Here is a great article for those buyers out there!
By-Deidre Woollard-Real Estate News
Three Tips For Avoiding Closing Day Glitches
Closing day is the most exciting day in the home buying process. The long journey is finally over and you will sign your papers and get your keys. Once you have been told that your home mortgage has a closing date you may want to move in immediately but while most home sale transactions are smooth, some may hit a few speed bumps on the road to homeownership bliss.
The most important part of the transaction is to get all of the necessary parties and necessary documents together on the right day at the right time. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately as many an experienced agent reports, it can be a bit like herding cats. Although your Realtor will be your guide through this process it’s still a good idea for you to be aware of all of the dates, steps, and procedures as you lead up to the big day.
Many issues surrounding a problem at closing can actually be tackled earlier in the process. It’s important to keep on top of your mortgage approval process, home inspection and repairs, and the title discovery process as these are the areas where things can often go wrong. For more information on this check out our post on why pending sales can fall through. Below are three last-minute things that can delay a closing.
1) Be certain the home is ready for you to take occupancy. If you notice something on your final walkthrough, bring it up immediately. It’s your responsibility to make sure that the home is being delivered in the agreed-upon condition. If something is wrong and the home is not cleaned out or agreed-upon repairs aren’t completed, it’s time to spring into action. Your agent can work with the seller’s agent to solve any potential problems. From there you can determine what is necessary and what it will cost. It may be possible to do some last minute negotiations, either changing things so that the seller pays more of the closing costs or putting proceeds in escrow until repairs are completed.
2) Make sure the paperwork is in order. Review all documents ahead of time if you can. Misspellings, missing information, incorrect addresses or loan amounts can hold up a closing and if they can’t be easily corrected your closing could be delayed by hours or even days. When you review your loan documents make sure that the payment amounts and interest rates are as you expected them to be. If you are using a real estate attorney you will want to have an appointment to review the real estate contract, settlement, truth-in-lending statement and the mortgage. Your attorney should verify that the seller has made all repairs that were agreed upon and that he will bring the deed to the real estate closing.
3) Make sure you have your funds ready. Closing costs will be due and a personal check is not permitted. Be sure to either bring the down payment to the closing yourself as a certified check or arrange for the transfer of funds a bit in advance so that any potential delays during transfer won’t hold up your closing. Closing costs can amount to a small fortune. All of these costs were outlined to you during the mortgage application process. Loan origination, mortgage loan, mortgage points and credit report fees are all closing costs to be paid at the closing. In addition, you may need to pre-pay interest for a partial month depending on the date you closed and when the first payment is due to lender. Title insurance is one of the more expensive fees and is required by all lenders to insure there are no liens against the deed. Finally, the last charge to pay to the lender is the fee for recording of the deed, which may include a real estate transfer tax.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Which is the right way? Buy AND THEN sell? OR Sell AND THEN buy?
Which one is the right decision for you? Here is a great article on how you should decide.
How to Sell Your Home and Buy Another at the Same Time
Real Estate News-Diedre Woolard
Being a move-up buyer can be tough in today’s market. Although deals are closing rapidly, there’s no guarantee that your new dream home will close at the same time as your old dream home. Selling and buying at the same time is a delicate dance, but it is doable. There are a few ways to pursue this plan:
1. Sell first, then buy. This is perhaps the safest plan, but it calls for multiple moves. In this scenario, you list your home and complete the transaction before purchasing another home. When you sell your home, you put the bulk of your belongings in storage and live in a temporary rental or, if possible, enter into a rent-back deal with your home’s new owner. The advantage of this method is that you know exactly how much you can spend on a new home, and you don’t have to worry about temporary financing. Also, without another home waiting in the wings, you’ll be less tempted to drop the price or to take the first offer that is below the asking price. The disadvantage is that it is a disruptive experience, and you could be displaced for a while if you are home-shopping for a long time.
