Rental rates climb as sale prices dip

Rental listing prices nationwide jumped 7.4 percent in the last year while for sale listing prices dropped 8.8 percent, according to a report from property search site HotPads.

The report is based on listings active on HotPads in April 2010 and April 2011. First-quarter data shows a reversal of the broader trend -- rental prices fell 1.8 percent and sale price rose 3.5 percent -- but the report emphasized that the first-quarter trend is likely attributed to seasonal patterns in the housing market.

"We predict investors looking to ride the rental upswing will continue renting properties and will wait for home values to appreciate," the report said.

"Increasing demand for rental properties is an indicator of a growing preference for low-risk housing options, which is closely linked to the broader economic uncertainty." 

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Snag real estate bargains in post-bubble market

Book Review
Title: "Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price"
Author: Adam Leitman Bailey
Publisher: Wiley, 2011; 230 pages; $19.95

I'm a (recovering) attorney myself, so I feel at liberty to point out that most people think their encounters with lawyers will cost them money, and lots of it. New York real estate lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey aims to disabuse homebuyers of this belief by revealing his insider secrets for saving money on their homes.

With his new book, "Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price," Bailey offers a stripped-down, fluff-free set of anecdotes and action steps culled from his own daily work as a real estate attorney, homeowner and real estate investor.

In New York, where Bailey practices, attorneys are much more involved in the nitty-gritty details of effective real estate transactions than in states where the brokers and escrow providers do this work and attorneys are rarely retained for basic real estate transactions.

As a result, Bailey's advice does not focus only on legally complex deals, but rather on helping everyday homebuyers get the best price for the best home they can in "regular" old everyday real estate deals.

These days, those can include distressed sales, short sales, foreclosure auctions and bank-owned property sales.

Bailey does cover some unorthodox transaction types, like seller financing (which, by the way, should involve an attorney no matter where they take place). And, notwithstanding the book's title, Bailey is not afraid to give readers valid advice on how to get a great deal in these sorts of situations, even when "a great deal" doesn't necessarily mean getting a home dirt cheap.

For example, Bailey cautions against a "have your cake (seller financing) and eat it, too (low, low price)" approach, if you want to successfully negotiate for a seller to carry your financing. "Remember," Bailey advises, "you are asking the owner to give you the property in return for future payments, and you are attempting to obtain homeownership that you would not otherwise be able to afford. For such benefits, offer to pay at least the asking price -- if not more -- in order to seal the deal."

This is just one of numerous instances in which Bailey tells buyers what they need to know to be successful in this post-bubble real estate market, rather than telling them what they want to hear. He does a great job of this when it comes to affordability issues, as well, explaining that while homes are highly affordable now, if you do the math (which he sketches out for you) and ownership is not affordable for you, Bailey advises to keep saving until you can better handle the costs.

But for the most part, Bailey tells buyers things they both want and need to know. He provides many examples of his own personal clients who have used various money-saving strategies successfully.

He offers truly usable tips about how to manage your inspections to both get you the information you need to know about the property and the documentation to support your negotiations for repairs or price reductions with the home seller, if that's the route you're going.

Compared with writers who tout making lowball offers or buying the very worst of the worst properties as the way to get a good deal on today's market, Bailey's methods are both vastly more creative and reality-based, if very slightly overindexed around East Coast real estate standard practices and issues, like co-op boards and home engineers.

Tell the seller what your price is, and ask for a call back when the seller drops the list price into that ballpark, Bailey advises. Provide deep documentation of the comparables and the rationale underlying your counteroffer, he says, and then walk away from the negotiation for two to three days. Learn -- and remember -- details about the seller's family and their lives, and endear yourself to them.

These suggestions may sound like too much work for today's so-called buyer's market, but I am personally witnessing these exact strategies work, right now, as employed by very experienced investors and savvy homebuyers who are getting amazing deals they otherwise would not.

"Finding the Uncommon Deal" is not a super-fancy book. It doesn't have tricks and DVDs and swanky design elements (though it does have the occasional sidebar with a story about Bailey's own personal real estate dealings, or those of his clients).

There are no cute acronyms or fancy websites with downloadable doodads. What this book does have is very savvy advice from the basic (understanding the costs of homeownership and qualifying for the best rates) to the advanced (e.g., logistics of buying a home at auction) for the entire process (from the rent-vs.-buy decision to closing), which will stand homebuyers in good stead as they seek out an uncommonly good deal in this uncommonly complex, post-bubble real estate market.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of "The Savvy Woman's Homebuying Handbook" and "Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions." Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.

Copyright 2011 Tara-Nicholle NelsonAll rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.

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Real estate buyers: protect us from ourselves

Over the last seven weeks we've taken a tour through the psyche of real estate consumers -- a group that includes each of us, really, who pays for a place to live.

We have explored how the various investor desires, motivations and values illuminated in Meir Statman's new business classic-to-be, "What Investors Really Want: Discover What Drives Investor Behavior and Make Smarter Financial Decisions," play out in our real-life real estate decisions.

We've seen that just as stock market investors want to win and not lose, want status, and exercise the highly fallible -- though sometimes useful -- form of psychological bookkeeping known as mental accounting, so do buyers, sellers, homeowners and sometimes even renters.

For the most part, we've explored the substance of what we want, rather than the process of how we want it. But there are real desires we, the human race, have when it comes to the "how" around our financial decisions, real estate and otherwise; Statman calls some of them out when he declares that investors really "want education, advice and protection."

