Specialists | REALTORS®
If you want to buy a home but are having trouble making your finances work, getting a little help and advice could help you make your American Dream come true! Check out this useful article courtesy of Yahoo! Homes:
https://homes.yahoo.com/news/get-a-mortgage-with-flawed-finances-181622716.html
A Corelogic analysis of quarterly data from 2013 revealed expected, and unexpected, results of equity of mortgaged homes nationwide. According to the Corelogic report, 4 million homes gained value and moved into the black with positive equity in 2013, that is 42.7 million homes nationwide.
Also according to the same Corelogic analysis, 6.5, million homes are still underwater and with out equity, a.k.a. negative equity, by the end of 2013. That’s 13.3% of residential homes nationwide.
The quarterly growth rate of the Home Price Index also shows a slowdown quarter to quarter in 2013, which indicates the level of underwater homes will stay in the red for longer than many hoped.
So what does this means for Southern California homeowners and our real estate market? The answer depends on each unique situation. Homeowners cresting the equity line will either realize some return if selling, while others will experience a ‘wash sale’, which is a sale without any monetary realization, but not a short sale neither.
Are you considering buying or selling your Southern California home? Do you want to investigate further how much equity you could have, if any? Call or email us anytime to discuss your particular situation:
Many home buyers and sellers distrust real estate agents. We can’t say we blame them. Being in the real estate business for as long as we have, you see all kinds of rotten things some real estate agents try. But, just like other professions, many agents are ethical, even though some are not.
We have tried for years to warn our clients of the tricks that some agents pull, sometimes unsuccessfully. Take for example open houses. Every time we take a listing, a question that always comes up is “Will you be conducting open houses?” Our answer is obviously yes, especially if the home could sell faster and/or for more money for the seller. But we also warn that an open house is can be a tool used by some agents to obtain new clients, NOT to sell the property.
Even though we are sincere, most home sellers have a hard time believing us about open houses, even if they trust us and know us well. But I recently found a video by 20/20 and ABC News about dirty little tricks some underhanded REALTORS and the real estate practices they employ.
So check out the video, but please remember not all real estate agents and REALTORS are bad. Many of us have good souls and genuinely care about our clients and their real estate transactions:
Buying a home is a BIG step. It is said that buying a home is the single most important and largest purchase most people will ever make. So making sure you get your numbers straight when calculating how much you can spend on a house is critical.
Here’s a great video courtesy of Bank of America that provides great tips for figuring out what your home buying budget should be, including using your Gross Monthly Income, how your down payment will affect your purchase power including or excluding PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) into your formula depending on the size of your down payment, your Debt-to-Income ratio, and other aspects to keep in mind.
If you’re searching for homes for sale, feel free to use our FREE and EASY home Search portal here. We can also provide you with listings by email, all for free and at no obligation. Just scroll down and use our Contact Form below:
This is just in time for Halloween. Let’s make up a ghost story….
You’ve been searching for a house to buy for your family to call home. You’ve done all the emotionally agonizing work: gone through your finances, income and debt with a fine-tooth comb with a mortgage lender that you barely know, and you wished he didn’t know all the gory details about your money!
You’ve looked at COUNTLESS houses and homes, some were so bad, dirty and crappy you want to forget them, some you desperately wanted but just couldn’t afford. You bid and made offers on dozens of homes, some of which were not ideal, but you settled for just because you didn’t know if you could get any better, or if “any better” even existed. But to no avail- you’re still without a home to call your own.
But then, like a God-send you find that perfect home. And yes, it’s perfect for you and your family. The layout is just right, the neighborhood is perfect. The community is EXACTLY what you had in mind. And the best part, the price and terms of the sale fit your budget! So you take the leap, make an offer, and the offer gets accepted!
Yes, there are some bumps in the road during the escrow and you have to jump through a few circus hoops to buy the home, but you do it! Success! Now it’s time to move in….
As you’re moving in the neighbors make friendly and come over to introduce themselves. But something’s not right; it seems every one of them looks at you with an examining eye, almost saying “Do they know?”
And then the neighbor that you soon realize is the gossiper on the block blurts it out “Did you know so-and-so died here last year?” WHAT?! Your heart sinks. You hope this talkative neighbor is wrong. “Please, please be wrong!” You also hope that if they ARE right, that it happened long, long ago. You push her for more information but she suddenly clams up for the first time in her loose-lipped life!
So you call your agent the next day and pose the question “Did someone die here? If so, I need the details!” The agent innocently proclaims “If someone did die there, I had no idea, I swear!” But she promises she will “get to the bottom of this!”
A week rolls by before you hear anything, well, anything from the agent. Unfortunately, you’ve heard plenty of creaks and bumps around the house at night. Is it just your imagination? Are you just hearing things? And then, finally, your agent calls you back. “Um, yes, someone did die in the house. Yes, it happened last year.” You ask “Well, how did they die?” hoping it was from natural causes, with their loving family around them comforting them as they passed to the other side. But that’s when the REALLY bad news comes….
“Someone was killed there.”
“You mean like an accident?” you beg.
“No, a murder.”
“A murder!” you angrily exclaim!
“Well, a murder, then the killer committed suicide.” the agent meekly admits.
“WHAT?!?! A MURDER SUICIDE?!?!?!”
Que in the horror film music and the scariness ensues…..
First off, here in the state of California, and I would be willing to bet most states, it’s the law that a home seller and any agent involved in the sale of the house must disclose any deaths that happened on the property within a certain time-frame. Here in California, it’s within the last three years. California is also working on extending this rule’s time-frame. Check with your state to be sure of their regulations.
But here’s the caveat: If the agents and/or sellers didn’t know, they are not legally bound to disclose it- because they didn’t know in the first place! Agents are required to do their ‘Due Diligence” to safeguard against these types of oversights, but sometimes things can and do slip through the cracks of a real estate transaction. (Keep in mind we are not attorneys, and we don’t claim to provide any legal advice. Please check with a licensed real estate attorney from your state for ANY legal advice.)
So what can you do to prevent this? First, ask any agents involved AND the sellers if anyone has ever died in the house. If they say they don’t know, insist they investigate and get back to you with a definitive answer of “Yes” or “No”.
And now there’s another tool: DiedInHouse.com. Yes, now there is a website that can investigate whether or not someone died in a house, more importantly, in the house you want to buy! There is a fee associated with it, about $12 bucks, and the initial and immediate search does not always find out the haunting details, but the website does state that it will continue to search death records for a full thirty days and notify you of any findings.
Whether or not the website is accurate is yet to be seen or proved either way. But I can tell you this if it doesn’t find details of a death or deaths in a house, or in a few houses, and people rely on this information to purchase, but later on find out the opposite is true, the possible lawsuits could be frightening!
If you’re buying a home in Beaumont, California you will undoubtedly want to know what you’re getting into, to know what areas or neighborhoods work for what you are looking for, and what Beaumont neighborhoods don’t.
For example, did you know that some Beaumont neighborhoods have a bond called “Mello Roos” attached to the homes that can change what you pay for that Beaumont house or home or change your monthly payment? Mello Roos aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but they can affect your home purchase.
There are many factors, opportunities and pitfalls when looking for the right Beaumont, California home for you. This is why you should work with experienced Beaumont real estate agents that know the area and what it has to offer.
{HOMES FOR SALE IN BEAUMONT CA}
We are the Garrigus Real Estate Group, Todd and Devona Garrigus, and we have worked our entire real estate careers right here in the heart of Beaumont. We also live and work daily here. We can offer not only our real estate experience to your Beaumont home buying or selling needs but also our solid knowledge of The city of Beaumont and surrounding areas.
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