How much would someone have to pay you to part with your favorite feline companion? Perhaps no amount of money could pry Mr. Whiskerworth van Hugglebottom from your loving arms, but the $140,000 offered to one family to include their cat in a real estate deal is proving pretty darn tempting. [More]
real estate
Woman Claims A Stranger Stole Her House Using A Fake Deed, Moved In
By 10.13.14
You can’t pick it up, shove it in your jacket and walk away with it, but a house can still be stolen, it seems. A senior citizen in New York says an ex-convict faked the deed to her family home in Queens and moved in, effectively stealing her house. [More]
Man Desperate To Sell Home Will Accept An iPhone 6 For It
By 10.8.14
With a house languishing on the market in Detroit, one homeowner who claims he paid way too much in 2010 — $41,000 — is so desperate to unload the property, he’s willing to give it up for a song. Let me clarify: This “song” comes in a white box and makes phone calls, connects to the Internet… Okay, it’s an iPhone 6, and that’s all he’s asking for. [More]
Trump’s Name Coming Off Failed New Jersey Casino
By 10.6.14
Because the Trump name can only be associated with quality real estate and crass, cash-in reality shows stocked with F-list celebrities vying for one last chance at fame, Donald Trump has apparently succeeded in having his name removed from at least one of two sinking Atlantic City casinos. [More]
Indiana Woman Lived In A House For Eight Years Without Ever Having To Pay For It
By 9.23.14
The luxury of not having to pay rent or a mortgage payment every month might seem like some kind of fever dream, obtainable only by those scant few who make the rest of us uncomfortably jealous, but one woman in Indiana managed to pull it off not just for a few months or even a year — but for eight years. [More]
Study: Housing Market Poised To Lose $83B This Year Because Of Consumers’ Student Loan Debt
By 9.22.14
Back in February we reported that student loan debt was preventing some first-time home buyers from entering the housing market. Now a new study aims to put a price tag on those missed opportunities for the real estate world. [More]
Zillow Likes The Zestimate On Rival Site Trulia, Puts In Offer Of $3.5 Billion
By 7.28.14
If you’ve got $3.5 billion lying around, you could buy just about any house you wanted. Or if you’re online real estate site Zillow, you just use that money to buy your competition. [More]
PA Court Says I Don’t Need To Tell Buyers That My House Was A Satanic Murder Pit
By 7.25.14
Should a home seller be obliged to reveal that the lovely 4-bedroom with a 2-car garage on half acre just also happened to be the place where previous tenants were brutally murdered? Not if that house is here in Pennsylvania. [More]
Wanted: Neat Freaks To Live Cheaply In Mansions, Disappear On Command
By 7.10.14
Help wanted: must own enough upscale furnishings to fill a large house. Applicants must be meticulously neat and able to make a house look like someone lives there, but without making it look like someone lives there. Your compensation: being able to live in a luxury home for below-market rents. [More]
4 Things Home Buyers Do That Annoy Sellers
By 7.8.14
By this point, most of us have been unwitting sucked into House Hunters marathon and screamed at the nitpicky buyers about their inability to look past the paint color, but that is a minor annoyance compared to some of the other ways in which home buyers get under the skin of sellers. [More]
You Can Buy An Entire Town In South Dakota For The Bargain Price Of $400K
By 6.30.14
Check your pockets and dig into the couch cushions — if you can rustle up some spare change to the tune of $400,000, you could be the owner of your very own town in South Dakota. The man who owns Swett, S.D. — and its bar, single house, workshop, three trailers and 6.16 acres of land — is looking to sell. [More]
Are Zillow’s “Zestimates” Full Of Zhit? Depends Who You Ask
By 6.10.14
If you’ve looked at real estate in the last few years, you’ve almost certainly reviewed the listings on Zillow.com and you’re probably quite familiar with the “Zestimate,” the site’s automated approximation of what the property is worth. Some realtors say Zestimates are useless and cause confusion for their customers, while Zillow defends the data. Interestingly, both sides use the same stats to argue their case. [More]
Data Geniuses Will Find The Perfect House Before You Can
By 6.4.14
There are some people out there who are just better at certain things than you are, which is why one couple is going to find the completely perfect house that suits each and every one of their needs. Because they managed to manipulate data and bend it to that exact purpose, and the rest of us probably don’t know how to do that. [More]
For Sale: Count Dracula’s Transylvanian Castle (Vampires Not Included)
By 5.12.14
Are all the kids still into vampires these days? Because forget those sparkly bloodsuckers or the ones gobbling up synthetic blood — the home of the original famous vampire, Dracula himself, is up for sale. [More]
Despite Anonymous Realtor’s Angry Note, Couple Plans To Keep Parking On Their Lawn
By 5.7.14
The best way to ensure your complaints won’t be taken seriously? Leaving an angry, anonymous letter detailing why you’re ticked off. Just such an unsigned missive from someone claiming to be a realtor has one elderly New Jersey couple pledging to keep parking on their own darn lawn if they want to. [More]
Obnoxious Or Delightful?: Couple Paints Victorian Home Like The House From ‘Up’
By 4.28.14
The first thing I think of when hearing that a family painted its home to look just like the colorful house in the animated movie Up is, “Aww/I wonder if it’d float if you attached balloons to it?” But for some of the neighbors of a California family who outfitted their Victorian house in Up colors, the whole thing is downright obnoxious. [More]
Entire Abandoned Spanish Village Going For The Low Low Price Of Zero Dollars
By 3.10.14
We’ve heard about white hot real estate, but who knew that could apply to an entire village? Spain has an estimate 2,900 empty villages, hamlets and tiny towns tucked all over the country, including one dating back to the 15th century that’s currently going for the bargain basement price of absolutely no money whatsoever. [More]
Property Tax Soars After Appraiser Adds Mythical Luxury Bathroom & 660 Sq. Ft.
By 1.27.14
A family in New Jersey says they have no choice but to sell their home after years of paying sky-high property taxes that resulted from the fertile imagination of a town appraiser who inexplicably added on hundreds of square feet and a luxury bathroom (complete with two sinks, just like on HGTV!), and that there’s little chance they’ll ever get any of that money back. [More]