2. Buy first, then sell. This strategy minimizes disruption. You can move into your new place at your leisure and then take time to prepare your home for sale. The major disadvantage is that, depending on how fast your old home sells, you could be shouldering the burden of two mortgages for some time. You are also responsible for maintenance and security on the vacant home. This scenario works best if your first home is already paid off.
A variation of this plan is to buy a new home with the plan to rent out the old one for a year. This buys you some time with money coming in, but being a landlord comes with its own stresses and responsibilities. You may also need to repair or renovate the home after it has served as a rental.
3. Buy and sell simultaneously. To execute this plan, you need to prepare for all contingencies and to know that if your timing is off, you will face one of the two scenarios listed above. The trickiest bit can be timing the financial burden. One option is bridge financing. This enables you to own two homes for a short amount of time. To do this, you need to either borrow money from family or obtain a short-term loan from a bank or other lending institution to span the time period between when you close on your new home and sell your old one. In essence, you are getting a short-term home-equity loan, also known as a HELOC, a Home Equity Line of Credit, on your present house and using it as a down payment on your new house. You then repay the loan when you sell your first home. It is not easy to qualify for a conventional bridge loan, since you have to demonstrate that you have enough money to pay for both mortgages for an indefinite period of time.
Experts advise applying for the HELOC well before you buy a new house. That way most of the credit on the line is unused until you actually need it. Lenders don’t like a HELOC that works only for a very short time, and it’s a challenge to get a HELOC if your present home is on the market.
Try to schedule the closing date on the sale of your old home after the closing date on the home you buy. In this way, you can stay in your present home until you move into your new home. Otherwise, you can attempt to negotiate a rent-back arrangement.
There is no right answer in choosing any of these scenarios. Your Realtor may be able to advise which is best, depending on the local market. However, much depends on your financial stability, as well as your tolerance for risk or disruption.
How to Sell Your Home and Buy Another at the Same Time
Real Estate News-Diedre Woolard
Being a move-up buyer can be tough in today’s market. Although deals are closing rapidly, there’s no guarantee that your new dream home will close at the same time as your old dream home. Selling and buying at the same time is a delicate dance, but it is doable. There are a few ways to pursue this plan:
1. Sell first, then buy. This is perhaps the safest plan, but it calls for multiple moves. In this scenario, you list your home and complete the transaction before purchasing another home. When you sell your home, you put the bulk of your belongings in storage and live in a temporary rental or, if possible, enter into a rent-back deal with your home’s new owner. The advantage of this method is that you know exactly how much you can spend on a new home, and you don’t have to worry about temporary financing. Also, without another home waiting in the wings, you’ll be less tempted to drop the price or to take the first offer that is below the asking price. The disadvantage is that it is a disruptive experience, and you could be displaced for a while if you are home-shopping for a long time.
2. Buy first, then sell. This strategy minimizes disruption. You can move into your new place at your leisure and then take time to prepare your home for sale. The major disadvantage is that, depending on how fast your old home sells, you could be shouldering the burden of two mortgages for some time. You are also responsible for maintenance and security on the vacant home. This scenario works best if your first home is already paid off.
A variation of this plan is to buy a new home with the plan to rent out the old one for a year. This buys you some time with money coming in, but being a landlord comes with its own stresses and responsibilities. You may also need to repair or renovate the home after it has served as a rental.
3. Buy and sell simultaneously. To execute this plan, you need to prepare for all contingencies and to know that if your timing is off, you will face one of the two scenarios listed above. The trickiest bit can be timing the financial burden. One option is bridge financing. This enables you to own two homes for a short amount of time. To do this, you need to either borrow money from family or obtain a short-term loan from a bank or other lending institution to span the time period between when you close on your new home and sell your old one. In essence, you are getting a short-term home-equity loan, also known as a HELOC, a Home Equity Line of Credit, on your present house and using it as a down payment on your new house. You then repay the loan when you sell your first home. It is not easy to qualify for a conventional bridge loan, since you have to demonstrate that you have enough money to pay for both mortgages for an indefinite period of time.
Experts advise applying for the HELOC well before you buy a new house. That way most of the credit on the line is unused until you actually need it. Lenders don’t like a HELOC that works only for a very short time, and it’s a challenge to get a HELOC if your present home is on the market.
