Custom built, this home has something for everyone. Sitting on the highest point in the neighborhood and offering panoramic views from nearly every window. This home has an open feeling as you enter the 2 story foyer and view the nicely sized living and dining rooms, both under one large cathedral ceiling. Strolling into the kitchen, you will love the amount of cabinets and counter space available in this bright and cheery room. The eating area is amply sized and walks out to a maintenance free deck. The adjoining family room is the perfect place for entertaining family and friends. The wood burning fireplace is sure to keep you warm on the fast approaching cold winter nights. Upstairs you will find the bedrooms, the master suite having a cathedral ceiling, walk in closet and luxury bath with whirlpool tub and separate shower. Between the bedrooms you will find the spacious loft area that is perfect for a second a 2nd floor rec room or the office you have always wanted.  Entertaining will be a snap in the completely finished lower level. Everyone will enjoy gathering in the huge recreation room that looks out onto your back yard and walks out to a convenient patio. There is even an additional full bath for everyone’s convenience.  Of course there is a 3+ car attached garage, a full appliance package and professional landscaping.  This is the one you have been waiting for. Offered at a fantastic price!

DON'T spend the money you have on hand. This one happens more often than you might imagine. When you fill out an application - and say you have $31,500 in your savings account and $12,000 in your checking those numbers are verified and your closing costs/down payment has to come from that. If you bring a check from some account you never told your loan officer about that will halt the closing until those funds can be verified.

DON'T charge anything on any credit. First time buyers are the worst. They hear the words "your mortgage application is approved" and they're so excited, they immediately start applying for credit cards (often to buy furniture for their new home).

DON'T make any large deposits you can't provide a paper trail on. Usually on deposits over $500, you'll have to provide a verifiable paper trail of where that money comes from. The purpose of this is to show an interested party is not giving you the funds to make it happen. You can get a gift from a relative or "significant other" provided those funds are traced as well. In that case you need a specific letter - you can get the form from your loan officer.

DON'T quit your job. I know, this seems like a no-brainer, but it needed to be said. Time your changes to make sure they don't interrupt or kill your chances at getting that new home!

Sure, there are other ways to blow it but these seem to be the most common and should also be the most obvious.

If you’re one of the millions who has an eye on 2012 as the year in which you’ll buy a home (first or not), here are five things you can do now to put yourself on the right path:

1.    Check your credit. Take my word for it: there is no bad surprise worse than a bad credit surprise. Okay, maybe there is one thing worse – a credit surprise you receive while you’re in the midst of trying to buy a home!

Recent studies have revealed that a record high number of real estate transactions are falling out of escrow, and that credit “issues” are a leading cause of these dead deals. Your best chance at catching and correcting score-lowering errors and other derogatory items before they destroy your personal American Dream is to start checking and correcting while you still have time on your side.

2.    Do your research.  The more rapidly the real estate market changes, the more it behooves smart buyers to study up before they jump in.  And now’s the time – you can start doing online and in-person research into topics ranging from:

·    Target states, cities and neighborhoods. Whether you’re relocating or simply trying to narrow down the local districts to focus on during your 2012 house hunt, December is a great time to start your online research into decision-driving factors like tax rates, school districts, neighborhood character and even prices in various areas. Resident ratings and reviews sites like Trulia and NabeWise can help you make the neighborhood-lifestyle match.

Once you narrow things down and start speaking to local agents, ask them to brief you on the local market dynamics, including how long homes typically stay on the market and whether they generally go for more or less than the asking price, so you can be smart about how you search. (And yes, Virginia, there are areas where homes sell for more than asking, even as we speak!)

·    Real estate and mortgage pros. If you don’t already have your pros picked out, now is the time to get on the horn or drop an email or Facebook message to your circle of contacts, asking them for a referral to a broker or agent they love.  Follow up by: checking whether these pros are active in answering questions on Trulia Voices, searching for their name and seeing what sort of feedback on them you can cull from the web, then giving them a ring and launching a conversation about whether you and they might be a good partnership.

