Are you planning to buy a home in Cincinnati, Ohio in the near future? 

If so, when viewing properties, make sure you do a double take at the property tax amount.  You need to confirm that the tax bill amount is accurate with your local county auditor's web site.

Then you need to take it one step further and check to see if a Homestead Exemption discount has been deducted from the tax bill amount.  (In the state of Ohio, a person 65 years of age or older may qualify for the discount.)  You see, Multiple Listing Service (MLS) property sheets can show the wrong tax amount.  If the listing agent didn't check to see if the sellers qualifies for the Homestead Exemption discount, they may enter the lower tax figure on the MLS sheet.  Then you assume that's the correct tax amount.  In 6 months, when the next tax bill comes out and it's several hundred dollars higher, you get very upset.

So when you are deciding on a property to purchase and you want to figure out what the monthly payment will be, make sure you find out the correct annual tax amount.

2009 is a great time to buy - Lots of Properties For Sale...Low Interest Rates...Favorable Pricing!

Are you a first-time home buyer?  Attend our Free Home & Condo Buyer Tele-Class.  For details and upcoming class dates, go to: http://www.HomeBuyingClass.com

Are you ready to find your dream home? Contact me for a Free Home Buyer Consultation at: (513) 615-1890 or dan@danweis.com No cost...No obligation...No sales pressure!

If you're planning to purchase a lender-owned property, be aware of the additional fees you'll end up paying.

As we approach the season of overnight temperatures often reaching 32 degrees and below, one of the things consumers need to be aware of when they make an offer on a lender's foreclosed property is to read the fine print. There are many listings that now state in the remarks that the "BUYER" is responsible, at their own expense, of having the property's plumbing de-winterized for their inspections and then re-winterizing it when the inspections are completed. I've heard cost estimates of $250 - $300 for that service. Consumers should also make sure that all of the utilities have been turned back on, so that the inspections can be finished in a timely fashion. Don't assume it's been done by the other party...double check by calling the utility company.

This is just one of the 'unknowing' charges you may end up paying for when buying a foreclosure property. There are a lot of great values in the market right now. If you're interested in taking advantage of this buyer's market, I'd love the opportunity to help you find one of these properties. Just contact me at dan@danweis.com or 513-615-1890.

Are you a first-time home buyer?  Attend our Free Home & Condo Buyer Tele-Class.  For details and upcoming class dates, go to: http://www.HomeBuyingClass.com

848 Bay Harbor Drive, Maineville, Ohio 45039 

NEW price: $129,900

 

  

For more photos and details, go to: http://www.CincinnatiRealEstateHelp.com and click on "Dan's Listings". 

848 Bay Harbor Drive, Maineville, Ohio 45039
List price: $129,900
by Dan Weis, Realtor, Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio Real Estate 

This 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath, stone & vinyl, 2-story condo shows very well.  It's located in the Sunrise Landing subdivision of Hamilton Township and is in the Little Miami School District.  Some of its special features include:  1st floor living room with a walkout to the wood deck...a dining room with chandelier...an equipped kitchen with a refrigerator, over/range, dishwasher, microwave, etc,...wall-to-wall carpeting...family room with wood-burning fireplace in the finished lower level...each bedroom on the second floor has its own full bathroom and walk-in closet.  The resort-style surroundings of the Sunrise Landing community include:  a beautiful lake, 2 clubhouses, 2 swimming pools, and tennis courts.  The entire neigborhood has sidewalks.  The monthly condo fee is $225. and the monthly HOA fee is $56.  It's a great location and is conveniently located about 5 minutes from the I-71 at St.Rt. 48  interchange.  For more details or to view this home, please contact Dan Weis of RE/MAX Unlimited Realtors at 513-615-1890 or e-mail: dan@danweis.com.

As I continue showing homes and condos in our current real estate market, I'm finding up 50% of the properties are listed as foreclosures or short-sales.

What does this mean to you, the buyer?

Timing, for one thing, can be widely varied.

In many foreclosures, where the lender has already purchased the home, the normal time frame from accepted offer to closing is usually 30 - 45 days. With foreclosures, you're also buying them in 'as-is' condition, even though you can have inspections to see if you still want the property. Fannie Mae also requires the buyer to pay around $125 for changing the locks through their approved contractor. Even though we're out of winter time, many properties are still winterized and lender are requiring the buyer to pay for that expense too - around $250 - $300.

