Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Getting Started in Home Ownership

Home ownership is the dream of every couple. Having a place of your own brings stability, the pride of ownership and the right to do as you please with the home and grounds. Knowing where to begin is the first step. The focus of this article is on getting started in home ownership.
As in any major investment, it pays to know several things before you approach a lender. With the market in an unstable condition recently, many people with blemished credit are having a tough time securing a loan. To make matter worse, predatory and unethical lenders take advantage of the market, and it is easy to be taken in by this slick group of lenders. Now more than ever, "let the buyer beware" should be the caveat of all prospective home buyers. Before you make the decision to buy, do a thorough check on your credit to help determine the ability to buy.

First Things First
It makes little sense to approach a lender if your credit is less than perfect. Get a copy of your current credit report and study your credit history. These reports can be obtained for free online through sites such as Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Their parameters are based on the guidelines of the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). A good place to begin this process is through visiting AnnualCreditReport.com, who claim to be the official site for consumer credit reports. Obtain your report and check your numbers. If your credit score is 720 or above, you are an excellent candidate for a loan. 620 to 650 is considered to be a good risk. Anything below these figures is considered to be sub prime.

If you find that you are an excellent candidate for a loan with a credit score of 720 or above, begin the search for an ethical real estate agent. Use referrals from family or friends, and ask business owners you are familiar with for recommendations. Always interview the agent to determine their area of expertise. If the agent is on the up and up, there should be no problem with questions asked. If the agent appears unsure of themselves, then use good judgment and move on. Good agents will answer all questions quickly and truthfully. This interview process is essential to your success.

Find an Ethical Lender
It is essential that you only deal with a lender that has a high code of ethics. Interview the lender in the same way you did the realtor. Do not be intimidated by a lender, or think you are wasting their time. It is, after all, your money. Visit at least four lenders before making your choice.
The lender will look at your debt to income ratio. This figure is currently 28/36%. The first figure, 28%, is what the lender feels is the maximum amount of your gross income that is available for monthly mortgage payments. This includes monthly mortgage payments, private mortgage insurance if you must pay it and property taxes. The second figure, 36%, is the amount the lender signifies as housing expense and recurring debt. This includes such things as utilities, phone and cable bills and trash removal.

Always Pre-qualify
Pre-qualifying for a loan tells the seller that you are committed to buying a home. The process of pre-qualifying is simple and painless. A seller will be more willing to negotiate if they know you are pre-qualified for a home loan. When you have determined you are capable of paying a monthly mortgage payment, the lender will go through your credit history, verify employment and income and generally do a property appraisal on a home you are interested in buying. A certificate or letter is given to you by the lender to verify that you qualify for a loan of a set amount.

Start Your Search
Once the groundwork is in place, you can begin the process of finding the ideal home. Knowing that you pre-qualify helps considerably in narrowing down the search. This process should be enjoyable to you and your family. Look at homes you know you can afford, but also look at homes that may be priced higher than you qualify for. Often, the owner may be anxious to sell if the home has been on the market for a long time. The owner may negotiate with you to unload the home, and you can generally get a reduction in price. Be determined to find the home that is perfect for you and that is in your price range.

Always be cautious when entering the real estate market. A little education goes a long way in helping you to both determine what you can afford, and how to find ethical lenders and real estate agents to work with. Use common sense, and your dream home can be yours.

Your Escrow and You

Prepared by the Escrow Institute of California, P.O. Box 5792, Orange, CA 92613-5792(The information presented here was taken from a pamphlet prepared by the Escrow Institute of California to be handed out by escrow companies to their clients. We decided to present it pretty much as written because escrow companies very rarely get to explain what goes on in escrow in their own words. Usually your lender or Realtor explains the function of escrow to you. Most escrow officers do not feel we do an adequate job of explaining their important role in a real estate transaction).Additional Note: For states that do not have escrow, we hope to have an article written about settlement practices in other states.

Escrow: What is it?
Very simply defined, an escrow is a deposit of funds, a deed or other instrument by one party for the delivery to another party upon completion of a particular condition or event. The California Escrow Law : Section 17003 of the Financial Code : provides the legal definition.

