This article was written by Stacey Lamirand.

Purchasing a home is a large investment and buyers are advised to do a careful investigation of the property.  There are six areas of potential trouble that should be thoroughly investigated by a licensed home inspector. Sometimes cracks, bulges and spots are an indication of trouble, sometimes they are not.  Better to be safe than sorry--hire a licensed contractor to inspect your property before you complete while you are in escrow.

We're often asked by our clients, "How much should we offer?"  This is an excellent question.  The answer is not straight-forward, especially in a market like ours. 

I heard an interesting statistic the other day: Only twenty percent of all short sales that have been approved by the banks ever closes escrow. 

New Regulations, designed to create more transparancy will likely cause costly delays for buyers and sellers

"As first-time home-buyers, Jane was a real God-send to my wife and me.  She held our hand throughout the process, from early open house visits through the signing of the papers.  At each stage we always felt that we had someone who was looking out for us, ensuring that we were making the right decisions.

"Jane is an outstanding Realtor who helped us purchase our first home.  She is incredibly intelligent, thinks strategically, and exhibits very sound judgment.  Jane's past work experience as a principal at a management consulting firm, as well as her MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Business, enabled her to guide us successfully through the purchase of our first home.