Las Vegas Real Estate Blog

1. The Multiple-Choice Mortgage    

Product: The Pay-Option Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM)
Why You Should Avoid It: Could end up owing more than you borrowed. This is considered the riskiest mortgage around. The pay-option ARM offers borrowers a low initial interest rate and then allows them to choose one of four monthly payments. On the more conservative side, homeowners can opt to write a check for both the interest and principal on a fully amortized loan. On the other end of the spectrum, borrowers can make a payment that's so small it doesn't even cover all of the interest due on the mortgage.

2. Cash-Out Financing

Product: 103s, 107s, and 125s
Why You Should Avoid Them: Can't count on home appreciation to build equity. If a home doesn't appreciate in value enough to cover the total amount of the loan, a homeowner could end coughing up the extra cash to pay off the mortgage upon moving. This wasn't considered too risky a few years ago when the real estate market was hot and home prices were moving higher by the day. Now, however, all data point to a softer market.

3. Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs)    

Product: One-Year and Three-Year Fixed-Rate ARMs
Why You Should Avoid Them: Tough on budgets, since the monthly payments are variable in just one to three years. Call this the high-risk, little-reward mortgage, at least in today's rising interest rate environment. Here's how they work: Borrowers lock in a slightly lower interest rate for the first one to three years. The product then readjusts every year in tandem with highly volatile short-term interest rates.                                                  Better to lock in the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate product and never think again about what the Federal Reserve will say at its next meeting.

4. Interest-Only Payments

Product: Three-Year, Five-Year, Seven-Year and 10-Year Interest-Only Option on an ARM (Commonly referred to as the Interest Only Mortgage)
Why You Should Avoid Them: Monthly payments can quickly balloon. After the initial "interest only" portion expires, the monthly payments balloon to cover the remaining interest and all of the principal payments on that mortgage. At this point many borrowers will either have to spend a few thousand dollars to refinance or sell the house.

5. Fixed-Rate Loans   

Product: 40-Year and 50-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgages
Why You Should Avoid Them: Builds equity too slowly. Consumers will also pay a lot more in interest over the life of the loan since the interest rate is typically a quarter of a point higher than the more traditional alternative.

Las Vegas has nothing on Moscow. The City of Sin is America's hottest urban real-estate market. But prices there pale compared with those in Moscow.

So much money, both domestic and foreign, is flowing into Moscow real estate, in particular. Apartment prices [are close to] world levels, like London or Tokyo, but the average income of Russians isn't that great. This is what makes the boom really puzzling.

Many Russians, for example, still live in their shabby Soviet-era apartments and crowd three generations of a family into a small suite of rooms. Some have to share kitchens and bathrooms with neighbors. And plenty of bathrooms still have only cold water. But thanks to privatization during Boris Yeltsin's presidency, many Russians own their homes. That ownership is giving them at least a currency that they can use to take advantage of the real-estate boom.

Wealthy Europeans have also sure enjoyed their real estate purchase power in the U.S. because of the devalued dollar. What trends with trans-Atlantic buyers are you seeing in your market?

More and more my work is done as I go, running from a place to another, trying to cover as much, area of my dally work, as I can. I have little time (actually no time) to sit down at my desk, have a cup of coffee, take a lunch time... and do most of things I used in the old days... routine as I used to do in the office. My office now is on the road. With 2 cell phones, a laptop, a hot cup of coffee ( from Starbucks ... if I have time to get one) and no time for leisure lunch. Unless I have to meet a client and have "a business lunch".

Quite hectic... I know! Doesn't mean I have more business. It means I just run harder to get some...

Few days ago I came across a news letter about the CellularRE marketing tool... It is for me a fantastic opportunity to stay in top of my business, easy, fast and efficient. CellularRE offers cellular marketing to the real estate industry.

A builder, broker, or agent can send out a text message alerting any customer in their database about a new listing that just came on the market. Within 1-3 minutes (depending on carrier), the customer will receive a text message via the cell phone or PDA describing the property, including price, size, location, number of bedrooms and baths for residential properties. For commercial space, clients will get texted price per square foot and amenities. The customer can then click on a link on their phone which will bring them automatically to a wireless website that was built for that listing (through the admin/software program CellularRE provides them to use online), and they can view photos, floor-plans and more in-depth listing information. If the customer is interested in the property and desires to see it right away, the customer can click another link right on the text message or wireless website on their phone, and the broker/agent/builder will be dialed immediately to schedule the appointment.

It allows both residential and commercial brokerages and developers to provide clients with information via text message, including price, size, pictures, etc. For more information go to: http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/ctr?d=122110&u=http://www.CellularRE.com.

Sounds great to me!