In short-sale listings, nobody knows in the beginning when an actual closing can take place. I wrote an offer this weekend, where the listing agent told me that the lender may take up to 45 days before approving the short sale amount. That's not uncommon right now. It can even be longer than that too.

A 'short-sale' is where the homeowner is in a financial distress situation and in order to sell the property, must sell it for less than the outstanding mortgage that's on the property. The homeowner must show that they don't have the ability to continue paying the mortgage or that they don't have the assets necessary to cover the difference between a sale price and mortgage amount.

So, if you don't have a lot of time to make a move, most short-sale properties are not going to work for you. The other thing is you're in limbo from looking at other homes, because you have a signed agreement with the seller that is subject to the lender approving the short-sale amount.

Now is a great time for home buyers to invest in real estate, because interest rates are good and housing inventory is high.

But do be aware that there are sometimes price points of properties, where the inventory is low and it may be tougher to negotiate if you get in a multiple offer situation. I've had that happen twice in the past couple of weeks. With many homes in foreclosure or short-sale situations, they are usually not in very good condition and will take some TLC & cash on your part to fix up.

If you have any questions on these types of properties, give me a call or drop me an email.

At your service, Dan

Are you a first-time home buyer?  Attend our Free Home & Condo Buyer Tele-Class.  For details and upcoming class dates, go to: http://www.HomeBuyingClass.com

Are you ready to find your dream home? Contact me for a Free Home Buyer Consultation at: (513) 615-1890 or dan@danweis.com No cost...No obligation...No sales pressure!

Put Your Spending Habits In A Deep Freeze! 

Once you apply for a mortgage, put your spending habits into a deep freeze for the next 30 - 45 days, just until you close on your new home.

An important factor you need to know about during your mortgage approval process is your active credit situation. DON'T make any major purchases...credit or cash or lease a car or apply for a new credit card. Don't buy an item to put it layaway. You need to freeze your spending habits except for normal purchases, like food and gas, etc.

It used to be that mortgage lenders would only check your credit history once when you appled for a mortgage. Now they will check it 2 or 3 times and the last time could be the day of or day before your real estate closing. So don't do anything without checking with your mortgage consultant. You don't want your credit score to go down or have your cash reserves and other assets change until after your closing.
At your service,

Dan

What questions do you have? I'll gladly answer them at: dan@danweis.com.

Are you a first-time home buyer?  Attend our Free Home & Condo Buyer Tele-Class.  For details and upcoming class dates, go to: http://www.HomeBuyingClass.com

Are you ready to find your dream home? Contact me for a Free Home Buyer Consultation at: (513) 615-1890 or dan@danweis.com No cost...No obligation...No sales pressure!

Even if all your ducks are in a row...

When you apply for your mortgage pre-approval, understand that it's just the beginning of the paperwork and the watching of your ongoing credit.

Once you find a home and write an accepted offer, that's when the mortgage approval process really gets in full swing. During the normal 3 - 4 weeks of having your credit, assets, debts and property appraisal reviewed, there will be times where your mortgage consultant will ask you for additional documentation.

You may be thinking to yourself or saying out loud, "Why didn't they ask for this earlier?" or "Why do they need this document?"

You need to understand that since the mortgage industry has turned 180 degrees on its head, many changes have been implemented and they continue to happen on a daily basis.

What an underwriter didn't need yesterday, they now need today. (An underwriter is the person who reviews your entire loan file and approves or denies it....not your loan officer.)

There are other outside forces like the government, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, private mortgage insurance
companies and others, who are causing all of these changes. What paperwork your mortgage consultant may not have needed at the beginning of your mortgage pre-approval, they now are asking for...all because of the changing of the guidelines. They are double-checking and triple-checking credit and everyone is C.Y.A. themselves.

It's outside the control of your mortgage consultant, so please don't give them a hard time. This is just the
way the market is right now and for the foreseeable future.

You could have an 800+ credit score, make a great income and have lots of money in the bank....and you'd still be going through all of the same hoops today, just like everyone else.

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Are you a first-time home buyer?  Attend our Free Home & Condo Buyer Tele-Class.  For details and upcoming class dates, go to: http://www.HomeBuyingClass.com

Are you ready to find your dream home? Contact me for a Free Home Buyer Consultation at: (513) 615-1890 or dan@danweis.com No cost...No obligation...No sales pressure!

