Weekly Digs – Negotiating

In this special Wednesday edition of the weekly digs, we see a lot of interesting things happening. Apparently housing sales in October weren’t as rosy as previously reported, mostly because buyers couldn’t find homes. And we take a look at negotiating with contractors. This and more below the fold!

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From Realtor.com’s Latest News

• Pending Home Sales Fell in October—Mainly Because Buyers Couldn’t Find Houses
  • The National Association of Realtors attributed the downturn in contract signings to two factors: rising mortgage rates and a lack of homes for sale.
• New-Home Sales Fell in October, but the Housing Market’s Trajectory Remains Positive
  • The numbers: Sales of newly-constructed homes in the U.S. decreased 0.7% on a monthly basis in October to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 733,000, the government reported Tuesday. However, the figure for
• Home-Price Growth Picked Up in September
  • Home-price growth accelerated in September, marking two-straight months of price increases after a long period of decelerating gains.
• Existing-Home Sales Rebound 1.9% in October as Low Mortgage Rates Continue to Provide a Lift
  • The numbers: Sales of previously-owned homes rose 1.9% in October — the latest housing statistic to demonstrate the upward lift low mortgage rates have provided to the U.S. real-estate market.

From Spark Rental’s Latest Blog Posts

• How to Negotiate with Contractors: The Definitive Guide
  • Dealing with contractors is one of the hardest parts of investing in real estate. The ones who actually return your calls promptly, show up on time for work, and complete jobs on-schedule? They charge a pretty penny for that basic level of professionalism. In fact,…
• Where’s the Cheapest Real Estate in the US? Should You Invest in It?
  • Everyone loves a deal, an opportunity to acquire an asset at a low cost. When retailers cut their prices on Black Friday and Cyber Monday each year, frenzied shoppers crowd the store aisles to compete for the limited items on the shelves. And every year, the mania for…
• Can You Take Out a HELOC on an Investment Property?
  • Have some rental properties with equity in them, and want to access it to help you grow your real estate portfolio? One way to buy a rental property with no money down is to leverage equity in your other properties. That could mean a blanket loan against multiple…
• “I Rented Dirt”: How Scott Replaced His 9-5 Income with Land Investments
  • “Oh, I also had a few rental homes, but I mainly rented dirt.” So begins Scott Todd’s story, his journey from corporate manager to land investor to being able to cover his living expenses on land rental income alone. Scott reached financial independence in under a…

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From PM Insider’s Latest Posts

• Future-Enabling Apartments with Internet
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From Reddits /r/RealEstate Subreddit

• $600k home smells so bad, need some tips
  • current score on reddit: 137
• Attempting to Buy from Opendoor – we caught them in a lie, can we do anything about it?
  • current score on reddit: 104
• Purchased an investment property via Roofstock. Triple-checked that property was not part of an HOA. Now I learn they are part of an HOA — do I have any recourse?
  • current score on reddit: 101