Buying your first home can be both an exciting and a scary experience. Many homeowners are appreciative of any bit of information that would help make the process less stressful and as painless as possible. Home insurance is usually a major contributor to the anxieties new homeowners’ experience. They are often confused about how much insurance they need. This post will give easy tips for choosing the best insurance for new home buyers.

Your House Should Be Fully Covered

The coverage on the insurance policy should reflect an amount that can adequately take care of the cost of rebuilding and refurbishing your entire house in the event that you lose it completely. Insurance companies may use a cost estimator to ascertain the cost replacement estimate, but you can have a home builder assess your home and furnish you with an estimate of the rebuilding cost. This should include the unique and/or expensive details of your home (if there are any). You do not want to end up being underinsured. Once you have the estimate for rebuilding, you will need to figure out which coverage to take. The choices are:

• Guaranteed Replacement Cost Coverage – The insurer bears the cost for the rebuilding your home in spite of that cost. Very few insurers are offering these policies now.
• Extended Replacement Coverage – This coverage involves the capping of the payout you would receive to approximately 125% of the insured value of your home.
• Inflation Guarantee (or Guard) – This is a feature that ensures the insured value of your home stays on par with that of the marketplace.

Strive to get a reliable appraisal and extended replacement coverage along with an inflation guarantee. These will place you in a good position.

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On Monday January 14, 2012, Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of HomeGain, was a guest on the Real Estate 360 Live radio show on The Big Talker 1580 WHFS AM, hosted by Ryan Sloper.

Listen to the show.

Part 1 (12:49)

Ryan and Louis discuss the Federal Reserve minutes. Louis notes the what the Fed does is most important and that it’s also important what the Fed says, but only in the short time.

Louis predicts a continuation of quantitative easing and that gold and silver will continue to rise.

Ryan notes that the Fed is talking up the economy.

Louis notes that the Fed is concerned that the perception is that the they will continue to print will under mine confidence in the dollar and therefore they talk down their quantitative easing plans.

Louis notes that the Fed will continue with QE but is not interested in being first among countries in the race to debase.

Louis and Ryan discuss the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling. Louis notes that the debt ceiling doesn’t need to be raised for the US to pay interest on its debt.

Louis notes that Democrats and Republicans are both fans of spending and have no interest in cutting spending and are interested in raising the debt ceiling so they can continue spending.

Ryan and Louis discuss some examples of government waste and how the government picks winners and loses by allocating subsidies.

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If you have recently listed your house for sale, then there is a good chance you are looking into tips for home staging in order to increase your chances of success when it comes to selling the home. If you’re not, then you should be! After all, there are all kinds of steps you can take to increase the overall appeal of your home to potential home buyers and those who schedule showings. One aspect that many people fail to consider when it comes to home staging, however, is the importance of preparing your home’s floors.

For starters, if you do not already have any hardwood flooring in your home, now would be a great time to have some installed. After all, this is generally thought of as the most appealing type of flooring in homes, especially in areas such as main living spaces and kitchens. You can have this type of flooring purchased and installed for less than you would expect if you shop around and choose the right company, too.

Of course, if you already have hardwood flooring in any space of your home, it is important to ensure that it looks its best prior to that first showing. And while hardwood is extremely appealing, the truth is that it can be very hard to care for. For this reason, it is important to know what steps to take in order to get your floors looking their best for potential buyers.

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Sixty-three percent of Pennsylvania real estate professionals expect home prices to stay the same or decrease within the next six months

Last month, HomeGain,one of the first companies to provide free instant home valuations online, released the results of our fourth quarter 2012 nationwide home values survey of over 200 HomeGain current and former members and 1,500 home owners. The survey asked their opinions on home prices and what they thought of President Obama’s performance as President. On this real estate blog we published the 4th quarter 2012 national results as well as the complete 4th quarter 2012 regional results, including commentary from real estate agents and brokers.

Recently, we released the California 4th quarter 2012 home values survey data, the Florida 4th quarter 2012 home values survey data, and the Georgia 4th quarter 2012 home prices survey data.

Today we are releasing the Pennsylvania home prices survey.

Set forth below is the fourth quarter 2012 real estate professional and home owner Pennsylvania home prices survey data along with the fourth quarter 2012 real estate professional survey data and the fourth quarter 2012 national home prices survey data: (click on each question to see complete results):

1. Have home prices increased, decreased or stayed the same in the last year?
2. On average, what do homeowners believe that their home is worth?
3. How do buyers feel that homes for sale are priced?
4. What is the average difference in price between what sellers believe their home to be worth and the amount at which the home gets listed?
5. What is the average difference in price between what a home is listed at and what a home sells for?
6. In the next six months, will the values of homes in your market increase, decrease or stay the same?
7. In the next two years, will the values of homes in your market increase, decrease or stay the same?
8. What percentage of homes for sale are foreclosures in your area?
9. What is the average home price in your area?
10. What percentage of your clients are first-time buyers?
11. How do you think Barack Obama is performing in his role as President?

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On Monday December 17, 2012, Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of HomeGain, was a guest on the Real Estate 360 Live radio show on The Big Talker 1580 WHFS AM, hosted by Ryan Sloper.

Listen to the show.

Part 1 (14:15)

Ryan covers the week’s economic event including the fiscal cliff talks.

Continue reading this post

Sixty percent of Georgia Real Estate Professionals expect home values to decrease over the next six months

Last month, HomeGain, one of the first companies to provide free instant home valuations online, released the results of our fourth quarter 2012 nationwide home values survey of over 200 HomeGain current and former members and 1,500 home owners. The survey asked their opinions on home prices and what they thought of President Obama’s performance as President.

On this real estate blog we published the 4th quarter 2012 national results as well as the complete 4th quarter 2012 regional results, including commentary from real estate agents and brokers. Earlier this month we released the California 4th quarter 2012 home values survey data and the Florida 4th quarter 2012 home values survey data.

Today we are releasing the results of the fourth quarter 2012 Georgia home prices survey.

Set forth below is the fourth quarter 2012 real estate professional and home owner Georgia home prices survey data along with the fourth quarter 2012 national home prices survey data: (click on each question to see complete results):

1. Have home prices increased, decreased or stayed the same in the last year?
2. On average, what do homeowners believe that their home is worth?
3. How do buyers feel that homes for sale are priced?
4. What is the average difference in price between what sellers believe their home to be worth and the amount at which the home gets listed?
5. What is the average difference in price between what a home is listed at and what a home sells for?
6. In the next six months, will the values of homes in your market increase, decrease or stay the same?
7. What percentage of homes for sale are foreclosures in your area?
8. What is the average home price in your area?
9. What percentage of your clients are first-time buyers?
10. How do you think Barack Obama is performing in his role as President?

Continue reading this post