Random Thoughts

I've been working on this blog and a few other internet ideas non-stop, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the past month or so. Maybe that doesn't sound like much, but previous to this adventure, I was just an internet user. I'm a complete developer neophyte. HTML, Java script, etc. are foreign languages to me. I might as well be deciphering the text from an ancient Egyptian tablet.

My blog here is still trying to find its identity. I've hooked it up with technorati and uploaded it to google. I even have a few (3) people who subscribed to my blogs feed. So the blog is out there a bit, and hopefully some of you reading this are blog and internet geniuses who will provide me with a few tips, ideas and strategies. And for others, such as people who simply use the internet for information, and/or are in the real estate or mortgage business, your advice would be invaluable as well.

I'm going to take a few days off to let my brain relax from everything digital, and allow my mind to catch up and process all the new information I've learned. Going to a friend's cabin, he and another buddy are up there deer hunting (tis the season). I didn't get my deer license this year, and they'll be a little surprised (and disappointed) that I'm not going hunting with them, but I'll enjoy the peace and quiet while they're out, watch some football games, read a book or two, and take nice, long naps. And when they get back, I'll enjoy all the camaraderie too.

Where the cabin is, there will be no internet, the cell phone barely works, and the tv comes in via satellite. No internet and phone for a few days will feel really good. And I'll be back to the project in a few days refreshed, and better than ever.

Thanks for stopping in and reading my blog. I'm excited about it, and grateful for having you as a visitor.

HOME: FIRE SAFETY

Pioneer Press

Article Last Updated: 11/09/2007 04:20:38 PM CST

Colder weather is upon us, and more people will be spending time indoors. According to the United States Fire Administration (part of the Department of Homeland Security), residential fires occur more often during the chillier months because of portable or area heating equipment, cooking equipment and cigarettes or other smoking materials.

With all these chances to spark a fire, here's a reminder to make sure your home is prepared to avoid a potential catastrophe. Here are some tips:

-- Check the batteries in your smoke detectors often and keep batteries on hand to replace them every six months.

-- Replace smoke detectors that are more than 10 years old.

-- Position detectors on every level of your home and near areas where your family sleeps, but away from heating and cooling ducts and at least six inches from where walls and ceilings meet.

-- Make sure everyone in your house can recognize the alarm sound.

-- Keep at least one fire extinguisher on each floor of your home, with extras near the kitchen, garage, laundry room and workshop.

-- Talk with your family about what to do in case of a fire. Have at least two ways out of your house, and be sure everyone knows them. Create a fire safety plan, with a designated meeting place, and practice the plan regularly.

- Courtney Sinner

Smaller change, bigger payoff

CHICAGO -- Homeowners interested in getting the biggest bang for their remodeling buck might want to shelve the idea of full-blown room remodels and instead opt for more practical replacement projects that reduce home-maintenance needs, increase energy efficiency or improve curb appeal, according to a report released this month.

Remodeling magazine's annual Cost vs. Value Report found that seven out of the top 11 projects that paid off the most at resale were replacement projects, said Sal Alfano, editorial director for the magazine. That includes window and siding replacements.

Also, minor remodeling of rooms are paying off more than expansive room improvements, according to the 2007 report. The report compares construction costs for common remodeling projects against the share of those costs recovered at resale, with projects broken down into "midrange" and "upscale" categories. National, regional and city data can be viewed at the magazine's Web site, costvalue.remodelingmagazine.com/index.html

This year, returns on remodeling projects are looking more modest -- and more normal -- than in years when the remodeling market was "white hot," Alfano said.

"The way I see it, we're getting back to normal here," he said.

From 2004 through 2006, some projects paid back returns between 90 percent and 100 percent of their costs -- and sometimes even more, prompting some improvements to be worth more at resale than the homeowner actually paid, he said. That was due to a rapid appreciation of housing prices as demand for housing was strong.

In fact, it wasn't uncommon to hear stories of people doing substantial improvements merely for the payoff at resale, said Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Today, however, there's been a shift to "do the things that make sense," Baker said.

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How I Finally Sold My House After 9 Months

Trying to sell a house these days is like watching a ticking financial clock.

