Category: General

…And the Return of the EB-5 Investor Visa In the United States, real estate investment opportunities abound. International real estate buyers can earn profits and bolster the U.S. economy at the same time. Some people invest from outside the borders. Some investors hope to live in the United States. If you wish to invest in…

Home values shot up over the past year. Now, in the second half of 2021, demand remains high. But did you know that condo prices, on average, have only risen about half as much as single-family homes? The difference is especially pronounced in some of the major East and West Coast cities, Bankrate.com notes. For…

You start off the marketing and sale of your home with a listing agreement. This document controls all the terms of the sale. It sets the keynote for a string of important decisions and legal agreements. In this article, we’ll discuss some recent news about listing agreements, as well as the broad-brush concepts every seller…

If a company says it’s selling land on the moon, should we believe it? What about the planets? Is Martian land for sale? Is Venus available? Here’s the story so far. 

Floating homes are hallmarks of many coastal and riverside cities. There are also amphibious houses — built on land, but capable of rising up off the ground when storm waters rush in. Flexible utility pipes move to meet the water as its ebbs and flows. Putting homes over water serves to expand the available real…

Can Deed Restrictions Include Rather Than Exclude? U.S. home prices have outpaced U.S. employees’ wages. This creates a number of problems in real estate. For one, it shuts a lot of people out of the market. Most of today’s renters simply have no choice but to keep on renting. And whether they rent or own,…

Is the hot seller’s market of Summer 2021 tempting you to put your home on the market and watch the offers roll in? To get ready quickly, you might wonder if you should put a clause in your contract to announce you’re selling the house as-is. A seller may use the term as-is to point…

Hindsight is 20-20 vision. Homeowners learn something from each home they buy. Looking back, most homeowners can tell you what they did well — and a few things they could have done better. So, what can’t-miss items need your attention before you buy? We’ve said it before. There’s no overstating the power of a great…

When it’s time to meet with their mortgage experts and apply for loans, most home shoppers accept mortgages with fixed interest rates. When they do, the interest rates are locked in throughout the life of their loans. That’s a good thing, of course, if interest rates are low when the buyers get their loans. Adjustable-rate…

Most home sales are arm’s length transactions — deals between former strangers. But selling to a relative, colleague or friend can also make sense in certain circumstances. When friends or family members transfer homes to each other, they have a few special questions to consider. Because every relationship and every home sale is unique, we…

In March 2020, Covid was dubbed a global pandemic. To slow the spread of the virus, U.S. states issued stay-at-home orders for people working in real estate—at first deemed a non-essential business. Appraisals for real estate contracts were non-essential in Pennsylvania, for example, beginning March 19, 2020. One month later, Pennsylvania issued revised guidance. On-site appraisals…

Summer 2021 will be a hot one for the real estate market, says the Home Buying Institute. But is the raging home-buying bull market sustainable? With property values up well over 10% in many areas, some market watchers are asking if housing is a bubble. In fact, there are several good reasons for optimism ahead.…