Weekly Real Estate

When buying a home, it’s important to know what are the essentials for you. One of the best things that you can do is create a list of basic features and amenities that you need in your dream home. As a real estate agent, I can help you out in scouting for such a home with your desired features, the more specific you are, the better it helps in the searches.

We will discuss the essential features you should consider when you are selecting home. Each of these features should be ranked by you based on their importance and your requirements.

Location:

The location is an essential feature to consider when you are hunting for a home because it’s the main thing you can’t change. You should search for a home close to your work, school, parks, shopping, public transportation, place of worship, family, or any other places you visit the most.

Having your home located in the right place is a massive advantage for you when it comes to the resale value. An excellent location will always be a great asset, no matter what how bad the real estate market is. As they say “location, location, location”

Neighbourhood:

You can’t control the character of your neighbours, and you may find a home located in the right place with a lot of features but before buying the home, make sure to observe the environment in early in the morning and at night to find out how the people living. Observe the character of the the neighborhood, see if the neighbours keep their home in a way that would make you comfortable and make on the recent crime activity reported in such society.

Position of the lot:

A home that is on a corner may have traffic that stops or turns by your home but may allow access to the backyard for additional storage. Homes that are on a cul de sac will have a smaller front yard but a large pie lot in the back. Make sure you are looking at homes that suit you the best.

The bedrooms:

When looking at homes you’ll want to decide whether you will spend more time outdoors, in the main living areas or in the bedrooms. It’s also important to know if a den or separate living and family rooms are important. Often times the bedrooms can either be side very large or on the smaller side depending on how much furniture you have so you’ll want to observe the room sizes when viewing homes. 

Kitchen

The kitchen is an important thing to look out for when buying a home because it is the heart of the home and a place where food is planned for the family. You have to check if the kitchen has enough space to put your refrigerator, microwave, and dishwasher. Do not buy a home with a kitchen that is not up to your taste. It can be expensive to remodel or replace countertops, cabinets, and sink.

The bathroom:

Before purchasing a home determine how many bathrooms you need. Commonly older homes have one or two bathrooms and newer homes often have two or more bathrooms. Do you a bathroom with a shower, bath or jacuzzi. It’s important to look at those items when viewing homes or see if it would be a good set up to install one.

The age of the home:

When choosing a home that meets your needs, age is an essential factor you must give a significant consideration because the older home needs, more upgrade, and repairs it may need in the near future. 

Purchase price:

Home buying is a huge investment, you’ll want to ensure that your monthly payment and the overall mortgage is within your budget. Often times clients want to extend their budgets but you’ll want to ensure you are comfortable with the payments over the long term.

Maintenance: 

Buying an older home may require that you repair or replace some items in the house. Doing so will add to your overall costs for the home though. Ensuring a home has been well maintained by the previous homeowner and doing proper inspections, you’ll have a much better chance at keeping your maintenance costs going forward, much lower.

HOA dues, taxes and fees:

If you buy a home in a community with a homeowner association, you should also consider budgeting for the monthly or annual fee and dues collected. If a property is in a newer community it may have additional taxes that will increase your monthly payment. These will also affect your mortgage approval and purchasing power. 

Whenever you are searching for your dream home, you have to devote time and effort to look for a home that’s a good fit for you and your family. You may also seek the knowledge and help of real estate agent to guide you through your search. When you are ready to start your home search, we are happy to help!

A lot of us have had the question come up, “What’s your credit score?”. Well what exactly is a credit report anyway? A credit report is a detailed record of individual credit history prepared by a credit bureau that includes information about you including your identity, your name, address, date of birth, social security number, and probably your employment information. It also gives information about court judgment against you, it indicates any bankruptcy filed for you or by you and any tax lien against you. It gives well-detailed information about your outstanding debt, such as a mortgage, student loan, car loans. One item it also show are credit inquiries which is a list of individuals and companies that requested a copy of your credit report.

But why is a credit report that important anyway?

Generally speaking your mortgage lenders, insurers, banks, and sometimes employers obtain your credit report to know how you meet your financial responsibilities. For instance, your lender uses your history to determine whether you are qualified for a mortgage or not, and your lender can as well use the account to assess your loan pricing and know if you’ll be able to meet your mortgage fee.

