Category: General

Scrambling to do taxes at the last minute can mean missing key breaks. Here are some tips, notes, and reminders to help you stay in shape, tax-wise, all year.

In the Adirondacks and Beyond… Jobs around Lake Placid and Saranac Lake are plentiful these days. There’s just one hitch. Prospective takers can’t find accessibly priced housing. Around these scenic Adirondack towns in northern New York, affordable units are few and far between. In Lake Placid, the Mohawk Valley Land Bank is working to remedy…

Lawmakers in North Carolina hope to provide financial protection for hundreds of thousands of people in medical debt. Medical debt is not only the leading cause of bankruptcy, it turns out. It can actually lead to the loss of homes. How can patients’ financial safety be guarded? A bipartisan bill in North Carolina called the…

House prices are ridiculous. What’s going on with the costs of building a house? And is relief for the consumer anywhere in sight? Let’s take a look.

Several years back, Rodriques Best got married. The couple bought a home in Greensboro, North Carolina. Then they divorced. Rodriques received the home by quitclaim in the divorce settlement. The couple signed the paperwork with a notary, and submitted it for recording. The notary, hired to help create the new deed with Rodriques as sole…

From the northeast to the west coast, artists have been pushed aside for profitable real estate projects. But some creative communities are standing up to developers that would displace them. The artists’ quest to take back their living spaces is making cities stronger and more diverse.  Consider an area in Boston called Fort Point. There,…

The Companies Placing 40-Year Listing Rights on Deeds A listing agreement is the document the seller signs so a real estate pro can start marketing a home. It commits the homeowner to work with the broker. Would you feel comfortable committing to one particular real estate broker for 40 years? Some homeowners are doing just…

Behind the Scenes in a Mortgage Approval… What’s the holdup? You’ve found that house you want and the seller was ready for you to move in — yesterday. But your final approval still isn’t here. Could the mortgage fall through? These are the things that run through the buyer’s mind in the days leading up…

The Good, Bad, and the Tragic… After buying a condo, a unit owner will have to pay regular (usually monthly) assessments. Dues can go up when the condo board creates a new budget. Usually, unit owners just roll with the changes. But when they’re hit with special assessments — lump-sum charges over and above the…

Planning Ahead… What if a homeowner dies and leaves the house to multiple grown children? They have several choices, and the decision needs to be carefully made. Here, we explore a few options the siblings have as they work with their inherited house.

For self-employed creators, contractors, and business owners, getting a mortgage loan can be challenging. But it’s entirely possible. Even in a tough economy. It just takes persistence and patience — and being ready to answer a lot of questions from your mortgage specialist. And finding a mortgage specialist is all about forging a relationship.

It’s Been Well Received in the Industry. How Will It Work? Housing is in short supply. Home prices are unbearable. The plot keeps getting more dire, with the prices of building materials up 19% from last year, and mortgage rates hitting a 12-year high.  And it’s not as though people can just rent some place…

Four Major Reasons… Houses are expensive. Many people trying to buy homes today are finding they need significantly more income than they thought they would need to qualify for a mortgage. Going for a townhouse in a multi-unit development, rather than a free-standing house, makes sense for many buyers for this reason alone. There are…

Why are all those staged photos and information about your home still open for all to view online, along with the history of the home’s pricing? If you haven’t looked since you bought your home, it’s likely to be easy enough to find. Just do a search for your address. Whether the internet puts your…

An Intro to Solar Easements Solar electricity changes real estate. When a homeowner adopts solar energy, other homeowners are impacted. Solar systems create aesthetic changes. Because of community resistance, they also create a need for solar access rights. Does any of this affect the title or property value? It can — in the form of…