All 'Bout Closing - ABC - All 'Bout Closing

I was going to write something like this, but luckily I found this site first, called KnowYourClosing. Great step by step guide to the real estate transaction, from the closing process to title insurance, who is involved and the order stuff happens.

1. It starts when a seller accepts a contract you've put in on their home. You might put down a deposit check to prove you’re serious about the offer. At that point, your settlement agent
(often an attorney, and also sometimes referred to as closing agent,
escrow officer or escrow agent), gets the ball rolling, deposits any
funds you’ve submitted into a special escrow account and puts in requests for title work, or an examination of the home's ownership history.

Highly recommended.

Now that you're a home owner...

I have to give a tip of the hat to Jamie Smith Hopkins, the Sun's Real Estate Wonk, for her comprehensive list of things to think about if you've just bought a home around here. Wish I'd had this when I bought my first home, lo those many years ago.

Things like, oh, license your pets, register to vote, and one I'm sure you've thought of already: "apply for the Homestead Tax Credit, which puts a ceiling on property tax increases once you've been in the property a full fiscal year (meaning July 1 through June 30). If you bought your home this year, you have 180 days to apply."

This came out a couple of weeks ago, and if I hadn't had PC tech issues I would have posted it sooner.

Read it all here.

Internet Bandit Signs

Bandit Signs. Gotta love em. See them everywhere, don't you? Now you're seeing them more and more right here on the ole net. Cases in point:

House Buyer Network
Cash Offers.com
I Buy Houses.net
and of course, WeBuyHouses.com

The list is almost endless. Just google it, you'll see what I mean.

And just as you can buy actual bandit signs online (e.g., at Bandit Signs.com), you can now purchase automated "we buy houses" web sites. Package deal! Your path to real estate millions!

I guess the good news is, they're not illegal like physical bandit signs. (What, you didn't know they were illegal? The term "bandit" didn't give you pause?) But do they work? And are they cost effective?

I tend to think they do and they are. I'm building my own now. Will post a link when it's ready.

In the mean time, if you're interested in one of the package deals, ping me and I'll send you some links.

Dang computters

I really have a love-hate rel'ship with computers. Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em. Have finally fixed my laptop so I can resume posting. Sigh...

Mortgage Defaults Reach a New High

Yeah, here's a surprise. From the DC office of the New York Times:

Defaults were highest on adjustable-rate mortgages...

Ya think?