Home owners face many choices for home exterior siding, but making the right selection depends largely on climate, followed by your home's character and your financial means. Goodness knows, I've bought ... Read More

Robert Bruss, respected and well known real estate author, died today at his Northern California home in the Silicon Valley, as reported by Inman News. He was 67. The cause ... Read More

Before you do a home inspection, carry a home inspection checklist with you. Although your home inspector will undoubtedly work from his or her own inspection checklist, there is no ... Read More

When mortgage credit tightens, buyers and sellers consider alternative financing options such as lease options or lease purchases. The two are not identical, but are synonymous with rent-to-own. Both involve owner ... Read More

Sacramentans are all atwitter about the pot raids at suburban pot houses. Is this happening where you live? Elk Grove was touted in 2006 as the fastest growing city in ... Read More

In the late 1970s, owner financing was ubiquitous. Back then, major newspaper real estate classifieds were sprinkled with ad copy proclaiming OWC, meaning "owner will carry." Although today's real estate market ... Read More

Before going home shopping, get a loan preapproval letter from your lender and carry it with you. In fact, many real estate agents won't let you step foot in their car ... Read More

Plenty of real estate investors specialize in making money on fixer upper homes, but a little bit of sweat equity goes a long way for first-time home buyers, too. See, one ... Read More

For some home buyers today, FHA loans are the only game left in town. It used to be that many sellers refused to list their home for sale with FHA terms ... Read More

If you've sold a home and provided owner financing, it's likely you have a seller carry-back mortgage. It might not be a mortgage, though; it could be a land contract or ... Read More

How do home buyers know when it's time to make a purchase offer? A few years ago, I showed homes in Sacramento to a single woman from the Sierra foothills who ... Read More

Since so many sellers are taking a financial hit to sell in our soft real estate market, it really adds insult to injury if a seller can't write off that ... Read More

If you think that full-price counter offers happen only in a seller's market, think again. In any type of real estate market, there are dozens of reasons why a seller might ... Read More

It's sort of creepy to think about, but home owners die in the house with greater frequency than you might imagine. Of course, they die only once. But my point is ... Read More