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The Day After Selection Sunday: Blog Gems
2007-03-12 09:41:00
Here's a roundup of some of the best articles I read from recent carnivals which will help folks looking to buy a house, save money for real estate, and keep their financial troubles to a minimum.  These posts definitely deserve the distinction of being true Blog Gems! - Carnival Towards Better Life: The Digerati Life's ...
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Villagio Cupertino - Civic Park Lane
2007-03-11 22:29:00
Centrally located in Cupertino on Civic Park Lane , the Silverstone Communities Villa gio is less than one mile from Symantec world headquarters and less than two miles from Apple's world headquarters and Hewlett-Packard's massive Cupertino complex. The eight-building complex targets high-tech workers with standard connectivity pre-wired.  Cable TV outlets and four telephone lines are wired into ...

The Ghosts Haunting Silicon Valley Buildings: Does Yours Have One?
2007-03-10 11:04:02
Tired of hearing that friendly "Howdy, Neighbor!" from the folks who live down the block?  How about the encroaching silence of a winter breeze followed by hollow footsteps falling beside you, matching your cadence as you peer over the breath on your shoulder to… nothing? Did you ever think the odd chill you feel when you walk into a house may not be the air conditioning?  No?  Well, let's rest our left hemispheres for the moment and take in the alluring air of mystery. As fortunes come, go, and IPO here in the only land that's had a gold rush in three different centuries, the Bay Area and its Valley of the Heart's Delight, transformed into Silicon Valley, isn't without its own stories of mystery. Winchester Mystery House, San Jose Here in Silicon Valley we have the offspring of guilt and loneliness, a sprawling byzantine mansion whose body was contorted and twisted into a maze of corridors to stretching a mile into nowhere, with stai...
More About: Icon , Building , Ghost , Ghosts , Your

Bay Area Hiking Trails Updated
2007-03-10 05:03:01
Just in time for your weekend plans, I've updated the section on Walking Tours and Hiking Trails Galore to include another great Bay Area hiking site that has detailed pictures of the flora, fauna, creepy crawlies, and other skeptical natives you might encounter on your next outdoor adventure.  Oh, and it's got my two favorite trails too!
More About: Update , King , Rails

What NFL Free Agency and Buying a Home Have in Common
2007-03-09 11:02:01
Denny Green, where are you?  The NFL season may have crowned the Indianapolis Colts instead of the Chicago Bears, but there's still a lot of football to come as teams prep for the upcoming draft and bolster their rosters with free agents.  Looking past the TV commentators, salary cap, and beer commercials, there are actually a lot of similarities between what goes on during free agency and buying a home, particularly in Silicon Valley.  And what they have in common can help turn the real estate process into something you already know like the back of your hand.  Everyone Has Their Own Needs to Fill: What Are Your Trade-Offs? Every single one of the 32 NFL teams has needs they're trying to address.  Sure, a lot of teams may need a quarterback, but some are looking for veteran leadership, others want that laser-rocket arm, and still others just need someone who won't lose the game for them.  (A collect call for you Mr. Dilfer, from Chicago....
More About: Buying , Agency , Home , Free

AP Reports Gas Tops $3 in California, Locals Thank Sherlock Holmes for Upda
2007-03-08 23:01:01
The reality of Silicon Valley is that you need a car to get most places you'd actually need (or want) to get to on a regular basis.  This is unfortunate because other urban-suburban regions have shown that it's both possible and practical to have large scale mass transit.  Boston, for example, has the amazingly interconnected T which seamlessly integrates its rail, subway, bus and boat system through everywhere from its Charles River neighbor Cambridge all the way out to "You Name It, Massachusetts"! In contrast, the Silicon Valley equivalent is a myriad of public transportation silos which include the VTA, SamTrans, BART, MUNI, and ACE, among others.  The good folks at Google helped make sense of all the acronym soup by working with 511.org to create what I call the Silicon Valley Public Transportation Wizard.  It's essential for anyone hoping to get the most out of Bay Area public transport. The other reality of our car-based culture i...
More About: California , Tops , Report , Port , Local

