Trouble Pulling the Trigger? Here’s How to Commit to Homeownership

You’ve saved for a down payment. You’ve pored over the local listings for months. Touring open houses has become part of your weekend ritual. But months, perhaps years, have passed and you are still in your rental.

For many first-time homebuyers, pulling the trigger on a purchase can be a frightening experience. Will you be happy there? Will you like your neighbors? Will you be tied down—house rich and cash poor? What if you lose your job? Will you hate your commute? In short, your fears stem from the unknown.

Meanwhile, your current home is familiar. You’ve come to accept its shortcomings—the loud neighbors, the leaky ceiling, the scant street parking. It has few surprises.

Take Paolo Forte, the eternal condo-shopper, who looked for years in Boston.

“I have actually seen condos come on the market, sell, and then be resold a second time,” Forte said. “While I’ve been waiting, condo prices continue to rise, and I keep spending more money on rent.”

In Betsy Townsend’s years as a REALTOR® in Boston’s pricey Beacon Hill, she’s seen everything.

“I find that people often hesitate to make the ‘biggest purchase of their life’ because they fear they will make a ‘bad investment’ and pay too much,” Townsend said. “Sometimes people lose sight of the fact that they are looking for a place to live instead of just an investment.”

Still, there’s hope. Your family, friends and co-workers took the leap and are reaping the benefits. 

Check out the full article and give these steps a try and you could be one of them: http://www.realtor.com/advice/trouble-pulling-trigger-tips-making-move-home-ownership/

First-Time Homebuyer? Be Prepared for Closing Costs

When you are financing a home purchase rather than paying cash, you need to be prepared to pay some initial fees aside from your first monthly mortgage payment.

If you are purchasing a newly built home, sometimes your builder will cover some of these costs as an incentive for buyers to purchase a home, finance it with a preferred lender and go to settlement with a preferred title company. Resale buyers are also sometimes able to negotiate with the sellers to pay some closing costs depending on local market conditions and the individual terms of the sale.

When you arrange your financing with a lender you should receive an explanation of anticipated closing costs and a Good Faith Estimate. You may even see more than one estimate before you go to settlement, where you will see the final version of the HUD-1 Settlement Statement, a federally mandated form for all mortgage borrowers regardless of whether you are refinancing or purchasing a home.

In general, the fees associated with a home purchase include closing costs, loan discount points and prepaid items.

For full article visit: http://www.realtor.com/advice/costs-associated-home-loan/

To Buy or to Build?

Building a new home has it's perks such as options only limited by your budget, but where will you get the best "bang for your buck"?

Time to upgrade to a new home?  There are 3 ways you can buy a brand-new home

·          buying a house already built on spec;

·         having a semicustom home built as part of a development (you can choose from a set palette of finishes and upgrades);

·         or having a purely custom home designed and built to your specifications.

But don’t get so caught up in the sparkling new paint and granite countertops that you forget to make a good deal!

Evaluate the Pros and Cons of a New Home

·         New homes are typically further from the city center; how much time and expenses will you have commuting?

·         Are you willing to put time into growing a new lawn, and can you wait 20 years for sapling trees to mature?

·         Will the cookie-cutter nature of new subdivisions suite your style??

·         Do you mind the closeness and potential lack of privacy? New homes in subdivisions don't have space for much privacy.

Evaluate the New Neighborhood

·         Check with the developer about potential homeowners' association (HOA) fees and rules; some are very expensive -- and even more strict. They may not allow storage sheds, certain paint colors or finish materials, solar panels or even vegetable gardens. Be sure to find out if the HOA can assess penalties for infractions.

·         Ask whether cable and Internet are readily available and from what companies; your new house will be wired for cable but that does not mean the cable company currently offers service to your new neighborhood.

·         If the development is still under construction, you’ll be dodging giant contractor trucks and facing construction noise at 7 a.m. for a while.

Don’t Skip the Homeowners Inspection

·         Never assume that because a home is newly constructed, it isn’t going to have defects. Make your sales contract contingent on a final inspection by a professional you hire.

·         If it is at all possible, have the home inspected during each phase of building, when potential problems are easier to spot.

·         Know that municipal inspections for code violations are nowhere near as thorough as an independent professional inspection is.

Protect Yourself with Warranties

·         All new homes come with an implied warranty from the builder stipulating that any major defect of the structural integrity of the home must be repaired.

·         You should ask for a builder’s warranty for a period of time following move-in (a year, for example) that covers any defects in craftsmanship.

·         Preferably, this warranty should be backed by insurance.

·         Make sure any warranty you receive explicitly states what is covered and what isn’t, and what the limitations for damages are.

·         For extra peace of mind have your real estate attorney again look over the warranty to make sure it’s covering your concerns properly.