With the credit report, credit bureaus gather and keep your credit information that is in your report. There are three credit bureaus that we look at – Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. These credit bureaus provide your credit information as a report and credit bureaus also get your credit information from your creditors such as credit card issuer, lender, and bank. Public records are another source where credit bureaus gather their information about court and property record.

Most people also do not realize that you are entitled to a free credit report every year from each of the credit bureaus like Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You can do this by contacting (877)322-8228 or by visiting the website www.annualcreditreport.com. By using either of these methods, you will be requested to give certain information to access the report. A credit report generated from one of the bureaus may not adequate; hence, you may need to apply for your credit from the three bureaus at a time. 

With the actual credit scores themselves, the rating companies grades for your credit report helps your lender to predict how likely you are to repay your loan and make payment at due time. The lender uses your credit score to determine whether to grant you and the rate you will pay the mortgage. The score is calculated by the total amount of your outstanding debt, whether you settle your bills on time, whether there is any collection action against you, the type and number of the account you operate (mortgage, student loans, credit cards) and your account age.

What can change my credit score?

Your credit score is calculated based on your credit report. A change to your credit report will bring change to your credit score. For example, if you pay less on your outstanding debt or pay your utility bills late, your credit score goes down. However, if you settle your utility bills on time, and make a sizeable down payment on your mortgage, pay your outstanding debt or correct errors on your credit report, your credit score will increase.

How can I build a good credit score?

When building your credit score, you should consider the following

Establish a credit report

For you to create a good credit report, you must have an active credit account. Go to your bank or credit union to get your first credit account or activate your account.

Adhere strictly to the presented payment terms and conditions

Make sure you make a minimum payment due on time. A payment that does not meet up to the minimum contractual amount could harm your credit report or credit score.

Keep your balances low

Keeping a low balance as compared to your available loan limit gives proper finance management. It shows clearly enough that you are financially responsible and shows your lender that you are likely to repay the loan. A key component to credit score is your utilization rate that is your balance to limit ratio.

Apply for credit wisely

Do not apply for multiple credits in a short time and be sure to be truthful with applying.

Show good credit habits over a long period.

Demonstrate a good credit management habit over a long period to help achieve a good credit score by paying your credit cards regularly.

Why is proper credit management critical?

Having good credit plays a crucial role in your financial life. It does not only makes you qualify for a loan or credit but can also secure you a job. Proper credit management will make you eligible for lower interest rates and fees. It can also increase your savings, which can be set aside to meet emergencies and smaller unexpected expenses.

 Getting yourself a good credit score is not hard. Follow the five principles on which you can build your credit score discussed in this blog. Try as much as possible based on your capacity to reduce your credit applications over a short period. Getting a good credit report does not only assist your lender in deciding whether to grant you a loan or not but can also increase the possibility of you securing employment.

A new home is a dream place for many people. Many of us want to have a house we can call our own, but it's unfortunate to say that not everybody can achieve this dream. Just like the adage, "all fingers are not equal", it also applies to this scenario of owning a home. It is important to note that in discussing topics like this, many points come to one's thought. None can be taken as irrelevant, but we have to take points we feel more relevant to us and what applies best. To make homeownership more affordable:

Consider your budget when determining the kind of home you want

The size of your budget goes a long way in determining the type of home one can buy, putting in mind that the bigger the house, the higher the cost. From the information obtained when viewing different homes, a clear picture of how we want our home to look would have been formed. Ask yourself some questions, what kind of home are you aiming for? Is it a place that will accommodate only you and your immediate family or a place that can accommodate lots of people often? Are we looking at a bungalow, duplex, mansion, semi-detached house or a condo? Making use of low aesthetics helps in cost reduction while considering the budget. Why not go for ordinary flooring instead of being adamant on making use of tiles?

Get a right real estate agent with lots of experience

An experienced real estate agent is essential in your goal towards having a home of our own. They must be reasonable and be good listeners. Talking with a few agents and choosing the one that suits you best is truly the way to go. After making a decision on which to go with, ensure that they understand your budget and why you may need certain accommodations. Many first time home buyers also do not understand that the agent you are working with, can either make your home buying process very smooth or can make it a tough situation at every turn. Make sure you feel confident in the agent you hire!

