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Inspection Connection Brought to You by Inspect-It 1st: The Nation’s Premier Property Inspection Company Your trusted source for home-related information and insights. 5 tips to ensure your home sells in the winter Excerpt from MSN Real Estate article The fall home-selling season is a lot like the college football season — both normally end around Thanksgiving, but a smaller postseason keeps going long after that. "It used to be that spring and summer were the hot times to buy or sell houses, but people are much more mobile now. If you want to sell your house these days, you don't necessarily have to wait until spring to put it on the market," says Brad Knapp, a National Association of Realtors regional vice president and an agent with Henkle Schueler & Associates in suburban Cincinnati. True, most would-be homebuyers and sellers in colder climates still call it quits from late November until late February or so. But Knapp says consumers who face job relocations, divorces or other situations requiring an immediate move keep the market humming all winter long. "There are fewer buyers and sellers in the marketplace during the winter, but they're all serious buyers and sellers," he says. "They all have a sense of urgency or they wouldn't be in the market at all." To read more, click here FHA says: Flip that house Excerpt from CNN Money article Flippers, the real estate investors who buy homes on the cheap and quickly resell them at a profit, just got a reprieve from the Federal Housing Administration. In an effort to help stabilize housing prices and unload some of the foreclosures that are flooding low-income communities, the mortgage insurer extended a waiver of its anti-flipping regulations through 2012. The waiver, which was initially issued in 2010 and set to expire this month, suspends regulations that prohibit the agency from insuring mortgages used to purchase homes that are bought and resold in less than 90 days. "This extension is intended to accelerate the resale of foreclosed properties in neighborhoods struggling to overcome the possible effects of abandonment and blight," said Acting Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante. To read more, click here The Minor Threat: Age-Restricted Communities Evicting Children Excerpt from AOL Real Estate Article At 6 months old, Kimberly Broffman faced eviction. It wasn't because her grandparents couldn't afford the home where she lived -- they were current on the mortgage. And it had nothing to do with her mother's run-ins with the law; she was welcome to stay, too. The only persona non grata was the infant, and she had to leave soon. The reason: Kimberly's grandparents -- and primary caregivers -- live in an age-restricted community, where minors are treated more often as vagrants than visitors. Judie and Jim Stottler, who belong to the Lakes Homeowners Association in Clearwater, Fla., have been in and out of court to keep Kimberly in their home since she was 3 years old, though the community board first raised objections when Kimberly was just an infant. She's 8 today. The couple gained legal custody of Kimberly because her mother had a history of substance abuse. The father remains unknown. Without her grandparents, Kimberly would likely be placed in foster care. But when the community board discovered that the child was living year-round with her grandparents, they issued an ultimatum: Remove the child or sell the house within 18 months. "Throwing the child out would be throwing us out," Judie Stottler, 64, told AOL Real Estate. "People end up losing their homes because they won't lose their children." The Stottlers are hardly alone. As the economic downturn bears down on families, an increasing number of grandparents are stepping in to raise their grandchildren, and it's presenting a host of complicated issues, both legal and ethical, particularly when it comes to senior housing. To read more, click here Didn't have time to read last month's newsletter? Visit the Articles and Resources page of the Inspect-It 1st Website to catch up on past home-related information and insights! We hope you found this edition of Inspection Connection informative and useful! See you again next month! Become a Fan Follow Us Connect with Us Read our Blog Roger Skaggs Web: www.rskaggsinspects.com Areas Served: Greater Yavapai County tel: 928-771-9255 fax: 877-848-8154 rdskaggs@inspectit1st.com Certification Southwest Institute of Property inspection (SIPI): #99119 American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI): #204597 Arizona Board of Technical Registration (BTR) #38213 About Roger Skaggs Roger Skaggs has owned and operated Inspect-It 1st ® Property Inspection of Prescott since 1999. He has inspected over two thousand homes, all in the Prescott area. Since 2002, Mr. Skaggs has acted as a property inspection and software trainer for SIPI, (Southwest Institute of Property Inspection). SIPI provides the initial training for all new franchisees and employee inspectors for Inspect-It 1st ® Property Inspection. He also provides continuing education through SIPI for veteran inspectors as well. Mr. Skaggs currently serves on the board of directors for the Arizona Chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). He is certified by ASHI, SIPI, and the Arizona Board of Technical Registration for home inspections. He is the Report Director and Software Liaison for all computerized report forms that Inspect-It 1st ® Franchising Corporation provides for their inspectors. Roger welcomes your clients to the inspection to provide on site familiarization of the property. He verbally summarizes the inspection at the end of the inspection to give your clients a better understanding of the condition of the property. Reports are comprehensive narrative reports with photos and summary laid out in a concise format, easy to follow. Our reports are unsurpassed in the industry.