Friday, July 3, 2020 / by Vanessa Saunders
By Vanessa Saunders, MBA, MIMC , Broker Owner, Global Property Systems Real Estate.
Do you fancy investing in a group of vacation villas in Phuket? Or a particular prime piece of residential real estate in London, and have your investment protected by blockchain technology? London Chelsea Limited, a UK investment firm, has partnered with SolidBlock to offer one of the first digital asset funds that invests in real estate, announced Crowdfund Insider on Monday.
London Chelsea advises on the buying and selling of residential investment properties in London and the Home Counties. Its partner, SolidBlock, is a primary issuance platform that intends to facilitate the tokenization of assets which can then be traded on an exchange or alternative trading system (ATS). This is the first digital asset to be offered as a security in the UK facilitated by SolidBlock.
What all of that gives to an investor is the ability to buy into a cross-border residential real-estate investment ...
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hudson valley real estate, hudson valley property, buying a home, home investment, 'urb to 'burb, blockchain, new technology, cryptocurrency, thailand
Thursday, July 2, 2020 / by Vanessa Saunders
It's a seller's market today in Hudson Valley real estate. This season, an unexpected crop of buyers are rushing north to find permanent residences, or vacation homes outside New York City. So there are relatively few homes for sale, and droves of buyers getting into bidding wars over properties that until now have lingered for months or years unnoticed on the market. When buyers with FHA loan pre-qualification make an offer, as we say in the UK, "they haven't an earthly" chance.
Why do FHA loans get the bum's rush when going up against bidders bringing their higher and best offers? Below are five circumstances we see every day where sellers would be wise to favor an offer with conventional or cash financing over FHA at a higher price.
A low appraisal
Lender's use independent appraisers to determine the value of every property they finance. If a home appraises for less than the buyer and seller agree upon, and the offer is backed by FHA with a minimum down payment, the buyer is as ...
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hudson valley real estate, hudson valley home, buying a home, hudson valley home owners, 'urb to 'burb, hudson valley home sellers, housing sales inventory, making an offer on a house, sales strategies, credit scores, home inspections, the economy
Tuesday, June 30, 2020 / by Vanessa Saunders
Last year at this time, mortgages in forbearance programs represented 1% of all mortgages. As of May 10, 2020, more than 4 million borrowers were able to declare financial hardship and delay making payments on their loans for up to a year. Things are a-changin' in the mortgage world. The Covid-19 pandemic and economic shutdown have left the mortgage markets bubbling with volatility, and lenders are changing to meet the new normal.
Is it still possible to get a mortgage? The answer is yes, but some of the rules have changed.
Lenders are asking for higher qualification thresholds.
Expect more hoops to jump through, especially on mortgages that are deemed more "risky" than others - jumbo loans, high-balance conforming loans and investment property loans.
(A conforming loan is a mortgage that is equal to or less than the dollar amount established by the limit set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency ( (FHFA) and meets the funding criteria of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.) Buyers will ...
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hudson valley real estate, hudson valley home, buying a home, hudson valley home owners, 'urb to 'burb, mortgage rates, first time home buyer, mortgage, va loans
Monday, June 29, 2020 / by Vanessa Saunders
By Vanessa Saunders, MBA, MIMC , Broker Owner, Global Property Systems Real Estate.
Starbucks just joined the #StopHateforProfit movement today, so did we, (#globalpropertysystems,) by suspending our July advertising on Facebook and all other social media in protest of allowing hate speech. Here's why you should too.
The movement's website stophateforprofit.org cites numerous examples of how Facebook has allowed hate speech on it's platform, including:
"They allowed incitement to violence against protesters fighting for racial justice in America in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks and so many others.
They named Breitbart News a “trusted news source” and made The Daily Caller a “fact checker” despite both publications having records of working with known white nationalists.
They turned a blind eye to blatant voter suppression on their platform."
StopHateforProfit.com points out that putting a dent in ...
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'urb to 'burb, hudson valley living, saving the world, boycott starbucks, mark zuckerberg, stop hate for profit, stop hate speech
Friday, June 26, 2020 / by Vanessa Saunders
By Vanessa Saunders, MBA, MIMC , Broker Owner, Global Property Systems Real Estate.
Inman News reported that the Houston Association of Realtors MLS has removed the terms “master bedroom” and “master bathroom” from its MLS listing descriptions as part of a renewed national focus on racism and discrimination. First reported by a handful of Texas publications on Tuesday, HAR now uses the terms “primary bedroom” and “primary bathroom,” effective June 15.
We heartily applaud HAR's actions regarding these terms and the implications they bear. We are following HAR's lead, and voluntarily changing all uses of "master" bedrooms and baths in our listing's literature as quickly as possible.
But there are some other common real estate terms I would like to see eliminated from our nomenclature.
Red Lining
I would love to eliminate Red Lining, both the practice and thus the need for the term.
Created in the post-depression 1930s by Federal hou ...
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hudson valley real estate, hudson valley home, buying a home, 'urb to 'burb, hudson valley home sellers, housing sales, selling your home, the future of real estate, fair housing act of 1968, racial discrimination, racial steering, red lining
