Zillow user marielad from the Bayview area of California asks this question on Zillow Advice:
How do you sell your home when you’re upside down?
Being upside down, or underwater, means owing more than your home is worth.
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Tag: barack-obamaQuestions about home photos hold the dubious distinction of being one of Zillow Advice’s most over-asked popular questions. Whether you want to delete, enhance or just critique them, knowing how Zillow manages your home photos can save you a lot of trouble.
How Zillow Gets Photos – We receive photos of properties from two sources: brokers/agents, who send them to us automatically with their listings feeds; and from you, the homeowner, who bravely uploads them to Zillow. We at Zillow do not gather them ourselves. We do not have a robot that searches the Internet for them.
Fig. 1: me = pro photoshopper
How To Add Photos Yourself – The simplest way for the average user to add photos to their home details page is to log in and claim their home (if they haven’t already). Then, on the home details page click the [Add|Edit Photos] button on the “Bird’s Eye View” bar (See Fig. 1). If there are already photos there, the bar will read “Photos”. Either way, click and upload away. When you’re done, don’t forget to mark the box where you promise you’re the owner before you click “Save Changes!”
Who Exactly Can Add Photos? – Short answer: only you the homeowner/home seller, or your agent. Strangers or random people are not allowed to post photos of someone else’s home. An individual who pretends to be someone else, claims a home and uploads photos is seriously violating Zillow’s Terms of Use, and is in for trouble.
… Lies. How’d That Photo Get There, Then? – Err… the long answer is that sometimes a property has old photos from a prior owner, or another agent who listed that home on Zillow. You can delete your own photos, but for the time being, you can’t delete someone else’s old photos. You need to flag the photo so our staff can get rid of it for you. Flag it by clicking the little Flag button under the photo.
Finally, How Do I Rearrange and Delete My Photos? – Click [ADD|EDIT PHOTOS], then click/drag the photos around to rearrange their order. You can also click “Remove” on any photos you’d like to kill off. Do so carefully: officially, Zillow can’t restore them. And as always, don’t forget to check the “… ownership” box and click “Save Changes!”
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Zillow Advice’s Most Popular Topic: Home Photos
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We just got word that Zillow has been included in a new book by Good Morning America’s Consumer Correspondent Elisabeth Leamy, titled, “SAVE BIG: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands.” The book is all about how to save thousands of dollars on your big expenses instead of giving up your little pleasures, like your daily latte.
We’re thrilled to be included as a valuable resource for consumers and can’t wait to read the book!
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A Las Vegas woman came home to find her condo “trashed out” — the term used during a foreclosure in which everything inside is thrown away. Except, this woman was not undergoing a foreclosure — her neighbor was across the hallway. Oops.
> See more real estate oddities
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Want to buy an Extreme Makeover Home house? There’s one for sale in Chapman, KS, for $298,900 and the Tutwiler Family that owns it say they are leaving due to hard feelings over the home being built.
According to kansascity.com, the Tutwiler Family of Chapman, KS received an Extreme Makeover Home in November of 2008 after an F-4 scale tornado leveled their home and dozens of others in Chapman. While the Extreme Home Makeover crew helped other residents remodel and repair their homes, the Tutwilers received a brand-new home, plus a Disney cruise, a new pickup truck, and other gifts. This evidently resulted in a lot of sniping among the residents, as evidenced by this article by Salina Journal Executive Editor Ben Wearing.
ABC chose the Tutwilers to receive a new home when they heard of their plight: Patrick Tutwiler is an Iraq war veteran who was shot while on duty and while he was recovering, the tornado struck. He tried to get a loan to finance the home and rebuild it, but was turned down. That’s when Extreme Makeover: Home Edition stepped in.
The home has 5 bedrooms, 3 baths and has an open floor plan. See more photos of the Tutwiler’s Extreme Makeover Home.
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Sadly, the only way to really get people to embrace recycling is to pay them. Fortunately, it’s working. In Cherry Hill, NJ, the city has partnered with recyclebank.com in a program that motivates people to recycle by giving them monetary rewards.
Here’s how it works:
- Residents receive
- Residents dump all of their recycling into this one bin (glass, paper, plastic, cans) — no separating needed!
- The city dump truck then comes around each week, weighing and hauling away each resident’s recyling. The weight is added to their account. The more weight they have in the bin, the more “reward dollars” they get.
- Reward dollars can be used locally or nationally at participating partners, including Coke, Patagonia, Whole Foods, IKEA, Timberland and more.
The money the towns and cities save in landfill and incinerator fees covers the points program and the money it pays RecycleBank. Pretty cool way to reduce our waste and get people to pay attention.
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One Way to Get People to Recycle: Pay Them!
