News About Properties

When his father died last summer, editor and tax preparer Danny Marcus found himself faced with an unexpected problem: figuring out what to do with his inheritance.

Marcus, 60, was both thrilled and overwhelmed by the possibilities. Should he pay off the mortgage? Buy a condo in Florida? Save more for his retirement? And if he decided to invest it, where should the money go?

Rather than try to puzzle out answers on his own, the Marblehead resident decided he needed professional help. So he applied for a Boston Globe money makeover, saying the $76,000 inheritance “is more money than I’ve ever gotten at one time in my whole life.’’

via Inheritance poses investment possibilities and puzzles.

Flush with cash from an oil boom and plentiful jobs, North Dakotans are snapping up homes 1,500 miles away in balmy Arizona, where prices have plunged since the real estate bubble burst.

“It boils down to the weather and taking advantage of the market,” says real estate agent Rocky Parra of HomeSmart Realty in Gilbert, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb.

He and wife Beverly, a native of Minot, N.D., have sold eight homes to North Dakotans in recent months. Parra is heading to North Dakota this month to meet with possible buyers.

via North Dakotans buy up homes in Arizona.

Jeannette Boccini thought she had found a great renter, someone who would take extra good care of her townhouse. Then the nightmare began.

The tenant repeatedly harassed the neighbors, complained that the wood chips in the community playground were toxic, and informed Ms. Boccini on Christmas morning that someone was playing Christmas carols too loudly.

But the final straw was the night the tenant showed up at Ms. Boccini’s door to report there was dust all over the mailbox. “I absolutely flipped,”; Ms. Boccini says. "I was like, ‘You don’t like it? Get the hell out of my house.”;

via Do You Really Want to Be a Landlord?.

Q. Please let us know how one can identify a well-managed condominium association when considering purchasing a unit. Please share your top three or four questions to ask as well as tips to look for in the answers.— J.G.

A. I would first sit down and compose a list of thing you want in your new residence. As an example you could list you want to be near the water (lake or gulf, etc.); want a home that allows pets; want tennis courts and certain recreational facilities, maybe social activities and so on. Your list should contain about 20 to 30 items. Rate them as to the most important and those that would be nice to have. This will be of help to make the final selection and give you an idea of what questions you need answered. As for the things you need to know about the condominium: Look at the facilities and common areas. The first test is the way the condominium association looks. Does the landscape have a positive curb appeal? Does the building need painting or other repairs?

via Richard White: Tips on how to identify a well-managed condo association » Naples Daily News.

When Michael and Monica Tesoriero started looking at houses last year, they were set on a single-family in Medford – until they saw how little they could get for their money. “After seven months of looking,” says Monica, who works in finance at Harvard University, “we came to the realization that most houses in our price range in Medford needed too much work.” On top of that, Michael, now a chef at Boston College, had not long ago endured a frightening 14-month period of unemployment. If one of them got laid off again, they figured, it couldn’t hurt to have a little extra money coming in every month. “Nowadays we have to consider the possibility that one of us might lose our job,” Monica says. “What would happen then? Do we lose our house, too?”

In this wobbly economy, the first instinct for home buyers in the Tesorieros’ situation might be to downsize their dreams from a single-family to a condo. But that’s not what the couple did. Instead, they bought a 2,700-square-foot two-family in Revere and became landlords. “We decided it would be a better investment for us,” Monica says, “and would give us the possibility of having rental income.”

via 5 things to consider before buying a multifamily home.

Home prices and mortgage rates have fallen so far that the monthly cost of owning a home is more affordable than at any point in the past 15 years and is less expensive than renting in a growing number of cities.

The Wall Street Journal’s third-quarter survey of housing-market conditions in 28 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas found that home values declined in all but five markets compared with the second quarter, according to data from Zillow Inc. Meanwhile, rent levels have risen briskly across the country and mortgage rates, hovering around 4%, are the lowest in six decades.

As a result, monthly mortgage payments on the median priced home—including taxes and insurance—are lower than the average rent levels in 12 metro areas, according to data compiled for The Wall Street Journal by Marcus & Millichap, a real-estate brokerage that tracked 27 metro areas. It remains less expensive to rent than to buy in 15 cities. But affordability hasn’t done much to lift the sagging housing sector because many would-be buyers are unwilling to purchase a home or unable to qualify for a mortgage.

via Own vs. Rent: A Growing Reason to Buy.