Building Your Dream Home in Your Own Back Yard

November 18, 2008 by Claudia · Leave a Comment

Ed Del Grande: Ask Ed - It’s no secret to most of us that the real estate market has currently slowed down in many areas of the country. But, you may not realize how many homeowners are now in the process of remodeling or adding on to their present home to get what they want now, instead of buying and selling into an unstable market. Basically, it’s like the old saying “Stick with the devil you know.” With this in mind, I’d like to share an excerpt from my book Ed Del Grande’s House Call with you. This excerpt will help guide homeowners on my five basic points to consider when remodeling or adding on to your present home.

1. Don’t get caught with your pants down. You will need to develop a strategy for coping with and living around construction. For example: If you’re doing a major remodeling job on the only bathroom in your house, make other living arrangements “in advance” for the period when your bathroom will be shut down.

2. Understand the impact on your neighbors and neighborhood. Know where your contractors and subcontractors can park their vehicles. Also, address the noise and disruption level to your neighbors lifestyle, and work with them. Most job problems that I have seen, come from a trusted neighbor calling the local inspector with a complaint.

3. Know your budget limitations. When you do a project, you need to know the exact amount of cash you have on hand and the limit you can borrow from the bank. That’s the job budget — stick with it, no matter how tempting it might be to exceed it! (Going over budget now and thinking we can find a way to afford it later, is what got us all in this mess!)

4. Require licenses, permits and insurance from your contractor. Whatever the minimum requirements in your area for contractors, you need to see proof of that license, insurance and/or registration from your contractor, and make sure permits are taken out.

5. Be available to make decisions. Don’t lose sight of the fact that your contractor is working for you! Do some communication research and have a plan in place so the contractor can contact you quickly about major decisions for the project.

Remember, these are just five basic tips to help you get started, and I hope this “additional information” will help in the planning your new addition!

Ed Del Grande, the author of Ed Del Grande’s House Call, was born and raised in a family-owned plumbing business. With more than 25 years of experience in every aspect of construction, he holds current Master licenses in pipefitting, fire protection and plumbing. If you have a question for Ed, send him an e-mail at eddelgrande@hgtvpro.com.

Filed Under: Property Info, Tips
Tagged: construction, contractors and subcontractors, Ed Del Grande, neighborhood, neighbors, plumbing business, remodeling or adding on to your present home

WARNING: WALKING AWAY WILL BE COSTLY

May 14, 2008 by Claudia · 5 Comments

Nation’s Housing

By Kenneth R. Harney, Washington Post Writers Grou

The two largest sources of mortgage money in the country have a blunt warning for anyone thinking about joining the growing “walkaway” trend and becoming one of those homeowners who stops making payments and months later sends the house keys back to the lender: You will feel the pain.On March 31, Fannie Mae sent out new guidelines to lenders. Fannie now will prohibit foreclosed borrowers from getting another mortgage through the giant investor for five years unless there are “documented extenuating circumstances.” In those cases, the prohibition is three years.

Even after five years, borrowers with foreclosures in their files will be required to make at least a 10% down payment and will need minimum FICO credit scores of 680.

Filed Under: Property Info, Tips
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Know What A Short Sale Is!

May 8, 2008 by Claudia · Leave a Comment

Short Sale: A sale in which the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to pay off the loan secured by the property being sold. To be successful, the lender must agree to release it’s lien against the property even though the existing loan is not being paid in full.What Buyers Should Know About Short SalesAt this time it is a buyers market!!! When you make a reasonable offer to a seller they should be jumping on that offer. But many times when you do make an offer on a short sale you may be told that while the offer will be accepted, the seller will for the first six weeks of the contract, reserve the right to accept other offers and that you will have to match any higher offers or they will cancel your contract? Naturally in today’s market a smart buyer will walk away and find something else. There is plenty more houses out there probably in the same price range if not better matching the same criteria.Unfortunately, with short sale offers this is essentially what happens every time a buyer makes an offer on a property. The seller continues to accept other offers and submits them to the bank. It usually takes the bank six to eight weeks to respond. Basically the bank is not approving your offer if higher offers have been received.

Most knowledgeable, legitimate buyers who understand this process are not willing to spend their time with short sales. This leaves mostly bargain hunters to play the short sale game. The lenders, for their part, are trying to get as much as they can and are not interested in approving contracts at fire sale prices. Please note that In the last 12 months there have been roughly 299 attempts to do shorts sales with only 28 (9%) of those actually resulting in a closed sale. The present system benefits neither legitimate buyers, sellers or their lenders.

A much better option is to wait for the property to be foreclosed on. You will find that dealing with the lender as a seller is faster and less stressful than trying to deal with them in a short sale.

What Sellers Should Know About Short Sales I’m often asked if doing a short sale in lieu of going into foreclosure will save the seller’s credit rating. According to the lenders I have talked to, there is no difference on your credit score between a foreclosure, a short sale or a deed in lieu of foreclosure. According to these sources, the only difference between these three remedies in terms of it’s impact on your credit is the number of late payments that show up on your credit report. So, the faster you can complete the transaction, the less your credit will suffer.

Short sales are not easy to get approved (as evidenced by only a 9% success ratio). They are they also slow. Whatever option you do choose when deciding to sell will likely have tax consequences. Talk to your accountant before deciding how to proceed. Also talk to your lender to see if there is any way to restructure your loan to avoid a short sale, foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure. History shows that when prices turn around, the median home price will likely double or triple from their low point in the housing recession. If all else fails, a deed in lieu of foreclosure will probably be faster and less stressful than a short sale or foreclosure though they will not work in every situation.