Elizabeth Shaw and Jim Gayes may not know it but they are property pioneers. Not for them the old-fashioned route of instructing an estate agent and paying 2 per cent commission for the sale of their homes. They aren’t even using low-cost internet estate agency sites. Instead, they are doing it all themselves, using the eBay auction site and the “social networking” site, YouTube.

* Fully story: Available on Telegraph UK

With almost 16,000 existing houses for sale in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties, it takes all the mojo you can muster to make your house stand out in the crowd.

If yours has sat on the market for a while or had an escrow fall through, it might be more than supply and demand. A pair of Lake Tahoe authors say you might have a feng shui problem.

* Fully story: Available on Sacbee.com

Buy a home in Monaco and you’ll enjoy iconic beaches, glamorous casinos, a renowned arts and music scene, pulsating nightlife and boutique-packed boulevards. You’ll also pay for it.

That’s because the Mediterranean principality tops our list of the world’s most overpriced real estate markets. The rankings were compiled by calculating an effective annualized rate of return on a property based on annual cash flows derived from renting and adjusted for capital gains tax, transaction fees, operating costs and maintenance, appreciation and inflation. We then flipped the return rate to resemble the more familiar price-to-earnings (P/E) measure.

* Fully story: Available on Forbes

The evening before their home purchase was to close, Gary Becker and his wife, Amy Dacus, learned their mortgage to buy a Woodinville home had evaporated.

Unlike subprime borrowers defaulting on loans, the couple had a stellar credit score, a 20 percent down payment, strong employment history and had effortlessly purchased three prior homes.

But their new home’s $670,000 sales price was large enough to require a “jumbo” loan, so named because it was for more than $417,000, the limit the nation’s largest mortgage backers will fund.

* Fully story: Available on The Seattle Times

Today many home sellers find themselves wondering whether it is really worth it to hire a real estate agent and fork over a portion of their home’s sales prices or try to sell their home on their own. This is especially true given the decline in the real estate market as many sellers are anxious to save as much money as they can. Before making a decision to sell on your own; however, there are several critical factors which should be taken into consideration.

First, while many sellers think they will save money by selling on their own, this is not always the case. Yes, it is true that you will be able to save the commission but in many cases this is at the sacrifice of your sales price. Simply put, a good real estate agent can often sell your home for a higher asking price than you would be able to achieve on your own. The increased sales price, even in a down market, can more than make up for the agent’s fee.

In addition, many home sellers do not realize that they may take longer to sell on their own. While many home sellers have been able to achieve sales prices that were near or the same as similar homes listed with agents, studies indicate that homes for sale by owner take longer to actually sell than homes listed with an agent. If you are in a hurry to move, this can be an important factor which should be taken into consideration.

Of course, it should be pointed out that selling home on your own does offer some advantages. Selling your home on your own provides you with more control over the entire process. For example, you can schedule viewings of your home when it is most convenient for you.

And, you may be able to avoid paying a full 6% commission to a real estate agent. This is only true in some cases; however. Many owners who elected to sell their home on their own were surprised to find that they still had to pay half of the typical real estate commission fee to an agent who actually delivers a buyer. This means that in the end you might not save as much money as you might imagine.

Home sellers who are thinking of selling on their own must consider the fact that they will need to give up significant amounts of time in order to properly market and sell their homes. This is especially true in the current market climate. With the large inventory of homes for sale on the market, if you are going to sell on your own you will need to come up with creative marketing strategies in order to compete with all of the other homes currently for sale. If you are not working with a real estate agent, you may not have the resources in which to do so.

In addition, it should be understand that you must be on call to accept inquiries about the property, show the property, etc. In many cases, you may even need to take time off from your job in order to handle these details. Depending on your employment situation, this could actually cost you money.

You must also make sure you are knowledgeable about the home selling process. First, you must make sure your home is priced right. If you price your home too long, you could end up losing money. If you price it too high; however, it might take a while to sell your home.

The costs of marketing and advertising must be taken into consideration as well. When you list with a real estate agent, he or she handles this for you through the agency. When you sell on your own, you must handle the expenses related to advertising. In today’s technological world, this can become expensive fairly quickly.

Finally, you must make sure you understand all of the legal aspects and responsibilities associated with drafting a contract. To protect yourself, you may need to hire a real estate attorney in addition to other critical persons such as a home appraiser.

While it is certainly possible to save money by selling your home on your own, you must think about how much time and effort as well as up front money you are willing to put into the process. Decide whether it is worth to invest that much money and energy into selling on your own in order to save the commission.

While the purchase of a home is always exciting, many first time home buyers get so caught up in the excitement of it that they fail to consider all of the important factors which should be taken into consideration in order to make the purchase of their first home a success.

These factors and details include reviewing the cost of renting versus buying a home, ensuring the home is located in a good school district, applicable legal fees and appraising the value of the neighborhood in which they are considering making their purchase.

While the idea of owning a home is still very much alive as part of the American Dream, if you fail to take all of these important areas into consideration before actually signing on the line, that dream could quickly become a nightmare.

When purchasing your first home it certainly pays off to take the time to do your homework. When touring a neighborhood in which you may consider purchasing a home it is imperative to make sure the home will hold its current value. You can do this by paying attention to what is going on in the neighborhood and looking for signs which might indicate there could be a price correction looming in the future.

For example, make sure you take a look with the radius of a few blocks and take a count of the number of for sale signs that are present. This will quickly give you an idea whether or not there is a glut in terms of available housing. Ask your agent how much time other homes in the neighborhood have spent on the market as well as for information regarding current asking prices versus original listing prices.

Whether you have children now or think you may have a family in the future it is also a good idea to make sure you check out the local school district. Research the test scores of the local schools. Even if you do not plan to have children in the future this is an important step to ensure your home is in a good school district for resell purposes in the future. The buyers you sell to several years down the road may have a family and be concerned about such things.

Considering increased levels of environmental concern, it is also a good idea to have an environmental appraisal of the neighborhood as well. Laws vary in each state according to the types of potential health hazards which must be disclosed as well as the distance away they must be from the home in order to be considered serious. If problems are found consider either selecting another property or at least use the information in your favor for price negotiations. While there are rarely any serious problems present, having such an appraisal can provide much peace of mind. Information that may be revealed in the appraisal includes the presence of a leaking gas tank nearby, possible water pollutants and even the location of a former drug lab in the vicinity. Plan to pay between $100 and $150 for such an appraisal.

If you are purchasing a historic home or a home in an historic area, always make sure you check in with the local historical preservation board to find out how much flexibility you will be granted for remodeling and additions. This can be a sticky issue in many areas. It is not at all uncommon for boards to require homeowners to obtain as sign-off before they make any changes at all to their properties. This could mean that you must obtain permission even to change the color of the paint on your home.

Finally, of course, you must make sure that you can actually afford to buy the property. Far too many times first time home buyers fall in love with a property, make an offer on it and discover later they cannot obtain financing for the amount of the purchase. Not only must you make sure you can get pre-approved for a home mortgage loan but you must also make sure you can come up with the home down payment and home closing costs. Plan to pay between 2% and 5% of the purchase price for closing costs. Make a plan for how you will pay for these costs before you even begin shopping for your first home.

By taking all of these factors into consideration, first time home buyers can be sure that when the time comes for them to purchase their first home, it really is a dream home and not a nightmare or a money pit.