Real Estate News

Starting Your Home Search on the Internet

The National Association of Realtors says that almost 80 % of home buyers start their search for their next home on the internet. Reading a little further you will find that NAR also says that most home buyers find the Realtor they will work with on the intranet as well. It is this combination of great local realtors, and their ability to make a home buyers on-line search easier that makes for a winning combination.

Local Experts Guide Your Search

Many home buyers start their search on national websites under the impression that they are being provided with the best information on the area they are looking in. Before long they start to spot a local realtor whose information comes up of in the search engines. They will start to build a relationship with that local agent as the expert in their market as they need their questions answered. They soon realize that when it comes to real estate a local expert is a necessary...

Stimulus  - something that rouses or incites to activity: as a : incentive b : stimulant

The first time homebuyer credit (stimulus package) offered in 2008-2010 was yet another obstacle to the long term stabilization of the real estate market. As confirmed by the definition of the word stimulus, it was a plan to incentivize and stimulate a down market  - to rouse or incite activity and that it did. The goal was accomplished, even if for the short term. I often wonder, does the government have a long term goal for stabilization or just a bunch of short term incentives? That's a topic for another day.

Granted, I know it's not an easy fix, but have long beleived the never ending changes and programs...

A New Year, a new broker! The Home to Indy Team is excited to announce our affiliation with Sycamore Group Associates in Carmel - Indianapolis. This move was a natural extension of our dedication to client care combined with our commitment to the use of technology in providing the highest level of real estate services our clients expect. Sycamore Group is a local brokerage with an exceptional reputation within the community. 

Changing your business address is much like changing your home address. A bit of planning made for an easy transition for both us and our clients. Just like buying a new home, we will be making some changes at the...

Earlier this month, the Occupy Movement called for a nationwide day of action called 'Occupy Our Homes.' The movement has been protesting across the entire country on foreclosure, unemployment, massive pay gaps between the highest-paid and lowest-paid in America, and more. In 25 cities, including Los Angeles, Oakland, Minneapolis, Denver, New York, Miami, Atlanta and others, hundreds of foreclosed homes were occupied by the former owners and Occupy protesters.

Occupying these foreclosed home is just the latest step taken by the Occupy Movement. It has now migrated from city parks to actual neighborhoods and their foreclosed, abandoned homes. According to RealtyTrac, one of the largest companies that track foreclosures, housing auctions and bank owned homes, approximately 1.38 million U.S. Homes are in the foreclosure process.

Art de los Santos, of Riverside, was foreclosed on in June...

The online world of business is often tied to a companies web presence and real estate is no different. As Realtors, we are in the business of selling physical space, but often our largest business asset is the internet space we own, not an actual brick and mortar business.

Technology has changed the way people search for businesses. It is estimated 90% of people searching for a home or Realtor begin their search online. At HomeToIndy, we are expanding our search capability and our internet presence to offer home buyers and sellers more information about real estate in Indianapolis.

HomeToIndy.com has acquired the internet space and website of My317Home.com. If you came here looking for My317Home, you'll find the same great information, even though our home search is a bit different.

Real Estate Information for Indianapolis

The combination of the two sites will provide visitors and clients to HomeToIndy.com access to in-depth information about the real estate process,...

The third quarter statistics quoted in a recent article about housing costs and affordability of homes in Indianapolis led me to my own research. I'm not the type of person who takes this information as the final word. I always run my own numbers to verify the data.

It's not my intent to discredit the news source. Their data could include homes which were private sales and not part of the Indianapolis MLS statistics, where I get my information. Not to say the news isn't good, but it's just not accurate, in my opinion.

Indianapolis has always been in the top twenty for home affordability and many times #1 in the past five years. The city actually held the #1 spot for 17 consecutive quarters. The fault I see in the reporting of the statistics is the fact, Carmel and Indianapolis are always lumped together. As stated in the report -

'By contrast, the average home in the Indianapolis-Carmel housing  ...

