If you are currently in the market to buy a home and plan on using FHA for your mortgage financing, keep in mind that the annual mortgage insurance will be higher for loans assigned case numbers starting April 18, 2011. Local mortgage guy Todd Marumoto of Intercoastal Mortgage in Fairfax, VA sent me an e-mail update about this increase along Continue Reading
Will Your Real Estate Offer Make the Cut?
Every home buyer tries to figure out what it will take to buy the home that they have decided to make an offer on. Determining the right price, or how much wiggle room there is, is the bottom line here for everyone from the first time buyer to the savvy investor. If you are sitting at your kitchen table pondering this question, then it is time Continue Reading
Estimating Title Insurance Costs
When I review estimated closing costs with home buyers, we always spend time looking at Title Insurance because it is typically one of the largest expenses on the worksheet. Since most people buying real estate are going to have a mortgage, title insurance is going to be a requirement of the lender if you want them to provide the loan. Title Continue Reading
Home Buying Tips | Low Mortgage Rates
Image by DougFrancis via Flickr It seems like every week there is an announcement that home mortgage rates are at an "all-time low", but this weekly headline is starting to get a little stale for most home buyers who are locking-in the mortgages as late as possible before going to closing. The "rate float option" gives home buyers the option of Continue Reading
House Hunting Fiction?
I have joked for years with home buyer clients about watching too many episodes of HGTV's House Hunters, and that our home search isn't going to include a film crew (read an actual client comment). Most of them recall an episode or two, or how they seem to look at three homes and buy one of them paying market price. Well I almost fell over Continue Reading
Another Short Sale Road Block
Yes, even in swanky Vienna, VA there are real estate short-sales. As the process has been allowed to pickle over the last few years, banks have come up with strategies to streamline the process. That sounds like good news but I still have to advise home buyers that these are tricky transactions that will require patience and some hard work. I Continue Reading
Oil Tank Concerns | Vienna Home Buyers
Some homes in Vienna VA were built with underground oil tanks to store heating oil, but have been converted over to natural gas heating systems. In cases like this, home buyers need to know if the old oil tank was removed from the property or just abandon in place. An abandon tank will have some documentation as required by the Virginia Department Continue Reading
Two Real Estate Markets in One
Northern Virginia home buyers looking to move to Vienna are witnessing an interesting spring real estate market in May. Well, at least I find it interesting because detached homes in the $530,000 range are seeing one market while the $1,000,000 plus range is seeing another. Last weekend, a RE/MAX Presidential team colleague put a 1960’s Town Continue Reading
