| The Benefits Of Paradise Home Ownership The decision to purchase a Paradise home is exciting and a major investment for your future. One of the most profitable markets in real estate is rentals, which means that many families are paying to live in a home that isn't their own. In some cases, renting a home is necessary. For all others, the money that would be spent on rent could instead be used to pay a mortgage. In fact, monthly rent payments often exceed that of a typical mortgage payment. One of the greatest benefits of home ownership is putting money into something that you can call your own and knowing that the monthly payments are going toward your home's equity. When you own a home, you will enjoy the freedom of decorating and making any changes that you choose without needing the permission of a landlord or property owner. In addition, you may even be able to use your home's equity to finance some needed improvements and/or repairs. In some cases, these changes may even increase the value of your home. An upgraded kitchen or bathroom, hardwood flooring or an additional room are examples of changes that could result in added value. Another advantage of home ownership is the tax benefits that are available. The interest paid on a home mortgage as well as most property taxes paid are tax deductible. For additional information on deducting mortgage interest and property tax, consult the IRS or a tax professional. In addition to providing yourself and your family with a feeling of stability and permanence, home ownership can also help strengthen your credit profile through timely mortgage payments and a steady financial history. |
Monday, October 3, 2011
The Benefits Of Paradise Home Ownership
Getting Your Paradise Home Ready to Sell
Getting Your Paradise Home Ready to Sell
You would never dream of inviting guests to your house without making certain preparations, so don't invite potential buyers without first making the necessary updates by preparing your Paradise home to sell. If you are like most sellers, you want to get as much as possible for your home and you want to do it as quickly as possible.
Letting Go
After you've lived in a house, it becomes much more than four walls and a ceiling. It's a home and it has a lot of good memories. Your first step to preparing your home to sell is to realize that you will take these memories with you wherever you go, but you won't be taking the house. It can be difficult to let go, but the task will be much easier if you start to think of it as a new beginning rather than an ending.
Cleaning House
An important part of getting your home ready to sell is in staging the decor for potential Paradise buyers. When you stage a home, you create an environment that is free of any personal items, such as photos and/or anything that stands out as being customized for you or your family. When a potential buyer walks through your home, they need to envision their belongings and decor without being distracted by yours. While these items may be special to you, they could possibly prevent the buyer from being able to imagine their own style complimenting the home.
In addition to removing any personal items, make sure that you remove any clutter from the home. A clean home seems larger and more inviting, whereas a lot of stuff lying around could give the impression that the home is too small or cramped for storage. Pack up any knickknacks, remove your children's drawings from the refrigerator and clean up your counter space in both the kitchen and bathrooms.
Staging Your Paradise Home
Now that your house is clean, it's time to put the finishing touches on the staging process. A solid, neutral shade in a tablecloth should be selected for the dining room table. Depending on your decor and wall coloring, a solid white, sand or ivory covering will work well. In the center of the table, a vase with fresh cut flowers (or silk, if you have allergies) will add a nice accent. Did you know that the kitchen and bathroom are two of the main selling points to any home? Keep this in mind when preparing your home for potential Paradise buyers.
The living room should have one focal point, whether it be a fireplace or breathtaking view of the outside world. If you have too many features screaming out at potential buyers, they may feel overwhelmed, so focus on one aspect and make it shine. If you have a mantle, line it with three candles that match your decor in color. Place a large candle in the center with one smaller one on each end, which will be reminiscent of a perfectly matched bookend set. A home with a stunning view should have window dressings that accent the positive, instead of hiding it. If your furniture has a design of any kind, mask it with a solid slipcover to compliment the flooring or wall color. Some homeowners also add a fresh coat of paint to their home, which will bring life back into a fading color. Turn on the lights and open the blinds and draperies to create a bright and inviting environment throughout your home.
Where To Store Your Stuff
Now that you know how important it is to remove any clutter and oversized or bulky furniture, you need to know where to put it. If you already have a new home, you can simply move it there. Otherwise, you can put it into storage until you are ready to move. It's important to leave some essentials in your former home for potential buyers to see, such as a dining room table, a sofa and chairs, bed, etc. Any additional furnishings that seem to interrupt the flow of your home, or make it feel cramped, should be removed. You do not want potential buyers to feel as though the house is too small.
