Tyler Homes for sale ~ Tyler Texas homes ~ Must-do's if buyer wants to perform own inspection

Must-do's if buyer wants to perform own inspection

Can you say 'liability waiver'?

By Shy Shinalt, Tuesday, June 26, 2012

DEAR BARRY: The buyer of our home wants to do his own inspection. Our concern is that he wants to get up on the roof. Our home is very high off the ground, and the roof pitch is steep. He also wants to climb into the attic. I'm concerned he may fall and hurt himself and/or damage something while in the attic. We don't want to offend the buyer, but we have a great concern. What do you advise? --Janette
DEAR JANETTE: Perhaps you could have the buyer sign a liability waiver stipulating that he will hold you blameless in the event that he is injured during his inspection and that he will pay for anything that is accidentally broken. To ensure that this would be binding, you should obtain a legal form from a lawyer.
Another option is offering to split the cost of a professional home inspection. When compared with the cost of an attorney, it might even be worth it to pay the entire inspection fee.
That aside: If your buyer believes that he is qualified to perform the same evaluation as a professional home inspector, he is very naive. It takes years of full-time inspection work to become truly qualified as a home inspector. If your buyer wants to experience undisclosed defects after the close of escrow, he should go ahead and do his own inspection.

DEAR BARRY: When we purchased our home, the termite inspector found plumbing leaks under the bathroom. But the home inspector did not inspect under the building because there was water on the ground, and he said this would be unsafe. He recommended ground drainage improvements to enable further inspection, but we went ahead without further inspection and bought the property.
That turned out to be a mistake.
Within days of moving in, we had a major sewage backup in the bathrooms. It turns out that we have rusted-out drainpipes and lots of roots in the main sewer line. We believe the sellers knew about these problems but said nothing. What should we do? --Nick
DEAR NICK: If the pest inspector found leaking under the building, he was not deterred by water on the ground. Perhaps the home inspector was too squeamish and should have done the same. Groundwater in a crawl space is an inconvenience for a home inspector, and no one except a small kid enjoys crawling in the mud. But it hardly qualifies as a significant safety hazard.
On the other hand, if the water on the ground was from leaking sewage, the inspector was wise to stay out, and the pest inspector probably should have done the same.
If the seller claims no knowledge of the problem, proving otherwise could be difficult, but it seems unlikely that the plumbing problems just occurred for the first time. Sometimes a neighbor has knowledge of past plumbing problems. This is something to investigate by asking around.
You need to obtain a repair bid from a licensed plumbing contractor. Hopefully, the costs will not be excessive. If repairs are expensive, you should get some legal advice regarding seller liability.


Shy Shinalt
Keller Williams Tyler
903.533.8114
www.shyshinalt.com

Tyler Encourages Responsible Water Use

Tyler Encourages Responsible Water Use


Tyler Encourages Responsible Water Use Tyler remains under voluntary water restrictions to help conserve supplies as another hot Texas summer closes in. The city has been on voluntary restrictions since late March, easing a December order that called for mandatory cutbacks. Tyler Public Works Director Greg Morgan said Tuesday the city is taking this proactive measure to voluntarily conserve water now for later. "The City of Tyler currently remains under step one water conservation measures," Morgan said. Plentiful spring rainfall helped refill East Texas lakes and recharge the soil -- two pluses going into the hot, dry months ahead -- but levels still are below normal. "The Lake Tyler/Lake Tyler East system still remains about 2.5 feet down from a full elevation of 375.5," Morgan said. "As such, it is incumbent upon the customers of Tyler Water Utilities to remain good stewards of our environment and to utilize this natural resource in a responsible manner." Tyler has a very stable, long-term water supply that is projected to last for decades, if people use it responsibly, officials said. Morgan said water production and lake levels are being evaluated on a daily basis, and staff is prepared to adjust conservation measures as needed to conserve.

