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Filed under: Renting

What do we have in store for you today from craigslist? Nude roommates who keep slashing their rental prices, a guy who simply wants a massage every now and then, and everyone's version of roommate hell.

Read on for all this and more....
San Francisco: Enough with the female only
a great roomate/tenant shouldnt matter what sex it is because of sharing a bathroom, seriously folks do you use the bathroom at the same time even as women usually most huses don't..what does it matter if you're not in the bathroom at the same time..I'm a guy and a great roomate..having a guy around..has benefits..we fix things..you're safer because were a guy..finding a respctful cool guy has many benefits..

so you so caled modern women are stuck in the past like scared rabbits . to live with the opposite sex..it's kinda pathetic..really due to fact that women are suppose to stronger and more independent..in some ways yes but all I see as a prospective guy is ad after ad seeking women..

grow up, evolve, you might find a great situation with a man roomie..

comeone ladies..

Our Take: Comeone ladies. Doesn't this gent sound like he'd be roommate heaven on earth? Yes, no issues here. Enjoy your stay in roommate hell.


New York: $95 NUDIST COUPLE OFFERS YOU A ROOM FOR RENT! MOVE IN 2DAY!

HEY WE HAVE A NICE ROOM FOR RENT IN A BRAND NEW ROOM! WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR SEX! WE ARE JUST COMFORTABLE IN OUR HOME IN THE NUDE! JUST BEING HONEST. IF YOUR A NUDIST NO PROBLEM, WE ARE VERY RESPECTFUL PEOLPLE.. IF INTERESTED LEAVE YOUR NAME AND NUMBER.. MOVE IN 2DAY IF YOU LIKE!

Our Take: I wouldn't want to have random nude roommates in my home, even for $95.

New York: $85 exhibitionist couple offers you a room

WE ARE A NUDIST COUPLE, HOW EVER WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR SEX! WE JUSY FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH OUR SELF IN OUR HOME. WE ARE VERY RESPECTFUL AND HOPE YOU ARE THE SAME. IF YOUR A NUDIST THEN GREAT. LEAVE YOUR INFO.. THANKS

Our Take: Well, for $85, now you're talking. Bring on the random nude roommates!

New York: $50 one bedroom to share(female only)
one bedroom to share with a nice guy.i'm looking for a lady to share my bed with.don't worry no sex included.just a massage sometimes to time.i have a king size bed.nice and safe neighborhood.next door laundromat and a deli.

Our Take: No funny business here. This guy is simply looking for a lady to share a bed and give him a massage every now and then. Though that seems very sleazy, you have to factor in that there's a deli close by.

For more to keep you up at night, read other Rental Roommate Nightmare editions.
Also on AOL Real Estate.
See apartments for rent in your area.
Looking for a new home? See "Should You Rent or Buy?"


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Filed under: Design,Lifestyle

Design blogs have tackled stubborn issues with creative solutions this week. So if you've tried to shrug off the frustrations of a lack of space, only to have clutter re-emerge, find fantastic new storage fixes below. Then, keep it all smelling fresh and clean (sans chemicals), add a foolproof flower pot, and throw a dinner party that eschews stuffiness in favor of fun.Apartments aren't getting any bigger, as designShrine astutely points out, but there is hope. Combat the dreaded clutter by thinking "upward" and "multi-functional." Hallways and lofts also can serve as space-making places. Get the full scoop, along with product recommendations.

There's something soothing and satisfying about an apartment filled with stacks of books. But if your hardcovers have overtaken table space and nightstands, consider the alternatives: chic and simple storage and display options for your favorite titles, gathered by Ready Made Writer Megan Jeyifo. Taking cues from the nerdy-chic Book Lovers Never Go to Bed Alone blog, Jeyifo offers up a few suggestions, including unobtrusive wire shelves.

Of course, cleanliness goes beyond clutter-clearing. Keep things green and clean by whipping up homemade cleansers from basic items like baking soda, olive oil and vinegar, advises TheHome. These ideas include a fresh-scented disinfectant, a stain-removing scrub, and an oil-rich furniture polish that sounds almost good enough to eat. Also check out RentedSpaces' interview with eco-maven Sophie Uliano, author of the "Gorgeously Green" series.

