Tuesday, July 21, 2009
5 top blunders of Internet home buyingHere's some advice to help you avoid the common pitfalls of online real-estate searching.While the painful real-estate swoon appears likely to extend well into 2009 — at least — the number of Americans using the Internet to find the home of their dreams is poised to keep on climbing.According to the 2008 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 87% of homebuyers used the Internet to search for homes last year. That's up steadily from 84% in 2007 and 80% in 2006.But despite its mounting popularity, the Internet home-buying process can present a host of pitfalls. To help make your online real-estate searching more effective, here's a look at the top five Internet home-buying blunders and what you can do to avoid them.1. Assuming you can do it all yourselfThe Internet allows users to handle for themselves many of the tasks that could once only be performed by real-estate agents. The NAR profile, for example, found that the number of homebuyers who first learned of their homes on the Internet has been rising in recent years, to 32% in 2008, up from a tiny 2% in 1997. Accordingly, the number of homebuyers who first learned of their homes through agents has been declining, to 34% in 2008, down from 50% in 1997.But although the Internet can provide heaps of helpful tips and research, it would be a mistake to assume that the Web is all you need to buy a house — unless you are an experienced real-estate investor. Purchasing real estate can be extremely complicated from a legal standpoint, and it's easy to make a mistake if you don't have an expert advising you. And when it comes to something as expensive as real estate, those mistakes could cost you thousands of dollars."Doing all the paperwork yourself is a huge mistake," says Joshua Dorkin, chief executive officer of BiggerPockets.com, a real-estate networking and information site. "There are so many things you can miss on a contract."2. Looking too narrowlyThe sheer amount of information about the real-estate market online can be overwhelming. As a result, buyers can be tempted to stick to just one or two popular real-estate search engines, such as Realtor.com, for their research. The problem with doing that, however, is that you're missing out on the biggest advantages that the Internet offers. [Realtor.com is a partner of MSN Real Estate.]First, you're closing yourself off to a smaller cross section of the homes that are out there. "A lot of the sites aren't comprehensive and don't have all of the new listings," says Pat Kitano, a co-founder of Domus Consulting Group, which works with real-estate brokerage firms on technology marketing strategies.Don't assume that because a house is on one real-estate Web site, it is on all of them, says Greg Healy, vice president of operations at ForSaleByOwner.com. "It's still very fragmented," he says. Healy recommends using several Web sites to get a more complete picture.Second, you miss all the breaking, up-to-the-minute information on the housing market that can make you a smarter consumer. Blogs have become a popular resource for real-estate agents and others to post information as it happens. "If consumers are interested in a local area, they should find local real-estate bloggers who know this breaking information," Kitano says.3. Ignoring the independentsOne area that major real-estate search engines often overlook is the market for homes sold by the owners. "A lot of people forget to think how many homes are sold without agents," Healy says. The current estimate is that 20% to 25% of homes are listed by owner, he says.Your dream house could easily fall into that 20% to 25%. So how do you bring homes sold independently into your online searches? "Craigslist is one of the best resources," Dorkin says.4. Falling for fake listingsRemember, the Internet is a giant playground for scammers, and unfortunately they have penetrated the world of online home buying as well. Combine big dollars for online advertising and a lot of people searching for homes, and the result is a proliferation of fake home listings. There are a number of red flags to look out for."If there are no photos [of the house], that's a big warning sign. That's just people trying to collect page views," Healy says.But even if the listing has photos, it's not guaranteed to be legitimate. Legitimate Web sites will put watermarks on their home photos to brand those photos as their own. If a home's photos have several different watermarks on it, then you can guess you are looking at the work of a scammer.5. Putting too much stock in home-valuation Web sitesSites such as Zillow.com and Cyberhomes.com have changed the way people buy homes by putting pricing information at buyers' fingertips. But they're not infallible.Don't assume to know what the value of a home should be based on what these sites tell you about the neighborhood. There are many elements of a home's value that home-valuation sites cannot incorporate."Take their values with a grain of salt," Dorkin says. He recommends using this information merely as a range. Conduct other research to narrow that range. For example, walkscore.com can tell you the number of amenities within walking distance of a location — those are some of the factors that can raise or lower the value of a home.By Matthew Bandyk, U.S. News & World Report
Local employment conditions unchanged in JuneComments 6 Recommend 0
July 17, 2009 - 1:07 PM
WAYNE HEILMAN
THE GAZETTE
The Colorado Springs area job market remained little changed in June as the unemployment rate stood at 8.1 percent for the fourth time in the past five months and job losses from a year earlier continued to hover around 10,000.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported Friday that job losses were widespread across the area economy with every industry but health care and government employing fewer than a year earlier. Professional and business services, manufacturing and tourism all lost at least 2,000 jobs since June 2008. The employment numbers, which come from a survey of employers, are adjusted for seasonal changes.
The 8.1 percent jobless rate is up from 5.6 percent a year ago and likely is the highest since the early 1990s, although no direct comparisons can be made because of variances in the department’s data. The unemployment rate before seasonal adjustments last month was 8.3 percent, up from 7.7 percent in May but below the 20-year high of 8.6 percent in March.