Partake in work yourself:

Nobody is at all a jack of all trades, but the willingness to do some of the work saves a lot of money that would have been spent on hiring professionals. There are little things that could be done ourselves, but the main thing is knowing the skill, having the knowledge of how to do that kind of work. Doing the job without having an idea about the expertise or knowing how to do such a task could only cost us more and would jeopardize our aim of saving money. When doing such work, it must be to the best standard that will be required from a hired professional.

Preserve some materials for reuse:

Preserving materials entails keeping materials that were previously used in the home. Some materials might be needed later on during other construction works as well. Construction works create material wastes that can be beneficial in other areas. Do whatever you can within your capacity to make sure you get these materials. Do not allow any contractor mislead you into discarding any of these materials if they can be salvaged. If those materials cannot be kept, it can be sold. Sell them and make use of the money in buying other things needed.

In conclusion, homeownership can be quite affordable. Being a conserver is a great way to save money and also reuse materials. When constructing your home, it's fine to be a conserver but does not always need to go to an extreme. Everybody wants to enjoy the comfort of living in a house of their own, but if one does not live within one's budget, has it really been achieved?

Do you intend to own your house? If yes! You will find this helpful. Owning a house to most people in society is a dream come true since acquiring a home is expensive and can be viewed as a status symbol. Before owning a house, you should take a look at the pros and cons of owning a home.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of owning a home versus renting. You should consider the pros and cons of homeownership before deciding what's best for yourself of course.

Some pros of homeownership include:

 Financial Stability

Owning a house with a reasonable mortgage will cost less than renting an apartment and paying your landlord every month over the long run. The rent paid is a wasted the expense that cannot help in building one's financial status. When you own your house and move into it, you can use that higher rent payment towards other expenses.

Home Equity

Over the years that you own your home, you will historically see the value increase and create equity in your home for you. You can use this to do a refinance, reverse mortgage and have other options that renting simply does not provide.

Flexibility

When you acquire your home, you can turn it into your home with your taste, which you cannot do in a rented apartment. You can decide to create a garden, remodel your interiors, keep pets, have a pool and many other personal touches as well as the pride of ownership.

Control Of Your Property

As a homeowner, you have total control of your house. When you are paying rent, your landlord is in control. This can put you in a position of being afraid of getting you and your family kicked out by your landlord.

 Social Benefit

Owning a house also creates social benefits that include neighbor relationships to community involvement and educational opportunities for children.

Personal Wealth

Owning a home offers a long term benefit of potential growth in your wealth. Your mortgage payment is shared between the principal and the interest paid on the money borrowed. Every dollar you spend towards principal is a dollar paid for ownership. Your home can also serve as a source of emergency money if financial and health issues arise unexpectedly with any equity you’ve built.

Tax Benefit

The interest and property tax portion of your mortgage payment is a tax deduction.

 There are also some factors to consider while shopping for a home and owning your home. Owning a house to the majority of people is one of the most significant financial decisions you could make in your life. Before owning such a home, you should take into consideration the following factors before owning your home.

 Location

Whenever you are buying a home, you look at the location and general area. A great location will be an excellent asset for you in the future, no matter how much the real estate market fluctuates in the future. It is also great to own a home near your work and family, which will save you time and transportation cost.

The Neighbourhood

Before owning such a home, you should review the community to find out whether the city is friendly towards the activities you plan to do. Whether you are looking for more recreational activities or plan to stay home more often, it’s important to know the area.

Home Inspection

Checking the house critically before buying is a must. You have to check out if the house will require renovation and maintenance cost that is not expected. These must be calculated and considered because these will be costs you will have down the road sooner or later.

Whether you decide to buy or rent, you are making a significant decision. 

It affects both the money you have left at the end of the month as well as your lifestyle and the money you acquire over the years. Considering the discussed pros of owning your own home, it generally makes sense to become a homeowner!

House flipping sounds good, right? Transform a home and give it that fresh new feel, but how would you know that you are gaining and not wasting your money? You might notice in some TV shows where they show “house flipping” and thought “I can do that, it's so simple and easy”. These programs often show one side of the story and not the whole story of house flipping. For example, the person working behind the scene are professionals with big budgets and the audiences including you rarely see the dirty work.