Consumer Articles? Towards a Better Life?
2007-03-07 23:00:02
A sincere thank you to Larry Cragun of Real Estate Undressed for nominating the Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog article Real Estate Myths Home Buyers Fall in Love With as one of February's "Magnificent 7 Consumer Article s ."  Some of the other authors featured have written other excellent articles which aren't featured in the round-up, but are great reading from their archives: - Rhonda Porter writes about the factors you need to consider when applying for a mortgage in How Strong Are Your Legs? - The Northern Virginia Real Estate Guide published A Sad, Sad, Sad True Story about a good family trapped in a bind by unethical behavior. - Lisa Dunn posts a Minnesota Baby Boomer Study that highlights some important and some amusing insights about the Boomer population. The Consumer-Oriented Carnival of Real Estate host this week, Jonathan Dalton, says hello by calling out Scents That Keep Your House From Selling Faster as a top five pick. And, the Towards a Bett...
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Mortgage Traps: How People Get Ripped-Off
2007-03-07 23:00:02
People shopping around trying to get the lowest monthly payment or the best nominal interest rate often overlook some of the subtleties in mortgage terms which end up costing them a lot of money in both the short and long run.  By understanding what to look for up-front, you can not only save a lot of money, but also keep yourself from getting scammed.  Here are five common ways people get ripped-off or scammed when it comes to mortgages on their real estate. 1.  Pre-Payment Penalties If you pay too much of your mortgage too soon, the lender doesn't make as much profit — after all, you only pay them interest on the portion you owe.  If you owe less, you pay less. Lenders often sneak in pre-payment penalties that help guarantee a certain level of profit.  These penalties require you to pay an extra lump sum when you pay off all or a large part of your mortgage within a specified period of time. Your best defense against getting ripped-off on a...
More About: People , Mortgage , Trap , Gage , Ripped

511.org: New Carpoolers Get Free Gas and Safeway Gift Cards
2007-03-04 10:57:02
Whoever said "virtue is its own reward" didn't know that the 511 Rideshare Rewards Program is giving away up to $100 in gasoline and Safeway gift cards to new carpoolers in the Bay Area.  To encourage Silicon Valley commuters to make the switch from "California carpools" (you know, where everyone going to the same place uses their own car) to real ones, they're giving away $10 in swag every five days you carpool — and one person who carpools over 40 days will win $1,000 in cash!  The program ends Halloween 2007 or when the money runs out.   For carpool newbies, the next logical question is, "Where do I find a carpool partner?" Finding a Carpool Partner on 511.org The 511 Ridematch site can automatically notify you of potential Silicon Valley carpool partners.  You start by entering your email address and password, which is used to create an account for you.  You can also optionally select the company you work a...
More About: Card , Free , Gift Cards , Gift , Pool

Quick Fixes to Sell Your House Faster
2007-03-04 10:57:02
Sometimes good real estate stories don't come from real estate.  This was a lesson in paying attention to detail which I experienced (carelessly, mea culpa) some years back. I wanted to trade in my sports coupe for something a little more practical.  I knew I took care of the car, doing regular maintenance, going easy on the clutch, and putting well under the 12,000 mile per year average on it even though it had 5 or 6 years on it.  So I took the car into the dealer to see what I could get. The manager at this Silicon Valley car dealership came out with his checklist and furrowed his brow as he walked around the car.  He ran his fingers through the dust on the tires, opened the door and moved the large Coke from McDonald's I had been drinking on the way there, into the rear cup holder which held the loose change from that purchase, so that he could get to the gearshift and put the car into reverse.  Little did I know that this would cause $8.95 to l...
More About: House , Your , Quick , Sell , Fast

Bedford Square Mountain View: Who Needs to Commute?
2007-03-02 16:55:01
While folks are moving into the Bedford Square master-planned community in July, they've already sold out the first of their six phases.  Given its location in Mountain View right along the border of neighboring Sunnyvale, it's easy to see why. Even in the rain that day, it was a noticeably short walk to Verisign headquarters, Symantec (formerly Veritas headquarters), Vernier Networks, and KPMG.  Though driving there from Bedford Square would make even the least green people in California feel guilty, Bedford Square is tucked away so that it doesn't feel like an extension of the office. The local VTA station and local bus stop pictured above are close as well, right outside the KPMG office, but far enough away where there is no noise impact.  And the Silicon Valley Public Transportation Wizard helps make using it practical. These Pulte Homes feature four townhome plans ranging from 1,201 to 1,718 square feet with pricing from $659,000 to $768,000 new.&nbs...
More About: Ford , Commute , Need

