Where Gen Y Buyers Can Find A Diamond In The Rough.

Are you a Gen Y buyer?
Are you a Gen Y buyer?

When shopping for a home, check out transitional city neighborhoods that might just be on the verge of revitalization. You might find a great price or a really unique home that’s in the middle of the action. There are several reasons why you should consider all of your options when searching for your new home.

Urban neighborhoods are home to coffee shops and corner stores. Boutiques and other quirky shops can add the character you might be missing in a traditional suburban setting.

Young couples or singles, who aren’t ready to give up a thriving nightlife, are often drawn to downtown lofts, converted warehouse spaces or even upper floors of shops and restaurants. Living downtown may give you more opportunities to make friends who are your age.

Many times, living in an urban area gives you easier access to public transportation that could significantly reduce your annual transportation budget, if you’re fortunate enough to no longer need the use of a car.

Farmer’s markets and food co-ops are also becoming very popular in urban areas. With access to organic and farm fresh food, your health and wallet could be thanking you. Another point of consideration is that living in densely populated areas gives you the potential for exposure to other ethnic groups and cultures. New and interesting food and customs could become just another perk of your new neighborhood.

Downtown homes or lofts are often smaller than homes out in the burbs. This means less to clean, a smaller yard or maybe no yard to mow, and your utility bill may be smaller in a smaller home. You have your whole life to move out to the suburbs. Look around your downtown for the hot spots that fit your budget and style.

Count on a Mel Foster Co. agent to help you identify up and coming neighborhoods and the programs that may make homeownership more affordable to you. Find an agent at your local office.

Get Your Finances In Order.

Getting your finances in order
Getting your finances in order

One of the smartest things you can do before buying a home is getting yourself pre-qualified. By getting pre-qualified, you’ll get an idea of what your mortgage might cost, ahead of time. This can help you prepare your budget, set your expectations and strengthen your confidence to negotiate when you’re ready to make an offer.

What is pre-qualification?

Pre-qualification gives you an estimate of what you could potentially borrow. It is based on information you give on your income, assets and credit. Many times a pre-qualification can be done online and is offered by many lenders at little to no cost. It is however just an estimation, and not a guarantee of any type of loan.

Why get pre-qualified?

Once you know how much of a monthly payment you are able to afford, and you’ve figured out a budget for yourself, a pre-qualification will allow you to estimate a loan option to fit your needs. You’ll also have a better idea of which homes you can afford during your search.

What documentation do I need in order to get pre-qualified?

You will need proof of income, this could include recent pay stubs, or W-2 statements from the past two years. You should also bring a copy of your tax return for the past two years, as well as proof of any alimony or additional income. You’ll also want to bring proof of your assets, including bank account statements to show you have the money for a potential down payment. Don’t forget your driver’s license and social security card, as the lender will need these to access your credit report.

Pre-qualification can help you be fully prepared to purchase that home you’ve been eyeing. You can get a head start by using the mortgage calculators to determine your monthly payment, figure out how much home you can afford and make a decision about renting versus buying.

An Older Home As A Green Alternative.

Older Home as Green Alternative
Older Home as Green Alternative

Call it recycling on a grand scale. Homebuyers who want their purchase to be more environmentally friendly are turning to older homes instead of building new. In fact, architect Carl Elefante coined the phrase, “the greenest building is the one that is already built.” What he meant by that is that environmental resources that would be used to build a building’s replacement are often times spared by restoring or repurposing an existing structure.

Did you know that it can take up to 80 years for a new, energy-efficient building to overcome the energy and climate change impacts caused during the construction process? Building reuse offers significant environmental savings when compared to the energy consumption of demolition and new construction.

Older buildings constructed prior to reliance on mechanical heating, cooling and lighting systems utilize what nature offers as part of their design. This can help reduce your energy use, helping you save on heating and cooling your home.

Go green and consider purchasing an older home that just needs a little TLC. Use the option to search by Year Built by clicking here to find a home you can recycle.

Put Out The Welcome Mat For Fall.

Welcome Fall
Welcome Fall

The number one tip for giving your home great curb appeal in the fall is to keep your lawn free of leaves. Buyers may drive right past your home if they feel like raking leaves would be too much work for them if they bought your home. Keep up with this chore to give your home a tidy and maintenance free look.

Cooler temperatures also mean it’s time to replace your tired annuals with colorful mums or kale. Clear out your planting beds of summer foliage and drop some blooms into your window box or porch planter. Remember that you still need to water these plants to keep them looking fresh.