Why Do I Need an Escrow?
Whether you are the buyer, seller, lender or borrower, you want the assurance that no funds or property will change hands until ALL of the instructions in the transaction have been followed. The escrow holder has the obligation to safeguard the funds and/or documents while they are in the possession of the escrow holder, and to disburse funds and/or convey title only when all provisions of the escrow have been complied with.

Escrow : How Does it Work?
The principals to the escrow : buyer, seller, lender, borrower : cause escrow instructions, most usually in writing, to be created, signed and delivered to the escrow officer. If a broker is involved, he will normally provide the escrow officer with the information necessary for the preparation of your escrow instructions and documents.
The escrow officer will process the escrow, in accordance with the escrow instructions, and when all conditions required in the escrow can be met or achieved, the escrow will be "closed." Each escrow, although following a similar pattern, will be different in some respects, as it deals with your property and the transaction at hand.
The duties of an escrow holder include; following the instructions given by the principals and parties to the transaction in a timely manner; handling the funds and/or documents in accordance with the instruction; paying all bills as authorized; responding to authorized requests from the principals; closing the escrow only when all terms funds in accordance with instructions and provide an accounting for same : the Closing or Settlement Statement.

Who Chooses the Escrow?
The selection of the escrow holder is normally done by agreement between the principals. If a real estate broker is involved in the transaction, the broker may recommend an escrow holder. However, it is the right of the principals to use an escrow holder who is competent and who is experienced in handling the type of escrow at hand. There are laws that prohibit the payment of referral fees; this affords the consumer the best possible escrow services without any compromise caused by a person receiving a referral fee.

What Do I have to do while in Escrow?
The key to any transaction as important as your sale, purchase or loan is to read and understand your escrow instructions. If you do not understand them, you should ask your escrow officer to explain the instructions.

Your escrow officer is not an attorney and cannot practice law; you should consult your lawyer for legal advice. Do not expect your escrow officer to advise you as to whether or not you have a "good deal" or are doing things the right way. The escrow officer is there to follow the instructions given by the principals in the escrow.

In order to expedite the closing of the escrow, you should check with your escrow officer as to what specific items you could do to assist. Ask the question: "What can I do to expedite the closing of this escrow?"

Respond quickly to correspondence. This will assist in the timely closing of the transaction.
If you are required to deliver funds into the escrow, make sure that you provide "good" funds in the form required by the escrow officer. Company procedures differ in this regard, and there are many ways you can help at the time of closing; check with your escrow officer. Do not give the escrow officer a personal check and expect the escrow to close immediately; the escrow can only close on cleared funds, and the processing of a personal check can take days, possibly even a week or more.

When the escrow officer closes the escrow, some of you may want the closing papers, checks, title policies, statements, etc. Made available immediately. There are many aspects to the closing of the escrow, and some of these cannot be processed on the day of the closing; they may take several days. If you have a special need, for example, a cashier's check on the day of closing, you should communicate that need to the escrow officer early in the processing of the escrow.'

Escrow and Your New Loan
If you are obtaining a new loan, your escrow officer will be in touch with the lender who will need copies of the escrow instructions, the preliminary title report and any other documents escrow could supply. In the processing and the closing of the escrow, the escrow holder is obligated to comply with the lender's instructions.

It has become a practice of some lenders to forward their loan documents to escrow for signing. You should be aware that these papers are lender's documents and cannot be explained or interpreted by the escrow officer. You have the option of requesting a representative from the lender's office to be present for explanation, or arrange to meet with your lender to sign the documents in their office.

Escrow: What is a Closing Statement?
A closing statement is an accounting, in writing, prepared at the close of escrow which sets forth the charges and credits of your account. The items shown on the statement will reflect the purchase price, the funds deposited or credited to your account, payoffs on existing encumbrances and/or liens, the costs for all services and a determination of the funds you are entitled to at the close of the escrow. When you receive your closing papers, review the closing statement; it is extremely logical and reflects the financial aspects of your transaction. If anything does not make sense to you, you should ask your escrow officer for an explanation.
When going through your closing papers, examine all of them; there may even be a refund check hiding in there. Cash the check quickly, please. Be sure to have the check properly endorsed. All payees must endorse the check. This will eliminate the check being returned unpaid due to irregular or missing endorsements. Your closing statement and all other escrow papers should be kept virtually forever for income tax purposes.

