Have you been looking at purchasing new construction? A new house can be extremely desirable-you’re the first to live in the house and everything is new. That said, it’s up to you to make a lot of decisions about this new home. If you make the right decisions, you can have a wonderful house for you and your family that may have great resale value down the road.

1. Location, Location, Location. Location is one thing you have to get right the first time. Once you buy it, you really can’t relocate the home. Make confident that you’re in a neighborhood where you want to live and which will give you resale opportunities down the road. While nobody’s resources are unlimited, you can want to consider a slightly nicer area over a larger home to place yourself in a better and more desirable community. This can not only help you today at 10 or 20 years from now when you look to resell.

2. Decide What You may Afford. Work with a qualified mortgage professional to assist you assess your budget and spending capabilities. You may decide to work with a mortgage broker yet; you can be able to work with your local bank to help assess your needs even before you’re ready to move forward. Ultimately, it’s not what you pay for the house-it’s what you may afford and monthly payments between the mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance and living expenses. Your credit score, income and down payment have a huge result on these numbers. For example, new construction in Commack New York will cost between $1 million and $1.1 million. The amount of monthly payments will vary wildly depending on the down payment and credit capacity of the borrower.

3. Look at the Experience of the Builder. Does the builder do developments one home at a time? Does the builder have decades of experience or is this one of his or her first projects? While a solo builder may be slightly cheaper, you get what you pay for. That builder can be out of business in six months or unable to finish the house in the time allowed. New houses should come with warranties, and if the builder is not a random two years from now, who do you turn to? An experienced builder who works on multiple homes will have bigger crews and should be able to work at a steadier pace. For the solo builder, construction will stop if he is waiting for a painter or electrician, whereas a larger builder can have more crew members available.

4. What features you want in your house ? Look at what’s selling well in the market. If most houses have central air conditioning and a finished basement and the homes you are considering buying do not, it can be a bargain today, but will be hard to resell in the future. We’re not saying that you need every bell and whistle that is of no interest to you, but as you choose a new construction, be sure it has the “essentials.”

5. Look at the property. Is it a big enough piece for you to live with? Just like the location, you can’t change the size and shape of your property. True, you may landscape and grade it, but that doesn’t fix the basic size and shape constraints. One acre of property is wonderful, but if 80% of the house is on a heavily wooded slope that is unusable, you are really left with 2/10 of an acre. The more usable space you have, the greater benefit you can get from it and the easier it should be to resell.

Keep these tips in mind as you start to look at new construction, and you should be able to narrow choices to one which will suit your needs for long-term and help you down the road when the time comes to sell.

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In its last act as a semi-independent company, Fannie Mae altered mortgage guidelines for real estate investors last Friday. It was Fannie’s 22nd update this year.

There are several parts to the new guidelines. Part one involves number of properties owned by one person. Formerly, one person could own 10 properties. However, now, if a person applies for a mortgage loan, Fannie Mae will not grant the loan for second homes or investment properties if the applicant already has loans on more than 4 properties.

This limit can be avoided if the properties have the loans in the name of a corporation, and the property owner is the single owner of the corporation. If the properties are held in such a manner, Fannie Mae won’t count them as part of limited properties.

Investors, therefore, should consider moving their properties into a corporate structure to avoid triggering Fannie Mae’s 4-property limit. Investors often take this step for liability and taxation reasons, but it’s now a good idea for mortgage approval reasons, too.

The second part of the guideline change cannot be so easily avoided. Fannie Mae is assessing new, loan-to-value based loan fees on all investment property mortgages.

Loan-to-value less than 75 percent : 1.75% loan fee Loan-to-value 75.01-80.00 percent : 3.00% loan fee Loan-to-value 80.01-90.00 percent : 3.75% loan fee

These fees, along with other risk fees assessed by Fannie Mae are mandated to be paid by the buyer. The other risk fees are a minimum of % for investors.

Our government hasn’t, since the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac takeover, indicated whether or not mortgage guidelines will be altered. This would be positive for investors because, as we know, low mortgage rates won’t help much if those who want to invest in real estate can ‘t qualify for a loan .

