Realtor Talk: Title and Escrow

Making the Offer

Hiring a Real Estate Professional

Explaining the Closing Process

Mortgages in Brief - Understand the Role of Credit in Purchasing Your Home

Understanding the role your credit plays in the purchase of your home is perhaps the most confusing aspect of the entire process. This short video helps explains why credit is important and how you can get a free copy of your credit report.

Mortgages In Brief - Closing & Other Costs When Buying A Home

When you buy a home, you know you'll likely need a down payment as well as funds for earnest money and other expenses, but what other costs can you expect to incur. This quick video explains the expenses related to purchasing a home.

Landscaping Can Impact Home Values, Appraisal Institute Says

CHICAGO --  The Appraisal Institute, the nation's largest professional association of real estate appraisers, today advised homeowners to properly maintain their landscaping, which can significantly affect property values.

"If a landscaping change is positive, it can often enhance price and reduce a home's time on the market," said Appraisal Institute President Richard L. Borges II , MAI, SRA. "But if the change is negative, it can lower the price and lengthen the time a home remains for sale."

Curb appeal is essential when selling a home, Borges said, noting it's the homeowner's opportunity to make a great first impression. A home with lackluster landscaping or an exterior in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint will likely be unappealing to prospective buyers and ultimately could affect the home's potential resale value, he said.

Landscaping is typically associated with lawns, trees, bushes and flowers. But other items also can be considered part of landscaping, such as fire pits, decks, patios, waterfalls, swimming pools and outdoor lighting … all of which could add to the value of the home.

Borges added that homeowners should trim growth regularly, replant approximately every 5 to 10 years depending on growth and not "overwhelm" the house. He also advised that homeowners check out what their neighbors have done and keep landscaping maintenance and improvements on par with neighborhood norms.

According to the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, trees that are too close to buildings may be fire hazards. Additionally, larger tree root systems that extend underneath a house can cause foundation uplift and can leech water from the soil beneath foundations, causing the structures to settle and sink unevenly.

According to a recent study conducted by Lawn & Landscape magazine, about two-thirds of homeowners say they'll get less than 60 percent of their landscaping investment back when they sell the home.

"Landscaping improvements could make an impact on resale value, and homeowners need to consider how long they'll be in the home and whether to make short-term updates or plan for the long haul," Borges said.

Borges said homeowners should ask themselves the following questions when it comes to the quality of their home's green space:

• Is the landscaping attractive enough to make the prospective buyer walk through the front door? Keep the design contemporary and in line with comparable properties in the area.
• Could the landscaping provide cost savings? Landscaping that requires little or no water to maintain could be desirable depending on the geographic area.
• Is the landscaping energy-efficient for the home overall? For example, it's a good idea to plant trees in a place where they block the sun in locations with year-round hot climates.
• Are the trees planted at a safe distance from the home and are they healthy and well maintained? Weak, old or damaged trees planted too close to a home or building could pose dangers to the home's structure and will need to be removed. Consumers should also be sure that mulching or beds don't get too close to wood around foundations to avoid wood-destroying organisms.

Advice for First Time Homebuyers

In Almost Two-Thirds Of U.S. Metros, Buying Beats Renting In Three Years Or Less

SEATTLE, -- In 64 percent of metro areas nationwide, buying a home is a better financial decision than renting for home buyers intending to stay in their home for at least three years, according to a first quarter analysis from online real estate marketplace Zillow®.

Zillow's breakeven horizon incorporates all possible costs associated with buying and renting, including upfront payments, closing costs, anticipated monthly rent and mortgage payments, insurance, taxes, utilities and maintenance costs. It then factors in historic and anticipated home value appreciation rates, rental prices and rental appreciation rates to help calculate the point, in years, at which buying becomes less expensive than renting.ⁱ

Among the 30 largest metro areas analyzed by Zillow in the first quarter, those with the shortest breakeven horizon were Miami(2 years), Detroit (2 years) and Phoenix (2.1 years). Large metros with the longest breakeven horizon in the first quarter included New York (5.2 years), Boston (4.1 years) and San Jose (3.7 years). Within metro areas, the breakeven horizon will vary in individual counties, cities, neighborhoods and ZIP codes.

