THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

Welcome! A touch stone for things related to real estate...or whatever happens to float through the mind of the Realtor on point. Here you will find important information, irrelevant information, tidbits intended to ease the way for greater joy, well, you just never know what you will find on this Blog. Just scroll through all the little bits that have been shared over time and see if anything at all grabs your interest. If don't see just what you're looking for right this minute, I hope you will stop back by because you just never know what the next post will be!

Whether you are in Austin, Texas, the surrounding areas, any of the Far Western Suburbs of Chicago in Illinois, or maybe even far-reaching places all over the globe, please come back and visit this real estate centered Blog. Now, after checking out the updates, go have a great day! You deserve it.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Tree House Made Of Glass In The Forest!

Did you read about the tree house in Sweden built out of glass? If you're interested in "Living Green" and seeing an amazing structure built out of glass, as well as maybe finding your next totally amazing vacation spot, check it out:

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/guest_bloggers/56/almost-invisible-mirrored-tree-house-built-in-sweden.html

For more details on real estate plus links for all sorts of helpful things visit me at
http://GoRussellRealtor.com

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Need A Diversion?

This is really intriguing! If you like dolphins and are interested in seeing them do something new, click the link. It's worth it. http://wimp.com/dolphinbubbles/

Friday, July 16, 2010

JP Chase Morgan Posts Profit for Q2!

This, just in today's business news, may be of interest. If JP Chase Morgan is posting a profit I can't wait to hear what Bank of America and the other "big guys" report today. Here's the link to the article.


http://www.dsnews.com/articles/jpmorgan-chase-posts-48-billion-profit-for-q2-2010-07-15


If you want to talk about it, or see how this may impact you and what's going on in your life right now, feel free to give me a call, or email me at russellgroup1@yahoo.com, or if you just want to check out my website and see what's going on there, visit
http://GoRussellRealtor.com

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Short Sales Gone Wild!

We've been really busy working the Short Sale market. Crazy! Today I just got an offer in on another property that is going the Short Sale route. Luckily, I have an experienced short sale negotiating team in place which makes the whole process efficient and as smooth as possible. We have a high success rate. You may ask, though, "What is a short sale?"

In the past when people have purchased a home, especially say between 2005 and 2007, they paid a price according to the market at that time. That buyer may also have taken advantage of getting a 100% financed loan, which many lenders were offering. The thought behind that was that since property values kept going up, a buyer could purchase a property, hold it for a few years, then sell it and realize a profit, pay off that 100% loan and still be ok, ready to move on to the next purchase. Well, then property values dropped. A lot. Then, as the economy eroded and people lost jobs, or lost income, or perhaps health issues came up...any number of hardships which caused those homeowners to be unable to keep up with their mortgage payments, another issue came up and that was how to get out from under the mortgage they could no longer afford. Welcome to the world of short sales.

If a homeowner truly can prove a hardship and the value of their home has dropped beneath what they owe for it, and they are falling behind on their payments, before the homeowner loses the house to foreclosure we, in real estate, can try and help them qualify for a short sale, market the home, get that homeowner out from under that heavy burden. Many people who have had to go the short sale route had previously tried to get a loan modification done but were unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. A short sale on your record is not as damaging as a foreclosure or a bankruptcy. We can help the homeowner determine if they might qualify to do a short sale.

Where did the phrase short sale come from? If the property is selling for less than is owed to the bank, and the bank agrees to let that happen, then the bank is selling themselves short....or it is a SHORT SALE.

Credit Scores Sink To New Lows

There have been numerous articles written on the subject of the dramatic drop in Americans' credit scores lately. One of them appeared today on Yahoo Finance. If you are interested in reading the Yahoo article in full, provided by the Associated Press, go to:

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110051/more-americans-credit-scores-sink-to-new-lows?mod=oneclick