National Weather Service officials said Tuesday the summer months should be somewhat hotter and drier than normal, but nothing close to the withering conditions of last summer. It is, after all, Texas. "To quote a cliche, on the fourth of July it's going to be hotter than a firecracker," Hydrologist C.S. Ross said this week. For fall, there are indications of a return to El Nino conditions, characterized by cooler, wet weather. In the interim, residents are asked to limit irrigation of landscaped areas to Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays if their street address ends in an even number (0,2,4,6,8); or Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays if their address ends with an odd number (1,3,5,7,9). Irrigation also should be done between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., officials said. Tyler's pumping capacity is about 72 million gallons per day -- 8 million from deep water wells, 34 million from Lake Tyler and Lake Tyler East and 30 million from Lake Palestine. The city of Dallas also has rights to remove water from Lake Palestine but is not yet drawing from that source, officials said. Tyler first began calling for voluntary cutbacks last October. At that time, Lake Tyler was 6.9 feet below spillway levels and Lake Palestine was about 5.9 feet low, records show. Residents are asked to not waste water. Waste is considered the elective use of water, such as washing house windows, sidings, eaves and roof with a hose without the use of a bucket, officials said. Other types of water waste include washing driveways, streets, curbs, gutters and vehicles without a cut-off valve and bucket. External Relations Director Susan Guthrie said residents should check their sprinkler systems to ensure they are appropriately timed and positioned. "When you set your sprinkler systems, make sure they are not watering the streets and sidewalks," she said. Residents also are asked to check for leaking faucets and toilets to help conserve.
Shy Shinalt
Keller Williams Tyler
903.533.8114
www.shyshinalt.com

Tyler homes / Tyler homes valid mortgage price quotes do exist

Valid mortgage price quotes do exist

Do you know where to look?

By Shy Tyler Homes Monday, June 25, 2012.

"How many lenders must I shop to be certain I receive a competitive price?"
If you have access to valid price quotes, three is usually enough. If you don't have access to valid price quotes, you won't get a competitive price no matter how many lenders you solicit.
Valid prices are prices that the lender would be willing to commit itself to at the time the price is quoted. Differences in valid prices posted by different lenders are small, which is why you don't have to shop many lenders. The reason is that 95 percent of all new mortgages today are either sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or insured by FHA or VA, so that the federal government assumes virtually all of the risk.
The residual risk to the originating lenders, that they might be required to buy back loans or, at an extreme, lose their right to originate, is small and does not result in large price differences between them. Some lenders are more efficient than others, but price differences from this source are also Tyler Homes

The challenge faced by mortgage borrowers who want to shop is that most price quotes are not valid, and soliciting them is a waste of time. Invalid prices can be quoted to shoppers with impunity because shoppers can't say, "Yes, I'll take it," until the information upon which the price is based has been confirmed, by which time the market will have changed.
Valid mortgage price quotes meet all of the following conditions:
They come from the internal pricing system of the lender, which I call their "posted prices," with no intermediation from loan officers. Loan officers are not bound to quote posted prices, and it is common for them to quote prices below the posted price, called "lowballing," in order to induce shopping borrowers to commit to them.
They are fully adjusted for all loan features that affect the price, such as credit score, type of property, purpose of loan, down payment, etc. The list is a long one. If anything that affects the price is left out, the lender assumes whatever generates the lowest price, which may or may not hold up.
For example, many lenders price loans without asking whether the borrower wants to escrow taxes and insurance. If in fact the borrower does not want to escrow, the price will have to be raised.
They include all price components. This means not only the interest rate and points but also other lender fees that are often left out of price quotes.
They are current as of the time of the quote, not as of the day before. The borrower shopping several lenders must do so on the same day, and to be safe within the same hour of the day, since prices are sometimes adjusted during the day.
Valid price quotes are available on the Internet if you know where to look. Every mortgage lender has a website, but few provide valid prices on them. Most are designed to entice shoppers to identify themselves so that they can be contacted by a loan officer who will give them a sales pitch.
But some lenders provide valid prices on their sites while allowing shoppers to remain anonymous until such time as the shopper elects to contact the lender. These include the seven Upfront Mortgage Lenders that I identify on my website. Shopping them is doable, if a bit of a chore, because each site is programmed differently and the shopper must visit each on the same day to extract the desired price data.
Much the better way to shop is on a multilender website where the site maintains valid prices for multiple lenders, which it presents in one single format for easy comprehension and comparison. There are three of those: mortgagemarvel.com; zillow.com; and mtgprofessor.com, which is mine.
Don't confuse multilender sites with lead generation sites, such as lendingtree.com and lowermybills.com, which do business with hundreds of lenders. These sites do not collect price data from lenders. Rather, they collect financial information including Social Security numbers from shoppers, which they sell as leads to lender clients.
These lead generation sites first identify the lenders who have indicated an interest in the particulars of a lead, and they sell the lead to the three or four lenders who will pay the most for it. The shopper then gets sales pitches from three or four loan officers who are under strong pressure to lowball the price because that is often the way to win the deal.

