I'm afraid that Congress and Representative Barney Frank are out to help us again and that is something to be frightened about. It's not that they don't start out with our best interests at heart, it's just that so much politics and so many stakeholders get to put their 2 cents into the process
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04/27/2009
Generally discussing insurance is as popular as discussing your upcoming colonoscopy; however, a headline like the one above will catch my eye every time, but it was especially intriguing because it was in an email from an insurance agent - Eric Chase of our Insurance One affiliate. Now, I knew t
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04/26/2009
Lots of people who have homes that are unoccupied, whether because of a move or some other reason are choosing to roll the dice as far as insurance goes. I always advise clients with empty houses to check with their insurance agent about vacant home coverage, but few do. The sad truth is that
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04/24/2009
I read an interesting article in the Detroit Free Press this morning. It appears that the popular layoff insurance that the auto companies have been advertising has now come to real estate, at least in this area. Several big home builders, including Toll Brothers and our local big guy - Pulte Ho
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04/19/2009
Perhaps the toughest group to deal with in terms of pricing a home for sale these days is the group that most of the time in the best shape on the their mortgage - the Baby Boomers and Matures (a classification for those who are slightly older than the normal age-range associated with the Baby Bo
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04/18/2009
Wow, I missed yesterday altogether! Sorry about that. I got caught up in a tempest in a teapot discussion going on over on another Sn site that I post to almost everyday, too. The topic seemed innocent enough - the practice, apparently just recently "discovered" by some, of appraisers baking a ho
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04/14/2009
I opined recently about cheap being relative when it comes to homes and talked about showing houses in the $10-20K range lately. Admittedly those were foreclosed houses in pretty poor shape, but most had a few things in common that got me to thinking about how much house is enough. Most of those
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04/11/2009
I saw an article on CNN Money recently entitled "The Power of Cheap." It was a story about people in Florida being able to afford houses because they are now "cheap", where cheap was defined as around $100-200K. That reminded me of a conversation that I overheard between two Realtors from Califor
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04/10/2009
From a story in CNNMoney, by Chris Isidore (04/06/2009) comes news that - Top Economists Say Recovery Has Begun. Economic recovery is about making people feel more confident, says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com. Zandi evidenced increasing home sales and gains in the stock mark
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04/07/2009
There was good news in an article by Alan Zibel, Associated Press, that appeared in papers on Sunday.Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to the lowest level on record for the second consecutive week after the Federal Reserve initiated a new effort to assist the staggering U.S. housing market. Freddie
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04/06/2009
