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7 Things to Remember When Buying a Home

There’s a lot to think about when you buy a home – neighborhoods, schools, square footage. But there are also some basic things to keep in mind. If you remember nothing else, remember these seven tips.

Know what you can really afford. There are online calculators and real-live lenders who will help you determine exactly what you can afford. Before you even begin looking at properties, have at least a rough idea.
Get pre-qualified for a mortgage. Better yet, work with a lender to find out how much they’d be willing to lend you. Pre-qualification isn’t a guarantee but it gives you a real number to work with based on your income and other criteria.
Make a list of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and can-live-withouts. This is your home search, so modify as needed, but this list will help you narrow down your choices.
Don’t flaunt your offer to the world. An offer isn’t a contract, and until it’s signed, sealed, and delivered, you don’t have anything concrete. This is especially important on social media. Telling your friends and family you got a “steal” is great – until you discover the third cousin, twice removed of your seller is friends with your aunt and saw the post. It can get ugly.
Don’t pick out paint colors or measure the windows for new drapes until you’re the actual owner. Anything can happen from contract to closing. While your Realtor, lender, and title company will do their best to prevent it, the house isn’t yours until you’ve been handed the keys.
Respond to requests for information and paperwork. Nothing will slow down a closing faster than a lack of information or signature on a form. If you’ll be delayed, communicate that with everyone involved. If not, get it in as quickly as possible.
Don’t buy a car or change jobs at any point during the process. Your closing will be delayed by the new expense or change in employment. In some cases, you might not be able to close at all. Just don’t do it.

There’s a lot to do when buying a home. Depending on your price range and the market, you may have too many options to count. But if you can remember these seven rules, you’ll help make the process much easier and quicker.

Donate Household Goods the Right Way

Too much stuff cluttering up your home? Removing items you no longer want is easy, but deciding what to do with them can be a challenge. Instead of storing or throwing away household goods, try these alternatives.

Make a Donation

Homeless shelters, resale or thrift stores and even animal shelters are great places to bring your items that you no longer have a use for. Most homeless shelters will accept anything from food or grocery coupons to rain gear and other outerwear. Thrift shops love electronics like computers or phones, as well as books or housewares. Animal shelters will also accept items like blankets or heating pads, and office supplies, batteries, plastic bags and certain types of baby food.

Get Creative

Before donating, research which local or national charities need your items the most and hold a fundraising garage sale. Select an organization that you are interested in helping out and donate the proceeds from your sold items to them.

Remember: Trash Isn’t Always Treasure

If you view your items as garbage or not useful, there’s a good chance that others may, too. Before you donate your items to someone else, make sure they can still be used and are in good condition. Remember that some items can be refurbished into something else!

Is Your Home Ready for the Spring and Summer Selling Season?

Image via Flickr courtesy of Martinak15

Now that Easter has come and gone, it’s time to look towards spring and summer. The weather along the Emerald Coast is cooperating a bit. The cold temperatures are moving out, and the warmer ones moving in. By Memorial Day, our local real estate season will be in full swing with people looking to buy.

Whether they’re moving to the area or simply moving across town, home buyers all want a home they can imagine themselves living in for years to come. With a few upgrades and a small investment, you can get your home ready to sell.

Look up.

Whether you need a new roof or you just need to clean off pine needles and replace a few shingles, you can bet buyers will notice the roof. Replacing it isn’t a cheap fix, but it can pay off in the end. Take care of your roof so buyers won’t be turned off before they walk through the front door.

Keep it cool.

This is Florida. It gets hot and a working A/C is an absolute necessity. You might not need to replace the whole unit, but at the very least get it serviced and deal with any repair issues. The money you pay could be the difference between selling quickly or sitting on the market for months.

Get energy efficient.

If you’ve got the budget for it, consider upgrading your windows to more energy efficient options. Not only will you lower your electric bill while you still live there, you’ll also have another selling point for a potential buyer.

Watch your feet.

Floors can be an inexpensive upgrade or a pricey one. But whatever you do will pay off in the end. Replace worn carpet or have stained carpet professionally cleaned. Fixed cracked or broken tiles. Refinish wood floors to bring out the natural beauty and make them shine.

Think big.

Bathrooms and kitchens sell homes. Any investment you make will help you see a bigger return when you sell. Bigger vanities and walk-in showers impress many buyers, while upgraded appliances, nice countertops, and solid cabinets are practically necessities in the kitchen. If you’ve only got a little bit of money and time, put it in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Even with a small budget and limited time, you can make your home attractive to potential buyers this spring season. Small things like mowing the lawn, planting flowers, and decluttering can work wonders but if you can, consider making at least one investment in your home to appeal to buyers and sell your home quickly while still getting a good return on your investment.

Eating Habits Out of Whack?

As our daily lives become increasingly hectic, it’s no wonder that nutrition and mindful eating patterns are constantly placed on the back burner. Trying to juggle schedules is a challenge, one that finds us eating while we work, while we watch TV and while we drive. Breaking these habits doesn’t take a lot of time, however, you need to be fully committed to changing the way you approach meal/snack time.