Shy Shinalt
Keller Williams Tyler
903.533.8114
www.shyshinalt.com

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Why Apple Should buy Facebook

Why Apple Should buy Facebook

Such a deal would let the social network's investors cash out at something close to what they were expecting.

By TheStreet Staff 4 hours ago

The biggest "tell" in what was otherwise a pretty boring Apple WorldWide Developers Conference Monday came during the iOS6 portion of the presentation, when Apple (AAPL +0.23%) announced full integration with Facebook (FB +0.37%).

Unlike most of what happened at the event, this went beyond what was rumored. A system for letting developers integrate their own apps with Facebook is also coming out, and it's now accessible directly from inside the App Store.

All of which got me to thinking:

At its Monday close Facebook is now worth "just" $58.4 billion, a long way from the estimated $100 billion figure talked about before the IPO. It's still pricey -- a price/earnings ratio of 87 -- thus unlikely to hit those heights any time soon.

Some of the investors who came in before the initial public offering, who could sell their shares once the "lockup" period expires, are either underwater or may perceive themselves to be.

Apple still lacks a social network. Its "cloud" is not a cloud at all, but a data center.

Facebook has been building a real cloud, using open source tools, for some time and it has engineers who really understand the need to save money on cloud installations if you want them to last.

My guess is Facebook's investors would jump at a bid of $80 billion. That's a huge premium from the current price.

As of March, Apple had a cash hoard estimated at $97.6 billion. It's continuing to accumulate cash, and its plans for a dividend are not expected to make a significant dent in the hoard. The company's market cap is $534 billion.

So Apple could easily do a half-cash bid for Facebook, acquiring a fast-growing asset with significant cloud presence for less than one-tenth its common stock and less than half the cash it has on hand.

Apple's biggest problem is that, insofar as its cash flow is concerned, it's mainly a manufacturing company. That's where its money comes from. That's where its growth comes from. That's why it sports a P/E of "just" 14.5 as against more than 17 for Google (GOOG -1.05%).

Facebook is everywhere Apple isn't. It has a big lead over Google in social networking, and in terms of raw cost may become close to competitive in cloud. (Its assets are newer, thus there may be some efficiencies there.)

Selling to Apple would let Facebook's investors cash out at something close to what they were expecting. Mark Zuckerberg would go from having about $1 billion in cash to much more. Apple CEO Tim Cook could negotiate enough autonomy to make the move seriously interesting. Facebook would give Apple the advertising presence it lacks, and this is a deal only Apple could do so there is unlikely to be a second bidder.

It may be about the only really big thing Apple could do that wouldn't draw scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department, because the two companies are in completely different businesses. And that problem of Facebook lacking a mobile strategy? Solved.

What is most disappointing to Apple bulls is how "normal" a company Apple has become under Tim Cook. It is, as I wrote last year, like Elvis being replaced with Jackson Browne. It is evolving into just another big tech, on a larger scale than anyone could have imagined at the start of this century but, still, just another big tech.

Buying Facebook would instantly make Apple younger, it would give Apple an ad presence, it would give Apple a better cloud story. It would give Facebook cash, access to capital and a real shot at competing with Google, which is currently more than two times its size in terms of market cap.

People call Zuckerberg the new Steve Jobs. When the mothership in Cupertino is ready for occupancy, he will have been trained to take over the bridge. He'll still be in his 30s when Cook is ready for retirement.