If you have already moved out or can’t maintain plant watering, you can brighten your porch with a grouping of three large pumpkins. Want them to last even longer? Don’t carve your pumpkins for Halloween. You can keep an uncarved pumpkin on your porch through Thanksgiving and get two holidays out of one purchase!

Even though it’s Halloween time, real spider webs on your porch need to be cleared away regularly. No need to scare away buyers with frightful spider webs.

Need ideas for keeping your home open house ready for the holidays? Click here for simple tips.

Which Loan Is Right For Me?

It’s important to select the right type of mortgage for your financial situation, but understanding your options can be difficult. Your Mel Foster Co. agent  <link to find an agent> is your resource for proving information so you are able to make a knowledgeable decision regarding a mortgage. This quick list explains the top three most popular loan types.

1. Fixed-interest Mortgage

A fixed-interest mortgage is a type of loan that has a set interest rate. Most fixed mortgages are usually 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. The most common length of time is 30 years, as it provides the lowest monthly payment for homeowners. Keep in mind that most of the first few years of the payment are heavily focused on the interest that will be paid off, and very little actually goes towards the principal. You can determine your monthly payment for a fixed-interest mortgage with the Mel Foster Co. monthly payment calculator. 

2. Adjustable-rate Mortgage

An adjustable-rate mortgage or ARM is a loan with a variable interest rate. The interest rate will change after a designated period of time, determined by the lender. As a borrower, you may benefit if the interest rate is lowered, but you will also be exposed to potentially higher interest rates. The interest rate will remain steady for an agreed upon time, and won’t change until the next adjustment period. These types of mortgages are easier to obtain in situations when a fixed-interest mortgage isn’t an option. 

3. Interest-only Loan

An interest-only loan focuses on paying only the interest first. An example would be a 5-year fixed-30 mortgage. This means that for the first five years, you are only paying the interest, and not contributing any money towards the principal. The interest rate is fixed, but may change after five years. Once the five years is up, you begin to pay interest along with the principal cost. This will increase your payments significantly, even if the interest rate doesn’t change. This option is meant for someone who believes that they will earn more money in the future, or currently has their money tied up somewhere else. Just always remember to save your money for after the initial five years.

Which loan is right for you?
Which loan is right for you?

Space Saving Ideas For Your Home.

Making your home interior more efficient and attractive on a day-to-day basis doesn’t need to be an expensive or time-consuming endeavor. With the summer months upon us, keeping things orderly, yet functional, will help you and your busy family stay on top of things this season. Consider these space saving ideas and how they might just make your life a little easier this summer.

Pull Out Drawers And Cabinets

Installing a set of pull out bins under a stairwell in the entryway, or a pull out cabinet in the short hallway between rooms, can mean tons of extra storage space for your family. Consider getting pool toys out of sight and out of mind with a pull out closet in the garage.

Hidden Outlets

Are hairdryers and curling irons monopolizing all of your bathroom counter space? Consider installing outlets in the drawers those appliances are meant to be stored in. Never having to remove them from their hiding spot means more space for other things.

Turn Bunk Beds Into Murphy Beds

Need more floor space, or wishing you had a playroom for the kids? Installing Murphy Beds (the beds that pull down from a recess in the wall) could be just what you need. Suddenly there are feet and feet of extra floor space. So much more room for activities!

You Can’t Go Wrong With An Extra Cabinet  

Something as simple as a small extra cabinet in the kitchen to store cleaning supplies can make your life a whole lot easier. Suddenly there is free space under the sink and a small extra storage space. Also, a small cabinet with a high shelf means keeping dangerous cleaning products out of kids’ reach.

Lamp
Space Saving Ideas

Real Estate: A Look Five Years Into the Future

After the historic bursting of the proverbial real estate bubble brought the U.S. economy crumbling, the U.S. housing market has been on the rebound in recent years. Several factors come into play when forecasting the real estate market’s growth and change in the next five years

Home Values and Appreciation

In a survey done by Pulsenomics, the annual appreciation will be 3.94% over the next 5 years and the cumulative appreciation will be 19.7% by 2018. The survey also found that home values will appreciate by 4.5% in 2014.

Home Prices

Studies show that in some select markets, such as San Francisco, home prices may rise as much as 3% over the next 5 years. However, due to investors selling off their inventory, prices overall are forecasted to drop slightly over the same time period.