For the first time, the breakeven horizon was applied to the ZIP code and neighborhood levels within individual cities. Because neighborhood selection is such a critical part of the home shopping process, the breakeven tool can be more valuable at these smaller geographic levels.

For example, the breakeven horizon for New York City as a whole is 6.1 years. But at the neighborhood level, the breakeven horizon ranges from a low of 2.5 years in the Parkchester neighborhood in the Bronx, to a high of 11.9 years in the Carnegie Hill section of Manhattan. Nationwide, the neighborhood with the lowest breakeven horizon is the Shelby Forest-Frayser neighborhood in Memphis, Tenn., at just one year. The neighborhood with the longest breakeven horizon is the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach, Va., at 20.3 years. To determine the breakeven horizon in your city or neighborhood, use our interactive tool here.

"Locally high home value appreciation in many areas, combined with historically low mortgage rates and low home prices relative to recent peaks, has made buying a home a more advantageous financial decision than renting for many would-be buyers," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries . "The decision to buy or rent should always take into account a number of factors, one of which is how long a buyer or renter plans to stay in a property. Even in areas with relatively low breakeven horizons, buyers should resist the temptation to buy and sell properties based only on short-term goals. And renters in these areas should never feel compelled to stretch themselves to buy if it is currently beyond their means."

The breakeven horizon is primarily impacted by the expected rate of home value appreciation in a given area. In areas where home values are expected to appreciate more quickly in coming years, the time it takes to recoup upfront costs will be lower and thus the breakeven period will be shorter. In areas where home values are expected to rise more slowly, or even fall, the breakeven horizon will be longer.

Top 30 Metro Areas Covered By Zillow		ZIP code-level variance w/in larger metro (years)
Metro Name	Overall Metro Breakeven (Years)	Low	High
New York, NY	5.2	2.5	11.5
Los Angeles, CA	3.5	1.9	12.9
Chicago, IL	2.8	1.1	8.3
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX	2.3	1	4.9
Philadelphia, PA	3.6	1	10.6
Washington, DC	3.5	1.2	7
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL	2	1.1	4.4
Atlanta, GA	2.5	1.1	4.5
Boston, MA	4.1	2.4	7.1
San Francisco, CA	3.4	2.1	6.2
Detroit, MI	2	1	5.7
Riverside, CA	2.2	1	4.2
Phoenix, AZ	2.1	1.4	3
Seattle, WA	3.6	2.3	4.9
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN	2.6	1.7	3.5
San Diego, CA	3.4	2	7.2
St. Louis, MO	3.3	1	8.2
Tampa, FL	2.3	1	4.3
Baltimore, MD	2.9	1.1	4.6
Denver, CO	2.8	2	4.1
Pittsburgh, PA	2.5	1.1	4.8
Portland, OR	3	2.2	4.1
Sacramento, CA	2.6	2	5.2
Orlando, FL	2.4	1.3	3.8
Cincinnati, OH	2.5	1.3	4
Cleveland, OH	2.4	1.1	3.9
Las Vegas, NV	3	1.1	9.9
San Jose, CA	3.7	2.8	5.1
Columbus, OH	2.7	1.2	8.8
Charlotte, NC	2.8	1.5	4.1

The breakeven horizon is available in 11,616 ZIP codes, 7,702 neighborhoods, 8,546 cities, 495 counties and 266 metropolitan areas nationwide. Nationally, the breakeven horizon was 3.1 years at the end of the first quarter.

CoreLogic Releases May MarketPulse Report

IRVINE, Calif., -- CoreLogic^® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading residential property information, analytics and services provider, today released its May MarketPulse report. In this report, CoreLogic Chief Economist Dr. Mark Fleming and Deputy Chief Economist Sam Khater examine factors contributing to the increase in residential investment and new home sales so far in 2013.

• Key findings in the May MarketPulse report include:
• Residential investment and price increases are happening unevenly across the U.S.
• Most markets have reached consistent price recoveries in only the last year or two.
• Real estate recovery remains a local phenomenon.
• The supply dynamics between new homes for sale and foreclosure and short sale inventory are shifting.  
• The recovery in new home sales is acting like a targeted economic stimulus package.

For a full copy of the May CoreLogic MarketPulse report, including a complete set of data and charts, visithttp://www.corelogic.com/downloadable-docs/MarketPulse_2013-May.pdf.