Heaven for Mall Rats in the Bay Area
2007-03-02 04:54:01
Ever wondered how your favorite shopping mall rates or whether there might be a much nicer one within a few minutes of where you're going now?  Scott Parsons of the BIGMall Rat Guide to Shopping Malls has a solution. His site focuses on Northern California and Reno, Nevada and rates some of the biggest shopping malls in and around the San Jose area.  He brings us this beautiful picture of the Stanford Shopping Center courtyard in Palo Alto to the right. There's no surprise Santana Row (it's more urban experience than pure shopping mall) and Valley Fair get 10 out of 10 ratings and there's also strong coverage of malls in the East Bay, including the 10 out of 10 rated Stoneridge Shopping Mall, Walnut Creek's upscale Broadway Plaza, and the Fremont Hub — which didn't fare so well in the ratings! Recommended Reading: Top Silicon Valley Shopping Malls Downtown Sunnyvale Revitalization Gets Desperately Needed Kickstart Goodbye Vallco, Hello Cup...
More About: Heaven , Bay Area , Area , Rats

Games Real Estate Agents Play With Home Buyers
2007-02-28 10:51:01
The New York Times gives real estate agents everywhere reason for a brimming sense of professional pride with their article Agent s of Angst.  It leads off with a set of horror stories about agents then goes into a Harris poll ranking the prestige of real estate brokers at the bottom of 23 professions. These horror stories aren't surprising for people in the industry but they can have very serious financial consequences for consumers.  Educated consumers can look out for many of the common games real estate agents play with home buyers and ask pertinent questions when interviewing agents and keep from being "played." 1.  Showing You Properties Based on the Commission Real estate agents are often influenced by the commission being offered by the seller when they decide what houses to show you.  If you had two identical houses that each cost $700,000, and one seller offered a 3% commission while the other offered only 1%, which one would a ration...
More About: Games , Estate , Real Estate , Home Buyers

Metropolitan at Cupertino: Convenient and Contemporary
2007-02-27 16:50:01
The Metro politan is a brand new community of townhomes and condominiums located in central Cupertino just steps away from Cupertino Square (formerly Vallco).  This modern complex is a high-tech worker's dream, only minutes away from Apple's world headquarters and HP Cupertino, among other tech campuses. You'll have no trouble getting to and from other destinations as well with its stone's throw proximity to 280, 880, and 17 and short distance from 101 and 85. Prices here start in the low $600's and the complex includes an impressive set of community amenities including a fenced swimming pool, courtyard wi-fi access, a kids area with playhouse, secured garages and key card security entrances. There are four floorplans efficiently laid out from 1,087 to 1,530 square feet.  The video quick tour shows the 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom Tribeca floorplan coming in at 1,530 square feet. All of the kitchens come with maple cabinetry, Whirlpool appliances, Kohler st...
More About: Contemporary , Tempo , Metropolitan

Keeping It Real: RealTown and Real Opinionated
2007-02-27 04:49:02
A big thank you to the folks at Real Town for naming the Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog their Blog of the Day!  RealTown bills itself as an online real estate community which makes it similar to ActiveRain.  The main difference is that RealTown emphasizes its discussion groups while ActiveRain emphasizes its blogs and ties to its consumer-focused sister site Localism. The Frugal Duchess, Sharon Harvey Rosenberg, gives a mention to our Valentine article Real Estate Myths Home Buyers Fall in Love With.  Her timely article on Red Carpet Payola illustrates some of the behind-the-scenes dealmaking that goes into what you see at the Oscars. And a big shout out to Jonathan Greene at Tampa's Real Opinion ated as well for the mention as a top consumer content guru.  Jonathan is an Air Force Veteran who's served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that service in itself is a lot more than a real estate blog aspires to be.  Some of the blog gems on his site are Help! ...
More About: Keep , Alto

