Enjoy your weekend!

Can A Renter Really Afford To Buy?

The real question is whether renters can afford not to buy. The tax savings alone make the purchase of a home a wise financial decision..

Pick A Loan

To take advantage of the financial benefits of homeownership, renters must first find out how much buying power they have. We can help. Call us for information about the whole range of mortgage options now available, including low- and no-down-payment loans, and programs that allow buyers wrap home-improvement costs and closing costs into the mortgage.

Plan Ahead

Although some lenders allow buyers to use up to 41% of monthly income to purchase a house, beware of becoming "house rich and cash poor." Be sure to budget for homeownership costs beyond the mortgage, including expenses for:

moving
decorating and furnishing
homeowners insurance
property taxes
homeowners association fees (if any)
utilities-power, water, sewer, cable, trash pick-up
yard tools, supplies and general upkeep
home repairs, supplies, cleaning and upgrades.

Today, homeownership is a wonderful dream-come-true for more people than ever before. Let us help turn those dreams into a home to be proud of.

This Saturday and Sunday, May 5th and 6th, is the Spring Lancaster Art Walk in downtown Lancaster. Take a walk through downtown Lancaster and stop in at many of the local art galleries, see the variety of art pieces, meet some of the artists, and more! Find all the details at lancasterartwalk.org.

The average sale price for March 2012 was $169,403, an increase of 3.2 percent from the March 2011 price tag of $164,078. For the first quarter of 2012, the average sale price was $172,382, a 1.6 percent increase from the $169,644 average sale price for the first quarter of 2011.

For March, there was a 3.3 percent increase from the 791 new listings in 2011 to the 817 new listings in 2012. For the first quarter, new listings increased 8.2 percent from 1,998 in 2011 to 2,161 in 2012. The five-year average of new listings for the first quarter is 2,108.

Pending sales, homes that went under contract in the month of March, increased 18.6 percent from 409 in 2011 to 485 in 2012. Over 43.4 percent of homes that sold in March were on the market 60 days or less.

These stats show steady increase in all areas of the local real estate market throughout the first quarter of this year. With interest rates remaining low and the inventory of available homes remaining high, now is a great time to buy and many people are taking advantage of the opportunity.

Also happening this weekend, The Edge of Austism Walk and Festival is taking place Saturday, April 28th at Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center to raise awareness and provide information about Autism. You can choose from a variety of walk options as well as enjoy various crafts, balloon art, and much more! Click here to get all of the specifics.

There are programmable thermostats available at home improvement stores that can make the adjustments for specific times during the day and specific days of the week. They'll allow you to override the setting when needed without tampering with the programming. They'll even remind you to change your filter.

A recent development is the Wi-Fi enabled thermostat that allows adjustments from any Internet connection such as computer or Smartphone. Imagine how convenient it can be to change your temperature from the car before you get home.

Reasonably priced under $100 for most models, it makes it easy to recapture the cost of the thermostat quickly. Most of the thermostats are designed for do-it-yourselfers; however, you can always have a heating and cooling professional install it for you.

1. Check your credit score. Many people are not aware of what their credit score is at, but it plays an important role in factoring your eligibility for a mortgage. Find out what your score is. And if there are areas that need improvement on your credit report – do what is necessary to make those areas better.
2. Start saving - now! There are a lot of different loan programs out there, and the amount of money you may need to put down on a home will differ depending on loan program and price of the home. Regardless, it’s always a good idea to have as much saved as possible.
3. Picture the type of home you’d like to have. Consider what you need in a home. As someone who has never owned a home before, you may not initially know exactly what you’re looking for. Take some time to think about your must-haves and narrow down a few things that are most important to you. Perhaps it’s a great school district, or 3 bedrooms, or a 2-car garage. It’s different for everyone.
4. Work with an experienced real estate agent. You want someone representing you who has had a lot of experience and can guide you through the transaction. Someone who can protect your interests and help you along the way. Having an experienced agent will make the process much smoother.
5. Get preapproved. Before you start looking at homes, find a reputable mortgage lender and get preapproved. It’s a simple process where you give the mortgage person your basic income, asset, and debt information and after some review they tell you a base of what you can afford. This is important to know before you start looking at homes so that you are not falling in love with homes that you’ll never be able to afford, which can lead to you getting easily discouraged.

For the family - Disney on Ice is at the Giant Center in Hershey this weekend! There is one showing tonight,  3 shows on Saturday, and 2 shows Sunday.  Join Mickey, Minnie, and friends as they take you on ride through many of your Disney favorites. Find event details here!

A short sale is when the owner of a home owes more on the home than the home can sell for. Most times people in this situation are behind on their mortgage payments due to some financial hardship (job loss, medical issues, etc.). This means that in order to sell the home, the owners must seek approval from their lender to accept less than they owe and release the lien against the property.

A brief synopsis of the short sale process:  Owners enter into an agreement of sale with a potential buyer as they would with a typical home sale – however the agreement is contingent upon final approval from the seller’s lender. The sellers must then submit a large packet of information to their lender – including detailed financial records, a hardship letter detailing why they cannot make payments, an agreement of sale from an acceptable buyer, and any additional information the lender may ask for. After reviewing the information, the lender will either approve or counter-offer the agreement on the property. After an acceptable agreement is reached, settlement will occur. Often the seller’s lender will require settlement within 30 days of their approval.