·    Short sales and REOs. Distressed property sales are not for the unwary. If you want to target upside down or foreclosed homes, or are planning to house hunt in an area where many of the listings are described as short sales or foreclosures, get educated about what you can expect from a distressed property purchase transaction before you get your heart set on a short sale.

·    What you get for the money. Online house hunting is a powerful tool – especially when it’s cold and wet! But there comes a point in your house hunt where you’ve got to just get out into the actual physical homes you’re seeing online in order to get a strong, accurate sense of what home features, aesthetics and location characteristics correlate with what price points.

·    Mortgage musts. You can read a bunch of articles about mortgages and get yourself pretty far down the path toward qualifying for a home loan, but you can only get a personalized action plan for a smooth road ‘home’ by talking with a local mortgage broker and having them assess your basic financials.  They might say you need to move funds around, pay a bill down or off or produce some sort of documentation from your employer.  And the time to start all that is now.

3.    Fluff up your cash cushion. So, you’ve saved up your 3.5 percent down payment. Perhaps you saved a little extra for closing costs.  Or maybe you’re even one of those uber-aggressive 20-percent-down-ers.  No matter how much you’ve saved, you’ll find that you could use more once you activate your home buying action plan. Mark my words – after closing, you’ll crave extra cash to do some repairs, upgrade a couple of things, buy appliances or even just to hold onto in order to minimize your anxiety about depleting your savings! 

So, if homebuying is on your personal 2012 action plan, don’t go hog wild on holiday gifts. Instead, wait until next year and give yourself the gift of a home.

4.    Shed some stuff.  Sell it. Donate it. Give it to relatives who’ve always coveted it.  Just get rid of it. If you do it before year’s end, you can kill three birds with one stone: (a) getting some cold hard cash to go toward your savings, (b) getting some tax receipts so you can deduct the value of your donations in January, (c) minimizing money spent on holiday gifts for loved ones and these two bonus birds – clearing the mental clutter that physical clutter creates and prepping for your move in advance.

5.    Sit very, very still.  Sometimes, the best way to further our goals is to stop tripping ourselves up.  In that vein, commit right now to refrain from making any major financial moves until you buy your home.  Don’t quit your job to start that personal chef business (yet), don’t pull a bunch of cash out of your savings account (without getting clearance form your mortgage pro first), and don’t start buying cars and boats on credit – even if you do love the idea of putting the red bow on the car you give your wife, like in the commercials.

Original article by Carrie Bay @ DSNews.com Last year, banks seized more than one million properties. RealtyTrac says over the same 12-month period, the number of foreclosure filings – including default notices, auctions, and repossessions – was a record 3.8 million, even though major servicers halted foreclosures during the last few months of 2010. Lax underwriting standards during the boom years served as the catalyst for a housing bust that upended not only the mortgage market but the entire U.S. financial system, and has left scores of foreclosures, delinquencies, and vacant homes in its wake. In order to see what changes the lending community has made, the ratings agency DBRS decided to do a side-by-side comparison of the criteria for obtaining a prime mortgage in 2007 versus today’s requirements for prime qualification. In 2007, prime borrowers had a higher ceiling for loan-to-value (LTV) ratio requirements – a maximum 100 percent LTV, which bumped up to 125 percent combined LTV if other liens had to be taken into consideration. Debt-to-income (DTI) ratios back then were also higher. Mortgage payments could consume as much as 38 percent of the borrower’s income, and total monthly debt levels (including the mortgage and other credit obligations) could equal as much as 45 percent of income. The minimum FICO score for a prime mortgage in 2007 was set at 620, however, even those without a FICO score could be considered for a prime loan. Lenders only required one past W-2 form, two months of fallback reserve funding, and employment was corroborated as far out as a month before the closing date. Switch to present-day, and the LTV maximum for prime borrowers is 80 percent, for both the mortgage loan itself and combined LTVs. DTI levels have narrowed. By today’s prime mortgage standards, monthly payments can’t be more than 33 percent of income, and total monthly debt obligations can’t exceed 38 percent of borrower income. The minimum FICO score for a 2011 prime mortgage is 680-720, and borrowers without a FICO score are restricted. Borrowers must supply two years of W-2 documentation, hold 12 months worth of reserve funds, and re-verification of employment is made within 10 days of closing. A closer look at DBRS’ analysis of today’s prime standards suggests many lenders are already conforming to the mold of a “Qualified Residential Mortgage” (QRM). For a securitized loan to be exempt from Dodd-Frank’s 5 percent risk retention rule, it must meet regulators’ QRM definition. Federal agencies have proposed a framework that they say carries a low risk of default. It calls for a 20 percent down payment to bring LTV to 80 percent, conservative DTI ratios of 28 and 36 percent, and strict limits on the number of bad marks in the borrower’s recent credit history. Regulators, though, are getting a lot of pushback from homeowner advocates, industry trade groups, and more than 300 members of Congress who say the federal agencies aren’t following their legislative intent when it comes to QRM. According to DBRS, both the proposed QRM rule and the underwriting guidelines currently in use for prime mortgages severely restrict credit availability. “Based on the minimum FICO score, maximum loan-to-value (LTV), and the requirement that a foreclosure, short sale, or deed-in-lieu be at least seven years old, it is likely that most of the U.S. population will not be able to qualify for a mortgage any time soon,” DBRS says. “Consequently, DBRS expects the housing recovery to continue to lag for many years to come unless there is a loosening of underwriting criteria by the major lenders,” the ratings agency concluded.

