DFW Relocation

A seaside theme is an inviting way to decorate a living room. A seaside theme works beautifully with calming wall colors like blue and green and neutral shades like sand with accents in white. An adaptable and versatile scheme, existing furniture and wall colors may already provide a perfect backdrop for a nautical theme. All that's left to do is add some ocean-inspired wall art décor, table top accents and other affordable accessories. Create a Focal Point A bare expanse of wall over a couch or above a low console may be an ideal spot for nautical inspired wall art that influences the accent colors and accessories of your room. Metal wall hangings of realistic fish, calming waves, and underwater plant life will add color and texture to the walls. Repeat the colors in the metal wall art elsewhere in the room; beautiful coral and white in the metal wall art can be repeated in throw pillows or an area rug used to define a conversation area. Add light and dimension to nautical wall dé...

Think twice before buying a house in these cities any time soon. Home buyers looking for a bottom in the real estate market may have been encouraged by housing data released earlier this week. Sales of existing homes rose 2.4% in May, according to the National Association of Realtors. The increase was a little less than most analysts had expected, but it represented the second straight month of improvement. Meanwhile, sales of new homes dipped 0.6% in May, continuing a trend of fairly flat months so far this year, according to data released by the Commerce Department. Don't get too excited - it's still too early to say the housing market bottomed out, analysts and economists say. Distressed properties still account for about a third of all sales, and 29% of sales were to first-time home buyers, who are currently benefiting from an $8,000 tax credit. More from » What is your home worth? » The Tax Implications of Foreclosures » Top Real Estate Listings The sales trends are tel...

Funny Photo of the Day AND, It's a two seater . WHAT A DEAL !!! : ) Looking for a GREAT DEAL ? Visit http://www.robertjrussell.com Technorati : dallas real estate , flower mound homes , lawn furniture , realtor.com Del.icio.us : dallas real estate , flower mound homes , lawn furniture , realtor.com Zooomr : dallas real estate , flower mound homes , lawn furniture , realtor.com Flickr : dallas real estate , flower mound homes , lawn furniture , realtor.com

CHECKING THE CREDIT BUREAU REPORTING SYSTEM Do you know that 80% of credit reports have errors? This is no surprise when the 3 major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Trans Union) are actually competitors and get paid when a creditor reports to them. In a business standpoint it costs $ for the credit bureaus to review, investigate and correct credit reports. If they had it their way they could care less to spend the money, time or resources to do the work. However, thank goodness the LAW is on the side of the consumers. Many times the credit bureaus will send "form letters" to consumers stating that there is a "brisk credit repair business" by companies that charge between $50 and $1,000 to dispute negative items the consumer could do themselves. Also, many times they send letters stating they received a "suspicious request" and will not honor any more disputes received in this manner. "YAWN"...same old tactics playing the same game I say. Ye...

Cha-ching! 2 safer ways to buy great homes at deep discounts If you possess patience and persistence, REOs and short sales are good ways to score incredible deals. But do some research and know what you're getting into before you give one of these methods a try. By Kiplinger's more on www.robertjrussell.com Home prices may not have hit bottom quite yet, but they are finally low enough to draw bargain hunters. The national median home price has fallen 26% since its peak in early 2006, according to Fiserv Lending Solutions, a home-price research firm. Sales are especially brisk where prices have dropped sharply and foreclosures are rampant - in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida - partly because foreclosures put pressure on traditional sellers to cut their prices, too. Nationwide, nearly half of all sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 were "distressed" - mainly foreclosures, but also sales by homeowners selling for less than they owe on their mortgage - according ...

Posted from Inman News Monday, May 18, 2009, by Dakota First, Edmund Andrews, an economics reporter for the New York Times (who makes $120,000 a year), falls in love, and then he buys a $460,000 house in Silver Spring, Maryland, and then he takes out two mortgages (a primary mortgage of $333,700 and a "piggyback" loan for $80,300). Here's how his broker convinces him not to worry about the loans: "'Don't worry," Bob reassured me, saying what almost everybody else in real estate was saying at that moment. "The value of your house will be higher in five years. You'll be able to refinance.'" And then the credit card debt starts piling up, and then his wife gets laid off, and then they default on their mortgage, but JPMorgan Chase is so busy dealing with the mess of the housing market that the bank is too busy to foreclose on his home. Wondering how he, an economics writer, failed to understand what he was doing (well, he knew he was gambl...

