How to Purchase a Vacation Home

Surprisingly, in this market, vacation homes are on the upswing.  Are you or someone you know in the market to purchase vacation real estate?  If so, here are some tips to help you make a worthwhile real estate investment:

1.  What will the maintenance costs be? You will have to pay them even when you are not there.

2.  Does the weather drive up insurance and other costs?

3.  How popular is the area?  Will hoards of people make coming and going difficult?

4.  Is getting there no fun?  Some isolated places are really beautiful, but the airport is a long way.

Keep Your HOA Financially Sound

With the uptick of distressed homeowners, many home owner associations are feeling the stress of not collecting enough funds to pay for the shared real estate properties of the community.  This is particularly heinous in condo real estate communities that share water and other utilities meaning that the default of other owners could actually jeopardize your home.  So what is an HOA to do? 

Instead of seeking to raise the fees of those that are paying, which can become unbearable, Condominium and home owners associations desperate for money are experimenting with a tactic called “reverse foreclosure” to force banks to pay association fees.  The process works like this: When a borrower stops paying the mortgage, banks often delay taking the property into foreclosure. When banks delay, neither the former home owner nor the bank is paying association fees.

Homeowner Help: How to Avoid Foreclosure

With various events in the economy, do you, or someone you know, feel like it is difficult to afford your home?  Have you tried to sell your personal home but cannot based on the current real estate market?  Well this maybe just the thing to give you relief.  Beginning April 5, the Obama administration will encourage under-water mortgage borrowers to avoid foreclosure and instead alleviate their financial burden by short selling their home in a new, (what we hope to be) streamlined process.

The new short sale program will offer a cash payment to the homeowner, as well as to the servicer and second-lien holder; and, here is the main difference, protect borrowers from future lender lawsuits for the unpaid mortgage balance.

PRICED TO SELL: Builder Foreclosures at Sandy Springs’ High Point Manor

Once priced in the mid-$1,000,000s, the elegant executive homes of High Point Manor, to the builder’s chagrin, have become victim of a builder foreclosure.  Despite the unfortunate circumstances, buyers now have an opportunity to purchase one of these stately Sandy Springs’ homes at deeply discounted prices.

High Point Manor is an exclusive, gated real estate community in the award-winning Riverwood High School District.  Although the homes of High Point Manor are custom-built and vary from one to the other, you can still expect to see fireside keeping rooms, soaring ceilings, corched porches/decks, windows galore, and picturesque views of the wooded scenery of Sandy Springs.  These homes are built on real estate lots near the hub of Sandy Springs and give you quick access to GA 400, I-285, and Roswell Rd., making trips to Atlanta, Alpharetta, Cobb County or Gwinnett County within reach.

Flood Watch Areas in Metro Atlanta

Is your dream home in an area suspect to flooding? 

With the floods that Georgia experienced in 2009, you should rightfully be concerned about purchasing real estate in Metro Atlanta that could flood.  Or, maybe you already live in a home and you are not sure if your real estate is at risk. 

Knowledge is power so review this link on the areas that over the past 10 years are more susceptible to flooding in the Metro Atlanta area and proceed with caution!

Do you have further questions?  Feel free to contact places2love@gmail.com or 404.444.5777. Happy and SAFE house-hunting!

Savvy Real Estate Investments for 2010

Vacant residential lots are looking better and better to real estate investors.  Why? The cost of a finished, ready to build lot, can cost a developer about 25 percent of the finished home price. There are a number of these ready-to-go lots on the market at about half what they actually cost to prepare. Investor groups are snapping them up, figuring that the time will come soon when they will be in demand.

Help for REAL ESTATE INVESTORS Looking to Flip Homes

Federal Housing Administration is changing what is known as the “anti-flipping rule” to speed up sales of renovated homes in communities with too many bank-owned and foreclosed homes, says FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens.  Beginning Feb. 1, 2010, the Federal Housing Administration will provide mortgage insurance for some purchases in which the seller bought the property and held it for fewer than 90 days.  This is great news for investors that want to rehab a home and sell it to a buyer that wants to receive the Homebuyer Tax Credit before it expires on April 30, 2010 (view this link, http://www.marealtor.com/content/Homebuyer_Tax_Credit.htm, for more details on the tax credit).

Seller Announces,”NO CLOSING COSTS”

Fannie Mae, the largest provider of residential home funding in the United States, announced Friday that it would pay the closing costs on purchases of foreclosed homes in its inventory.  The government-controlled company said buyers of qualified properties will get up to 3.5 percent in closing costs, or an equivalent amount for the purchase of new appliances.

The goal of Fannie is to clear out the nearly 50,000 properties it has in inventory— listed on www.HomePath.com, the Web site created by Fannie Mae last year to sell the growing number of foreclosed homes.  “Attracting qualified buyers to the market and reducing inventory of vacant homes is critical to stabilizing neighborhoods and helping the market recover,” said Terry Edwards, executive vice president for credit portfolio management, in a statement.

Get Ready. Set. SALE in 2010!

Due to the homebuyer tax credit and the extremely low interest rates, now can potentially be your opportunity as a homeowner to sell your home.  But in this real estate market, since buyers have a plethora of choices, it is vital that your first impression be your best and make a lasting impact on the buyer.  Here are 10 inexpensive ways that any serious Seller should do to sale his/her home in 2010.

1.  Improve first impressions.  Touch up the paint on the front door and other areas that buyers see first.

What You Didn’t Know About the Homebuyer Tax Credit

So you have either purchased or are getting ready to purchase real estate before the tax credit deadline in April 2010 but the homebuyer tax credit is not as simple or straightforward as you might think.  Here are some nuances that will affect homebuyers who plan to use it.

 

What you may not know about the tax credit:

1)  To qualify for the move-up tax credit, a home owner must have occupied the same principal residence for five of the last eight years consecutively.

 

2)  Buyers can elect to claim the credit on either their 2009 or their 2010 tax return, whichever is best for them.

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