Mortgage Rates

According to CBS’s MoneyWatch, mortgage rates may be likely to rise, however a mortgage will be easier to secure for an average homebuyer. The rising rates will force lenders to loosen their lending standards. There was also a new federal rule that came into play in early January affecting mortgage standards.

What will real estate be like in five years?
What will real estate be like in five years?

The National Association of Realtors classified 2013 as a low inventory year, however it is projected that available home numbers have rebounded, allowing buyers a better selection and opportunity. This is only going to improve over the next five years according to current rising trends.

Fading Foreclosures

The increase in inventory will give way to a decrease in foreclosures. Between November 2011 and November 2012, when inventory was at a high point, mortgage delinquency rates fell from 7.83% to 7.12%. It is projected that in the next five years those rates will continue to decline.

Why Buying is Cheaper Than Renting

In a report released by Trulia earlier this year, it was found that it is still cheaper to pay a mortgage versus paying rent. Over 100 of the largest metropolitan areas were surveyed, and renting was nearly 40% more expensive than purchasing and making payments on a home.

Even with home prices on the rise, low mortgage rates have made payments manageable, and in most cases less than a monthly mortgage payment for the same space. In fact, mortgage rates would need to rise by over 10% in order for renting to be cheaper than buying, and rates haven’t been that high in over 18 years.

It is also important to keep in mind that purchasing a home is an investment, rather than simply a monthly housing cost. Although home price fluctuations have widely varied in the past decade or so, forecasts look good for the housing market overall in the coming years.

Why Buying is the way to go?
Why Buying is the way to go?

Four Things To Tell Your Agent

Four things to tell your agent.
What to tell your agent.

Selling your home can be a complex process. How will you get the correct paperwork taken care of? Who will handle showings to potential buyers? A professional real estate agent can help ease your burden, and solve the majority of challenges you might face. However, when hiring an agent, it is important that you find a good match, and work with someone who will fit best with your unique situation. As a good rule of thumb, the following are four things you should feel comfortable expressing to your agent.

Negotiations

It is extremely important that your agent be equipped to handle any and all challenges that may come your way. The ability to negotiate is crucial. Let your agent know that you expect he or she to be aggressive and firm when negotiating with potential buyers or their agents.

Relocation

Your agent should be able and willing to help you with the moving process. Being without a roof over your head is not acceptable, and paying two mortgages may not be either. Ensuring that your agent can coordinate the closing of your current home with the closing of your new home simultaneously is key. Mel Foster Co. has an award-winning relocation department that can support your agent and provide you with the tools to make a smooth transition to your new city.

Timetable

Will your move into a new home revolve around the start of a new job or school year? Planning a move this structured can be mentally and emotionally draining. It is imperative your agent understands your time constraints and can work within your needed parameters. Be up front about your timing concerns and share this information with your agent before you agree to go under contract.

Sell My House!

You hired your agent to sell your home so you can focus on the changes you are undergoing, which prompted your move in the first place. It is ok to remind your agent of these motivations. Set your expectations with your agent appropriately and this could be one of the best working relationships you will ever encounter.

The Pitfalls Of For Sale By Owner

Selling a house sounds easy. Take some pictures, get them on a for sale by owner website and watch the offers come in. The reality is, your home may sit on the market longer and you may price it below market value. These mistakes could cost you thousands of dollars.

Get an agent on your side when you decide to list your house. Agents and FSBO companies have different motivations. Your agent is working hard to sell your home for you and is only compensated once your home is sold. An FSBO website makes money when your home doesn’t sell and you pay for another month of listing.

Only your agent can help you determine a fair selling price based on comparable listings and sales in your neighborhood. This competitive market analysis can give you a realistic sales price. A home that is priced right will sell quickly in most situations. An FSBO site won’t offer specific information to determine how to price your home.

With an FSBO listing, you are responsible for scheduling and facilitating the open houses. It can be frustrating to watch potential buyers enter, then exit, your home in less than five minutes. They won’t stick around long enough to tell you honestly what’s keeping them from choosing your house. But an agent knows how to engage potential buyers in a meaningful dialogue that can reveal buyer concerns that might be keeping your home from selling.

Your agent also has the necessary paperwork for a buyer to make an offer. Selling you house is a transaction of many thousands of dollars. This is not the time to play agent and lawyer for yourself. Be smart when you list your home and use an agent.


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