Reader’s Question:

I agreed to buy another real state property here in Houston, TX about a week ago. And now, as awful as it sounds, I’ve changed my mind. How do I cancel?

Phil

Houston, TX

Hey there, Phil. Situations like these can be really sticky. The answer is usually not the one you’re expecting. To find the answer to your question, you would have to review your contract (the assumption is there is already a contract). We have to look at the legal side of things. The contract is the legal agreement with the seller. Most contracts have provisions that allow for the cancellation of the sale. Listed there would be the acceptable reasons for the cancellation. If your contract contains these details, then it’s well and good. However, if your reason for canceling the real estate sale is not one of the listed reasons in the contract, there may be consequences. You might need to think things over. Please keep in mind that while you were preparing to close the sale, the seller might have already made changes influenced by the “sale.” The real estate property in question might have been removed from the market already and the seller has decided to enter a contract with a real estate property seller to buy another house. Your cancellation might affect several processes (sales and purchases) that are dependent on the fulfillment of your obligation. Ultimately, you may have to consult an attorney there in Houston, TX, as this may have legal consequences.

Tags: Houston Real Estate

Reader’s QUestion:

Hello everyone. I’m planning to sell my house. How can I find out about the value of my house? The neighboring houses are not comparable to my house so I can’t really base my real estate price on theirs.

Hoover

Houston, TX

Hello there, Hoover. Well, usually, in getting the value of your house, you need to know the general value of the houses in your area, the real estate value of your location. If you think that your house in Houston, TX (you forgot to mention the exact area) is worth more than your neighbor’s house, then you might want to reconsider that. Homes maintain their good value if the neighboring houses are similarly valued, too. You don’t just sell the house; you sell the neighborhood, as well.

To really know the selling value of your house, you may want to consult a realtor, several realtors if possible, in fact. Get their opinions, discuss things and come up with a consensus. I won’t be able to give you any ballpark figure as I don’t exactly know how your neighborhood is or why your house is not comparable to your neighbor’s house. If you have made several improvements to your house over the years and you think it has improved its selling price, again, you still have to consider the overall real estate value of your location.

So, my best advice is: go ask realtors. Their quotations would not really vary too much, and then you’ll have a ballpark figure of the worth of your property.

Tags: car insurance cost, Houston Real Estate

If you are one of those forward thinking people out there that are trying to capitalize on the recent down turn in the real estate market, then you probably have been looking into foreclosures as a fast way to make a buck. For home foreclosure listings this can most definitely be the case, but a commercial real estate foreclosure offers a bit more of a challenge.

Why A Commercial Real Estate Foreclosure Is Risky

There are several factors that make investing in a commercial real estate foreclosure very risky. The first reason is that when you compare commercial real estate and home real estate you really are looking at two completely different categories of property ownership. In residential real estate, primarily it is used as a home and not a place of business. In commercial real estate, it is wholly dedicated to business. Now ..

Source: Finance

This is a good sign, homeowners have hit a 4 year low in their home equity cash outs.

Of course it begs the question, do they have any say in the matter or is the piggy bank all tapped out?

The amount of money Americans pulled out of their homes is at a four-year low as homeowners battle falling home values and stricter standards among lenders, Freddie Mac said Thursday.

Homeowners “cashed out” about $68 billion in home equity during the first half of the year, the lowest since the first six months of 2004, according to the McLean, Va.-based mortgage finance company.

About $38 billion in home equity was cashed out through refinancing of loans made to prime borrowers in the second quarter — less than half the $79 billion cashed out during the same period last year, said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac deputy chief economist. via  msnbc.com.

Thanks for reading this post.

Source: Real Estate

A lot of people these days are preaching about the buying and holding method of gaining wealth with real estate. There indeed may come a time in your life or business when you’ll want to hang onto a piece of property, although you’ll only be interested in keeping certain types of property. If you’re just starting out, flipping a house may be an ideal way to get started.

Basically, there are three ways that you can flip a house, although each one has it’s own terms, motivation, and type of property. The first method is known as retailing. What this means, is that you buy a house in bad shape, do the repairs to fix it up, then turn around and sell it. There are a variety of houses in need of repairs out there, and several ways that you can quickly flip a house to ..

Source: Flipping Houses

Consider Moving Costs Before You Sign Whether you’re moving for the first time or the twenty-first, from the family home or to your dream home, keep in mind that the price you’ll be paying for that new house or apartment doesn’t include the costs of moving. For a new college student, the costs might be negligible - a few new storage bins and organizers, enough gas to fill the family minivan, and a few hours tossing enough clothes into garbage bags to make it to Thanksgiving. Even just a few years later, though, the cost rises exponentially: it’s no longer the family minivan you’ll be buying gas for, but a thirsty rental truck, and it may take several days to get your possessions packed into boxes (and by the way: new boxes aren’t cheap, but re-purposed boxes can be flimsy and difficult to transport). When it comes to moving a ..

Source: moving costs

By Dave J.

One of the hottest topics in the Real Estate industry right now is the short sale. Learning how to buy a short sale is a new requirement for the real estate investor. Savvy real estate investors realize that banks are willing to let properties be bought for pennies on the dollar in order to keep their inventory of bank owned property to a minimum. Unfortunately, the process is not as easy as you would hope.

In this article, I will lay out the exact process for learning how to buy a short sale. As stated earlier, the process is not easy, however it is simple. To get a short sale through, the home-buyer (or investor) needs patience, diligence, and flexibility. This process does not work well when a strict time-line is in place. Here is a can’t miss strategy for buying foreclosures.

When a home-owner misses a mortgage payment, their ..

Source: Foreclosure