Short sale hurts your credit Choosing a short sale over foreclosure is difficult. Both take a bite out of your credit rating. But one is easier to recover from. NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- Q. We have to relocate because of my husband's job. Our home value has fallen nearly $100,000. We would like to get rid of it, but we don't want to go into foreclosure. Someone mentioned a short sale . What impact would that have on our credit rating? Gerri Willis , Money magazine contributing writer and host of CNN's "Your Bottom Line," says: A. A short sale , in which you negotiate with the bank to sell your home for less than you owe on your mortgage, will have a dramatically negative affect on your credit. A consumer who has been through a short sale could see a drop in her credit score of up to 200 points, essentially the same decrease as if the homeowner had gone into foreclosure, says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit.com. And like a foreclosure...

Selling a home that is vacant can be harder than selling a lived-in home, experts say. Here are some ideas from Pam and Dave Pettigrew, certified residential specialists with Prudential Rocky Mountain in Fort Collins, Colo., on what practitioners and sellers should consider to protect an empty property and get it sold. Give the house a lived-in look . Get a neighbor or family member to make the house look occupied by parking a car in the driveway, opening and closing the drapes and taking in any mail. Groom the yard . Use a lawn service during the summer to keep the grass cut and a snow removal service in the winter to scrape the walks and driveway. No outstanding nicks . Hide the effects of missing furniture. Paint and replace rugs so there are no faded spots or blemishes on the walls. Cover accent paint that alone looks odd. Leave some furniture . A few chairs, tables, lamps and beds (or empty mattress boxes with spreads) give buyers a sense of space. Keep the utilities on . Set the ...

Here's what you need to know about the Fed's surprise attack on the housing crisis. And you thought 5 percent was a good rate? After already bringing mortgage rates down near 50-year lows, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke unleashed a surprise attack on the housing slump Wednesday by announcing aggressive steps that should make home loans even more attractive. Lower rates, of course, can help push timid buyers off the sidelines so they can mop up the excess inventory that's been driving down home prices. "This is a huge step forward," Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics, wrote in a report shortly after the announcement. Here's what you need to know about the development: 1. What is the Fed doing? With the federal funds target rate--which is the Fed's conventional monetary policy weapon--already down to as low as zero percent, Bernanke has been forced to get more creative in his efforts to resolve the economic mess. To that end, the Fed announced two key st...

09:45 PM CST on Thursday, January 29, 2009 By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News Don't expect any quick deals in Dallas-Fort Worth's stalled real estate market. Oh, investors are out there, but they're waiting for the right time to strike. "There has been a huge amount of money lost by getting in too early," said Herbert Weitzman, who recently formed an acquisition partnership with Dallas investor Craig Hall. Weitzman - who's also chief executive of Dallas-based retail broker Weitzman Group - was on a panel of industry veterans who spoke Wednesday evening at a meeting of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors. "Things are not going to get better very soon," he said. "The deals that are going to happen are going to be later in the year. "There is going to be a huge amount of retail REO [foreclosed property] coming on the market later this year." Property sales in North Texas have slowed to a trickle because of the lack of cred...

by Broderick Perkins Americans are staying put more then ever, but when they do move many of them do so for housing-related reasons, say, to buy a new home or find a better neighborhood. And, if previous migration patterns are any indication, those trends could bode well for those seeking homes with equity gains to come. It's also pretty good news for housing markets rife with inventory. That's all provided home buyers can get to market with the right stuff. Here's the scoop. "American Mobility Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where's Home?" a new Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey found that most Americans have moved to a new community at least once in their lives, but a record low number changed residences in recent, more economically troubling years. In 2007, when Americans did move, their net migration patterns reveal much moving to the South, with far fewer moves into the West and Northeast, according to Pew. Also, as the two coastal ma...