Statman compiles meaty evidentiary proof of this declaration from facts like:

the massive investor interest in culling investment information from the Internet;the fact that financial literacy is a prerequisite for achieving the prosperity most of us crave;the cyclical ebb and flow of cravings for the government's protection of us -- largely from ourselves -- via regulation of how deeply we can leverage our own interests and how much advantage can be taken by financial predators; andthe vast desire investors have for financial advice, including the paid advice of professional advisers, but especially the free sort they trade with each other on personal finance blogs and Internet forums.

The world of real estate has not only gone through these same trends, but I submit that the pudding in which lives the proof that consumers want information and education, advice and protection is thicker when it comes to real estate than in virtually any other sector.

To wit: the evolution of real estate on the Web. Once upon a time, homebuyers had to consult an agent, who had to consult a paper book that was delivered only to agents, just to find out which homes were for sale, their prices and other details.

In response to an ever-escalating consumer clamor for this information, multiple sites now make every detail about a home -- from whether or not it's for sale; to its price; to its number of bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet; to when it was last sold and for how much; to what it's supposedly worth -- available to anyone, anytime, anywhere, all in a couple of clicks.

Anyone can see a ground-level street view of the vast majority of homes in America, what people think of the neighborhood, even whether a home's owners are behind on their mortgage or have received a foreclosure notice: click, click, click.

Wanna see pics of Nicolas Cage's house? Click here. Heard a "Real Housewife" was in foreclosure and just need to know? Click. Their gilt Rococoed, leopard-printed, McMansioned domestic world is your virtual, visual oyster (for better or for worse).

And virtually all the same sites that have made this information available in response to popular demand also feed consumer cravings for education and advice.

Most offer basic briefings on various real estate issues; virtually all of them offer education/advice hybrids by offering connections to real estate brokers and agents and discussion communities in which anyone can ask a question and get a first, second and 44th opinion from local agents not-so-covertly vying for (a) the asker's business, and/or (b) the opportunity to exhibit local knowledge and professional expertise -- not just to the asker, but to prospective clients searching for them or the subject matter on the Web in perpetuity.

(And, lest I forget, those who ask their urgent real estate questions on these communities will frequently get an answer or so from another consumer -- usually a cranky, anonymous one whose advice generally runs along one of three veins: (a) agents and mortgage brokers suck, (b) homeownership sucks, and/or (c) the government sucks. Not so nuanced, and not so helpful, but a clear case in point that some consumers not only want advice -- they also want to give it.)

Even offline, it's not at all bizarre for today's home sellers to interview three or four prospective listing agents to gather advice and opinions, and every buyer's broker has heard a client recount the real estate advice they have been given by their hairdresser, veterinarian, barista or ob-gyn.

Education, information, advice -- consumer cravings for these are clear -- but protection is a little more complicated. In "What Investors Really Want," Statman writes: "Our desire for paternalistic protection from ourselves and others increases when we experience the sad consequences of our own behavior or the behavior of others."

It is on this topic that Statman makes one of only a handful of "What Investors Really Want" references to real estate, making the hindsight observation that regulation limiting homeowners' ability to leverage their own homes might have made sense, given the woeful consequences of overleveraging (i.e., the foreclosure crisis which is currently at four years and running).

Translation: We don't want the government to limit our ability to mortgage our homes when values are skyrocketing, because we want to be able to max out the house we can buy for the money.

But when those adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) start adjusting, our maxed-out neighbors start walking away and the resulting foreclosures cause property values to plummet, while our craving for government protection from predatory lenders, liar's loans and confusing boilerplate loan docs takes a steep uptick.

Do real estate consumers crave information, education and advice just as much -- maybe even more -- than traded-asset investors? Absolutely. And just like stock investors, housing consumers also want government protection from lenders, mortgage brokers, agents and themselves, after their own decisions have spanked them with the consequences of a largely unregulated mortgage market. What remains to be seen is how long the desire for protection will last.

I suspect it will last as long as home values are low and rates of foreclosure and negative equity are high. But I hope that the lessons from this national tragedy -- massive losses in wealth, jobs and families' homes and health -- including the need for more intense mortgage market regulation, do not disappear when property values start to make a comeback.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of "The Savvy Woman's Homebuying Handbook" and "Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions." Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.

Copyright 2011 Tara-Nicholle NelsonAll rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.

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A minefield of mortgage charges: What's 'nonshopable'?

Last week I discussed the various mortgage charges for which borrowers could shop. It is also important for mortgage borrowers to know the charges they can't shop, if only to avoid wasting time trying to shop or negotiate them.

Private mortgage insurance (PMI): On a conventional (not a Federal Housing Administration-insured or Department of Veteran's Affairs-insured) mortgage, you are required to purchase PMI if you put less than 20 percent down on a purchase, or have less than 20 percent equity on a refinance. Because the insurer is selected by the lender, PMI has never been "shopable" by the borrower, who pays the premium quoted by the lender.

This will change in a few months when a major mortgage insurer will be quoting premium rates on my website. The quotes will cover both monthly premiums and single premiums financed in the mortgage, offering borrowers a choice they do not now have. Until then, however, PMI will remain "unshopable."

Appraisal: On most mortgage loans, lenders require that the property be appraised in order to make sure that the purchaser is not overpaying, or that a refinancing borrower has the equity (value less loan balance) that is required. The appraisal company is selected by the lender and paid by the borrower. The fee generally ranges from $300 to $600.

Recording fee: This is a fee paid to a local governmental entity to record the mortgage or deed of trust, and title documents, in an official registry. The fee is whatever the entity charges. While it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, it is never negotiable.

State and local transaction taxes: These taxes may cover the mortgage transaction, the property transaction or both. They vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but are never negotiable. They are what they are.