The statewide unemployment rate also remained unchanged in June, at 7.6 percent, a 21-year high and up from 4.8 percent a year ago. The state has lost more than 100,000 payroll jobs during the past 12 months, or a 4.4 percent decline.
Although other local and national economic indicators are improving, unemployment and job growth numbers tend to take longer to show improvement because businesses wait to expand staff until they are sure conditions have improved.
See archived 'Top Stories' stories »
July 17, 2009 - 1:07 PM
WAYNE HEILMAN
THE GAZETTE
The Colorado Springs area job market remained little changed in June as the unemployment rate stood at 8.1 percent for the fourth time in the past five months and job losses from a year earlier continued to hover around 10,000.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported Friday that job losses were widespread across the area economy with every industry but health care and government employing fewer than a year earlier. Professional and business services, manufacturing and tourism all lost at least 2,000 jobs since June 2008. The employment numbers, which come from a survey of employers, are adjusted for seasonal changes.
The 8.1 percent jobless rate is up from 5.6 percent a year ago and likely is the highest since the early 1990s, although no direct comparisons can be made because of variances in the department’s data. The unemployment rate before seasonal adjustments last month was 8.3 percent, up from 7.7 percent in May but below the 20-year high of 8.6 percent in March.
The statewide unemployment rate also remained unchanged in June, at 7.6 percent, a 21-year high and up from 4.8 percent a year ago. The state has lost more than 100,000 payroll jobs during the past 12 months, or a 4.4 percent decline.
Although other local and national economic indicators are improving, unemployment and job growth numbers tend to take longer to show improvement because businesses wait to expand staff until they are sure conditions have improved.
See archived 'Top Stories' stories »
--->
Home > Daily News, News > Local multifamily listed among the nation’s best
Local multifamily listed among the nation’s best
by Becky Hurley
Published: July 17,2009
Time posted: 10:09 am
Tags: apartments, multifamily
While U.S. apartment vacancies rose to their highest level in 22 years, Pikes Peak region apartments were filling rapidly.
Analysts at Reis Inc. tracked 79 markets throughout the country and 45 experienced increased vacancies. The survey listed Colorado Springs; Columbia, S.C.; New Haven, Conn.; and Birmingham, Ala., as the U.S. cities with the fastest-shrinking vacancy rates.
The Springs’ overall vacancy rate dropped to 8.47 percent during the second quarter for complexes of 50 units or more. That was down from 9.9 percent during the prior quarter.
It’s also the lowest vacancy level since 2006, according to multifamily broker Doug Carter of Sperry Van Ness who cited findings published in the latest Apartment Insights quarterly review published by Cary Bruteig.
Geography matters
Some areas of town fared better than others.
Security-Widefield-Fountain finally saw its rental ship come in after 11 consecutive quarters with an average vacancy rate of 14.18 percent. Not surprisingly, Fort Carson’s new and returning soldiers leased hundreds of units.
Likewise, the southwest submarket — mostly 80906 neighborhoods — saw vacancies drop to less than 5 percent, filling even Class B properties, as rents remained the same or slightly lower.
Even complexes in hard-hit neighborhoods near the airport or in south-central neighborhoods off Nevada Avenue, Circle Drive and Venetucci Road, with vacancies of almost 20 percent during past quarters, watched renters pour in, filling all but about 13 percent of available apartments.
Carter and Apartment Insights calculated that only the west and north-central Colorado Springs submarkets have not seen improved occupancy.
Despite all this activity, however, rents have remained about the same.
During the second quarter, rents paid by tenants, also know as effective rents, increased by $9, but were not enough to compensate for the prior quarter’s average loss of $12. Overall, rents remain about $6 below a year ago.
Bye-bye concessions
Carter said that many landlords have begun to drop concessions — a free month’s rent or extending current lease rates for a few months — in return for signing a lease. Apartment Insights reported the average concession decreased by $8 this quarter to $58 per month, a discount of 8.4 percent from gross rent levels.
Carmen Azzopardi, division manager of Griffis Blessing Management Services Group, said that rents among the company’s 4,500 local property management clients are stable.
“What you see mostly are owners offering fewer concessions like first month’s free rent,” she said.
That’s in contrast to national statistics cited in the Reis report that show effective rents fell 0.9 percent, to $975, compared to the previous quarter and were off 1.9 percent from a year earlier.
Declines were highest in San Jose, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Southern California’s Orange County and Seattle. Those cities had been boosted by technology companies or the housing boom.
Perhaps the Pikes Peak region’s best news came in the form of the total net gain in leased units for the second quarter — improving by 507. That came on the heels of last quarter’s 120-unit gain.
So, after a volatile couple of years for area landlords, the area’s net absorption on a year-over-year basis settled at a respectable 559 units.
Apartment communities on the city’s north side such as the new Alexan at Briargate were big winners. That submarket saw absorption of 157 units. Properties near the airport absorbed 152 units during the same period.
Cary Bruteig, author of the Apartment Insights report, said aside from lower apartment complex investor volume, “all fundamental measures of the apartment market were strong.”