As time passes, we sink more mortgage payments into a home that hasn't sold. I had almost given up hope of selling my home.

In fact, after eight months of trying, waiting and hoping a buyer would make an offer that would at least pay the home loan balance, I had decided to take a loss. It was a dramatic financial acceptance, especially after purchasing the home more than two years ago and expecting a return on that investment.

I remember making that decision on a Saturday night in early May. I planned to call my real estate agent on Monday to tell him.

But Sunday brought new hope. My agent surprised me with an early-morning phone call telling me that he expected an offer on the house that day.

To my surprise, I received another call from my agent less than two hours later. "We're getting a second offer today," he said.

If that's not enough, while reviewing the two offers that came in that Sunday afternoon, my agent called to tell me that a third potential buyer had expressed interest in the house.

By Monday, I had two offers, both of which could yield a small profit. At least one of them offered a $10,000 incentive.

I went from preparing to take a loss to making a small profit in less than 24 hours. So how did things turn around for my sale? What worked for me may not work for everyone, but it's worth a shot.

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Forecast: Resilient U.S. Economy Will Rebound

Newswise - Despite a slumping housing market, rising oil prices, flat auto sales, a weak U.S. dollar and waning consumer confidence, America's economy will not slip into recession, say University of Michigan economists.

"There is enough resilience in the economy to keep output expanding," said Saul Hymans, U-M professor emeritus of economics. "The Federal Reserve's recent action to contain the credit crisis stemming from problems in the subprime mortgage market appears to be averting the development of a system-wide credit crunch, and lower interest rates are lending support to economic activity."

In their annual forecast of the U.S. economy, Hymans and colleagues Joan Crary and Janet Wolfe say, however, that national economic output growth (as measured by real Gross Domestic Product) will remain sluggish in the short term---due to the ongoing decline in residential construction and subdued growth in consumer spending.

They say the rate of economic growth will be just 2.1 percent this year, down from 2.9 percent in 2006. But output growth will increase to 2.4 percent next year and accelerate to 3.4 percent in 2009.

U.S. Mortgage Rates Show Little Change

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. mortgage rates, buffeted by mixed economic signals, were basically flat this week, the Freddie Mac market survey said Thursday.

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.24 percent with an average 0.4 points, unchanged from last week.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 5.88 percent with an average 0.4 points, down from last week's 5.90 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 5.96 percent this week, with an average 0.4 points, up from last week's 5.89 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.50 percent this week with an average 0.5 points, unchanged from last week.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by the U.S. Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing.

Mortgage Applications Increase

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Mortgage applications in the U.S. rose last week as refinancing jumped to the highest level in more than two years and filings for purchases rebounded.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan increased 5.5 percent to 707.3, the highest this year. The group's refinancing gauge rose 6.4 percent and its purchase index climbed 4.8 percent.

Even with the rise, economists foresee little chance of recovery in the two-year housing slump until at least mid-2008, as stricter lending practices and a glut of unsold homes for sale prompt buyers to wait for further prices declines. A jump in subprime mortgage foreclosures could further weaken housing and the broader economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in congressional testimony last week.

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After the Housing Bust

THERE'S A SAYING whispered among grizzled real estate vets: Don't try to catch a falling knife. It's a tricky move, and if it's not timed perfectly, the results can be bloody.

The housing market's current woes are tied, in part, to potential buyers' fears of getting nicked. The national median home price is widely expected to decline this year, for the first time since 1950, but many forecasters believe that prices have further to fall — and nobody wants to buy a "bargain" house only to see its price keep sinking.

Anyone who's recently tried to sell a home, of course, has already felt the pain. The pace of sales slowed to an eight-year low in September, and rate cutting by the Fed isn't expected to turn things around very quickly. For starters, there's too much supply in the housing market. Homebuilders are sitting on 10 months of inventory, and the deluge of foreclosures, up 115% this year over 2006, only aggravates matters by flooding the market with cheap housing stock.

