Jan
25
Tips for getting a Mortgage in 2012
Wednesday |
Getting a mortgage loan has become challenging in recent years. Don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Lending standards will remain tight in 2012, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to snag a mortgage with an attractive rate. Savvy borrowers who understand the rules and prepare will improve their chances of success.
These tips will help you stay on top of your game as you try to secure a mortgage in 2012.
Study your credit
Good credit is the key to snagging a mortgage in this tight lending environment. Get copies of your credit scores and credit history from the three main credit-reporting bureaus. Study the reports carefully to make sure there are no errors or issues to resolve before applying.
Most lenders require a minimum credit score of 680 to comply with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s guidelines. Federal Housing Administration loans — which are guaranteed by the FHA — allow for lower scores, but most lenders want to stay away from scores lower than 620.
Prepare before you start
Every lender requests certain basic documents when you apply for a mortgage. Don’t wait for them to ask.
Have these documents ready when you walk into the lender’s office: your last two pay stubs, W-2s, income-tax returns and bank statements.
Save these documents and any additional ones the lender requests in an electronic format, so you can easily resend them if anything gets lost.
Know how much you can afford
Don’t rely on your lender to tell you how much mortgage you qualify for and then borrow the maximum amount. Plan your budget, and leave room for unexpected expenses. That’s especially the case when you are buying a house.
Bankrate’s calculators can help you determine how much house you can afford and estimate your monthly mortgage payments.
Time is of the essence
Once you submit your mortgage application to the lender, the clock starts ticking. Make sure you quickly send in any documents requested during the approval process.
For buyers, a delay in closing the loan could kill the purchase and cost them their deposits. When refinancing, a delay could mean losing the interest rate the borrower originally locked in. Ask for an expected closing date, and follow up with the lender periodically until the loan closes. Keep in mind, some lenders close more quickly than others.
Mortgage approved? Your credit must stay put until closing
After the lender pulls your credit and says you’ve been approved, don’t assume you’ve won the battle. Most lenders will pull your credit again before the loan closes.
It’s wise to avoid any moves that may affect your credit. Don’t apply for new credit cards or credit lines. Pay your bills on time. Don’t close any accounts. Don’t finance a new car. Stay put until closing.
Source: By Polyana da Costa of Bankrate.com
Jan
24
9 Inexpensive Tips for Staging Your Home
Tuesday |
For the budget-minded, staging a home for sale may seem like an expensive hassle. But making a small investment, whether DIY or with a pro, can lead to higher offers. Here’s what to do.
Repeat after me: It’s not your home
When you list your house for sale, it goes from being your home to being a product.
”Any time you are marketing a product, you want to dress it up pretty,” says Brandon Green, a Washington, D.C., real-estate agent. “But people don’t see their homes as products.”
If you were selling your car, you would toss out the fast-food wrappers, wash it, wax it and vacuum it, he says. And you’d get a lot more buyer interest — and money — than if you didn’t take those steps.
The same is true when you are selling your home. You want to present it as a beautiful, desirable product. And you want it to stand out from all the other homes on the market.
“With short sales, bank-owned properties and the traditional sellers — all of these entities are in fierce competition to get the house sold,” says Barb Schwarz, founder and chairwoman of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals. “We are now seeing even some short sales and bank-owned properties being staged.”
How to save on staging
You may assume that you’ll save if you stage your home yourself. That’s not always the case, Green says. “Almost everybody who stages on their own comes to me at the end of the process exhausted, saying they completely underestimated the time it took to stage,” he says. “You’re literally furnishing an entire house, and that takes time.”
That brings us to our first tips to save on staging:
1. Consider hiring a professional. Do a little math and make a few calls to see what it would cost to hire someone to handle the staging for you. Professional stagers have an arsenal of furnishings at the ready and can hammer out a neutral, professional design much quicker than you can. If you’re determined to do the work yourself, see about getting a consultation from a professional stager.
2. You don’t need to stage the whole house. Whether you hire a pro or decide to go the DIY route, you don’t need to stage every single room, Green says. Stage the main living areas — living room, dining room, kitchen — and at least one bedroom, preferably the master, he says. You should also stage any room that has a confusing purpose to show how it can be used. So if there’s an awkwardly sized bedroom, stage it to show that it will fit a bed and dresser comfortably, for instance.
“But you can leave several rooms empty, and you can leave the basement empty, as well,” Green says. “That can be a big saver.”
If you decide to go it alone
Homeowners can do many things to stage their home at little or no cost. The most important thing to keep in mind is that buyers must be able to envision themselves living in your home.
“No one will buy your home until they can mentally move into it,” Schwarz says.
3. Clean, get rid of clutter and depersonalize. Staging is about making your home look nice, but remember that buyers have other senses and that a bad smell can be a deal-breaker. Nothing smells better than clean.
“Check that all rooms are spotlessly clean, have washed windows, smell good and have been aired before showings,” says Lauri Ward, president of Use What You Have Interiors, which focuses on using a client’s belongings to redecorate or stage the home.
“By packing up your clutter, you create more space for the buyers to mentally move into,” Schwarz says. And, she adds, “If you keep out all your collections and family photos, the buyers will spend their time looking at them and not your house.”
Don’t forget that buyers will be looking in your closets, too.
“You want the buyer to have the perception that, ‘Oh, there’s so much storage in here,’” Green says. “If it’s chock-full of stuff, it automatically gives the perception that there’s not enough storage.”
You don’t have to empty the closets and other storage areas, but Green advises paring them down to about 20% of what you normally store there.
It’s nothing personal
When it comes to furnishings, Green warns that you may not want to use only what you have.
“Most people have a design aesthetic that matches them as a person,” he says. “Usually, the stuff you have isn’t fantastic for staging. Staging is going to need a fairly neutral design.” He advises DIY stagers to be selective when finding furniture. “Take the time to hunt for pieces that really are effective with the concept,” he says.
But that doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot. “I had a client once who staged off of Craigslist,” Green says. “It took her forever, but she pieced together a fantastic staging concept by buying used furniture.”
4. Be resourceful when hunting for furnishings. If you have friends and family with updated or neutral furniture, see if you can borrow a few pieces to stage your home. If you need to stage a room as a bedroom but you don’t have a bed, get an inflatable air mattress that rises off the floor to regular bed height. Once you get the linens on, it will look just like a regular bed, and you can use it for guests in your new home.
Here are a few other quick tips from the experts:
5. Show off hardwood floors. “If you have hardwood floors in good shape that are covered by wall-to-wall carpeting, remove the carpet and clean the floor,” Banks says. “Hardwood floors are a big selling point these days.”
6. Remove heavy window treatments. Banks say buyers are looking for homes with lots of natural light and that lighter, less formal window panels give any room a lighter, airier feel.
7. Freshen the walls. “Paint is always the least expensive way to make a major change to a home,” says Jessica Dolan, a home organizer and stager. Green says cleaning the wall may be enough to make it look freshly painted.
8. Remember the rule of three. Green says the golden rule is three items per surface, whether it’s a wall, tabletop or mantel. “Quantity is usually when people get a little too crazy,” he says.
The rule of three applies to small rooms, as well, while larger rooms may get six pieces — four chairs, a table and a lamp in a dining room, for example.
9. Do your research. If you’re not sure what a staged home should look like, spend a half-day going to open houses to see what works and what doesn’t. Take notes.
“source: www.msnrealestate.com”