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April 2007 - Posts

Monday, April 30, 2007 6:57 PM

Flip, flop, part 3

I wrote about this house a few months ago and here is the latest update on this flop. As was pointed out to me earlier today (hat tip to Mike Farmer from Savannah GA), Flipper was a smart dolphin who did smart helpful things. The seller of this house
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Monday, April 30, 2007 2:31 PM

25 things that changed the Internet

USA Today turns 25 this September 15 and to celebrate, they are featuring 25 lists. This week, the focus is on 25 things that shaped the Internet. From the World Wide Web, email, Google, eBay, Amazon.com to YouTube, bloggers, craigslist and MySpace, see
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, April 27, 2007 1:55 PM

Park West, a great Mount Pleasant neighborhood

Park West is a beautiful master planned community off Highway US 17 North in Mount Pleasant. While the community stretches for miles, there are currently 28 different neighborhoods either already built or in a stage of development. The neighborhoods of
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 2:00 PM

Charleston real estate and the media perspective

From the front page of today's Charleston Post and Courier, the headline reads: For Sale signs on every corner We enjoyed the boom; now we have to deal with the slump. The real estate market is in its biggest decline since 1989. Here's how it
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:51 AM

S&P Shiller-Case and March existing home sales

No surprises in the latest numbers to come out of S&P Case-Shiller or data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on existing home sales. While Nationally syndicated writer, Lew Sichelman advised the real estate reading public to not pay
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, April 23, 2007 12:31 PM

The long term value of housing

I noticed an interesting point made by Nationally syndicated columnist Lew Sichelman regarding the long term value of housing. "Hang in there. Real estate is just the opposite of the law of gravity: What goes down almost always comes back up. It
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, April 20, 2007 3:15 PM

Ardell gets zillowed by zestimate

Many consumers believe that "zestimates" from Zillow are accurate. Ardell DellaLoggia of Rain City Guide found that while her neighborhood has gone up nicely in value, the value of her personal home plunged by $269,000 in the past 50 days (-28%).
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, April 20, 2007 2:24 PM

Understanding mortgage rates and penalties

Highlights from two premier blogs, Rain City Guide and Bloodhound Blog: Ardell DellaLoggia from Seattle's Rain City Guide has the best explanation of subprime rates and prepayment penalties. Here are the conclusions from her post. "People talk
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Thursday, April 19, 2007 7:01 AM

Subprime and Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac's Chairman and CEO, Richard Syron testified on April 17th before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee regarding subprime mortgages. Some highlights of his remarks: "In addition to tightening underwriting
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:47 PM

To the subprime rescue

With many subprime mortgage borrowers facing monthly payments that are unaffordable due to ARM resets now and in the near future, various solutions are being proposed to rescue the borrowers from likely foreclosure. Some ideas coming from Washington are
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, April 16, 2007 8:13 AM

Charleston gardens sell homes

Curb appeal is important and when you are selling Charleston real estate, it matters a lot when you are selling your home. I had an interesting Saturday as we were on the short list for a second showing of a listing in my neighborhood and at about the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, April 13, 2007 5:35 AM

Fantasy Friday visits Charleston today

My friend, Larry Cragun , who writes several outstanding blogs out of the great Pacific Northwest visits Charleston today with his famous Fantasy Friday. Our dreamers today are from Birmingham, MI. Husband and wife team, Dmitry Koublitsky & Maureen
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Thursday, April 12, 2007 7:40 AM

Why I require home inspections

There is a very good reason why I require home inspections for everyone who buys a home. Quite simply, it is vitally important that you know exactly what the condition of the house is in before you take possession. No matter what level of expertise you
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 3:10 PM

Charleston golf and tennis update

The Family Circle Cup going on this week on Daniel Island has had a tough tournament, several of the top women's players pulled out because of injuries and the top seed lost her opening match. The WTA has revised all of its tournaments beginning in
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, April 10, 2007 12:11 PM

Real estate myths

Parade Magazine published an article this past Sunday written by Vivian Marino titled "Biggest Real Estate Myths". There has been a record amount of real estate "bashing" going on in the media lately and respect for real estate agents
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 08, 2007 8:47 AM

The Easter bunny and The Masters Green ... Parka?

It's a cool Easter Sunday morning and the Easter Bunny is likely decked out in a parka rather than a bonnet. As anyone who has been watching The Masters on television (or lucky enough to have a ticket and actually attend the tournament) knows, the
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Friday, April 06, 2007 1:00 PM

Google for homes, not just homepages

Google made a breakthrough real estate announcement on the google blog yesterday while I was busy writing about Google's announcement of their new data center in the Charleston area. As the leading search engine, Google wants to make it easier to
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 05, 2007 8:02 AM

Charleston area attracts Google to Goose Creek

The Charleston area attracted Internet giant Google to open a new facility in Goose Creek in Berkeley County. Long rumored, the official announcement was finally made. Breaking months of silence, Google confirmed Wednesday that it is building a data-processing
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 9:19 AM

Charleston real estate market report, March

March is the kickoff to the spring housing season and the results are not as encouraging as I might have liked to see or thought they'd be based on my personal activity during the month. We'll post the statistics first and comment on the housing
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, April 02, 2007 5:06 PM

Redfin's Real Estate Consumer's Bill Of Rights

The blogosphere is busy once again today with Redfin's announcement of a Real Estate Consumer's Bill Of Rights. On the surface, it looks pretty but let's examine what and why Redfin is proposing and why it is mostly self serving to their flawed
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Monday, April 02, 2007 11:19 AM

The power of remarkable service

I read a wonderful post the other day by Morgan Brown at the Bloodhound Blog titled Surprise and Delight Us and it was just the sort of inspirational post I needed as as I sit down to write my 100th blog post. I have always been appreciative of great
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments