Tag: myrealtysearch

Smartmoney ran an article on these four homebuying sites that can really help you out. I am adding them here and hope they help you if you are in the midst of a real estate search!

pd

4 Home Buying Sites Flying Under the Radar at SmartMoney.com

Listingbook.com

Listingbook partners with powerful local Multiple Listing Service databases to provide an interactive community for agents, buyers and sellers. Valerie Van Cleef, associate broker at Coach Realty in Long Island, thinks of it as a beefed-up version of the traditional MLS. Account holders set their search parameters and the site automatically updates those property listings as soon as they’re uploaded into the MLS Database. Users can browse local listings, track open houses, edit their preferences and communicate with their broker. Other listing sites offer similar information, but since Listingbook pulls its data from MLS’s, it’s going to be the freshest, the pros say. You’ll be the first to know if a new house that matches your search criteria becomes available, says Van Cleef. “It’s definitely the most tech-savvy search and communication tool out there,” she says.

However, consumers can only set up an account through a broker and Listingbook.com is not available in every state yet. But getting an account through a specific broker doesn’t mean you must work exclusively with them.

Doorfly.com

Finding a good real estate agent is the first step in the buying process. That’s where Doorfly.com comes in. Through the site’s bidding system, home buyers anonymously submit their needs — neighborhood, maximum price, size — to a pool of real estate agents. Based on that criteria, agents compete with one another over prospective home buyers — and offer an incentive rebate from their commission at closing. Buyers can compare offerings and select one they think best fits their needs. The rebates vary significantly based on the bidding agent, the cost of the home the buyer is looking for, and even the location, says a company spokesman. Agents have offered rebates ranging from $200 to $6,500.

Given the potential price break, soliciting a bid for their business is a good starting point for home buyers, says Sid Davis, a real estate broker in Farmington, Utah. Just keep in mind, he says, that working with a savvy agent can save you more than what you might reap with a rebate.

Market Snapshot

If you’re a real estate junkie and a data junkie, get ready to wipe the drool from your chin. Market Snapshot, which is tucked away on Realtor.com’s home page, lets buyers and sellers stay on top of market trends. “It gives buyers and sellers a really good look at what’s going on in the local marketplace — if it’s worth it to sell their home, should they stay, should they buy at this price,” says Joelle Senter, general manager at Keller Williams-Fox Valley Realty in St. Charles, Ill.

Users enter their home address to request a report and within 15 to 90 minutes they receive the first one. (Reports are free and keep coming until you cancel your subscription.) Each report contains average ask and sale prices for the designated neighborhood, inventory levels, how actual sale prices compare with listing prices, the average time houses spend on the market — all presented in whiz-bang graphic displays. And because the program takes its data from multiple listing services, which track homes currently on the market, it’s continuously updated.

Walkscore.com

Looking for a new home in an unfamiliar neighborhood can be daunting. The process, though, can be made a bit easier with WalkScore, a tool that measures the “walkability” of neighborhoods in the U.S., Canada and Britain. Users type in a street address and the site produces a list of nearby stores, libraries, movie theaters, parks, schools and restaurants and determines the area’s so-called walkability rating.

“This is part of that old ‘location, location, location’ saying,” says Matt Dollinger, an agent trainer at @properties in Chicago. Even more important than the number of bathrooms or backyard space a house has, buyers want to get a feel for the neighborhood and whether it’s conducive to their life changes over the next few years, he says.

Technorati Tags: myrealtysearch

Update: FHA backs away from no down payment loans – Money Features

After announcing a plan that would have allowed first time homebuyers to use a special tax credit to cover the 3.5% required down payment on an FHA-insured loan, the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development apparently had second thoughts.

Late last week HUD released a newly remodeled plan that does not allow the first-time homebuyer tax credit to be used for the down payment. Seems there was plenty of push back that allowing borrowers to land a mortgage without any “skin in the game” was not exactly a great idea. What’s amazing is that the proposal even got floated in the first place; the notion that taxpayer dollars would have been on the line for mortgages that required no down payment was a bit of a head spinner.
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It seems that they saw the writing on the wall. What got us into this whole thing in the first place was allowing people to get a loan to pay for their downpayment or allowing them to borrow more than the actual amount needed for the home, digging into future equity and allowing more money to come to the borrower for upgrades and such.

This kind of lending allows people to get a property without putting in any significant amount of money and thus, not feeling the true weight of loss should they not keep up with payments.

Way to go guys! Thanks for seeing that it is IMPORTANT to encourage us all to sacrifice and save in order to buy. Commitment is KING!

pd

Technorati Tags: real estate, myrealtysearch

I am adding this article because Lori and I of course bought our house. The real thing that is interesting about the LORD’s timing that I have to take just a moment and give HIM glory over is:

1 – We got the lowest rate of interest on the 30 year loan since the 60’s. That rate was only available for a matter of days before it went back up. Our lender was BRILLIANT!

