Tips for First-time Home Buyers

You’ve finally decided to make one of the biggest decisions of your life: buy your first home. Then, a million of questions go flying right at you. What’s the first step? You probably have no idea how the overall purchasing process works. And you’ll probably be very surprised to learn how much work it really is just to buy a home. To get you started in the right direction, and this is just a start, here are a few tips that you should consider.

Get lender-qualified and find a good real estate agent

First things first, you have to get qualified by a lender. Once you’re qualified, your price range estimate at hand, you’ll be able to spend your time shopping in neighborhoods that you can afford. NOTE: Just because the bank says you can qualify for a certain amount, that doesn’t mean you should spend that amount. Make sure you can actually afford the monthly payment, along with all your other bills.

Make sure you plan to be a long-term owner

Once you know your price range and have looked at some properties, it’s time to make sure that you believe you can find a property that you will own for a minimum of five years. If your price range doesn’t match where you want to live, you’d be better off staying a renter and saving some additional money until you can afford where you want to live. This is because an owner really doesn’t earn any equity, on average, in a property for at least five years. 

Educate yourself

Buying property is probably the most complex, riskiest and expensive thing you will ever do. Do your homework: Talk to real estate owners, go to first-time buyer seminars, check out online material and read some books to learn what to avoid in the buying process. The more you educate yourself, the better the chances that when things go wrong -- and they will go wrong -- they will only be minor issues, not major headaches.

Find a nice affordable property

The real gems in real estate are the nice, decent shape, moderately priced, boring houses, town homes and condominiums that are within your budget. Most buyers stretch to purchase the most expensive property they can afford. What if you lose your job? How about saving some of your money for retirement? You want your home to be an asset you can afford, not a liability that leaves you with no additional funds over the cost of homeownership. Also, skip the fixers, prize properties or anything that sounds too good to be true: Those always end up having issues, and owners realize, after the fact, that the deal they thought they were getting really was just too good to be true!

Take your time

Realistically it should take you six months or longer to buy a nice quality property that will add to your long-term wealth. Make sure you have a full understanding of what the marketplace has to offer in your price range and that you know what you’re doing.

Source: foxnews.com

Do you want to work with a Realtor who never fails to provide his clients about pertinent Real Estate information, market trends, tips and what-to-dos?  Call me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.

Frankenstorm: a real monster for the recovering Real Estate?

It’s been a great year for the US real estate, crawling its way back from the dark slump to finally regaining the strength it once had. But natural calamities seem to be out of everyone’s control and as the biggest tropical gale Hurricane Sandy hit the Atlantic seaboard, the real estate industry is yet to experience a huge setback from property damage and flooding.

The Frankenstorm, a seemingly appropriate moniker since it was expected to hit just after Halloween weekend, affected Eastern coastal states that account for about one out of every five U.S. real estate sales and threatened inland areas with flooding and blackouts.

Bloomberg website news thoroughly showed the statistics on what the US real estate would look like after the hurricane.

PROPERTY DAMAGE

Almost $88 billion of homes in seven states were at risk of damage, according to a report by CoreLogic Inc., a mortgage software and data firm in Irvine, California. New York had $35.1 billion of property in harm’s way, New Jersey had $22.6 billion, Virginia had $11.3 billion, and Massachusetts had $7.8 billion. Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania had a combined $11 billion of property at risk, CoreLogic said.

SALES PRICE

The U.S. median sales prices in September rose to $183,900, up 11 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. Home sales that month reached an annualized pace of 4.75 million, up 11 percent from a year ago. Pending home sales edged up in September for the 17th consecutive month on a year-over-year basis.

The storm’s central barometric pressure was lower than that of the 1938 hurricane that devastated homes in New York and New England. Flooding from Sandy was reported along the coast from Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts through New Jersey. The storm submerged Plymouth Rock, the landmark in Massachusetts traditionally represented as the place where Pilgrims first stepped onshore in the New World in 1620.

FREDDIE MAC & FANNIE MAE

Freddie Mac said today in a statement that it has authorized servicers to suspend foreclosure proceedings for up to 12 months on mortgages it owns or guarantees in states affected by the storm. Also, the McLean, Virginia-based company said it will permit some on-time borrowers to defer mortgage payments for up to a year, will waive the assessment of late fees against borrowers with storm-damaged homes and will not report delinquencies caused by the disaster to credit bureaus.

Washington-based Fannie Mae issued a statement today urging its servicers to grant borrowers affected by the disaster a 90- day period of deferred or reduced mortgage payments under its existing disaster-relief guidelines.

Let’s hope that Frankenstorm stays a fun moniker rather than become our real-life monster. 

Source: bloomberg.com

Do you want to work with a Realtor who constantly keeps his clients informed about the effects of such natural calamities to their homes and community? Call me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.  

Banks: Positive for Housing Rebound

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's largest home lenders, said America's long-suffering housing market may be on the mend.

The big jump in profit was thanks largely to a surge in their mortgage businesses, fueled by low interest rates and waves of refinancing.

It led JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, considered one of Wall Street's most high-profile bankers, to declare: "We believe the housing market has turned the corner."

Home lending is booming. The banks said profits on the sale of home loans were twice as high as traditional levels as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at historical lows to help stimulate the economy.

JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, which emerged from the financial crisis as two of the strongest U.S. banks, control nearly half of the nation's mortgage volume. They reported a surge in revenue from mortgage origination and servicing during the last three months.

Wells said it issued $139 billion in mortgages from July through September, compared with $89 billion in the same period last year. JPMorgan wrote $47 billion in mortgages, compared with $37 billion last year.

There were some signs, though, that the boom isn't as strong as it might seem. The large majority of mortgage lending was driven not by people buying new homes but by owners refinancing mortgages, which is less helpful to the housing market.

Still, the numbers were eye-catching.

At Wells Fargo, mortgage business revenue rose 55% to $2.8 billion during the third quarter from $1.8 billion in the year-earlier period. The San Francisco bank posted an overall profit of $3.94 billion, which easily surpassed Wall Street projections.

Economists have been predicting that any lift in the housing market could boost the broader economy. When homeowners have more equity in their homes or gain extra cash from a refinancing, it tends to free up more money — and that boosts consumer spending.

The top executives of JPMorgan and Wells Fargo said housing still has room to recover further.

Source: latimes.com

Do you want to work with a Realtor who never fails to keep his clients updated about Real Estate trends? Call me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.