The Housing Market

In February the Illinois and Chicago housing markets remained at the same level as they were in January in terms of sales volume.

In Illinois 5,575 houses were sold, 1.3 percent more than January 2011 and 10.0 percent less than February 2010 when 6,194 houses were sold; the comparable figures for the nine-county Chicago* region were 3,769 houses in February, 2011, down 8.8 percent from the 4,134 houses sold last in the same month in 2010 and down -2.0 percent from January 2011.There is no doubt that some of this decline can be attributed to the stimulus effect of the housing credits that elevated sales in the first quarter of 2010.

The economy continues to provide some positive signs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the national non-farm payroll added 192,000 jobs in February. State and national government shed 30,000 jobs, while the private sectors added 222,000 jobs. Over the last three months, the private has added an average of 152,333 jobs per month. National job gains in the last 12 months have amounted to 1.3 million, or an average of 106,000 jobs per month. Illinois added 64,200 jobs in the last year, or an average of 5,350 jobs per month. Over the year, payroll employment increased in nine out of 10 metropolitan areas. Particularly encouraging was the decline in the number of discouraged workers in February, by 184,000 compared to the same month in 2010. The national unemployment rate (8.9%) and the number of unemployed persons (13.7 million) changed very little in February.

For the state of Illinois, unemployment rates dropped in every county for the second consecutive month. Unemployment rates also fell in every metropolitan area for the fifth month in a row. Most analysts agree that a strong labor market will be the key to housing market recovery. The Census Bureau noted that in January, private residential construction spending rose 5.3% to $245.6 billion from an upwardly revised $233.2 billion in December; however, most of this spending was focused on home improvement spending which rose 10.5% to $124.4 billion.

The continuing concerns center on the size and impact of the “shadow inventory;” estimates of the impact range from minor to very profound. In large part, the magnitude of the impact centers on the way in which homeowners react to continuing price declines and the realization that they may owe more their home than the property’s current value. Negative equity becomes a problem when a homeowner attempts to sell the property—but it can also have an impact on consumption, potentially depressing consumption or at least delaying purchases of major items (such as automobiles, appliances and so forth).

A further concern centers on the degree to which negative equity in a home influences the operation of the labor market by limiting job mobility; this concern will become more important as the job market rebounds and opportunities for advancement in the labor market present themselves.

