2017 Anticipated to Deliver Strong Housing Market

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Buying a home of your own is one of the largest accomplishments of your life, and if you’re looking to buy a house right now you’ve probably been saving money for years to make that dream come true. Luckily for you, experts predict that 2017 will be a great year for home buyers.

Positive Trends

For 31 months straight, the National Association of REALTORS® has announced that the Pending Home Sales Index posed above its benchmark value of 100. Since a home is considered pending once it is under contract between a buyer and a seller but not yet sold, a high number of pending homes indicates positive growth for the future. In fact, 80 percent of pending homes close within two months of the contract being established. Read more

What is the Best Way to Negotiate Your Home’s Sale?

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Selling your home is a huge decision, especially if you’ve spent many years paying your mortgage in order to use the proceeds from the sale as your nest egg, retirement, or next down payment. You don’t want to undercut yourself, but you also don’t want to be too greedy and lose a reasonable sale offer. Here is how you should handle negotiations.

Price Isn’t The Only Consideration

First of all, the price set to your home isn’t the only detail to consider. The purchase contract and other terms and conditions might make it too difficult, even if the price is fair. For example, some contingencies leave so many loopholes that the deal collapses, like contingencies that link the escrow closing date to the buyer’s sale of their current home. Read more

Tips and Tricks for Selling Your Home During the Holiday Season

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house-christmasThe holiday season, for all of its cheer and goodwill, is incredibly overwhelming and stressful for most people. If you are trying to also sell your home during the holidays, you are probably feeling an extra burden of stress that threatens to dampen your spirit, but don’t worry! There are plenty of great ideas to help you harness the best elements of the holidays to help your home sell quickly.

Use Holiday Decor

Though you’ve probably heard that “less is more” when staging your home for walk-throughs, a few subtly placed holiday decoration pieces can help, not hurt. Simple additions such as an evergreen wreath, pinecone-scented candle, and candy cane centerpiece will help the potential buyers walking through your house feel more comfortable. The more comfortable they feel, the easier it will be to imagine themselves living there, and the more likely the sale will become. Read more

The Secrets of Closing for Buyers and Sellers

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housing-marketOwning a home is a major landmark in any person’s life, but it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite number of tasks required to make that ownership a reality. Even after you sign a contract, get approved for a mortgage, and hire your movers, there’s still closing day to contend with. Though closing day might seem like a formality to exchange keys and sign on the dotted line, it can actually turn into a disaster without the right preparation. As a buyer or a seller, use these tips to ensure your closing goes smoothly. Read more

What You Need to Know about Title Insurance

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house2You know you need car insurance, health insurance, and even life insurance, but have you ever considered title insurance? Until you buy your home, title insurance may not even enter your mind, but as you approach the landmark of homeownership, title insurance definitely needs to become a priority.

What is Title Insurance?

First of all, a title to a home is the evidence that the owner lawfully possesses that property and can sell it off. Title insurance is essentially an insurance policy that protects you against any property loss or damage you could potentially experience on your home due to liens, encumbrances, or defects in the title. While standard insurances like car, life, and health insurance protect against future events and is paid monthly or annually, title insurance protects against events that occurred in the past that you may not know about. It’s paid in a one-time premium at the close of your home’s escrow. Read more

4 Tips for Efficiently Marketing Your Home

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Just as in business, the way that you market your home can make or break your sale. The more exposure the better, but only if your home is in the type of condition you want hundreds of prospective buyers to see. These following tips will help you plan to successfully market your home for a quick and easy sale.

Write Your Listing Ad Strategically

As you write the description of your home that will accompany its pictures, remember that you’re not writing an essay. You must be short and precise while still being thorough. This means you need to stick to the facts, such as the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and any key features that will appeal to prospective buyers. Read more

Refinancing an FHA mortgage

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Do you know the difference in how interest is collected on a conventional mortgage loan vs an FHA mortgage loan?

  • On a conventional loan, interest accrues daily. So every day that loan is outstanding, you owe one more days interest to the lender.
  • On an FHA loan, interest accrues monthly. So once the calendar turn to a new month, you are charged interest for the entire month.

    • When you are refinancing your FHA mortgage, time the closing to take place at the end of the month. Allow time for the 3 day rescission period to run out and have the loan “disburse” on the last business day or second to last business day of the month. There’s no need to double pay a month

    How to save money when refinancing your Florida mortgage

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    If you are like most people, you are refinancing your home in Florida to lower your monthly payment, not spend a ton of money on closing costs if you don’t have to. Here are a few tips to help you keep more cash in your pocket when it’s time to refinance!

    • Ask your title insurance agent if you qualify for a “Reissue Credit Discount.” You will need a copy of your “Owner’s Policy of Title Insurance” that was most likely issued issued when you bought your home.
    • You may be able to avoid the cost of a new survey if you have one that is still accurate. A survey can cost from $275 – $500 or more, depending on the size of your property.
    • Shop around. Although Florida has a promulgated rate for title insurance and you won’t see much difference from one company to the next, you are likely to find a difference in charges for the Closing Services Fee, Title Search, Deilvery Fee, Wire Fee, etc. It pays to shop around and ask questions.

    Feel free to call our office if you have more questions about the closing costs involved in refinancing your home in Florida. We’ve helped Florida homeowners in most every county refinance their mortgages and we can help you too! Give us a call at 800-237-9190 today!