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Tyler homes / Tyler homes, Investors return to affordable housing

Investors return to affordable housing

How housing finance agencies are incentivizing in the face of a weak bond market

By Shy Shinalt, Friday, May 11, 2012.

Newly built affordable housing image via Shutterstock.

What got me interested in the state of state housing finance agencies (SHFAs) was a small news story at the start of the year about Fitch Ratings issuing a statistical report for the tax-exempt housing sector.
The one sentence that caught my eye read: "In comparing fiscal 2011 results with those from fiscal 2010 for the 34 SHFAs, Fitch found that total assets decreased by 5.4 percent, while total debt decreased by 7.5 percent, reflective of the overall decline in bond issuance."
While the sentence seems straightforward, I was confused because I wasn't sure if the decline in total assets and debt was a good thing or a bad thing.
I decided to call Barbara Thompson, the executive director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA),

"We don't want to see assets decline," Thompson said, "but the reason is just as Fitch put it: The overall market (for housing bonds) is bad in terms of activity."
To which she added, "The Fitch numbers are almost a little reassuring that it's not larger than that."
A little background is needed. SHFAs are state-chartered, independent organizations that were established to meet the affordable housing needs of the residents of their states. The housing agencies operate under the direction of a board of directors appointed by each state's governor.
SHFAs run a number of different housing programs, but the two core ones are the low-income-housing tax credit, which produces low-income rental housing, and the tax-exempt, private-activity bond program that raises money for various state housing programs.
As I wrote in a column last year, the low-income housing credit program works this way: Each state is awarded a set amount of tax credits based on census information. Then in a competitive process, for-profits, not-for-profits, housing authorities, etc., apply for an award of credits for their projects, which, if won, flow to the developer entity for a period of 10 years or until the project is completed. The actual financing comes from the selling of credits to investors, generally for less than they are worth.
Big corporations buy the credits to offset profits
The SHFAs and partners have produced nearly 2 million rental homes with equity provided by the housing credit, according to the NCSHA.
During the recession when corporations were bleeding dollars they didn't need credits, and this program floundered until it was rescued by a combined Obama administration and congressional effort.
"There were two programs that basically allowed housing agencies to convert credit to cash because there was no market for credit," Thompson said. "These programs did what they were designed to do -- bridge the most difficult period, from 2008 into 2011. Then what we all hoped would happen, happened: the market returned. There is greater investor interest, pricing is up, and there is a lot of interest in production. The program has really returned."
Unfortunately, the housing bond market has not come back.
State and local governments sell tax-exempt housing bonds, also known as mortgage revenue bonds (MRBs) and multifamily housing bonds (MHBs), and use the proceeds to finance low-cost mortgages or the production of affordable rental housing. According to NCSHA data, MRBs have made first-time homeownership possible for more than 2.6 million lower-income families, approximately 100,000 every year, while MHBs provided financing to produce nearly 1 million "affordable housing" apartments.
Before the Great Recession, the average SHFA bond issuance was around $15 billion to $22 billion, according to Garth Rieman, director of housing advocacy and strategic initiatives for NCSHA. He breaks it down this way: In 2004, there was $9.6 billion in bonds issued for single-family and $5.58 billion for multifamily; in 2007, those numbers rose to $17.8 billion for single-family and $4.9 billion for multifamily.
In addition, bond issuance is the way most SHFAs generate revenues to keep operations going. Although some SHFAs are attached a little more directly to state governments, very few get operational support through state funding. For the most part, they are self-sufficient, maintaining operations through earnings off their bond programs.
The Obama administration again stepped in with a program to unfreeze this bond market, but that could end at the beginning of this year.
"Once that is over, the states probably still won't see a lively bond market," Thompson said pessimistically. "The municipal bond market in general has been hit hard and there is little activity for the housing sector."
This isn't to say that some SHFAs have not been successful. One of the most salubrious has been the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA), run by Brian Hudson, its executive director and CEO.
"The bond market is not in the best of shape," Hudson said. "Investors want more yield. Anything that has the word housing attached to it means investors want to be paid handsomely. You can't offer an attractive mortgage rate when you're funding capital with higher yields."
To get around this impasse, PHFA became a direct Ginnie Mae seller/servicer.
"We use some of our own funds to warehouse mortgages until we can package them into a Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed security," Hudson said.
In the normally quiet winter months, Hudson said his agency was doing about $7 million a week in mortgages.
In the heart of the Great Recession, PHFA stayed active, doing about 4,000 loans with a value of $413 million in 2009, and 7,727 loans valued at $821 million in 2010.
How have those mortgages performed? In short, exceptional.
"Our foreclosure rate is around 1 percent," Hudson said.
The secret sauce in regard to PHFA's success is a combination of factors, including full underwriting, documented income and counseling. Also, since most homeowners can afford a mortgage but don't have the money for a down payment, PHFA provides $4,000 in what Hudson calls "closing cost assistance."
And Thompson noted, "SHFAs are spending a lot of time retooling and coming up with new lending executions that they, perhaps, have not used in the past."

