Real Estate News
Source: washingtonpost.com - Real Estate
Learn about Washington DC real estate in the Washington DC area. Own, buy or sell real estate in Washington DC - Washington DC apartments, Washington DC condos, Washington DC houses, Washington DC lofts, luxury homes, land for sale, home finance.
Existing-homes sales rise, inventory swells
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes ticked higher in July thanks to lower prices, but record inventory suggested the battered housing market is unlikely to recover soon, a trade group report showed on Monday.


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When Cutting the Price, Take a Big Bite, Not a Bunch of Nibbles
Cutting the price to get your home sold isn't quite as simple as it seems.


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Neighbors, Boats, Bayfront Summers And a Reverence For Tradition
Owings Beach is still cozy. There are still snug cottages, built in the 1920s for summer getaways to the bayside enclave in the Deale portion of southern Anne Arundel County. Narrow streets bearing local family names are still walkable because deep ditches and tight turns discourage traffic. Even...


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Mortgage Shopping, Incognito
LOS ANGELES -- Even though mortgage lenders have raised the bar on what it takes to qualify for a home loan, shopping for a loan online has gotten easier, if not necessarily less confusing.


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Appraisal Problems Worsened Meltdown
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As soaring home prices set the stage for America's great housing meltdown, a critical step in making sure those home sales were a fair deal -- the real estate appraisal -- was undermined from within.


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A Worthy Read to Get Serious About Estate Planning
W e spend most of our waking hours either working to earn money or thinking about what we'll do with it: spend it, save it or invest it, lawyer John Ventura observes in his book "Kiplinger's Estate Planning: The Complete Guide to Wills, Trusts, and Maximizing Your Legacy" (Kaplan, $21.95).


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Professional Tests Can Uncover Exposure to Lead
Lead paint poses a real threat to your family's health, especially if you have children. Older homes are particularly at risk for lead exposure. If you live in a house more than 30 years old and haven't yet tested for lead, it's not too hard or costly to do -- and it may be well worth it.


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Appraisers, Still Feeling Pressure
Have the real estate valuation shenanigans and inflated home appraisals that characterized the boom years disappeared?


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Searching for A Hot Investment? Try Your Mortgage.
I know where to get a guaranteed 6 percent return on savings, with no brokerage commissions, bank fees or worries that the Feds are going to have to swoop in and take over the failed institution that has my money. I'm putting whatever extra cash I can find into paying off my mortgage early.


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Chat Plus
Real estate editor Maryann Haggerty and columnist Elizabeth Razzi respond to a question adapted from a recent online chat.


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Source: Baron Briefs
Real estate news and commentary from RealtyBaron.com
Introducing the ListingHedge(TM)
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Tweet Your AgentRank(TM), Realtors
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ReferralAuction Scenario #2: Personal Referral
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ReferralAuction Scenario #1: Client Referral
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Four Reasons for Agents and Brokers to Use ReferralAuctions(TM)
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Introducing the ReferralAuction(TM)
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“My current Realtor raised her commission…
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Stockton, California: Epicenter for Foreclosure Start-Ups
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AgentRank(TM), Community Edition
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Now Back to Our Regular Scheduled Programming….Real Estate!
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Source: About Home Buying / Selling
Get the latest headlines from the About.com Home Buying / Selling GuideSite.
The Most Important Home Buying Documents To Keep After Closing Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Many home buyers don't know which home closing documents to keep.
It's no wonder that home buyers can be confused because there is so much paperwork involved in every transaction. Signing...
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Top 3 Home Buying Blunders Monday, August 25, 2008
Buying real estate is hard enough without buyers messing it up for themselves by forgetting about the top three home buying mistakes.
Not that buyers intentionally cause problems, mind you. It's...
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Hot Home Buying Trends Friday, August 22, 2008
As I stare at my newly installed kitchen counters, I can't help but wonder how long it will take before home buyers resort to snickering at quartz counters after new...
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How to Recognize Predatory Mortgage Lenders Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Even though there are laws against predatory lending, it doesn't stop mortgage fraud or protect an innocent buyer from harm.
Nobody wants to overpay for a mortgage loan or...
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How to Ask Your Parents for Money to Buy a Home Monday, August 18, 2008
It's not always fun to ask parents for money, but sometimes it's the only way to afford to buy a home.
Especially in today's lending world -- with banks tightening mortgage...
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What is Procuring Cause? Friday, August 15, 2008
In an ideal real estate world, procuring cause never happens.
Procuring cause doesn't happen in an ideal world because in that fictional real estate society, every single home buyer will have...
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Property Condition Isn't the Only Drawback to Buying Foreclosures Wednesday, August 13, 2008
For novice home buyers, buying foreclosures can be riddled with pitfalls and drawbacks.
Not every successful bidder for a foreclosure property comes out ahead. Sometimes buyers end up dealing with mountains...
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How to Get Cash for Keys During a Foreclosure Monday, August 11, 2008
There are some tenants that you can just tell are angling to get cash for keys.
Those types are often snarly, combative and act as though the world owes them big-time...
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Ways to Protect Your Earnest Money Deposit Friday, August 8, 2008
In the initial excitement over making an offer to buy a new home, buyers often pay little or no attention to how their earnest money deposit is handled.
That lack of...
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There Are Plenty of Places to Get a Mortgage Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Way back in the old days, like the 1980s, home buyers didn't think twice about where to get a mortgage.
They went directly to a local bank for home financing....
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