According to Texas A&M’s RECON newsletter, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is going to increase monthly insurance premiums starting with mortgage transactions created after October 4, so lock in your lower monthly insurance premium on FHA loans before the rates go up. After October 4th, we can expect to see monthly insurance premiums on FHA loans increase by over 63 percent.

How will this effect a new homebuyer? If you have a $193,000 FHA mortgage that requires insurance before October 4th you would only pay an insurance premium of $88.46 per month. After October 4th, that same loan’s insurance premium would jump to $148.01. That’s an increase of $59.55 taken out of your monthly income.

Original Source: >> Texas A&M’s RECON – Real Estate Center Online News – e-newsletter – August 31, 2010

In this highly competitive market real estate agents jump on expired listings. So, when your listing expires you can expect a flood of calls from real estate agents eager to win your listing starting the morning your listing expires or gets canceled. Unfortunately, this is going to be a vulnerable time for you because you are probably not happy with the real estate agent you’ve been working with over the past few months and are ready to make a fresh start with a new real estate agent but don’t want to make the same mistake of picking an agent that can not sell your house a second time.

Expect calls from lying real estate agents trying to weasel their way into your home to steal away your listing. Failure to see through their lies may result in hiring a real estate agent that you will not be happy with. Here are a few of the most common lies you’ll hear from real estate agents when your listing expires.

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While I’m not privileged enough to get my hands on the pre-released iPads that were passed out to the media yesterday, I have been told by my trusty Apple Store representative that one has been reserved in my name and will be available when they go on sale next week.  That said, I’m looking forward to the real estate research possibilities that will open up with the Apple iPad.  I have already become addicted to the real estate applications offered in Apple’s iPhone App Store.  I’m looking forward to seeing them on the new iPad’s larger screen.
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Preparing to sell your home in the Dallas / Fort Worth area?  Spring is the start of the selling season for real estate so this is a good time to start planning for it.  Before you talk to an agent, here are some things you should consider doing to your house’s exterior to improve your houses’ curb appeal.
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Two of the most common questions we receive at AgentHarvest is “how is the real estate market doing in my area” and “at what point in today’s real estate market should I sell my house?”  Depending on whom you ask, answers may vary.  Ask a real estate agent and they’ll all say “NOW!”  If you read the press releases from the National Association of Realtors, you’ll detect a “glass half full” optimistic spin on the market whether it’s going up or down.  If you read the newspaper or watch the news, they love to put a negative spin on it because disaster stories make great news, even if they have to sensationalize it a bit to increase ratings.  All three venues have their own motivation for their slant or spin so who should you believe?   ME of course!
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