that sellers understand what has happened to the real estate market but they don't believe that it applies to their homes.( What a Surprise!) The survey also stated that REALTORS feel that this market will get worse for the next six months. For the West Coast, 37% of seller's feel their homes are… Continue

Added by Elizabeth L. Quinn on March 10, 2009 at 12:35pm — No Comments

Karen Ramsey FEMA Map Revision Affects South Meadows

The following is brought to you by The City of Reno website: Washoe County Gets New Flood Maps The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) just released new Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for Washoe County, including the incorporated City of Reno. The new flood maps are part of the transition from paper flood maps to digital flood maps under the Map Modernization program, a federally mandated program to update the nation’s fl… Continue

Added by Karen Ramsey on February 8, 2009 at 11:30pm — No Comments

Karen Ramsey Reno-Sparks Sales are UP!

Wow! What a way to end 2008. In what should historically be one of the slowest times of the year, Reno-Sparks pending sales were up 11% in December 2008! What does that mean, you ask? For starters, we saw the highest number of pending sales in over two years. That tells me that buyers who have been watching and waiting, are litterally falling off that fence and buying before are the good deals and good properies are gobbled up and they become one of those people who kick themselves saying sho… Continue

Added by Karen Ramsey on January 16, 2009 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Karen Ramsey Can you challenge your property taxes?

How can property taxes be on the rise with home values continuning on a downward spiral? Many property owners would like the answer to that question. According to a recent article on Time.com, it comes at no surprise that property tax appeals are on the rise. If you feel you are paying too much, the first step is to look at what your local assessor's office has valued your property at. You can find this information on your current tax bill, assessment notice, or your assessor's website. In many… Continue

Added by Karen Ramsey on January 15, 2009 at 1:34pm — 1 Comment

Featured Blog Posts

View All

Latest Blog Posts

Most Popular Blog Posts

Blog Topics by Tags

Monthly Archives

2010

2009

About

Karen Ramsey Karen Ramsey created this Ning Network.
Create a Ning Network! »

Investor Corner


Loopnet-Commercial Search

Today's Rates

Mortgage Calculators

© 2010   Created by Karen Ramsey on Ning.   Create a Ning Network!

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy  |  Terms of Service