Jay Knorr's Q&A

Good question. Depends. How long have you owned your property?How much do you owe on your property? (DO NOT POST THESE ANSWERS HERE!)Without AT LEAST these questions answered, I wouldn't be able to give you an educated answer.I will tell you this:Owner financing is risky.With a lease-to-own, make sure you get enough earnest money (or downpayment) so that it would hurt the prospective buyer to lose it.With a straight lease, unless you're prepared for the worst, you will probably want to get a property management company to handle it for you. In that case, you must consider that they will charge a percentage of rent collected for their services.Hope this helps. Good luck!

Good question Tim. Where is your house located?

Not sure of any studies. (I just checked a couple of sites.) I think you mean EIFS which stands for Exterior Insulation Finishing System.I can tell you, from showing what few houses we have in our area that are EIFS, that in our (Alabama) humid climate, folks prefer stucco or brick to EIFS. The problem is that moisture gets between the outside & inside and causes mildew & rot.As far as changing the veneer, a cheaper solution than brick would be Hardiplank.Hope that helps. Good luck!

Not to "dis" Zillow or anything, but I'd go to google maps.

I noticed that when I go to my local zipcode, that a feature listing is posted as a FSBO by the owner of the home. It's right around the corner from a listing of mine, and I KNOW it is listed by an agent. Is that kosher?

And to "azrob" again, I apologize. Evidently you'll not be the bigger person here, even though you started the whole back-and-forth whatnots.We're all real impressed with your knowledge and I look forward to learning a whole lot more from you.

Thanks for your comments, Rudi. The agreement DOES have to be exclusive in Alabama. And yes, that was my point. Normally, with folks I meet for the first time, that is one of the first conversations I have. However, with locals, who know me, there's usually more friendly dialogue before business. Rarely have I ever lost one (to a FSBO) from somebody who I had a previous relationship with.  

The lender shouldn't be finding the comps the appraiser should. If the appraiser cannot find comparables, they can do a Cost Approach appraisal which is a little more involved and not AS accurate. 

I've had some trouble with Google's version of the aerial views (Google Earth) but not much with Microsoft's (Virtual Earth). I sent a question to the Google folks asking them why often times when you zoom to the parcel it shows up down the street. The response I got was that due to privacy, it should not zoom directly to the address in question of a residential property.So, what can you do? Get your agent to post an aerial view as well as other photos showing your house.Hope that helps!

Matt did a great job of explaining this, I just wanted to add one more thing.Different MLSs (Multiple Listing Services) have different rules regarding the archives of sold properties. It's possible that some were left out due to the transfer, or lack therof, from the MLS.