Your accountant will need the information about the sale or purchase of the property. IRS and other agencies may require you to prove your costs and/or profit on the sale of any property. The closing statement will assist in this task.

Do not rely on your escrow holder retaining the escrow file so that you can "always call and get copies of the closing statement." Most escrow holders will be destroying the files after the statutory retention period, usually five years. Maintaining and storing the closed escrow files is a costly endeavor to the escrow holder. Therefore, a nominal fee may be charged by your escrow holder for the retrieval of a file from storage, photocopying the requested documents and returning the file to storage.

What Fees and Costs will be Charged?
Escrow fees are not regulated by the State. Escrow holder, like any other businesses, will charge fees that are commensurate with the costs of producing the service, the liability undertaken, and the overhead expenses which include a profit factor. Therefore, the fees will vary between companies and from county to county. Normally, the escrow holder will follow its minimum fee schedule, which will provide for extra charges based upon the differing elements of your escrow. On occasions, an additional fee will be charged for unusual expenditures of time on a given transaction.

The escrow holder has no control over the costs of other services that are obtained, such as the title insurance policy, the lender's charges, insurance, recording charges, etc.
Your escrow officer, upon request, can provide you with an estimate of the escrow fees and costs as well as fees charged by others, provided such information is available.

What About Cancellations?
No escrow is opened with the intention that it will cancel, but there are occasions when a contingency cannot be met or when the parties disagree during the pendency of the escrow. Some escrow holders provide for such an event by incorporating an instruction in the typed or printed General Provisions.

Ordinarily, an escrow holder will take the positions that no funds on deposit can be refunded until the escrow holder is in receipt of mutual cancellation instructions signed by the principals. The escrow holder cannot normally make a determination as to who is the "rightful" party in a dispute on a cancellation and therefore will not return the funds or documents until the principals agree; the escrow holder is not a judge.

Do expect to be charged a cancellation fee, as this is a charge for professional services rendered and quite often for several "out of pocket" expenses that have been incurred on the client's behalf. These fees can vary from company to company depending upon their policies.
Sometime, when a dispute exists, the escrow holder may be forced to allow a court to decide which party is entitled to what documents or funds; this is called an Interpleader Action. Fortunately, most disputes are resolved before the Interpleader is filed, as the costs for such legal actions are extreme. Those costs, incidentally, are normally paid out of the funds on deposit in the escrow.

What about Title Insurance?
Title Insurance is usually obtained when real property is purchased. The policy of title insurance insures the owner and/or the lender of ownership of the property. There are various coverages afforded, but a basic policy insures that the buyer is the owner and that any lender shown on the policy is an "insured" lender. Many different types of extended coverages are available; for example, an ALTA policy is quite often required by institutional lender to afford them additional protection under the title insurance policy. The title policy is written after an extensive examination of the public record is made and the recording of the required documents as called for in the escrow.

The title insurance policy fee is a one-time fee, paid at the close of escrow. The determination of who pays for the policy is not uniform from county to county in California. In some counties, the buyer will pay while in others the seller will pay. In other counties the seller will pay for the lender's title policy. But in almost every case, the question of who pays closing costs is a matter of agreement between the parties. Usually this agreement is based on the customary practice in your county or area. In the case of some FHA or VA transactions, the escrow officer must follow the guidelines as required by the lender and/or government.

What About Property Taxes?
The terms of your transaction and the resultant escrow instructions determine how the property taxes will be handled. If there is no mention of the proration of taxes, your escrow officer will not deal with any credits or charges for prorated taxes. However, if your escrow calls for a proration of taxes, there will be an item in your closing statement that will reflect either a credit or charge to your account. If the taxes are not paid (even though there has been a credit or charge against your account), the buyer is obligated to obtain a tax bill and pay the taxes. If the buyer does not have a tax bill with which to pay the taxes, you can request a bill from the Tax Collector; send a photocopy of the deed.

Supplemental Property Taxes is another concern of the buyer. Upon transfer of real property, a supplemental tax bill is generated. This is accomplished in cooperation with the County Assessor and the County Tax Collector.