We think Uliano would approve of this next item: self-watering pots. Every urbanite likes a reminder of the great outdoors, but not all of us have been blessed with green thumbs -- or garden space, for that matter. The Material Girls, a Dallas-based interior design blog, stumbled upon the playful, brightly-colored pots by Grobal, a company focused on devising innovative garden solutions.

Speaking of solutions, now that "rogue restaurants" are gaining popularity among apartment dwellers, it's time to scrutinize dining decor. No one wants a stuffy setting, but is it possible to maintain both comfort level and style? It is, says Houzz, which has several suggestions for making dining more enjoyable. Whether you try an unexpected coat of paint, unmatched chairs or unique light fixtures, there are plenty of ways to change things up before dinnertime.

 

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Filed under: News,Economy

Homeowners in Florida have one more thing to worry about with dropping prices: A disease is spreading and killing orange trees in abandoned lots that developers fled after the housing market crashed.

While it's doubtful that not having an orange tree in the backyard will prevent anyone from buying homes that are already cheap, agricultural officials are worried that the problem will continue to grow, due in part to "grove abandonment." A recent Wall Street Journal story reports that citrus greening, or yellow dragon disease, has spread because absentee landowners have left orange groves for dead, after not building homes on them as planned.

"That's not a good situation for any type of agricultural production, to have a neighbor not properly maintaining his area," farmer Marty McKenna told the Journal. "It's only a matter of time until it's in every grove in the state." #mini_module { width: 265px; height:200px; border: none; float:left; margin:10px; font-size:12px;} #mini_module img {border:none; width: 265px; height:131px; border: none; margin:0px; } #mini_module .mini_title { margin: 0px; padding:0px; width:265px; height:131px;} #mini_module .mini_main { margin: 0px; padding:0px; width:265px; height:85px; background: transparent url(http://www.aolcdn.com/travel/bg-short)} #mini_module .mini_item {padding:12px 0px; margin: 0px 20px; border-bottom:1px dotted #CCCCCC;} #mini_module a { color: #49A3CA; text-decoration:none; } #mini_module a:hover { color: #F98419; text-decoration:underline;}
But dead orange trees are the least of the worries of anyone in the housing market in Florida, says Phil Peachey, a real estate agent with Florida Choice Realty in Polk County in the center of the state, which has more than 83,000 acres of citrus acreage -- the most in Florida.

"No one here knows anything about this, nothing," Peachey told HousingWatch, adding that while he is aware of the problem, it's not an issue for buyers.

"That would be the least of our worries right now," he said of the blight.

More than one in 10 acres of orange groves are abandoned in Polk County, according to the USDA. The county -- which is along Interstate 4 between Tampa Browse through photos of millions of home listings or search foreclosure listings and Orlando -- was popular with developers who wanted to build homes and sell them for around $400,000, but the market fell, Peachey said.

A 2,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath house that sold for $350,000 in 2006 was foreclosed and recently sold at auction for $80,000, he said. The median price of a home in the county has dropped from $400,000 four years ago to $150,000 today, he added.

For homeowners in Florida who have or want orange trees in their yards, there's no stopping the disease, which turns oranges green and small before eventually killing the tree. Pesticides are partly effective to prevent the disease, but once hit, infected trees must be removed.

About half of the homeowners in the state have trees with the disease, Mongi Zekri, a citrus agent at the University of Florida, told HousingWatch. "It's a matter of time before everybody has the disease," he added.

It's easy to see when a tree has developed citrus greening. "It will start declining and you'll have no fruit production, and the fruit will stay small, will remain green," Zekri said.

Because there is no cure once a tree is infected, the USDA recommends reporting it immediately so that it can be destroyed and the disease won't spread. Although the fruit will be inedible, Zekri said that the tree's life can be prolonged by watering and fertilizing it, but that eventually the disease will kill it.

It's bad enough that abandoned homes dot the Florida landscape. Dying orange trees are another blemish on the state's housing problems.

For more on related topics see these AOL Real Estate guides:

• Best Landscape Design Options
  
• 5 Easy Landscaping Tips for Quick Curb Appeal
  
• Listing's Stale? 6 Ways to Land a Home Sale
  
• Landscaping With Low-Maintenance Lawns Saves Money

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.