Details, Details, Details . . .
As a final strategy to prepare your Paradise home to sell, make sure that you have any carpet stains removed, windows cleaned, fresh linens placed in the bedrooms and bathrooms, etc. You would be surprised how many people pay attention to even the smallest of details, so be sure to fix any small repairs that could be a turnoff for buyers. Last but not least, make sure your home looks just as good on the outside as it does on the inside. This means that your lawn should be cared for, flower beds must be maintained and any outdoor clutter must be removed.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Why Real Estate Assessments Matter
The real estate assessment letter you filed away unopened is the driving force behind how much you pay in property taxes.
If you're suspicious that your property taxes are too high, you can check for errors by calculating the value of your property tax.
You might not think too hard about your real estate assessment, the dollar value the local government puts on your house and land. You should. The assessment determines how much you shell out on property taxes.
If you have a mortgage, your home lender is probably paying your property taxes out of an escrow account. Odds are you don’t even know how much gets collected. Devote an hour of your time to becoming better informed. Once you understand your real estate assessment, you’ll understand your property tax bill—and, more importantly, whether you’re paying the right amount.
Homeowners and property taxes
Your local government needs every dime it can collect to pay for all of the services you expect as a resident: schools, libraries, hospitals, and so on. A healthy chunk of that revenue is raised from homeowners via property taxes. In normal times real estate values climb steadily, allowing local governments to take in a little more every year to keep up with inflation and perhaps even add a few services. Property tax bills usually come due once or twice a year.
The situation gets stickier when real estate values are in decline. If that occurs, local governments generate less revenue from property taxes, meaning the tax rate needs to go up, the money needs to come from somewhere else, or spending on services needs to go down. According to a 2009 survey conducted by the National Association of Counties, 62% of counties polled say declining property taxes are a major source of revenue shortfalls. Forty-two percent of counties have cut services, and 11% have raised property taxes.
Assess your real estate assessment
No matter if property values are rising, falling, or stagnant, you need to understand how you’re being taxed. Everything starts with your real estate assessment letter, which reveals what your property is judged by the local government to be worth. The letter will differ, depending where you live, but most will have a legal description of your house and separate values for the land and the structure. Add those two numbers together to get your home’s assessed value.
Some local governments will appraise your home every year, others every two or more years. Tax assessors generally use one of two methods to come up with an assessment value for your home. The most common relies on looking at recent sales of comparable homes. Keep in mind that “recent” is a relative term. To come up with a real estate assessment, assessors may be looking at sales that occurred as long as 18 months prior. Alternatively, especially in the absence of recent sales data, assessors will calculate the cost to rebuild your home, and add that to the estimated worth of your land to come up with a dollar amount.
Break out the calculator
How much you pay in property taxes is based on your real estate assessment. Put simply, your home’s assessed value is multiplied by the local tax rate to come up with a figure. However, it can become more complicated if there are multiple taxing authorities where you live—a city and a county, for example—or if there are special one-time assessments. Qualifying for property tax exemptions, perhaps due to age or disability, will also alter the formula. Some local governments offer online calculators on their websites, or call the tax assessor’s office for help.
If you want to run the numbers for yourself, don’t be intimidated by how your tax rate is expressed. Sometimes it’ll take the form of a percentage, say 1.5%, or perhaps a decimal, 0.015. Both equal the same thing. So the owner of a home that’s assessed at $100,000 would owe $1,500 a year in property taxes. Other times it’ll be expressed as an amount per $100 or $1,000 of home value. In the case of a 1.5% tax rate that would mean $1.50 per $100 or $15 per $1,000. Regardless, the math doesn’t change: Multiply $100,000 by 0.015.
Knowledge is power—and savings
Assessors have a lot of ground to cover. Many rely on valuation formulas that assess whole streets or neighborhoods. Most haven’t seen your house in person, so don’t wait for a knock on your door from an assessor hoping to take a look around. That’s why you need to read your real estate assessment letter carefully, look for errors, and challenge your assessment if it seems too high.
If you find a way to reduce your real estate assessment, whether by contesting it or qualifying for an exemption, the savings can add up. The median annual property tax paid in the U.S. in 2008 was $1,897, or 0.96% of the median home value of $197,600. Trimming just 15% off the median value would result in savings of about $285. Of course, if your home value and local tax rate are higher, then you’re looking at even greater savings.