Buyers of New Homes Want These Features, Builders Say

Home builders across the United States are most likely to focus on “convenience, livability and energy efficiency” when constructing a typical single-family home today, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders.

Beyond those big three features, plenty of other “practical and functional” amenities were cited by the builders in the survey as key selling points, so we found examples of some of them.

Scroll through the slideshow to see what’s hot in new homes right now at: http://www.realtor.com/news/features-demand-new-homes/

Higher Inventory a Welcome Sign for Spring Buyers

The spring home buying season is off to a stronger start than at this time last year, with modest price increases and a spike in inventory, according to realtor.com’s National Housing Trend Report for March. 

The number of properties for sale on realtor.com® in March rose 9.5% above March 2013 levels, to 1,841,844 units, according to the report. The median list price of $199,900 was 5.3% higher than in March of last year, and the median age of inventory increased 22.9% above the year-ago figures, to 102 days on the market, the report’s data showed.

These figures suggest that the market is more balanced than it was in 2013, when a shortfall in available supply led to double-digit increases in many markets’ housing prices.

Having more homes on the market may mean more affordable prices for first-time and move-up buyers. Lack of inventory in 2013 led to intense competition, creating another barrier to homeownership.

“Bidding wars in many markets last year frequently elevated offer prices beyond the reach of first-time buyers who could scarcely save for the down payment,” said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Move, Inc. “While inventory is still low, the continuing annual lift in the number of homes on the market that we’ve seen over the first months of 2014 is an indicator that buying conditions this year may be notably improved from the frenzied pace of last spring.”

Despite the positive signs, home sales activity remains sluggish, and low inventories remain a significant factor in housing market health. The National Association of REALTORS®’ Pending Home Sales Index for February showed a 10.5% decline compared to the same period in 2013, the eighth-straight month of decline for pending sales. However, the number of contracts signed has remained fairly stable over the past three months, and NAR reported that buyer traffic is showing a modest turnaround.

Read full article at: http://www.realtor.com/news/realtor-com-report-higher-inventory-welcome-sign-spring-buyers/

Fixed Mortgage Rates Fall to Lowest Level Since February

Fixed-rate mortgages dropped for the second consecutive week to the lowest levels since February, helping to increase affordability at the onset of the spring home-buying season.

The average for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dipped to 4.27%, down from 4.34% last week, according to the latest survey from mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. A year ago, the 30-year average was 3.41%.

“Mortgage rates continued to ease this week as housing starts [PDF] rose 2.8% in March but not as much as expected,” Frank E. Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement. “Also, [building] permits fell 2.4% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 990,000, which followed a slight downward revision of 4,000 permits in February.”

The average rate on a 15-year fixed loan also dropped this week, falling to 3.33% from 3.38% last week. It averaged 2.64% at this time a year ago.

Averages for the two most popular hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages were mixed. The five-year ARM fell to 3.03% after being at 3.09% a week ago. A year ago, it averaged 2.60%. The one-year ARM average was up to 2.44% from 2.41% last week. It was at 2.63% at this time last year.

Read full article at: 

http://www.realtor.com/news/mortgage-rates-fall-lowest-level-since-february/

Why Lutz?

Lutz is a very good place for families to consider for so many reasons. With a desirable combination of good schools, low crime rate, college-educated neighbors, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Lutz really is overflowing with the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise their children. Is Lutz perfect? Of course not, and if you like the nightlife, this is not your cup of tea. Overall you will find  this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live. Lutz is a medium-sized town located in the state of Florida. Nearest metropolitan city is Tampa. With a population of 19,344 people and 16 constituent neighborhoods, Lutz is the 132nd largest community in Florida.

Pro's and Con's - Commuting

Living in Lutz you will find  the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.02 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

One interesting thing is that relatively large numbers of people work from their home (about: 7.82% of the workforce). Though this number may seem small overall, as a small portion of the total workforce, these numbers are higher than compared to averages in the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions.  Many other at-home workers are self-employed entrepreneurs who operate small businesses out of their homes.

The People Make the Town

The people who call Lutz home illustrate themselves as belonging to a wide variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Lutz residents currently report their race to be White, followed closely by Black or African-American. Lutz also has a sizeable Hispanic population accounting for 12.76% of the towns residents ( those of Hispanic origin can be of any race). Important ancestries of people in Lutz include German, English, Italian, Irish, Scottish and French. You will find both Spanish and English spoken here.

Fun Fact: Lutz has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Mary Zohar is a long-standing member of the Coldwell Banker North Tampa Office and an active member of the Greater Tampa Assoc. of Realtors. Besides having a Bachelor in Science from the University of Florida, she holds: Certified Home Marketing Specialist, Certified Negotiation Specialist, e-Pro, Short Sale and Foreclosure, and Accredited Buyer Representative certifications. And is current in Continuing Education and licensure for the State of Florida.  For more information visit  http://www.home4utampa.com/