Shortly after the close of an escrow involving the conveyance of real property, the County Assessor will request information about the property from the buyer. This information assists the Assessor in determining the value of the property for taxation purposes. The escrow holder may have previously supplied some of the information at the time of the closing of the escrow, via Preliminary Change of Ownership form that should accompany each deed when it is recorded.

The Perfect Escrow; Does it Exist?
Perfection is sometimes difficult to achieve, especially in dealing with the complexities of the escrow, the desires of the parties and other matters that are sometimes far beyond the control of the escrow officer. It is human nature to err on occasion, but your escrow officer has the background, training, education, support and systems in place necessary in order to accomplish the objectives of the escrow instructions.

In the event you have any problems in the handling of your escrow, you should first contact the escrow officer.

If you problem is not resolved, you should next contact the management or owner of the company.

If the matter requires additional attention, you can call the proper regulatory agency.

Determining Your Offer Price

When you prepare an offer to purchase a home, you already know the seller’s asking price. But what price are you going to offer and how do you come up with that figure?
Determining your offer price is a three-step process.

First, you look at recent sales of similar properties to come up with a price range. Then, you analyze additional data, such as the condition of the home, improvements made to the property, current market conditions, and the circumstances of the seller. This will help you settle on a price you think would be fair to pay for the home. Finally, depending on your negotiating style, you adjust your "fair" price and come up with what you want to put in your offer.

Comparable Sales
The first step in determining the price you are willing to offer is to look at the recent sales of similar homes. These are called "comparable sales." Comparable sales are recent sales of homes that compare closely to the one you are looking to purchase. Specifically, you want to compare prices of homes that are similar in square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, garage space, lot size, and type of construction.

If the home you are interested in is part of a tract of homes, then you will most likely find some exact model matches to compare against one another.

There are three main sources of information on comparable sales, all of which are easily accessed by a real estate agent. It is somewhat more difficult for the general public to access this data, and in some cases impossible. Two of the most obvious information sources are the public record and the Multiple Listing Service.

The Business Cycle and Buying a Home - Part 2

Supply and Demand - Inventory
During sellers' markets, homes sell quickly and sellers have a lot of pricing power. As a result, prices rise more rapidly than at other times. During buyers' markets, homes may sit on the market for a while before selling, so sellers become more flexible and may even drop their prices.

The market is determined by supply and demand.

In real estate, the relationship between supply and demand is calculated as "available inventory." At the current sales pace, how long would it take to sell the total number of houses available on the market? That is how the real estate industry measures inventory.
Inventory is measured in weeks and months. Longer inventory times are associated with buyers' markets. Shorter inventory periods are associated with sellers' markets. Some buyers and sellers hope to time their purchase to take advantage of market cycles.

The Business Cycle and Buying a Home - Part 1

Recession and Expansion
There are times when the economy is brisk and everyone feels confident about his or her prospects for the future. As a result, they spend money. People eat out more, buy new cars, and……They buy houses.

Then, for one reason or another, the economy slows down. Companies lay off employees and consumers are more careful about where they spend money, perhaps saving more than usual. As a result, the economy decelerates even further. If it slows enough, we have a recession.
During such a time, fewer people are buying homes.

Even so, some homeowners find themselves in a situation where they must sell. Families grow beyond the capacity of the home, employees get relocated, and some may even find themselves unable to make their mortgage payment - perhaps because of a layoff in the family.

In the business cycle of real estate, there are buyers' markets and sellers' markets...and some markets in between. It is all based on supply and/or demand.

Why Buying a Home is a Good Idea - Part 3

Freedom & Individualism
When you rent, you are normally limited on what you can do to improve your home. You have to get permission to make certain types of improvements. Nor does it make sense to spend thousand of dollars painting, putting in carpet, tile or window coverings when the main person who benefits is the landlord and not you.

Since your landlord wants to keep his expenses to a minimum, he or she will probably not be spending much to improve the place, either.

When you own a home, however, you can do pretty much whatever you want. You get the benefits of any improvements you make, plus you get to live in an environment you have created, not some faceless landlord.

