A Few Observations on the Google Penguin Update — April 28, 2012

The new Google Penguin Update has done some really interesting things for real estate searches. It’s wacky. Some of the changes seem to be without rhyme or reason. They seem to contradict the supposed premiss for the algorithm update. Here are a few of the things I have observed while doing real estate searches in the Penguin environment.

Aged Sites Matter – As long as there is no indication of artificial link building.

I have seen many “old” websites that haven’t been worked on or modified in years, that are now relevant in the search results again. Most of these sites haven’t seen top 20 rankings since 2006, if ever.

For real estate agents who rely on leads generated by organic search engine traffic, there have been some major changes, and reduced lead quantities over the last week thanks to Google's new "Penguin" update.

The 10 markets are, in order: Raleigh-Cary, N.C.; Wichita, Kan.; Rochester, N.Y.; Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa; Chattanooga, Tenn.-Ga.; Peoria, Ill.; Amarillo, Texas; Binghamton, N.Y.; Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa; and Bloomington-Normal, Ill. The Des Moines and Bloomington-Normal metros are on the list for the second year in a row.

Nationwide, unemployment is high, though trending down; the median price of an existing home fell over 4 percent in 2011; and existing-home sales rose a modest 1.7 percent last year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, said 2012 will be a "transitional year" in the housing recovery, with an improvement in home sales and prices anticipated to fall to a long-awaited "bottom."

Zillow identified some markets that are "undervalued" on a historical basis in a chart provided for this report, and Inman News reached out to a range of other real estate research and information companies for their insight on those real estate markets expected to outperform others in the year ahead. Those companies' findings were not considered in the review and selection process of the top 10 markets featured in this report.

"While home values are expected to fall further (another 2 to 4 percent) in 2012 with a definitive bottom probably a year away, encouraging precursors to a true stabilization of home values are falling into place as the new year begins," Humphries said in a forecast Tuesday.

"Home sales will show a more consistent upward trend this year, slowly reducing the amount of vacant housing inventory. This increased demand will eventually start to put a floor under home values later this year."

U.S. foreclosure activity hit its lowest level since 2007 last year, though experts largely expect it to ramp up this year, putting downward pressure on home prices.

"There were strong signs in the second half of 2011 that lenders are finally beginning to push through some of the delayed foreclosures in select local markets. We expect that trend to continue this year, boosting foreclosure activity for 2012 higher than it was in 2011, though still below the peak of 2010," said Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac, in the company's year-end foreclosure report. RealtyTrac also provided a chart for this report.

To compile the list of 10 markets to watch this year, Inman News looked for markets with above-average median sales price growth, a low unemployment rate, a high rate of sales per population, high affordability, low and falling foreclosure activity, a low share of distressed sales, above-average projected job growth, median household income growth, low and falling vacancy rates, growth in the number of building permits issued, above-average population growth, high projected population growth, and a rise in in-migration from other states.

While no markets on the list fulfilled all of these ideal economic characteristics, they did meet most of them.

Contrary to last year's list, in which most of the resulting markets had populations under 250,000, half of the metros on this year's list had populations above 500,000. This may be partially a result of only considering metros with a population of 150,000 or above, while last year's list did not limit the list by population size.

Among the findings in this report:

• Three of the 10 markets on this list are state capitals, and both Illinois markets benefit from proximity to that state's capital, Springfield.
• Four of the markets: Bloomington-Normal and Peoria in Illinois as well as Des Moines-West Des Moines and Waterloo-Cedar Falls in Iowa, are no more than 300 or so miles from each other.
• Nine of 10 markets had median sales prices below the national median in the third quarter of 2011.
• Where affordability rankings were available, the markets on the list had no less than 73.6 percent of homes affordable to those households earning the area's median income in the third quarter.
• All had unemployment, foreclosure, and vacancy rates lower than the national average. None of the markets had unemployment rates higher than 7.9 percent. All had lower shares of distressed sales than the national average.
• Only two of the markets had populations above 1 million, and three had populations above 500,000. The remainder had populations below that figure, but above a minimum 150,000.
• As in last year's report, jobs in the public sector as well as the health care industry were major employers in most markets. This year, however, nine out of 10 markets also counted manufacturing companies among primary employers. Technology companies, energy providers, and universities also boosted many markets.

These top markets for recovery are interesting, and kind of surprising. What we can learn from this report is that it is probably a really good time to buy Real Estate in Raleigh NC.

