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house: Trulia Adds “Trulia Estimates”: Novelty or Not? - 03/21/12 11:25 AM
Let me start by saying, Trulia.com and Zillow.com are great companies that I think bring great additional resources for home shopping to consumers.  I love their websites and resources they offer.  Zillow.com became a hit with it’s “Zestimate”.  Just recently Trulia.com launched, what I am guessing is a competitive response to Zillow’s “Zestimates”, called “Trulia Estimates”.  These are these companies attempts to provide real-time property valuation using proprietary algorithms.  Sounds simple enough right?  Think again.
One of the things any Real Estate Professional will tell you they wish was automated is . . . property pricing.  This is one of the … (0 comments)

house: 2011 Palm Coast/Flagler County Market Recap - 01/11/12 12:37 PM
So how did the local market do for 2011?  Very well, and here's just a few highlishgts on the Residential Housing sales in the area:
A total of 1,665 houses closed from January 1st to December 31, 2011 The total number of sales was up 14% compared to 2010 when 1,460 houses closed 82% of all houses sold were in the price range up to $199,999 The luxury market ($500k+) also saw a slight uptick as well making up 3% of the area houses sold compared to 2% for 2010 3 bedroom homes were the most popular making up 62% of … (0 comments)

house: Flagler County/Palm Coast Market Highlights - 10/19/11 11:42 AM
Can you believe it's Fall already and the end of the year is fast approaching?  I know I can't.  "How's the market?  " is the common question I hear, and there really are some some things about our local market.  Here's just a few from the residential housing portion:
Inventory levels at their lowest in recent years
The number of houses for sale over the last few years in Flagler County has rarely dipped below 1,100 (and 900 for Palm Coast) at any given point in time.  As of today, there are 986 homes for sale in Flagler County and 739 … (0 comments)

house: 2010 Palm Coast & Flagler County Housing Recap - 01/08/11 07:27 PM
At the beginning of 2010 I had said it was going to be a very interesting year.  The tax credit was showing some promise to help boost home sales, but it remained to be seen as to what the effect would be once that credit ended.  Initially contracts had to closed by June 30th.  This spurred sales to perform very well in the first half of the year with the area running about 15% above the year before in terms of the number of sales and then fell off in July and the proceeding months.  The year ended basically even with … (0 comments)

house: Why Interest Rate Can Be The Better Benefit Than a Tax Credit - 09/17/10 01:03 PM
The national average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is an astonshing 4.29%.  Many buyers were obviously motivated by the tax credits last year and unfortunately the record-low interest rates get overshadowed.  Are these rates a better benefit to make the decision to buy now if you are considering purchasing a home?  Well let's do the math and you'll see that the truth is that these rates are the better benefit.
Let's take a $100,000 loan at 30 years fixed today at 4.50%.
Payment would be $506.69 (principal and interest) Total interest over the life of the loan would be … (3 comments)

house: Are ISP's Stopping You From Servicing Your Customers? - 02/13/08 10:28 AM
What used to be "nice" services in our industry such as automated emailing of listings, has quickly become standard practice.  Consumers have voiced their wanting of this type of convenient and easy notification service when shopping for a property.  As most know, you can't send this type of information driectly from your own computer and most of us don't have our own personal servers (well, maybe some of those gamers out there that are Realtors by day and Halo'ers by night).  But are your customers getting their requests?  Not always.
Here's the issue.  Since these automated listings are being sent from the MLS company's servers (most … (1 comments)

house: Great Deal On A Tablet PC - 02/13/08 10:19 AM
If you've ever looked into buying a Tablet PC, you've probably noticed the prices are high and very difficult to find under the $2000.00 range.  I've been keeping my eye on them and constantly checking, and found the best deal I've seen yet . . . The Gateway C-141X.  The specs are great with a Pentium Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive for $999 plus a $70 off coupon (kind of a wacky thing, but it's there!) bringing the price to $929.  This is a full-size laptop with the tablet feature with a decent weight of 6.2lbs.  … (6 comments)

house: Finally! A Real Estate Book That is Fun and Informative! - 02/10/08 09:43 PM
 Click here for more information on this book.
I recently picked up a copy of "House Lust" (as seen above) by Daniel McGinn, and am mezmorized at how much we forget and far housing has come over the years.  This book is a cultural study into what drives the obssessions with Real Estate (i.e. checking listings even when you aren't considering buying, visiting the neighbors open houses, home shows, etc.).  It's not a book filled with stats and economical analysis.  You'll often find yourself laughing while reading because you do some of those same things.
The book also does a great job at … (6 comments)

 
Kathy_cloud_background_1-28-09_iv Rainmaker_large

Kathleen West Flagler County & Palm Coast Realtor

Palm Coast, FL

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Trademark Realty Group of Palm Coast

Address: 2 Pine Lakes Parkway North, Suite 1, Palm Coast, FL, 32137

Office Phone: (386) 446-5930

Cell Phone: (386) 986-0401

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