If you are planning to buy a home to flip, you might want to keep in mind the pros and cons of house flipping.

Beware of money pits when buying the home! That’s the main reason why most folks are into real estate flipping. Even some companies and individuals find flipping homes a profit-making venture and if done correctly the returns might be achieved in a very short period of time.

The experience you gain! Although house flipping might take a lot of time and money, there is a lot of valuable experience you can learn throughout the process such as subcontracting to help you advance your negotiating skills. You will not also learn about construction and real estate investing through the process of balancing a budget and ensuring a project is still profitable.

House Flipping is Gratifying, especially seeing the project to the end. Although your main intent in flipping houses is to make a profit, you’ll also learn that there are many things you can gain in flipping houses and not just money. When you rehabilitate and sell an old home, you’re not just selling it but also giving it a new life. You take all the unnecessary stuff and change it into something new for the new family to make new memories in. That is the most gratifying reward you might ever receive.

There is, of course, the other side of house flipping. There can definitely be risks and stress involved in the process and it’s not a 9-5 job. Here are some risks or disadvantages of house flipping.

You can be putting your money at stake. You can’t achieve something big without taking the risk. There are a lot of factors that can contribute to making a property flop instead of flip. One of the contributors to this loss is the unexpected expenses, even with careful caution and planning, with just a small cracked foundation, need of new plumbing, contractor delays, change of weather, and unplanned materials that you didn’t expect. All of these will quickly add up and may consume the potential profit. A change in the real estate market is also a problem in flipping a house. If you’re not able to sell the home ( assuming that there’s a mortgage on the property) you will have to pay the mortgage, taxes, and insurance. This will also take a huge part of the budget, after the renovation and the property is ready to sell, the longer the property is in your hands, the more money you lose.

There will be stress involved! You can’t run and hide from it, especially if your business is flipping houses. You will get stress with things like delays, the plan didn’t go as to what you expect it to happen, overdue deadline, finding the right property, contractors, buyers and etc. But the bright side is, the more things like this you run into, the more experience you have and the wiser you will be on the next project.

If you are considering flipping homes, make sure you reach out and I’d be happy to point you in the right direction with properties!

In today’s generation, we just can’t help but share some exciting news on social media, especially when you have your own new house! Who wouldn’t want to share that kind of achievement on social media?! Buying a new home is a huge deal for anyone, particularly first-time homeowners. The feeling of satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment is riled up inside and you just can’t wait to tell everyone about it. Before clicking the share button and sharing your home with everyone, we have some information for when and how to use social media wisely.

Share all the great photos of your new place. You don’t have to be a professional photographer when capturing your favorite spot of the house. Keep it simple and beautiful at the same time. Maybe show off some of your home’s unique and cool features.

Use Pinterest, Houzz, Google or any other creative sites for some photo inspiration. If you want your home to turn out amazing with your personalization, you can look for inspiration on the internet. From cute arrangements to what angle is best for the final photo are small details that make a huge difference when showcasing your new digs. Just don’t get too attached in the perfect arrangement you see online and get disappointed thinking about why yours is not the same as the one on the image. It’s good to see amazing homes and how they are set up but it’s also amazing to put your own unique spin on it. Remember that decorating your home is a story you want to write and tell people about it. 

Name your house! Yes, you read that correctly. Naming your house is not a weird thing to do. House naming is a normal thing these days and if you want to sell your house in the future a great name for it might even help you sell it. House names, for example, can be a name of your favorite movie star, a unique catchphrase, or after your favorite vacation place, it doesn’t matter because it’s yours!

Make sure you have fun on social media but also make sure you are using it to your advantage once you have your new home. It can be a fun place to express yourself and also share your new space with friends and family!

We’ve had a lot of clients to ask us about flipped properties. Well, there are a couple of key things to know. Essentially a flip property is a property that was once a fixer. If you go for a fixer-upper, you're committing to improving the home, which takes time and money. If you buy a foreclosed property in an auction or from a bank, you could get a better price for the home to complete repairs. Remember that if the previous owners couldn't pay the mortgage, they probably couldn't pay for the upkeep either -- so you might have to deal with deferred maintenance or other neglected issues.