Try to schedule the closing date on the sale of your old home after the closing date on the home you buy. In this way, you can stay in your present home until you move into your new home. Otherwise, you can attempt to negotiate a rent-back arrangement.
There is no right answer in choosing any of these scenarios. Your Realtor may be able to advise which is best, depending on the local market. However, much depends on your financial stability, as well as your tolerance for risk or disruption.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Great tips for those wanting to sell your home!
Here are some great tips that I found from an article about selling your home quickly! Please let me know if you need a list of trusted contractors for those home repairs, I will gladly provide with it.
5 tips to help your home sell quickly-By Karen Aho of MSN Real Estate
To many buyers, a house that's been on the market a long time must have hidden problems. And that could lead to unnecessary and endless price reductions. Luckily, even in a distressed market, there are ways to prevent roots from sprouting under the 'for sale' sign.
Leave it to the pros
Welcome to the wacky world of home sales, where a little stubborn behavior can be costly. But there's a tried-and-true solution that can be summed up with two basic points:
It’s never easy to relinquish control, particularly when it’s your home and your money. But if the goal is to sell, and to sell fast, then you’re better off trusting the expert, even if his advice appears trivial — like the paint on a couple of walls — or counterintuitive, such as undercutting the price.
To get a sense of what we mean, see the five tips below, all from experienced agents who say these are areas where home sellers often need some persuading.
1. Price it right; price it low
Some may find Katya Dennis a bit offbeat — or at least bold — in her pricing strategy, which at first blush appears to be undervaluing the property. But Dennis, an agent in Northern California with David Lyng Real Estate, swears by her method.
"I always tell my sellers, you can never price a house too low, because the market will take care of it," she explains.
Dennis recently listed a home for $535,000, even though it had been appraised at $560,000. The house sold within weeks — for $575,000. The reasoning is simple, she says. The low price drew quick and competing bids.
Had she listed the home for $560,000, she's certain the sale would have dragged and brought in even less than the valuation.
"If you start high and start lowering it, you will never get to the number that you will get to by starting low and going up," Dennis says. "Because when you start lowering the price, people will start wondering what's wrong with the house. ... And if it's been sitting awhile, people will try and lowball."
2. Try a fresh sales approachEven on the phone, it's clear that Leis can be tough. But her success stories may provide peace of mind to sellers who find themselves initially put off by agents' edgy tactics.
3. Don’t try too hard to fight the market
Sometimes a seller has to accept that there's only so much an unfriendly marketplace can offer.
4. Remember, renovations aren't a magic bullet
Be flexible with price. "Price is still what's moving." And if you want the house to move, find an agent willing to be brutally honest.
5. Don’t, repeat don’t, skip the online sales push
One last tip from agents: A home that relies on its good personality alone won't cut it in today's market.
"The days when a buyer shows up at my office and says 'Where are we going today?' those days are long over," Romano says. "They show up with a list of homes they've seen online. Some of them, you look at and say, 'Why would you want to look at that?' and you see it looks really good online."
A year earlier, he took a home that had been on and off the market for two years and sold it in 11 days after telling the sellers to follow his rules, which included staging the home and lowering the price.
"The market had continued to decline," Romano says. "Even if a buyer were interested at that (higher) price point, the buyer won't get a mortgage because it won't appraise out for that. It doesn't do anyone any good to list at above the appraised value."
5 tips to help your home sell quickly-By Karen Aho of MSN Real Estate
To many buyers, a house that's been on the market a long time must have hidden problems. And that could lead to unnecessary and endless price reductions. Luckily, even in a distressed market, there are ways to prevent roots from sprouting under the 'for sale' sign.
Leave it to the pros
Welcome to the wacky world of home sales, where a little stubborn behavior can be costly. But there's a tried-and-true solution that can be summed up with two basic points:
- Find a seller's agent whom you like and trust.