Reasons to Wait to Buy a Home

It may be surprising to hear this from a REALTOR®, but sometimes it may be better to wait awhile prior to purchasing a home. Rates are crazily low right now, and provided you have finances available to purchase a home, this could be a great opportunity. The main thing that needs to be considered is how soon you wouldneed to sell the house.

The reason being that if there isn’t enough time for the property to appreciate enough to cover the costs of selling, namely closing costs and commission, this could seriously cost you. The seller pays the commission, which is generally about 6% of the sales price. In addition, closing costs can add another two or three percent. It is easy to see how this amount could...

This weeks guest post is written by Ines from Miamism. Ines and her husband Enrique are Miami Beach Realtors. Ines brings Miami to life through photos and her blog, which was recently featured in Forbes. If you are thinking about a vacation home in Miami, Ines is the Realtor I recommend.

People are drawn to my website, miamism.com because they say that my love for Miami is evident.  Who better to help you find the perfect home, second home or vacation getaway than someone who really has a passion for where they live?  Well . . .  I’m happy to tell you that Paula has that same passion for Indy and we’ve had a few conversations about this.  She...

This weeks guest REALTOR® is Roberta Murphy from San Diego. Roberta is a luxury home specialist in the city of the most beautiful luxury homes. I know every market has their share of luxury homes, but San Diego is my favorite! When we lived in California, I never experienced a bad weather day in San Diego. Considering, the weather, the beach, shopping, local attractions and home prices, now may be the best time to buy your dream homes or vacation home in San Diego.

The last few years may have been the worst real estate market (for sellers) in recent history. Buyers, however, are seeing some of the best opportunities in years, whether it's for suburban homes in San Diego or lakefront estates in Indianapolis. ...

This week, our guest Realtor is Gena Riede from Sacramento, California. While Gena is searching for the answers to origins of this unique sculpture in Sacramento, she has reminded me, I have not posted my May photo for the photo contest. You can look for it by day's end at HomeToIndy.com. Gena also reminds us homes that are in show condition and priced correctly are selling. That's a universal real estate truth.

In the past few years we've seen several Indianapolis home builders lose the fight against the economic downturn in housing. Last month's news was a bit hard to accept. Estridge Homes was done.

I always looked at Estridge as an icon and one of the best production builders in Indianapolis. They even built some wonderful custom homes. Since 1967, the Carmel-based Estridge Group was a fixture in the Indianapolis housing market.

Over the years, the company built more than 7,000 homes and was the only builder in the state to win the National Housing Quality Gold Award, the home building industry’s highest achievement. As one of the largest builders in the city over past decade, Estridge built many ...

Every Tuesday, here on Indy Real Estate Talk, we are featuring guest posts from real estate experts around the country. This week we have, Realtor, Dave Smith, from sunny Tucson, Arizona. I know there's many a Hoosier looking for sunny skies about now. Well, we found them, but - be warned, the sunny skies in Tucson come with some extreme side effects.

Hello from Sunny Tucson. We are about to enter what the rest of the country calls summer; here we call it 'BROIL'. There is a race to any shade, even if it is just the width of a telephone pole. We put sun shields in our windows and sunglasses on our tomato plants.

If you plant flowers and they say they can take full sun for 6+ hours. That means, Indiana sun, or Denver sun, but not Tucson sun. Here those flowers last about 90 minutes; by 6+ hours they look like you set them on your charcoal grill while it was lit. They don't just wilt, they turn black and shrivel up. Did I mention...

Home values fell again in January, according to the Federal Home Finance Agency's Home Price Index. Values were reported down 0.6 percent, on average.

We say 'on average' because the Home Price Index is a national report.

It doesn't capture the essence of a local market , or even a city market like Indianapolis.

The most granular that the monthly Home Price Index gets is regional and January's report shows that:

• Values in the...

