High apartment rents in the Reno-Sparks
Don’t look for the rents to reduce anytime soon.
According to a report from Johnson, Perkins, and Griffin, second quarter data in 2015 indicates average rent for an apartment in the Reno-Sparks metro area is at an all time high — $920 per month.
Did you ever think you could try before you buy that new home?
When shopping of a new car we can take a demo ride, usually with a salesman riding along. Sometimes you can get a loaner vehicle. We can try a new car by renting.
But how can you try out that new home. Again, renting might be an option but that is usually a much longer term.
Realtor.com and airbnb.com joined forces so folks shopping for a home could try out and experience the neighborhood before they buy.
Airbnb lets you stay in a home in the area you’re investigating on realtor.com, so you can live like a local and really get to know the neighborhood.
Do you think this is something that might work? Airbnb does have listing in the Reno/Tahoe area.
A lesson in vigilance.
Detroit is preparing to foreclose on as many as 62,000 properties this year. An estimate of half of them are occupied. These are all property tax cases.
Detroit desperately needs the money to support a huge unwieldly government that has plundered the wealth of that once great city.
Michigan in 1999 changed the way its local governments deal with people who fail to pay their property taxes, replacing a system of tax liens with foreclosure. Yet the number of foreclosures did not reach what advocates here view as a crisis level until years later, when the national recession hastened the city’s problems with blighted properties and population decline. By last year, at least 70,000 foreclosures had taken place here since 2009, not for unpaid mortgages but for failure to pay property taxes.
Read more here.
Anyone in the re-hab business soon learns to expect some surprises. But, how would you react if the surprise was a huge wasp nest?
I don’t know if this was a normal re-hab project. The building looks a bit dilapidated and the story suggests that neighbors called the police about what might be inside the abandoned building.
Inside, the police found a wasp nest of gigantic proportions, 21 ft in all.
22 Foot Wasp Nest
Read the story here: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/12/unbelievable-22-foot-wasp-nest-found-growing-in-abandoned-house/
Interested in home security?
Loads of new high tech products are on the market, with lots more on the way.
Consumers are interested in smart home technology and the ability to monitor and control their homes online.
More than half want to know it their smoke alarm goes off, to remotely see who’s at the front door and when anyone enters the home. They also want to be able to control the lights and temperature.
But, don’t forget good practices, such as not announcing your absence on social media.
And use non – tech things, such as deadbolt locks.
For more information see: http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20121213_smarthomes.htm
Interest rates are slightly above recent lows and now may be the perfect time to refinance. Especially if you currently have an FHA loan.
The FHA Streamline Refinance is an extremely easy mortgage program. FHA has guidelines that permit borrowers to ignore most traditional mortgage verifications associated with a refinance, including those for income, credit and employment.
And with FHA mortgage rates in the 3 percent range, refinancing homeowners can also ignore the FHA mortgage insurance premiums. That alone could save you a huge amount of money.
You have surely heard stories of the tenant form Hell. This story from Oklahoma might be one of the tops.
The owner evicted the tenants after he became suspicious of illegal activity. Apparently, the tenants then became vindictive and did approximately $40,000 intentional damage, including stealing the copper wiring.
The tenants were arrested.
See more here.
Landlords. when renting a unit/property do you provide and document an EPA lead paint disclosure pamphlet? If you don’t you are placing yourself at serious risk.
The EPA is on a crusade, and you are the target.
The EPA has levied fines of as much as $40,000 for failure to kneel at their altar.
Read the story.
The Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that MERS cannot foreclose on delinquent homeowners.
In a unanimous opinion, the Washington Supreme Court said that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) can’t begin a foreclosure itself because it doesn’t hold the note the homeowner signed with the lender. The ruling means banks or other noteholders will have to initiate foreclosures instead of relying on MERS.
Banks will still be able to foreclose, but they must take the action themselves. Foreclosures will still happen and will likely take a bit longer and be a bit more expensive.
Will this be another nail in MERS’ coffin?
Read more here.
When Reuters finally figures something out we should all sit up and take notice.
Reuters has discovered that the blizzard of foreclosure laws, which were intended to solve the foreclosure problem actually caused more harm than they did good.
Nevada’s AB 284 is the case in point. When AB 284 went into effect foreclosure action ground to a halt. The banks were fearful of doing what needed to be done. Consequently, the needed cure was delayed and the crisis was prolonged.
Notice of Default Filings
The government caused the foreclosure crisis. And now the government set out to fix the crisis. And whenever the government gets involved we can be sure that the government’s solution will be much worse than the original government induce problem.
When legislators attempt to protect the homeowner who hadn’t paid his bills they actually harm the lender and anyone that may want to get a loan in the future. Why would a lender make a loan where the legislature could just declare that the loan never needs to be repaid?
“Many state laws that stretch out the period for legitimate foreclosures result in no added benefit for the homeowner and produce harm to the housing finance system and to neighborhoods,” said Alfred Pollard, general counsel to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, at a House of Representatives oversight hearing in March.
Ricky Beach, a Reno real estate agent thinks the law killed the market in the Reno-Sparks area.
Ricky Beach, a real estate agent in Reno, Nevada, said the new law, AB 284, “has pretty much killed the market here.” The lack of foreclosure activity has led to a dearth of inventory, he said, with the number of homes for sale in the area down to 778 today from more than 1,700 in September.
And,
“The bill did nothing to solve the crisis – it’s just prolonged it,” Beach said. “Sooner or later the banks will work out how to deal with the law. And then foreclosures will hit the market, and prices will crash back down.”
Malik Ahmad, a Las Vegas attorney agrees:
Malik Ahmad, a Las Vegas foreclosure defense lawyer who has spent the last six years trying to help vulnerable borrowers deal with unscrupulous banks, said the law had completely changed his view of the nature of the crisis.
“This law has become a mockery,” Ahmad said. “I am now turning down clients every day who I know have no intention of ever trying to pay their mortgage. They just want to stay in their homes for free. And that is a bad situation for everyone, lenders and homeowners.”
Read more here.