It's no secret that home foreclosures are on the rise this year, and the number of filed default notices are skyrocketing in some areas of the country over last year. ... Read More

Putting your home on the market in winter has its drawbacks as it's not the optimum time of the year to sell. Resort areas aside, the winter months see a ... Read More

The good news is mortgage insurance premiums are now tax deductible, thanks to a provision contained in the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, effective January 1st of ... Read More

One of the frequent questions I hear from readers is "Why isn't my house selling?" Sellers who don't receive an offer are often panicked and worried about what can be ... Read More

Let's say a buyer knocks at your door and asks to see your home, which is not unusual since you have a humongous For Sale sign in your yard, OK? ... Read More

In the popular book Freakonomics, author Stephen D. Levitt makes the claim that real estate agents always sell their own homes for more money, yet in my experience, that assumption ... Read More

Shortly after I bought an 1898 Victorian in Minneapolis, my basement flooded. It was a hard July rain, the kind of rain that pelts Mexican sunflowers to the ground and ... Read More

Hold the jokes about how many agents it takes to screw in a light bulb, OK? Because I'm going to tell you the answer. It takes three. One to talk ... Read More

I venture to guess that most home sellers don't pay a lot of attention to the length of time they list for. Maybe it's because lots of sellers think a ... Read More

Forget the Year of the Boar, which is the Chinese New Year Animal for 2007. This is the Year of the Buyer. Many agents are saying, "If you are a ... Read More

Have you ever tried to remove a lockbox by sawing off the shackle? It's not easy. When I closed on my house, the agent never came to pick up his ... Read More

When a real estate market falls, it's unwise to play by the same mortgage rules as those that apply in a fast-moving market. In a hot market, you might have ... Read More

Almost one-third of the inventory in the market where I specialize is sold vacant. Empty houses mean the sellers have generally bought another home and moved on, although it could ... Read More

Ever walk into a house and say to yourself, "Something is wrong here?" But you don't know what is bugging you about the house? Well, it's probably your intuition telling ... Read More