- "Make sure you interview three great agents that focus on your area," says Alan Mark, president of the Mark Co., a real-estate marketing and consulting company in San Francisco. "Then realize that you're hiring a professional who knows how to do this."
- Listen to that agent. More on that below, but the key is to separate the emotional qualities of your home from the basic functional qualities of the house.
It’s never easy to relinquish control, particularly when it’s your home and your money. But if the goal is to sell, and to sell fast, then you’re better off trusting the expert, even if his advice appears trivial — like the paint on a couple of walls — or counterintuitive, such as undercutting the price.
To get a sense of what we mean, see the five tips below, all from experienced agents who say these are areas where home sellers often need some persuading.
1. Price it right; price it low
Some may find Katya Dennis a bit offbeat — or at least bold — in her pricing strategy, which at first blush appears to be undervaluing the property. But Dennis, an agent in Northern California with David Lyng Real Estate, swears by her method.
"I always tell my sellers, you can never price a house too low, because the market will take care of it," she explains.
Dennis recently listed a home for $535,000, even though it had been appraised at $560,000. The house sold within weeks — for $575,000. The reasoning is simple, she says. The low price drew quick and competing bids.
Had she listed the home for $560,000, she's certain the sale would have dragged and brought in even less than the valuation.
"If you start high and start lowering it, you will never get to the number that you will get to by starting low and going up," Dennis says. "Because when you start lowering the price, people will start wondering what's wrong with the house. ... And if it's been sitting awhile, people will try and lowball."
2. Try a fresh sales approachEven on the phone, it's clear that Leis can be tough. But her success stories may provide peace of mind to sellers who find themselves initially put off by agents' edgy tactics.
3. Don’t try too hard to fight the market
Sometimes a seller has to accept that there's only so much an unfriendly marketplace can offer.
4. Remember, renovations aren't a magic bullet
Be flexible with price. "Price is still what's moving." And if you want the house to move, find an agent willing to be brutally honest.
5. Don’t, repeat don’t, skip the online sales push
One last tip from agents: A home that relies on its good personality alone won't cut it in today's market.
"The days when a buyer shows up at my office and says 'Where are we going today?' those days are long over," Romano says. "They show up with a list of homes they've seen online. Some of them, you look at and say, 'Why would you want to look at that?' and you see it looks really good online."
A year earlier, he took a home that had been on and off the market for two years and sold it in 11 days after telling the sellers to follow his rules, which included staging the home and lowering the price.
"The market had continued to decline," Romano says. "Even if a buyer were interested at that (higher) price point, the buyer won't get a mortgage because it won't appraise out for that. It doesn't do anyone any good to list at above the appraised value."
Friday, June 7, 2013
Useful tips for the first time and experienced home buyer.
These tips are great for any home buyer-first time or even the experienced home buyer.
Real Estate News-Diedre Woollard
What You Need to Know About Radon and Asbestos Before Buying
When you are buying a home, making sure that it is safe for you and your family is of prime importance. It’s not just critical for your health; it’s also vital to ensure that the home is a sound investment. As you go through your inspection process, your agent may recommend inspections for both radon and asbestos, especially if your home was built before 1960. Both of these materials are carcinogens known to cause cancer through heavy, repeated exposure. Radon is the No. 1 cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers, according to EPA estimates.
What is radon?
Radon is an odorless, colorless gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium in the soil. Because the air pressure inside your home is usually less than that of the soil it stands on, this acts as a vacuum, drawing radon gas (if it is present) into the home. Radon is a fairly common occurrence. Half of American homes have a radon level above the average level. One in 15 homes has a level high enough that the U.S. government has recommended that action be taken to control the leakage. Radon comes in through the foundation, where the foundation comes in contact with the soil; through gaps, cracks and cavities in walls where plumbing enters; and through construction joints.
