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Archive for the 'Buyer Information' Category
Walk On Grand Rapids
May 13th, 2010
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(New!)
Does Walkability Raise Property Values?
Making your community more walkable can improve your quality of life and increase the value of your home. Read
Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.
Copyright 2010 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
5 Things you should know about Closings…the main event in Real Estate
May 3rd, 2010
One of the questions I get asked all the time by both Buyers and Sellers is: “I’m always hearing about a CLOSING – what is it?”
Here are 5 things you should know about closings:
1. What is a closing?
A closing in the State of Michigan is the culmination of a real estate transaction. This is where the buyer and seller get together (sometimes in person – sometimes not) to sign the final papers and transfer ownership. The buyers bring in their down payment and closing costs (the bank/mortgage company brings in the money for the mortgage) and the buyer becomes the legal owner of the property…the sellers, in most instances, receive their money and are no longer the owners of the property. The HUD Closing Statement summarizes the transaction and looks like this.
2. Where do you hold a closing?
In the Grand Rapids area, we hold most of our closings at a title insurance company. Some are located inside real estate offices, while others are in offices in different areas of town. A few even have mobile closings and drive up in a Mobile Closing Van (although they do come into the office to do the closings – I’ve not attended any sitting in a van). The Realtor representing you (either as a buyer or a seller) will let you know well in advance where your closing will be held and at what time. Few title companies do any closings on the weekends or after 5pm – so you will need to coordinate your work schedule around attending. Read the rest of this entry »
Big or Small?? A Versailles Mansion or a Wee Cottage?
April 11th, 2010
Our family had the good fortune of heading to France for a week over Spring Break – mainly as a meeting place of kids (and their kids) spread outaround the world. Some of the things we saw certainly drew my attention and I gathered some good insights on the US Marketplace to share with everyone. Our trip to the opulent castle of Versailles yesterday really got me thinking about home sizes – so here goes:
Four things to consider when deciding on the size of home you should buy or rent:
1. Initial Price:
Of course a mansion the size of Versailles might be out of reach for almost everyone in the Grand Rapids area – but there are homes that are big and imposing and command a top price. No matter how much you might like a mansion – make sure you have a down payment and qualify for the monthly mortgage payments (including taxes). Seems like an obvious observation but many folks don’t stop to think about the price before forging ahead.
2. Maintenance:
The bigger the home – the more the maintenance on that home will be. Figure in the cost of yard upkeep, snow plowing (if you are in the snow belt), general maintenance like painting and decorating. If you are handy figure in your labor costs – if you have to hire it all done – rethink how big of a commitment you are making.
3. Utility Cost and Taxes
Generally speaking both of these will be higher if the price is higher for your home – simply due to size of home and valuation for tax purposes. Here is where buying a huge house cheap – maybe a foreclosure that needs fix-up or re-do – might end up costing you way more than if you had bought one for a little more money that had been maintined and kept up by the previous owner.
4. Pleasure
Prioritize what you want to spend your time doing. If decorating – working in the garden – and/or generally putzing around at home is your thing – buy a huge fixer-upper and go for it. If you want to spend some of your time doing other things than working on your house and don’t want to spend all of your money on house related items (like monthly payments, taxes, etc) – then buy something a little less in money and size but something that has been kindly cared for over the years.
Your Realtor is uniquely qualified to help you figure out where you might want to be in this scenario and can help you find just the right house that meets your needs. We do this every day in the Grand Rapids, Michigan market and would be happy to walk you through some of the decisions that a new buyer might have to make to decide if you want to live in Versailles or another house of your dreams – so contact us!
Hippity Hoppity… Hop to it now for the Buyer’s Tax Credit
March 31st, 2010
Time is running out for you if you are looking to take advantage of the Buyer Tax Credit yet this year. It appears that both the First Time Buyer Credit (up to $8,000) and the Current Homeowner Buyer Credit (up to $6,500) will be coming to an end on the 30th of April, 2010 – Yes, that’s within the next 30 days.
Here are some of the basic rules: Read the rest of this entry »
March Madness
March 13th, 2010
March Madness
What on earth does tournament time in basketball and the “Spring Market” in real estate have in common? Here are 4 ways they go hand-in-hand:
1. Excitement
March madness in basketball has teams in a frenzy and fans going crazy. March madness in real estate has buyers coming out of the woodwork (like spring fever) excited to buy – this year excited to get a buyers tax credit – with their fans (family mostly) going crazy too. Read the rest of this entry »
Climbing up from the bottom…prices in the “new” normal
March 2nd, 2010
The old adage “Location, Location, Location” has been displaced in this new real estate market to “Price, Location, Price.”
After a few years or so of a market dragging at the bottom of the barrel here in Grand Rapids, MI- we are now seeing some signs of rebirth and life. Open house attendance is really high, showings are ramping up on listings, buyers are coming into the area, sellers are on the phone to agents asking if now would be a good time to put their homes on the market…signs are everywhere that a turnaround is at hand.
The question is…what are we turning around to? What is the “New Normal” that we will be seeing for the time being? Here is what I’m seeing as a Realtor in the marketplace:
- Sellers have been gun-shy about putting their homes on the market unless they absolutely have to sell. Two of my last three closings the sellers had to bring a substantial amount of money to close ($61,000 for one and $28,000 for another). They both were transfered and had jobs in another City so “had to sell.”
Because of all the media hype about what a bad market it is – for a while only sellers who “had to sell” put their homes on the market. It wasn’t until the buyers tax credit hit in conjunction with some positive spring indicators that a seller that wasn’t in trouble even bothered to think about selling.
None of the sellers that I am working with are surprised when I explain about prices in the marketplace – they all know they have gone down. That being said – I believe I am pricing my listings to the market right now – not to some old inflated idea of normal. This is a trend across the board.
Now – in comes a Buyer who is only hearing about foreclosures, short sales, deeply discounted prices and encouraged by some mis-guided ideas are still throwing low-ball offers at a seller who has taken the market into consideration when pricing their home already. Don’t get me wrong – we love to get offers – and sometimes they even get accepted and closed. But I think many buyers have the misconception in this marketplace that all houses are overpriced and no matter where a seller has priced their home – a major low-ball offer is in order.
Suggestion to Buyers: work with your agent to do a CMA on any home you are considering before you make that low offer.
Suggestion to Sellers: price to the market today – your Realtor can help you know where this is.
After all is said and done - the free market system will prevail. A house is still only worth what a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to sell for. We have some artificial market pressures going on now with shortsales and foreclosures – but the New Normal will always balance out to Adam Smith’s Law of Supply and Demand.
