Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips - John Ellis - iPro Real Estate

Where You Most Have to Worry About Bedbugs

Bedbugs travel from place to place and can make their way into homes, apartments, and even offices.Orkin, a nationwide pest management company, released its annual list of cities with the most bedbug infestations. Baltimore and Washington, D.C., continue to rank the highest for infestations. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, joined the top 10 list this year.Orkin based its list on treatment data from metro areas where it performed the most bedbug treatme

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Storage Tops Kitchen Uses, Owners Say

The majority of homeowners recently surveyed prioritized storage over all other functions of their kitchens, according to the 2018 U.S. Houzz Kitchen Trends Study of more than 1,700 homeowners. Storage, at 63 percent, trumped other priority uses for homeowners in the kitchen like easy to work, play, and live (38 percent), to entertain (32 percent), or to clean (32 percent).Homeowners are remodeling their kitchens to add more storage and organiz

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5G Is Coming... Why You Should Care

5G is one of the buzzwords at this year’s CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas Jan. 9–12. The promises are big behind the fifth-generation wireless technology that is expected to make smartphones and other devices ultrafast.5G is to be 100 times faster and five times more responsive than 4G and 4G LTE systems, the technology currently being used. For example, you’ll be able to stream high-res VR content without

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4 Growth Areas for Homebuilding in 2018

A growing economy, supported by positive demographic trends, bodes well for the housing market in the new year, even as affordability challenges rise from an increase in prices and mortgage rates, according to realtor.com®’s 2018 Housing Forecast, released this week at the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla. Realtor.com®’s report highlighted the following key factors for builders in 2018

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Best Places to Buy Rental Properties This Winter

The winter off-peak period may be the best time for investors to snag a deal on a single-family rental property.Single-family rental investors paid 6.6 percent less per square foot on the same property during the winter of 2017/2018 than they did during the spring and summer buying season of 2017, according to a new analysis released by HomeUnion, an online real estate investment and management firm.“For the second year in a row, our study fo

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Best, Worst Places for Commuters

Consistent travel times allow commuters less heartache than cities where it’s constantly fluctuating, says Joseph L. Schofer, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University.“That comes from well-managed road networks, limited congestion, quick incident-clearance times, and [bus and rail] transit [options],” Schofer told realtor.com®.The realtor.com® research team identified the best and worst metros for com

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New Financing Helps Investors Grow Portfolios

Mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced programs to provide long-term financing at competitive interest rates that could encourage more investors to acquire single-family rental properties, the National Real Estate Investor reports.“Folks who dipped their toes in the market in 2015 or early 2016 and bought one or two single-family rentals are now buying more,” says Daren Blomquist, senior vice president of property

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What’s in a Buyer’s Name? Apparently a Lot

You should be chasing the buyers named Dylan, Chelsea, Austin, Alexandra, and Taylor. Those were the first names of millennials who were most likely to buy a home in 2017, according to a new analysis of more than 4 million home sales by ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.On the other hand, Generation X and older buyers with the first names Gerald, Kristin, Stanley, Kurt, and Jaime had the biggest decreases in home sales last year.Not s

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Some Retirees Still Face Years of Mortgage Payments

Fewer retirees own their home free and clear, as 32 percent of homeowners ages 60 to 70 say it will take them more than another eight years to pay off their mortgage, according to American Financing’s Retirement and Mortgages survey.However, many say they intend to age in place, with 64 percent indicating they plan to remain in their current home. Seventy-one percent say they would prefer to make home renovations rather than move, even if a hea

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Expect Building Delays on Commercial Projects

Many commercial projects may face delays in 2018 due to rising demand, particularly for warehouse and office space. A shortage of skilled construction workers and rising construction costs—two items that are also plaguing the residential market—are expected to push back timetables on many commercial projects in the pipeline, according to the CoStar Group.The labor shortage may mean developers will have to pay more to get their buildings const

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