Some other notes on short sales:  Short sales are a long process. Many times they can range from 3-6 months from the signing of an agreement to lender approval and settlement. Lenders often require a quick settlement once they do approve the short sale. It’s often hard to find a buyer who can wait several months and then rush to settlement within a few weeks. Also, lenders require a lot of paperwork, sometimes duplicate paperwork, from the owners of the property which can be overwhelming and time consuming. Short sales do have a negative effect on a homeowners credit. The way a short sale is reported on a person's credit varies on a case by case basis and is determined by the lender.

Across Lancaster, 237 homes sold in February, which is a 2.1% decrease from February 2011. The average sale price for February 2012 was $173,355, a slight increase from February 2011 but still below the 5-year average February sale price of $175,676. For February, there were 641 new listings in 2012, a 13.7 percent increase from February 2011; a number even above the 5-year average of new listings for the month of February (which is 627). Beyond new listings, pending home sales also saw an increase in February of 30.8% from 2011 – and 38% of the homes that sold in February were on the market for 60 days or less.

While February saw a slight rise in prices from last year (a good sign for sellers), prices are still below the 5-year average price. The lowered home prices coupled with the increase in new listings means there are a lot of affordable homes for buyers to choose from. Add in that interest rates are remaining low, and it’s easy to see why now is a great time to buy. February’s stats also show us that many of “good values” are still selling fast.

Looking for a theater experience this weekend? The Fulton is running Pinnochio for the family through March 31^st and Sunset Boulevard through April 1^st. See their site for more information.

The Lancaster County Rec is sponsoring an Easter Egg Hunt and Coloring Contest on March 31st, 2012 at 11:00 AM. Open to ages 2-10 years old. Just grab your Easter basket and head over to Lancaster Central Park for some family fun!

Find more information here on the hunt as well as the Coloring Contest page!

What does it mean? Well sounds pretty straight forward, but it’s worth thinking about.

I had a settlement this morning with a home buyer I was representing that really represented this saying so well and made me think of it again.

This couple was getting ready to rent a town home. They had already viewed it with the owner and put their name on a list of prospective renters he had shown it to. (All of who were ready to help this nice landlord pay for his property)  He was in the process of painting it and getting it ready to rent.  It offered three bedrooms and one and a half baths and was in a prefect location for this couple. The monthly rent was going to be $985.00 a month plus utilities.

A town home entered the market FOR SALE right down the street and we connected. We viewed the home together and they loved it! The home for sale actually offered an additional full bath and was in better shape than the rental.

I assisted them with financing options and we found out they qualified for a 100 percent financing program! We wrote an offer and were able to get the seller to agree to pay most of the buyers closing costs.

This morning these folks, who were days away from being renters, paying $985.00 a month for rent and PAYING for the home they live in for SOMEONE ELSE ( the landlord ) became homeowners! Their total monthly mortgage payment?  $932.00 !  ( Makes me smile )

This is $53.00 less a month they will pay owning their own home, a bigger nicer home, than they would have been paying in rent. Now they are paying for the home they live in   for themselves and not paying for someone else’s home!

( Of course this same principle applies if you are renting an apartment. The factor is where is your monthly payment going, to benefit you or someone else )

They also needed about the same amount of cash to purchase as they would have needed for the security deposit and first months rent for the rental.

This does not even begin to factor in the tax deductions, appreciation, paying the mortgage down and gaining equity aspects of this equation. These items would make the monthly saving over renting well over $200.00 a month!

Yes, we pay for the house we live in. The question is, are we paying for it for someone else, or for ourselves?

The second example for buying Lancaster Real Estate as an investment would be a little nicer home that would cost more in a great location. This home, if bought right may break even on a monthly basis. So, it would pay for itself but it would not be putting cash in the pocket of the owner on a monthly basis. However, let’s say you own that home for ten years. During that time the tenants have greatly paid down your mortgage and because it was a desirable floor plan in a desirable location the home has increased in value and now has a great deal of equity in it. That home was a good deal!

So, it’s important to understand what your goals are when looking for a property. What is a good deal to one person may very well not be anything the next buyer would even consider.

I am looking for a GOOD DEAL! I have often heard a potential buyer make this statement. And let’s face it, who doesn’t want a good deal? A “good deal” can mean different things depending on the goals and needs of the buyer. Part of my job is finding out what those goals and needs are.  For today let’s talk about a real estate investor.

For example, if you are a real estate investor looking to buy a home in Lancaster County to fix up and resell, your requirements for a good deal will be different. You will need to buy a home at a price that will allow you room to make a profit after putting money into the home for improvements and reselling it rather quickly. Most professional investors are in a position to look at a property and make a VERY quick decision. They can usually make an offer without any contingencies such as needing to sell a home in order to be able to purchase the investment home. They can often make the offers cash, as is, with a very quick settlement. This allows them to offer the sellers the best possible terms and improves the chances of the investor buyer to purchase the property at the best price possible. This type of real estate buyer is not looking at the home thinking about if the master bedroom will be big enough or if the home is in the right location for his or her commute to work or if they like the layout of the kitchen. This buyer is looking at the numbers. Does this make sense and can they make the needed profit. So, the consideration for a true real estate that is looking for a good deal or a well priced Lancaster Home because they are an investor who is buying to resell is very different.

How about someone that wants to buy a home to rent out to help them build long term wealth or have monthly cash flow? Well that buyer will have very different requirements than the fix and flip buyer. Also, the home that's a "good deal" for that buyer-investor may be very different, because that buyers needs is different, than what the first buyer needed in a good deal.  More to come in my future posts!