Shy Shinalt
Keller Williams Tyler
903.533.8114
http://www.shyshinalt.com/

Tyler Homes / Tyler homes mortgage rates resume search for bottom

Mortgage rates resume search for bottom

Demand for purchase loans in same range for 3 years

Thursday, June 21, 2012.

Mortgage rates hit new lows this week, still searching for a bottom after pausing last week from six consecutive weeks of declines.
Rates on  30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.66 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending June 21, down from 3.71 percent last week and 4.50 percent a year ago, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey. That's a new low in Freddie Mac records dating to 1971.
For  15-year fixed-rate mortgages, rates averaged 2.95 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from 2.98 percent last week and 3.69 percent a year ago. Rates for 15-year loans -- a popular refinancing option -- hit an all-time low in records dating to 1991 of 2.94 percent the week ending June 7.
Rates on 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans averaged 2.77 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from 2.80 percent last week and 3.25 percent a year ago. That's a new low in records dating to 2005.
For 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM loans, rates averaged 2.74 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from 2.78 percent last week and 2.99 percent a year ago.  Rates on one-year ARMs hit an all-time low in records dating to 1984 of 2.72 percent during the week ending March 1.
Treasury bond yields eased somewhat this week on some worsening economic indicators bringing mortgage rates back into record low territory, Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in a statement.

Looking back a week, a separate survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed demand for purchase loans fell a seasonally adjusted 9 percent during the week ending June 15 compared to a week earlier. Demand for purchase loans was down 2 percent from the same time a year ago.
The weekly decline in purchase loan applications was likely "a recalibration following the Memorial Day holiday, as the level of activity remains within the narrow band seen for the past 3 years," said Michael Fratantoni, the MBA's top economist.

Shy Shinalt
Keller Williams Tyler
903.533.8114

Tyler homes / Tyler homes for sale 3 unexpected upsides of homeownership

3 unexpected upsides of homeownership

Mood of the Market

By Shy Shinalt

Homeowners painting wall image via Shutterstock.

Lately, I've been surprising myself at how often I hear myself reference an event that happened 20 years ago or describe a dear friend as having been my "bestie" for the last decade. But there was no denying that I'm a bona fide grown-up when last year I got a note in the mail announcing my 10-year reunion -- for law school, not high school!

Having moved to the San Francisco Bay Area specifically to go to law school, this means that I'm staring down my 15th year in the area; and having bought my first home just months after graduation, I'm looking at my 10th year of homeownership -- though I've owned three different homes in that time, they've all been within the same metro area.

And it strikes me that, besides the obvious tax and long-term financial advantages of homeownership, I've become conscious of some of the less obvious, unintended advantages of owning a home in the same area for a relatively long period of time. I'd like to share some of them with you:

1. New, deeper relationships. I have relationships with neighbors, with local vendors and even with the natural beauty of my area that I likely would not have if I hadn't owned my home and stayed in the same place for so long. I say this is an unexpected upside of homeownership because homeownership, especially given the down market of the last few years, has meant staying put, and because many of these relationships only deepen after years and years; I'm finding new depth in them, even now, that I didn't have two or three years ago.

