Maureen Mengel Blog

If you're looking to take out a mortgage, a home equity loan, or home equity line of credit, you've probably heard a lot of terms being thrown around, including loan-to-value ratio. While this term may sound complex, it really couldn't be more simple. That's why we've taken it upon ourselves to explain the meaning once and for all. Keep reading to learn what a loan-to-value ratio is, how it works, and how you can use yours to your advantage. What is a loan-to-value ratio? A loan-to-value ratio is the measure of the size of any loans you've taken out on your home in comparison to the current value of your home. For example, if your home is worth $200,000 and you have $100,000 left to pay on your mortgage and you want to take out a $50,000 home equity loan on the property, your loan-to-value equation would look a little something like this: ($100,000 + $50,000)/$200,000 = 0.75 or $150,000/200,000 =0.75 In this case, you would have a 75% loan-to-value ratio...

Comes With Full Service: The Lodge at Courchevel  (Photo credit: Savills, London) Savills, London Courchevel 1850 is the most exclusive of the Three Valleys resorts, a tiny enclave of superior chalets and with unfettered access to some of the best snow in the Alps.  Add to those assets the almost-like-a-hotel service of the Six Senses concierge operation as your house managers, and the price grazing $15 million starts to make sense. The Lodge, as it is impressively named, occupies three floors, and includes, in addition to the five bedrooms, each with its own bath, a screening room, a bespoke kitchen, fetching outdoor dining areas on balconies, and for those aches and pains incurred on Courchevel's rather daunting slopes, a sauna, a hammam, a Jacuzzi.   That's if you don't want to trip down to the Six Senses spa itself. But it's the management and depth of the concierge services -- also through Six Senses -- that puts The Lodge into the upper grades of c...

Puglia's ancient vines define its landscape. Lana Bortolot Remote, rugged, rural and not as sexy as its Italian counterparts in Sicily, Rome or Florence, Puglia has been somewhat of a wallflower. But perhaps not for much longer. A recent real estate story in the New York Times featured a one-story villa compound outside San Vito dei Normanni—about 15 miles west of Brindisi, a port city of just over 400,000 residents on the Adriatic coast. Nearly 2,700 square feet—the seekly minimalist pad incorporates a cluster of trulli, those odd cone-shaped adobe-like structures that litter the countryside around Alberobello. It’s a landscape of poly-agricultural plains known more for olive oil and grain production than for luxury getaways. Located in the heel of Italy’s boot, this is, indeed, a spread for the well-heeled. And it's a perfect representation of the region: a place that straddles rusticity and elegance. I first visited Puglia in 2000 (stayed in a trullo—it ...

Make your projects easier with these apps. Wayfair Whether you are renovating an entire room, looking to repaint, redecorating or simply in search of the perfect sofa, a minor change can become a major project. But, it doesn’t need to be. Here are seven apps for your Smartphone (and two that are web only) which can make these projects much easier. If you want to save time, money or simply do things in the most efficient way possible, these apps are true game changers. Havenly Sometimes you want the eye and help of an interior designer but time, your location or budget will not allow for it. That’s where Havenly comes in. You can use the services of an interior designer entirely through Havenly’s app and website for far less than the cost of hiring someone to help you in person. There are different packages available costing from $19-$179. Havenly’s designers can help with everything from refreshing a bedroom to a true renovation project that involves construc...

San Jose, California ranks number one on LendingTree's list Getty Here are the numbers on the country’s housing market recovery since 2009. LendingTree recently crunched the data on 50 top metros around the country analyzing the impact of the housing market recovery since 2009. LendingTree also linked income and unemployment rates. The results may surprise you. “The most significant thing is the extent of how much price appreciation has outpaced income growth in some areas,” explains Tendayi Kapfidze, chief economist at LendingTree. According to LendingTree , average median home values have increased by nearly $50,000 in the 50 largest metros across the country since 2009. It’s no surprise the top three ranked metros showing the strongest recovery are in California. These include San Jose, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. High paying tech jobs in San Jose and San Francisco propelled price appreciation. Each of the three areas mentioned saw an average median value  ...

Oregon is officially the first state in the U.S. to pass universal rent control for all tenants. Housing economists that spoke with Inman think the legislation, as written, will have either little or adverse impact on tenants and affordability. Universal rent control is here: Will it backfire? curated from Inman

Marc Andreessen first posited that software was eating the world, and indeed one industry after another has learned software mastery is essential to winning (and keeping) digital-centric consumers. But how will consumers react when money can also function like software? Cryptocurrency, when paired with other blockchain functionality, offers the potential to inject new software-driven features into the traditional role of money as a medium of exchange. These features could form the core of new business models and drive innovative benefits to consumers and businesses alike. What if money were programmable ? When money and software collide, specific terms and conditions can be “bolted on” to money, dictating when it is available or how it is used. Essentially, you can set up rules for the movement of money that are enforced by the money itself . A grandparent, for example, could set up a self-executing expense account for a child that releases funds according to a specific schedu...