Escrows: Lenders generally require that an escrow account be established with funds the borrower provides at closing, from which the lender makes payments for property taxes and homeowners insurance as they come due. Lenders usually get to keep the interest on escrow accounts. Borrowers can usually opt out of this requirement if they pay a special fee, called "waiver of escrow."

Since lenders have an incentive to make the escrows as large as possible -- they keep the interest on the account -- the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has imposed a ceiling on the size of escrow accounts, which in turn limits the amount the lender can ask the borrower to deposit at closing.

If you know your property taxes and insurance premium, you can calculate the required escrow at closing by following the procedure at "How Do I Figure Escrows?" on my website.

Keep in mind that the escrow deposit continues to be your money, can be used only to pay your debts, and any unused portion will be returned to you when you pay off the mortgage.

Daily interest: Because mortgage payments are due on the first day of a month, regardless of when the loan is closed and funded, borrowers must pay interest for the period between the funding date and the first day of the following month.

The amount of daily interest due at closing is calculated by dividing the annual rate by 360 to get a daily rate, multiplying this by the loan amount to get the daily interest, and multiplying that by the number of days for which interest is due.

For example, the loan is for $200,000 at 5 percent and it is funded on April 16, which requires an interest payment for the 15 days until May 1. The daily interest is thus 0.05 divided by 360, then multiplied by 200,000. That equals $27.78. Multiply that total by 15, and you get: $416.70.

Why 360 days rather than 365? No justifiable reason. It is a self-serving convention of the industry that has never been challenged by regulators. It is of no interest to class-action lawyers because the amounts involved have been so small. Using a 365-day year in the example, the amount comes to $410.96, for a difference of $5.74.

The writer is professor of finance emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Comments and questions can be left at www.mtgprofessor.com.

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Top issues that derail real estate closings

It can take weeks for an offer to be ratified. Buyers and sellers often counter back and forth for weeks before reaching mutual agreement on both price and terms. In this case, it's a good idea to re-evaluate the closing date in the contract before inking the final agreement.

Some buyers make offers that propose closing a certain number of days from acceptance of the contract, often 30 days. Even if you negotiate for a month, you will have 30 days, or whatever number of days agreed to in the contract, to arrange financing, complete inspections and close the transaction.

However, sometimes closing is to occur on a specific date, say June 1. If you start negotiating on May 1 and it takes a couple of weeks to arrive at agreement, you may not be able to close on time if you need a mortgage. It's best to modify the closing date in writing at the time you go into contract.

One of the main reasons transactions don't close on time is the mortgage approval process. Even though you may be preapproved by a lender, you will still need to provide additional documentation to satisfy today's underwriters who scrutinize buyers' finances zealously.

HOUSE HUNTING TIP: Be aware that you will be asked to document where the funds for the down payment and closing costs came from. It's not enough to produce a cashier's check or wire for the amount of cash necessary to close. You must verify the source of the funds in writing for the lender.

One buyer who had more than enough cash to close the sale decided to send money for closing from several different accounts, rather the one account that she said she'd draw on. This required additional documentation at the last minute from each institution that transferred money to close the sale.

Lenders not only scrutinize the buyer's financial wherewithal before they approve a mortgage, they also examine the preliminary title and appraisal reports for the property. Sellers should have a look at a preliminary title report on their property before they put their home on the market to make sure there aren't any irregularities. If there are, they can attempt to clear these up before the home goes on the market. Your real estate agent or attorney can help you with this.

Appraisals have not only delayed closings in recent years, they have caused some transactions to fail when the appraisal came in low and the buyers and sellers were unable to negotiate a satisfactory resolution. If the buyers need to switch to a different lender whose appraiser might have a different opinion of the value of the property, this will take time and can delay closing.

It's also possible that an appraisal could come in so much under the contract price that the seller might not be in a position to close the sale. For example, if the property is listed for $1.5 million and the sellers owe $1.4 million, they could have a problem if the property appraised for $1.4 million or less.

Some buyers don't want to pay more than the appraised value in this market. In this case, the sellers would have to be willing and able to bring enough cash to closing to cover their closing costs and any amount they might owe the lender. If the sellers were not in a position to do so, the sale becomes a short sale and would require lender approval.

A short sale, as defined by the National Association of Realtors, is "a sales transaction in which the seller's mortgage lender agrees to accept a payoff of less than the balance due on the loan."

THE CLOSING: Short sales take time, which might be worth the wait if you are committed to buying the home at the right price.

Dian Hymer, a real estate broker with more than 30 years' experience, is a nationally syndicated real estate columnist and author of "House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers" and "Starting Out, The Complete Home Buyer's Guide."

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FHA backing energy efficiency retrofits

The Federal Housing Administration has signed up 18 lenders to participate in a pilot program that offers homeowners "PowerSaver" loans of up to $25,000 to make their homes more energy efficient.

About 30,000 homeowners are expected to qualify for the loans by installing insulation, duct sealing, replacement doors and windows, HVAC systems, water heaters, solar panels, and geothermal systems.

Homeowners must have good credit, manageable debt, and at least some equity in their home. FHA mortgage insurance will cover up to 90 percent of the loan amount, with lenders retaining the remaining risk to encourage responsible underwriting and lending standards.

Lenders currently participating in the PowerSaver are Admirals Bank; AFC First Financial Corp.; Bank of Colorado; the City of Boise, Idaho; Energy Finance Solutions; Enterprise Cascadia; HomeStreet Bank; Neighbor's Financial Corp.; Paramount Equity Mortgage Inc.; Quicken Loans; SOFCU Community Credit Union; Stonegate Mortgage Corp.; Sun West Mortgage Co. Inc.; The Bank at Broadmoor; University of Virginia Community Credit Union Inc.; Viewtech Financial Services Inc.; WinTrust Mortgage; and W. J. Bradley Mortgage Capital Corp.

