URBALO

[source:SmartMoney.com]
IT’S A HOMEOWNER’S worst nightmare: selling your home at a loss. Sadly, with the real estate market slowing, more folks are discovering that, yes, this can actually happen.

The worst-case scenarios are when folks borrowed heavily to buy in at the top or took out big home-equity loans while prices were inflating — two situations that can result in having the mortgage debt exceed the current value of the home. And if homeowners in these situations have to sell, not only will they owe money to the bank, but there could be some unexpected income tax consequences to boot.
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And yes, it will be in Chicago

The city’s planning board has endorsed a proposal for a twisting lakefront tower that would become the nation’s tallest building.

With Thursday’s approval from the Chicago Plan Commission, the design and site plan for the 2,000-foot Chicago Spire goes to the city zoning committee next week.

“This is a wonderful project, and everyone is very enthused,” said Constance Buscemi, spokeswoman for the city’s planning department.

The 150-story tower, which would feature 1,200 residences, would unseat Chicago’s 1,451-foot Sears Tower as the tallest U.S. building. It would also top New York’s 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, under construction at the former World Trade Center site.
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MORTGAGE LENDERS make no bones about it: They are tougher on second-home loan applications than on primary-home loans. Why? Because the finances of a second-home buyer are, by definition, stretched thinner. The result is that second-home rates traditionally run one-quarter to one-half point higher than those for first residences. Ditto for origination points on vacation-home loans.

That said, however, the current environment for second-home lending is about as lenient as it has been in years. Banks are healthy again and a booming real estate market has them all rushing into the market at once. The result: heightened competition — especially in the second-home arena. “The typical profile of a second-home owner is someone more affluent than a single-home buyer,” says David Totaro, chief marketing officer for Dime Savings Bank of New York. “That’s the type of person we want to do business with.”

Using a Home-Equity Loan
With interest rates at historically low levels, many lenders will encourage you to take out a home-equity line of credit on your primary residence to fund all or part of your second-home purchase. Watch your step here. Most home-equity lines of credit float a point or two higher than the prime rate, so you could end up repaying this piece at a much higher interest rate than if you had simply taken a mortgage for the entire amount. Plus, unlike mortgage interest, which is deductible on up to $1 million of debt on your first and second homes combined, the home-equity cap is $100,000. (You get a break on $1.1 million total.)
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Great article on SmartMoney.com. Foreclosure properties are always risky and there are so many factors to take in consideration, which makes the whole process very unpleasant or, better yet, confusing.

LAST MONTH, 43-YEAR-OLD Daryl White and his wife Renée closed on their new home: a five-bedroom, four-bathroom 2,900 square-foot house in Valencia, Calif., a planned community 40 miles north of Los Angeles. They got quite a deal. The property was appraised at $830,000, yet they bought it for $660,000. “The house was only 10 years old, so it only needed light repair, like removing the wallpaper and painting, just some patchwork here and there,” White says.

Why the bargain? The house had been in pre-foreclosure. This means the owners had defaulted on their payments and received a notice of default from their lender. They then had a set period of time — which varies by state — to sell the home or become current on the mortgage, until the bank took it back.
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Housing starts rose to an annual pace of 1.52 million in March, the Census Bureau reported, from a revised 1.51 million rate in February. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast the pace of building would slow to a 1.5 million rate in March.
But most of the country saw a decline from February’s pace of housing starts. The South, which accounts for about half the nation’s home building, showed a 3 percent decline, and building fell nearly 8 percent in both the Northeast and West.

The exception to that trend was the Midwest, where starts jumped 44 percent in the Midwest after a February reading that was the slowest in 16 years. Bad weather in the region in February and relatively good weather in March probably played a role in the jump, as builders tried to catch up with delayed projects.
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Zillow.com has launched ‘Zillow EZ Ads’, a self-service way for agents, other professionals and home sellers to buy ads on Zillow map pages for specific ZIP code searches. In case you missed my previous articles on Zillow, here is a short summary: Zillow.com is an online real estate service dedicated to helping you get an edge in real estate by providing you with valuable tools and information.
Here is a screenshot with an ad displayed

The pricing is fairly cheap and for the amount of traffic that Zillow has, it is definitely worth a try. Basically their pricing schemes works as follows: They charge $1 per hundred views, so 1 penny for each view. There is a $10 minimum purchase requirement , no additional fees or taxes.
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Neighboroo has added new features to their website yesterday. The new release has a design improvement as well. With these new updates, Neighboroo adds property data (sales prices, real estate values) from Trulia, real time market activity from Altos Research and neighborhood video from Turnhere..
The real estate map provided by them is very complex, a lot of useful information are presented and pretty easy to navigate through.
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Here is something to be proud of: Thad Wong, our @properties co-founder, has an interesting article on MSN.com.