More Space
Both indoors and outdoors, you will probably have more space if you own your own home. Even moving to a condominium from an apartment, you are likely to find you have much more room available – your own laundry and storage area, and bigger rooms. Apartment complexes are more interested in creating the maximum number of income-producing units than they are in creating space for each of the tenants.

If you are moving to a home for the first time, you are going to be very pleased with all the new space you have available. You may have to even buy more "stuff."

Why Buying a Home is a Good Idea - Part 2

Income Tax Savings
Because of income tax deductions, the government is subsidizing your purchase of a home. All of the interest and property taxes you pay in a given year can be deducted from your gross income to reduce your taxable income.
For example, assume your initial loan balance is $150,000 with an interest rate of eight percent. During the first year you would pay $9969.27 in interest. If your first payment is January 1st, your taxable income would be almost $10,000 less – due to the IRS interest rate deduction.
Property taxes are deductible, too. Whatever property taxes you pay in a given year may also be deducted from your gross income, lowering your tax obligation.

Stable Monthly Housing Costs
When you rent a place to live, you can certainly expect your rent to increase each year – or even more often. If you get a fixed rate mortgage when you buy a home, you have the same monthly payment amount for thirty years. Even if you get an adjustable rate mortgage, your payment will stay within a certain range for the entire life of the mortgage – and interest rates aren’t as volatile now as they were in the late seventies and early eighties.
Imagine how much rent might be ten, fifteen, or even thirty years from now? Which makes more sense?

Forced Savings
Some people are just lousy at saving money, and a house is an automatic savings account. You accumulate savings in two ways. Every month, a portion of your payment goes toward the principal. Admittedly, in the early years of the mortgage, this is not much. Over time, however, it accelerates.

Second, your home appreciates. Average appreciation on a home is approximately five percent, though it will vary from year to year, and in some years may even depreciate.. Over time, history has shown that owning a home is one of the very best financial investments

Why Buying a Home is a Good Idea - Part 1

The Best Investment
As a fairly general rule, homes appreciate about four or five percent a year. Some years will be more, some less. The figure will vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, and region to region.
Five percent may not seem like that much at first. Stocks (at times) appreciate much more, and you could easily earn over the same return with a very safe investment in treasury bills or bonds.

But take a second look…
Presumably, if you bought a $200,000 house, you did not pay cash for the home. You got a mortgage, too. Suppose you put as much as twenty percent down – that would be an investment of $40,000.

At an appreciation rate of 5% annually, a $200,000 home would increase in value $10,000 during the first year. That means you earned $10,000 with an investment of $40,000. Your annual "return on investment" would be a whopping twenty-five percent.

Of course, you are making mortgage payments and paying property taxes, along with a couple of other costs. However, since the interest on your mortgage and your property taxes are both tax deductible, the government is essentially subsidizing your home purchase.

Your rate of return when buying a home is higher than most any other investment you could make.

Reasons to Delay Buying a Home

Assuming you have the financial resources and the desire to eventually own your own home, there are very few good reasons to put off the purchase. You can miss out on years of appreciation if you do.

The main thing you want to avoid when buying a home is being put in a position where you will have to sell it too soon. If you have to sell a home before it has appreciated enough to cover the costs and commissions of selling, you could find yourself in a financial bind. This is especially true for those who buy a home with a down payment of ten percent or less.

Real Estate commissions traditionally run around six percent of a home’s sales price. The seller’s closing costs generally come to about one and a half percent. You can see how this can easily exceed the first year’s appreciation. If you made a minimal down payment, you could actually have to come up with cash out of pocket to sell your home.

New to the Area
A very good to reason to delay buying a home is if you have just moved to an unfamiliar area or region of the country. It makes sense to rent for a number of months before deciding on exactly where you want to live. Often when people buy a home immediately they find that they might have made a better decision if they had waited awhile.

Uncertain Job Future
You could be right out of college or expecting a promotion and a transfer. Or your company has announced an impending "restructuring." If any of these apply, it might be best to wait to buy a home. When you have a more accurate picture of what your next few years will be like, that will be the time to buy.

