Home Inspections: Understanding Your Legal Protections.

Home Inspections: Understanding Your Legal Protections

Home inspection reports are a summary of the health of a home on the day the inspection is made, but many buyers move through the home-buying process as if it is some type of guarantee. Home inspectors do a visual inspection of the home and will identify major defects and items that are at the end of their service lives; however, if something breaks, floods or leaks after the date of that inspection, the buyer is responsible for finding it and notifying the seller. In other words, Buyer Beware. An inspection report has very few legal teeth and the home buyer must exercise due diligence before buying the home. For more on this continue reading the following article from JDSupra.

Home Buyer Beware – Your Home Inspection Report Does Not Come With a Lifetime Guarantee

I have never represented a home buyer who did not get the property inspected before the closing (even during the days of the real estate bubble when sellers were not agreeing to any repairs). But, I find that the expectations of my buyers clients seem to be higher than they should be in terms of what the home inspection report is designed to do.A home inspector will go through the house and check out the conditions of the structure, the systems (heating, air conditioning (if the temperature permits), hot water, plumbing, and electrical) and the appliances. The better home inspectors will go into crawl spaces, up on the roof (but most just use binoculars while on the ground) but they are limited by what is visible. If there are bookcases or other furniture in a room or boxes in the basement or attic, the home inspector will not move anything to see what is behind them.   The home inspector will also look for termites or damage from termite infestation.

A home inspection report is a snapshot of what condition the property is in on that particular day. Unfortunately, I have had calls from clients who were upset that things broke down soon after closing or systems that could not be tested due to temperature were not working optimally or a basement that was disclosed as dry was now flooded. They wanted to know if they could get compensation from the home inspector, the seller or the seller’s real estate agent.

There are limitations to what you get from the home inspection. It is always possible that the seller lied on the disclosure form but you would have to prove that the seller had knowledge of the condition and lied about it. Or things do break down more quickly than predicted (most home inspectors will mention if something is at the end of its useful life but the seller is not obligated to replace it if it still working at the final walk-through. Or the law could change and what was an acceptable practice when you closed is now unacceptable to buyers and you have to spend money you were not expecting to spend. With flooding issues, we have had 100-year floods and 200-year floods recently, so in most cases, if a basement didn’t flood from Hurricane Irene or the other storms we’ve had, chances are you will be getting the dry basement you are expecting. But, there is no guarantee that we won’t experience a 500-year flood soon.

Also remember that if you want to sue someone, you have to pay your legal fees. If the costs of hiring a lawyer, missing work to appear at depositions and in court, and feeling the stress from having an ongoing lawsuit in your life won’t outweigh the damages you have suffered (and don’t expect to get millions for emotional distress or pain and suffering), it won’t be worth it to sue. There is a reason that the expression “Caveat Emptor” is still used when buying a house – the buyer must beware. You must diligently check out all possible issues, ask your home-buying team about the ramifications of what was found in the home inspection report, ask the seller to repair the items that need repair, but understand that no one can insulate you from all of the risks of buying a home.

Should I Accept This Offer?

Being a seller in today’s market can present its share of challenges. How do you know when to accept an offer and when to hold out for something better?

Being a seller in today's market can present its share of challenges. How do you know when to accept an offer and when to hold out for something better?

Is the current offer a low ball offer or are you simply hesitating over attachment to the home? This is the first and most crucial question to ask yourself.

You see the memories and the upgrades you’ve made to the home. You know down the cent how much you’ve invested in the property. In today’s market, however, home values have fluctuated and dipped. It’s time to detach emotionally from your home and view it in a financial light. Is this a low ball offer or is a reasonable offer for your current market?

How long has your home been on the market? If your home is new to the market, especially if you’ve had multiple requests for showings, then accepting the first offer can be a gamble. You might not receive another offer, but on the other hand if this offer is too low you might be dealing with a vulture.

Are the terms agreeable? Some offers are right on target with asking prices, but are demanding when it comes to closing cost concessions and even move-out dates. If you don’t have a new home lined up and the buyer is wanting you out in 2 weeks you’ll find yourself in quite the scramble! Consider all the factors included in the sale.

Will you lose money on the sale? Many homeowners have found that their homes have depreciated in value over the last six years. Can you afford to sell at the offered price? Think about if this will cause you to be too far in debt on your mortgage to buy your next home.

How fast are you needing to sell? — Are you moving to another state or city? Many of today’s sellers are needing to move and that means buying a home. Even if you’re not moving, you may have already found, or purchased, your next home and don’t need two mortgages hanging over your head. In this instance it would be best to run the numbers, negotiate competitively, and accept a fair (even if lower than expected) offer.

Are you are risk of going into foreclosure? If you are selling because you can no longer handle your payments and don’t want to ruin your credit for the next seven years then it would be wise to accept even low offers. Buyers are few and far between in today’s market.

