According to Humphries, the fundamentals of housing, in terms of prices and financing rates look good, but it’s really been a crisis of confidence keeping buyers on the fence. Humphries says as unemployment begins to improve, we expect to see progressively better home sale numbers.

Watch the segment here:

Now what? Is it OK to break up with your real estate agent? And if so, how can you gracefully end it? The answer depends on whether you’re working with an agent as a buyer or a seller.

Advice for Buyers

Real estate agents earn their commissions from sellers, which are split between seller’s and buyer’s agents. As a general rule, as a buyer, you won’t be asked to enter into a contractual or financial agreement with a real estate agent. Though there are some agents who ask buyers to sign an exclusivity agreement, in which the buyer agrees not to work with another real estate agent but this isn’t the norm.

Instead, a buyer makes a handshake agreement with the real estate agent. You’re basically agreeing to exclusively rely upon that agent. And that’s fair. Agents often work hard and spend a lot of time engaging with buyers, watching the market, writing contracts, showing properties, reviewing disclosures, and so on. Imagine how they’d feel after spending months working with a client, only to be informed that another agent found them the home they want?

If you’re not quite ready to be tied down to a particular agent, it’s better not to engage one until you are ready. That said, it’s OK to look for agents even if you’re a year away from making a serious move into the market. Some buyers need data and advice as they tip their toes into the market. Just be honest.  A good real estate agent will read your situation well and provide the appropriate amount of attention. They’ll act as a resource and be available when you need them. A big turn off for buyers is an agent who puts on the full court press when they are not nearly ready to buy.

Before you enter into a handshake agreement, do your homework. Ask friends for references or check out online agent reviews. Going to open houses is a good way to meet agents who work in the neighborhood you are looking to buy. Make sure you’ve picked the most compatible agent you can find. Start slow and feel out the relationship. It is harder to break up with your agent if you have too deeply engaged them.

As time goes on, you may find that the relationship just isn’t working. If that’s the case, just be honest and upfront before too much more time passes. Offer the agent constructive feedback about why it’s not working for you, and give them examples. It’s possible after an open dialogue the agent will do a better job for you. If not, at the minimum, you’ll have given the agent important feedback, which will help them do a better job for the next client (in theory, at least). This way you won’t be hitting the agent out of left field with the sudden announcement that you’re buying a house through another agent.

Advice for Sellers

Since the seller pays the real estate agent’s commission, the seller generally is required to sign a legal agreement with an agent’s brokerage firm. In most cases, the agreement is for six months. During that period, you’re contractually obligated to work exclusively with the agent and brokerage firm specifically on the sale of your home. In fact, even if you find a buyer on your own, (such as a friend), the listing agent/brokerage firm is still due their commission.

Just as a buyer must do his homework, it’s even more important for a seller to do his research, given the contractual agreement required. But you do have some leeway. Even if you sign a listing agreement, you aren’t necessarily obligated to sell your home. You can say no to open houses or showings and you aren’t required to sign a contract with any buyer. This is where a seller still holds some power.

However, most listing agreements state that if the listing agent brings an offer at the listing price and the seller doesn’t accept it, the agent is still due a commission. This scenario happens sometimes when the listing agent and seller aren’t getting along.

In most situations, if the listing agent isn’t doing a good job but there’s still time left on the agreement, you should simply tell the agent it’s not working out. A good, fair and honest agent will apologize for not meeting your expectations and will agree to release you from the agreement ahead of schedule. The agent doesn’t have to do this, but it would be ridiculous — not to mention counter productive — for an agent to insist on enforcing the agreement when the client isn’t happy. It does happen, however. Usually the seller responds by no longer agreeing to open houses or considering offers from the agent.

Sometimes, an agent wants to break up with the seller. Maybe the seller insists on keeping the price of the home too high or isn’t cooperating to accommodate showings. The agent simply feels she can’t be successful with the seller, no matter how much time she puts into the job. Here again, the two parties are bound by a legal agreement, which can be terminated earlier by mutual consent. If you’re a seller whose agent wants out of the agreement because you aren’t taking the necessary steps to sell your home, it’s best to let them go — and to give serious consideration as to whether you’re really ready to sell or not.

Source: IMDb

Celebrity real estate, like regular real estate, usually hits the market in the aftermath of divorce proceedings.

Patricia Arquette and former husband Thomas Jane, listed their home for sale in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles after they announced their divorce. First listed on the market in June 2011, Arquette’s home recently sold for $2.775 million — 20 percent less than the original asking price, according to the Real Estalker.