Consider incorporating your properties. Also, if you are considering trying to mortgage one or more investment properties, it may smart and and more cost effective for you to buy over the near term

Technorati Tags: down payment assistance, economy, fha, finance, home buying, money, mortgages, no money down mortgage, Real Estate, refinance, short sales, zero down mortgage

If you happen to be someone that is thinking about applying for a home equity loan, then it is vital that you understand everything that is behind on before signing your name on that document. If you fall behind paying off your loan, the majority of lenders will sell off your home for the amount of money that you owed on your property.

This is why it is so important that you realize what you are doing when applying for a home equity loan, as if you cannot repay the lender back the money, you will lose your most valuable asset that you have, your home. So when you are taking money out for whatever reason, make sure that it is a very good reason.

Since home equity loans are for a large amount of money, usually about half the value of your home, lenders will spread the repayments out anywhere from 15 to 30 years depending on how much you borrowed.

First, the lenders make their money with interest, and then apply the remaining monthly installment toward the loan; thus it will most likely take every bit of the time of the term to repay the debt.

As soon as you take out the home equity loan, you will repay capital and in the agreement, you will agree to pay the interest on the capital. Thus, you are paying in one monthly installment for interest and capital. Few mortgage lenders permit repayments of interest only, however, these kinds of loans can cause you to lose your home over time, since once you start paying the principle or capital you may have changes in your financial situation.

There are 2 different kind of agreements when it comes to the interest only equity mortgages in most cases. One of these agreements will be for the capital payments while the other one will be for interest payments.

Therefore, you should research and think carefully before deciding on equity loans. If you select the wrong interest payments, you may find yourself paying off interest only for years before you ever start cracking the principal amount.

Finally, there are various equity loans available; however, if you are in good standings with your current loan, then you may want to reconsider equity loans for re-mortgaging.

Technorati Tags: Florida equity loans, home equity, home equity line of credit, home loans, loans, property, Real Estate, refinance, Refinancing

Blog Marketing is now the center of magnetism for many real estate investors. Blog creation can be bottomed on two major factors. One is for personal feature and the second one is the professional feature. Blogging has gained huge fame among people as a style to get in touch with people worldwide. It is true that when a blog is created for professional factor it drags more public reply and the real estate business receives an important hype in the terms of money.

Creating a blog is absolutely free while creating a website requires money and knowledge of some applications like HTML, Php, Java and others. While creating a website you must have knowledge regarding web designing and web development. If you have knowledge about these applications then its well and good but if not then blogging can be a nice idea. Blogs are really easy to upload and there is no requirement of web hosting provider. But if you have future plans to transfer your blog to a website then some of the best blogsites provides you with this opportunity.

Having a blog for online marketing is the best and it is benefiting the Real Estate world. Real estate agents are now becoming quite aware with the advantages of blog. For this cause Real Estate Blog Marketing has real output in terms of money, sales and traffic in a little span of time.

Through blogging real estate professionals have drawn significant result. For such reason blogging as a trend has grown like anything among real estate investors. Real estate blog marketing is an affordable yet effective online business tool that allows the real estate agents to draw solid business success.

So, you need to make your blog different from others so that it can draw maximum number of web traffic’s attention. As a real estate investor you are well acquainted with the ongoing tremendous competition in the real estate market. Therefore, making a blog that can be noticeable from the rest is the most important aspect that you need to look for. Also your blog needs to be optimized as per the requirements of search engines. Achieving a high rank in a major search engine like Google can bring you good amount of web traffic as well as popularity on the Internet.

There are several ways through which you can make your real estate blog marketing successful. If you are not absolutely ready to add posts for your blogs on a regular basis then starting a real estate blog may not become fruitful for you. You need to spend some time on a regular basis to add new posts and updates with your real estate blog. If you can add several posts for your blog in a week then its always better from both the readers and search engine point of view.

If you will go for expert’s suggestion then one post in a week can bring you tremendous success with your real estate blog marketing. If you will add more posts then readers will make more number of comments for your blog. This is also a good move with your real estate blog through which many people will came to know about your real estate business.

Optimization of a blog can also bring you several inbound links, which is highly essential from search engines like Google point of view. There are several ways to make your real estate blog marketing successful. You need to make your blog informative and updated by posting contents on a regular basis. If you are not ready to add posts for your blog on a regular basis then real estate blog marketing is not for you.

