Realty Insights for Home Buying, Home Selling, and Indy Info

Following is an article from David Fairman, Senior Loan Officer with CTX Mortgage. The article is from the Business Wire from Thursday, Sept. 6. It offers some helpful advice on how to be prepared to own a home with the new loan requirements. CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Many Americans hope to purchase a home and pursue the "American Dream." Everyone should understand: lending practices are changing as we speak and tighter qualification requirements will make strong credit even more important than in past years. In today's market, you can no longer count on non-traditional products like interest-only mortgages, adjustable rate mortgages, stated income or no-doc loans to help you enter the housing market. Here are some suggestions to prepare your credit and your budget for a strong dose of reality with new lending practices: Get copies of all three credit reports and pay for your credit scores. Inaccurate items on your credit report can sabotage your chances of securing good

My listing at 134 Bloomfield Lane in Westfield has just been reduced! Now offered at $224,900! MLS #2736576

My Listing at 265 Beechwood Lane in Zionsville has just been reduced $55,000! Now offered at $795,000! MLS #2750696

In this buyer's market, it's important to have any advantage you can over your competition. One possible disadvantage is having an empty or vacant home. Granted, it may not always be feesible to stage a home or continue living in it while it's on the market. But, if you are able to avoid listing your home while it is vacant, here are a few advantages of listing a home that is currently lived in or staged: 1). People don't buy houses, they buy homes--people like to feel "at home" and comfortable in the home they want to buy and many people can't feel at home in an empty house. 2). Without furniture, there is no frame of reference--rooms can seem too small or even too large without furniture to give a frame of reference. 3). When a room is empty, buyers focus on negative details 4). Only 10% of buyers can actually visualize the potential of a home

One of my listings has been reduced! 6510 Kingsbury Way, Zionsville Reduced to $215,000!

From F.C. Tucker Company, July's Market Watch: INDIANAPOLIS – Residential real estate in central Indiana is improving as the summer home-buying season comes to a close. Pended home sales in July were down by just 1 percent compared to July 2006. In July, 2,597 pended home sales were reported, a slight decrease from 2,633 during the same time last year, according to data compiled by F.C. Tucker Company. More than half of the counties in the nine-county region posted higher pended sales than July 2006, with Shelby County showing the highest increase of 48.6 percent. Hancock County pended home sales rose 25.3 percent compared to July 2006. Home sales in Hendricks County dropped 29.9 percent from last year. Although year-to-date home sales are down 5 percent, July’s statistics show that the local housing market is inching toward improvement. Further reinforcing the local market’s gradual upswing is this week’s report in Forbe’s magazine that lists Indianapolis as the most affordable ho