Oops! Your home is getting too small for your family. You need extra bedrooms. The kitchen has to be enlarged or updated, it’s about time you had a garage large enough to handle your cars. It’s strange how homes seem to shrink in size as families increase in number and children grow from toddlers to teenagers. The next obvious question is – should you add on a dormer, a new bedroom, garage, renovate your kitchen – or should you sell your present home and buy one that first your family’s needs?
Advice: get estimates from contractors (then for safety’s sake increase the cost and time estimate by 50%). Don’t forget to crank in the stress factor that goes with remodeling.
With this information in hand, our office will be happy to sit down with you and discuss the value of your present home and show you a range of new and existing homes for sale which are already in move-in condition to fit your family’s needs.
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Selling an empty house presents some problems. For example, the very lack of furniture and personal items make the rooms appear smaller and less clean. Buyers notice the shaded spots on the walls where pictures once hung, children’s hand prints, and especially every stain on the empty wall-to-wall carpeting. They have nothing else to look at. There is a feeling of a house, rather than a home. Before you buy into a condo, weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Owning a condo unit entitles you to all the tax benefits of home ownership. Your mortgage interest payments and property tax can be deducted from your taxable income. And you’re relieved of many responsibilities: the condo’s management company usually maintains the exterior of the building and grounds. There are articles that abound on the net and in magazines about our real estate market and whether or not we will be going into a more stabilized market leading to a rebound in sales or a double-dip recession? The experts can look at all the statistics and do their number crunching and analysis and make their predictions about current & future trends of the market; and some will be correct and many will be wrong. With the lowest interest rates in 50 years, you would figure this would drive the market! Previously, however, if you were not in contract by April 30, 2010, the $8000 tax credit incentive for purchasers of primary residences was taken off the table as of April 30, 2010 (but the government passed the extension for closing til Sept. 30, 2010). That factor alone had pushed more people to buy, especially in April and sales did increase dramatically and it kind of spoiled us and made the months stats much better and improved year over year. Just like the discounts for “cash for your clunkers” in 2009, which drove the sales of vehicles higher, it was fantastic for the current economy at that time but had a negative affect of reducing sales for future months after the incentives had expired. For the NorthEast, Mays Stats were -18.3% lower from Aprils Stats, but 12.7% higher year over year, the south was 0.5% higher and 22.9% higher year over year, Midwest stayed the same comparing April to May, but 22% higher year over year, the west, 4.9% increase May over April and 15.2% higher year over year and the overall stats for the U.S., down -2.2% comparing from April to the end of May but 19.2% higher year over year, according to a report by N.A.R., (the National Association of Realtors). 2009 was so poor due to the banking crisis at the end of 2008, that I believe 2010 had to be better. Let’s face the facts, people have to have real money and credit to purchase. Psychologically, people are not feeling as confident; we are all not going out and spending like we did; the faucet of conspicuous spending has very much slowed down; the mortgage/bank crisis has cost many their jobs, directly and indirectly, so if you have lost your job, had your salary or wages reduced, new to the job market or have a job that does not pay enough to buy a home and previously lost money in the stock market, you are sitting back waiting and watching. Also, the fact that U.S. companies have outsourced a tremendous amount of manufacturing jobs overseas over the last 10 years, has caused a shift between the haves and have-nots! The buying power of the middle class has been eroding over the years and current economic conditions during the past few years has caused most to re-evaluate their financial positions, cutting back on discretionary spending. As they say, “The Rich get Richer and the Poor are getting Poorer” but even that slogan has changed. Many of the homes of the rich are being foreclosed on or are modifying their morgages. Many people who are “under water” (their mortgages are more than the current market value of their homes) but can afford to pay their monthly mortgage are just walking away from them in much higher numbers. Many banks will be forced to go after those that have the assets and liquidity to pay. This type of exodus is proof of the poor psychology and mindset of the market. If may take much longer for us to get out under the load of foreclosures, maybe 3-6 years or longer. But, if we haven’t learned our mistakes, we