Real Estate News
One interesting facet of travel is the time change; it is 8 hours later in Rome, so I find myself reading in bed around 7 PM and falling asleep sometime around 8 PM. The plus side is that I wake at 4 AM. As there are few distractions/interruptions, I get a lot done at 4 in the morning. Tonight will be interesting as I have a 7:30 commitment to the YWCA for a candlelight vigil. I hope I can stay awake!
Trying to catch up with the news:
Will this renovation project pay off at time of resale?
This is always a critical question, are you remodeling for yourself or do you want to "keep an eye" on resale? If you are moving in the next couple of years, you should keep hard surfaces neutral.
Mortgage Turmoil Hits Renters As Buildings Go Into Foreclosure
In the 90's I sold hundreds of foreclosures and unfortunately saw numerous tenants caught unaware that the homeowner was not be making the monthly payment. Typically delinquency notices are mailed to the homeowner, and I think only the final "10 Day Notice" is attached to the front door. What can a renter do to protect themselves? Prior to signing a lease and giving a deposit to the owner, contact a Realtor so that they can check with their Title Rep to determine if any Notices of Delinquency have been filed on the property. It would be tragic to be making payments to a landlord that is "pocketing" your rent.
FTC Complaint Filed Against Zillow.
Who doesn't have fun with Zillow? But if you ever thought that it was an accurate assessment of your home, think again. Unfortunately the "Zestimate" can not take into account location nuisances of the comparables. In addition other aspects of the home, such as updates (are they neutral and offer mass buyer appeal?), great/poor floorplan, and level back yard (rather than only taking into account total lot size); make this only a fun tool and nothing more. Typically I have found Zillow to be "fairly" accurate within 20%. I had fun with it after its initial inception, checking the "Zestimate" while in escrow, and sometimes it does arrive at a value off by less than 5%, but often as much as 20%. Ultimately, any property is simply worth only what a buyer will pay.
Categories: All about Money, Real Estate News, Homeowner's Benefits and Woes, Vacation, A Seller's Perspective
Please note the FTC issue is a non issue - http://www.zillowblog.com/arizona-sb1291-passes/2007/07/
Zestimates are a starting point, but are not a replacement for a CMA or appraisal by a local professional who has been to your home. Nationwide, our median margin of error is 7.2%. We're constantly focused on improving accuracy -- we'll be releasing an algorithm improvement within the next month or two that also takes owner edited facts into account (right now, we still base zestimates off of the public facts even if an owner has claimed the home and updated their home facts).
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Hi Drew, thanks for your comments. I am certain that in neighborhoods of tract homes that the zesstimates are more accurate. In most of our neighborhoods the homes are vastly different (even in the same block).
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