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Fannie, Freddie, FHA under fire

It has been a quiet week in the markets, shortened by Good Friday. Oh, Standard & Poor's created a tempest with its threat to the AAA rating of Treasurys, but as the week wore on, more and more people asked, "How would they know?"

Stocks regained all losses, but Treasury bond yields stayed low, the 10-year at 3.39 percent and mortgages under 5 percent.

Bill Gross, famously dumping all of PIMCO's Treasurys last month, has lost money on the trade. A federal budget deal is now likely; Europe is in trouble (again, Greek 2-year bonds paying 22 percent), and domestic data is weakening.

Sales of new and existing homes are flat, but distressed inventory is rising. The Federal Housing Finance Agency found that home prices fell 1 percent in January and another 1.6 percent in February.

The fascinating thing about housing, now: it's no longer news. It's so yesterday, boring. For seven months, media attention has focused on "Foreclosure Gate," the so-called robo-signing scandal in which some loan servicers allegedly foreclosed on some innocent homeowners.

The reality is clear now, as then: Some servicers have mistreated borrowers by inattention, finding a work-around for the antiquated local-level foreclosure procedures. Servicers will be fined and newly regulated.

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10 cities with top schools: a range of real estate prices

10 cities with top schools: a range of real estate prices | Inman News@import "/files/css/b991d32ba87b8ea15796948ae043e143.css"; Join Inman News! Sign InShopping CartHomeNewsVideoConnect VideosInman TVAgent RebootPodcastsWebinarsFOREMCommunityMainMembersGroupsJob SearchOpinionColumnistsMainCategoriesBiographiesQ & ADirectoryConferencesAgent RebootReal Estate ConnectStoreReportsMediaMembershipColumnist ReportsAbout UsMainAdvertisingAd SpecsAudienceContent channelsProductsTestimonialsAdvertising InquirySyndicationExamples of Content SyndicationMeet Inman News ColumnistsPublish Our Content in PrintToolbox ReviewSyndication InquiryMembershipCareersContactNewsFree Daily HeadlinesRSS Feeds Syndication Home10 cities with top schools: a range of real estate pricesReport: Median home value runs from $148K to $1.3MBy Inman News, Tuesday, April 26, 2011.Inman News™

cwwycoff1." title="Pella, Iowa. Flickr image courtesy of cwwycoff1." />Pella, Iowa. Flickr image courtesy of cwwycoff1.

A list of the nation's top 10 cities with top-performing public schools challenges the idea that the best schools can only be found in the most expensive housing markets, announced a report from school ratings site GreatSchools and business magazine Forbes.com.

"The two biggest life stage decisions a family makes are finding a great place to live and excellent schools for their kids," said Bill Jackson, CEO and president of GreatSchools, in a statement.

"Great schools exist within every housing budget. This is good news to Realtors who want to help their clients when relocating to a new area," the report added. 

The Northeast, the West and the South each accounted for three cities in the top 10 list. The Midwest accounted for one. That city, Pella, Iowa, had the lowest median home value among the ten: $148,200. Manhattan Beach, Calif. had the highest: $1,278,980.

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Ron Paul Seizing Power of the Internet to Sell His Home

Source: Esquire Magazine

Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) has long been an advocate of people doing things for themselves — in politics or elsewhere, so it’s not surprising that he’s selling his house via the Internet without a real estate agent or broker.

The two-time presidential candidate is selling his home in Lake Jackson, TX for $325,000, perhaps in preparation to make a third attempt at the White House. According to the National Journal, Paul is expected to announce his presidential candidacy today.

He first announced the sale on his Facebook page, directing people to BuyRonPaulsHouse.com:

Carol and I are selling the house we lived in for over 40 years. If you or someone you know is moving to the Houston/Galveston/Lake Jackson area, they can get more information through this website.”

Ron Paul’s home (pictured in Google’s Street View, above) is a typical single-family Texas home and contains 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and has a pool, office, and craft room. Built in 1958, it’s a total of 5,500 square feet and is sited on nearly half an acre. What sets this piece of Lake Jackson real estate apart however, is Paul’s selling point:

Great house and a great piece of history. The same home-office Dr. Paul used for 42 years. Generations of Liberty loving kids have grown up here, and you can continue the tradition.”

Located less than an hour from Houston and 10 minutes to Surfside Beach, homes in Lake Jackson have a median list price of $139,800.

Source: BuyRonPaulsHouse.com

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Fit for a (Future) King! See U.S. Homes Ideal for Royal Couple Will and Kate

Source: London Evening Standard

It’s one of the biggest events of the year and it’s not even happening in the U.S. Britain’s royal couple Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married Friday, April 29 at 11 a.m. United Kingdom time. (For Americans, live coverage begins at 4 a.m. ET).

The couple will continue to live on the Welsh island of Anglesey where William is a search and rescue pilot and they will eventually move to a six-bedroom home at Harewood Park in Herefordshire, commissioned to be built by Prince Charles, according to the UK paper The Daily Mail. While in London, they have access to an apartment at the Clarence House, the official London residence of The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, and Princes William and Harry.

To get in the spirit, we found some U.S. homes that are fit for royalty. While we couldn’t find any manors built in the 1600s, we did find a few English-style estates with amenities that would remind the couple of their home across the pond, if they ever chose to move here.