Marital Problems
Real estate agents see a lot of life unfold before their eyes. One of the saddest occurs when former clients divorce and are forced to sell a recently purchased house. It happens all too often when a family in turmoil decides that buying a new home may help resolve their problems. Perhaps it is inevitable that such problems occur, but selling a home before it appreciates can create an additional financial burden in an already difficult situation.

How Changing Jobs Affects Buying a Home

For most people, changing employers will not really affect your ability to qualify for a mortgage loan. For some homebuyers, however, the effects of changing jobs can be disastrous to your loan application.

Salaried Employees
If you are a salaried employee who does not earn additional income from commissions, bonuses, or over-time, switching employers should not create a problem. Just make sure to remain in the same line of work. Hopefully, you will be earning a higher salary, which will help you better qualify for a mortgage.

Hourly Employees
If your income is based on hourly wages and you work a straight forty hours a week without over-time, changing jobs should not create any problems.

Commissioned Employees
If a substantial portion of your income is derived from commissions, you should not change jobs before buying a home. This has to do with how mortgage lenders calculate your income. They average your commissions over the last two years.
Changing employers creates an uncertainty about your future earnings from commissions. There is no track record from which to produce an average. Even if you are selling the same type of product with essentially the same commission structure, the underwriter cannot be certain that past earnings will accurately reflect future earnings.
Changing jobs would negatively impact your ability to buy a home.

Bonuses
If a substantial portion of your income on the new job will come from bonuses, you may want to consider delaying an employment change. Mortgage lenders will rarely consider future bonuses as income unless you have been on the same job for two years and have a track record of receiving those bonuses. Then they will average your bonuses over the last two years in calculating your income.

Changing employers means that you do not have the two-year track record necessary to count bonuses as income.

Part-Time Employees
If you earn an hourly income but rarely work forty hours a week, you should not change jobs. There would be no way to tell how many hours you will work each week on the new job, so no way to accurately calculate your income. If you remain on the old job, the lender can just average your earnings.

Over-Time
Since all employers award overtime hours differently, your overtime income cannot be determined if you change jobs. If you stay on your present job, your lender will give you credit for overtime income. They will determine your overtime earnings over the last two years, then calculate a monthly average.

Self-Employment
If you are considering a change to self-employment before buying a new home, don’t do it. Buy the home first.
Lenders like to see a two-year track record of self-employment income when approving a loan. Plus, self-employed individuals tend to include a lot of expenses on the Schedule C of their tax returns, especially in the early years of self-employment. While this minimizes your tax obligation to the IRS, it also minimizes your income to qualify for a home loan.
If you are considering changing your business from a sole proprietorship to a partnership or corporation, you should also delay that until you purchase your new home.

Things Not to Do Before Purchasing a Home

No Major Purchase of Any Kind

Do not make any major purchase that would create debt of any kind. This includes furniture, appliances, electronic equipment, jewelry, vacations, expensive weddings……and automobiles, of course.

Don’t Move Money Around
When a lender reviews your loan package for approval, one of the things they are concerned about is the source of funds for your down payment and closing costs. Most likely, you will be asked to provide statements for the last two or three months on any of your liquid assets. This includes checking accounts, savings accounts, money market funds, certificates of deposit, stock statements, mutual funds, and even your company 401K and retirement accounts.

If you have been moving money between accounts during that time, there may be large deposits and withdrawals in some of them.

The mortgage underwriter (the person who actually approves your loan) will probably require a complete paper trail of all the withdrawals and deposits. You may be required to produce cancelled checks, deposit receipts, and other seemingly inconsequential data, which could get quite tedious.

Perhaps you become exasperated at your lender, but they are only doing their job correctly. To ensure quality control and eliminate potential fraud, it is a requirement on most loans to completely document the source of all funds. Moving your money around, even if you are consolidating your funds to make it "easier," could make it more difficult for the lender to properly document.

So leave your money where it is until you talk to a loan officer.
Oh…don’t change banks, either.

Debt-to-Income Ratios and Car Payments

You see, when determining your ability to qualify for a mortgage, a lender looks at what is called your "debt-to-income" ratio. A debt-to-income ratio is the percentage of your gross monthly income (before taxes) that you spend on debt. This will include your monthly housing costs, including principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and homeowner’s association fees, if any. It will also include your monthly consumer debt, including credit cards, student loans, installment debt, and….…car payments.

