ToughGuy

As we enter the new year, we face the likely hood that it will be business as usual in the Real Estate market. According to Time Magazine , the new Case-Shiller housing numbers show that home prices dropped 3.7 percent from the year before.  The Case Shiller report also shows that home prices have dropped in 19 of the 20 cities tracked, making it clear that we’re still feeling the side effects of the Real Estate bubble that has made foreclosures and short sales the new normal in Real Estate... Read Full Story

When looking at the Real Estate market, we view it from the prism of the overall economy and its relation to the financial crisis. What many of us don’t look at is the psychological impact foreclosures and falling home prices have on homeowners. Read Full Story

For sometime now, Real Estate agents have been getting a bad rap. Realtors are lumped into the same group as used car salesman, which is not very flattering considering that buying or selling a home is one of the most important financial decisions a person can make. Read Full Story

One of the toughest things that a Realtor must go through is deciding whether or not they should work with a client.  What do I mean by this? Let me use an example. You have a client who contacts you because he’s interested in purchasing a home. Great! Further down the conversation after you ask him some questions you find out he’s pre-qualified for only $80,000. You learn that he is retired and has to rely on his social security  as income to purchase the property. Do you work with this... Read Full Story

Last Friday S&P downgraded the U.S’s credit rating from AAA to AA+  for the first time in history. Following the decision financial markets have been in turmoil as investors engage in a massive sell off that drove down the Dow Jones Industrial Average by as much as 600 points in just one trading day. Read Full Story

One of my hobbies is writing screenplays. I hope to turn this hobby into a career one day but for now it will just be something I keep myself busy with on weeknights. Anyway, I thought a great idea for a movie would be about Realtors combating an alien invasion. Yes I know there is already a movie called Cowboys Versus Aliens, but that is with cowboys! This time Realtors will save earth from Alien invaders. I can see it now. An alien spacecraft is coming in to fire it’s laser at an... Read Full Story

That’s an important question to ask yourself if you’re looking to get into the business. “Should I be a Realtor?” The Real Estate profession has certainly changed the past few years. We transitioned from a boom market to a distressed market that is forcing Realtors to either leave the business or try to do things differently in order to stay afloat. Being a Realtor is not an easy job, especially in this market. Read Full Story

Real Estate website Zillow is set to have its initial public offering(IPO) in the not so distant future. Zillow has already filed with the SEC and has set its IPO price at about $14 per share. Zillow, founded in 2006, has been an extremely popular tool for prospective buyers and sellers looking to do research in their respective markets.  Zillow has received over $32 million in venture capital and will likely be infused with more cash as we approach Zillows’ IPO. Is Zillow a worthy investment... Read Full Story

As I have mentioned in my previous blog, over 30% of Real Estate transactions nationwide are cash buyers. This percentage can increase if home values continue to fall.  If there is to be a recovery in the housing market, the recovery will be led by cash buyers. Cash buyers are a sign of a new economy. No longer can Americans afford to over-leverage themselves getting stuck with 15 or 30 year mortgages. Read Full Story

A recent article by USA Today reports that cash buyers make up 30% of existing homes sales. A good portion of cash are buyers are investors who are looking to take advantage of declining home prices. Others are buyers who a few years ago weren’t able to purchase property but now can as a result of attractive home prices. In areas like Las Vegas where the foreclosure rate is the highest in the nation, cash buyers make of 49% of the market. In other cities like Miami, 69% of buyers paid in cash... Read Full Story