 

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Filed under: News,Lifestyle

This would be something to read in the disclosure forms when buying a home: Seven bodies were buried on this property.

That probably isn't the exact wording on the legal documents for the buyers of 1426 F St. in Sacramento, but that's what they had to know before the home was recently auctioned to winning bidders for $215,000 -- a more than 50 percent drop from the $500,000 price the home sold for in 2005.

Maybe it was the falling housing market or the spookiness of owning a home used by a serial killer, but the former Sacramento boarding house owned by Dorothea Puente took a long time to sell after going into foreclosure in 2009, and having a last reported for-sale price of $335,750.

Puente started taking in disabled tenants in 1985. In 1988 police found the bodies of seven people buried there. Puente was convicted of three murders and is in state prison.

Why did the house sell now? #mini_module { width: 265px; height:220px; border: none; float:left; margin:10px; font-size:12px;} #mini_module img {border:none; width: 265px; height:131px; border: none; margin:0px; } #mini_module .mini_title { margin: 0px; padding:0px; width:265px; height:131px;} #mini_module .mini_main { margin: 0px; padding:0px; width:265px; height:85px; background: transparent url(http://www.aolcdn.com/travel/bg-short)} #mini_module .mini_item {padding:12px 0px; margin: 0px 20px; border-bottom:1px dotted #CCCCCC;} #mini_module a { color: #49A3CA; text-decoration:none; } #mini_module a:hover { color: #F98419; text-decoration:underline;}
The home is in a good neighborhood, one that I've visited on regular trips to see friends in Sacramento. It's near a few parks, is within walking distance of theaters and restaurants, and is close to the state capitol. As for ghosts on the site, buyers Barbara Holmes and Tom Williams of Georgetown look at it as an adventure and a nice place to have a second home.

Browse through photos of millions of home listings or search foreclosure listings "I'm sensitive to that, but I didn't feel any spirits lingering," Holmes told The Sacramento Bee. "We are going to make the most of it and if the paranormals want to come in and do their thing, bring it on. My plan is to make it as normal as possible."

At least the home is still intact. The Park City, Kan. home of Dennis Rader -- known as the BTK serial killer for his preferred method of killing, "bind, torture and kill" -- was sold to the city for $60,000 in 2007, after souvenir seekers tried to sell boards from the house on eBay. The city planned to demolish the home, where Rader and his family lived for 25 years before he pleaded guilty to killing 10 people between 1974 and 1991. He's serving 10 consecutive life terms in prison.

If owning a home by a serial killer doesn't scare you, there's one for sale in East Meadow, N.Y. where Joel Rifkin lived, and killed and dismembered some of his victims. The two-story expanded ranch home has an asking price of $424,500. Rifkin is in prison serving 203 years to life.


Interested in tips on buying foreclosed or distressed properties? See these AOL Real Estate guides:

• How to Buy Foreclosures
• Guide to Settlement and Escrow

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in Sacramento, CA.
Find foreclosures in Sacramento.
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Filed under: Design,News

Internet real estate listings are full of photos of homes for sale, allowing buyers to spend hours looking at pictures. With such a large selection, you'd think that real estate agents would think twice before allowing poorly photographed homes to appear in their listings. But still, there are plenty of ugly listing photos out there.

A home described as a "charming opportunity" doesn't look so charming, lawns need to be mowed, and cameras need to be focused. A website in Seattle keeps track of such detrimental listings, and the photos should be enough to turn a potential buyer away. Even multimillion-dollar homes aren't immune.

But good photos can help a home sell fast, San Francisco photographer Herman Bustamante told HousingWatch. He photographs real estate and has seen $1 million homes sell within a week with professionally taken photos in the listing.

Too many real estate agents will take listing photos themselves to try to save some money, but it will cost them in the long run, Bustamante says.
The most common mistake is to use a point-and-shoot camera with a flash on the top, which can make the picture look flat and one-dimensional, he says. The cameras aren't as wide, so an entire room can't be shown.

Here are some other tips for getting the best real estate listing photos:


Clean up.