2 – We got all of our loan costs covered due to the lender’s mistake on the website that they had to honor.

3 – We were able to capitalize on a purchase of a short sale since we were not in a hurry to buy that landed us a 47.1% discount.

4 – We just found out that due to the slow movement of the bank and the wisdom of our real estate agent, we had our closing pushed into the New Year which caused us to get a closing on January 5. (JUST FOUR DAYS AFTER this deadline). Which means that should we have closed in the last year, we would not have gotten this credit!!!!!

5 – We bought the warranty on our house and it has already covered issues with the heating system. AHS works well!

6 – The money we got back from the initial savings on the closing, we invested in 2 storm doors, insulation, a new thermostat and sealing the back sun-room. This has resulted in savings on our heating bill already!

With that said, we are so thankful for GOD’s timing. Read below for the story on CNNMoney.

pd

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First-time purchasers get a tax credit windfall if they buy before December.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — There’s a nice windfall for some homebuyers in the economic stimulus bill awaiting President Obama’s signature on Tuesday. First-time buyers can claim a credit worth $8,000 – or 10% of the home’s value, whichever is less – on their 2008 or 2009 taxes.

A big plus is that the credit is refundable, meaning tax filers see a refund of the full $8,000 even if their total tax bill – the amount of witholding they paid during the year plus anything extra they had to pony up when they filed their returns – was less than that amount. But there has been a lot of confusion over this provision. Adam Billings of Knoxville, Tenn. wrote to CNNMoney.com asking:

“I will qualify as a first-time home buyer, and I am currently set to get a small tax refund for 2008. Does that mean if I purchased now that I would get an extra $8,000 added on top of my current refund?”

The short answer? Yes, Billings would get back the $8,000 plus what he’d overpaid. The long answer? It depends. Here are three scenarios:

Scenario 1: Your final tax liability is normally $6,000. You’ve had taxes withheld from every paycheck and at the end of the year you’ve paid Uncle Sam $6,000. Since you’ve already paid him all you owe, you get the entire $8,000 tax credit as a refund check.

Scenario 2: Your final tax liability is $6,000, but you’ve overpaid by $1,000 through your payroll witholding. Normally you would get a $1,000 refund check. In this scenario, you get $9,000, the $8,000 credit plus the $1,000 you overpaid.

Scenario 3: Your final tax liability is $6,000, but you’ve underpaid through your payroll witholding by $1,000. Normally, you would have to write the IRS a $1,000 check. This time, the first $1,000 of the tax credit pays your bill, and you get the remaining $7,000 as a refund.

To qualify for the credit, the purchase must be made between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 30, 2009. Buyers may not have owned a home for the past three years to qualify as “first time” buyer. They must also live in the house for at least three years, or they will be obligated to pay back the credit.

Additionally, there are income restrictions: To qualify, buyers must make less than $75,000 for singles or $150,000 for couples. (Higher-income buyers may receive a partial credit.)

Applying for the credit will be easy – or at least as easy as doing your income taxes. Just claim it on your return. No other forms or papers have to be filed. Taxpayers who have already completed their returns can file amended returns for 2008 to claim the credit.
Lukewarm reception

The housing industry is somewhat pleased with the result because the stimulus plan improves on the current $7,500 tax credit, which was passed in July and was more of a low-interest loan than an actual credit. But the industry was also disappointed that Congress did not go even further and adopt the Senate’s proposal of a $15,000 non-refundable credit for all homebuyers.

“[The Senate version] would have done a lot more to turn around the housing market,” said Bernard Markstein, an economist and director of forecasting for the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB). “We have a lot of reports of people who would be coming off the fence because of it.”

Even so, the $8,000 credit will bring an additional 300,000 new homebuyers into the market, according to estimates by Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

The credit could also create a domino effect, he said, because each first-time homebuyer sale will lead to two more trade-up transactions down the line. “I think there are many homeowners who would be trading-up but they have had no buyers for their own homes,” Yun said.

Who won’t benefit, according to Mark Goldman, a real estate lecturer at San Diego State University, are those first-time homebuyers struggling to come up with down payments. The credit does not help get them over that hurdle – they still have to close the sale before claiming the bonus.

One state, Missouri, is trying to get around that problem by creating a short-term loan on the tax credit of up to $6,750. The state would loan borrowers the money so they could use it at closing as part of the downpayment. Then, when the buyers receive their tax credit from the IRS, they pay back the state. Other states may follow with similar programs, according to NAHB’s Dietz.

Many may look at the tax credit as a discount on the home price, according to Yun. A $100,000 purchase effectively becomes a $92,000 one. That can reassure buyers apprehensive about purchasing and then watching prices continue falling, he added.

And it provides a nice nest egg for the often-difficult early years of homeownership, when unexpected repairs and expenses often crop up. Recipients could also use the money to buy new stuff for their home – a lawnmower, a rug, a sofa – and, in that way, help stimulate the economy.

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