How a New Car Payment Reduces Your Purchase Price

For example, suppose you earn $5000 a month and you have a car payment of $400. Using an interest rate of 8.0%, you would qualify for approximately $55,000 less than if you did not have the car payment.

Even if you feel you can afford the car payment, mortgage companies approve your mortgage based on their guidelines, not yours. Do not get discouraged, however. You should still take the time to get pre-qualified by a lender.

Next, you contact a loan officer to get prequalified for a mortgage loan. You state your desired price and how much you can put down. You provide your income and may even supply pay stubs and W2 forms. The loan officer methodically crunches the numbers (by telephone, in person, or even over the internet).

However, if you have not already bought a car, remember one thing. Whenever the thought of buying a car enters your mind, think ahead. Think about buying a home first. Buying a home is a much more important purchase when considering your future financial well being.

Do not buy the car. Buy the house first!

Tips for Getting Your Home Sold

Let’s face it. It’s not longer a seller’s market. Gone (at least for the near future) are the days of bidding wars, homes priced way above their appraised value and homes flying off the market in a matter of days.

Homes in many counties remain on the market for an average of 90 to 120 days. That’s three to four months of waiting, wondering and agonizing over whether your home will sell. To expedite this process, and to attract potential home buyers, there are few, basic things to take care of:

Price it Right
If you have time to spare and selling your home quickly is not a priority, then by all means, price it higher and be prepared to wait. However, if you’re like most people selling their home in your County, you want a quick sell. Therefore, the bottom line is: price it right!
With the help of a local real estate agent, determine the appraised value of the home, research other area homes that have sold in the last few months and price it aggressively. When determining a sale price for your home, remember that the difference between a competitively priced home and one that is overpriced is often the sold sign in the front yard.

Tidy Up and Remove the clutter
Remove excess furniture, pack up unnecessary items, and give the walls a fresh coat of paint. It may sound simple, but these easy projects can make a world of difference in the way buyers perceive your home when they walk through the door.

Freshly painted walls in soft, neutral tones can dramatically change the feel of a room. Clearing a room of unnecessary objects and extra furniture will give the appearance of more space and allow buyers to better notice the room’s features and size.

Emphasize Your Home’s Amenities
Rearrange the furniture to emphasize the family room fireplace, plant flowering perennials to showcase the large backyard and swap the heavy curtains in exchange for sheer panels to highlight the large picture window in the living room. Those new, kitchen counter tops can be better appreciated if the majority of the clutter and small appliances are removed, and a back deck becomes another living space, and a great selling point, when patio furniture is thoughtfully arranged.

Walk through your home and put yourself in a buyer’s shoes, and you’ll soon realize that the small details DO matter.

Maximize Your Open House

Maximize Your Open House
By Grace on Jun 30, 2008 in Fun Stuff - VIP News

Open houses can be a valuable tool that your real estate will use to sell your home. Although often inconvenient for the sellers, open houses can attract many potential home buyers.
Once you have decided on an open house with your realtor, there are several things you’ll need to take care of beforehand.

Clean up!
Telling you to clean your home may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s the small things that you’ll need to make sure not to overlook. Straighten up cupboards and closets; remove shoes from the entryway; clear the kitchen counters of clutter; empty the sink of dirty dishes; and make the beds.

It’s All About the Details

Small details can make a huge impact when preparing your home for an open house. Open the curtains and open the windows, if possible, to allow fresh air to flow throughout your home. Use an air freshener to eliminate any stubborn odors.

Use fresh flowers as an inexpensive way to immediately brighten up a room. Sweep the front walkway and porch and add a pot of colorful flowers near the front door. Finally, turn on all the lights before leaving.

Although your agent will remain at your home during your open house, it is a good idea to remove or hide any jewelry, cash or small valuables before the open house.

You may also want to discuss details about the open house with your agent beforehand. Some of the questions you may want to ask are: Will you accompany guests as they walk through the house? Will you ask all guests to sign in upon arriving?

You real estate agent may also hold an agent’s open house, which will give area agents a chance to tour the home before bringing their clients.

Use your open house as an opportunity to wow potential buyers and watch the offers come rolling in!