Monday Mish Mash: Rod Stewart

Still touring senior citizen rock star Rod Stewart and his long-time lady-wife Penny Lancaster have reportedly shelled out around £4,650,000* for Durrington House, a hulking, Grade II listed Palladian-style pile about 30 miles north-east of London on 46 bucolic acres near Epping Forest on the Essex/Hertfordshire border.According to information Your Mama dug up on the internets, the country estate...

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Monday Mish Mash: Caroline Kennedy

The real estate news out of Boston is that former first daughter Caroline Kennedy—recently selected by President Obama to be the ambassador to Japan—has heaved two separate and undeveloped parcels on the blue-blooded resort island of Martha's Vineyardon the market for a total of $45,000,000.The smaller parcel—39.1 acres with more than 1,000 feet of frontage on Squibnocket Pond and over-the-dunes view...

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Monday Mish Mash: L.A. Reid

The property peeps at The Real Deal revealed that music industry honcho L.A. Reid has hoisted his sprawling condo-crib on New York City's posh Park Avenue on the market with a sizable $18,900,000 price tag.The three-time Grammy winning record exec, producer and songwriter acquired 5,003 square foot, full-floor spread back in 2000 for $9.43 million.A quick scan of the floor plan included with...

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Reese Witherspoon Buys House Next Door

BUYER: Reese WitherspoonLOCATION: Los Angeles, CAPRICE: $3,000,000SIZE: 3,053 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: As pearl clutchingly scandalicious as the tabloid storm over the recent arrests of otherwise wholesome Oscar winning actress Reese Witherspoon and her talent agent second hubby Jim Toth in Atlanta (GA) may be—he for driving drunk, she for cop sassing—it's their most recent,...

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New Loan Started, March Apartment Update

I've started  a new hard money loan on a property in Richmond, CA. This is a 4 bedroom duplex, 2 bedrooms and 1 bath on each side. Each unit is 600 square feet for a total property square footage of 1,200 square feet. Each unit has an attached one car garage. There is at least one tenant in the property (my partner was unable to see the interior of either side). The property was built in 1960...

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Virtual Visits

A new study purportedly suggests that “virtual visits” to healthcare providers for certain infections may be as effective as, and cheaper than, in-person in-office visits.  The researchers’ rough estimate of the cost difference with respect to treating a patient with a reported UTI was $74 per e-visit vs. $93 for an office visit.  Query, what are the implications for proper patient screening and care; patient savings; efficiencies; return visit frequencies; over-prescribing antibiotics;...

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What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week - May 6, 2013

Mortgage rates fell last week and approached or reached record low levels. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage (FRM) fell from 3.40 percent to 3.35 percent. Average rates for a 15-year FRM moved from 2.61percent to 2.56 percent. Average rates for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) fell to 2.56 from last week's average of 2.58 percent Discount points for last...

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Chris Evans Buys New Lair in Los Angeles

BUYER: Chris EvansLOCATION: Los Angeles, CAPRICE: $3,250,000SIZE: 4,599 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 4.5 bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: We first heard word from Yolanda Yakketyak a few days ago and then we heard it again this morning from Lucy Spillerguts who both snitched that body-licious actor Chris Evans dropped a bit more than $3.5 million on a walled and gated superhero-worthy lair high above Laurel...

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Can The Right Color Help Sell Your Home Faster?

When it comes to selling your home in Seattle , you've probably thought of the most common staging tricks, such as clearing out the clutter to make your rooms look bigger and bringing in more light to brighten things up. However, have you considered that the colors in your house might affect whether buyers are interested? First impressions are everything when you are selling a house, so think about...

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Tony Dovolani Dances Out of Connecticut Crib

SELLER: Tony Dovolani and Trebelina "Lina" Jani DovolaniLOCATION: Stratford, CTPRICE: $399,000SIZE: 2,020 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: This morning Your Mama received—along with every other property gossip, we presume—an entirely unexpected press release that announced Albanian-born professional ballroom dancer Tony Dovolani has listed his humble (and perfectly ordinary)...