How Far Would You Go To Lower Your Landscaping Costs?
2007-02-25 16:47:01
Six billion dollars.  $6 billion.  That's what Americans spend each and every year on caring for their lawns according to Warren Schultz, author of The Chemical-Free Lawn.  But the growing trend among homeowners, particularly those with already precious little spare time and owners of investment properties.  This trend involves words that get avid gardeners' blood boiling but are very effective in reducing the amount of maintenance time your landscaping requires.  What gets gardeners so upset? Reducing Maintenance Means Reducing Churn  Living plants require tending in order to stay that way and look good doing it.  This is work, and you either have to do it yourself or hire someone to do for you.  And you know that if you don't do it, everyone in the neighborhood is going to see. One solution comes with the dues you pay to the neighborhood homeowners association (HOA).  This type of outdoors maintenance may be included in t...
More About: Cost , Landscaping , Your , Land , Lower

Unearthing Blog Gems
2007-02-25 16:47:01
The Carnival of Finance for folks in their 30s and 40s continues at makingourway and includes the article Real Estate Myths Home Buyers Fall in Love With in their post-Valentine's Day round-up and featured How to Lose Your House in their previous edition.  One of the benefits of Blog Carnivals is that you get exposure to content you might not have otherwise seen.  Carnival Participants  For example, I liked reading their post "Does Your Employer's 401(K) Match Really Mean Anything?" in which they challenge the conventional wisdom that maxing out your 401K is a good thing, even if your company matches.  The post goes beyond the "golden handcuffs" argument and into corporate implications. But what I really like to do is visit some of the blogs that had articles included in the Carnival and pick out some that weren't submitted.  Here are some good examples.  - Verve Coaching writes about Facing the Unknown delving into iss...
More About: Earth , Near , Thing , Gems

Any Tour of Menlo Park Starts at Keplers and Ends in Xanadu
2007-02-25 16:47:01
Menlo Park is a Tree USA city, adhering to four national standards for tree management and budgeting on forestry maintenance. Nestled into the lush greenery is a bustling area in central Menlo Park where hundreds of people will gather on a typically bright summer afternoon in Northern California, enjoying a glass of wine and walking the local scene. This walking tour of Menlo Park starts at its cultural epicenter, the Kepler's Bookstore on the cross of El Camino Real and Ravenswood Ave. Kepler's Cafe Boronne The BBC Menlo Park Railroad Station Xanadu Gallery 1.  Kepler's  Any trip to Menlo Park should start at Kepler's Books and Magazines, the premiere independent bookstore in Silicon Valley. A place for literati, Kepler's fosters a community atmosphere where people are encouraged to read, debate, and generate ideas. They run an impressive array of author events where you can speak directly with the people who've written your favorite books a...
More About: Men , Arts , Tour , Start , Star

Scents That Keep Your House From Selling Faster
2007-02-25 16:47:01
I go out to see a lot of properties in any given week and as part of my research, I pay special attention to ones that have been vacant or on the market for a long time.  Sometimes there will be a subtlety in the title or a major defect that keeps the house from selling.  Other times, the house is just economically obsolete and will have trouble selling at an unrealistic asking price.  Still other times, the marketing might not have been aggressive enough. But regardless I look very closely at the reaction of my clients or even people just walking into an open house when they first walk inside. From that experience, it seems clear that nothing damages that first impression like a bad smell.  That damage costs much more than the few hundred dollars it takes to fix the issues.  Here's a list of several common ones and what you can do about them. 1.  Spicy Foods I love to cook.  Some of my favorite ingredients are cayenne pepper, garlic, cumin...
More About: House , Selling , Cents , Hat , Cent

Oak Trees and Surprising Closing Costs
2007-02-25 16:47:01
Just when you thought Berkeley was becoming a gentrified shell of its former self, with the surprisingly large population of young Republicans there, KGO updates a fantastic story about local activists who are opposing the construction of a Cal gymnasium, which threatens a local oak grove. It started off in December like any other stereotypical tree protest with demonstrators climbing the trees and making temporary residences out of their arboreal friends — stereotypical until today… The protesters are now claiming the oak grove could be the site of an Indian burial ground.  I'm for balancing conservation and concrete but how ironic would it be if they completed the gym and built a well-deserved monument to Native American culture?  That isn't the only surprising fact Berkeley has in store though. Transfer Taxes  Every time real estate is sold in Berkeley, the city levies a transfer tax on the transaction: a tax that amounts to $15 for every $...
More About: Cost , Trees , Sing , Tree , Costs