CNNMoney.com recently published its 2010 forecast and projections for home prices in the country's largest metro markets. Listed as 'Top 25' and also comprehensively by state, CNNMoney.com's home price forecasts puts Santa Rosa, California at the top of 2010's home appreciation list and Hanford, California at its bottom. The 10 cities projected for highest home appreciation in 2010 are:

1. Santa Rosa, CA : +6.0%
2. Cheyenne, WY : +4.7%
3. Kennewick, WA : +4.6%
4. Merced, CA : +4.4%
5. Bremerton, WA : +4.2%
6. Fairbanks, AK : +4.2%
7. Corvallis, OR : +4.1%...

A client recently called to ask whether they need to obtain a 'certified' copy of their deed. She had received a letter from National Deed Service stating she could should get a Certified copy of her deed, how important the document is, since it's evidence the property was transferred to her. All she has to do is send $59.50 to obtain this important document. RIPOFF!

This company feeds on peoples fears that they may not have the proper documentation proving ownership of their home. They use official sounding language: RE: Marion County Recorder Document #xxxxxxx and state The US Government Federal Citizen Information Center website recommends property owners have a certified deed....

Tonight, I was at my daughters when a loud boom pierced the evening calm, then the sound of firetrucks converging on the neighborhood.

Of course the neighbors gathered around to see what had happened. The sight of the home on fire reminded me of a similar fire in my neighborhood when we lived in California.

The garage was blown out and both cars in the driveway were charred; the glass on both vehicles appeared melted. Luckily, noone was hurt.

I’m not sure about the cause of this fire tonight, but the one in California was the result of a propane tank not being properly closed on the gas grill. The grill was stored in the garage. With the propane slowly leaking from the tank, it wasn’t long before the gas furnace ignited the leaking propane.

To watch a fire consume your neighbors home is a frightening experience. As fall approaches...

Stories on TV about the national real estate market are misleading to Americans.  This is because there is no such thing as a 'national real estate market'. Consider the latest American Housing Survey.  It found that there are 124,377,000 homes in America spread across:

• 50 states, with
• More than 30,000 incorporated cities, and with
• An innumerable number of neighborhoods

And yet, the media repeatedly groups all 124 million homes into one giant lump and then gives an analysis.  No matter how you slice and dice the data, a home in Oregon can't be compared to a home in Indiana. The real estate market in New York City has little to do with what is happening here in Indianapolis. This is why national real estate statistics are somewhat useless.

To get real estate analysis that matters, look local instead.  And I don't mean stats...

Once again, Indianapolis Real Estate has led the nation in most affordable housing for the 12th straight quarter. That’s 3 years of consistently offering the most affordable housing to the residents of Indianapolis. The article at CNN Money  states the median sales price for homes sold in the second quarter was $108,000.

How does that price point hold up throughout the Indianapolis area?  The chart below shows the average price of homes sold in Indianapolis and the suburbs since January 1, 2008.

Home buyers seem to be concerned about the future value of the home they buy today. And, rightfully so! The national media makes it sound like all real estate markets are in deep trouble. Not the case; all real estate is local. If you are in the market to buy a home in Indianapolis, you will love the latest news from PMI Group. PMI Mortgage Insurance Company recently released it’s Market Risk Index of the 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). These are the people who insure residential mortgage loans.

In plain english, the company rates major cities for the risk of property values being less in two years than they are today. At the bottom of the list is Indianapolis-Carmel. They rate the entire area of Metropolitan Indianapolis. In this case, it’s a good thing to be at the bottom. The ...

 Last weeks rain and subsequent flooding in several locations around the state have left many homeowners wondering if they will ever return to the place they called home. They are digging out their belongings, trying to salvage what they can, while they wait for the waters to recede and a “good word” from their insurance company. Many may not get the news they hope for.

While some of the flooded areas were in a flood plain and more than likely, covered by flood insurance, many were not. The outcome could have a devastating effect on cities and communities throughout Indianapolis and the state; more importantly, the people who live there. There were floods in places which never flood and we’re talking Indiana here. Did you know our average precipitation is 35–40 inches a year? Even so, many were not and could not be prepared for this devastation.

 Will Your Insurance Cover Water Damage?

The home of one of my clients took in...