Housing Market Forecast – Sales

The February annual sales rate for Illinois and Chicago* are down by 10.0% and 8.9%, respectively. The annual sales forecast for the Chicago area for the next three months suggests a decline of 8-13%. Meanwhile, the sales forecast for Illinois predicts a decline of 12-19% when compared with the same month last year. The sales volume decrease is not an extremely negative signal for Illinois and Chicago housing markets, taking into consider that the early 2010 housing market was inflated by the homebuyer tax credit by 16.5%. This impact is reflected in the fact that we are expecting to see significant month-to-month sales increases for the next three months (March, April, May) for both Chicago and Illinois.

Information provided by the Illinois Association of Realtors

 

As winners of CENTURY 21's prestigious Centurion Award for 2010, and having been inducted into C21's Preferred Agent Club, we'd like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all of our buyers and sellers.

Thank you for placing so much trust in us to get your home sold and for helping you buy the perfect home for your family. It is our buyers and sellers who helped The Becker Group become the #1 sales team for CENTURY 21 Roberts and Andrews.

1st in Antioch
1st in East of Main Street
1st in Ingleside
1st in Round Lake Heights North
1st in Island Lake (unincorporated)
1st in Richmond (unincorporated)
1st in Round Lake Heights
1st in Lakeside
1st in West Johnsburg
1st in Venetian Village East
1st in Lake Catherine
1st in West of Main Street
1st in Channel Lake
1st in Pistakee Highlands
2nd in Venetian Village of Lindenhurst
2nd in Wheaton Southwest
2nd in North of NW Hwy
2nd in Johnsburg
2nd in Lake Villa East
3rd in West of Bay Rd

Loving what we do and caring about those we serve has been rewarding in so many ways and on so many emotional levels. Having the honor to hold the #1 position in Antioch for selling more homes than any other agent is truly fulfilling for us at The Becker Group. Knowing we helped so many homeowners achieve their goal of moving has been worth the 7 days a week, 16 hour days, and countless hours of lost sleep.

 Again... THANK YOU!!!

 

Research Firm Says U.S. Housing Has Never Been This Undervalued 3/8/11

We just read this in DSNews.com and we wanted to share it with you. (well we didn't want to share, but thought we should keep you informed)

The continuing depreciation of residential property values at the end of last year has made housing look more undervalued relative to income than ever before, according to analysts at the research firm Capital Economics.

Based on the latest Case-Shiller home price index, Capital Economics’ study shows that in the fourth quarter of 2010, housing was 21 percent undervalued when compared with disposable income per capital.

Looking at data included in the index published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the firm found that housing in Q4 was 15 percent undervalued as measured against individuals’ disposable income.

Capital Economics says its results illustrate “housing is exceptionally undervalued,” and the gap is getting bigger. In its third quarter 2010 report, the research firm pegged the Case-Shiller index readings as 19 percent undervalued and the FHFA index as 14 percent below what would constitute a balanced housing value in relation to income.

The recent fall back in house prices, coupled with low rates, explains why the initial monthly mortgage payment on a median priced house bought with a 20 percent down payment has fallen to a record low of 13 percent of the median income, Capital Economics pointed out in its report.

Home prices in 29 states hit a new cycle low in the fourth quarter of last year, and the research firm says on both the FHFA and Case-Shiller house price indices, housing now appears close to fair value when set against rents.

Such favorable valuations mean there is plenty of scope for housing to perform well in the medium-term, according to Capital Economics, but over the next year, the firm says the combination of weak demand, high supply, and more forced sales of foreclosed properties will push prices lower.

The sharp fall in the mortgage delinquency rate at the end of last year means there are fewer homes in the foreclosure pipeline, but the elevated number of defaulted properties still in process means home values will continue to be negatively impacted by the presence of distress for some time.

On top of low prices, mortgage rates have fallen back a bit in recent weeks, leaving them even further below the 20-year average of 7 percent, the firm’s analysts wrote. Last week marked the third consecutive week that rates have continued to decline.

A national survey conducted by Freddie Mac shows that the average 30-year fixed-rate has dropped to 4.87 percent, while the 15-year fixed-rate has slipped to 4.15 percent.

When you wrap declining home prices and historically low mortgage rates together, Capital Economics says, “The incredibly favorable affordability and valuation environment is the housing market’s one big positive.”