Mowing the lawn and cleaning up the front yard sounds like basic advice, but too often this isn't done on homes being put up for sale. First impressions count, and the front of the house is where the first impression starts. If the front yard is a mess, then move in close to cut the mess out if you can. Also, clean up the inside of the home, and if the home is still occupied, move everything out of a room before photographing it.

"Basically you need to get everything out of there," says Bustamante.


Get a good exterior shot.

This is the equivalent of curb appeal, according to the Journal story, and could prevent users from clicking further. Take it about 10 or 20 feet above street level and put away anything else that can distract from the picture -- car, garbage cans, "for sale" sign.

Scott Vlha, owner of Doorstop Photography, told HousingWatch that more experienced photographers might try adding foreground elements, such as tree branches or flowers, if the front yard has more "curb appeal."

Getting out of the car is necessary, believe it or not, even for busy photographers with a list of houses that they need to get to. "Just getting out of your car instead of shooting out a window can really help," Vlha says. "Foreground elements such as fences, ugly curbsides, etcetera, can really detract from the selling points of the home."


Stage it.

Home staging, especially on empty homes, can help give buyers an idea of what the home would look like with the best furniture available. Move your outdated furniture out, get good lighting, open the drapes and use a wide-angle lens.


Inside photo tips.

Vlha recommends using available light because it's much softer and appealing than a straight strobe light, which can wash out subtle textures in wood, flooring, and cabinets. You might benefit from having a tripod and using that to aid you in low-light situations, in which a longer exposure is needed in order to use available light.


Watch the weather and the sun.

The time of day that you photograph the house can be very important, especially if you are shooting into the sun, says Vlha. This makes the photo very "flat" with no contrast and the appeal of the home is compromised. A professional photographer can make your home look great in the sun or rain, although too much of either may not be a good thing. If you're selling your ski house in the winter, try to get an exterior shot in the snow. But if it's still for sale in the spring, take an updated shot in the sun.


Try a few angles, not just straight-on.

Sometimes moving just a few feet from the center of the home can really show off the expanse of the property as well as create a more interesting photo to look at.


No pets.

Keep your pets, or any signs of them, out of listing photos since they can be associated with bad smells, allergens and patchy yards. "The worst one is when people leave cat food dishes on the counters," said Linda Monforton, virtual tour photographer for Coldwell Banker Select in Tulsa.

Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area.


More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.


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Want to learn more about home buying and home finance? If so, you won't want to miss
our online discussion with industry experts,
"What Works Now: Smart Moves When Buying a Home,"
created by AOL Real Estate in participation with Bank of America Home Loans.
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Filed under: News,Economy

California has the hottest markets for selling homes over the original asking price while Florida has the most places where homes sell for less, according to a new report.

The quarterly report from ZipRealty looks at ZIP codes across the U.S. to see where homes are selling the most above and below asking price. Seven of the top 10 ZIP codes are in California, and seven of the bottom 10 in the country are in Florida.

Home sales hit a three-month low in June across the country, but in Berkeley, ZipRealty agent Wayne Cory said he hasn't seen sales as good since he started in the business six years ago. Berkeley homes in the 94703 ZIP code led the country and sold for almost 108 percent of the asking price, or an additional $45,000 over list, on average.

"We're still experiencing over-asking prices for nice, clean homes," Cory said.
Here are the top 10 "hottest" selling markets in the second quarter of 2010, followed by their ZIP codes and percent of asking price:

1. Berkeley, Calif.: 94703, 107.73%
2. Chicago, Ill. - Loop: 60603, 106.56%
3. Oakland, Calif.: 94621, 105.93%
4. Oakland, Calif.: 94603, 104.33%
5. Forest Park, Ga.: 30297, 104.03%
6. San Jose, Calif.: 95122, 103.86%
7. Rodeo, Calif.: 94572, 103.42%
8. Las Vegas, Nev.: 89030, 103.41%
9. Adelanto, Calif.: 92301, 103.11%
10. San Jose, Calif.: 95111, 103.03%

The "coldest" markets are:

