This post was provided by Charla Housson, a realtor with expertise in Lake Travis ISD homes in Austin, TX.

The holidays are here!  For most, it’s the time of year filled with gifts, parties and family vacations, but unfortunately, it’s also “Christmas time” for burglars who reap the rewards of vacant homes and unguarded valuables.  Don’t be the victim of a holiday home invasion!  Follow these simple tips for preparing your home to ensure a safe and secure home this season.

Create the illusion of being home

Burglars look for signs of inactivity when deciding which homes to rob.  Be sure to take the extra steps of investing in a timer for lights, asking a neighbor to collect your mail and newspaper while you’re out of town, and pay someone to maintain your yard while you are away.

Out of sight, out of mind

Robbers know that under every perfectly trimmed Christmas tree are beautifully wrapped gifts.  Window displays are a great idea for those who are home for the holidays, but attract unnecessary attention to vacant homes.  Keep your trees and wrapped gifts out of sight if you plan to be away!

Hide the evidence

Some of us may be fortunate enough to receive fancy electronics, appliances, and other high-dollar items as gifts this year.  Just be sure to keep the “evidence” under wraps.  Break down and conceal product packaging in the trash.  Better yet, dispose of these items in a public dumpster away from your home.  Don’t give the crooks a reason to break in to your home!

Don’t broadcast your whereabouts

It is only natural to want to update your Facebook status, Twitter feed, and other social media channels with exciting news of your Christmas vacation, but resist the urge if possible.  The fewer people that know your home is empty, the less likely it will be burglarized.

Inform your local police department of your departure

In many town, police will keep an eye on your home if you provide them with your travel dates. Call the police station a couple of weeks before your vacation to let them know when you will be out of town so they can assign someone to patrol your area.

Taking just a few precautionary measures can help you ensure your home is not a target for burglars this Christmas.  Follow these tips and you’ll remain a step ahead of the thieves.

Let’s do a little refresher course.

Today’s housing market is a huge industry, involving several different groups of realtors, banks, and customers. It can be daunting to think about selling your home yourself, or “for sale by owner” (fsbo) as it is widely known, but thousands of people do it every year and save money.

According to the National Association of Realtors, FSBO home sales accounted for nearly 10% of the market in 2010. The other 90% were agent-assisted. For sale by owner real estate has been a growing market and increasingly puts pressure on realtor agencies to sell at competitive prices and get the best deal for their clients. Here are the top 3 reasons that fizbo’s (slang for “for sale by owner” home sellers) decided to do the hard work without the assistance of a realtor and brave the housing market themselves.

Take Your Time and Avoid Stress

More often than not, homes sold through realtors are priced higher than homes sold FSBO. This is due to pricey commission rates for buyer/seller agents. Although they know the industry, using agents increase home prices which in turn increases the time it takes to sell. When you are your own realtor, you are free to market and sell your house at your own pace and with a more reasonable asking price. Agents also have the disadvantage of dealing with several properties at once, so they might be inclined to sell a home even though it isn’t selling for what its really worth in order to increase their turnover.

Attention

Typically in 2010, realtors were juggling several different properties on any given week. Realtors only have so much time that they can devote to your property, and depending on the asking price and how much they’re guaranteed on commission, certain homes could remain lower on realtor radars than others. Selling your home For Sale by Owner allows you devote the time and put in the extra effort to showcase your home in its most attractive light. After all, who knows your home better than you? The homeowner is the best seller.

Commission

Perhaps the biggest and most tantalizing reason to sell your house For Sale by Owner is the amount of money homeowner stand to save by avoiding paying agent commissions. Statistics show that agent-assisted homes typically sell for more than FSBO homes, and that is because realtors factor their commission into asking prices. If you’re working with a realtor who stands to get a 3% commission off a $250,000 home, that’s $7,500 dollars going to their pocket. Why not price the house lower, sell it faster, and save thousands of dollars by selling your home yourself?

Though the incentives are great, home sellers have to be prepared to do the work in order sell their homes successfully. Plenty of market research is necessary when determining an asking price, as that’s the biggest reason why certain homes don’t sell and others do. Several services are available online specifically for For Sale by Owner home sellers. Flat Fee Multiple Listing Services are cheap and get homes into databases of available homes and in front of the eyes of buyers. There are also services available to help with price negotiations, the sometimes confusing paperwork involved, and closing the sale. Yigdigs has several much-needed services to help FSBO’s sell their home fast and save thousands.

According to a recent post on the Austin American-Statesman Business Blog, central Texas home sales are leading the charge in the country wide struggle for housing recovery.

The stats say it all:

• 1,973 homes in 2011 compared to 1,499 in 2010
• Sales price down 11%
• 20% fewer homes on the market in July 2011 than in 2010

Folks in central Texas are looking for bargains, according to Shonda Novak, author of the ever-informative blog.

This news comes largely in contrast to what economists are seeing on the national front with sales more than 1.5 million behind a healthy, sustainable rate.

Here’s the full post.

It’s tough out there. Even though mortgage interest rates are sitting at historic lows, millions of homeowners are still struggling to make those mortgage payments.

In an effort to inoculate this predicament, two economists are proposing a government sponsored refinance program to help struggling homeowners.

The benefits of refinancing your 7-9% interest rate down to the 3-4% level would echo throughout your personal finance and the larger economy, however, a lot of banks and financiers aren’t allowing people to take advantage of such a “refi”.

Low interest rates aren’t always available to homeowners. Although there aren’t any hard, fast restrictions on refinancing your mortgage, banks aren’t opening the door for current homeowners in trouble. Increased requirements are preventing millions of refi’s. Guy Cecala, CEO and publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance spoke with NPR’s Chris Arnold on the nature of acquiring a refi in this market. “We’re not picking up anybody who’s been sitting on the fence for three years.”

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to attain a mortgage refinance in this market. In order to qualify, homeowners need good credit and plenty of equity on their home, approximately 20% more than what they owe, and in a market where under water mortgages are more common than the cold, the number of eligible homeowners is miniscule.

It makes sense. Banks don’t want to take on more risk, but what are under water homeowners supposed to do? With no real improvement in sight for the housing market’s price depression, the incentives to walk away from their mortgage and ruin their credit are ever growing.

So two economists have suggested that the government sponsor mortgage refinances. Under Chris Mayer and Glen Hubbard’s plan, around 25 million families could benefit from lower interest rates and increased savings in their pocket.

By lowering the interest rates for homeowners under a government backed and sponsored program, millions of homeowners will no longer have such strong incentives to walk away, and they’ll have more money to spend month to month, thus helping our ailing economy.

For the full story, much of which has been paraphrased here, you can click >>HERE<< and listen to it over at NPR.org.

I just read this article and had to do a little post about it.

In the midst of our jobs slump, the housing crisis, that whole “debt-limit” thing, it seems that some people are finding ways to act advantageously to U.S. economic conditions.

In a report by the Vancouver Sun’s online edition, it appears that Vietnamese Organized Crime syndicates have their eye on American real estate. Apparently our record low interest rates and low property values could save these marijuana cultivating business moguls a whole heap of money – enough, in fact, to move south, away from British Colombia where the weather is beautiful, economy is strong, and drug law is relatively lax.

It just goes to show you that Bernanke’s insistence on record low mortgage rates is enticing people to buy. Only, they’re Vietnam-born Canadian drug king pins. Oh well…

Read the full article.