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• Holding rental properties now more profitable (and predictable) than flipping.

  Thinking about buying and a home on the cheap and flipping it for big profits? That dream is all but dead as sales of homes to investors have dropped by more than half over the past five years, according to CNNMoney.com . Plus, the number of those investors Read More... Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2011 2:18 PM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, For Rent/Lease, Open Houses, Announcements, Technology, Industry, Finances, Seller Information, Chester Springs, Malvern, Income producing property, Newtown Square, Philadelphia, Exton, Media, West Chester, Paoli, Broomall, real estate investing, rental properties, distressed properties, foreclosures, short sales, mortgages, West Goshen, Thornbury, Westtown, mortgage, West Whiteland, buying a home, East Goshen, East Whiteland, Phoenixville, Willistown, loans, financing, making money with real estate, positive cash flow

• So what are the possible short sale outcomes...?

  Many people do not know that short sales stand a much better chance of approval as oppossed to a loan modification. However, there are a variation of outcomes that can occur. Mainly, the inconsistency involves how the lender deals with the deficiency. Read More... Posted Monday, September 12, 2011 11:01 AM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Announcements, Industry, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information, Community Information, Chester Springs, Malvern, Philadelphia, Exton, Media, West Chester, Broomall, distressed properties, foreclosures, short sales

• Right now, investors are cashing in on rental properties.

  Most of the news about the housing market lately has been dismal. However, the one bright spot is being overlooked by many - the rental market. Rental demand is up and and rental rates are rising. Many foreclosures victims (estimated north of 4 million) Read More... Posted Saturday, September 10, 2011 8:23 AM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Announcements, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information, Community Information, Chester Springs, Malvern, Income producing property, Newtown Square, Philadelphia, Exton, Media, West Chester, Paoli, Broomall, real estate investing, rental properties

• Strong Job Growth In July Trumped By Credit Downgrade

  Here is a great blog post from my Coach, Carl Rizzuto: More Americans are getting back to work. The latest Non-Farm Payrolls survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 117,000 net new jobs were created in July, thumping analyst estimates and Read More... Posted Friday, August 12, 2011 3:44 PM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Announcements, Industry, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information

• Economy, not debt rating and market turmoil, is chief driver in current housing market.

  Everyone is very concerned about the debt rating downgrade right now. However, the economy is the main driver for current housing market conditions. Greg McBridge, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com , says that "as long as the economy continues Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 10, 2011 8:45 AM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Events, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information

• Foreclosures are crushing home prices, but mortgage rates remain low.

  Home prices have continued to drop during the first quarter of 2011, dropping 4.6% from a year earlier according to CNNMoney.com and the National Association of Realtors. Condo prices fell ever harder by a rate of 10.4%. The main cause for this decline Read More... Posted Thursday, May 12, 2011 11:40 AM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, For Sale, Announcements, Events, Industry, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information

• Americans are shunning cheapest homes in 40 years.

  According to Kathleen Howley at Bloomberg Businessweek , the most affordable real estate in a generation is failing to lure buyers as some Americans are souring on the idea of home ownership. At the end of 2010, the share of people who said a home was Read More... Posted Tuesday, April 19, 2011 11:32 AM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Industry, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information

• Mortgage rates dip for second straight week.

  Rates on fixed mortgages dipped for the second straight week as Treasury yields fell, as reported by MSNBC.com and the Associated Press . Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on a 30-year mortgage dropped to 4.71% from 4.77% during the previous Read More... Posted Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:08 PM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Announcements, Industry, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information

• Buying a home now is a no-brainer.

  Ali Velshi, CNN chief business correspondent, believes that if a prospective Buyer has good credit and 20% to put down, it is a great time to buy according to CNNMoney .com. Velshi feels that this has been the case all year and that we are probably closer Read More... Posted Thursday, December 16, 2010 9:30 AM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Announcements, Finances, Buyer Information

• Home prices fall 2% in 3rd quarter.

  U.S home prices fell 2% in the third quarter according to CNNMoney.com . The S&P Case-Schiller Home Price INdex has recorded gains in four of the previous five quarters, including a 4.7% jump between April and June 2010. This leaves national home Read More... Posted Thursday, December 02, 2010 11:49 AM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, For Sale, Announcements, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information

• Unemployment rate drops in 23 states during September.

  According the the Associated Press and MSNBC.com , unemployment dropped in 23 states and Washington D.C. However, the unemployment rate rose in 11 states and remained unchanged in 16 per Labor Department statistics. The declines were nearly double the Read More... Posted Friday, October 22, 2010 1:09 PM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Industry, Finances, Community Information

• Just listed! 256 Torrey Pine Court in West Chester!

  Beautiful end unit carriage home in Whiteland Woods is being offered at $374,900! Located on a premium lot and backs to wood! Nearly 2,500 SF. Address is 256 Torrey Pine Court, West Chester, PA 19380. Check out my Featured Listings section for pictures Read More... Posted Thursday, October 07, 2010 11:21 AM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, For Sale, Announcements, Finances, Buyer Information

• 10 great reasons to buy a home...

  Many people are getting sick of the doom and gloom surrounding the real estate markets right now (I am one of them). The consumers and media tend to forget about all of the great reasons to buy a property. Brett Arends of The Wall Street Journal wrote Read More... Posted Thursday, September 16, 2010 1:54 PM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, For Sale, Announcements, Industry, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information

• July existing-home sales fall as expected BUT prices rise.

  According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), existing homes sales (defined as completed transactions that include single family homes, condos, townhomes and co-ops) dropped 27.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million units in Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:42 PM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, Announcements, Industry, Finances

• 21.5% of mortgages are under water...

  According to CNNMoney.com , 21.5% of mortgages are currently under water in the 3rd quarter of 2010, which is an improvement from the previous quarter when an estimated 23.3% of loans were under water. There are a few reasons for this improvement, including Read More... Posted Monday, August 09, 2010 1:12 PM by Tom Toole, III | (Comments Off) Filed under: Real Estate, Market Conditions, For Sale, Announcements, Industry, Finances, Buyer Information, Seller Information