Get a FREE SUV parked in your new Garage

An Illinois family is having trouble selling there high-end trophy home and decided they needed a way to stand out from the crowded housing inventory. They figured out a 4,700-pound incentive. And what is it you ask? Tell them what it is Bob~! A New CAR.

And that's not all... The Sellers are also offering one as a reward to the real estate agent who produces a signed contract on top of the commission.

Buy a Home and Get a FREE Plasma TV

A Full Service Real Estate Broker in the San Francisco Bay Area is running a free 42 inch plasma TV promotion when the homebuyer works with the brokerage before November 30, 2006 to buy a home. Use a Movoto Realtor and a plasma TV will be waiting for you when you move in.

I found a forum thread, from a company that provides Professional Real Estate Web Design that asks "How Do Realtors Feel About Closing Gifts?"

Movoto's VP Marketing, Mark Brandemuehl was a panelist at Inman ConnectSF for the Innovation Master Classes. The class was a hour long and the panelists talked about delivering new products, new business models, and new ideas. What do you think about the Free Plasm TV promotion?

Draw a Target Home Search in Minnesota

Minnesota-based NeighborhoodNetwork.com, has created a pre-market for homebuyers. Also home sellers that decide to use a local Realtor that is a subscriber to the website will have access to the "Click2Sell" feature. This feature alerts prospective homebuyers that expressed interest in the sellers property and/or neighboorhood by-way-of the website.

Minnesota homebuyers click over to this new online tool to help find, buy, or sell real estate. Also the site offers a niffty "draw shape" button to lock in a homebuyers target neighborhood search.

UPDATE: Another pre-market site that is national called, Reply!, pegs themselves as "the only web portal that empowers each visitor to make an Unsolicited Offer(TM) on any home in the country. Users simply go to the Reply! site, identify and research the home or homes of their choice, and then complete an offer on the site -- either a specific offer or simply an indication of interest in buying the home. For $24.95 Reply! will deliver a physical package notifying the homeowner of the offer. The homeowner can then retrieve the offer at Reply.com and is free to engage directly with the prospective buyer."

Making a Open House Video

A digital camera is one of the best investments a home seller and/or a Realtor can purchase. The pictures and movie clips taken with the digital camera can be uploaded to the Internet or sent to homebuyers as e-mail attachments. Moreover the pictures can be used to print marketing flyers with data about the home for sale. Of course the biggest concern is what camera to get – Check out DigiCamHelp.

Making movies on a digital still camera isn’t exactly a point and click activity. Think about a professional videographer to film the home; If you're not sure where to find a local videographer try giving a local wedding photographer a call. However I found a blog with a few guidelines to help you create your own Open House video.

A Guide To Making a Real Estate Video in Three Parts:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Neighborhood and Community Facts

If your looking to dig up some information about a community check out the American Fact Finder provided by the United States Census website. The U.S. Census website is the best source for population, housing, economic, and geographic data to help you make informed decisions about a real estate purchase/investment.

How much house can I afford?

Most often the first step a Realtor takes when working with a homebuyer is to get the consumer Pre-Qualified or Pre-Approved with a lender. This process is used to determine your buying power and will target your home search to be within a affordable price range. Moreover a Pre-Approval Certificate together with a solid purchase agreement contract to the seller shows you’re a qualified and serious buyer that will likely not fall out of contract before the close of escrow. The number 1 reason why deals "fall out" of escrow is that the buyer is turned down for the loan amount needed to purchase the property. This is why a Pre-Approval Certificate is a great tool to help ease the concerns of the seller.

How much house can you afford?
Home affordability calculator

Should I Rent or Buy a house?
Buying vs. Renting

Downtown NY Rebuilds after 9/11

Lisa Maysonet from New York City, New York details the Financial District and how its "evolving into a family-oriented neighborhood." Check out the VIDEO of this neighborhood on the southern tip of Manhattan.