But despite this fact, mortgage applications have remained subdued. While buyer demand is notably weak by conventional standards, Capital Economics says the decrease in mortgage apps of late reflects, at least in part, the prevalence of cash buyers.

The company says the recent “de-valuing” of housing stock appears to be attracting cash buyers and investors back into the market. They have driven 70 percent of the increase in existing home sales seen since last July, particularly among heavily discounted foreclosed homes, Capital Economics pointed out.

Over that same period, first-time buyers have been responsible for just 6 percent of the increase in sales of previously owned homes.

If you MUST make a move and find yourself upside down in value, we can still help you get out from under your mortgage. You have various options available.

Call us for a FREE confidential consultation.

Ron and Kat Becker

The Becker Group

Century 21 Roberts and Andrews

www.BeckerGroupOnline.com

847-489-0236

#1. To See If Megan's Law Registrants Live Nearby
Safety first, folks. Megan's law requires law-enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders in their neighborhoods. Nearly every state that has a Megan's law-type sex offender registry has an online version that serves up the names, addresses, sex-offense history, and even photos in many cases, of convicted sex offenders who are registered as living at a certain address. Googling your address and "Megan's law" -- or even your city or zip code and "Megan's law" -- will turn up a quick list of nearby registrants. Alarmism is not a good look -- ever, but many homebuyers with young children highly value this information, especially while they are still in their contingency or objection period, before their home purchase is finalized.

#2. To Find Crime Reports and Data for Your Home and Environs
Cities, counties and state law enforcement agencies all post crime data online, but a Google search for your address or city and "crime reports" is most likely to turn up your local police or sheriff's office's crime map. Or, you can check out the crime stats around a specific property on Trulia's Map & Nearby tab on the detailed page for your home's address. In my town, for example, you can see a crime map of recent incident reports for the whole city, by zip code, by neighborhood or by address. You can zoom in and out, and the map is in color and letter-coded with little icons representing different types of crimes: red is for violent, blue is for drug crimes, green is for property crimes; and the most common specific offenses reported get their own two-letter code. Whether you own or rent your home, if you hear a siren and wonder what happened, Google might be a good place to look.

#3. To Detect Scammers Trying to Rent or Sell Your House. In one of those if-only-they-would-use-their-powers-for-good-not-evil scenarios, Internet scammers have taken to ripping off home information and putting together fake listings offering other people's homes for rent or, often, lease-to-own. They often list the home on extremely cheap and easy terms, then ask the would-be-buyer or tenant to please wire or send the deposit money overseas, where the faux-seller can get it while they're traveling in -- you guessed it -- Nigeria.

# 4. To See What Your Neighbor's Place Sold for and Possibly Lower Your Property Taxes.   In real estate, the value of your home is largely driven by what similar, nearby homes have recently sold for ("comparable sales," or "comps" for short). That gives every homeowner a valid reason for wanting to know what the neighbor's place sold for (on top of your purely voyeuristic need to know). If you search your address, Trulia will first surface some sort of image of your home, a map, the basic property details from the public records (see No. 5, below), and recent sales data for your own home before listing out the comps -- homes with similar numbers of bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet as yours, near yours, and what they recently sold for. And as an added bonus, if you see a pattern of homes selling for lower than your home's assessed value, you can use those comps to petition your County to lower your own property taxes!

#5. To See Your Home's Property Records. It's a story as old as homes -- well, at least as old as websites that display home records and listings. Your home's records online are populated from the public records about your home, which are either so old they don't include the upgrades and additions that have been done over time, or they're just flat out wrong for a number of reasons. If you Google your address, or search for it on Trulia, and find that your home's description is riddled with errors, contact us or your County public record agency to correct them; this is particularly important if you're planning to sell your home anytime soon.