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It was a sea of cowboy attitude and attire, including cowboy hats, cowboy boots, bolo ties, chaps, and plenty of bandanas as the “Zillow Holiday Hoedown” office party was held at the Jules Maes Saloon in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle this past weekend.
Many thanks to the good folks at Jules Maes — called Seattle’s oldest bar — for putting up with tech-types trying to be cowboys and cowgirls.
At one point during the night, CEO Rich Barton and VP of Product Teams Kristin Acker belted out a Zillow version of “Home on the Range.” Yup, that’s them above. Give it a try:
“Home on Zillow”
(sung to the tune of “Home on the Range”)
Oh find me a home where my children can roam
Where the neighbors are friendly and nice
Where seldom is heard a blasphemous word
And I buy at a reasonable price
Chorus:
Home, home on Zillow
Where I can find the home of my dreams
I can get loans with ease, then just give me the keys
Zillow must have a fabulous team
I’ve used other sites, and I am being polite
To say they don’t have what I need
Then one day I found, the web site to be crowned
Zillow rocks real estate, it’s agreed (Chorus)
The maps are just grand, condos, houses, and land
They glitter with parcels and ‘hoods
And now I can chose, just one place to peruse
To search for that home near the woods (Chorus)
Maybe I will decide, just to rent for a tide
While the markets are settling down
On Zillow I will seek, that apartment with chic
Just on the north side of downtown (Chorus)
On the homes I can see, pictures, views of the trees
There’s a Zestimate on every roof
It helps me decide, whether there I should ride
Who could ever need any more proof (Chorus)
If I need some aid, into Zillow I’ll wade
There are agents awaiting my call
In there I’ll find, Realtors® savvy and kind
I told you, they just have it all (Chorus)
When I’m ready to own, and I need a loan
For my business the lenders can vie
“True cost” helps me pick, which lender I’ll click
And my payments will not be so high (Chorus)
Every shopper should go, to that site called Zillow
You’ll be glad you did, this I do pledge
Go type that site in, take a long look within
For your search, get your real estate edge (Chorus)
Here are more scenes from the Zillow Holiday Hoedown:
Developers Graff Haley and Cole Rottweiler
Senior accountant Jack Egan and wife, Sarah
(Left to right) VP Christopher Roberts, sales director Lucy Wohltman and Christopher’s wife, Jennifer
Designer Henry Rose and customer support specialist David Tobey
We’re a fun bunch and enjoy working hard and playing hard. If you like what you see, please check out our jobs page. Zillow is hiring!
Credit:
Zillow’s Holiday Hoedown: A Sea of Cowboy Attitude
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Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages rose again this week, with the weekly average rate borrowers quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 4.72%, up from 4.67% the week prior. This is the first time rates have risen in weeks. Additionally, 15-year fixed borrowers were quoted on average, 4.21% and for 5/1 ARMs, 3.81%.
This morning, the national rate for 30-year fixed purchase mortgages was 4.76%.
What are the rates right now? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates.
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Mortgage Rates Rise For Second Straight Week
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Not many couples could live in complete harmony in a space the New York Post calls the “smallest apartment in the city,” but Zaarath and Christopher Prokop — plus their two cats — live in a 175-square-foot “microstudio” in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights.
Purchased for $150,000 three months ago, the co-op is 14.9 feet long and 10 feet wide and is on the 16th floor of a building on 110th Street, but, get this — it’s only accessible by a staircase from the 15th floor.
The couple has:
- a queen-size bed (about 1/3 of their living space)
- mini-fridge and hot plate (they don’t eat in very often)
- one kitchen appliance (a cappuccino maker)
- closet-sized bathroom with shower with sink and toilet (no long, luxurious baths here)
- kitchen cabinets that are used for their clothing (they don’t eat here, remember?)
With a space this small, they jog to work, picking up their clothes along the way at various dry cleaners around the city and some clothes are kept in their offices.
Curbed figures they spent about $857 per square foot in one of the priciest cities in the world. The Zindex Home Value for Morningside is $641,600 and the median value per sq ft for Morningside is $726.
The Prokops plan to pay off their mortgage in two years and then plan to remodel by installing a Murphy bed and larger windows. Their only cost at that point will be a maintenance fee of $700 a month.
“It’s like having a rent-controlled apartment,” she said. “We’re going to own something in Manhattan in two years. How many people can say that? And we’re very happy doing more with less.”
(Photo courtesy NY Post)
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Total home values in the United States fell $489 billion in the first 11 months of 2009. A large drop, to be sure, but it marks a significant improvement from 2008, when homes lost a total of $3.6 trillion in values.