Some of these things seem relatively trivial, like the fact that I know that my tailor's Maltese, Momo, leaves her brood at home while she gets to come to work with her mom every day. I know that every May, the private school campus across the street from my house dresses itself up as Hogwarts. I can count on Vernon, the park ranger at the lake, to keep me honest on how many laps I've run on any given day -- and to gently relocate any snakes I happen to encounter en route.

Angelina at my favorite restaurant? She knows my order as soon as I give my name on the phone: No. 64 -- no tomatoes, no onions.

Collectively, these sorts of relationships, not to mention those with my neighbors, are not trivial; in fact, they are part of what makes home feel like home. So are all the nooks and crannies of my street, the hidden spots and stairs and secret spaces that took me years to discover. And I'm not saying that a very long-term renter could never develop such relationships or have such discoveries, but I know these people are part of my commitment to the area that is intertwined with my experience of homeownership.

2. The ability to customize your home with your personality and your life as they change. When you own a home, you can tailor it precisely to whatever is going on in your life at any given time. The same backyard in which your kids' playhouse and ball games take place when they're 10 can quickly be repurposed for your vegetable garden and outdoor living room when they go to college. You can morph your family's den into a chic dedicated office or yoga room as your needs change -- or your man cave can convert into a nursery, as the facts require. To some extent, renters can put different furniture in rooms over time as they need to, but most (wisely) prefer not to invest serious cash into truly converting or remodeling rooms in homes they don't own.

3. The ability to leverage your space. I'm not talking about refinancing, pulling cash out or flipping your home when the market goes up. Rather, I'm talking about how, if push comes to shove (or if you just have extra space), you can rent a room, a floor or the whole place out, for a night, a season or a year.

I'm talking about the writer I know who dog-sits while she works, letting her little canine charges run amok in their homes and yards and earning a side income at the same time.

I'm talking about the ability to put a pin in your place in the market, continuing to grow your equity and harvest your homeowner tax advantages, while you explore adventures by renting out your home or even trading it with another homeowner across the country (or the globe).

Owning a home is not for everyone, and it has definite pros and cons. But as I embark on my 10th year of homeownership, I wanted to share some of the unexpected upsides I've encountered with you.

Shy Shinalt

Keller Williams Tyler

903.533.8114

shyshinalt.com

Tyler homes / Tyler homes, Mortgage rates halt 6 week slide

Mortgage rates halt 6-week slide

Demand for purchase loans highest in 6 months

Mortgage rates finally found a bottom this week, following six consecutive weeks of declines, but remained near record lows as worries about the European debt crisis continue to make bonds that fund most mortgages look like a safe bet to investors.

Rates on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.71 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending June 14, up from 3.67 percent last week but down from 4.5 percent a year ago, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Last week's rate for 30-year loans was an all-time low in Freddie Mac records dating to 1971.

For 15-year fixed-rate loans, rates averaged 2.98 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from 2.94 percent last week but down from 3.67 percent a year ago. Last week's rate for 15-year loans was a low in records dating to 1991.

Rates on the five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.8 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from 2.84 percent last week and 3.27 percent a year ago. Rates on five-year ARMs hit 2.78 percent during the week ending April 19, an all-time low in records dating to 2005.

For one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs, rates averaged 2.78 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from 2.79 percent last week and 2.97 percent a year ago. Rates on one-year ARMs hit an all-time low in records dating to 1984 of 2.72 percent during the week ending March 1.

A separate survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed demand for purchase loans for the week ending June 8 was up a seasonally adjusted 13 percent from the week before, and up 4 percent from a year ago.

Although requests to refinance accounted for eight out of 10 mortgage applications, demand for purchase loans was at the highest level in more than six months, the MBA said.

Mortgage rates are near historic lows in part because global investors see mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae as a safe haven from turmoil in financial markets.

Fears that heavily indebted countries like Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain will default on those debts, disrupting eurozone trade and plunging the global economy into another recession, continue unabated this week.

Moody's Investor Service downgraded Spain's sovereign credit rating Wednesday, and Greek banks have seen a run on deposits as customers prepare for the possibility that parties opposed to austerity measures will prevail in elections scheduled for Sunday, Reuters reports.

