Real Estate News

Today I am very pleased to announce a partnership which enables John L. Scott Real Estate, one of the most productive regional real estate companies in the nation, to automatically feed all of their listings to Zillow on a regular basis.

This partnership is great news for home buyers in John L. Scott’s markets (Washington, Oregon, Idaho)  because they will now see 15,000 additional homes for-sale in their local area. If you’re a John L. Scott agent, it’s time to celebrate and to thank your broker for doing you a huge favor.  Your listings are now on one of the largest real estate websites at no additional cost to you, complete with multiple photos and open house information.

John L. Scott brokerage joins more than eight hundred partners participating in the Zillow Listings Feed program, which launched in November 2007 and has grown to more than four million for-sale listings, and 60,000 homes for-rent today.

In addition to being displayed on the Zillow.com Web site, John L. Scott’s listings will also appear on the Zillow iPhone app, which has been downloaded nearly one million times since launch in April 2009 and is the number one real estate application in the iTunes Store.

If your MLS or brokerage has more than 50 listings and would like to send them to Zillow, please contact me or watch this video to learn more.

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Zillow Partners with John L. Scott Real Estate

Foreclosure-related filings topped 300,000 last month, according to foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac. Nationwide, 1 in every 418 households was served some form of foreclosure notice but — as always — foreclosures are more common in some areas than others. In February 2010, 4 states accounted for more than half of the country’s foreclosure-related activity

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February 2010 : 4 States Account For More Than 50% Of Foreclosure Activity

“The Blind Side” and “Moneyball” author Michael Lewis turns his attention to the U.S. financial crisis.

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Steven Pearlstein reviews ‘The Big Short’ by Michael Lewis

Perfect Furnished Florida Condo in Palm Coast in Palm Coast, FL – $105,000 – 2 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms –

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Perfect Furnished Florida Condo in Palm Coast

With new Treasury Department rules designed to expedite short sales set to take effect April 5, relief can’t come soon enough for some area buyers, sellers and real estate agents who have waded through a long and arduous process to get short sales approved by the bank.

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Treasury hopes new rules send short sales to the rescue of underwater mortgages

When Mike Walker and his wife, Kathy, found an affordable house in Landover Hills back in 1979, they were looking for an upgrade from their apartment in nearby Bladensburg. The house was advertised as a “fixer-upper,” Mike Walker recalled, and cost $39,500.

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Landover Hills: location, affordability still draw first-time buyers

As daylight saving time begins this weekend, it’s a reminder that spring is just around the corner. So we have an assortment of questions that spans the winter-spring boundary.

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Green Scene: Pruning tips, groundhog repellent and other gardening advice

I tried to buy a house. I applied for a loan, and the bank processed it as a Federal Housing Administration loan instead of a conventional loan. The house I was buying failed the FHA inspection, and I did not buy it.

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Expenses incurred buying a house can be a risk

Mortgage interest rates declined for a second consecutive week as the number of home loan applications rose.

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Mortgage interest rates down for second week as home loan applications rise

Fairfax County aspires to greatly increase the amount of affordable housing at Tysons Corner for workers who now must commute there from afar, consuming time and fossil fuel while contributing to traffic congestion. But this newspaper reported recently that achieving Tysons’s affordable housing…

Source:
Affordable housing needs some public funding

DEAR TIM: I stopped by a friend’s house the other day as she was painting the wood steps leading to her basement. She was using a stencil, and it looked fantastic. What’s the best paint for steps? How do you keep the steps from getting scuffed? — Pam W., Green Bay, Wis.

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How to paint and protect steps

Q: We have owned our house for many years, and the lender has always escrowed money to pay our real estate taxes and insurance. This year, we received a notice from the lender that our monthly mortgage payment will increase by over $400 because there is an escrow shortage. Can we cancel the escrow…

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Lender blames escrow shortage for $400 increase in monthly mortgage payment

With the Obama administration and private lenders actively considering mortgage principal-reduction programs to help financially distressed homeowners, the Internal Revenue Service has issued a new advisory to taxpayers who receive — or seek to receive — such assistance. The IRS gets involved in…

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Some tax issues to consider on mortgage write-downs

It’s getting competitive out there in the Washington area housing market, according to real estate brokers and buyers. And February market statistics just reported from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, the local multiple listing service, back up their reports.

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Washington area housing market is getting competitive again, buyers and brokers report

BOUNDARIES: Route 450 to the north, Parkwood Street to the south, 72nd Avenue and the Bellemeadsubdivision to the east and the Radiant Valley subdivision to the west.

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Landover Hills