never will. Human nature will continue to not look back, but just forget and repeat our errors and greedy ways. Some will learn, most will not unless balanced and fair regulations are put in place concerning borrowing. Bottom line, if you cannot afford the loan, you should not be allowed to take it. Owning a home is not a right, it is an earned responsibility with obligations and ramifications! On a lighter note, however, for those who can, it is a fantastic time to Buy!!!! Happy 4th of July! Here’s some advice that I have that’s probably applicable for a lot of you out there. At some point, most of us have either rented a property, or rented out a property. If you are trying to rent your home now, here’s some advice that could definitely help you. If you can’t sell your home at the price you want because of your location, or a bad market, you may have to consider renting out your present home until the economic situation turns around. fROM THE National Association of Realtors: Last night, the Senate passed the National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act of 2010 (H.R. 5569), an extension of the National Flood Insurance Program until September 30, 2010. This will allow transactions to move forward. The bill is retroactive and covers the lapse period from June 1, 2010, to the date of enactment of the extension. NAR members sent more than 250,000 letters to Members of Congress encouraging them to extend the program. The home buyer credit, extended and expanded over the last 3 years is set to expire today, wed june 30th with Congress still unable to approve the extension as part of HR 4213 (see previous update below). However, recently released data for May 2010 shows worrying trends of sharply declining sales of existing and new homes. Further, inventory data and foreclosure activity have not shown any signs of improvement. All this suggests the expiration of the home buyer credit may have more of an impact than people thought. This has prompted House members to take more action with the stalling of the HR 4213 bill in Congress (due to other provisions in it). As such a new bill – H.R 5623 – has been introduced and approved by the House (409-5) to extend the $8000/$6500 home buyer credit. It now goes to the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has sponsored a similar measure. Here is a summary of the bill: H.R. 5623 – Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010. Among other items, this bill would extend the homebuyer tax credit of up to $8,000 for the purchase of a principal residence before October 1, 2010. The current benefits apply to cover buyers who enter into contracts before April 30 and close by June 30. This bill extends the closing date to September 30, 2010. The bill would provide any home buyer who entered into a contract on a home by April 30, 2010, but has been unable to go to closing within the required 60 days, an additional 90 days to close and qualify for the credit. This provision is estimated to cost $140 million The approval of this bill would be great news for many home buyers who signed a purchase agreement/contract prior to April 30th but are having difficulty closing before June 30th. One thing to clarify – this bill does not extend the deadline for home buyers to sign a contract for a home and hence qualify for the tax credit (still April 30th); rather it extends the deadline for closing the transaction, from June 30 to Sept.30. The National Association of Realtors estimates that this new extension will help about 180,000 homebuyers who already signed purchase agreements and were likely to miss the Wednesday deadline. I will continue to monitor the status of this bill′s approval through Congress and will update with new information. I encourage you to subscribe (free) via Email or RSS to get the latest updates. EMAIL YOUR STATE SENATOR AND IMPLORE HIM/HER TO PASS THE MOST RECENT BILL TO EXTEND THE TAX CREDIT THRU SEPT 30TH, 2010. LASTLY, THIS SHOULD AID OUR ECONOMY BY HAVING THOSE WHO WILL POTENTIALLY SPEND MORE MONEY ON THEIR NEW PURCHASE FOR FURNITURE, APPLIANCES, PAINT, CONSTRUCTION, ETC. ATTENTION: THE HOMEBUYER TAX CREDIT OF $8000 (NEW BUYER) OR $6500 (PREVIOUS OWNER) HAS BEEN EXTENDED AND MUST CLOSE BY SEPT 30, 2010 TO BE ELIGIBLE; AS LONG AS YOU HAD BEEN IN CONTRACT BY APRIL 30TH 2010 There was a time when there was one basic type of home loan. It had a fixed interest rate, level monthly payments, and ran from 20 to 30 years. It still remains the favorite of most buyers. A prospective buyer has made an offer for less than your asking price. You would sell for less than your original asking price, but not as low as the current offer to buy. Now is the time for a counter offer. In our columns, we write for the general public. We refer to “buyers” and “sellers” because readers understand this. That’s all that counts. However, if you read legal documents concerned with real estate, or if you pick up a book on real estate written from a legal point of view – you’ll see the words grantor or grantee used in the same transaction. You will also see the shortened word “grant” used. It deserves an explanation. |
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