He also cited the city’s 1.5 percent drop in vacancies for the quarter as “significant,” though Carter cautioned that, so far, Colorado Springs has not seen a sustained trend.
“When you look at the last few quarters, we’ve been up, but we’ve also been down,” Carter said. “Last fall we were at a 7.4 percent vacancy rate — a pretty positive sign. Then two quarters later we were back up to 9.6 percent vacancies.”
Both credited the area’s growing military population for the good news.
“These are the initial signs of what we expect to be a significant improvement in the rental market in the quarters and years ahead,” Bruteig said. “New troops at Fort Carson were not expected until mid-summer, but our survey results show that arrivals were already beginning in May. We expect even greater improvement next quarter.”
Bruteig said he also expects a large influx of military households will accompany “limited new (multifamily) construction,” though most of it will consist of about 100 affordable housing units.
Home > Daily News, News > Local multifamily listed among the nation’s best
Local multifamily listed among the nation’s best
by Becky Hurley
Published: July 17,2009
Time posted: 10:09 am
Tags: apartments, multifamily
While U.S. apartment vacancies rose to their highest level in 22 years, Pikes Peak region apartments were filling rapidly.
Analysts at Reis Inc. tracked 79 markets throughout the country and 45 experienced increased vacancies. The survey listed Colorado Springs; Columbia, S.C.; New Haven, Conn.; and Birmingham, Ala., as the U.S. cities with the fastest-shrinking vacancy rates.
The Springs’ overall vacancy rate dropped to 8.47 percent during the second quarter for complexes of 50 units or more. That was down from 9.9 percent during the prior quarter.
It’s also the lowest vacancy level since 2006, according to multifamily broker Doug Carter of Sperry Van Ness who cited findings published in the latest Apartment Insights quarterly review published by Cary Bruteig.
Geography matters
Some areas of town fared better than others.
Security-Widefield-Fountain finally saw its rental ship come in after 11 consecutive quarters with an average vacancy rate of 14.18 percent. Not surprisingly, Fort Carson’s new and returning soldiers leased hundreds of units.
Likewise, the southwest submarket — mostly 80906 neighborhoods — saw vacancies drop to less than 5 percent, filling even Class B properties, as rents remained the same or slightly lower.
Even complexes in hard-hit neighborhoods near the airport or in south-central neighborhoods off Nevada Avenue, Circle Drive and Venetucci Road, with vacancies of almost 20 percent during past quarters, watched renters pour in, filling all but about 13 percent of available apartments.
Carter and Apartment Insights calculated that only the west and north-central Colorado Springs submarkets have not seen improved occupancy.
Despite all this activity, however, rents have remained about the same.
During the second quarter, rents paid by tenants, also know as effective rents, increased by $9, but were not enough to compensate for the prior quarter’s average loss of $12. Overall, rents remain about $6 below a year ago.
Bye-bye concessions
Carter said that many landlords have begun to drop concessions — a free month’s rent or extending current lease rates for a few months — in return for signing a lease. Apartment Insights reported the average concession decreased by $8 this quarter to $58 per month, a discount of 8.4 percent from gross rent levels.
Carmen Azzopardi, division manager of Griffis Blessing Management Services Group, said that rents among the company’s 4,500 local property management clients are stable.
“What you see mostly are owners offering fewer concessions like first month’s free rent,” she said.
That’s in contrast to national statistics cited in the Reis report that show effective rents fell 0.9 percent, to $975, compared to the previous quarter and were off 1.9 percent from a year earlier.
Declines were highest in San Jose, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Southern California’s Orange County and Seattle. Those cities had been boosted by technology companies or the housing boom.
Perhaps the Pikes Peak region’s best news came in the form of the total net gain in leased units for the second quarter — improving by 507. That came on the heels of last quarter’s 120-unit gain.
So, after a volatile couple of years for area landlords, the area’s net absorption on a year-over-year basis settled at a respectable 559 units.
Apartment communities on the city’s north side such as the new Alexan at Briargate were big winners. That submarket saw absorption of 157 units. Properties near the airport absorbed 152 units during the same period.
Cary Bruteig, author of the Apartment Insights report, said aside from lower apartment complex investor volume, “all fundamental measures of the apartment market were strong.”
He also cited the city’s 1.5 percent drop in vacancies for the quarter as “significant,” though Carter cautioned that, so far, Colorado Springs has not seen a sustained trend.
“When you look at the last few quarters, we’ve been up, but we’ve also been down,” Carter said. “Last fall we were at a 7.4 percent vacancy rate — a pretty positive sign. Then two quarters later we were back up to 9.6 percent vacancies.”
Both credited the area’s growing military population for the good news.
“These are the initial signs of what we expect to be a significant improvement in the rental market in the quarters and years ahead,” Bruteig said. “New troops at Fort Carson were not expected until mid-summer, but our survey results show that arrivals were already beginning in May. We expect even greater improvement next quarter.”
Bruteig said he also expects a large influx of military households will accompany “limited new (multifamily) construction,” though most of it will consist of about 100 affordable housing units.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
