Searching for a Sears & Roebuck Catalog Home
By · CommentsBetween 1908 and 1940, Sears, Roebuck & Co. sold 70,000 mail order homes through their catalog. Each cost a few thousand dollars and included lumber, doors, windows, plans and sometimes landscaping. The kit was packaged in Chicago and shipped by rail and truck to the worksite where a team of contractors or the homeowner built the home.
There have to be hundreds of these homes in the Indianapolis area. I am excited to find out more about these homes and feature them in future blog posts.
Here is a May 2010 article from www.indy.com featuring a Sears “Lexington” model home that was built in Noblesville in 1929. The current owners have restored many of the period features and have preserved the architectural integrity of this unique residence.
Although Sears dominated the mail-order home market in the early 20th century, Aladdin Homes, Montgomery Ward and Harris Homes also sold the catalog kits.
Do you know of another Sears Roebuck & Co. mail-order catalog home? Please contact me at david@dreamhomecompany.com.
Have you wondered why you are quoted a higher mortgage interest rate than you have heard on the radio recently? The good news is that the low interest rates are probably available (the Federal government has clamped down on false and misleading mortgage advertising in recent years).
However, in order to get these ultra-low rates you will have to be an extremely low credit risk and have a clean mortgage application. Expect to have to meet all of the below scenarios in order to get the lowest rate. You will need:
- A 20% down payment (for purchases) or 20% equity (for refinances)
- Mid-FICO credit score (median of the 3 bureau scores) above 740 for all borrowers
- No recent history of delinquent payments, bankruptcy or negotiatied credit settlements
- 2+ year salaried employment
- Requested loan amount above $125,000 for most lenders
- Primary residence, not an investment or rental property
Layers of risk are called “hits” in the mortgage industry. If you do not meet the scenarios above, that low interest rate in the advertising will be adjusted upward through a pricing matrix to compensate the lender for the additional default risk.
How much do foreclosures sell for?
By · CommentsAccording to data released August 25, 2010 by MIBOR (Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors), the average foreclosed home in Indianapolis sells for 90.6% of its original asking price. Further dissection of this figure shows that single family foreclosures sell at 90.9% of the original listing price and townhome/condos sell at 85.9% of the original asking price.
By contrast, traditional (non-foreclosure) homes sell at 93.0% of their original asking price in the current 2010 market around Indianapolis. This number is improved by 0.3% over the same period in 2009 which may indicate that sellers are pricing their homes more effectively.
There are currently 1,142 foreclosed homes available for sale in the greater Indianapolis metro area. This number is up 32.6% from the same period in 2009. The bulk of the foreclosures are in price ranges below $75,000.
A complete copy of the published MIBOR report may be viewed at mibor_foreclosure-report_2010-q2[1]
What does termite damage look like?
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Termite damage is visible on the ban board of this Broad Ripple home built in the 1920s. The area photographed was immediately under the front door as shown from the basement ceiling. Water in these areas can attract termite activity. Click to enlarge.
Indianapolis Renters Beware: Fraudulent Advertising
By · CommentsHeads up to Indianapolis renters. I have had approximately 10 calls from renters in the last 60 days who are inquring about great rental deals that they have seen on the internet.
They find my website through Google and call me because a property that they are interested in renting (and that appears on rental websites) also appears on my site for sale through the Indianapolis BLC (MLS) system. These fake ads are often www.craigslist.org postings or similar websites where vacant homes for sale around Indianapolis are posted for rent.
A significant number of these postings are done fraudulently. An individual in another state (Texas in my recent examples) picks a home from the Indianapolis BLC (MLS) system, copies over the photos, description and address. They post a rental ad on a website and are contacted by sincere, interested Indianapolis renters who recognize that the ad might be too good to be true.
An email dialogue develops after the renter contacts the “landlord” through the www.craigslist.org posting. There is typically a hard luck story and an explanation of why the landlord can’t return to Indianapolis immediately from out of state to show the home. However, the prospective tenant is informed that a deposit check will ensure that the property is not rented to anyone else in the interim. Often, the “landlord” also requests personal information for a “credit check.”
If you are renting a home around Indianapolis, ask the landlord to meet you at the property before submitting a deposit and for him to bring identification and something to substantiate ownership (a utility bill, mortgage statement etc.).
If you suspect that you have been involved in a fraudelent scheme, please report the incident to the FBI Cyber Crimes Unit at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
What Hail Damage Looks Like on Gutters
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Hail damage to a gutter is typically from the inside out.
Here is a quick photo that I snapped of a home in Washington Township in Indianapolis on July 5, 2010.
Do you see the hail damage that has dented the gutters from the inside out? It almost appears as if it was dented with a hammer. Hail from this storm came in from the northwest. This view is from the southeast corner of the home.
Most hail damage to gutters is from the inside out. Another tell-tall contact point for hail is on top of the roof on the box vents. The same type of dents will be visible there in a heavy hail downpour.
Shopping For Mattresses, Or How Buy A Good Night’s Sleep
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NBC’s The Today Show hosted Consumer Reports for its take on mattresses. Some of the results may surprise you.