Silicon Valley Neighbors, Mountain Lions
2007-02-25 16:47:01
Responding to reports about mountain lions sunbathing at the Fremont BART station, California Department of Fish and Game officials flew over the area with a helicopter and heat-sensing equipment but didn't find the offending felines. When I first moved to Silicon Valley almost a decade ago… I spent a lot of time inside because of El Niño.  But when it finally dried out, I dismantled the ark I'd been building, and took to hiking around beautiful Northern California. At the time I was an East Coast transplant from Cambridge so I didn't take the warnings about mountain lions too seriously, and to this day (knock on wood) I've never seen one personally.  But you do hear stories and the City of San Jose even publishes mountain lion and coyote safety tips. There are noted attacks in Northern California, and though only 16 people have been injured by mountain lions since 1890, encounters have become more common as Silicon Valley's real estate ...
More About: Icon , Lion , Lions , Neighbors

What the CHP Is Helping Me Give Up for Lent: Speeding
2007-02-25 16:47:01
Happy Mardi Gras everyone!  If you're not in New Orleans (like me), you're missing out on the best reason ever concocted to throw a party on a Tuesday.  According to the folks on KGO today, my hometown hotels are 95% booked and people are having fun and spending cash there like you wouldn't believe.  Geaux Nawlins! Those of you looking for a gigantic bacchanalia here in Silicon Valley are in luck: the second annual HR Week West is being held at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara on Great America Parkway. But outside the carnival atmosphere there, the California Highway Patrol has redoubled their efforts to crackdown on speeding in the Bay Area. Instead of taking a breadth-first approach and spreading thin coverage along many routes, they've decided to send squads of five, four motorbikes and one cruiser, to attack particular stretches as part of their everyday routine.  I've actually seen these squads at work on 101 and 280 and they are not subtl...
More About: What , Hat , Speed , Speeding , Give

Is Your Real Estate Agent a Double Agent?
2007-02-25 16:47:01
Let's say you walk into an open house and you're approached by the friendly and knowledgeable real estate agent sitting at the dining room table.  You're very interested in the house and she says that she can represent you in the transaction. If you agree, you could be giving up your right to an advocate who solely represents your interests by signing up with a double agent — in real estate parlance, a dual agent. This exact situation also occurs when you see a property on the internet and call the listing agent directly.  She then offers to represent you in the purchase or refers you to someone else in the office.  You may have given up your right to someone who only represents you. Dual agency is when one agent represents both sides in a transaction, or when two agents working for the same broker each represent one side.  This type of relationship is very easily abused but is a major source of revenue for agents and their brokerages. What ...
More About: Agent , Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Agent , Double

Cupertino Square: Update on AMC, Bowling Alley
2007-02-25 16:47:01
According to the Cupertino Courier, the former Vallco (which is going to be renovated and renamed Cupertino Square ) is getting a brand new high-end bowling alley, to be named "Strike." Mall general manager Mike Rohde uses the words "progressive" and "modern-looking" to describe the 38000 sqaure foot addition.  The renovation's centerpiece the new AMC movie theater which Rohde says will be open in April.
More About: Update , Bowling , Bowl

Carnival of Real Estate for Consumers and Carnival of Improvement
2007-02-25 16:47:01
Many thanks to Teresa Boardman at the St. Paul Real Estate Blog who hosts the Carnival of Real Estate for Consumer s this week!  Hosting blog carnivals isn't always easy and she chose the Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog article, How Home Buyers and Sellers Get Caught in Straw Scams for "a win" this week. A lot of other bloggers put in great content for this carnival and instead of highlighting the "winning" articles, I'm going to shout three pieces from their sites which may also be helpful to you. - Jonathan Dalton of Phoenix Arizona presents An Idiot's Guide to Internet Home Searches, a good set of bullets on reading between the lines when looking on the internet for houses. - Athol Key of the Real Estate Guide presents The Art of Pricing and how a little greed can turn off your target market. - Okay, this one was featured, but Jonathan Greene's Home Selling: How to Hone Your Ninja Skills deserves a look for exposing the Secret Society of R...
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Why You Need Real Estate Agents and Why You Don?t Trust Them
2007-02-17 16:46:01
Have a look at A and B in this picture.  They're obviously different colors: B is lighter than A, right?  How people react to that statement is the essence of why people need real estate agents, but it's also why they don't trust them. Real Estate Agent s as Salespeople: Whatever You Say The way real estate compensation is structured means that the easiest way to earn money is to simplify completion of the deal.  Providing too much information to or disagreeing with a client makes the process more difficult and sometimes puts up major roadblocks between a salesperson and their commission. If you believe A and B are different colors, a salesperson won't tell you otherwise.  It's easy because it avoids conflict and leverages what you think into helping the salesperson's goals.  Why People Don't Trust Real Estate Agents There are times when experience and key facts are very important in decision-making.  In the picture, A ...
More About: Real Estate Agent