When purchasing a property, is it worth getting a 1-year home warranty plan?

I say "Definitely, YES"!

Prior to a few years ago, home warranties were available for purchase, but weren't always selected, because sellers wouldn't always offer them. Now, in the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors purchase agreements, home warranties are included in the paperwork and negotiated into an offer with the buyer having the option to ask a seller to purchase one on their behalf or the buyer can purchase a policy themselves.

What's often covered in a home warranty plan?

• heating system
• air conditioning system
• plumbing system
• water heater
• electrical system
• kitchen appliances

It's important to read the policy to make sure you know exactly what's covered and what's not covered? Most plans don't cover roofing systems and basement foundations.

When I write up an offer for my clients, we ask the seller to purchase a policy for the buyer to have coverage for one year after the closing. Most of the time the seller will oblige. There are also times when a seller has already activated a home warranty policy on their property when it's first listed and they get seller coverage too.

There are several, national home warranty companies in the market. The cost for a 1-year warranty can range from $375 - $435. There is also a service call fee ranging from $55 - $100 for each time a company-approved contractor handles a claim.

It's important to review the home warranty plan's fine print, because you aren't getting a blank check for anything that breaks to be replaced. There are limitations on all policies - you're looking at repairs and replacements of covered items that break down due to normal wear and tear. The best thing you as a consumer can do is keep the mechanical systems in your property maintained and serviced, so that if a covered part does break down, it should be repaired or replaced.

I believe that for the most part, home warranty plans are effective and worth the investment. They can help protect you from unexpected repair expenses that can be very costly.

It's even becoming more common for homeowners to extend the policy beyond the first year, at the company's option. Some lenders even have partnerships with home warranty companies to offer them to homeowners for an ongoing monthly premium.

So when you make an offer on a property, make sure that a home warranty plan is written into your offer.
At your service,

Dan

Be Aware Of Constantly Changing Mortgage Rules!

Once you find a home that you want to call your own, the next important step is to make sure that your mortgage process is moving forward smoothly.

It's just as important for you as well as your mortgage consultant to stay on top of things during the mortgage underwriting process.

In this day of constant changes in the mortgage industry, no home loan is immune from possible delays. FHA, VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are going through continuous changes in their guidelines and rules that you end up having to abide by.

What does this mean to you?

When you have your initial mortgage consultation, make sure that whatever you haven't brought to the meeting, you get to your lender as soon as possible. There will be times when your mortgage consultant will have to ask you for additional documentation on something...that's just how the industry is right now. Please don't get upset, just know that someone somewhere is trying appease a new regulation that has probably just changed for everyone.

While a couple of years ago, when just about anyone could get a mortgage, now the mortgage industry is going through a 180 degree change. They're having to be extremely rigid in the rules they have to follow. Hopefully, over the time, the restrictions will loosen up a little bit and make the mortgage lending process less stressful and go more smoothly.

In the meantime, just keep asking your mortgage consultant if there's any additional documents they need at this time. I would ask them once a week, so that you don't have to go through any last-minute hoops to get your mortgage approved.

If you know of any impactful changes to your job, credit history or finances, make sure your lender knows right away. While you're going through the mortgage process, don't make any major purchases that require you to use a credit card or pay using lots of cash. Wait until after the closing. You don't want your credit score or money reserves to go down.

It's best to be pro-active in this market and have an open dialogue with your mortgage consultant.

At your service,

Dan

What questions do you have? I'll gladly answer them at: dan@danweis.com.

Tell a friend about my next Free Home & Condo Buyer Class - March 19th!

Are you ready to find your dream home? Contact me for a Free Consultation: (513) 615-1890 or dan@danweis.com

What is a FSBO?

It's an acronym for: For Sale By Owner and it's pronounced (fizz-bo)
As a new home buyer, it's important to understand the possible reasons that a seller is selling their property on their own as a FSBO. Here's a few:

• They may have little or no equity in the home and need to save money.
• They may have had a bad experience with a Realtor in the past.
• They may have sold property as a FSBO before and are doing it again.
• They may have plenty of time to sell or aren't motivated to sell.
• They try on their own at first, since their new home will take 6 months to build.
• They have a relative in the business, who's helping them behind the scenes for free.