At 7 minutes, the video is long, but it’s stuffed with helpful comfort tips, including the scientific reason why a mattress should be replaced every 8 years or so. Some of the other advice includes:
- How to reduce morning aches and pains with proper pillow choices
- Why “hot sleepers” should stay away from memory foam
- How to properly test a mattress in the store before you buy it
After its testing and a series of interviews with consumer and industry workers, Consumer Reports also concludes that — for a queen-sized bed — a $1,000 list price is going to give you “a lot of bed”; there’s little need to spend more. And, furthermore, because mattress prices are usually negotiable by half-off or more off, you could buy that $1,000 mattress at a significant discount.
More than 70% of people successfully negotiate lower mattress prices.
Consumer Reports acknowledges that there’s no “#1 mattress”, per se, because mattresses are a personal fit in terms of both firmness and size. With respect to durability, however, most will last for years.
Earlier this week, Standard & Poors released its February Case-Shiller Index, a home price tracker for select metropolitan areas.
Overwhelmingly, home values fell in the 20 markets tracked by the Case-Shiller. Only San Diego showed a modest increase. The other 19 markets averaged a 1.23 percent decline between January and February.
However, that’s not the story you read in the most papers. Instead, headlines read that home values were up in the United States, citing annualized data.
Unfortunately for active home buyers and sellers, year-over-year data isn’t all that helpful when making a real estate decisions. It’s the month-to-month data that matters. Month-to-month changes in home prices are what defines a housing market. Month-to-month is what sets the tone for contracts and negotiations on a purchase.
The rosier, annualized data published this past week just doesn’t capture the reality of what was the February 2010 market. And even then, the data is somewhat useless because it’s from February and May will be upon us next week.
Case-Shiller is on a 2-month lag — hardly reflective of the “right now” of real estate in Indianapolis.
When you’re looking for real estate data that actionable, consider using sources that are more “real-time”. A real estate agent may be the right place to start. Because for all the data that Case-Shiller and the other housing indices collect, it can never be as relevant to your individual needs as a well-executed, timely market analysis.
The Federal Reserve adjourns from a scheduled, 2-day meeting today. It’s one of 8 scheduled Fed meetings for 2010.
Upon adjournment, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke & Co. will release a formal statement to the market. In it, the Fed is expected to announce “no change” in the Fed Funds Rate.
The Fed Funds Rate is currently in a target range of 0.000-0.250 percent.
The Fed Funds Rate is an inter-bank lending rate. It’s also the basis for Prime Rate, a consumer interest rate on which credit card payments are based, among other consumer loans. Prime Rate is equal to the Fed Funds Rate + 3 percent. Credit card rates, therefore, will likely stay flat today, too.
Mortgage rates, however, should change. Possibly by a lot. The 30-year fixed mortgage does not correlate with the Fed Funds Rate (as shown in the chart at right).
The reason mortgage rates will change today is because, in its statement, the Federal Reserve will highlight vrious parts of the economy, identifying strengths, weaknesses and probable threats to growth.
These observations influence investors with a stake in bond markets and future returns and, with Wall Street on edge right now — unsure of whether recent economic growth is a longer-term trend or a short-lived blip – mortgage rates could shoot higher or they could drop, depending on how traders interpret the Fed.
It’s a difficult time to be shopping mortgages in Indiana.
Further complicating matters is Greece’s recent debt downgrade to junk status. A small contagion fear is budding worldwide and, as a result, the flight-to-quality has picked up steam. Mortgage rates are down because of it but could reverse higher at any moment.
Therefore, if you’re actively shopping for a mortgage today, it may be prudent to lock your rate ahead of the Fed’s announcement and any major market reversal. Mortgage rates may fall today, but there’s very little room for them to fall. This is, however, a lot of room for them to rise.
The Fed adjourns at 2:15 PM ET. Call your loan officer to lock your rate.
Today, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-to-1 to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within in its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent.
In its press release, the FOMC noted that, since March, the U.S. economy “has continued to strengthen” and that the jobs markets “is beginning to improve”. This is a step up from the last meeting after which the Fed said jobs were “stabilizing”.
It also reiterated that business spending “has risen significantly”.
Today’s statement marks the 7th straight press release in which the Fed shows optimism for the U.S. economy. Furthermore, the Fed has now closed all but one of the programs it created to support markets during last year’s financial crisis.
Threats remain to growth, however. The Fed fingered a few:
- Employers are reluctant to hire new workers
- High unemployment threatens consumer spending
- Consumer credit (still) remains tight
Also in its statement, the Fed re-acknowledged its plan to hold the Fed Funds Rate near zero percent “for an extended period”. This was expected.
Overall, the statement’s tone was positive and the Fed noted that inflation is within tolerance.
Mortgage market reaction has been muted thus far. Mortgage rates in Carmel are unchanged post-FOMC.
The FOMC’s next scheduled meeting is a 2-day affair, June 22-23, 2010. The 55-day span between meetings will be the FOMC’s longest of 2010.