The impact a eurozone meltdown would have on the U.S. economy is unclear. The 17-nation eurozone was America's largest trading partner in 2011, Yahoo Finance economics editor Daniel Gross notes. But Canada, Mexico and Latin America, Asia and Africa have become increasingly important trading partners in recent years.

Trade isn't the only issue at stake, Gross said, "There are several other channels of contagion."

Central banks around the globe are making plans to protect their currencies and economies from the impacts of an exodus of capital from eurozone countries, Reuters reports. Demand for U.S. dollars strengthens the currency's value, which can hurt exports by making U.S.-made goods more expensive to foreign buyers.

Shy Shinalt

Tyler Property Management

903.533.8114

easttexasrentals.com

Why Appe should buy facebook

Why Apple should buy Facebook

Such a deal would let the social network's investors cash out at something close to what they were expecting.

• 
  

The biggest "tell" in what was otherwise a pretty boring Apple WorldWide Developers Conference Monday came during the iOS6 portion of the presentation, when Apple (AAPL +0.23%) announced full integration with Facebook (FB +0.37%).

Unlike most of what happened at the event, this went beyond what was rumored. A system for letting developers integrate their own apps with Facebook is also coming out, and it's now accessible directly from inside the App Store.

All of which got me to thinking:

At its Monday close Facebook is now worth "just" $58.4 billion, a long way from the estimated $100 billion figure talked about before the IPO. It's still pricey -- a price/earnings ratio of 87 -- thus unlikely to hit those heights any time soon.

Some of the investors who came in before the initial public offering, who could sell their shares once the "lockup" period expires, are either underwater or may perceive themselves to be.

Apple still lacks a social network. Its "cloud" is not a cloud at all, but a data center.

Facebook has been building a real cloud, using open source tools, for some time and it has engineers who really understand the need to save money on cloud installations if you want them to last.

My guess is Facebook's investors would jump at a bid of $80 billion. That's a huge premium from the current price.

As of March, Apple had a cash hoard estimated at $97.6 billion. It's continuing to accumulate cash, and its plans for a dividend are not expected to make a significant dent in the hoard. The company's market cap is $534 billion.

So Apple could easily do a half-cash bid for Facebook, acquiring a fast-growing asset with significant cloud presence for less than one-tenth its common stock and less than half the cash it has on hand.

Apple's biggest problem is that, insofar as its cash flow is concerned, it's mainly a manufacturing company. That's where its money comes from. That's where its growth comes from. That's why it sports a P/E of "just" 14.5 as against more than 17 for Google (GOOG -1.05%).

Facebook is everywhere Apple isn't. It has a big lead over Google in social networking, and in terms of raw cost may become close to competitive in cloud. (Its assets are newer, thus there may be some efficiencies there.)

Selling to Apple would let Facebook's investors cash out at something close to what they were expecting. Mark Zuckerberg would go from having about $1 billion in cash to much more. Apple CEO Tim Cook could negotiate enough autonomy to make the move seriously interesting. Facebook would give Apple the advertising presence it lacks, and this is a deal only Apple could do so there is unlikely to be a second bidder.

It may be about the only really big thing Apple could do that wouldn't draw scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department, because the two companies are in completely different businesses. And that problem of Facebook lacking a mobile strategy? Solved.

What is most disappointing to Apple bulls is how "normal" a company Apple has become under Tim Cook. It is, as I wrote last year, like Elvis being replaced with Jackson Browne. It is evolving into just another big tech, on a larger scale than anyone could have imagined at the start of this century but, still, just another big tech.

Buying Facebook would instantly make Apple younger, it would give Apple an ad presence, it would give Apple a better cloud story. It would give Facebook cash, access to capital and a real shot at competing with Google, which is currently more than two times its size in terms of market cap.

People call Zuckerberg the new Steve Jobs. When the mothership in Cupertino is ready for occupancy, he will have been trained to take over the bridge. He'll still be in his 30s when Cook is ready for retirement.

Shy Shinalt Keller Williams Tyler

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