Sometimes, trying to avoid the worst day to buy a home is simply impossible. Home buyers don't set out, as an ordinary rule, to buy a home on the worst day. Much of the time it's bad luck that lands them in that predicament. If buyers could pick the best day, it would be when nobody else is closing...

It won't go away. Jingle mail is a lingering phenomena in the United States, which is a direct result of the foreclosure crisis. Some home owners, terrified of pending foreclosure, decide to mail their house keys to the lender and move out. They call it "jingle mail" because the keys make a jingle-bell...

Buying a home in a seller's market is a lot tougher than buying a home in a buyer's market. It might seem to many home buyers across the country that the market has turned on a dime. One day they are reading about falling prices and a depressed real estate market, the next, multiple offers. What happened...

It's not true that Fed cuts reduce mortgage rates, regardless of how many times you hear it, says my personal expert, mortgage broker Dan Tharp. According to Mr. Tharp, when the Federal Reserve Bank announces a big reduction in rates, say, 50 basis points or more, that action can actually cause 30-year-fixed...

When dinosaurs roamed Earth in 1974, I got my start in the real estate industry. I took a job typing title policies for First American Title. The typewriter, believe ...Read Full Post

Spring is in full bloom in Sacramento, which makes May a perfect time to tour homes of East Sacramento and admire the delightful, whimsical spring gardens. It amazes me that many people think the capital of California is Los Angeles. Even in my adopted state of 35 million residents, some of them,...

In a market like we are in today, it's not unusual for home buyers to find themselves in situations where the seller of the home they want receives two offers on the house...Read Full Post

When home values fall, a home owner might start to think about whether it makes sense to walk away from a home. The scenario goes something like this: It's 2005. Dick and Jane have not saved any money for a down payment, but because market conditions are hot, and all their friends are using 100%...

I can tell sellers that a release of liability takes precedence over just about everything else in a short sale, but that advice often falls on deaf ears. That's probably because a release of liability seems insignificant to some sellers. They hear about all of the other benefits to doing a short sale...

This is a good time to be an REO agent, which I am not. In my real estate market in Sacramento, REOs (bank-owned homes) are receiving multiple offers. Sometimes, 10 ...Read Full Post