With the U.S. housing market showing signs of slowing, which, according to CNBC , is likely to continue through spring, the balance of power could be moving in favor of buyers instead of sellers. Despite an increase in the supply of homes nationally and in many individual markets, affordability issues remain. The problem is that, while housing inventory has increased, prices still haven’t come down enough. Still, 2019 seems to offer strong potential for finding affordable markets. California, which seems to never be a not-hot as a real estate market, is showing signs of a slowdown as well. In Los Angeles, housing inventory is up year-over-year. In Jan. 2018, there were 5,371 homes for sale, according to Redfin . By Jan. 2019, that number had jumped to 6,738 total homes for sale. In San Jose, available inventory is significantly up from last year. Where in Jan. 2018, there were 328 total homes for sale, by January this year, the number has more than doubled to 769 homes for sale. ...

Profits at real estate giant Douglas Elliman fell by nearly 75 percent in 2018, thanks at least in part to a slower residential market, according to the company’s latest earnings report. Douglas Elliman parent Vector Group reported Thursday that the real estate company brought in a net profit of $5.2 million in all of 2018. That’s a dramatic fall from 2017, when the company saw a profit of $21.4 million — or nearly four times as much. Thursday’s numbers weren’t all bad, however, with Douglas Elliman bringing in a total revenue of $754.1 million in 2018, up from $722.3 million in 2017. During the fourth quarter of 2018, the company saw revenue of $177.6 million, just a slight dip from the same period one year earlier, when revenue reached $177.7 million. Vector Group is primarily known as a tobacco company but, through a subsidiary called New Valley, has a number of real estate investments as well. Those investments include 100 percent ownership of Douglas Elliman, which des...

This house in Bayfield, Wisconsin personifies what we think is a Victorian house. It is, but it is more specifically a Queen Anne. Regina Cole Calling a house “Victorian” is problematic. No one style lasts for 63 years, which was the length of Queen Victoria’s reign. For a visual demonstration of that, look at the way men and women dressed when she ascended to the throne in 1837; then compare it to the clothes they wore when she died in 1901. Or, look at the way we looked 63 years ago. Styles change. House styles, too, change with the times, reflecting aesthetics, preferences for new materials, dominance of various industries and current events. Many architectural historians object to the term “Victorian,” contending that the word is accurate only as a loose description of the epoch of Queen Victoria. Others say that “Victorian” covers three distinct picturesque phases of architecture in America: “Early Victorian” from 1840 to 1860, “High Victorian” from 1860 to 1880, and “...

If you are having second thoughts about the home you just bought, you’re not alone. Nearly two-thirds of homeowners between the ages of 23 and 28 have some regret about their purchase, according to new survey data from Bankrate. At 63 percent, millennials are more likely to regret the home they bought more than any other generations. Only 35 percent of baby boomers and 44 percent of all Americans surveyed feel the same way. The survey was conducted via online questionnaire between January 30 and February 1 of this year. It included 2,668 adults from around the country, 1,493 of whom were homeowners. Those who had buyers’ remorse said their regrets mostly stemmed from home maintenance costs and other unexpected expenses related to buying a home. Many millennials reported that hidden costs have caused them serious financial problems years after a purchase. “Buyer’s remorse can easily be avoided with adequate research and planning,” said Bankrate analyst Deborah Kearns in a prepa...

This 20-foot-wide townhouse on West 101st Street is priced at $1,500 per square foot. Douglas Elliman Real Estate Space and value are two things that don’t seem to go hand in hand in the New York City real estate market, but both can be found in townhouse form on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and is emerging as an area for investment for high-net-worth buyers, according to recent sales information. The neighborhood has a scarcity of townhouses above 20 feet wide — 10 on the market currently, versus 27 for sale on the Upper East Side. However, the price per square foot of a townhouse measuring 20 feet or more in width is nearly half the price of a comparably-sized condo, with the difference much smaller across town, according to data from real estate valuation platform Compit. Last year, 20 townhouses above 20 feet wide sold on the Upper West Side, with an average price of $11 million and an average price per square foot of $1,332. On the Upper East side, 20 townhouses a...

Living Room Max Touhey/Greg Schriefer This used to be two separate units but a few years ago Clive Davis, mastermind behind the musical careers of Alicia Keyes,  Aretha Franklin, and Jennifer Hudson amongst others,  did a top-to-bottom revamp of two contiguous units to turn them into this  2,800 square foot, 3-bed, 4-bath co-op in Park Avenue's Ritz Tower . With the help of  designer Greg Schriefer , who is also one of the listing agents, the unit has become an entertainment-centric, art-friendly, light-infused mid-level unit now asking $6.249 million (after an initial ask of  $7.8 million). The Ritz Tower was built in 1927 and at the time was the tallest residential building in New York City. It is the same building where all three of the late playwright Neil Simon's apartments are currently for sale .  "This unit is centered around the staircase sculpture," says Schriefer, referring to the circular ...

