Home Buyers

Information for home buyers to help them locate, analyze, and purchase their dream Carolina home.

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If you’re looking to buy a lakeside home at a huge discount, right now might just be the time to act!  Of course, that’s if you don’t mind living in north Charlotte NC on Lake Norman.Lake Norman NC Houses For Sale

A recent story run by WCNC news station talked about the glut of lakeside homes that are available in Lake Norman, and many of them are listed at steep discounts. For example and as quoted in the Charlotte Observer,

“It’s 7,000 square-feet,” said broker Jason Noblitt as he looked at pictures of a waterfront foreclosure in Mooresville. “It was on the market for approximately $1.7 million.”

The 5-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath house is under contract now and Noblitt thinks it’ll sell for under $1 million. That’s a $700,000 discount.

“In our current market you absolutely are not going to get what you did in 2006 or even 2007. We need to look at where prices were in 2004 and 2005,” he said.”

And it’s not as if there isn’t competition either.  An MLS search showed 470 lakeside homes listed in the Lake Norman area, which means it’s a highly competitive housing market.

Of course on the flip side, if you’re looking to purchase a lakeside home, now is certainly a great time to act!

Down here in the Fort Mill SC area, it’s still most definitely a buyer’s market, but as I’ve always said, if your home is marketed and priced correctly, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t expect to get a fair value for your home.

To learn more about the Fort Mill SC or Rock Hill SC housing market, contact me today and I’d be more than happy to show you exactly what the Fort Mill SC real estate market looks like.

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One of the very first things to consider when you buy a home is that you will be granted many economic benefits from your investment.  Homeowners benefit from many tax incentives, such as property tax along with mortgage interest deductions.  If you are going to be a first time homeowner you need to take note taxes are in fact fully deductible.

Homeowners that have lived in their home for two out of five years, there will be a capital gain exclusion law that will let them deduct up to 0, 000 of the earnings from capital gains.  This means lower taxes for homeowners.

Over years real estate always gains, this is not like a car or a boat, the home value will always increase.  Except for some dips in the market.  When viewing all the benefits of building a home, this should be a topic that is thought of well.

Don’t forget your obligation to look after upkeep. Not having enough money in the bank account isn’t a satisfactory excuse. When you hire a home, you give the owner a check. When you purchase a home, you have to guarantee that all costs are met and managed every single month, forever. Infrequently it’s month to month ; sometimes it is a twelve month lease. But, regardless of what, there’s always a way out.

Think about your monthly payments on your home as rent.  This makes it easier to pay off your home.  Every cent that you put against your mortgage, it increases the equity on your home.

When you buy your own home you can call it yours, you can paint whatever you want, and you can remodel they way that you choose.  You will no longer have any landlords as we all love them.

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While it’s too early to celebrate the news that the first time home buyer credit that so many people have taken advantage of to get into a new home, the talk of extending the incentive is starting to build.

It appears as if Senators have agreed on the idea of extending the credit, but they haven’t quite nailed down all the logistics of the extension.  And while the extension would prolong the $8,000 tax credit enjoyed by first-time home buyers that purchase a new home, it looks as though it might go beyond that to include those that aren’t first-time home buyers.

The new provision of the extension would provide up to $6,500 in assistance to those that have lived in their current residence for at least 5 years.

Again, as of right now most of this is still talk, but as we all know, anytime we can get both political parties in Washington to agree on something, it’s got to be a good sign!

If you’re still in the market to purchase a new home or you’d like to sell your current home, the market is still very warm and there are plenty of homes available for purchase and willing buyers looking to buy.

Contact me and let’s discuss your real estate options!

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Filed under Buy Your Dream House, Home Buyers, News Reports by  #

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As you might expect, with the turbulent real estate market we’ve seen for the past 2 years and with unemployment rates at record levels, the end result is a growth in the number of foreclosed homes in the Fort Mill SC area. And even though we’ve been lucky here in the Fort Mill SC area, we’ve still seen our fair share of foreclosed properties available.

And while it’s always a sad situation when someone loses their home to foreclosure, it also presents a great opportunity for those looking to buy a house at a great price. There really are some amazing deals available for foreclosed properties right now, especially if you know where to look and how to buy them.

One of the best opportunities for buying a foreclosed house at a ’steal of a deal’ is HUD homes, or properties that were financed via an FHA loan and then reposed. I’ve personally helped 5 people in the past 8 months purchase HUD homes and every single one of them has gotten an absolutely fantastic deal on their property.

According to the government’s website about HUD homes:

What is a HUD Home?
A HUD home is a 1 to 4 unit residential property acquired by HUD as a result of a foreclosure action on an FHA-insured mortgage. HUD becomes the property owner and offers it for sale to recover the loss on the foreclosure claim.

Who can buy a HUD Home?
Almost anyone! If you have the cash or can qualify for a loan (subject to certain restrictions) you may buy a HUD Home. HUD Homes are initially offered to owner-occupant purchasers (people who are buying the home as their primary residence). Following the priority period for owner occupants, unsold properties are available to all buyers, including investors.

So, if you’re in the market for a new home, it would definitely pay to take a look at purchasing a HUD home!

My only bit of advice would be DEFINITELY consult with an experienced real estate agent, and I don’t say that just to get you to call me (although that would be nice :-) )  While HUD would have you believe that buying one of their homes is an easy, painless process, it’s not.  While most real estate transactions can be a stressful, frustrating experience at times, purchasing a HUD home is much worse.

You still have to go through all of the typical real estate paperwork and processes, but with a HUD home, you now have to do all of these things through a government agency, and as we all know, they aren’t always they easiest groups to work with!

Don’t let that discourage you though!  Just make sure you work with an agent that has the experience and know-how to help make sure your HUD transaction goes smoothly and you’ll quickly be able to enjoy a fantastic new home at a great price!

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In July, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities rose 1.2 percent from June’s number to a reading of 143.05. Although home prices are still 13.3 percent below last July’s figures a year ago, the study also shows that the annual declines have slowed in all 20 cities for the sixth straight month.

Now, although this is certainly some encouraging news, home prices overall are still down roughly 33% from the numbers from mid-July 2006. So while we are starting to see some improvements in the housing market overall, there’s still a very long way to go before things are completely back.

The report shows that with the exception of the Las Vegas, Detroit, and Seattle areas home prices are rising across the country and I would say that that’s the trend I’m seeing here in the Fort Mill SC and Rock Hill SC area.

Yes, it’s still very much a buyer’s market, but you can slowly see home prices starting to increase ever so slightly.  We’ve been very fortunate in that home prices never really took the nose dive experienced by other markets, but home buyer confidence is certainly returning which in turn means homes are selling closer to asking price than previously.

Hopefully this trend will continue, not just in the Fort Mill SC area, but nationwide as well.  Home sales has always been a bit of a barometer of how well the economy is doing so the better the home market is, the better off our economy is!

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