It all may sound like a real estate shopper's paradise, but it still has buyers wary. Wall Street's aversion to mortgage risk is shrinking the pool of potential buyers even among the affluent, by making it more costly to obtain jumbo mortgages, loans of more than $417,000 that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae won't guarantee. Jumbo rates typically run a quarter of a point higher than smaller loans, but the spread has exploded to close to a full point on average. On a $500,000 30-year mortgage, that point can cost an extra $125,000 or more over the life of the loan — erasing some of the savings a buyer might see from falling prices.

All real estate is local, of course, and not all the news is grim.

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Luxury Homes Selling as Briskly as Ever

WASHINGTON - What housing market crash?

That’s what the developers of a spectacular — and spectacularly expensive — luxury home community in Loudoun County are saying when they look at their sales log.

“Our goal this year was to sell 30 lots, and we’ve sold 26 so far,” said Robert Shiels, vice president of sales and marketing for Creighton Farms, which sits on 906 acres just west of Leesburg. An additional five home sites have been reserved, he said.

Creighton Farms, which started selling in January, offers buyers three- to six-acre lots, Ritz Carlton property management services and access to the community’s Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course for prices between $850,000 to $2 million, before monthly dues. That excludes the house, which is custom-built for a separate fee.

The development’s success is emblematic of a regional trend — as overall home sales lag, buyers and sellers dealing with the highest-end residences seem above the fray.

“The housing market slows down [at and below] the $2 million mark, but it doesn’t really affect the $3 million [homes and] on up — where Creighton farms is,” said Jim Brown, owner of local development company Creighton Enterprises. “At the income level they’re at, they’re a little bit immune to the downturn.”

Editors's Note: Link in the title doesn't function properly and has been removed. Please copy and paste the link below into your browser to get full story.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1045017~Luxury_homes_selling_as_briskly_as_ever.html

Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007

This week the House will debate H.R. 3915, the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007. It would amend the Truth in Lending Act to reform consumer mortgage practices, establish licensing and registration requirements for residential mortgage originators, and create minimum standards for consumer mortgage loans. Its passage would cost a little over $4 per U.S. family.

H.R. 3915

The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007

Costs $4.15 per family

What People Think: 12% For, 88% Against

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http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/110_HR_3915.html

Home Buyers Look for Smaller Options

A growing number of Americans are finding they have more home than they want or need.

The reasons are numerous. Baby boomers, 77 million strong, are looking to downsize in retirement. Young home buyers find it increasingly difficult to afford or maintain larger homes. Urban land is at a premium. Smaller homes in desirable neighborhoods are scarce or outlawed by covenant. And environmental concerns about a residence’s “carbon footprint” have further dampened enthusiasm for spacious showpieces.

In some cases, the small-house trend goes to the extreme Lilliputian end of the scale.

Jay Shafer lives quite comfortably in a 100-square-foot house in Sebastopol, Calif. You may have a tool shed or a master bath about the same size.

Shafer’s home is on the small end of a line of compact, ready-made dwellings he designs for his Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. His designs have won numerous awards for energy efficiency and green building. The homes cost between $20,000 and $48,000, excluding land.

Though many customers use them as vacation homes or mother-in-law cottages, there are those smaller-is-better devotees who, like Shafer, simply prefer to live within their means.

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Giving to Charity, Through Real Estate

SIDNEY AND ELISABETH GARVAIS had a lifetime of memories tied up in their second home, a small cottage on 4 ½ acres on Block Island, R.I. They paid around $20,000 for it in 1965, and used it for summer vacations and to entertain guests on weekends. Of course, it also turned out to be one of their best investments.

But when it came time to move on about three years ago — “the upkeep became too much; there was always brush to clear, stone walls to rebuild,” Mr. Garvais explained — there was no one to pass the property along to. (Simply cashing out would mean a sizable capital-gains tax.)

With no children and only one niece and one nephew, neither of whom cared to own the place, the Garvaises decided to give it to a charitable foundation. But the couple, both in their 80s and living in a senior community in Bloomfield, Conn., didn’t leave empty-handed. In return for turning over the property, which sold for $1.1 million, they receive monthly income and significant tax savings. At the same time, they remain content in knowing that their donation will help certain causes like health care reform.

From town houses to warehouses, just about any type of real estate asset can be donated to a qualified charitable organization, and estate planners say the gifts can be structured to provide tax benefits as well as income.

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