If you’re looking for homes for sale in the DC area, there are few places as nice, and as affordable as Rockville.

Rockville Maryland Homes include everything from condos to short sales to Rockville Luxury Homes. Some of the least expensive town homes and condos can be purchased for a little over $100,000. These usually consist of two bedroom units.

One of the nice things about Rockville, is that the high end homes really aren’t all that expensive. The most expensive home in Rockville is priced at just half a million dollars.

If you’re looking to buy real estate in Rockville, or anywhere in the United states, you should consider getting pre-qualified before ever considering shopping for homes online.

It’s easy to get pre-qualified. All you have to do is talk to a mortgage lender or bank. They will evaluate your finances, your income, and debt to determine if you can qualify, and how much home they may be willing to lend to you. You will also be able to find out how expensive your mortgage interest rate will be. The APR is a great term to know for shopping for the best available mortgage.

It is also wise to talk to more than one lender. Unfortunately, not all mortgage lenders have your interests as their number one priority. For some lenders, the number one priority is getting themselves the highest commission. Most mortgage brokerages make a living off of the commissions they make from doing home loans. One advantage of shopping around for different mortgage lenders is that many of them will cut their rates in order to compete with other lenders to win your business.

When you purchase a new home there may be a number of things you want to renovate. Among the top of the list these days, is adding a beautiful hardwood floor. This look offers beauty, value, and extra life. But there are several things to consider when installing hardwood.  Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to try to get rid of the tile… but this isn’t always plausbile or possible, so here is the best way to lay hard wood over tile.

Remove Any Obstacles

Remove any obstacles such as baseboards so you can slide the hardwood underneath, and replace the base boards at the appropriate hidth. Much of the hardwood floorboards, such as clickwood or engineered are approximately 3/8″ high, and with an extra 1/8″ for the pad underneath, you’ll want to allow for about a 1/”2 gap between the bottom of the base boards and the top floor, prior to laying your hardwood surface.

Level the Surface (Remove The Tile if Possible)

Get ready for some back breaking grueling work. Before you begin this project, make sure you’ve got plenty of patience in store, otherwise you’ll end up walking out half way through or doing the project wrong.
To lay hardwood down, you will want your surface to be as smooth as possible. If you have any drops that are close to a 1/8″ drop in the surface of your floor, it may cuase damage to your hardwood, or at the least it will creak and crack as you walk over the finished hardwood surface. Consider this – if the plan is 3 inches wide and there is an uneven surface underneath, it will teeter-totter depending on which side of the board you step on. That teeter-totter motion cause motion which will create sounds and wear your hardwood down quickly.

Divots left by the sledge hammer in tile which lies on concrete.

To level the surface the best idea is to get rid of the tile, depending on how easy that is. If the tile is installed on concrete, this may be more difficult. If it was laid in an area such as the upstairs over floorboards, this may prove easier. The reason being, you’re going to have to break the tile with a sledge hammer, and the surface underneath will need to be able to bend with the force of the sledge hammer so the tile can crack. Otherwise, you may just end up putting small divots into the tile and not actually break anything, as show with the picture on the right. The desired effect is to have long breaks up and down the tile which can be pried up. Place a spare towel over the tile as you hit it with the sledge hammer to avoid any flying tile shards

Here are some great tips to make your home valuable with less work.

Merry Christmas from interest rate Santa. It’s time to get the best Christmas Gift, a new House. And why should you buy a new house at Christmas time? Because the all time low interest rates make it a major sale on houses everywhere. That’s right, mortgage interest rates are less expensive than they have ever been before.

Right now you could have a $150,000 home loan with a Principal and Interest monthly payment of just $711. In many areas of Utah, that will provide you with a pretty nice home.

Here is the latest from the Freddie Mac residential mortgage survey:

30 Year interest rates averaged less than 4 percent at 3.94%. 15 year fixed rate mortgages were just 3.21%, and 5 year ARMS were just 2.93%. In simple terms this means…. Your monthly payment will be very, very low.

If you really want to build wealth, go for a 15 year mortgage. With 15 year mortgages you pay a lot less interest and pay your home off in half the time. At the current average 15 year fixed interest rates that same $150,000 mortgage loan would have a P&I interest rate of just $1,051. In more normal times, this would be the payment you would have with a 30 year loan! Same monthly payment, but for half the term.

2011

Legal Questions Real Estate Agents Need to Know

Real Estate agents need to have good legal knowledge and understanding of contract law. This is perhaps the most valuable service that real estate agents provide to their clients. Agents need to know how to not only understand the issues, and potential pitfalls, but they need to educate their clients and avoid catastrophies.