#6. To See Your Home's Google Street Views. When you're selling your home, it's especially critical to see everything that prospective home buyers will see. That means checking out how your home's listing looks on all the online real estate sites (yes, even on Trulia), checking out the flier - even stopping by to check out any staging your broker or agent did if you've already moved out. One thing even most savvy sellers don't check out is the way Google Maps Street Views depicts your home. If you're unfamiliar, Google actually hitches up cameras to cars and sends them up and down public streets worldwide, so that Google Maps users can go from an overhead view of a street via satellite to seeing panoramic pics from the street from curb level with one click. Sometimes, the street views can be outdated. If you're about to sell your home, and you notice that the street view is outdated, mention it to your agent, and ask them to make a note of that fact in the listing information.

This question was proposed online by a local seller:

How do other sellers feel when their house it empty and has been on the market for a very long time approx 180 days?

Honest agents would answer the questions like this:

The question you should be asking yourself Ms. Seller is, "Do you WANT to or NEED to sell your home"? Ultimately, you are in control of whether or not and for how much you allow your home to linger on the market.

Unfortunately, the market is not the same as it once was. Homes are not selling in the same time frame or at the same price as they used to. You say an offer came in at "30% less than asking price". Did you come to the listing price or did your agent?

There are only 3 things that can change to affect the sale of your home. Location, Condition AND Price. Unless you are unable to pick up your house and move it anywhere in the world to get a better price, then you cannot do anything about your location.

If your property smells like dog, cat, smoke or has a stale smell from being vacant, (and lady bugs and spiders have moved in) then you need to address condition.

HOWEVER, if you cannot change location and your condition is impeccable then the only thing you can change is PRICE. And, just to clarify, price does not mean what you paid for it, or what you think it's worth. It means what a buyer is willing to pay for your home.

Generally, the first offer you get on your home will be your highest and best. Whether or not you choose to work with the first buyer is your choice. But, you are the only one that can affect the sale of your home, ultimately. At no point, should you ever negotiate from an emotional standpoint.

Good advice from The Becker Group and all other honest agents in Antioch, Spring Grove, Gurnee, Lindenhurst, Grayslake and surrounding cities in Lake County. We'd rather you get your home sold. We aren't in the habit of listing homes. It is our job to get your home SOLD! Good advice is good advice.

Get more great advice at http://www.BeckerGroupOnline.com

Kat and Ron Becker

While you'd like to get the best price for your home, consider our six reasons to reduce your home price.

These six signs may be telling you it's time to lower your price.

1. You're drawing few lookers

You get the most interest in your home right after you put it on the market because buyers want to catch a great new home before anybody else takes it. If your real estate agent reports there have been fewer buyers calling about and asking to tour your home than there have been for other homes in your area, that may be a sign buyers think it's overpriced and are waiting for the price to fall before viewing it.

2. You're drawing lots of lookers but have no offers

If you've had 30 sets of potential buyers come through your home and not a single one has made an offer, something is off. What are other agents telling your agent about your home? An overly high price may be discouraging buyers from making an offer.

3. Your home's been on the market longer than similar homes

Ask your real estate agent about the average number of days it takes to sell a home in your market. If the answer is 30 and you're pushing 45, your price may be affecting buyer interest. When a home sits on the market, buyers can begin to wonder if there's something wrong with it, which can delay a sale even further. At least consider lowering your asking price.

4. You have a deadline

If you've got to sell soon because of a job transfer or you've already purchased another home, it may be necessary to generate buyer interest by dropping your price so your home is a little lower priced than comparable homes in your area. Remember: It's not how much money you need that determines the sale price of your home, it's how much money a buyer is willing to spend.

5. You can't make upgrades

Maybe you're plum out of cash and don't have the funds to put fresh paint on the walls, clean the carpets, and add curb appeal. But the feedback your agent is reporting from buyers is that your home isn't as well-appointed as similarly priced homes. When your home has been on the market longer than comparable homes in better condition, it's time to accept that buyers expect to pay less for a home that doesn't show as well as others.

6. The competition has changed

If weeks go by with no offers, continue to check out the competition. What have comparable homes sold for and what's still on the market? What new listings have been added since you listed your home for sale? If comparable home sales or new listings show your price is too steep, consider a price reduction.

Original article written by: G. M. Filisko

Published: March 19, 2010

Visit HouseLogic.com  for more articles like this