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Foreclosures over the last 2-3 years have been a major issue for most states in the US. While California, Nevada, and some others have been topping the foreclosures by state charts for the highest numbers, others have maintained a low profile. With the start of the year 2009 and the promise of a new government, hopes had been high. However, whether the Obama government has been successful in doing anything concrete or not would only be seen after a couple of quarters. But we can definitely figure out if the new government’s efforts are headed in the right direction or not.

This is what the US foreclosure market report for Q1 of the current year tells:

The total number of foreclosure filings, which is a collective figure of all default notices, notices for auction sale, as well as bank repossessions, amounted to 803,489. This Q1 figure is 9% more than Q4 2008 and 24% increase from quarter one of 2008.

During quarter 1 of 2009, one out of every 159 American houses filed for foreclosure!

As recently as March 2009, the total number of foreclosure filings amounted to 341,180 properties. This amount is a 17% rise from Feb 2009 and 46% rise from the same time previous year. The figures for Q1 and March 2009 have been the highest for both monthly and quarterly data since January 2005, despite the fact that there has been a slowdown in the Bank Repos (REOs). The Bank repo rate has gone down by 13% from Q4 2008 and 3% from February 2009.

Hope can’t be upped just yet. The month of March this year has witnessed a very high amount of foreclosure activity, as more than 12% households from the highest number recorded up to now filed for foreclosure. What makes this situation worse is that the foreclosure action was seen in new loans, suggesting that lenders were waiting to foreclose properties due to delays on part of the government. Additionally, the fall in REO activity is mainly due to processing delays and not because of the implementation of foreclosure prevention schemes, if any at all.

If foreclosure experts are to be believed foreclosures by state numbers are only going to increase. Moreover, the number of bank repossessions are going to increase as moratoria has been removed now.

However, the silver lining to these grey clouds of foreclosure has come in the form of increasing demand, especially in the hard-hit states. More and more buyers are now keen to invest in bank owned foreclosures as these offer excellent bargain opportunities. With increasing foreclosure inventory due to rising numbers of foreclosures by state, the demand from first time homebuyers and genuine investors is likely to offset this trend.

Technorati Tags: cheap foreclosure homes, foreclosure list, foreclosure listings, foreclosures by state, home foreclosures, home foreclosures by state, homes in foreclosure, house foreclosures by state, Real Estate, real estate foreclosures

Social bookmarking websites have become very famous in recent times. They are necessary and successful for building networks and even businesses. Real estate professionals can use these sites to promote real estate business online. You should know about the most excellent sites in this respect. The famous three social bookmarking sites are Digg, Stumble upon, and Delicious.

Delicious has set a standard by which all other social bookmarking websites are now measured. Delicious started operating in 2003 and has rich content and a strong and active community. Its content is not very theoretical. Its interface is rather straightforward and suitable to use. It is very popular among the users due to its easy operation.

Delicious, a social bookmarking site lets you save all the bookmarks and perform a search by using the suitable keywords. You can also look for freshly added and admired websites that are suggested by other users. You can add friends and even browse their individual bookmarks. The site is easy to use and sign up and has a simple design.

Following Delicious is Stumble Upon, another leading social bookmarking site. Its functioning style is unique and one of its kind. You can click on the sign that shows the “thumbs up” sign that will appear in your toolbar if you like a particular page while browsing the internet and the “thumbs down” option if you dislike a particular page. You can simply click a toolbar and voice out your opinions on such a social bookmarking site and rate only the pages on which you carry a strong opinion.

Similarly, if do not appreciate some page, you can simply hit the button “thumbs down”. You are not expected to rate all the pages, only the ones you have strong opinions about. Clicking a toolbar and giving your feedback can be a simple and convenient method to express your opinions on such a social bookmarking site.

Another social bookmarking site, StumbleUpon is very useful and you can set your individual preferences. It can then select a group of users who have preferences similar to yours. Now you can set “stumble” to pages which are common with users whose preferences match with you. There is no requirement to share your own votes with others. However, by opting-in, you can help others in finding attractive sites. This site can be a good choice if you want much more than just storing your bookmarks.

Following these two is Digg, another popular social bookmarking site. It makes the process of tagging simple and is easy to use. After registering you can use the numerous facilities that they offer like, adding buttons to your own web browser or add any story or article. For this all you need to do is mention the URL, post a little comment on it and a title that describes it well. If your story gets enough appreciation, it can carve its way to the home page and gain some publicity.

