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Archive for the 'Real Estate' Category

Real Estate Agents Manipulate Data

Saturday, December 2nd, 2006

This post on the Southern Maryland Housing Bubble News blog shows how easy it is for real estate agents to manipulate home data to deceive buyers. The blog has a photo showing how a local RE/Max agent doctored data to mislead buyers about the price of a recently sold house in addition to how [...]

Real Estate Propaganda

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

This article in South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel newspaper describes the National Association of Realtors’ unprecedented $40 million dollar ad campaign to encourage potential buyers sitting on the sidelines. The real reason for this comes out at the end of the short article:

‘Obviously, a lot of agents are hurting,’ said Larson. ‘When agents don’t sell homes, [...]

Sobering Video on Interest Only Loans

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

This little piece from ABC News, animated by Odd Todd, explains how interest only loans work and the pitfalls associated with them:

The video doesn’t mention the option ARM type of mortgage, where you have the option of paying less than the interest each month resulting in negative amortization.

Madison’s Condominium Glut

Sunday, October 22nd, 2006

My wife and I have been looking to buy a home since we moved to Madison seven months ago. A small condominium/townhouse complex on the eastern edge of the city has had two units for sale for the past seven months. This photo is of an intersection near the complex:

Sadly, none of the [...]

Bad Neighbor. Bad Neighbor.

Thursday, October 19th, 2006

I was looking at some real estate posts on the Internet and ran across this story about a guy pulling down and stealing the open house signs of his neighbors. An excerpt:

It’s now 1:55, and the Open House starts in 5 minutes. I question whether or not I should go down and check the [...]

Madison Real Estate 101

Monday, February 27th, 2006

My wife and I have real estate on our mind. After a few web searches, I found that there is a real estate website for Madison Wisconsin, FsboMadison, which has grown to dominate 20% of the market. The website allows potential buyers and sellers to find each other and avoid the high commisions [...]

Middle Class? Don’t expect to own a house.

Monday, July 11th, 2005

Our family lives in one of the hotter real estate markets in the United States. My wife and I are constantly amazed at what homes now cost in our area, and their prices continue to rise. A family now needs to make over $100K in New Jersey to afford a home, where the [...]