Reverse mortgages and the new housing bill
July 29th, 2008 categories: Buyer Tips, Financing, Seller Tips
Reverse mortgages are for older homeowners - the owners are allowed to mortgage their home for cash or for monthly income, all according to a formula based on the owners ages and the home value. The lender does not need to be repaid as long as the borrower continues to live in the house.
One of the provisions in the housing bill just approved by Congress, awaiting President Bush’s signature, is an increase in the maximum mortgage amount for a reverse mortgage - it is more than doubling to $417,000. In some high cost areas of the country the amount can be as high as $625,000.
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Is your agent internet savvy? Google them.
June 23rd, 2008 categories: Buyer Tips, Seller Tips
Many real estate agents will tell you that they post lots of places on the internet and that they’re internet savvy. Why not check them out? Just google them (go to the google search box, enter their name, and hit enter). This isn’t the only way to check, of course, but when one agent has 86,600 links and another one has 346 links, that should tell you to check further. Unfortunately, this can be complicated when the agent you’re checking has a common name and the number of references refer to more than one person.
As Bill Gassett said:
** In the Real Estate world it is crucial to have an online presence. I know if I was selling my home I would not want to be using a “secret agent”. I would want someone in my corner who knew how to expose my home to the masses online. One of the easiest ways to see if a Realtor will do a good job marketing a home is to see if they have a good online presence.
This can be accomplished by Googling a Realtors name. There should be pages and pages of results!! If you Google a Real Estate agents name and don’t come up with much information it means they don’t know how or have not invested the time to market themselves on the internet. If they don’t know to market themselves, how could you possible expect them to do a good job marketing your home?
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