The Home Crowd

Very often, in both my professional and personal life, I find myself crunching numbers.  For one, out of necessity, and second, out of curiousity.  Recently, I have found a great resource in Yahoo’s Finance section.  The mortgage calculator works just as how you’d expect, you drop in the figures, and the calculator pops out the appropriate information.

So thinking about buying that 350,000 dollar home?  Well crunch the numbers, add in taxes, home insurance, and get a clear figure in your head before making the big leap.

Yahoo Finance Mortgage Calculator

As you look over your results, you’ll notice your estimated mortgage payment, as well as a comprehensive payment schedule, and also what your home will cost you total (principal + interest).  Now, if you find that simple tool useful, there are many others on the Yahoo Finance page which help out with financial planning, College Saving, Taxes, Insurance, Loans and Retirement Planning.

But if you’re mainly interested in the real estate aspect of the calculator tools, then I also recommend moreso than the Mortgage Calculator, the  “How much home can I afford” calculator.  This calculates home affordability in a more “traditional mortgage’ sense.

Yahoo Finance’s Home Affordability Calculator

These tools, combined with real estate searches such as through various real estate sites and those in the similar vein such as Zillow, can save you some time pounding the proverbial pavement as you’re able to do your homework during the evenings and weekends.

The site however, is run by Yahoo, which therefore means I find it pretty reliable.  That is, unless microsoft succeeds in buying out yahoo.  In which case, your results and reliability may vary.

DB Fletcher Design out of the UK, has this table which I saw for the first time a couple of years ago, but I still find it impressive with its circular expanding action, for which I can’t even comprehend the machinery within the table itself.

Its intended uses are for the home and the deck of a yacht. I don’t have a yacht, so I’m not even getting into that discussion, but I could imagine how great it’d be to have one of these at home. How? Well, you’re definitely volunteering to host thanksgiving dinner upon delivery for one. Difference is, you likely won’t set up the table until after all the guests have arrived. And as soon as all the oohs die down, you can bust out the ol’ centerpiece. The kid’s table, would be of course, your previous dining table.

Here’s a video of the Fletcher Capstan Table

At their site they have 3 videos available, but I found that one to be the best, as it is the only one with sound. And for good reason, that thing’s loud! I’ve heard quieter pin-setters at a bowling alley.

Anyhow, interested? It’ll set you back about 50-70K according to their website. And it only comes in circle-shaped. Seems like a square shaped table would be great also, so long as it could shape-shift on a 90 degree turn so as to still keep you squared off in whatever dining space you place it in.

DB Fletcher - Link.

I came across Zillow a couple of years ago via a link to a page on their site, showcasing the actual locations of the TV homes we all grew up watching. The Brady Bunch house is there, as is the Bewitched house and the 90210 house (which was miles away from Beverly Hills near Pasadena actually), and also Archie Bunker’s House. But does anyone even know which of those houses was his? I remember quite vividly many row houses, shakily filmed from a moving car.

Immediately upon viewing this list, I remembered a good friend of mine and how she was a huge fan of the series “Charmed”. Personally, I was a huge fan of Alyssa Milano. Difference was, the house from Charmed was not actually in San Francisco as the show would lead you to believe, but actually nearby, a few blocks north of Downtown L.A., literally blocks away from Dodger Stadium. So we did a day trip and I managed to get a great ‘touristy’ pic of her in front of the house. It was a fun little trip and a great exercise in using a valuable web-based resource for real estate. (Not sure how well she’s coming along with getting me that pic with Alyssa Milano though)

Link to “Charmed” house page here.

If you’d like to see the list of famous homes Zillow has found, here’s the link - Zillow Famous Homes

But let’s say for instance, that you’re looking to sell your home, you could look it up on Zillow and get a ‘ballpark’ estimate of your home’s worth. I say ‘ballpark’ because based on what I’ve seen, I don’t feel the estimates are accurate, especially not in the current housing market (as of April, 2008). How would I know, you say? By keeping a close eye on what those close to me are buying and selling. Know someone who’s buying/selling? Look it up on Zillow and see just how closely their estimates match up to actual sale/purchase price.

For example, in February a friend was purchasing a home. It was a fixer-upper/distressed property in a neighborhood that at best could be described as “in need of redevelopment”. After touring the home, and seeing the condition it was in, I didn’t feel Zillow’s estimate was close, but that was probably just figured out by some equation of area value, square footage, number of beds/baths. I also didn’t feel it took into consideration the current housing market. It was overinflated, and considering the dire condition of the home, and the housing downturn, I imagined the price my friend paid was 14% less than Zillow’s estimate. Said friend had bought for less than that even, 16 % less than the Zillow estimate. That, two months ago, I found somewhat understandable, knowing that this site likely had no clue about the home’s condition. But after checking again on the same property this week, Zillow has raised the value 17% higher than the original estimate from two months ago.

So, if you’re curious about what your home is worth, or if you’re curious about a prospective home, give Zillow a shot. It’s free, there’s no annoying registration required, just type in the address of the property. Zillow has partnered over the last 2 years with thousands of real estate brokers and agents, and recently, has partnered up with Sears to expand resources. I expect Zillow will grow and eventually get a better grasp at actual value than artificial value. They’ll have to, or in this market, they’ll be so far off when it comes to numbers that it won’t be a reliable service.

Now, if you’re serious about what your home is worth, check out the site, then hire a professional appraisor.

In the meantime, I’m gonna try to figure out what I’m gonna have to offer to buy Tony Soprano’s house.

Link to house from The Soprano’s - here.