1. Winchester, Conn.: 06098, 71.61%
2. Alva, Fla.: 33920, 75.95%
3. Palm Beach, Fla.: 33480, 82.61%
4. Delray Beach, Fla.: 33483, 82.67%
5. Highland Beach, Fla.: 33487, 83.61%
6. Boca Raton, Fla.: 33496, 83.73%
7. Osterville, Mass.: 02655, 83.82%
8. Minooka, Ill.: 60447, 83.84%
9. Jupiter, Fla.: 33477, 84.02%
10. Bokeelia, Fla.: 33922, 84.18%

Now is a good time to buy in Berkeley, a highly sought after market for its location, value and weather, Cory said. "It's the community, and what Berkeley has to offer," he said. That includes dropping home prices. The average listing price for that specific Berkeley ZIP code over the past three years is:

• 2009: $502,348
• 2008: $609,579
• 2007: $640,424

"Everybody wanted to get in Berkeley before," Cory said of previous years, when multiple offers that were $100,000 over the asking price were common, "but the prices were so high, they couldn't get into it."

The "coldest" ZIP code was in Winchester, Conn.'s 06098, where homes sold on average nearly 30 percent under list price -- an average savings of more than $200,000, according to the median home price in the area.

High-end housing markets nationwide continue to offer relative bargains for buyers. For example, in Miami's Palm Beach (33480), buyers paid an average of around $1.1 million per home in the second quarter, an average of $232,492 below list price. In Cape Cod's Osterville, Mass. (02655), homes sold, on average, for 16 percent below asking price, or an average of $180,437 under asking.


More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.


************************************************

Want to learn more about home buying and home finance? If so, you won't want to miss
our online discussion with industry experts,
"What Works Now: Smart Moves When Buying a Home,"
created by AOL Real Estate in participation with Bank of America Home Loans.
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Filed under: News,Economy

About 650 homes for sale in Maine are priced at $1 million or more, and with the recession making it twice as hard to sell such homes, real estate agents in Maine are resorting to a lot more inventive marketing techniques.

High-end homes have to be promoted onto the market like a new products, Tom Landry, a Realtor in Portland, told the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

Indirect marketing done by offering such properties for private events or photo shoots to raise their profiles is becoming more common in Maine.

"When we first launched this property we contacted some of the local magazines to offer the property up as a destination photoshoot area for them, if they had celebrities in town, etcetera," Landry said. "We were actually taken up on that by Portland magazine, and they used the roof on their cover shot, and they overlaid one of their celebrities onto that cover shot."
The magazines apparently attract the attention of high-end buyers, who must like seeing their future homes looking all sexy in a photo shoot.

Most home buyers are probably used to a real estate agent simply putting up a sign and maybe baking cookies for an open house. But with the recession causing half the number of $1 million-plus homes to be sold last year compared to before the recession in 2007, agents have to get creative at open houses. They're not just shopping for buyers.

Landry and other high-end Realtors frequently pull out all the stops at these events to encourage brokers to attend in the hope they can put them in touch with a buyer. Refreshments are usually provided, but so are free gifts, such as dinner at a local restaurant.

Financial incentives are also being offered to other agents, such as higher co-broker percentages, or a flat bonus fee for selling a property.

Realtors are also spending thousands on other marketing costs not required a few years back. Benchmark Real Estate recently spent about $5,000 sending postcards out to targeted property owners in the greater Portland area.

It might help real estate agents to know what high-end home buyers want. Since they're more accustomed to seeking professional advice, they're more likely to go with an experienced agent who they'll keep busy by typically looking at 12 homes before buying, according to Luxury Home Digest.

And since their average down payment on a luxury home is 33.6 percent, Realtors don't have to worry about helping with financing since buyers already have mortgage financing in place.

One company that specializes in auctioning luxury real estate compares it to auctioning fine art. Exclusivity and a more concentrated marketing effort can help get more people interested and lead to a quick sale, boasts the Grand Estates Auction Company.

Of course the best way to attract a buyer to a high-end home may be to move it to the water.


More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find real estate in Maine.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.


************************************************

Want to learn more about home buying and home finance? If so, you won't want to miss
our online discussion with industry experts,
"What Works Now: Smart Moves When Buying a Home,"
created by AOL Real Estate in participation with Bank of America Home Loans.
Watch it now on AOL Real Estate.

 

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