Also take a look at TurnHere Locations video section. TurnHere produces professional digital videos that can be used as a tool to research locations to purchase a home. Most of the videos are about "places and leisure activities in cities and neighborhoods" that you might be considering to move. Have fun and watch out because the TurnHere videos are addicting.

Home Selling Advice

An excellent online resource of Real Estate information and articles can be found at Real Estate ABC. The company was founded to help educate the real estate consumer. Real Estate ABC has the vision "to help consumers with insight into how things [Real Estate] really work with straightforward analysis of market trends and "how to" guides."

I really like this site. I found a long list of Sell-Side information. Here is the link.

The Government Has Homes at Auction

Another resource of Homes Auctioned by the U.S. Government. HomeSales.gov It is a requirement to work with a real estate agent, broker or servicing representative to submit an offer for a property.

The Government Has Homes For Sale

Yes the U.S. Governement has homes for sale. The homes for sale were FHA-insured forclosure properties and after the owner defaults HUD takes ownership of the property and sells the home or multi-family home for its most recent appraised value. Most properties are sold to homebuyers looking for their "primary residence" - However, if HUD has trouble selling one of its homes then they open the purchase to real estate investors...

To find the address of a HUD office near you click here.

Contract Contingencies

A contract contingency is used in most transactions - most often in a buyers market. The homebuyer will make an offer on the house that includes conditional circumstances that expire in a set timeframe. Basically, if a contingency is in the mutually agreed contract the seller and the buyer both must be satisfied before they have a legal duty to execute the terms of the deal.

There are many types of contingencies of not completely foreseen circumstances but all have a date to "lift" or "remove" the contingency in question.

Loan Financing Contingency: The homebuyer usually needs to get a loan to purchase the real estate for sale. When the buyer applies for the loan they have a negotiated timeframe to obtain the financing from the start of the accepted contract. The statement in the contact would look something like, "Buyer shall have ____ days from acceptance of contract within which to remove or otherwise act on said contingency. Buyer agrees to verify all loan terms directly with lender prior to removing this contingency." If the buyer is turned down for the financing within the negotiated timeframe then the contract expires.

Note: If your selling a home its best to have the homebuyer submit the initial offer with a "Pre-Approval" letter from the lender.

Note: The homebuyer does have the option to submit an offer to the seller with no contingencies but it is done mostly in a hot sellers market.

A few more samples of contingencies are as follows:

Structural Pest and Termite Inspection Contingency
Property Condition - Home Inspection Contingency
Home Insurance Contingency

Discount Brokerage

Buy Side Realty licensed in multiple states is an alternitive to a full service Realtor. There business model understands that 75% of the work when buying a house is locating the property. With, you, the real estate consumer doing most of the work it allows BuySide Realty to put the commision paycheck back in your pocket. To reach a Buy-Side Realtor go to the website or just call 1-877-4-BUYSIDE.

A few items to note:

Every BuySide Agent is a licensed member of the National Association of REALTORS®. So you still have the legal protection and/or assistance for the real estate transaction.

If you want to check out the inside of a home then contact the Listing Agent or Home Owner selling the property. If you have no luck getting inside the property then ask BuySide to schedule the showing for you. They require you to have a mortgage pre-approval from a qualified lender to assist in the setting up of the appointment to walk-through the home.

To write an offer on the property with BuySide Realty you fill out most of the terms within the purchase agreement online. Then a local BuySide Agent will prepare the official offer documents and return them to you to review and sign. The contract then goes into there Transaction Management System (TMS) and you will be able to monitor the progress of the transaction in real time, online.

And of course the REBATE. You will receive a check from BuySide Realty for 75% of BuySide’s commission recieved from the Seller. Or, if you prefer, you can take the rebate as a credit at closing. If you are unsure of the Sell Side commision being offered to the homebuyer contact the listing Agent or Owner. The range you should expect from a seller of a house is 3 to 2 percent. The range you should expect from the seller of vacant land is 6 to 2 percent.