As a social bookmarking site, Digg also allows you to add videos, various podcasts and even collaborate on the editing efforts of other users by digging their articles. You can also subscribe to the submitted articles of other users via RSS or email. You can digg the stories you appreciate. If you do not appreciate some writing, you can recommend that it gets “buried”. Therefore, with social bookmarking sites, you can establish your real estate business online.

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If you’ve ever thought about purchasing new construction on Long Island, then now is the time for you to be searching. With the real estate market where it is, it is more affordable than ever to buy new construction. On Long Island, your options are limited. The amount of free real estate available in this once farmland space, isbasically fully developed. Many communities have instituted limitations on construction, preserving the remaining farmland and open space.

However, new construction is still available and could be perfect for the new homeowner. If you’ve been searching at real estate, and have considered new construction, you should consider this:

1. Older homes, while “charming” on the outside, are, in fact, old homes. Over time they age. Many homes in the40 to75-year-old range have become “knock downs”purchased by builders to put up new housing. If you’re buying an older home, it may cost you more in the long run with maintenance and repairs.

2. New construction gives you more freedom. Very few people ever find the “perfect home” of their dreams. Usually, they need to paint, wallpaper, change carpeting, remove walls, rip-out bathrooms and kitchens and a list of other tasks that become very costly. That older houses that looked like a bargain becomes very costly once you’ve completed the repairs and alterations you want.

3. With new construction, you do not have to live through renovations. Kitchen remodeling, expansions and changes to your house can take months-even years. All the while, you are living in a construction zone.

4. You also have the additional expense of doing these upgrades, which must be paid on top of the asking price of the house. Many families have to save for many years to have the available cash for upgrades. Others may try to take second mortgages or home-equity loans, however this may prove unsuccessful-especially with more rigid lending requirements.

You could want to borrow an additional $175,000, but your home is not worth an additional $150,000 today. Therefore, you lack the collateral to justify that home equity loan. In comparison, new construction, even if slightly more costly, has the full value in the home already, which is what mortgage companies want to see.

5. When selecting real estate, and evaluating existing houses, you have very few options. The real estate is “as is”-meaning the grass is what it is, the plantings are what they are, and the yard is what it is. Generally, with new construction, it is usually newly landscaped or in natural form so that you can landscape as you want (generally, new construction without landscaping is less expensive than landscaped). With new construction, you are buying gorgeous new property or freshly graded land that is set for landscaping.

When you’re ready to buy new construction, be sure to keep all of these factors in mind. As you review the cost of the home, consider the real costs beyond the purchase price. Many families discover far better values with the newly built houses vs. a less expensive existing house that needs renovations. Even if you are handy, a improvement are not free. You also need to come up with the cash to pay for those renovations (whereas with new construction, those expenses are built into the asking price and are covered by the mortgage).

Technorati Tags: buy home, buy house, first time home, first time home buyer, home buyers, homebuyer, new home, purchase home, purchase house, Real Estate

You want to make most of the foreclosure opportunity, but you don’t know how to do it? Don’t worry, in this blog we are going to discuss three of the best way to find some excellent foreclosures using foreclosure listings.

Let’s get started.

Networking: Some of the best foreclosure properties are worth the effort. However, you need to network your way through. Once you are privy to the insider information on the best foreclosures, you’ll be able to invest in foreclosed properties that most other people may not even know about!

So how do you network? Start by contacting some of the most experienced real estate agents in your area. Convince them that you are a serious customer and want to establish a long-term relationship. Since these agents have access to the latest news, current foreclosure listings and developments, when you network with them you’ll be in the ‘thick of action.”

Do It Yourself: A killer technique for sure. It may sounds a bit strange, but it yields excellent results. All you need to do is drive around your area and keep an eye out for ‘For Sale’ signs on homes. Stay alert for signs like ‘foreclosure,’ ‘bank-owned foreclosure’ or ‘bank repo.’ Jot down the contact information and once you get home, call them up. Now here’s the important part. Once you have collected information on the foreclosed property, also ask about any ‘red hot’ foreclosures in that area. Believe me when I say, agents will have foreclosure lists with the latest and best foreclosures with them! Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

Bank Websites: This is one of the best ways to find foreclosures. Not only will you find foreclosure lists on various bank websites but you will also be able to get the latest information regarding foreclosures. Some of these bank websites are for Bank of America, Chase Mortgage, US Bank.

