10 Tips: to ensure a hassle free home buying experience
November 10, 2008
This is an excellent article that was written for the Sunday – November 8,2008 edition of the St. Petersburg Times News Paper.
Ok, so no one can can guarantee a hassle free experience when it comes to mortgages especially in today’s climate. However, as a home buyer in the Tampa Real Estate Market, or just about anywhere for that matter one can definitely make life much easier on themselves and help to ensure a smooth home buying process by checking on a few details up front. Then when you and your buyers agent locate the home of your dreams the process will go much faster. If your new home research is here in Tampa, then the Future Home Team at Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate can also assist in ironing out any last minute details or issues you might have questions with.
So here’s a quick synopsis of the 10 Tips to help ensure Buyers are prepared.
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Check your credit score. Your score will impact the interest rate on your mortgage in a big way.
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Seek help if you’re new at this. First-time home buyers’ programs can help people who have credit problems or limited savings to find loans with better interest rates than they might otherwise find.
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Get pre-approved for your mortgage. A pre-approval letter from a mortgage lender is a requirement in a loan market like this.
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Don’t borrow more than you can afford.
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Search for the best possible rate and loan terms.
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Beware of toxic loans. Be careful with adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, that will cause your mortgage payment to jump to a potentially un-affordable level in a few years.
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Remember those closing costs.
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Factor in other big expenses.
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Work with a buyer’s agent. *
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Don’t break the bank. Make sure you have money left in your savings account after you buy.
*The experienced Future Home Team at Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate can assist you with the 10 Step Process. As your Buyers Agent they will represent you from the start of your search, and ensure that you are 100% satisfied and happy in your new home.
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Central Florida First Time Home Buyers Workshops
Central Florida First Time Home Buyers Workshops
January 10, 2008
First Time Home buyer Workshops?Updated Calendar for 2008
I have noticed quite a few in-bound links lately from those looking for more information about First Time Home Buyers programs and classes in Florida. Our post last year had a very good response and I had been planning on making an update but was waiting for the CCCS to update their list and it looks like they just recently did.
Your local community has tailor made programs to help ensure you have all the pertinent information that you will need as you make one of the biggest decisions of your life, that of becoming a home owner.
They will take you step-by-step, from contract to closing, through the home buying process. You will learn what it takes to qualify for a mortgage, how to save for a down payment and even provide information regarding down payment assistance.
Should you have additional questions or when you are ready to start your search after completing the classes. please be sure to email either Theresa or Marie and they can give you some one on one coaching and personal advice that will take you on the next step of your journey to home ownership.
Here is the link to the work shops offered by the Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) of Central Florida
Right now I don?t see a schedule update on their site for Hillsboro County, but they do have dates for Pasco and Pinellas Counties?just click on the associated links
- Pasco County Schedule for 2008
- Pinellas County Schedule for 2008
Be sure to check back for tomorrows post covering ? why now is the best time to buy your first home in Florida !
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November 9, 2007
There was an interesting post today on the Inman Blog titled, “Who’s spinning whom?” that was digesting a recently written article by Dian Hymer, “Is buying a home today a good investment?” Hymer is a veteran agent in the San Francisco East Bay and has been writing a syndicated column for Inman News for many years. This article was also reproduced in several other News outlets around the country and received quite the buzz.
In the article Hymer deliberates this question she gets from today’s buyers and advises:
“Buying a home is still a good investment if you can afford it, if you are ready to put down roots in a community, and if you want to invest in your personal happiness. Profit potential shouldn’t be your only reason for buying a home, even though in most cases your home will appreciate in value if you maintain it and if you own it long enough.
“The housing market, like any economic market, is cyclical. There are periods of robust activity followed by periods of sluggishness. Prices can go down as well as up. Now that the market has softened in most areas, it’s time to look at owning your home as a way to gain control over your personal domain — not as a source of quick cash.”
This article received a lot of comments more pros than cons. There are some interesting comments, as one reader an associate political professor at the University of California in San Diego muses -
“By any reasonable measure (expected trends in prices, the ratio of rents to mortgage payments, the ratio of incomes to mortgage payments), now is a phenomenally and historically BAD time to buy. Smart buyers will wait until smart sellers lower prices to conform to reasonable income multiples.
He continues: “This is just wrong. All of the reasons to buy are made better by waiting a year or two (or more) for prices to fall. By definition, an “investment” is something that will appreciate in price or pay a dividend. Neither is expected to be true in the next few years for housing.”
You can argue this both ways all day long but the end result is, when you are ready to buy a home, buy it.
It’ s kind of like the proverbial question – “When is the best time to buy a new computer?” The answer is, “when you need it”. Due to advances in technology, what you buy today is outdated tomorrow.
This same rationale should be applied to a major decision like buying a home as well. Yes, you need to be capable of handing the financial obligations without overreaching your self to pay your mortgage and perform regular maintenance and upkeep.
Well what about my investment some inquire ?
While we all want to ensure that an investment like a home purchase is going to net us some equity in the future right ?
True, however you should not go into it with this solely as the purpose to purchase your home.
When we bought our first home I can tell you that the investment thought was secondary to our desire to have our own place to raise our family. We stayed in that first house for just a little over 10 years.
A lot of changes happened in the marketplace and when we sold, we did receive some equity but nowhere near the insane amounts that overvalued property owners were getting here in Florida. But then again a vast majority of the homes that were purchased over the last few years in Florida and elsewhere were bough for investment as the first priority.
We bought our second home this time last year in New Port Richey. A great new development and we paid pretty close to the market rate at the time. The same model is now selling for less than what we paid for.
Are we upset about it ? Yes and No. The difference now is that we have all been engaged by the media hysteria and thinking that we are loosing out because the next person got the better deal. Sellers here in the Tampa Florida Market are still holding on with a death grip on their homes price evaluations because they think they are loosing something and buyers are holding back because they of course want the rock bottom best deal they can get.
Right now the Real Estate Market in Florida is in a Stalemate. Some one has to move to keep the process momentum going forward, despite the mortgage and lending woes.
Heres a humble suggestion:
Buy your home now. Live in it and don’t worry about the Real Estate Market. It is cyclical, it will come around when you are ready to sell. After your kids have gone off to college and your now ready to move into a smaller home or you want to buy that Vacation Home at the Beach.
If your retired now and want that Home on the Beach. You may not live to enjoy it tomorrow if you are still waiting on the market recovery next month or next year.
So back to the question of topic again.
When is the best time to buy a home ?
The answer is: * When you need it. *
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