Category: General

The inventory of homes is still very tight in desirable metropolitan areas. Hopeful buyers who have not been able to find homes may be wondering: Could I succeed in buying a house at an auction? An auction, also called a trustee sale, will widen your pool of potential homes. It also offers a way to…

Your Five-Point Plan A home purchase is one of the most rewarding investments most people ever make. That said, it can take courage to be a buyer. Unless the buyer is paying with cash — and few people can or will — buying a house means submitting to the scrutiny of financial experts. It means…

In the Bay Area and Beyond, Housing Shortages Make Higher Densities Inevitable Governments are beginning to allow accessory dwelling units where they didn’t before. They’re rezoning to allow multiple homes per lot. They have to. They’re responding to a housing crisis that needs answers. Otherwise, a state has no way to supply necessary housing in…

What Home Buyers Need to Know In a seller’s market, buyers anxious to start touring homes may find very few opportunities. Some buyers might try to make offers despite pending deals, eager to be runners-up just in case a sale doesn’t make it to closing. Here’s what to know about pending offers, and whether a…

Tiny houses are, as the term suggests, small homes — generally smaller than modest-sized condos. The price tags are not necessarily tiny, although they can be. Here, we take a look at the logistics of living in a tiny house.

Solar power is becoming a major real estate trend, as cities, states, and the federal government all strive to lower their areas’ greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Energy Department notes that rooftop solar costs been halved since 2014, and system installations are surging across the country. Sunrun and SolarCity (now part of Tesla) are leading that…

After a year and a half of support from the government and lenders, mortgage forbearance plans will wind down through the last quarter of 2021. Can homeowners cope?

Redfin Adds Climate Data to Real Estate Listings A storm that could threaten a million homes would have been rare a generation ago. Not anymore. Today’s hurricanes gather their power over warming ocean and gulf waters. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, creating heavier rains. At the same time, dry areas of the country are…

Closing Discounts for Vaccinated Borrowers, and Other Stories A year and a half has passed since the major 2020 workplace interruptions. And here we are. Still grappling with the health and economic threats from Covid — especially its delta variant. The Biden administration wants fully vaccinated adults to receive a Covid-19 booster shot as soon…

Private and Public Solutions to the Risks of Market Declines In general, the value of a home tends to go up. Yet when home values are already very high, we remember that housing markets do decline at times and in specific areas. This is of special concern for the owner who has borrowed heavily on…

Racial fairness is undergoing significant progress in real estate law this year — particularly in the area of confronting offensive deed restrictions. In some notable updates for 2021-2022, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and Texas are confronting tackling race-based covenants in deeds. Parallel provisions are already available in a handful of states, including Florida, Maryland,…

Buying a home in a competitive market? The best way to get the one you want is to put a good deal of money down on the house, and make an all-cash offer. A cash offer can avoid bidding wars and win the day.   Of course, not everyone has the cash on hand to…

Pandemic Highlights Differences Between Local Landlords and Big Companies In the middle of a housing shortage, rental companies attract a certain amount of criticism. What buyer wants to wind up in a bidding war with a big company? And that’s exactly what happens in many of the top competitive markets. Some hopeful home buyers just…

California has changed its laws in wildfire country. Buyers of real estate in in places where the risk of fire is “high” or “very high” will receive information about how the seller cleared the home of surrounding debris, and how the buyer should continue that task, protecting the home from flames and embers. It’s just…