Op Ed

Interview with a Lender, part 2

Op Ed

My interview with a Lender covered so many topics I couldn’t fit it all into one Viewpoint.  In this week’s follow-up we cover foreclosures and title insurance, inflation vs deflation with respects to interest rates, changes at FHA, and the average American consumer. Read the Viewpoint here. See our Viewpoint archives page here. Sign up [...]

3 November 2010 Read the full article →

Bother your Realtor. Please.

Buyer Help

Recently a consumer visited our website to search the MLS and submitted an online question about a home she found there. I sent her our standard “thanks for visiting our site, let us know if we can help” email. This is the rest of the email exchange between she and I. Thank you for getting [...]

24 October 2010 Read the full article →

How many people does it take to sell a house?

Op Ed

Or another title – “At which point in the “I’m going to buy a house” cycle should I get excited?” Author’s note:  This post is not a complaint – I love what Heather & I do here at The Phoenix Agents.  But I do find myself missing the excitement which used to come with every [...]

22 October 2010 Read the full article →

Interview with a Lender

Op Ed

Last week’s Viewpoint takes a good look at what’s happening in the lending industry these days, including a few changes which were implemented this year.  I think it’s a good read whether or not you’re in the industry… Read the Viewpoint here. See our Viewpoint archives page here. Sign up to receive these Viewpoints by [...]

19 October 2010 Read the full article →

The housing crisis and the blame game

Op Ed

There’s enough blame to spread around the world 3 or 4 times when it comes to discussing “who caused the housing crisis?” Maybe we should blame lenders who made mortgages without checking to see if buyers could make the payments. Maybe we should blame home buyers who “should have known better” and realized housing prices [...]

18 October 2010 Read the full article →

Fannie and Freddie caused housing crash?

In The News

Did Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cause the housing debacle? Before we get to the answer, let’s all get on the same page about what Fannie, Freddie and FHA actually are. Neither Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or FHA is a bank, they don’t lend money.  FHA insures loans and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are [...]

30 September 2010 Read the full article →

The Case Against “The Case Against Home Ownership.”

Op Ed

Last week’s Viewpoint takes Time Magazine to task for their recent articles’ short-sightedness in trying to build a case against home ownership.  It’s a good read for anyone weighing the pros & cons of renting compared with buying… Read the Viewpoint here. See our Viewpoint archives page here. Sign up to receive these Viewpoints by [...]

27 September 2010 Read the full article →

Happy Labor Day!

In The News

Wishing all our readers a wonderful Labor Day 2010. Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our [...]

6 September 2010 Read the full article →

Did the homebuyer tax credit cause false buyer demand?

In The News

There are some talking heads claiming that the federal $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit caused a lot of fake demand for houses earlier this year and the sharp drop in July home sales was because the tax credit ended. It’s important to distinquish the difference between false demand and pushed-forward demand. The tax credit [...]

4 September 2010 Read the full article →

could those silver linings be sunshine?

Op Ed

I published another Viewpoint yesterday; here is a link to view it online. You can sign up to receive these Viewpoint newsletters via email by clicking here, and you can click here to see our Viewpoint archives. Your sharing his viewpoint Realtor, Chris Butterworth Chris Butterworth is: Realtor. Analyst. Husband. Father. Writer. Amateur Photographer. Triathlete. [...]

3 September 2010 Read the full article →

I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with banks

Foreclosures

Really, I’m 110% over the bank owned REO thing. I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with banks and their stupid requirements. I swear that lately the big banks and Fannie Mae, and especially the Realtors who work for them, are trying to make it hard to buy their properties. Here’s a mere sampling of [...]

1 September 2010 Read the full article →