If the home was in distress, it needed some work done. Generally, a construction team or real estate crew came in and basically gave it a facelift or remodeled the property and put it back on the market for sale. Basically, they take a property that is not as desirable, they flip it by remodeling it, updating things and put it back on the market for general buyers to be able to purchase. Now, the main things to look at when you're looking at these types of homes are the "details.” When you're looking at the homes, a couple of things I like looking at our crown molding if the home has it or baseboards. Usually, those are going to be items that can tend to be thrown together a little bit quicker, they may not have the quality workmanship there, and those can be indicators of what's going on throughout the property.

There are a lot of different levels of a flip property as well. There's going to be a home that may have just had a light facelift, maybe had some paint or maybe doing the flooring and some landscaping while other homes are completely remodeled top to bottom. They'll remodel the kitchen, all the bathrooms, the bedrooms, they may even do an addition or expand rooms. The main point that they're trying to do as a contractor is trying to make a product that's beautiful at the end. They want to make sure it has nice floors that are attractive, make sure that the kitchen looks very homely, and overall, bring the house into the 21st century with the upgrades and updates that it has. Now, remember you when you're looking at these homes, if you are seeing concerning things in the details, there may be bigger issues. If you're seeing the floors that are not seemed together all the way that may have little gaps in them, little things like this will really be a huge indicator of what's going on with the home

If you are looking at a flip property or even considering doing a flip yourself, make sure that you're looking at the details, and make sure give me a call, because I can talk to you a little bit more about what to be aware of throughout the process!

Have you recently noticed a home that was a “short sale”? When we are seeing a short sale property, they can be a little different than a traditional sale. With the traditional sale, we're going to be having a homeowner selling their property. They're going to get net profits basically on the equity they have at home, and they're going to take those funds typically and use it for another purchase or a down payment on their next home. With a short sale, there’s not going to be any additional proceeds and typically the homeowner is looking to be able to walk away from that situation and be able to basically start over with their lives.

With that being said, a seller is taking a loss on the home and will not be making a profit while a bank will also be taking a loss based on the money they have lent for the home. Let’s say we have a property that is currently worth $300,000, but the seller has taken a loan against the home and now owes a total of $325,000 for the home. At this point, the seller is underwater or owes more on the home than it is currently worth. When the seller needs to move and they put the home on the market for sale, they will likely sell around the $300,000 that the home is worth. This is where the bank will come into play with the $25,000 that cannot be recovered. When we make an offer on these homes, the seller review gives a preliminary acceptance and then the offer goes to the bank. Once at the bank the offer is really reviewed in depth financially by the bank to see what the most they are willing to lose on that home and see if they are ultimately willing to accept that offer. When the bank is lending money, their goal is to make a profit and a return on their investment in the way of interest on the loan. When the property is sold for less than what it is worth, it can be a more timely process as the bank is taking a loss. The main thing to know is that as a buyer when you're going in to look at those properties, they're typically going to be in rougher shape. The homeowners are looking to be able to get out of a situation and they typically do not have additional funds for the upkeep of the home.

The second part is they do take longer to close. When we are making an offer, we typically will be making it directly to the seller rather than the bank. The actual bank is the one reviewing that offer though and doing the official acceptance. Generally, we will submit an offer to a seller after an acceptance but have to wait for a couple days but more likely a couple of weeks to actually get a response to the bank in terms of our offer truly accepted. It's a little bit more of a process, these take a little bit longer to close than a typical 30 or 45-day escrow. Generally speaking, you may be able to get a little bit better value out of these homes but make sure that you understand how and what you're getting yourself into in terms of the homes condition issues that we may not see offhand. It's definitely important for getting inspections for those reasons.

If you are looking at a short sale property, just keep in mind that it is a little bit tougher of a situation for the homeowner. You're likely not going to be able to get repairs done before closing, and generally speaking, we're ultimately going to be dealing with the bank.

For homeowners, what does that mean for you? As your real estate agent, my goal is when we go to sell your home; we want to be able to get the highest net profit that we can. A short sale will be a little bit different because there's more owned on the house so no funds will go back to the homeowner. My goal is to make it a smooth process, make sure that all the paperwork with the bank is properly completed and working with the bank to complete the process. There are a lot of fine details, especially in the contract, which is why you will want to have an agent that is aware of the best practices and ways to complete your short sale. It’s not a scarier process but it's something that you do want to have someone in your corner with and get hands-on with the experience behind them.