Here are a few scenarios real estate agents might encounter.

Verbal and Written Offers

A buyer brings verbally commits that they are going to bring in an offer, the seller verbally commits to accept it. Then, a second buyer brings in a better written offer, before the written offer actually is received. Who is under contract?

The second offer.

For a contract to be valid the offer must be signed, and communicated. As a real estate agent you need to make sure that the message has been received. The best way to go this is with a phone call.

Real Estate agents also need to make sure that their clients understand how the negotiation process works, and when properties are really under contract.

What Items are Included in the Real Estate Transaction

Are refrigerators included? How about ceiling fans, water shares, propane tanks, and water softeners.

It depends. Fridges are considered personal property. They can be taken or left behind. What matters is what it says in the real estate purchase contract.

Seller Required Repairs

What if repairs aren’t made by settlement as agreed in the purchase contract?

Then an escrow account is set up that will cover the unmade repairs. In the event  that these repairs are not made within a month, then the agreed upon  liquidated damages will be released to the buyer. In reality, this scenario may not work. Lenders often won’t allow escrow accounts, and much of the time the short sale sellers have no equity that can go in the escrow account anyways. When possible, it’s best to just move the closing back until after the repairs are really made.

Contract Cancellation – What happens to earnest money.

After the financing and appraisal deadline, if a buyer wants to cancel, what happens?

For Real Estate in Utah, the seller can either accept the earnest money as liquidated damages, or sue the buyer.

The earnest money should be sufficient to cover the damages. But this isn’t necessarily sufficient, if the buyer didn’t really do all they could to get their loan, the seller could still sue the buyer for damages rather than take the earnest money.

Th safe thing to do is have the financing deadline as close to possible to closing. If anything is going to cancel, do it before the deadline.

The more a real estate agent knows. The better off their clients will. Be a general rule of thumb is to simply be on top of things and anticipate future concerns. The best way to do this is experience.

#5. A Christmas Story

 

Ralphie’s house in A Christmas Story was filmed in Cleveland, OH, and has since been turned into a museum that you can visit — and buy your own leg lamp!

#4. It’s a Wonderful Life

 

George Bailey’s “drafty old house” in It’s a Wonderful Life (above) was part of the sprawling Bedford Falls set covering 4 acres on RKO Studios’ back lot. Sadly, it was razed in the 1950s.

Another home briefly featured in It’s a Wonderful Life is the Martini House, which is located in the fictional Bailey Park where George (James Stewart) presents the Martini Family with their new home. The actual home is located in La Canada Flintridge, CA (above). The scene is memorable due to the quote that George’s wife, Mary (Donna Reed) recites to the family upon presenting the house and gift: “Bread… that this house may never know hunger. Salt… that life may always have flavor. And wine… that joy and prosperity may reign forever. Enter the Martini Castle.”

#3. White Christmas

 

Okay, so technically, it’s an inn, not a house, and it was just a set at Paramount Studios, but a lot of us still dream of visiting Columbia Inn in Pine Tree, Vermont, over the holidays, and having a cup of buttermilk by the fire with Bing in the holiday classic, White Christmas.

#2. Christmas in Connecticut

 

The Connecticut farmhouse was just a set built at Warner Bros. in Burbank, CA, and we never even see the entire exterior — but the home used in Christmas in Connecticut is one of my favorites. I think it’s kind of a shame that Barbara Stanwyck’s character gives up her architect boyfriend in the end because the stone farmhouse goes with him.

#1. Home Alone

Home Alone was the clear winner with my readers, pulling in about 40% of the votes for best holiday house. The decorating may be a little dated 20-plus years later, but all that red and green wallpaper still looks like Christmas to most of us. The real Home Alone house in Winnetka, IL, went on the market for $2.4 million in May. (I compared the real rooms to how they looked in the movie here.)

This is nice little post to get you in the "Housing" and Christmas spirit at the same time. The most Popular Christmas Houses. I love the Christmas Story House. I wonder if it still exists. Next time I'm in Cleveland, I'm going to look for it.

Housing chart image via Shutterstock.com.

"We effectively moved everything onto the cloud," says Glenn Sanford, the founder and CEO of eXp Realty, a 2011 Inman News Most Innovative Brokerage Award finalist that has been at the forefront of the emerging virtual real estate world.

After real estate

This is a pretty cool business Model for Real Estate Brokerages.