Arquette, best known for her role in TV’s “Medium,” which aired 2005 through 2011, purchased the vine-covered home in 2003 with Jane for $2.25 million. Arquette and Jane — of TV series “Hung” — were married in 2006, they divorced in late 2010.

Built in 1929, Arquette’s former home is a stucco “Rennaisance Revival” home covered in vines and filled with 1920s details. The 4-bedroom, 5-bath home has hand-painted ceilings and stained glass windows  as well as chef’s kitchen with inlaid limestone tile. Situated on a one-third acre lot, the home also has a pool and outdoor living area with barbeque.

Mid-Wilshire home values remain high at $913,000. The pricey L.A. neighborhood is a popular one with stars and is home to Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, as well as Kathy Bates and David Schwimmer.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered between 3.67 and 3.76 percent for the majority of the week, peaking at 3.79 percent on Friday before falling to the current rate this morning.

“Rates drifted slightly up this past week, on expectations of progress in Greece’s bailout negotiations and improving U.S. economic news,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “With a shortened and relatively slow week for U.S. economic data, we expect rates to remain fairly steady.”

Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 3.0 percent and for 5/1 ARMs, the rate was 2.75 percent.

What are the rates right now? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates for your state.

We’re anticipating the seasonally adjusted month-over-month change from November to December will be -0.6% and -0.5% for the 10- and 20-City Composite Home Price Indices, respectively.

“As we mentioned last time, the Case-Shiller indices are experiencing the bulk of 2011 home price depreciation in the last quarter of the year contrary to the trend displayed by the Zillow Home Value Index, where the pace of depreciation has slowed since the start of this year with only December showing a significant pick-up in the depreciation rate,” said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. “While home values are expected to fall further in 2012 with a definitive bottom probably a year away, home sales are expected to pick up pace in 2012 stabilizing home prices across the nation.”

The full forecast and further commentary can be found on the Zillow Real Estate Research page.

Since we began forecasting seven months ago, we have very accurately predicted the numbers of both indices. Results of previous forecasts can be found here.

Source: Wiki commons

Mary Kay Mansion
8915 Douglas Ave, Dallas TX
For sale: $3.3 million

The former home of the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics is exactly the color you would expect: A soft shade of light pink. Mary Kay pink, to be exact.

Mary Kay Ash’s stucco mansion was designed in 1984 by Dallas Design Group and served as the businesswoman’s home and headquarters for entertaining Mary Kay consultants until 2000. Although Mary Kay did not design the home, touches of the makeup icon are inherent in many of the home’s features, according to listing agent Karen Luter.

Like, for instance, the solid pink quartz toilet and bath.

The beauty-product queen’s former home is back on the Dallas real estate market for $3.3 million. Mary Kay sold the home in 2000 in her efforts to downsize, and now the current owner, a Dallas physician, is following suit and hoping to move to the San Juan Islands. What’s unusual, notes Luter, is that both Mary Kay and the physician are successful entrepreneurs.

“It’s interesting that it [the home] was purchased by Mary Kay, who was a self-made woman, and it was sold to another self-made woman from humble beginnings,” said Luter.

Ideally, the next owner would follow the trend, but if the buyer happens to be a self-made man, Luter says she won’t discriminate.

Despite its pink-hued exterior, the interior of Mary Kay’s home has an elegance that belies the outside.

The home is built on a grand scale, with 40-foot-high ceilings and a foyer that includes busts of famous composers inserted in the ceiling. Highly detailed paneling and moldings appear throughout the house, as well as enormous floor-to-ceiling, beveled glass windows that look out to the terraced gardens.

Situated on an acre of land in the high-end Dallas neighborhood of Old Preston Hollow, the grounds of Mary Kay’s home were designed to mimic the San Simeon estate, William Hearst’s famous home in California.

The former Mary Kay home was redone by the current owner: New flooring, paint, updated kitchen and geothermal system for heating and cooling.

Mary Kay Cosmetics was founded by Mary Kay Ash in 1963. Frustrated when her employer promoted the man she trained rather than her, Mary Kay quit to write a book to help women succeed in business. Out of her research, she realized she had a business plan that would work for her makeup company. She began giving out pink Cadillacs to her top Mary Kay sellers in 1969.

In an age when many women were not encouraged to work outside the home, Mary Kay’s company was a significant opportunity. Luter shared an anecdote from one of the woman who worked with Mary Kay in the company’s early days:

Mary Kay told them (the consultants) to work really hard all day and then get home and sauté some onions in a skillet. As the fragrance fills the house, your husbands will think you’ve been cooking all day.”