In addition, about one-third of the markets we covered (48 of 154) had gains in total home values. The Boston metropolitan statistical area (MSA) topped this list, gaining $23.3 billion. Last year, the Boston MSA lost $53.4 billion.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Los Angeles MSA’s housing market lost the most dollars in 2009 — $60.8 billion. But even that was a significant improvement from 2008, when the MSA lost $345.8 billion. The LA market has actually performed quite well recently, having seen six consecutive months of monthly gains in home values as of October, but the strong negative performance earlier in the year dug the overall market a large hole early on.
Below is a table of the markets with the biggest gains and losses. It’s important to note that these markets don’t necessarily represent those where individual home values are performing the best and worst. When figuring the total value of real estate, the number of homes in an area come into play, so big markets are more likely to have the biggest total dollar-value gains and losses.
Markets With Biggest Gains 2009
Markets With Biggest Gains 2009
The 2009 numbers are encouraging, but our optimism for next year is cautious. The government’s tax credits and low mortgage rates are spurring a lot of demand, but the tax credits will end after the first quarter, and mortgage rates are likely to rise at that time as well (as the Fed ramps down its purchase of mortgage-backed securities). In addition, foreclosures are likely to rise. All of these factors will put downward pressure on home prices, so the possibility of another dip in prices does exist.
View original post here:
U.S. Home Value Losses Stabilize in 2009; Nearly $500 Billion Drops Off, Compared to $3.6 Trillion Last Year
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U.S. home values in October remained unchanged from September and were down 5.7% from levels a prior year ago, marking the lowest levels of annualized depreciation since December 2007.
The Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) was $190,600 at the end in October, down 20.4% from its peak value of $239,500 in June 2006. Figure 1 shows the path of home values over the past nine years and the considerable stabilization in home values seen this year. Annualized depreciation reached its maximum value of -12.2% in January of this year while monthly depreciation reached its maximum value of -1.2% in the three months ending October 2008 (see Figure 2).
In October, 65 of 158 markets (41%) had negative month-over-month ZHVI changes, 74 markets (47%) had positive changes, and 19 markets (12%) were flat on a sequential basis. Looking on an annual basis, 73% of markets were down from their prior year levels, 18% were up and 9% were flat. Five- and ten-year annualized appreciation rates were -1.3% and 4.52% respectively.
Seventy percent of U.S. homes have lost value since October 2008 and 27% of homes sold in October were sold for a loss relative to their purchase price.
Foreclosure rates remained high with 0.098% of homes in the U.S. being foreclosed in October (near the historic high of 0.1% reached earlier this year) and the proportion of October sales that were foreclosure re-sales began to climb again, increasing 0.7% from September to 21.18%. We expect the foreclosure re-sale percentage rate to continue to climb as the number of non-foreclosure sales decline seasonally (thus making the foreclosure re-sales a larger proportion of all sales).
The metro areas of Las Vegas, Detroit, Riverside, Phoenix and Miami continued to turn in large monthly depreciation rates of -2.7%, -1.5%, -1.4%, -1.2% and -0.9% respectively. High monthly depreciation rates also remained the norm in the Central Valley of California with the Merced, Stockton and Modesto metros reporting -4.7%, -1.7% and -1.1% monthly changes in the ZHVI respectively.
Some of the hard-hit metropolitan regions that have seen strong stabilization in prices over the past six months (Boston, LA, San Diego, and San Francisco) continued to show monthly gains in October, albeit weaker gains than in September. Monthly appreciation was 0.6% in Boston (versus 1.2% in September), 0.4% in LA (versus 0.6% in September), 0.2% in San Diego (versus 0.8% in September) and 0.3% in San Francisco (versus 0.4% in September).
Originally posted here:
U.S. Home Value Continue to Stabilize in October
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U.S. home values in October remained unchanged from September and were down 5.7% from levels a prior year ago, marking the lowest levels of annualized depreciation since December 2007.
The Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) was $190,600 at the end in October, down 20.4% from its peak value of $239,500 in June 2006. Figure 1 shows the path of home values over the past nine years and the considerable stabilization in home values seen this year. Annualized depreciation reached its maximum value of -12.2% in January of this year while monthly depreciation reached its maximum value of -1.2% in the three months ending October 2008 (see Figure 2).
In October, 65 of 158 markets (41%) had negative month-over-month ZHVI changes, 74 markets (47%) had positive changes, and 19 markets (12%) were flat on a sequential basis. Looking on an annual basis, 73% of markets were down from their prior year levels, 18% were up and 9% were flat. Five- and ten-year annualized appreciation rates were -1.3% and 4.52% respectively.
Seventy percent of U.S. homes have lost value since October 2008 and 27% of homes sold in October were sold for a loss relative to their purchase price.
