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Jane Renwick, Executive Vice President at Urban Nation, speaks about when to get into the housing market and housing prices.

* What direction are housing prices headed in?
* How long does it typically take for the housing market to recover?
* When is a good time to get into the housing market?

The Investor Education Fund is pleased to be cosponsoring this video series with the Globe and Mail called “Lets Talk Investing.” The series is hosted by renowned Globe and Mail columnist Rob Carrick and features prominent Canadian financial experts discussing topics that are relevant to investors.

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It seems like everyone is talking about appraisals today and a lot of people have questions about the whole process.

So what’s an appraisal anyway? An appraisal is what determines the fair market value of your property. The appraisal is performed by a licensed appraiser who provides a professional opinion of the value of your property based on a variety of factors. Its an important part of the mortgage process that needs to happen before the transaction can be finalized.

It’s easier to understand the whole appraisal process by breaking it down into three main parts. There’s the Real Estate Inspection. The Comparables. And The Final Report of Value.

The real estate inspection will take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes based on the size of your home. The appraiser will record things like square footage, the dimensions of your property and the number of rooms in your home. He’ll verify his findings with information provided by third parties such as the real estate multiple listing service and county records.

The next step is for the appraiser to evaluate Comparables. Comparables are recent home sales in and around your neighborhood. Analyzing these recent past sales helps an appraiser determine the current market value of your home. And when I say recent, I’m talking 3 to 6 months. This is important because comparable sales from many years back may not reflect true home values today.

When selecting comparable properties, the appraiser is looking for some very specific things: Homes that have sold recently. Homes that have sold near where you live. And homes that are similar to yours in terms of size, age and style – ranch, colonial or tri-level , for example.

You should also know that home values from Real Estate websites do not give you accurate comparable values. The information they provide may be outdated and isn’t verified by third parties such as real estate multiple listing services. Basically, an accurate appraisal can only come from a licensed appraiser.

Here’s a question a lot of people are asking these days: Will a foreclosed house in my neighborhood affect the appraised value of my property? The answer is that it depends on the amount of foreclosed properties that have sold in your area. Like artwork, baseball cards or any other product, the value of a house is based on what people are willing to pay for it. And the bottom line is that foreclosed homes sell for less than other homes.

And the more foreclosures in your area, the more average home prices will fall.

The important thing to remember is that appraisers cant treat foreclosure sales any different than non-foreclosure sales. A sale is a sale regardless of whether a comparable property happens to be in foreclosure. But heres the good news: By keeping your property well-maintained and up-to-date, youre doing what you can to increase the appraised value of your property.

Next, an appraiser will move on to the final step: Preparing a Final Report of Value. This report will detail the appraisers analysis of the value of your property based on a combination of the inspection and the comparables. Also, if youve done home improvements and upgrades to your property, the appraiser may take these into consideration when writing his final report of value. Both you and your mortgage lender will get a copy of this report.

Sospeaking of the mortgage lender, whats our role in the whole appraisal process anyway? Heres the simple answer: Mortgage companies like Quicken Loans, by law, cannot do appraisals.

Appraisals can only be performed by a state-licensed third party. That means that by law, we have no influence on the appraised value of your property.

In fact, if an appraisal on a property comes in too low, we wont be able to write a loan on it. The bottom line is that we at Quicken Loans want what you want: A fair appraisal of your property that accurately reflects todays market conditions.

An accurate appraisal is the best way to ensure that everyones interests are protected throughout the entire home refinance or purchase process.

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http://www.EnergyBrainiac.com – Low Cost Homemade Solar Panels – Your Home Energy Solution on a Shoestring!
Many homeowners would love to be able to install their own low cost homemade solar panels and cut down on their monthly electricity bills. Wouldn’t you? A growing number of people have already done just that and they are proof that this is a simple and effective method of saving money.

Things to Consider when Installing A Home Solar Power System

If you want to harness the sun’s power, it is best if your home faces south. A roof that faces south and receives direct and unobstructed sunlight would be the ideal place to install your solar panels. If this is not feasible for some reason, however, you can always install them in a part of your backyard that receives direct sunlight as well.

There are ready-made solar panel kits for sale on the market. But typically costing $3000 or more these kits are often beyond the budget of most homeowners, especially with the current state of the economy.

A far less expensive way to harness free energy from the sun is to build your own low cost solar power system. You will find a great number of instructional guides online that will walk you through the entire process. Even if you have never attempted any DIY projects before, you are sure to find these instructions easy to understand and follow. Within a few days, you should have your own homemade solar power system operational.

The best thing about building your own solar panels is that it costs so little. You simply need to spend some time searching for the best prices on materials, and the entire project should cost less than $200.

Another excellent thing about creating your own home solar energy system that you decide how large or small you wish your system to be. If you want, you could build more solar panels and make your home entirely independent of the regular electrical grid. If you generate excess electricity, you might even be able to sell it to your local power company!

Building low cost homemade solar panels is cheap and easy… and a great way to go green and save on your monthly electrical bills without the need for a huge initial investment!

Want to build your own homemade solar panels but don’t know where to start?

Fret not! Many people just like you have successfully built these on their own to DRASTICALLY cut their monthly electricity consumption. They are already shaving $1000s off their energy bills every year. If you need STEP-BY-STEP guidance in installing one, I have reviewed the Best Online Guides on Homemade Solar Panels for your convenience. These highly recommended guides provide EASY-TO-FOLLOW instructions that will help you save money in no time.

Dave Keller is a Renewable Energy Specialist who takes pride in helping the average consumer save on their energy bills using simple DIY devices… and give power companies a run for their money! Learn his secrets that most people will never know about how to build solar panels to harness FREE energy…
Low Cost Homemade Solar Panels – Your Home Energy Solution on a Shoestring!

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http://www.corcoran.com What do brokers take into account when effectively pricing a property? Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman discusses the importance of looking at what’s recently sold in the area, how does your house compare, and what differentiates it from other homes nearby? As she explains, “At the end of the day, it’s the market that determines the price of your home”.

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Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) — Herbert M. Allison Jr., the U.S. Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for financial stability, talks about the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s interest-free loans to reduce foreclosures.
The Obama administration will offer $1 billion in loans to help homeowners who’ve lost income avoid foreclosure as part of $3 billion in additional aid targeting economically distressed areas. Allison talks with Carol Massar and Matt Miller on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Just because the median home price went up doesn’t mean home prices did. Here’s why

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Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) — Bloomberg’s Phillip Yin reports on China’s banking regulator telling lenders last month to conduct a new round of stress tests to gauge the impact of residential property prices falling as much as 60 percent in hardest-hit markets, a person with knowledge of the matter said .
Yin talks with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) — Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow Inc., talks about U.S. home prices and the state of the housing market.
The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth declined in the second quarter as tax credits boosted prices in California and foreclosures surged, according to the report from Zillow. Humphries speaks with with Matt Miller and Carol Massar on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Forget home theater in a box: For about a million dollars, high-end audio manufacturer Goldmund will build you an entire room, complete with 32-channel surround sound, 52 drives and a brain-melting 13,000 watts of power from 5 Hz to 50 kHz.

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The August edition of This Month in Real Estate explores why waiting for lower home prices could actually cost you more.

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