Real Estate Journal

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When going to buy or sell a home, your first step should be finding an honest and hard-working realtor. You can find a real estate agent by keeping an eye out for advertisements, calling your local real estate broker, or through the internet.

The role of a real estate agent is to represent your best interests in a real estate transaction. They work off of a commission, normally 6% of the sales price of the home. In most cases, that commission is split equally between the realtor representing the buyer and the realtor representing the seller. For a person buying a home, the service of the real estate agent is free, because commission is paid by the seller. The buyer, however, is responsible for most of the closing costs. The closing costs will be explained to you by your realtor and will be on the documents you sign when you go to the title company. Closing costs can also be negotiated on during the contract process.

Is non-refundable earnest money good or bad? Yo will say, it is terrific if you are a seller. But what if you are a buyer? It’s far less exciting if you are a buyer.

Sometimes, problems arise from the use of non-refundable earnest mone.

For instance, what if the home inspection shows significant problens that the seller did not disclose earlier? What if lender cannot fund the money anymore? What if the buyer can no longer qualify for financing or loses his or her job? What if the transaction fails by the specified date? What if the other party is injured or dies, or gets a divorce?

Well, these things happen!

So, it is up to the buyer and the seller to negotiate, if indeed the non-refundable money will still be considered as such.

Banks and other financial institutions usually auction off foreclosed assets. These are of two kinds: bank foreclosures and house auctions.

Most people think that real estate auctions are just for assets that banks or financial institutions have foreclosed. This is not always the case, though. There are times when owner-occupied properties also go on the auction block. This is best done when the property being sold is unique or difficult to sell. So rather than going to a realtor to have a property sold, the owners let the buyers pitch their best valuation in an auction!

Real estate investing is hard. Anytime you place your hard earned money into something, it’s a bit of risk. Is investing in the US real estate market, profitable these days? Not yet, but as it was reported before, this is just a cycle and the market will rise again.

In the meantime, check out the following tips in investing:

For those with poor credit history and those who cannot outright buy a residential property, the best selection for you would be the lease option. It’s like rent-to-own, but you’re still given the option to either rent or buy the property.
Here are the benefits:

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As we reported multiple times a few days ago, the US real estate market is down but not yet out. However, some companies see this event as an opportunity to do good things. For instance, the Los Angeles real estate firm, CB Richard Ellis just closed a $2.1 billion investment fund. The money will be used to buy properties nationwide.

Through this fund, the firm will be buying both properties that are only in need of minor repairs and those that need more improvements. The latter will fund real estate development.

CB Richard Ellis Investors is an independently operated affiliate of Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., the world’s largest real estate brokerage.

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The American real estate market has seen better days. As we mentioned last time, there were some big states whose real state value dropped remarkably based from the last two years.

However, like a proverbial silver lining, California Real Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi said:

“The market is cyclical, you know that,” he said. “There’s no quick fix. There’s no silver bullet.”

This was the strongest message he said yesterday in front of 300 members and guests of the San Diego Association of Realtors. We reported from the last post, that San Diego was one of the hardest hit by the dipping of the real estate value.

The commissioner also advises the vets to pair up with the greenhorn agents and that they should focus on the rising number of foreclosure properties because that is an opportunity for all.

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If you’re a real estate agent or broker in the US, then I guess you know what’s happening. 14 major cities has posted double-digit lows for single-family home values, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. It’s going to get worse as the home-values have been down 12% since December and a prediction that it’ll go down to 10% by the end of the year.

The biggest culprit for this downturn: rampant speculation on property values during the past several years. “The areas that have seen a huge amount of speculation…are the ones that got nailed,” says Blitzer. “The farther up prices went the farther down they’ve come.”

Listed below is the five most hard hit cities:

1. Las Vegas

2. Miami

3. Phoenix

4. Los Angeles

5. San Diego

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When it’s time to go, it’s time to go. However, it’s up to you on how you’ll go out. I’m talking about leaving the house because of foreclosure: are you leaving it with enough money or not? Naturally, you’d choose the latter, but how do you do that? You sell the house before the foreclosure date.

Here are some reasons why it is better top sell then borrow money to pay a debt:

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These days, real estate professionals have taken crash training and modules in real estate to better appreciate the procedures and to occupy a position in the growing real estate market segment. Despite the fact that there is an abrupt learning curve. A lot of real estate professionals who have joined the business in the past few years have experienced a losing-cycle in the market. There are policies that need to be understood and learned overnight though and the trick of the trade is to know and be fair to all sides especially if you are dealing with the sellers and buyers.