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Healthcare Real Estate Trends

In healthcare the one constant is change.  Recently we’ve seen changes in healthcare (and by extension, healthcare real estate) because of The Great Recession, lower reimbursements, healthcare reform, mergers and repurposing (to name a few).  Below are six trends for this year that Duke Realty predicted at the outset of this year.  Now that we have four months of 2013 under our belts, it’s a good time to look back and see how these have played out, and, just as importantly, look forward…...

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Fed Meeting Statement Points To Continuing Low Interest Rates

Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement indicates the Federal Reserve's commitment to keeping long term interest rates and inflation under control. The Fed will continue monitoring inflation, but does not expect inflation to rise more than 0.50 percent above its target rate of 2.00 percent over the next one to two years. Ongoing monitoring of inflation and unemployment, as well...

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Retired B-Baller Mitch Richmond Lists Calabasas Crib

SELLERS: Mitch and Juliannah "Juli" RichmondLOCATION: Calabasas, CAPRICE: $9,495,000SIZE: 12,953 square feet, six bedrooms, 7 full and 2 half bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: Not too long ago a trusted real estate canary named Benjamin Birdie chirped in Your Mama's ear that a huge Calabasas, CA mansion owned by retired professional basketball player Mitch Richmond was about to plop itself on the open market...

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Case-Shiller Home Price Indices Post Highest Growth Rates Since 2006

Housing markets continue to improve according to the S&P Case Shiller Home Price Indices released April 30 for February's data. The Indices consist of a 10-City Composite Index and a 20-City Composite Index with housing markets for each city reported based on a three-month rolling average of home prices. Case Shiller Posts Highest Growth Rates Since 2006 The data released yesterday comprised the...

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Tuesday Catch Up: Rafael Marquez

SELLER: Rafael MárquezLOCATION: New York, NYPRICE: $10,950,000SIZE: 4,042 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: As was first reported ages ago by the property peeps at The Real Deal, internationally known professional soccer player Rafael Márquez has his sprawling Manhattan combo-condo on the market for $10,950,000. Property records show the Mexican-born soccer star purchased the...

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Tuesday Catch Up: Jacqueline Laurita

In other semi-celebrity foreclosure news and gossip, The Real Housewife of New Jersey's Jacqueline Laurita and her entrepreneurial businessman husband Chris are reported by TMZ to be faced with the gaping maw of foreclosure on their Franklin Lakes, NJ mini-mansion.*It appears the Laurita's purchased their 1.75 acre semi-rural suburban spread in November 2001 for $1,720,000. We don't know a thing about...

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Tuesday Catch Up: Fantasia Barrino

She may have rocketed to fame as the winner of the third season of American Idol but fortune seems to have eluded three time Grammy nominee Fantasia Barrino who, bless her real estate heart, seems to have (yet again) run into a bit of a squeezy financial situation. Celebrity gossip juggernaut TMZ recently snitched that in an effort to avoid an ugly and protracted tangle with foreclosure Miz Barrino...

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Tuesday Catch Up: Vince Vaughn

After an arduous house hunt across Los Angeles, comedy and rom-com movie veteran actor Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers, The Break-up, Dodgeball) and his preggers wife Kyla have splashed out $3.925 million on a mini-mansion in the upscale suburban community of La Canada-Flintridge, CA.The turn of the most recent century white clapboard center hall Colonial is trés Beaver Cleaver that measures in...

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Understanding And Purchasing Distressed Property For Profit

According to the the latest Foreclosure Inventory Analysis showed nearly 1.5 million properties were currently in the foreclosure process or being held by banks as Real Estate Owned. This was up 9 percent from the first quarter of 2012, but down significantly from the apex of foreclosure activity -- 2.2 million units -- in December 2010. What Is Distressed Property? "Distressed property" is a blanket...

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Drake Bell Lists at a Loss in Los Feliz

SELLER: Drake BellLOCATION: Los Angeles, CAPRICE: $1,400,000SIZE: 3,400 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yesterday Your Mama received a covert communique from a lovely lady we'll call Mustang Sushi who snitched that former child star, musician and reality game show contestant Drake Bell has heaved his hillside casa in L.A.'s celeb-friendly Los Feliz neighborhood on the market...

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