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Sellers:
If You Want It,
Ask For It!
There's
nothing more frustrating to a ready,
willing, and seemingly able buyer than to
lose an offer to another buyer ---
especially since the seller was not
specific (down to the letter) about what
he expected to receive.
Sure,
there's the list price; but in today's
fast-paced market, a buyer/ prospect may
offer thousands more than the list price
and STILL not be the lucky buyer who gets
the property!
That's why
sellers should be as specific as possible
with buyers in what they want to receive
and achieve in a
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successful
offer.
Let's tackle the major elements
the seller should be prepared to
address with serious buyers. I
suggest that sellers
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Automatic
Rate Reduction Loans For All
As
interest rates bounce up and down, some savvy
borrowers are enjoying the down side.
A growing number of
automatic rate reduction (ARR) loans -- for both
prime and subprime borrowers -- are allowing
borrowers to cash in on what amounts to an
adjustable rate mortgage in reverse.
ARR loans' interest
rates fall with the market, just as ARMs rise when
the market is up.
With an ARR,
however, once the rate is down it can't go back
up, but it could get lower still.
The "Declining
Rate Loan" from San Diego, CA-based City Line
Mortgage allows borrowers to lower their rate by
as little as 1/4 percent, even after only a single
mortgage payment on a new loan, according to Jim
Riley, City Line's CEO.
Borrowers must have
pristine credit records and an unblemished payment
history.
Fees for the new
rate depend on the locality, but typically include
only the cost to buy title insurance and to file a
new deed of trust -- almost always cheaper than
refinancing costs.
The loans obviously
are a better deal when rates are steadily
declining. In any
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Improve
Your Insurance Before You Improve Your Home
IIf
you have just insured your new home and paid a
year's premiums in advance as required by many
lenders, you may think you can forget about
insurance for a while. But what if you are
planning to remodel your home? Your liabilities
may not be covered under your current policy.
Homeowners spend
approximately $100 billion annually on home
improvements either preparing a home for sale, to
remain in their homes or improving the home after
move-in. But before the first nail is hammered,
you should check with your insurance
representative to make sure your home, the
contractor and the subcontractors have adequate
coverage.
According to the
Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.)
homeowners who wait until an addition or extra
room is completed to increase their coverage are
making a mistake. If the new addition is destroyed
or damaged before insurance coverage has been
increased, the homeowner may be responsible for
the cost of repairing or rebuilding the addition.
The I.I.I. suggests that homeowners contact their
insurance agent before or shortly after work
begins to increase the insurance coverage to cover
rebuilding/replacement costs.
Although it varies
from state to state and among individual
contractors, homeowners need to make certain that
the contractor they have chosen
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Tracking
Trends To Buy, Sell
If
you purchased a home 20 years ago, its value today is
likely triple your original purchase price.
It's also a good bet you
have since refinanced your original 17 percent interest
rate mortgage for one that costs half as much and you've
tapped what could be hundreds of thousands of dollars in
equity to send a kid to college, to take a long vacation,
to refurbish the home or to move up to another home.
Ten years ago, if you
indeed used your equity to move up to a new home, its
value has now doubled, you are enjoying renewed equity
returns and you now should be paying hundreds of dollars
less a month with a refinanced mortgage several interest
rate points cheaper than your original move-up mortgage
with its 10 percent interest rate.
And, according to real
estate investor Robert M. Campbell, determining when to
make those moves over the past two decades should have
been a no-brainer.
Daily
News and Advice
August 1, 2000
Read about the events shaping the
Real Estate market today, find current interest
rates, or browse the extensive library of advice
and how-to articles written by some of the top
experts in Real Estate. Updated each weekday.
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