If you do have any questions and if you're possibly in a for short sale situation or if you're looking at purchasing a short sale, make sure you reach out, I'd be happy to guide you through the process!

I wanted to talk on an aspect of real estate that is very helpful to know as a homebuyer so you can have more information and more knowledge going into the buying process. One question that comes up often is, what is “recording”? You often hear we're officially on record, or that we may have recorded from escrow in regards to your home closing. But what does that really mean? At closing, right before we get keys, we're going to have what's called our “signing" where we're going to be signing all of our loan documents and any documents regarding transfer with things like the HOA's and the deed of the home. That's going to be the main important factor for your name to be on the deed of your new home!

Generally, after getting an offer accepted, the next question home buyers want to know is how long will it take for the home to close and get keys. Unless the buyers are paying all cash for the home, it is the buyer's lender who will determine the length of time required to process the loan and close most of the time as that is one of the longer processes. A buyer and seller can agree to an earlier closing date in the purchase contract, but if the lender can't process the loan during that window, it can create stress and confusion for the buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, we will only be able to close when the lender is ready to close and it is not something we can typically rush.

The seller is going to be signing the into the new buyer’s name via the title of the home or deed. The buyer is going to be the new homeowner and the new homeowner is also signing that they're accepting the new title into their name. Once this is done, the loan documents will go back to the lender and any additional documents are sent to their respective parties. The next main step for us is to have the documents sent via courier to the county recorder's office to officially record the deed into your name. When they're going down to the county recorder’s office, they're actually recording the new deed into your name from the previous homeowner and that's what the official “recording” means. You are actually doing the transfer of the name on the title from the previous owner to the new owner and once they do that they call that being “on record”. At that point, the home is officially yours and you are officially a new homeowner! Generally, by that time, you are able to get keys that same day.

If you're deciding to purchase a home, make sure you know some of the key terms used frequently so you understand the major steps going on through the home buying process. If you do have any questions, make sure you reach out I'd be happy to explain things.

I recently had an experience with a client of mine who I am helping to purchase a home that I wanted to share. This mainly has to do with renting and when is it an appropriate time to give notice to your landlord that you're going to be moving to a new home. Often times when you're renting a property, you need at least a  minimum of 30 days’ notice to your landlord before you move, this allows them time to repair any problems and complete paperwork to find a new tenant. When you're purchasing a home, once we get an offer accepted and once we're in the contract, you will want to wait in order to tell your landlord you're officially moving and that you have officially purchased a new home. We will have quite a few steps to go through still such as the inspections and appraisal, but most importantly, a loan contingency. 

Generally speaking, we're going to wait at least two to three weeks into the escrow process, before we officially know that we're going to be able to move forward with that property. If the inspections come back reasonable and if we have an appraisal that is good, we likely will be able to make things work. These will be positive signs that we're going to be able to move forward, and once the loan has been fully underwritten, we will likely be able to close from there. The main thing to consider when we're doing this is to allow time for the loan to process. Generally, the loan contingency is the longest time framed item we need and it will usually be about a week before we actually close. While it is close to the actual closing date, that may be a little bit closer than what you prefer for your 30-day notice, it allows you more time to be able to move into your new home or even clean your new home before you're officially moved in. If not, we've had clients who have given notice before that time and it creates a very stressful situation all the way around and the uncertainty if they will have a home to live in if they have to move before we actually close.

Sometimes there are delays that come up, and if we do experience those, it can make a significant impact on the actual closing date and when you'll be able to get those cues to move in. If you are excited about your new home purchase, by all means, be excited and that's awesome! However, give a little bit of time before you actually tell your landlord you're moving. The last thing we want as a real estate agent is for our client to be homeless if you're giving a 30 days’ notice too early. It is very crucial for us to make sure that the time frames line up and it really takes your help and cooperation and be able to do that. 

If you are renting and you're looking to purchase a home give yourself a little bit of time and don't stress about it. Try to allow some time to be able to find your new home and get through that escrow process before you really know you're fully committed to that home. If you are renting and want assistance lining up your time frames, please feel free to reach out!