This is where the expertise of your agent comes in. They can tell what market activity is like for your area. How long are homes staying on the market before selling? Do they think you’ll receive another interested party? If they think the offer is too low and that you’ll get more money by waiting a short period for another buyer, then you should wait it out.

Buyers today are just like anyone looking for a deal. They know that home prices are on the decline and that inventory far outweighs demand. They come in shooting from the hip, wounding asking prices with their offers. Don’t be afraid to shoot back with competitive counter offers. If someone is truly interested and not just low-balling they’ll play the game.

As the seller it is up to you to decide on what deals to accept. If your home is on the market or you are consider listing it, then it would serve you well to figure up your bottom line now. What selling price can you afford? Be aware of what you will and won’t sell your home for. Then when offers come in you’ll know just how you can respond.

Source: Realty Times

Your Jetsons home is almost here.

Your Jetsons home is almost here

BARCELONA, Spain (CNNMoney) — In the classic 1960s animated sitcom The Jetsons, everything in the space-age family’s home could be controlled by the press of a button on a remote control.

Fifty years later, that futuristic vision is finally becoming reality.

At Mobile World Congress this week, the wireless industry’s largest annual convention, companies like AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Qualcomm (QCOM, Fortune 500), Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), and Sony (SNE) are showing off how everything in your home — from your door locks to your thermostat to your TV — can be controlled by a smartphone or tablet.

That kind of technology has been demonstrated and discussed for years, but it never graduated past a niche product for the uber rich and extremely geeky. Today, however, the hardware, software, and cloud-based infrastructure necessary to make it a reality is finally inexpensive enough for companies to bring full-home connectivity to the mainstream market.

But hold off on the excitement for a moment — there’s a sticking point. Connected-home technology won’t become widespread until there’s a uniform vision for how it will all work together.

There isn’t one. Not yet.

AT&T on Monday unveiled its new home security platform, which allows security companies to sell automated home protection services. Using AT&T’s network and software, a home security customer could control their heat, locks, lights, oven and security cameras using an iPad.

Intel featured a similar home – control technology, except instead of connecting devices through a wireless network, its system lets all the gadgets in the house talk to one another using what’s known as machine-to-machine connections. Your window shades, dishwasher, refrigerator and other appliances would all link with a central router running the Linux operating system, which is connected to and controlled over the Internet.

Chipmaker Qualcomm showed off its new “Hy-Fi” platform, which lets consumers easily play media from any device on any other device in the home. Want to watch a movie on your TV that’s stored on your iPad? A Hy-Fi router and receiver wired to your TV will take care of that. It also lets you listen to a song on your stereo that’s stored on your hard drive.

Sony showed how you can dock a Sony smartphone, connect it to a Sony TV, and navigate your phone’s media using your TV’s remote. Or you can play a game on your PlayStation, and pick up where you left off on your portable PS Vita.

Each system has its own unique platform that is incompatible with everyone else’s.

Without one clear standard for all in-home devices to talk to one another, consumers’ choices are limited. You can either buy everything from the same brand (Sony’s model), everything running the same platform (Intel and AT&T’s models), or invest in additional hardware to connect all your existing stuff together (Qualcomm’s model).

There are also other competing platforms that weren’t at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) has a home connectivity platform of its own, which allows Apple TV, Mac, iPhone and iPad users to stream and play content from any Apple device on the same network. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) is in the process of unveiling its own standard called Android@Home, which would allow connected devices in your home to be powered by an Android smartphone or tablet.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each model.

Google and Intel have an open standard that any device maker can adopt for free. AT&T makes companies license its platform for a fee, but with that comes a representative that customers can yell at when things don’t work. And Sony and Apple users don’t have to purchase any extra technology — just so long as they don’t mind buying only Sony or Apple products.

Until one standard becomes universally accepted, The Jetsons home vision will remain a fantasy. But with every major gadget maker pursuing it, it’s now finally a fantasy backed up by impressive real-world demos.

Why the Federal Reserve can’t fix housing.

Why the Federal Reserve can't fix housing

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Housing is still one of the biggest drags on U.S. economic growth, but don’t look to the Federal Reserve for help. The central bank may have few tools left to fix it.

That’s the basic hypothesis of a paper top economists presented to a room full of monetary policy elites in Manhattan Friday.

The US. Monetary Policy Forum is a one-day meeting presented by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In attendance are Federal Reserve officials, members of foreign central banks and economists from some of the world’s largest banks and top universities.

At Friday’s meeting, these top thinkers focused heavily on weaknesses in the housing market, and the mood was not exactly upbeat.

Traditionally, the Fed could aid the housing market during tough times, by lowering its key interest rate and thereby lowering mortgage rates. But the Fed’s interest rate is already near zero and mortgage rates are already at record lows — and yet the housing market remains in a slump.

Could the Fed be out of bullets when it comes to this key part of the American economy?

Has Obama’s housing policy failed?

Economists at Friday’s meeting argued the Federal Reserve can still bring interest rates lower with unconventional moves like asset purchases — called quantitative easing — but such policies are now unlikely to have a meaningful impact on housing.

