Travis A Martinez, Real Estate Consultant

You are not alone.  Rest assured that many people are in your shoes.  Does that make you feel better?  I did not think so. So what are you going to do about it?  Homes are not selling, property is staying on the market for longer and longer.  I anticipate that this will start to turn around next year.  But that ...

There are many articles and opinions about improvements on a property and whether you can recoup the cost at closing.  many of these are based on national averages and many are for specific location.  All of them seem to include Kitchens and bathrooms.  One recent article is a very good synopsis of how to improve property values by ...

I recently completed all of the pre-licensing requirements to obtain my property management license.  Why would a real estate salesperson want to spend the time, effort, and money to property manage?  Well, quite simply, I owe it to my clients.  Many people have had their homes on the market for sometime now.  Many are stuck ...

Thursday September 30th The Candidates for County Commissioner had their first official debate.  Based on my experience with the Candidates there were no major changes in position.  The Candidates know where they stand and were not afraid to tell you.   The Candidates for County Commissioner are: District 2Greg Chilcott, ...

This morning Brookfield Residential Property Services announced that it will acquire GMAC Home Services.  This includes GMAC Home Mortgage, GMAC Real estate, and GMAC Relocation Services.  Who is Brookfield Residential Property Services? I am glad you asked.  Brookfields Residential Property Services is owned by Brookfield Asset ...

GMAC said today that they will close all of its mortgage retail offices.  This is a little bit of a shock to me, but I dont necessarily think it should be.  The local GMAC Mortgage office in Missoula has been cutting back it's mortgage brokers for quite some time now.  This appears to me to be some kind of reorganization by GMAC ...

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 ...