This article provides general information about tax laws and consequences, but is not intended to be relied upon by readers as tax or legal advice applicable to particular transactions or circumstances. Readers should consult a tax professional for such advice, and are reminded that tax laws may vary by jurisdiction.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
5 Inexpensive Home Updates to Complete before Listing Your Home
5 Inexpensive Home Updates to Complete before Listing Your Home
1.) Update your old garage door(s). Garage doors seem like a non-issue, but many times they make up a significant percentage of the front of a home. Because of this, they are one of the first things that buyers notice when they pull in the drive way. Replacing, or even just painting, these central fixtures will do wonders when it comes to instantly impressing perspective buyers and standing apart from your competition. The market has changed drastically since many of us purchased our homes here in town. I frequently hear buyers say that they have taken a house off their list because of the lack of curb appeal. This issue is especially important to people on busier streets, corner lots, or near a neighborhood eyesore.
2.) Replace old windows. Outdated windows age a home significantly, and you can often upgrade standard windows to vinyl for a reasonable $300 per window. The average home has 8 windows, so this upgrade doesn’t cost nearly as much as you might think and it will make a huge difference to the value perceived by prospective buyers. Key point to remember is that when buyers view a home they love, if they see it has older windows, they consider it a time consuming and costly headache. First time buyers have never replaced windows and often dramatically overestimate the cost to cure this issue. By replacing pre-listing you an actually save money. A well priced, move-in condition home will sell for far more than one with windows in need of repair.
3.) Assess your floors. If you have hardwood flooring, it’s worth the investment to have them refinished considering buyers put an extremely high value on them; you’ll get the most bang for your buck if they are refurbished. Carpets should be shampooed and replaced if they are stained or look worn. You don’t need to spend large amounts of money on the highest grade or most modern name but something inexpensive and neutral will certainly bring you a return on the investment. Even the smell of new carpet will make buyers set your home apart from the comparables.
4.) Paint the trim. If you can’t afford the daunting task of painting your entire house, painting just the trim will still make a big difference when it comes to curb appeal. Painting the whole house can be expensive, time consuming, and delayed by weather conditions; painting just the trim will give your home a fresher look. Interior trim is equally as important.
5.) Update fixtures. Keep an eye out for sales at home improvement stores and replace outdated lighting, plumbing and hardware fixtures. Simple replacing lighting fixtures and knobs in the bathroom or kitchen can update the entire look of the room. You can find many modern brand name fixtures online on contractor supply websites by just searching for terms like sale faucets, sale plumbing fixtures etc.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Make Your House FHA-Loan Friendly
Make Your House FHA-Loan Friendly
Know the basics of FHA loan rules and you stand a better chance of selling your house or condo.
Most buyers will expect a home inspection, including a form outlining what the inspection revealed.
Make your house FHA-friendly, and it will appeal to more homebuyers. Why? Because the Federal Housing Administration is insuring the mortgage loans used by about 30% of today’s homebuyers.
If your house passes the FHA rules, it will appeal to buyers who plan to use an FHA-insured mortgage. If your house doesn’t qualify for an FHA loan, you’re cutting out 30% of potential buyers.
FHA is especially important to first-time homebuyers and those with small down payments because it allows borrowers with good credit to make a down payment as low as 3.5% of the purchase price.
Here’s how to make your home appealing to FHA borrowers:
Know the FHA loan limits in your area
Start by checking to see if your home’s listed price falls within FHA lending limits for your area. FHA mortgage limits vary a lot. In San Francisco, FHA will insure a mortgage of up to $729,750 on a single-family home. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the loan limit is $271,050.
Home inspections
Most buyers will ask for a home inspection, whether or not they’re using an FHA loan to buy the home. You must give FHA buyers a form explaining what home inspections can reveal, and how inspections differ from appraisals.
How much do you have to repair?
If the home inspection reveals problems, FHA will not give the okay to buy the home until you repair serious defects like roof leaks, mold, structural damage, and pre-1978 interior or exterior paint that could contain lead.
Dealing with FHA appraisers
Help the lender’s appraiser by providing easy access to attics and crawl spaces, which usually must be photographed.
