The Optimist Vs the Pessimist

First Time Home Buyers Instrumental in Improving Real Estate
First time home buyers attributed to 46% of real estate transactions in the past year If you have been following real estate news and reports during the last year it can come as no surprise that there hasn’t been a better time to be a first time home buyer in years.  Not only are interest rates hovering at historically low rates but homes are less expensive than they have been in years.  These conditions make buying a home ideal b

Piper Trust hands out $1 million to arts groups - Arizona Republic
Valley arts groups are getting an early Christmas present. The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust will announce today a one-time unrestricted $1 million grant to be split among 37 arts groups and cultural organizations in the Valley. “Economic distress has hit our anchor institutions as well as smaller community organizations,” said Judy Mohraz, president of the trust. “This is a one-time deal. There were no applications and no forms for organizations to fill out.” The money can be spent on anythin

Real Estate Appears to be Leveling Out
Real estate appears to be stabilizing across the Country A recent report shows improvement in real estate across the country.  The well known S&P/Case-Schiller index shows that the 10 city index and the 20 city index a marked improvement in real estate in the majority of cities that it tracks.  What the reports displays are small improvements or minimal devaluation in home values.  Home values are up anywhere from .1% to 3.4% in ten cities. In other areas real estate values have remained flat and in harder hit areas home values are decrea

Search homes from your cell phone - FREE APP - The Romero Team has gone mobile
I want to tell you about a great new way you can search for homes – right from your mobile phone. I have partnered with Smarter Agent, the nation’s leader in mobile real estate technology, to provide this mobile search capability to ALL of my clients! My tool will allow you to search homes for sale anytime, anywhere - right from your cell phone! Wherever you are, driving, or walking around looking at properties, you’ll have access to all of the MLS in

Seven rules to the credit game
RULE #1 Keep Credit Card balances below 30%, Pay down credit cards to less than 30% of credit limit. Ask the credit card company to increase you limit: here are the questions to ask Will you increase my limit without pulling my credit score? If I request a specific limit, will you deny me all together or will you counter offer? If you have multiple credit cards and some have low balances, you can transfer funds from one card to another so that each one has less than a 30% balance. If you are four (4) mo