Michael Ela's (mela) Blog

Now is the time to make your decision as to whether to rent vs. buy a home. The obvious reasons in the past have been the potential for income tax deductions for the interest and property tax payments when it is your primary residence. Still, check with your account to make sure your payments wil...

The current market has seen in incredible degree of inertia by buyers to get out there and purchase a home. How can you overcome a buyer's fear? First, let's run through the standard set of excuses for not buying in today's market. 1) Is the market still going down?2) Will I be able to afford the...

One of the biggest challenges in completing a short sale is making sure the lender knows what they are up against in a local market. The decision to make a substantial "write-down" by a lender isn't a small item to consider. Imagine yourself as the person in charge of disposition of assets for a ...

Real estate agents are "plugged-in" to their local real estate market. If you know community bankers or mortgage institutions you may be able earn some money in a hurry with Foreclosure Trackers (www.foreclosuretrackers.com) . No Bull! They buy non-performing notes and try to get them to perform....

Nearly six years ago, I was introduced to the perils of Mortgage and Real Estate Fraud. It was as sobering an introduction to yet another form of crime as I had ever seen. I'd heard of scams where senior citizens were duped by unscrupulous operators, but I never imagined there were highly sophist...

Home values have taken a beating as we all know but the end of that downturn is getting closer. Sales volumes increased in April and May's sales news isn't far away from release. The value decline has begun to decrease which it must do before values can turn around. To agents, this means you need...

Gas prices have had a negative impact on nearly every facet of the economy as we see cost increases everywhere and real estate is no exception. As it relates to property transactions, working smarter is more important than ever. HomeSmart Reports wants to save you money and time. We'd like to fue...

The Hell with Price! What's the VALUE of that house? We obsess about home prices when we should really obsess about home VALUE. Price is one thing, but Value in this market is everything! So what's the difference? When pricing a home, nearly everyone focuses on sales comparables. Those who are a ...

The HomeRisk Report from HomeSmart Reports is the most comprehensive residential property report available in terms of analyzing trends, foreclosure activity, flipping, previous foreclosure on subject property and more, all in one report. If you aren't using it, you are at a disadvantage in the m...

I have bought and sold real estate in the past and would consider myself a fairly knowledgeable investor. Over this last weekend, however, I decided to "walk the walk" of real estate investors who are GENUINELY in the game of finding good opportunities in this market. I learned a great deal in th...