Four things to look at

The phrase “up-and-coming” can sometimes be code for a dangerous area, so it’s important to make sure you’re comfortable with the neighborhood and the potential risk it may pose to you as an investor.

Whether you’re searching for the next hot spot or just trying to find a cheap and funky place to live, homebuyers in so-called up-and-coming areas should focus on four main factors, according to Thaddeus Wong, co-founder of @Properties, a Chicago brokerage specializing in emerging city neighborhoods.

• Transportation infrastructure: Is it close to mass transit and highways? Is the transport fast and efficient? “In a developing neighborhood, the ease of getting in and out is crucial,” Wong says. “We’ve seen the highest velocity of price increases in these areas.”

• Commercial infrastructure: Whether the neighborhood has space for restaurants and shops, heavily trafficked streets and ample parking is also important in determining the area’s potential for success, Wong says. “You have to bring people in with art galleries and restaurants. That’s how people become familiar with neighborhoods.”

• Zoning laws: If the zoning favors larger or more units, either residential or commercial, the area will gentrify more rapidly, Wong says.

• Local politics: This is the wild card, Wong explains. Some politicians don’t want development, while others embrace it. Read Full Article ->
  

[source:SmartMoney.com]

A GOOD CHUNK OF the U.S. population refuses to give up renting. We’re not sure how many renters are stubborn hold-outs (the U.S. census doesn’t measure in terms of obstinacy, although we do know that the majority of Americans — about 69% — own their own home). For many, the American Dream is simply out of reach for financial reasons.

But, for others, it’s not the money, it’s the….well, we’ve come up with five reasons why people don’t want to buy real estate. Perhaps you’ve used these excuses yourself — or know a colleague, a family member or a friend who has. We’ve enlisted the aid of experts — Stacy Francis and Nancy Flint-Budde, certified financial planners in New York City and Salem, N.Y., respectively, and Mark Schussel, a spokesman for Chubb Group Of Insurance Companies in Warren, N.J. — to counter these excuses and knock some sense into the real-estate challenged.

EXCUSE #1: “Everyone is way too insane about real estate.”

Count this as the “protest” renter — the person who perpetually rents, who thinks they’re too cool for school and doesn’t want to be one of those people who talks about renovation projects at a cocktail party. (The true “protest” renter also protests cocktail parties.) These people might also fear growing up, becoming their parents, owning guest towels, etc. Counter: Well, owning your own home IS a responsibility — and if you’re not ready for it, then don’t do it. Of course, you’ll miss out on nice tax breaks for mortgage interest and property taxes, which make owning a compelling proposition for many. Not to mention, you’re not exactly building equity when you split the rent with the roomies (but, hey, it does help with the cable bill).

“I look at renting as writing a check and throwing it out in the garbage,” says Francis, who often advises clients on buying apartments in Manhattan. For many people, buying a home is their first crack at building their net worth over the long term, she says. The traditional way to ease into home ownership is to buy something like a condominium or townhouse, so your weekends aren’t spent at the home-improvement store picking up weedwhackers. But be careful: You might feel like a real adult once you own. “You are no longer at the whims of your landlord to raise your rent, or sell your building,” Francis says. “It really gives you stability.”

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There are 5 things any client should expect from their realtor in terms of showings and open houses.

1. The realtor should try their best to schedule a showing appointment 24 hr in advance, this will give you time to prep your house and make it look best.
2. The realtor should help the client with suggestions regarding the home showing preparation.
3. The realtor should call their client right after the showings and provide them with a feedback.
4. The realtor should advertise the open house weekly in one of the major local newspapers, a lot of people still rely on the newspaper to read about open houses and new developments.
5. The realtor should keep a sign-in sheet and must call the client after the open house and advise them of potential buyers or just to give them a “411″ on the open house traffic.