That’s because homeowners who might qualify for refinancing at lower interest rates have likely already done so.

The overhang in the housing market “may not be easily addressed by monetary policy,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard agreed that the housing market is largely out of the Fed’s hands now.

“To the extent that you would have policies that are going to help the housing market, they’re not going to come from monetary policy makers,” Bullard said.

Million-dollar foreclosures

But San Francisco Fed President John Williams pointed out that by buying assets that target housing specifically — like mortgage-backed securities — he thinks the Fed’s policies have already lowered rates and could still push mortgage rates down further.

Another Fed president, Charles Plosser of Philadelphia, said later that he is critical of such a policy. The Fed already overstepped its bounds in 2008, when it started buying mortgage-backed securities, Plosser said.

He believes those actions blur the lines between fiscal and monetary policy — a growing problem in the wake of the financial crisis that he calls “dangerous.”

“The boundaries were established for good reasons and we ignore them at our own peril,” he said.

A few members of Congress agree, and have been highly critical of what they see as the Fed’s efforts to interfere in the housing market.

Fed officials have recently become more outspoken about problems facing the housing market, and have seemed eager to shift the ball into fiscal policy’s court — the purview of Congress and the president.

In January, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke ruffled feathers of some Republican lawmakers when he issued a white paper analyzing housing policies proposed by the Obama administration, including ideas to transition foreclosed properties into rentals and programs that would facilitate refinancing for underwater mortgages.

Feroli, along with Ethan Harris, co-head of economic research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and others, endorsed those policies in their paper Friday.

Rising rental costs may drive home sales up.

Rising rental costs may drive home sales up

Home sales could turn out sunnier than expected this spring based on data coming out of the rental market, according to economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Jay Brinkmann, the trade group’s chief economist, said Thursday that apartment owners have raised their rates, in particular large investment trust Equity Residential ($58.06 0%). That’s coupled with fewer people, roughly 60%, who intend to renew a lease, according to a study by Kingsley Associates.

“This means we might see a spring season better than the numbers are predicting,” Brinkmann said at the MBA’s mortgage servicing conference in Orlando, Fla. The trade group forecasts 4.39 million single-family homes sold in the second quarter, already an increase from the seasonally adjusted 4.17 million a year earlier.

Many Americans ran to rentals during the worst of the housing crisis, pushing home ownership to a 14-year low, and more tenants elected to stay put.

“The question is not how did (home ownership) fall, but how it got so high in the first place,” Brinkmann said.

The MBA adjusted its forecast for mortgage origination in 2012 to just more than $1 trillion with more refinances than initially expected, according to Mike Fratantoni, vice president of economics and research. That’s still below 2011 levels and would be the lowest since 1997.

Fratantoni expects home sales to grow 10% in 2013, though he predicted refinances will drop off considerably as MBA projects interest rates to slowly move off the lowest levels in 40 years.

Positive employment news, including a continued decline in jobless claims, could impact housing soon, but Brinkmann said uncertainty over business taxes in an election year and European debt could keep growth at bay.

“Everything is going to be based overall where the economy goes,” Brinkmann said. “This is going to be a slow year. There are a number of headwinds we’re facing in terms of economic growth.”

Insurance To Consider When You’re Single And Starting Out.

Insurance To Consider When You’re Single And Starting Out

The right insurance can help keep you and your possessions protected from unexpected events, but when you’re on your own for the first time it can be hard to know what coverage you need and what you don’t. The Insurance Information Institute (III) suggests looking at these coverages if you’re just starting out:

Renters
Your landlord’s insurance covers the building—not your belongings—in events such as a fire, theft or severe weather. Renters insurance offers coverage in these situations and often includes liability protection.

Homeowners
If you own a home, homeowner’s insurance will help protect both the structure and the belongings and also offers liability protection.   Purchase enough homeowners insurance to cover the cost to rebuild your home in case it is totally destroyed.  In most locations you can lower the cost of your premium with safety upgrades, such as fire alarms and security systems.

Condominium owners
Similar to renters insurance, condominium owners insurance primarily protects your personal property.  But it also helps protects the portions of your unit the condo association requires you to cover.  And it provides liability coverage.

Auto
In most states, it’s illegal to drive without auto insurance. The cost varies by state depending on things like your age, car, driving record and the type of coverage you have. Keep in mind: When you lease or finance a vehicle, you may have to purchase collision or comprehensive coverage in addition to basic liability.

Health
In some cases, the Affordable Care Act allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26, even if they’re married or eligible for insurance through their employer. If insurance isn’t available through your parents or your employer, consider purchasing individual health coverage to help cover medical expenses.

Life
Life insurance can help protect loved ones from taking on additional burdens—such as your unpaid debts or funeral expenses—should you unexpectedly pass away. When you’re young, your life expectancy is high, so you might benefit from lower rates if you purchase coverage at a younger age.