190 North St. Greenwich, CT
For Sale: $14,750,000

Our first stop for British-style estates is Greenwich, CT where wealth and history abound in mansions situated among sprawling English gardens. The median Greenwich home price is $1,097,600 — which is far more affordable in British pounds, considering that the current exchange rate (as of this writing) is $1 to £0.60.

This 11,800-sq ft Tudor-style estate was built in 1929 and sits on 3.5 acres complete with a walled garden and carriage house. The 19-room manor has antique parquet, marble and limestone floors, and includes an English oak library, breakfast room, and butler’s pantry. The master wing has a sitting room, fireplace, his and her dressing rooms and marble baths.

(undisclosed address) Greenwich, CT
For Sale: $9,850,000

This 1932 English manor is at an undisclosed address and sits in the private Belle Haven neighborhood — perfect for the media-mobbed royal couple. The 5-bedroom, 5.5-bath home on the Greenwich real estate market underwent recent expansion and updates while retaining its classic look. Included on the 1.5-acre property is a tennis court, pool house, “romantic gardens” and patios. Inside, an English conservatory and library, gourmet kitchen, butler’s pantry, and breakfast room round out the estate.

2 Old Mill Lane Media, PA
For Sale: $4,250,000

Built in 1862, this English-style manor has only been on the Rose Valley real estate market for a month. The 3.5-acre estate includes four restored buildings: grand manor house, water tower, bank barn and cottage home. The central manor house was expanded in 1904 and was completely updated and restored in 2008; it is now billed as “finest English Arts and Crafts house in America.” William would feel right at home in the property’s cottage, built to resemble a British hunting lodge. Both should feel comfortable here as the home is located in the small historic borough of Rose Valley, population 984.

1 Troutbeck Lane Amenia, NY
For Sale: $9,950,000

This piece of Amenia real estate was a historic family manor converted into a country inn. Most likely the royal couple won’t be renting rooms out to strangers, but could use the 18 bedrooms to house the large extended Royal family. Built in 1890, the stone home retains much of its original turn-of-the-century character and includes 45 “park-like” acres complete with a stream.

605 Elm Street Walpole, MA
For Sale: $3,900,000

This 1920s estate is billed as a “classic English manor” filled with “timeless elegance.” There’s enough room for the new Royal couple as well as the Queen Mother and her pack of Welsh Corgis on the nine acres of gardens and woods. The piece of Walpole real estate was built for entertaining with a large formal dining room, multiple sitting rooms and mahogany library. The grounds include a 3-bedroom carriage guest house as well as a putting green.

2625 Monument Ave Richmond, VA
For Sale: $1,995,00

This brick home is reminiscent of London than the other stately properties but still holds enough period details to make any royal feel at home. The 6,050-sq ft piece of Richmond real estate has 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms and includes a small carriage house that contains 1,271 sq ft and has two bedrooms. The main house has four fireplaces, French doors leading to several porches and a private, walled English garden, perfect for afternoon tea.

230 Conanicus Ave Jamestown, RI
For Sale: $1,199,000

How do you make a Colonial mansion stand out on the Jamestown real estate market? Add a full British pub into the home, of course. This property not only includes six bedrooms, six bathrooms, but a full British pub in its guest cottage, complete with bar, bar stools and plenty of pints and chips. Other amenities on the one-acre+ property include a gourmet kitchen, and outdoor gazebo and pond, putting the home well above the median Jamestown home value of $433,000.

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Tony Danza’s Utah Ski Chalet for Sale

Source: IMDb

If stars aren’t jetting off to a tropical island, they’re heading up to the mountains to hit up an exclusive and luxurious ski area. Most of their resort homes are more like chalets than a ski cabins.

Actor Tony Danza’s home fits into the chalet category. His mountain home is listed on the Park City real estate market for $2.7 million. The median Park City list price is $775,00 and Park City is considered to be one of the best ski resort towns in the U.S.

Best known for his role in the ’80s sitcoms “Taxi” and “Who’s the Boss?” Brooklyn-born Danza also received an Emmy nomination for his guest role on “The Practice” as well as a few forays into major films.

The Real Estalker reported in 2008 that Danza was offering the Utah home for short-term season rental. As of the end of March, however, the luxe ski pad is on the market.

According to the property listing, the home was built in 1988 and true to ski estate style, it features stone and cedar throughout the interior and exterior. The great room includes floor-to-ceiling windows and a large stone fireplace. The 4,800-sq ft home sits on a nearly half-acre lot and has 4 bedrooms, and 4 bathrooms. Other amenities include a heated driveway, elevator to all four stories, and in-ground spa with views of the surrounding mountains.

On another real estate note, Danza’s Sherman Oaks home gained notoriety when it succumbed to the Northridge Earthquake in 1994. He completely rebuilt the piece of Sherman Oaks real estate in 1997 to be earthquake proof, only to sell it ten years later at a listing price of $6.15 million.

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10 cities with top schools: a range of real estate prices

10 cities with top schools: a range of real estate prices | Inman News@import "/files/css/b991d32ba87b8ea15796948ae043e143.css"; Join Inman News! Sign InShopping CartHomeNewsVideoConnect VideosInman TVAgent RebootPodcastsWebinarsFOREMCommunityMainMembersGroupsJob SearchOpinionColumnistsMainCategoriesBiographiesQ & ADirectoryConferencesAgent RebootReal Estate ConnectStoreReportsMediaMembershipColumnist ReportsAbout UsMainAdvertisingAd SpecsAudienceContent channelsProductsTestimonialsAdvertising InquirySyndicationExamples of Content SyndicationMeet Inman News ColumnistsPublish Our Content in PrintToolbox ReviewSyndication InquiryMembershipCareersContactNewsFree Daily HeadlinesRSS Feeds Syndication Home10 cities with top schools: a range of real estate pricesReport: Median home value runs from $148K to $1.3MBy Inman News, Tuesday, April 26, 2011.Inman News™

cwwycoff1." title="Pella, Iowa. Flickr image courtesy of cwwycoff1." />Pella, Iowa. Flickr image courtesy of cwwycoff1.