The following tips from Jenny Conviser, Psy.D., co-owner of Insight Psychological Centers and a leading expert in the treatment of eating disorders, will help you regain control of your eating habits.

• Set aside time to eat. Taking an actual lunch break—even if it’s only 15 minutes—is a crucial step in establishing mindful eating patterns. In fact, research suggests that our brains don’t fully register what we eat outside of time we’ve set aside for eating.

• Commit to sit. Looking to break the habit of mindlessly munching while standing in front of the refrigerator? The best way to go about this is to commit to eating only while sitting down.

• Check in with yourself. Before any meal or snack, ask yourself if you’re really hungry, and only eat if the answer is ‘yes.’ Before you leave the house in the morning, prepare a few healthy snacks to munch on as you get hungry throughout the day.

• Put your senses to work. Take advantage of all your senses the next time you sit down to eat. Be sure to pay attention to the shape, color and size of what you’re eating. Take the time to inhale the aroma of the food and when you take a bite, pay attention to how the texture feels on your tongue.

• Take a break. Once you’re halfway through your meal, take a break and determine whether you’re still hungry. If you are, continue eating, and check in again after a few more bites.

Source: Insight Psychological Centers

Real Estate Optimism Continues to Grow Among Consumers

Image via Flickr courtesy of Camdiluv

Interesting news is out from two separate housing surveys published in March. Both say the same thing based on their findings – people are feeling more confident about real estate.

National Housing Survey

The Fannie Mae National Housing Survey is a monthly survey of 1,000 Americans to determine their attitude and feelings on the housing market. The findings this past month were optimistic.

54% believe getting a mortgage is easy – a record high for the survey.
46% believe home prices will go up.
6% believe prices will drop.
67% said now is a good time to buy a home.
40% said it’s a good time to sell.
46% believe their own financial situation will improve over the next year.
24% said their household income is higher than a year ago.

While believing something does not automatically make it fact, this is all good news. As people’s confidence in housing and the economy returns, they may be more willing to try to buy a home and seek out mortgage programs such as three percent or five percent down mortgage products.

Mortgage Service Index

TD Bank released it’s third annual Mortgage Service Index. Nearly 1,500 Americans who have purchased a home within the last 10 years were surveyed.

30% said now is a good time to buy. This is up from 20% the year before – a 10% gain.
29% reported they are likely to buy a home in 2015.
68% said their most recent home buying experience was a good one.
65% reported they were able to get approved for a mortgage.

The not-so-surprising finding in the report was that 44 percent of respondents were unaware of home affordability programs available for home buyers. While many cater to first time homebuyers, there are programs across the country designed for low-to-moderate income buyers that can help with down payment and closing costs. Locally, the Escambia County Housing Finance Authority serves Northwest Florida, but you can also check Down Payment Resource for available programs in any part of the country.

Only you know if you’re ready to buy or sell your home, but if you’re unsure whether you qualify for assistance or if now is the time for you, it pays to do your research. You might be surprised at what you’re able to do in today’s housing market.

Younger Generations Are Taking Over as Home Buyers

Image via Google Images

Baby boomers are getting bumped in the home buying game by the younger generations, especially the Millenials. It was only a matter of time before it happened, but now studies show us the proof.

Generational Trends in Home Buying

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently released a new study, the 2015 NAR Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study, where they evaluated age-based differences in recent buyers and sellers from 2014. The findings are not all that surprising.

For the second year in a row, the largest group of buyers were 34 and younger, comprising 32 percent of buyers – double that of Baby Boomers.
Generation X (ages 35-49) was the second in line with 27 percent of sales.
80 percent of Millenials and Gen X-ers believe their home purchase is a good financial investment.
90 percent of Millenials worked with a real estate agent.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR, pointed out that the numbers for Millenial buyers would be higher if not for certain obstacles like low wages, underemployment, increasing rents, and skyrocketing student debt. All of these are a factor in their ability to save a down payment.

Other interesting numbers from the study include:

The average age of a Millenial buyer was 29.
The average age of a Gen X buyer was 41.
39 percent of Millenials cited having a home of their own as a reason to buy.
75 percent of Millenials were influenced by the quality of the neighborhood and 74 percent wanted convenience to work.
Gen X buyers said proximity and convenience to schools was most desired in a new home.

Thanks to programs like the return of the three percent down payment from FHA and others, younger buyers and low-to-moderate income buyers have more options for buying a home. As time goes on, these numbers will surely increase.

A look ahead

Experts are already looking to the future and have started studying the next generation, Generation Z who are currently 13-17 years old. A whopping 97 percent believe they’ll own their home at some point in their lifetime. Before they buy, they have goals they’d like to achieve:

60 percent want to graduate college
59 percent want to get married
58 percent plan to own a pet
21 percent will have children

While boomers are aging out and slowly being overtaken by the younger generations, it’s clear that the kids are paying attention to their parents and grandparents. They understand the importance and benefit of owning their own home. We can all be proud of that.