Now as a buyer, it's important to have your buyer's agent approach the FSBO for information about their home. Your agent will also be able to find out if the FSBO is willing to compensate your buyer's agent (most FSBOs are willing to pay a buyer's agent's fee).

As a Realtor, I understand a seller's position of wanting to sell their property on their own. They have every right to do that. But you need to know that by attempting to deal directly with a FSBO without a buyer's agent, you don't have any representation assisting you in the transaction and helping you negotiate through the entire process.

I believe that having an experienced buyer's agent can save time, money or aggravation. There are so many pieces to the real estate puzzle in today's market that need to be solved before it can hopefully come together. There's also a lot of emotion involved on both sides of the transaction. Most buyers don't want to negotiate directly with a seller, because they don't want to be put in a potential, confrontational situation. The seller may also not have the appropriate state-mandated disclosure forms that are part of a transaction.

When you decide to hire a buyer's agent, it's important to find out how they handle FSBOs. Some agents won't work with FSBOs and so you're missing part of the market. They won't even tell you about them. In some cases, FSBOs can be as much as much as 10% to 15% of an area's inventory, but they aren't always easily identifiable, because they may only have a hand-made sign in the front yard and aren't doing any other advertising.

In closing, I look at FSBOs just like any other seller in the marketplace. They are just representing themselves. If they have a property that you want, then I'll do everything I can to help you get it.

At your service,

Dan

What questions do you have? I'll gladly answer them at: dan@danweis.com.

Tell a friend about my next Free Home & Condo Buyer Class - March 5th!

Are you ready to find your dream home? Contact me for a Free Consultation: (513) 615-1890 or dan@danweis.com

As the real estate and mortgage markets continue to recover, we are seeing more and more restrictions on lending to try and right the ship. One monster that started to surface way back in July of 2007 was the "Declining Markets" guidance sent out by FannieMae (Federal National Mortgage Association). In short, FNMA began to notice in their massive data base that there are areas of the country that are seeing consistent declines in market value, yet they don't have a standard industry definition of what constitutes a declining market.

So what does this all mean?

Well, if your lender receives this message when underwriting your conventional mortgage loan and you are not putting any money down, you will be penalized. (An FHA loan is another option.) The lender must immediately lower the highest acceptable loan-to-value ratio by 5%. So, your 100% loan just became a 95% loan, no matter how you slice it. You may be out of luck when looking at conventional financing. One action that you can take to avoid the surprise of this scary, but protective rule is to have your lender run your file through the automated system before even making an offer. This way you will know up front if you will be dealing with this issue on this property regardless of sale price.
In the past, an appraiser had a little lead way in determining value. The appraiser may have been able to go slightly out of area or scope of time, but Not any more. While the following are always considered the best practice, they are now considered the ONLY practice.

These guidelines are not intended to be all inclusive and may differ depending on the lender. They should be viewed as the minimum requirements used to set the market value by using data for comparable properties:

• Must be within a 3 to 6 month period, with similar features such as square footage.
• Must provide days on market for the subject property and comparable sales used.
• Must be within close proximity of the subject property, looking at neighborhood character as well.
• Must be within a one mile radius of the subject.
• Must provide one current listing or pending sale from the Multiple Listing Service to help support value.
  

If any of these guidelines cannot be positively addressed or supported in the appraisal, the appraiser needs to provide a detailed written explanation of the circumstances.

There are a few other solutions. For example, FHA and VA do not have an issue with properties located in declining market areas. They leave the determination to those is the field that they trust, the lender and the appraiser.

The bottom line is that while this rule may cause some headaches, but it does not mean that houses can not be sold. It does mean that you need to make sure your lender is up to speed on these changes to assure a smooth transaction.

Getting pre-approved with a mortgage professional before you start looking at properties is more important than ever, because you need to decide which mortgage program will work best for you.

You also need to understand that mortgage guidelines can change even during your loan underwriting process, so don't be surprised if you are asked to provide additional information.

This post was co-authored by Dan Weis and Rick Pilger.

At your service,

Dan

What questions do you have? I'll gladly answer them at: dan@danweis.com.

Tell a friend about my next Free Home & Condo Buyer Class!

Are you ready to find your dream home? Contact me for a Free Consultation: (513) 615-1890 or dan@danweis.com