Travis A Martinez, Real Estate Consultant

As many of you may be aware, the President signed the Housing Stimulus Package last week.  What does this mean for you? Well if you are a first time homebuyer this could mean that you get a $7,500 tax credit.  If you are a FHA buyer this increases your loan limits.  If you are in Foreclosure this new law could provide for some ...

The House of Representatives passed the Housing Stimulus Package.  What happens next? The Senate will need to confirm it, which is expected to happen; the President will need to sign it into law, which is also expected to happen.  What does this all mean? Here is a great list from an article in the Wall Street Journal:Key points of ...

As college approaches parents everywhere are making preparations for sending their kids off to the big scary world of higher education.  Many decisions must be made before college starts in September.  What major will I have?Will I have a job?How do I make friends?Where will I live?Much much more........I want to address just one of ...

The prevailing interest rate is often referred to as the "cost of money."  Or more simply put the amount that you have to pay to use someone else's money.  Typically long tern money (30 year mortgages) is more expensive then short term (10 or 15 year mortgages) money.  Another way of looking at this is as an ...

As I read the article below I was a little disturbed at the lack of coordination in DC.  It stinks and there is nobody that is clean in this situation.  Read below and see for yourself.  Bush Set to VETO Homebuilders BillArticle Originally published in the Wall Street JournalMay 7th, 2008WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Congress ...

Every time I turn on the TV I see the gloom and doom about our country.  So we might be in a recession......So what?!?! There are opportunities around every corner.  If you want to be engrossed by the negative of the situation then you will not be able to see the opportunities that exist.  What opportunities you might ask.  If ...

On January 29th RealtyTrac® published U.S. Foreclosure Activity Increases 75 Percent in 2007.  This report highlighted the worst states for foreclosure filings and foreclosure rates.  At the end of the report there was a list of all of the states and their foreclosure stats.  Montana ranked 36th in the nation with 1,378 ...

When I go to list a home or a piece of property for sale I give my client a window that I recommend that they list their property at, for example $435,000 - $450,000.  Of course I fully expect that most of them list in the upper proportion of my window.  I would do the same thing in their shoes and expect that the home would ...

Buying homes at foreclosure auction can make you very large profits. Some investors earn more then $75K on one transaction or you can buy the property for you and your family to live in and save the money. Conditions have to be right and the situation ideal of course to profit this much on a single property, it is possible though to make a ...

Last Tuesday Countrywide rejected rumors that the company might go bankrupt, this might be a reason why.  Bank of America agreed today that it will acquire Countrywide at 4 million dollars.  Bank of America will buy Countrywide through a swap of shares.  As it stands right now every share of Countrywide will be swapped for 0.1822 of ...