Home Loan Focus

Archive for the ‘Home Sales Tips’ Category

I’ve been meaning to share a quick tip for people trying to sell their homes without a realtor.  Its simply this, a number of signs sold by various stores like Lowes and Home Depot have a little sticker on it that enables you to list your home for free online on their website.

DO THIS!

Every place you get your home listed (even if you list with a realtor) can only serve to help you.  We still have very high levels of homes on the market to be sold, and you need to insure that you are getting your message out in as many places as possible.  In this case, Owners.com provides a free listing on their site when you buy some signs.  Its a good deal and from an internet marketing perspective, it could be worth more than the sign itself!

There are a lot of good reasons to buy a home, but in this down market, it is important to examine some of the bad reasoning that sometimes influences those buying a home.

“It’s a good investment!”

Well, that may be the case sometimes, but primarily a house is a place to live. Granted, as an investment, a home can go either way especially nowadays. Take a moment to consider what happened to folks in Boston, Dallas and Detroit during the late 80’s and early 90’s. Many homes purchased in that time faced nearly a 20% drop in value that took almost ten years to recover from.

In addition to potential risk, home appreciation doesn’t add up as quickly as other investments may, think of them as weight loss pills; give it time. More often than not, homeowners who are viewing their home as an investment very seldom take into account the amount of money they are putting in to raise the value. Sometimes homeowners put in more than they could ever get out of the market and experience the dread of “diminishing returns”.

Source: MSN.com

The real estate market is bursting with opportunity for first time homebuyers with good credit and a handful of cash, but without a pre-approved mortgage a buyer could be out in the cold. If you’re in the market to hire an agent and go house hunting, an agent might have second thoughts showing you property you have no way of proving you can afford. Furthermore, a homeowner might have qualms about signing an offer presented by a potential buyer who is lacking proof of financial means.

It is essential to interview with potential lenders who will verify your credit history and will give you an official preapproval letter stating how much you qualify for. The preapproval process is also a necessary process for homebuyers seeking third party finance, so buyers are encouraged to apply prior to visiting agents of making serious offers. Besides, anyone can throw numbers out there and/or make promises without being able to back them up. If you wouldn’t mess around when you are buying a multivitamin or Phentermine, why would you mess around when looking to buy a home? The only way to be taken seriously is to have a letter of preapproval from a lender.

Source: Ringsurf.com

I don’t recommend it all the time, however there are certain situations where you will benefit from taking everything you own when you move. If your company is footing the bill for your corporate relocation, and your budget and the success of your company are not tied to the amount spent on your relocation, then you should definitely consider taking everything you own when you move as opposed to selling it or donate in it or just giving away.

When you get rid of your stuff during a move and arrive at the new destination and move in, you will be tempted to buy more stuff. That’s going to cost you a lot of money as you work to outfit a new household. That means that you be spending a lot of money that you would’ve not spent otherwise and your move will suddenly become that much more expensive.

If your stuff was so bad already you would’ve gotten rid of its and bought something new. There’s no reason to get something new when you move just because you’re moving, unless you have to pay for the shipping or freight of your stuff and that cost is more than what it would cost to buy something new.

Gas prices are higher and freight is higher as well, but it is still often times cheaper to keep what you have than it is to buy something new. So don’t feel afraid to call someone to shlepp your stuff and tell them to ‘Move It All’, whether you are moving east, south, west or even directing your movers New York to, you will probably save money by keeping your stuff.

For many people in the corporate world, at some point or another your company is going to ask you to relocate somewhere around the country and offer to foot the bill. This may sound like a great deal because they’re offering to pay for you to move, but the reality is there are thousands of dollars of hidden expenses involved in this process.

When your company offers you a chance to move, you need to make sure that they’re also offering you a major payraise. If you’re not going to see a payraise of at least $15-$20000, odds are this move is going to take many years to pay off or for you to at least break even. I realize were going through a recession right now and so many people will be tempted to take what they can get and keep what they have, but with inflation increasing you definitely don’t want to move across the country for the same amount money that you received today.

You have to also watch out for all of those third-party contract companies that are there to assist you with your move. They are probably working on a very cozy contract with your company and they don’t necessarily have your best interests in mind and maybe not even the best interest of your company. Even though your company is paying for some of their services make sure that you give them a critical look at every decision they make on your behalf. They might offer to put you in corporate housing for a month for example, charging your company $4000 a month for your rent. That’s a lot of money and if you don’t get out of corporate housing on time you may have to pay that $4000 a month rent bill. So before you move in a corporate housing make sure you can get out on time!

You have to be careful when it comes to storing your stuff as well. Your company might offer to store your valuable possessions for that month while you’re in corporate housing. However if you are unable to close a deal on a house for example within 30 days you could be stuck paying the bill for corporate housing as well is paying the bill for additional storage of your stuff.

So where possible don’t sell your original house until the last minute if you can. Keep your stuff in a place where it’s cheaper free as long as you can. You might even consider trying to avoid corporate housing even if you have to pay the bill. It might not be bad for a week or two while your house hunting, try and stay away from it as long as possible.

Consider also that your company is footing the bill and that money is coming out of their budget. If your bonuses tied to the budget of the new department that you’re moving to and you are inflating the cost of that department your chances of receiving a bonus which could be worth a lot more than a couple thousand dollars could be jeopardized by your own actions.

There are many other areas where relocations can cost you some serious money so make sure you keep a critical eye open to everything that’s going on and try not to get rushed in your decisions while you’re moving. Sometimes the best move is not to move at all.  You might be better off looking for a different job, even one that pays slightly less in the location you live in now.  A move can cost you a great deal of money in the first few years following the move.  Taking a couple thousand dollar pay cut with the option of staying put, could actually enable you to move financially ahead.  Then you can use some of that money that you saved from staying put, to take the family on a couple Disney cruises or invest some money in solar panels for the house or a better telecommuting setup so that next time around, you will be prepared to not move and to work from home permanently!

In reading a recent article in the Washington Post titled, “Avoid a Scam: Thoroughly Vet Offers to ‘Help’ With Your Mortgage” I was struck by the fact that they were very slow to offer what should be the first piece of advice to potential home sellers.

When someone offers to buy your house from you unsolicited, or even when you have your house listed by owner and a company attempts to buy it from you, this is what you should do first.

GO LAWYER UP!

If they are truly a company, then they have a lawyer already and even by talking to them, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.  Level the playing field and get a lawyer before you utter another breath to them.  They can promise anything to you that they like orally, but they are bound by nothing that is not written down in a contract.

So after you have a lawyer, be prepared to REQUIRE offers in writing.  You should also insure that your new lawyer performs a due diligence on the company to insure that they are a real and legitimate company and not some pop up sham.  The truth is, and its not mentioned in the Washington Post, that the average person can not tell a real company from a false company by reviewing their website or even visiting their office.  Let the Pro’s handle this for you, especially if you are selling yourself with out the help of a realtor as you are even more likely to be targeted by crooks.

It does not actually cost that much more to get the help of an attorney for this type of vetting and negotiation.  It might prevent you from buying some extra memory cards for your camera or even filling up your car with gas a couple times, but that is much better than costing you your home!