5 Reasons Why You Still Need A Real Estate Agent

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Under the program, the buyer’s Realtor and seller’s Realtor each receive an e-mail asking for their client’s e-mail address when a for-sale property listing’s status is changed to “sold,” according to HAR’s Web site.

“Asking clients to evaluate their Realtors in a number of areas enables our members to easily gauge what they’re doing well and identify areas of improvement,” HAR Chairwoman Vicki Fullerton said in a statement.

In areas like Citrus and Hernando County, an out of town Buyer may have difficulty finding an agent they enjoy working with. Perhaps this is a way to help resolve that potential issue. CENTURY 21 Alliance prides itself on having the finest agents in both of these Counties.

The first thing you should do is sort through each room one at a time and have a box for things that you will be moving into the new house, a box for things that you would like to sell or donate and box of things that you wish to throw away or recycle.

Make a diagram of the new home and give each room a number then correspond each box with the same number, that way everything goes into the right place and doesn’t have to be searched through and moved again. An example would be that you label the kitchen with a #1 (here’s where the sharpie comes into play) mark all the boxes that you packed from your old kitchen with a #1, so that all the kitchen boxes automatically go into the new kitchen. Do the same thing with each room in the house.

Nothing is worse than trying to move a box where everything is falling out of the bottom. Double/triple tape all your boxes to ensure that they are strong and sturdy and packed tightly. Be creative while packing your boxes, instead of packing all your towels, blankets, sheets into one box, use them as packing material to protect your valuables. Use your socks to pack your glasses, place one in the glass and one on the outside, this saves on newspaper and space.

These tips aren’t going to make your move completely stress free, but they will help make it less stressful!

Happy moving!

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As with any investment, have a plan! Know how long you plan on owning the property, if you’re looking to purchase rental property and plan on keeping it for 20 years or so, be prepared to put some money into the property. Eventually, it will need new appliances, a roof and major repairs done to the home to keep it up to standards. If you only plan on keeping it for 5 years or so, try to avoid making any major repairs or improvements unless you think that you can recover the costs at the sale of the property.

After you’ve owned a rental for at least a year and decide that being a residential landlord just isn’t your thing and you would like to try commercial real estate investing, you can always utilize a 1031 Tenants in Common Exchange. This will enable you to avoid the capital gains tax from the sale of your rental.

For more information on CENTURY 21 Alliance Realty Investment properties, visit our investment property website, we can help guide you in the right direction!

With a good credit score and a 10% down payment plus closing costs, qualifying for a mortgage loan should be relatively easy at this point. There are many loan programs out there to help first time homebuyers, some of which will offer thousands of dollars above the mortgage price for repairs that may be needed if purchasing a distressed home. A good rule to follow to determine how much house you can really afford is by calculating 28% of your monthly gross income. The number that you come up with should be the total that you spend on your mortgage including insurance and taxes.

Ginnie Mae, a government backed loan agency has a simple home-loan calculator that can aid in your search to determine what you can afford; having this information before you sit down with a loan officer will make you little more comfortable.

Title Insurance: Title insurance is defined as protection against loss resulting from issues that are connected to the title to your property. Before you bought your home, it is likely that the title, not only to the home, but the land as well, may have changed hands on numerous occasions. There could’ve been any number of discrepancies throughout the life of different ownerships. Title insurance covers you on any claims or legal fees that could emerge during the change of owners. Unfortunately, there is no way around paying for title insurance, but there are ways to save some money. Shopping around for your title insurance can lead to many discounts, for example some insurance providers offer discounted fees for employees that work for public service, seniors or when purchasing a new lender policy, when you refinance, if you take the policy out shortly after you financed the original mortgage.

Application Fee: Certain lenders will charge a fee for accepting a mortgage application. On some occasions the application fee covers costs such as credit reports or appraisals, in some cases it may be refundable and sometimes if you’re really lucky you can ask that this fee be waived or credited towards the closing costs at the end of the deal. These are things that you’ll want to find out from your lender, it could end up saving you hundreds.

Document Preparation Fee: This is a fee that is charged by lenders for preparing legal documents that are needed at the time of closing. On occasion the documents are prepared outside of the office and the cost for the preparation is covered in this fee. Check with your lender about adding this fee to the bottom line price.

Home Inspection Costs: As the cost of the home inspection is ultimately your responsibility, make sure that your lender is bargain shopping for the best costs, as this could be a potential money saver for you in the long run.

It may take a little extra time to research this information, but the savings could be worth it in the end!

Calculate the value of the home, if your home has risen in value and the interest rate that you’re paying at this time is higher than 5%, then refinancing at the lower interest rate could indeed save you money on a monthly basis. However, if you purchased your home at the height of the market for let’s say $300,000, more than likely your home value at this time is quite lower, and although you would be refinancing at a lower interest rate, in the long run refinancing would be a bad idea and could very well end up costing you money in the long run.

By calculating the value of your home and comparing the interest rates (don’t forget closing costs), it’s quite simple to determine whether refinancing is best in your case or if you already getting the better deal.

Look for a house that costs around 2 1/2 times your annual income, this is the normal standard of calculation. CNN provides a handy dandy calculator that will help you determine the home price that is within your budget.

Information on being a first time buyer, tax credit information, downpayment information, credit report repair services! There will be a Mortgage Representative and Real Estate Professionals available to answer and all questions that you may have!

For more information call 352-293-2020 or email us at Homebuyerfair@gmail.com

See you there!!

This type of deal is one that attracts first time buyers, but the reality is that people who attempt to buy homes on a lease-option very rarely end up buying the home. The reason for this is often the same reason they chose to lease-option in the first place. Because they can’t qualify for a loan. Some people expect that after leasing a home for a few years they will be able to qualify. However, later they find out that they still do not qualify, when this happens you lose all the money that you may have paid up front plus the above market monthly rent payments that you have paid while leasing the home. Some find that they are now far less able to afford a home than they were when they signed the lease-option.

It is always far better to put your trust into your real estate professionals knowing that they will be able to place you in a home that is right for you.