A list of the nation's top 10 cities with top-performing public schools challenges the idea that the best schools can only be found in the most expensive housing markets, announced a report from school ratings site GreatSchools and business magazine Forbes.com.

"The two biggest life stage decisions a family makes are finding a great place to live and excellent schools for their kids," said Bill Jackson, CEO and president of GreatSchools, in a statement.

"Great schools exist within every housing budget. This is good news to Realtors who want to help their clients when relocating to a new area," the report added. 

The Northeast, the West and the South each accounted for three cities in the top 10 list. The Midwest accounted for one. That city, Pella, Iowa, had the lowest median home value among the ten: $148,200. Manhattan Beach, Calif. had the highest: $1,278,980.

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Know the basics of copyright, trademark infringement

Could your branding, an innocent picture on your blog, or some other minor mistake cost you plenty? You bet! Here's how to avoid damaging mistakes that can cause serious damage to your pocketbook.

Several years ago we hired an offshore designer to do some work on the back pages of my husband's website. We posted the page along with a picture of a woman wearing a headset. Two years later, we received a demand from Getty Images for payment of $1,300 for copyright infringement.

Apparently, the Web designer had taken a picture from Google Images and used it without authorization.

Unfortunately, even though we didn't commit this violation, my trademark attorney advised us that we were responsible because we hired the designer. When we contacted him, he said, "I did nothing wrong -- it's your problem!"

Needless to say, we were pretty upset. Because he was offshore, our only recourse was to report him to the agency we used to locate him and ask to have him removed. We ended up paying $650 to settle the infringement claim.

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Keller Williams top real estate franchisor in annual list

Keller Williams top real estate franchisor in annual list | Inman News@import "/files/css/b991d32ba87b8ea15796948ae043e143.css"; Join Inman News! Sign InShopping CartHomeNewsVideoConnect VideosInman TVAgent RebootPodcastsWebinarsFOREMCommunityMainMembersGroupsJob SearchOpinionColumnistsMainCategoriesBiographiesQ & ADirectoryConferencesAgent RebootReal Estate ConnectStoreReportsMediaMembershipColumnist ReportsAbout UsMainAdvertisingAd SpecsAudienceContent channelsProductsTestimonialsAdvertising InquirySyndicationExamples of Content SyndicationMeet Inman News ColumnistsPublish Our Content in PrintToolbox ReviewSyndication InquiryMembershipCareersContactNewsFree Daily HeadlinesRSS Feeds Syndication HomeKeller Williams top real estate franchisor in annual listFranchise 500 report: Coldwell Banker ranks as industry's 'fastest-growing'By Inman News, Monday, April 25, 2011.Inman News™

Austin, Texas-based Keller Williams Realty led among real estate brokerage franchises in an annual survey by Entrepreneur Magazine, and ranked 78th overall out of 500 franchises.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC ranked second among real estate franchises, and was also ranked as the fastest-growing real estate franchise, placing 14th overall out of 100 franchises on that list.

Keller Williams ranked 66th overall in a list of 200 top global franchises -- higher than any other real estate franchise. Keller Williams had 672 franchises in the U.S. and 15 in Canada in 2010, according to the magazine.

Overall, eight real estate franchises were chosen among the Franchise 500. Financial strength and stability, growth rate, size of the system, number of years in operation and total time franchising, startup cost, litigation, percentage of terminations, and other statistics factor into the franchiser rankings, according to Entrepreneur.com.

The rankings are based on data from July 2008 through July 2010.

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CommentsEmailReprint RightsCommunity Guidelines  Tweet This Page  Facebook  LinkedIn Digg This HeadlinesMost RecentLeadingRE joins push to repeal franchisor...10 cities with top schools: a range of rea...Realtor.com rolls out iPad appIntroducing the Facebook 'Send' button for...FICO to walkaways: You're on our screenPrices fall in 19 of 20 Case-Shiller metros3 social photo appsRental rates climb as sale prices dipRealtor braves frigid bay waters ... more...RealtyTrac teams up with SmartZipMost CommentsThe iPad 2: a better business tool for rea...LeadingRE joins push to repeal franchisor...NAR asked to repeal franchisor IDX indexin...Fannie, Freddie, FHA under fireKeller Williams top real estate franchisor...Discounters down, but not out10 Google Voice tips for real estate prosTime for the U.S. economy to live within i...New version of Google Analytics: custom da...Existing-home sales up in MarchMost EmailedDiscounters down, but not outZillow IPO filing sheds light on company's...The iPad 2: a better business tool for rea...NAR asked to repeal franchisor IDX indexin...LeadingRE joins push to repeal franchisor...Keller Williams top real estate franchisor...New version of Google Analytics: custom da...5 Craigslist tips to generate free real es...Fannie, Freddie, FHA under firePrices fall in 19 of 20 Case-Shiller metrosCategoriesAgent adviceBuying & SellingHome ImprovementInvestingInvesting & Perso...Markets & EconomyMortgagesReal Estate & Per...Real estate broke...Real estate techn...RentalsInternationalSimilarRE/MAX leads real estate franchiser rankingsWindermere franchisee converts to Real LivingRealogy boosts revenue, trims loss to $99M in 2010Keller Williams co-founder puts agents in the spotlightReal estate executive roundup News ArchiveApril 2011March 2011February 2011January 2011December 2010November 2010October 2010September 2010August 2010July 2010June 2010May 2010

 

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3 reasons sellers should hire own inspector

DEAR BARRY: In one of your columns, you recommended that sellers hire a home inspector, even though the buyers would probably hire an inspector of their own. As a seller, this concerns me. If my home inspector finds a major defect (something that has given me no trouble for the past 30 years), then I'll have to spend thousands of dollars to repair it, or I'll have to disclose it to the buyers. Frankly, I fail to see the advantage in this. Can you please explain again the advantages when sellers hire a home inspector? --Ken

DEAR KEN: There are three main reasons for sellers to hire their own home inspector:

1) Avoiding liability: If an undisclosed defect (one that you were unaware of for the past 30 years) is discovered after the close of escrow, you could be sued for nondisclosure. The fact that you were unaware of the problem would be for you to prove in court.

2) Avoiding repair costs: Disclosing defects at the outset of a purchase transaction enables you to do an as-is sale. When defects are discovered by the buyers' home inspector, the buyers are more likely to insist on repairs.

3) Building trust: Providing a home inspection report to buyers is a good way to build trust in a transaction by demonstrating that you, the seller, have nothing to hide.

As a seller, it's better to provide disclosure than waiting for disclosure to happen to you.

DEAR BARRY: The home I'm buying has electric ignition, rather than pilot lights, on most of the gas-burning appliances -- the furnace, the cooktop, and the oven -- but not the water heater. I thought that all gas fixtures would be equipped with electric ignition to conserve gas. Why is this not the case with water heaters? --Jesse

DEAR JESSE: Electric igniters are standard features on gas furnaces and cooking appliances because continuous pilot lights in those fixtures consume gas needlessly. With gas water heaters, the heat produced by a pilot light helps to maintain the temperature of the water in the tank. Therefore, the gas that fuels a water heater pilot light is not truly wasted.

Still, there are ways to minimize gas consumption in your water heater. For example, wrap the fixture with thermal insulation to minimize heat loss, and do not turn the thermostat to the high setting.

DEAR BARRY: My house was built in the 1960s. The ceramic tile in the bathrooms is outdated and needs replacement. I've heard that asbestos was sometimes added to the mortar used for ceramic tile during that period. Is it possible that the mortar in my house contains asbestos? --George

DEAR GEORGE: Tile contractors sometimes added asbestos to mortar because it made the material easier to apply. The only way to know if the mortar in your home has asbestos is to send a sample to a lab for analysis. The lab fee is only about $10 to $15. If the mortar contains asbestos, removal should be done by a contractor who is licensed to do asbestos abatement.

To write to Barry Stone, please visit him on the Web at www.housedetective.com.

All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.

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RealtyTrac teams up with SmartZip

Foreclosure data site RealtyTrac has integrated property ratings from investment analytics company SmartZip in its property detail pages.

A SmartZip HomeScore allows potential buyers to gauge a home's potential for above-average price appreciation and below-average costs.

"This enables shoppers to get an independent assessment of the long-term value of foreclosures, from the perspective of a homeowner. Shoppers can also easily compare properties against each other, since HomeScore is a relative rating on a scale of 1 to 100," said Avi Gupta, SmartZip's vice president of research and marketing.

Screenshot from RealtyTrac listing detail page. 

Scores of 35 or above are considered good-to-excellent investments. Scores automatically appear in listing search results. Through RealtyTrac's advanced search options, users also have the option of narrowing their results by HomeScore range.

For details such as the home's historical appreciation rates, estimated expenses, and other key ratings, users have the option of purchasing either a single Home Ownership Report or a subscription to unlimited reports from SmartZip.

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.

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Real estate buyers: protect us from ourselves

Over the last seven weeks we've taken a tour through the psyche of real estate consumers -- a group that includes each of us, really, who pays for a place to live.

We have explored how the various investor desires, motivations and values illuminated in Meir Statman's new business classic-to-be, "What Investors Really Want: Discover What Drives Investor Behavior and Make Smarter Financial Decisions," play out in our real-life real estate decisions.

We've seen that just as stock market investors want to win and not lose, want status, and exercise the highly fallible -- though sometimes useful -- form of psychological bookkeeping known as mental accounting, so do buyers, sellers, homeowners and sometimes even renters.

For the most part, we've explored the substance of what we want, rather than the process of how we want it. But there are real desires we, the human race, have when it comes to the "how" around our financial decisions, real estate and otherwise; Statman calls some of them out when he declares that investors really "want education, advice and protection."

Statman compiles meaty evidentiary proof of this declaration from facts like:

the massive investor interest in culling investment information from the Internet;the fact that financial literacy is a prerequisite for achieving the prosperity most of us crave;the cyclical ebb and flow of cravings for the government's protection of us -- largely from ourselves -- via regulation of how deeply we can leverage our own interests and how much advantage can be taken by financial predators; andthe vast desire investors have for financial advice, including the paid advice of professional advisers, but especially the free sort they trade with each other on personal finance blogs and Internet forums.

The world of real estate has not only gone through these same trends, but I submit that the pudding in which lives the proof that consumers want information and education, advice and protection is thicker when it comes to real estate than in virtually any other sector.

To wit: the evolution of real estate on the Web. Once upon a time, homebuyers had to consult an agent, who had to consult a paper book that was delivered only to agents, just to find out which homes were for sale, their prices and other details.

In response to an ever-escalating consumer clamor for this information, multiple sites now make every detail about a home -- from whether or not it's for sale; to its price; to its number of bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet; to when it was last sold and for how much; to what it's supposedly worth -- available to anyone, anytime, anywhere, all in a couple of clicks.

