RISMEDIA, September 4, 2010—BBVA Compass recently released a new survey on first-time home buyers indicating that, prior to purchase, a vast majority of first-time home buyers (88%) believe they have accounted for all expenses related to owning a home. Seemingly contradicting that notion, amongst those who had purchased a home in the past 12 months, [...] Story

RISMEDIA, September 4, 2010—Selling your home doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. The following tips, provided by the American Homeowners Foundation and the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance will help you prepare your home to be put on the market and end in a successful sale. Tip 1: In strong markets, where demand outstrips supply, [...] Story

By Barbara Pronin, RISMedia Columnist RISMEDIA, September 4, 2010—If it seems your paycheck always runs out before the month is over, you need to either earn more money or find ways to stretch the dollars. If earning more is not an option, the answer is to spend less. One problem for many wage earners, according [...] Story

RISMEDIA, September 4, 2010—Simmons Bedding Company and environmental lifestyle expert Danny Seo have joined forces to help the millions of Americans who suffer from sleep disturbances as a result of allergies. Although most people equate allergies with hay fever and outdoor triggers such as pollen, indoor allergens are also a major problem. Indoor allergens’ effect [...] Story

A: There are two types – judicial and non-judicial. A foreclosure that results from a court action is a judicial foreclosure. The mortgage deed or trust does not have a power of sale clause, therefore the lender, trustee or another lienholder must take the borrower to court to recover the unpaid balance of a delinquent [...] Story

Title search. A professional examination of public records to determine the chain of ownership of a particular piece of property and to note any liens, encumbrances, easements, restrictions, or other factors that might affect the title. Copyright© 2010 RISMedia, The Leader in Real Estate Information Systems and Real Estate News. All Rights Reserved. This material [...] Story

RISMEDIA, September 3, 2010—With all of the packing and organizing that accompanies a move, there are bound to be a few details that get overlooked in the process. The experts at Relocation.com put together the following checklist of items that need to be taken care of before, during and after the move to ensure that [...] Story

RISMEDIA, September 3, 2010—On August 29, 2010, Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said that the housing market’s July was “worse than expected” and that the Administration may support a new home buyer tax credit. His statement follows similar recent expressions of concern about the overall economy from other senior Obama Administration figures. [...] Story

RISMEDIA, September 3, 2010—With hurricane season well under way, the Private Client Group division of Chartis is reminding homeowners that advance planning can make the difference between minor damage and catastrophic property loss. Private Client Group insures owners of large, complex residences as part of its property/casualty program for high-net-worth families, yet all homeowners can [...] Story

By Libuse Binder RISMEDIA, September 3, 2010—For some city-dwellers, composting is as easy as adding your food trimmings and other compostables to the yard waste bin. But for the millions residing in urban areas without compostable pickup, this reduction endeavor requires a bit of additional effort. Andrew Hoyles, the compost educator at the NYC Compost [...] Story