Bill Williamson – after spending 32 years at the Arkansas Real Estate Commission (AREC) – retired from his position as executive director at the end of February.
He was succeeded by Gary Isom, who started at the AREC as an investigator in 1987 and became deputy executive director in 1996 after Williamson recruited him for that [...]

A string of letters behind a Realtor’s name might resemble alphabet soup, but it actually shows that agent has decided to specialize.
Let’s say, for example, a Realtor hands you a business card identifying him as “Skipper Benton, ABR, CRS, GRI.” What Skipper is trying to tell you is that he has earned the Accredited Buyer [...]

I keep hearing about a “move up tax credit” for repeat home buyers.
The odd thing about that is such a thing doesn’t exist. Apparently, there’s a misconception suggesting that the IRS tax credit for repeat buyers only applies if we’re talking about a situation where a homeowner sells his house and purchases one that costs [...]

We get a number of calls at the Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA) from people wanting us to predict the future performance of housing markets in Arkansas.
We don’t make predictions at the ARA about the future performance of those markets. There are a couple of reasons for that. For one thing, we’re not in the crystal [...]

Generally, this space is set aside to talk about consumer issues – housing market conditions, how to attract buyers and that kind of thing.
However, we’ve not addressed foreclosures much in this column over the past couple of years. That’s unfortunate because high foreclosure rates have become major problems for Arkansas consumers.
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There have been a lot of questions about the tax credit for repeat home buyers since it was signed into law on Nov. 6, but the IRS had released no clear guidance for it.
Until just recently, that is. To take advantage of either the $6,500 tax credit for existing home owners or the $8,000 tax [...]

We’ve heard it time and time again over the past couple of years – if you want to take out a mortgage, you’d better be ready to come up with a down payment.
To an extent, that’s certainly true. Conventional lenders generally want a down payment as do banks writing mortgages insured by the Federal Housing [...]

Every now and again, I realize just how much real estate news is out there.
That’s really no surprise – the economy doesn’t do well if real estate markets are struggling. Still, there have been some stories lately that are worth mentioning and here are but a few of them:
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When the subprime lending market crashed a couple of years ago, mortgage banks got criticized for lending money too liberally.
So they have – by and large – tightened up their lending requirements. Now they’re catching flack for being too conservative in their lending policies.

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For better or worse, the real estate industry has been big news throughout the naughts – or whatever we’re calling 2000 through 2009.
Actually, my mother cynically suggested calling these past 10 years “the negative decade” due to economic doldrums, terrorist attacks and such. My daughter, Brenda SueCarol, has advanced the argument the decade should be [...]

According to a November survey from the National Association of Realtors, 39 percent of Americans purchasing homes this year took out mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
The FHA, of course, insures certain mortgages written by conventional lenders. Those mortgages traditionally existed to make it easier for people having difficulty coming up with a [...]

Over the past couple of years, bankers have tightened the lending requirements for taking out mortgages.
A good credit score is very important for anyone wanting to purchase home and it’s about to get even more critical – Federal Housing Administration (FHA) officials have indicated they are likely to tighten lending requirements. FHA loans are the [...]

For the past couple of years, we’ve heard about homeowners who are so desperate that they’ll accept ridiculous offers just so they can sell their houses and get rid of them.
That notion has caused some buyers to believe they’ve got a good chance of finding that “perfect home” and getting it for a bargain. While [...]

Just ask any Realtor® in Arkansas – business starts to get slow after Thanksgiving and stays that way until the first of January as people are busy with Christmas and tend to put off buying or selling homes until after the first of the year.
Believe it or not, that can be good news for buyers [...]

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, this might be a time for homeowners throughout the state to reflect on a few things for which they can be thankful.
The list below is by no means comprehensive but, hopefully, raises a few relevant points:
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