Your buyer can hire his own appraiser to evaluate your home. But FHA only relies on reports by its approved appraisers. If the two appraisals conflict, the FHA appraisal preempts the buyer’s appraisal.
Help with FHA closing costs
Most FHA buyers need help with closing costs, says mortgage banker Susan Herman of First Equity Mortgage Bankers in Miami. So a prime way to make your house FHA-friendly is to help with those costs.
FHA currently allows sellers to pay up to 6% of the sales price to help cover closing costs, but is considering lowering that limit to 3% in the fall of 2010.
If you’re selling a condo
FHA also has to approve your condo before a buyer uses an FHA loan to purchase your unit. Be sure your condo is FHA-approved for mortgages. The list has been updated, so if your association was approved a year ago, check again to make sure it’s still on the approved list.
FHA generally won’t insure loans in condo associations if more than 15% percent of the unit owners are late on association fees. Ask your property manager or board of directors for your association’s delinquency rate.
Other rules cover insurances, cash reserves and how many units are owner-occupied and the types of condos that can be purchased with an FHA mortgage.
FHA sometimes issues waivers for healthy condominiums that don’t meet the regular rules. If your condo isn’t FHA-approved, it doesn’t necessarily have to meet every single rule to gain approval. Ask your REALTOR® to consult with local lenders about getting an FHA waiver for your condo if it doesn’t meet all the requirements.
FHA also limits its mortgage exposure in homeowners associations. With some limited exceptions, no more than 50% of the units in an association can be FHA-insured.
Related articles
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Town of Paradise First-Time Homebuyers Program for Paradise, CA
Town of Paradise First-Time Homebuyers Program for Paradise, CA
Tammy Vertrees, Paradise California Realtor®
The Town of Paradise offers a deferred, low-interest loan to eligible first-time homebuyers based on Federal 2011 
The first step of the process is to select a lender from the list of approved Certified Lenders. The lender will pre-qualify you for a loan and determine the amount you can afford on a house. The second step is to select a Paradise CA realtor from the Certified Realtors list to help you select a Paradise home. The Town of Paradise offers free First Time Homebuyer Workshops through the Community Housing and Credit Counseling program.
Please contact me to see if this program will work for you! 530-413-8383
town-paradise-firsttime-homebuyers-program
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Time to Start Work on Your Paradise Fall Garden
Related articles:Mid- to late-summer is the ideal time to start a fall garden, or a “second season” crop of your favorite cool-season vegetables and flowers.
What to grow. Even where winters are cold and the ground freezes hard, many vegetables can still be grown to maturity before first frost. For edibles, try beets, cilantro, lettuce, radish, spinach, kale, peas, salad greens, Swiss chard, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, onions, leeks, parsley and arugula. When choosing varieties, select ones that are fast-maturing to insure a harvest before cold weather hits.
Seeds of annual flowers that thrive in cool weather can also be sown now for fall and spring bloom, including alyssum, candytuft, calendula, stock and sweet peas.
When to start. The key to growing vegetables for fall harvest is timing. Vegetables grown in this season need about 14 extra days to mature compared with spring-seeded crops due to fall’s shorter days, cooling soil, and less intense sunshine. When deciding the date to start your veggies, first determine your average first frost date. Then look at the seed packet for days to maturity. Add 14 days to that number, then use that figure to calculate back to seed-starting date.
Growing on. Sowing seeds or setting out transplants in mid-summer can be more stressful to young plants than seeding during cooler, often wetter spring weather. Keep the soil moist as seeds are germinating.
Protect young seedlings with shade cloth or plant them near taller plants, such as corn or tomatoes to provide shade from the hot afternoon sun. Another option is to start seeds in containers in a spot with bright light and then transplant young seedlings into the garden. This works well for crops like lettuce and spinach, whose seeds don’t germinate as well when soil temperatures are high.
Fall harvest. With a little effort in late summer, you’ll eat well in fall because crops such as kale, lettuce, spinach, and broccoli thrive in the lower temperatures.
Real Estate for Today’s Magalia and Paradise California Home Sellers and Home Buyers
For information on Paradise, Magalia, Chico, California and surrounding areas, contact me directly at 530-413-8383.
Real Estate Consultant
Coldwell Banker Ponderosa Real Estate
530-413-8383
www.TammyVertrees.com
