How To Find A Great Contractor

ConstructionDeciding to renovate your home is a tough enough decision on its own but now that you’ve decided to do it, you need someone to do the work. It would be awful to put time and money into a renovation that was done wrong or badly. Today’s article gives nearly 20 tips on finding the right contractor. Here’s one, “Check licenses, complaints and litigation history. General contractors and most subcontractors should be licensed, although the procedure varies by state and municipality. Check the disciplinary boards, Better Business Bureau and local court records for problems. Ask the contractor for a copy of his license and copies of the licenses of the major subcontractors who will work on the job.” To read all of them, CLICK HERE.

Tips For Buying A New Home

MortgageThinking of buying a new house at the beginning of next year? Today’s article discusses how you can evade paying way too much for a new home. Here’s one tip, “Do not rush into buying a house. While this is your potential home, it is also likely the biggest purchase of your life and you cannot make it lightly. If you find yourself too connected to a property, you may actually be more willing to overpay. It’s important to remain unattached and consider all options before you make an offer.” To see all of the tips, CLICK HERE.

Investing In Real Estate Abroad For Under $100

Abroad LivingWant to invest in real estate abroad? How about the UK and how about doing it for under $100? Sounds a little too good to be true. But believe it or not, today’s article discusses how it’s possible. Here’s what they had to say about the company, “Property Partner will deal exclusively with residential real estate and will allow investors to trade their interests, something that’s not been possible in the sector before.” To read more, CLICK HERE.

NAHB Announces Increase in Builder Confidence

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released January numbers from their NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) this morning. The HMI rose 4 points to 25, the highest level since June 2007.

So what does that mean?

For the past twenty years NAHB has been conducting this survey among home builders. They ask home builders what their expectations are for single-family home sales over the next six months, poor, fair, or good. They also rate prospective buyer traffic the home builders are experiencing, from very low to very high.

The HMI showed that all four regions in the U.S. have improved in January, the largest gain of 9 was in the Northeast, bringing it up to 23.

National Survey Suggests Strong Real Estate Investment Desire

Some really interesting statistics came out in Move Inc’s recent home buyer survey.

Of the 1,200 U.S. adults surveyed 200 were real estate investors. A third of those were planning on buying with the next two years, and about 8.6% of the typical home buyers were.

Some other interesting statistics include 56.5% of investors who said repair and maintenance of their properties hadn’t been a huge burden, 75% plan to combine cash and credit for their purchase, 59% of the investors said they were new to investing, less than 40% had previous property transaction experience. And 53% expect home prices to stay steady for the next six to 12 months.

Lots of interesting figures in the report, check out a good synopsis at No Radar Real Estate.