Foreclosure rates remained high with 0.098% of homes in the U.S. being foreclosed in October (near the historic high of 0.1% reached earlier this year) and the proportion of October sales that were foreclosure re-sales began to climb again, increasing 0.7% from September to 21.18%. We expect the foreclosure re-sale percentage rate to continue to climb as the number of non-foreclosure sales decline seasonally (thus making the foreclosure re-sales a larger proportion of all sales).
The metro areas of Las Vegas, Detroit, Riverside, Phoenix and Miami continued to turn in large monthly depreciation rates of -2.7%, -1.5%, -1.4%, -1.2% and -0.9% respectively. High monthly depreciation rates also remained the norm in the Central Valley of California with the Merced, Stockton and Modesto metros reporting -4.7%, -1.7% and -1.1% monthly changes in the ZHVI respectively.
Some of the hard-hit metropolitan regions that have seen strong stabilization in prices over the past six months (Boston, LA, San Diego, and San Francisco) continued to show monthly gains in October, albeit weaker gains than in September. Monthly appreciation was 0.6% in Boston (versus 1.2% in September), 0.4% in LA (versus 0.6% in September), 0.2% in San Diego (versus 0.8% in September) and 0.3% in San Francisco (versus 0.4% in September).
Continued here:
U.S. Home Values Continue to Stabilize in October
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Newlyweds Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom are allegedly moving into the upscale gated community of Mulholland Estates in Tarzana, CA, says US Weekly magazine. The property they are rumored to have purchased is listed at $4,995,000, I mean $3,995,000 (after a $1 million price reduction).
The couple, recently married in September, is not pregnant, but hopes to start a family soon. Accommodating a few kiddos shouldn’t be a problem, considering that their new 8,000+ sq ft home has 7 bedrooms, swimming pool, home gym, theater room, and parking for 15 cars.
Home values in Tarzana are down $15.5% year-over-year to a Zillow Home Value Index (median home value) of $626,100. Way to go, Khloe and Lamar, for taking advantage of bargains in a down market.
Looking to move in next to the famous couple? See more Tarzana, CA homes for sale on Zillow.
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See additional photos.
Credit:
Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom Allegedly Buy a Home in Tarzana, CA
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The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is approximately 4 miles northeast of Hillsborough, CA, and the home of Stanley Hilton, but that is 4 miles too close. That is because Mr. Hilton claims in his lawsuit (PDF) that the proximity of SFO and its “round the clock jet aircraft in and out of SFO” has caused “severe emotional and physical injuries” including the loss of his marriage, family and career.
According to Wired, Hilton is suing SFO and a bunch of others:
- SFO Airport Authority, City of San Francisco, San Mateo County, City of Hillsborough
- United Airlines; American Airlines; Virgin; Mexicana; Atlantic; Lufthansa; German Airlines; Air France; Federal Express; DHL; UPS; KLM Airlines; Northwest; Alaska Airlines; British Airways; Flying Tiger Lines; Japan Airlines; Korean Airlines; China Airlines; Singapore Airlines; Air Canada; Southwest; and Hawaiian
- The previous owners of the home in question located at 670 Darrell Rd. Hillsborough, CA
- Cashin Real Estate Company and Coldwell Banker
- Two real estate agents
- Jet engine makers Rolls Royce Company and General Electric
- Jet manufactures Boeing, Airbus and McDonnell Douglas
- And, an unknown inspector
Additionally, he demands that the previous owners take back his home that he bought in March of 2003 for $1.475 million and refund him his money including any interest, fees and property taxes. He accuses them of fraud and says he did not realize this ‘breach of contract’ until Dec. 22, 2007– 82 years after the 20th busiest airport in the world was built, more than 4 years after he bought the property and 6 weeks prior to his divorce on Feb. 1, 2008.
This is not Hilton’s first foray with legal challenges. According to Wired, in August the Duke Law alumnus was barred by the California bar citing moral turpitude. Could it be because of his $7 billion class-action lawsuit (he claims he represented 400 plaintiffs, but only two were listed) against former President Bush and his cabinet claiming they ‘let’ 9/11 happen on purpose? Who knows.
More here:
Man Sues SFO, Agents and Boatload of Others for $555 Million
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Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages fell this week, with the weekly average rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 4.69%, down from 4.75% the week prior. This is the lowest weekly average rate on record since Zillow Mortgage Marketplace launched in April 2008. Additionally, 15-year fixed borrowers were quoted on average, 4.23% and for 5/1 ARMs, 3.69%.
This morning, the national rate for 30-year fixed purchase mortgages was 4.59%.
What are the rates right now? Will they fall further? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates.
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Thirty-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates At Record Low; Rates Fall Further Today
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Style My House