In Maine, many of Beatrix Farrand's plants live on at two gardens open to the public Courtesy of the Land and Garden Preserve Americans are familiar with the name Frederick Law Olmstead because, among other great landscapes,  he designed Central Park and Prospect Park in New York and Boston’s famed Emerald Necklace . But fewer know the name Beatrix Farrand. In 1898 Farrand became, at age 27, the only woman of 11 founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Her surviving work includes, among others, gardens at the White House, Dumbarton Oaks, Princeton, Yale, and the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens. She was born in New York City in 1872 as a member of the Jones family, the clan responsible for the term “Keeping Up With the Joneses.” Her aunt, only three years older and a close friend, was the novelist Edith Wharton . Farrand found an early mentor in Charles Sprague Sargent, a botanist at Harvard University and the founding director of the Arnold Arboretum ...

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Are there advantages to being small? How do indies compete in the current market? Red Oak Realty’s Vanessa Bergmark and Porchlight’s Amy Bayer will answer these questions and more onstage at Inman Connect New York. WATCH: Why indies are more relevant than ever curated from Inman

Home sales in Southern California is dropping fast, according to the latest data from property analytics provider  CoreLogic . In January, 12,665 houses and condos were sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties — down 19.8 percent from January and 17.1 percent year-over-year. Among newly-built homes, sales fell 57.8 percent below average January figures. “January marked the second consecutive month in which Southern California home sales were the lowest for that month in 11 years, since the early days of the last housing bust,” said Andrew LePage, a CoreLogic analyst, in a prepared statement. “Many of the deals recorded last month reflect purchasing decisions made during the holidays, from Thanksgiving 2018 through early in the new year. ” Such low numbers have not been seen since January 2008, when the country was entering  a housing and financial crisis . The steep drop is the result of a number of factors both unique t...

Seventy-eight percent of U.S. internet consumers have said that a brand that provides them with personalized content will have a much greater chance at winning their business. This is just one of the facts that eXp Realty’s Scott Petronis and CoreLogic’s Lucie Fortier shared onstage at Inman Connect New York. WATCH: The tech trends that’ll define 2019 curated from Inman

Amazon broke lots of cities’ hearts in November, when it chose New York’s Long Island City and Arlington, Virginia, as the homes for its new headquarter locations after a yearlong search. After all, winners stood to benefit from tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic investment. Some of those snubbed cities may be holding out hope for a second chance if the e-commerce giant changes its mind about not reopening the search process now that it has backed out of its decision to move to New York City over local protests. But perhaps it’s time for cities to realize that preparations for the HQ2 contest may benefit them regardless of whether they are home to Amazon headquarters. A recent report by the Morningstar ratings agency took a look at Charlotte, North Carolina, along with Houston and Salt Lake City, none of which made Amazon’s 20-city shortlist for HQ2 but are nonetheless growing their economies. CrediFi has examined those findings and analyzed ...

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Cantilevered overhang Bernard André Photography With views toward San Francisco, the town of Atherton, California has consistently ranked as one of the wealthiest zip codes in America. It came in at the top spot again last year with a median sales price of $6.7 million and builders continue to bet on the bullish market with new construction at record breaking prices. This $24.9 million new construction , designed with the wealth-attracting principles of Feng Shui, has just come on the market and should it achieve its asking price it will be one of only about a dozen homes to ever sell for that high a price in Atherton.  According to public records the highest priced sale on record is a $36.7 million sale that took place in 2013. Latest reports indicate the most expensive home currently for sale in the Bay Area is a $45 million off-market listing with elaborate 'biophilia' features.   This house is a cantilevered blend of concret...

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The scene from the oceanfront pool at 2000 Ocean, a new Hallandale Beach, Fla. waterfront luxury multifamily development from KAR Properties. KAR Properties It wasn’t all that long ago that Hallandale Beach, Fla. was little more than a scruffy beach town. Today, having found itself the epicenter of a real estate investment boom, it is rapidly on its way to emerging as South Florida’s next prime real estate nexus. In keeping with its new standing, the city is undertaking enormous renovation projects, constructing new developments and welcoming the arrival of upscale restaurants and shops. With an estimated population of nearly 40,000, Hallandale Beach is among the fastest-growing Broward County municipalities. It has long been so well known for Canadian snowbirds wintering near its Atlantic Ocean beaches that it has sometimes been dubbed “the southernmost Canadian city.” But today it has also begun attracting a more global contingent, with a number of Europeans buying vac...

Networking is essential for business and personal growth. To get the most out of time spent on this skill, however, requires a strategy with precision and aim. Networking is all about the give and take, and so the most important people to connect with are the ones you can also help. While building a real estate portfolio worth millions over the last eight years and brokering a few deals before then, I have gained a lot of insight on how to network and which connections would be beneficial for real estate agents and brokers. Of the five Ws (who, what, where, why, when), the most important one our breed of professionals should focus on while crafting their strategy is, undoubtedly, who. Real Estate Agents We all have a choice on whether we want to greet our colleagues with contempt or a handshake. Much more is gained from a firm grip and a friendly smile. It is a lonely world out there, and your fellow agents can make it much easier by sharing lessons learned, best practices an...