A simple home test shows whether radon is above the safe level. The kit is placed in the lowest lived-in area of the house, generally the first floor or basement, for two or three days. The average outdoor level of radon is 0.4 pCi/L, and the average indoor radon level is estimated to be about 1.3 pCi/L. Generally, a level below 4 pCi/L is considered safe. If testing reveals an unacceptable level of radon in the home, the good news is that radon remediation methods are highly effective. Your inspector can make recommendations for licensed treatment experts, or you can find one online or through your real estate agent. Radon mitigation is like many other home repairs — you may want to get a few estimates before choosing your radon contractor.
What is asbestos?
Asbestos is a heat- and fire-resistant material that was used in homes before 1960 in insulation for heating pipes and attics, as well as roofing and siding materials. Asbestos is made of long fibers that can be breathed in easily. When inhaled, these fibers can become lodged in internal body tissues, and this can cause cancer. Most people develop no symptoms unless they are exposed to high amounts of asbestos. In older homes, often the best thing you can do is to leave asbestos material that is in good condition alone. You are not in danger unless the material is damaged and fibers are released and inhaled. The inspection will determine if the asbestos is deteriorating and causing a problem and needs to be removed.
If either radon or asbestos is found in the property and you like the home, you shouldn’t necessarily pass on buying it. With the help of your real estate agent, you can get a recommendation for experts who can prescribe treatment and give you estimates. From there, you can decide whether it’s worth it to negotiate purchase price of the property with the home owner. Often the professionals licensed to treat these problems are licensed for both radon and asbestos, so you can deal with one person. Both situations are common enough that they can be taken care of easily and do not need to stop you from buying the home.
Real Estate News-Diedre Woollard
What You Need to Know About Radon and Asbestos Before Buying
When you are buying a home, making sure that it is safe for you and your family is of prime importance. It’s not just critical for your health; it’s also vital to ensure that the home is a sound investment. As you go through your inspection process, your agent may recommend inspections for both radon and asbestos, especially if your home was built before 1960. Both of these materials are carcinogens known to cause cancer through heavy, repeated exposure. Radon is the No. 1 cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers, according to EPA estimates.
What is radon?
Radon is an odorless, colorless gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium in the soil. Because the air pressure inside your home is usually less than that of the soil it stands on, this acts as a vacuum, drawing radon gas (if it is present) into the home. Radon is a fairly common occurrence. Half of American homes have a radon level above the average level. One in 15 homes has a level high enough that the U.S. government has recommended that action be taken to control the leakage. Radon comes in through the foundation, where the foundation comes in contact with the soil; through gaps, cracks and cavities in walls where plumbing enters; and through construction joints.
A simple home test shows whether radon is above the safe level. The kit is placed in the lowest lived-in area of the house, generally the first floor or basement, for two or three days. The average outdoor level of radon is 0.4 pCi/L, and the average indoor radon level is estimated to be about 1.3 pCi/L. Generally, a level below 4 pCi/L is considered safe. If testing reveals an unacceptable level of radon in the home, the good news is that radon remediation methods are highly effective. Your inspector can make recommendations for licensed treatment experts, or you can find one online or through your real estate agent. Radon mitigation is like many other home repairs — you may want to get a few estimates before choosing your radon contractor.
What is asbestos?
Asbestos is a heat- and fire-resistant material that was used in homes before 1960 in insulation for heating pipes and attics, as well as roofing and siding materials. Asbestos is made of long fibers that can be breathed in easily. When inhaled, these fibers can become lodged in internal body tissues, and this can cause cancer. Most people develop no symptoms unless they are exposed to high amounts of asbestos. In older homes, often the best thing you can do is to leave asbestos material that is in good condition alone. You are not in danger unless the material is damaged and fibers are released and inhaled. The inspection will determine if the asbestos is deteriorating and causing a problem and needs to be removed.
If either radon or asbestos is found in the property and you like the home, you shouldn’t necessarily pass on buying it. With the help of your real estate agent, you can get a recommendation for experts who can prescribe treatment and give you estimates. From there, you can decide whether it’s worth it to negotiate purchase price of the property with the home owner. Often the professionals licensed to treat these problems are licensed for both radon and asbestos, so you can deal with one person. Both situations are common enough that they can be taken care of easily and do not need to stop you from buying the home.
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