Oliver News

I found another web site that offers discounted mortgages, and you can check to see what the best rates are online; my favorite way to shop around. I have been watching mortgage rates for some times, it has always interested me to see if the rates are up and down and how much house I could afford if I decided to sell this one and move up in the world. The places online are my favorite way to keep up with the possibilities, and I always check to see if the mortgage broker who is offering me business has stated income loans, or no-doc / low-doc loans, because being self employed makes things a bit more complex when applying for mortgage credit. If the broker is familiar with these stated income loans then I will talk more shop with them.

Unfortunately the stated income loan may be harder to get as washington talks about making it harder for public companies to engage in these types of loans - I hope that will blow over, in the meantime, get one while you can!

With so much in the news about how houses are not selling everywhere, the economy being down, and it being a buyers market, what do you do? You can’t just give up, and if you are moving for a job, you need to sell. There is no sense in keeping two mortgages going at the same time. In my neighborhood there are tons of houses for sale and many that haven’t sold in over a year, but there are alternatives.

There are several companies and groups of investors that will come in and make you a quick offer. Sure you might be able to sell for a few more dollars if you list it yourself, you could also pay a real estate agent a commission and wait to see when it will sell, but with investor groups looking to flip properties, why not get some offers from them. There are places online to check out when you need cash for homes. With the internet it’s fast and easy to find people to buy your house and get you on your way to your next property quickly.

I love the ability to get offers sent via email, it’s fast and easy. Time saved is money saved, and we are all looking to save money these days. Saving time and frustration is priceless, so take advantage of the online opportunities to shop around.

Someone sent me a link to a story at Techcrunch talking about hotpads adding a foreclosure heat map to their site. I believe hotpads.com was created with a really neat idea of about making it easier, and keeping it real for consider multiple issues with moving. A mashup of data from various places is what they call it when you pull data from various sources and recreate or re-present information. From the comments at Techcrunch it seems that some people had trouble using the foreclosure tab to see it’s listing, not sure if it is a temporary issue or a browser issue or what.

there were also some comments there that made it sound like the data is not very accurate, but I have yet to see further percentages for that. All in all I love the hotpads.com web site and the ideas that spurred it’s creation.

When web 2.0 companies start to release new sites that focus on foreclosures, you know things have gone from bad to worse. Of course it’s not Zillow’s fault that the economy is in shambles. They didn’t make gas prices higher and keep wages low, but they are cashing in on creating technology that focuses the mortgage crisis. Zillow has released a new web 2.0 technology to help you focus on the all the foreclosures in various parts of the country.

I remember when zillow launched, it’s a very cool mashup of technology that gives you an easy to read and zoom map of houses and properties in certain areas and shows the purchase prices and estimated values - a great tool if you were considering buying or selling property. It also made me feel good looking at it and seeing that homes in my neighborhood were going up in value.

Now it’s like watching a bad dream come true, perhaps this will become some kind of offline Trump board game of some sort. Now you can look up your friends, family and enemies addresses to see how bad they are getting screwed on their home prices.

Story from the AP talking about Zillow’s multi-lender mortgage marketplace. A place where many Americans will find that they can get rejected by several places quickly. Just kidding.

It’s a sing of the times. A Hawaii vacation company expands it’s real estate holdings in Mexico. It’s a smart business move, but people should see it for what it is. People who are still able to afford a vacation are more and more choosing mexico as a destination. It’s cheaper, and may be all many people can afford.

Of course you should do some searching in the news for violence and police corruption in Mexico before you head down there, and there may be a slight language barrier. Who knows what housekeepers there consider clean? Often times hotels look great in pictures and even nice on the outside, but what’s it’s really like in your hotel room? Sounds like a vacation in the United States but cheaper.