Well there is another technique that helps you find the best foreclosure listings out there. It’s called, “making others work for you!” These techniques have been derived based on practical experience and established results. Once you have managed to practice these 3 techniques to find the best foreclosure listings for some time, you can simply relax and let others do the hard work for you!

Technorati Tags: bank foreclosures, foreclosed homes, foreclosed properties, foreclosure homes, foreclosure listings, foreclosure lists, foreclosures for sale, homes for sale, homes in foreclosure, Real Estate

Homeowners today are finding that do-it-yourself home improvement provides satisfaction. Not only do they get to enjoy the cosmetic improvement, which beautifies their surroundings, they also benefit from saving a lot of money from doing the jobs themselves. As you may or may not know, hiring contractors to do the work can be very expensive.

Besides wanting to change something in a room and make it more aesthetically pleasing, many people are doing this in order to increase the value of their home. Depending on the type and quality of home improvement, it can really have an impact on the sale price of your home.

If you are a little bit of a handyman or handywoman, there are a multitude of home improvement projects that you can take on. Updating your kitchen in small ways can earn you big bucks. For example, refinishing your kitchen cupboards with a fresh coat of paint or stain and new hardware can make your kitchen look like new.

Installing tiles on the floor or on the backsplash in the kitchen is another renovation that most people can handle, surprisingly. It isn’t as difficult as it seems, as long as you have the tools and equipment required. In this case, the major and most important tool would be the tile cutting machine. You don’t even have to buy it, as they can be rented from any hardware store.

The easiest type of home improvement that anyone can do is to paint. Simply painting your home can increase your chance to sell it faster and bring you the best return on investment. The only catch here is doing a very good job with the paintbrush and the roller. Some plastering may have to be done to repair some imperfections on the walls, which will then have to be sanded smooth. A good primer is always key to getting the best results in painting. Not only will it look better, but it will also be more economical as you will have to use less paint, which is more expensive than primer.

If you are trying to tackle anything in terms of plumbing or electrical work, then you should let professionals do these jobs as they are not only challenging but can be quite dangerous.

Whatever the case, almost any type of home improvement, be it necessary for proper maintenance or cosmetic, will make your house more sellable and more often than not, can provide more money to you. If you are new at this, however, try to start with smaller jobs before tackling the very large and difficult ones. This way, you’ll see if you are capable of completing a simple project, whereby if you can’t then you know that you should not be engaging in any more complex and time-consuming projects.

Technorati Tags: decorating, diy, home, home improvement, house, kitchen, plastering, Real Estate, renovation

Putting your home on the real estate market won’t get you a sale. You can get lucky sometimes, but odds are you will have to do a little work in order to get your home into the hands of a new home owner. Some methods can even raise the price you can ask for the property- increasing your profit!

There is nothing worse than going to a home, liking what you see, and then doing an inspection and finding something wrong. After you do find a problem, odds are you won’t trust the seller. Put yourself in this situation, and realize that as soon as you cover up a problem and it’s found, you lost a buyer. Instead fix any problems with your home, and be sure to be honest of the ones still present.

Painting is the easiest way to change how a room looks and feels, and for very little money. Just be positive that you take the time to tape off anything you don’t want paint on, and cover any furniture or carpet in the room before starting. You don’t want to cause more harm than good, so do take your time. Haste can be convenient, but patience is mandatory!

If you can make your home feel expensive, you can can either charge more or get a quick sale at your currently listed price. The best way to show luxury is with high class furniture, carpet, art, and appropriate decorations. If you don’t have the money to do so, you can mimic luxury by decorating on a budget. Drapes, covers, and light fixtures are inexpensive options.

First impressions can be everything when you are trying to sell a home. All of the senses can be targeted the first second they step in the door. You can have a warm candle glowing in the background for light and smell, or have a bit of jazz music in the background at a low volume. Also make sure the air is appropriate for your climate, and make sure it isn’t too humid or uncomfortable.

Buying and selling real estate takes a lot of effort- which is why we have real estate brokers. Consider contacting one to sell your home for you, as they make a job out of it during time you can’t spare to do so. Their experiences are also probably more impressive than your own- and they can get a sale quicker than you would be able to without the extra aid.

In Conclusion

Take note of everything you do in selling your home. There is little doubt you will be going through the process again at some point in your life as a home owner. The good news is it gets easier as you gain more experience!

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