Ågents4Us Ep6 - Home builders’ confidence has improved for the...

Aring;gents4Us Ep6 - Home builders rsquo; confidence has improved for the second straight month 4 min 0 sec - Nov 25, 2006 Buyers: Home builders’ confidence has improved for the second straight month. The National Association of Home Builders says its members’ confidence in the housing market had fallen for eight months in a row to a 15-year low in September. But beginning last month, the index went up again in October as well as for November. “More and more builders are seeing light at the end of the tunnel,” says David Pressly, president of the NAHB and a builder based in Statesville, N.C. “Our members are telling us that the market is steadying after a significant downward correction. We look for sales to stabilize and gradually move up in the coming months.” Robert Brusca, chief economist for FAO Economics, agrees. “The data tell us that the worst of housing is behind us,” Brusca says. If you’re serious about buying, you’ll want to get in the market now before builder inventories are gone and the market becomes stable again next Spring. Investors: Is now the time to snap up a foreclosure? Investors Andy Heller and Scott Frank, who wrote the book Buy Even Lower: The Regular People’s Guide to Real Estate Riches, say “yes.” As fair-weather investors look for easier pickings, competition in foreclosed property market is diminishing, the authors say. The shorter the time you intend to hold a property, the greater the “minimum investor discount” you require, Heller and Frank advise. They recommend trying to buy homes for 20 percent to 30 percent off market value if you plan to flip the property; 10 percent to 20 percent off if you’ll rent it out with the option to buy; and 5 percent to 10 percent if you intend to rent it out indefinitely. Sources for REOs include multiple listings services, the Web sites of federal agencies and government-chartered corporations or their affiliates, such as HUD.gov, FannieMae.com and FreddieMac.com; national online listing services,

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