Anyone can see a ground-level street view of the vast majority of homes in America, what people think of the neighborhood, even whether a home's owners are behind on their mortgage or have received a foreclosure notice: click, click, click.

Wanna see pics of Nicolas Cage's house? Click here. Heard a "Real Housewife" was in foreclosure and just need to know? Click. Their gilt Rococoed, leopard-printed, McMansioned domestic world is your virtual, visual oyster (for better or for worse).

And virtually all the same sites that have made this information available in response to popular demand also feed consumer cravings for education and advice.

Most offer basic briefings on various real estate issues; virtually all of them offer education/advice hybrids by offering connections to real estate brokers and agents and discussion communities in which anyone can ask a question and get a first, second and 44th opinion from local agents not-so-covertly vying for (a) the asker's business, and/or (b) the opportunity to exhibit local knowledge and professional expertise -- not just to the asker, but to prospective clients searching for them or the subject matter on the Web in perpetuity.

(And, lest I forget, those who ask their urgent real estate questions on these communities will frequently get an answer or so from another consumer -- usually a cranky, anonymous one whose advice generally runs along one of three veins: (a) agents and mortgage brokers suck, (b) homeownership sucks, and/or (c) the government sucks. Not so nuanced, and not so helpful, but a clear case in point that some consumers not only want advice -- they also want to give it.)

Even offline, it's not at all bizarre for today's home sellers to interview three or four prospective listing agents to gather advice and opinions, and every buyer's broker has heard a client recount the real estate advice they have been given by their hairdresser, veterinarian, barista or ob-gyn.

Education, information, advice -- consumer cravings for these are clear -- but protection is a little more complicated. In "What Investors Really Want," Statman writes: "Our desire for paternalistic protection from ourselves and others increases when we experience the sad consequences of our own behavior or the behavior of others."

It is on this topic that Statman makes one of only a handful of "What Investors Really Want" references to real estate, making the hindsight observation that regulation limiting homeowners' ability to leverage their own homes might have made sense, given the woeful consequences of overleveraging (i.e., the foreclosure crisis which is currently at four years and running).

Translation: We don't want the government to limit our ability to mortgage our homes when values are skyrocketing, because we want to be able to max out the house we can buy for the money.

But when those adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) start adjusting, our maxed-out neighbors start walking away and the resulting foreclosures cause property values to plummet, while our craving for government protection from predatory lenders, liar's loans and confusing boilerplate loan docs takes a steep uptick.

Do real estate consumers crave information, education and advice just as much -- maybe even more -- than traded-asset investors? Absolutely. And just like stock investors, housing consumers also want government protection from lenders, mortgage brokers, agents and themselves, after their own decisions have spanked them with the consequences of a largely unregulated mortgage market. What remains to be seen is how long the desire for protection will last.

I suspect it will last as long as home values are low and rates of foreclosure and negative equity are high. But I hope that the lessons from this national tragedy -- massive losses in wealth, jobs and families' homes and health -- including the need for more intense mortgage market regulation, do not disappear when property values start to make a comeback.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of "The Savvy Woman's Homebuying Handbook" and "Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions." Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.

Copyright 2011 Tara-Nicholle NelsonAll rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.

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RealtyTrac teams up with SmartZip

Foreclosure data site RealtyTrac has integrated property ratings from investment analytics company SmartZip in its property detail pages.

A SmartZip HomeScore allows potential buyers to gauge a home's potential for above-average price appreciation and below-average costs.

"This enables shoppers to get an independent assessment of the long-term value of foreclosures, from the perspective of a homeowner. Shoppers can also easily compare properties against each other, since HomeScore is a relative rating on a scale of 1 to 100," said Avi Gupta, SmartZip's vice president of research and marketing.

Screenshot from RealtyTrac listing detail page. 

Scores of 35 or above are considered good-to-excellent investments. Scores automatically appear in listing search results. Through RealtyTrac's advanced search options, users also have the option of narrowing their results by HomeScore range.

For details such as the home's historical appreciation rates, estimated expenses, and other key ratings, users have the option of purchasing either a single Home Ownership Report or a subscription to unlimited reports from SmartZip.

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.

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Realtor.com rolls out iPad app

Property search site Realtor.com has launched a mobile application for the Apple iPad, site operator Move Inc. announced today.

Also today, the company announced the newest update to its iPhone app, which makes the iPad and iPhone apps more similar in appearance.  

Realtor.com stepped into the mobile space in January 2010 with the launch of its iPhone app. Ten months later, the site released apps for the Android and Windows 7 operating systems. Combined, the apps have been downloaded 3.6 million times, the company said. Active users jumped 79 percent from December through March.

The rise of mobile is changing the home shopping experience for consumers and agents, said Move CEO Steve Berkowitz.

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Know the basics of copyright, trademark infringement

Could your branding, an innocent picture on your blog, or some other minor mistake cost you plenty? You bet! Here's how to avoid damaging mistakes that can cause serious damage to your pocketbook.

Several years ago we hired an offshore designer to do some work on the back pages of my husband's website. We posted the page along with a picture of a woman wearing a headset. Two years later, we received a demand from Getty Images for payment of $1,300 for copyright infringement.

Apparently, the Web designer had taken a picture from Google Images and used it without authorization.

Unfortunately, even though we didn't commit this violation, my trademark attorney advised us that we were responsible because we hired the designer. When we contacted him, he said, "I did nothing wrong -- it's your problem!"

Needless to say, we were pretty upset. Because he was offshore, our only recourse was to report him to the agency we used to locate him and ask to have him removed. We ended up paying $650 to settle the infringement claim.

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