Negative Equity: Heartache for Home Owners
2007-02-13 22:42:01
Kenneth Harney laments in his piece published in the San Jose Mercury News that, once upon a time, people actually made "sizable" down payments on houses they bought.  The statistics he quotes are downright scary: almost 50% of all first-time home buyers financed 100% of the transaction. That's right, half of all new home buyers put zero percent down. How much should they have allocated as a down payment?  In a period where there seemed to be no limit to the price of single-family homes, or bounds to lending practices, it's easy to understand how people got carried away. After all, every infomercial personality worth his salt was talking about cash-on-cash return and buying properties with no money down. Now that we've seen the sequel to the movie "Buying on Margin" which bankrupted more than a few daytraders at the turn of the century, we need to talk about the concept of "negative equity." Upside-Down Is Not a Fun Place to ...
More About: Home , Hear , Heart , Owner , Quit

Vision North San Jose Gets Boost
2007-02-13 10:41:01
Just last March, redevelopment plan for North San Jose was stuck — tangled in a lawsuit by neighboring cities Santa Clara and Milpitas over traffic flow.  The plantiffs contended that the proposed redevelopment would create population growth and traffic problems that would spill over into neighboring cities as well as I-880. How quickly things change.  In December, the Santa Clara County Superior Court approved a settlement allowing the vision for North San Jose to proceed.  Now, Cadence Design Systems has announced that it intends to perform a major renovation on its headquarters, constructing a five-story 208,000 square-foot building to house all their 2,100 headquarters employees.  They currently have four separate low-rise buildings which will be obsoleted under the plan. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, "Under the new plan, the city hopes to bring in 32,000 new homes and apartments, 26 million square feet of new industrial dev...
More About: Gets , Sion , Visi

Real Estate Myths Home Buyers Fall in Love With
2007-02-13 10:41:01
Home buying is a very personal decision and people who are looking for a home often fall prey to conventional wisdom. But by challenging the reasoning behind some widely-held notions and remembering that your personal requirements are the key real estate decision process, you can gain more confidence in any decision you choose to make. 1.  You Should Treat Your Home Like an Investment Yes, your home is an investment, but it's not your stock portfolio, college fund, or that rental property you own in Sun Valley.  What you would do for an investment property is very different from what you do with the house you live in.  If your home were an investment property, say a rental or a place you planned on flipping, would you choose to augment it with things that make your lifestyle better or items that were good enough to fill in the all the marketing checkboxes (clean carpet, dishwasher, washer-dryer, etc.) for as long as possible at the lowest practical cost. ...
More About: Love , Estate , Real Estate , Home Buyers , Home

How Home Buyers and Sellers Get Trapped in Straw Scams
2007-02-11 22:39:01
Let's say that you've just gotten engaged and that you and your fiance find your dream house.  But since you're just getting started on the rest life, you can't get a reasonably-priced mortgage.  Your parents have a pretty good credit score and a strong income, so you ask them to buy the house for you and then transfer ownership to you using a trust deed.  You promise to pay them on the mortgage that you couldn't qualify for yourselves. Your parents are acting as a "straw" through which you are getting ownership of a house.  This scenario seems relatively innocent, but it's illegal and leaves your parents on the hook for mortgage payment responsibilities on the house you now own.  You are now a straw scammer. There's another class of straw scammers that causes real estate bubbles all over the country and you can stop them dead in their tracks. "They Want to Offer Me W-a-a-a-y Over Asking Price!"  Mor...
More About: Home Buyers , Home , Seller , Buyer , Scams