What does Feng Shui have to do with real estate sales?  A lot!  Selling a home is all about making the right impression.  You want your home to possess the qualities that buyers seek the most, and that involves the emotions they will feel while living in the home.

Feng Shui is not just for Asians.  Everyone can benefit from the basic concepts of Feng Shui.

I’ve linked to an article that provides a few basic tips on how to use Feng Shui when you are ready to sell your home.

Using Feng Shui for Real Estate Home Sales Success

On the subject of home prices, I think everyone knows that the past few months have show strong recovery in prices in the Southern California area, at least on the low end of the spectrum.

The linked article suggests that home prices will be heading lower in 2010. Get all the details here from a Bloomberg article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=a1nQ57v_2e5g

Home buyers are somewhat at the mercy of lenders when they try to obtain financing for their home purchase. The buyers don’t know what questions to ask, or what papers to review to determine if they are getting a good deal on their loan. The US government decided some time ago that the lenders had an unfair advantage and required the issuance of a Good Faith Estimate to clarify the costs associated with the loan.

Unfortunately, the Good Faith Estimate was poorly constructed and did little to help the buyer decipher the lender’s offer.

Fortunately, the Good Faith Estimate has been revisited and improved. For more coverage of this topic, please visit the following:
http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/mortgage/204036

With all the talk about upticks in the pace of home sales, and clearing out the backlog of home inventory, it’s easy to assume that the worst is behind us and prices are on an upward trend. Certainly there are plenty of investors with that point of view, as I’ve seen them bid up the prices on homes to the point that a great deal is not much better than an average deal. For example, offering 290K for a home listed at 217K. That’s an extreme example of poor buying discipline. How can you get a great deal if you pay so much over the asking price? Do you think somebody will come along and offer even more?

I continue to feel that home prices will turn downward soon, and it seems I have some company in that point of view. The following article addresses this topic:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Homes-About-to-get-much-cnnm-699910894.html?x=0&mod=real-estate

October has turned out to be quite a strong month for real estate this year. With the incentive of up to $8000 in savings for first time home buyers, many people got off the fence and bought a home. This is a typical result and in my mind does not reveal great strength in the housing market. With interest rates forced down and incentives flying around, home buyers have good reason to get off the fence.

For a more detailed look at this topic, read the following article:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Tax-credit-gives-home-sales-apf-2912831412.html?x=0&sec=topStories