Move My Realty - Real Estate News

Can't make your car payment?

Q: Dear Driving for Dollars,
I'm behind in my car payments and have been making half of the payment each month. What can I do to avoid getting repossessed?
-- Steve

A: Dear Steve,
A vehicle repossession will seriously affect your credit and make it difficult for you to get any type of loan in the future, so call your lender and talk to someone right away. Any lender is more interested in keeping you as a customer than repossessing your car. Explain to your lender why you are having trouble making your payments. If you have any idea when you'll be back on your feet, be sure to tell him/her. Then see if your lender will work with you to defer your payments, to refinance your loan to a lower interest rate and/or to extend the length of your loan to lower the monthly payment.

Investors Drive Foreclose Prices Up

Home shoppers in parts of the country with lots of foreclosures are finding it increasingly difficult to buy. Investors are bidding up prices thousands above the original asking price.

Federal legislation slowing the number of foreclosures is adding to the problem by reducing the number of homes on the market. For instance, in Las Vegas, one of the areas where the bidding problem is greatest, home inventories are down 10 percent since March, according to the Las Vegas Association of REALTORS®.

When a bidding war erupts, the problem is particularly difficult for traditional buyers because investors are usually cash purchasers. They can bid up a property without concern whether the appraisal will prevent them from getting a loan.

Experts say the problem is not unlike the situation at the height of the housing bubble. "This market is about as abnormal as the hypermarket that we came out of a few years ago," says Jay Butler, director of the Realty Studies program at Arizona State University.

Source: Realtor.org

Banks can make 'reasonable' ID requests

Q: Dear Dr. Don,
Where are the banking laws in regard to cashing checks? One bank has a new policy where noncustomers must provide Social Security numbers along with occupation, address, two forms of I.D. -- and a fingerprint! That's just to cash a check. This is outrageous. Is it legal?
-- Rob Rigmarole

A: Dear Rob,
It sure does sound like overkill to require all those things to get your check cashed. I'm going to assume that the check was drawn on the bank in question and that's the reason why you went there to cash it as a noncustomer.

Here's an excerpt from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's FAQ page, "Answers About Cashing Checks":

Why doesn't a national bank have to cash a check that is drawn on them?

There is no federal law or regulation that requires national banks to cash checks for noncustomers. Most banks have policies that allow check cashing services only for customers who have an account with them in order to protect both themselves and their customers from forgeries.

read more...

leave me feedback by clicking on "post a comment" below

Google tweaks real estate listings on Google Maps

LOS ANGELES – July 20, 2009 – Google Inc. may crush all other Internet search portals, yet when it comes to real estate listings, it’s often less of a destination than a pit stop. But will that change?

The Internet search behemoth drives a ton of Web traffic to real estate sites everyday. Still, Google hasn’t made a major play for domination in the online property search market, unlike sites such as Zillow.com, Trulia.com and Yahoo Real Estate.

So when Google makes a move in the real estate space, everyone watches for clues that might signal the sleeping giant is hungry for a bigger piece of the real estate pie. Such a move came about last week, when Google decided to spruce up its popular Google Maps page to highlight its real estate search tools and also began making searches for home listings available in Australia and New Zealand.

In the short term, the move will boost traffic to other real estate Web sites, figures Bill Tancer, general manager of research for Hitwise, an Internet tracking firm. But long-term, could be a different story.

read more...

Best Places To Begin A Career

First-time job seekers would be wise to consider these cities.

Prepay mortgage principal, not interest

A: Dear Tyrone,
Additional principal payments are the best way to pay down your mortgage faster. By reducing the loan balance, you reduce the interest expense on the loan, thereby shortening the loan term. However, you want to make sure the lump-sum payment doesn't trigger a prepayment penalty on the loan.

read more...

Rapper 50 Cent knows a thing or two about money management. The Queens native pulled in $170 million over the past two years--more than any other hip-hop artist--thanks to sales from his G-Unit empire and a lucrative investment in VitaminWater. But 50 has at least one high-priced weakness: home improvement.

In 2003, the rapper paid $4.7 million for a 19-bedroom, 35-bathroom, 50,000-square-foot home in Farmington, Conn. He then dished out $10 million for renovations including an entertainment system with 3,000 programmed movies, an ATV track and a room dedicated solely to shoes. But when it came time to sell, those amenities failed to spark interest. Fifty put the manse on the market for $18.5 million in 2007. It didn't sell for two years and was finally taken off in early June.

read more...

Most Americans still consider having enough money for downpayment and closing costs to be the biggest obstacles to buying a home. That’s according to the 2009 National Housing Pulse Survey, an annual survey released today by the National Association of Realtors®.

The survey, which measures how affordable housing issues affect consumers, also found job security concerns to be the highest in seven years of sampling. Two-thirds of Americans think job layoffs and unemployment are a big problem; eight in 10 cite these issues as a barrier to homeownership.

“Homeownership is an investment in your future; however, saving for a downpayment and closing costs is still too great of an obstacle for 82 percent of house hunters looking to take advantage of the current market,” said NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth. “Monetizing the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit for downpayment or closing costs on FHA-insured mortgages is a positive first step. Our hope is that the tax credit will be extended and expanded to all home buyers and will help bring stability to the housing market and enable more Americans to achieve the dream of homeownership."

read more...

America's Most Congested Cities

There's no beating Los Angeles traffic. No matter the time of day, the highway or your direction, it's an unnatural event to drive the speed limit all the way to your destination. Angelenos spend an inordinate amount of time behind the wheel, foot applied firmly to the brake.

Yet, due to the national recession, the average L.A. commuter is spending two hours less, per year, in gridlock than they did last year, according to the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), a Texas A&M University transit research center. But those two hours come at the expense of high gas prices leading up to the recession and job losses keeping people at home during rush hour.

Bank not responsible in check dispute

Q: Dear Dr. Don,
"John" issues a cheque in favour of "Julie" and adds a condition that the payment is to be made only when Julie fulfills a condition. Julie obtains the payment from the bank without complying with this condition.

John demands damages from the bank for not ensuring the compliance. What is "conditional endorsement," and how is it effective between the parties mentioned above?
-- Ricky Requires

A: Dear Ricky,
Although the spelling of a few words in your message is not quite cricket for the U.S., I'm assuming you're talking about a U.S.-based financial transaction. You're describing a restrictive (conditional) endorsement of a check. (This is also known as a restrictive "indorsement" in legal terms.)

read more...

Pending Home Sales Record Fourth Straight Monthly Gain

Pending home sales show a sustained uptrend, rising for four consecutive months with very favorable housing affordability and a first-time buyer tax credit boosting activity, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

read more...

Ron Mastrodonato / movemyrealty.com does not claim credit for writing this article

Q: Dear Dr. Don,
My employer wants my permission to check my consumer report to check motor vehicle records. I trust that that is the reason, but I wonder if doing the check can "ding" my credit record also.
-- Jay Just-Wondering

A: Dear Jay,
There are two types of inquiries on a credit report. The first, known as a "soft inquiry," is from existing account relationships, firms prospecting you to extend an offer to apply for credit and employers.

These soft inquiries are visible to you only when you pull your credit report. When others pull your report, these soft inquiries aren't shown on the credit report they review. Ordering your own credit report also generates a soft inquiry.

read more...