The Real Blog of Ken & Denise

The news about real estate although it is poor is not a surprise to most of us in the business but to the consumer too.  It is sobering, though, to recognize how negative the foreclosure problems have proven to be for real estate sales. If real estate economists are predicting a slow 2011 with de...

This is well written.  I did not even notice the length.  All who read this will appreciate the words John put into this.  It is right on point.(With apologies for length) Willie Sutton, the famed bank robber of the 1930’s and 40’s once made the statement, "Go where the money is...and go there of...

Is a closing gift necessary?  Required?  Optional?  Do you give a gift to your buyers or sellers when you close a transaction for them?  My wife and I do.  We have done so for almost 20 years now.  We always know it is very appreciated.  We did different kinds of gifts in the beginning, home warr...

Wow, a lender whom I refer clients to pretty often , told me of a rising trend among interest rates, specifically mortgage interest rates.  Can this be true?  So I went to look.  If there has been, it certainly hasn't been that significant.  I looked into my neighbors crystal ball (it use to be m...

The work we've done.  Never have we worked so hard in real estate.  Short sales, extremely difficult.  Bank owned, still intense.  Working with buyers to demonstrate now is the time to buy.  Sellers not believing all we tell them. We do extensive training, work in the trench everyday and the endl...

Is the overall economy is improving?  Its gradual and rather stumbling fashion is difficult to deny. And that raises what may almost seem a paradox to those who have long been in the real estate field. The fact that interest rates are likely to continue rising? Is that considered a good thing for...

The short sale process is complex to say the least and involves many parties who all must agree to take a loss on the outstanding debt.  Investors, additional lien holders, mortgage insurance primary lien holders all must agree.  That is what I am learning is the big rub.  These lead to a longer ...

  A week or so ago, a report from the Commerce Department showed a surprising increase of 0.3% in February U.S. retail sales compared to the month before. That may not seem like much of an increase, but it was much better than the dropof 0.2% expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Importan...

How nice to be able to say--for a second week in a row--that we continue to see gentle glimmers of improvement. Not necessarily to the whole economy, a little to employment but most to the real estate picture of Lake Tahoe and Incline Village. In many ways, the stars seem to be coming into alignm...

I always try to be positive on ActiveRain.  Just read my postings.  But tonight I read someone's blog post and it got me started.  Having been a very involved REALTOR working with the local, state and national trade associations for over 10-years and having held many positions including state pre...