Note that this information is outdated.
513 Natures Way West Melbourne, FL From Dairy (between New Haven & Eber) turn West on Peaceful Place, turn right onto Soft Breeze Circle, turn left onto Natures Way. House is on the left.
When/Where: Sunday, March 27th, Noon - 3 P.M.
Then you need to know beginning June 1, 2011, Fannie Mae is requiring lenders to keep a closer watch on conventional loan borrowers during the loan application process. New FNMA’s guidelines require lenders to pull applicants credit reports at the start of the loan application and again 5 days prior to closing. At this time the policy just affects conventional loan applications, but may be extended to VA, FHA and Rural Development loans later. The goal is to reduce the number of loan defaults caused by borrowers adding new debt and increasing their debt to income ratio above Fannie Mae guidelines prior to closing.
Borrowers can help avoid last minute questions or problems with their loan closing by not adding new debt, lines of credit or co-signing for someone on a loan. Even credit inquiries can raise a red flag if they occur during the loan application process. So wait until after closing to go shopping for furniture or any other large purchase, even if it’s buy now and pay later financing. Just using your credit card to hold your move date with the movers or to book next year’s vacation can raise a flag. Emergencies can come up and you may have no choice, but let your loan officer know immediately and be prepared to provide a written explanation.
Finally, make sure you understand your lender’s loan processing procedures. To have a successful on time closing you need to understand what needs to be done and any deadlines that must be met. Be pro-active, ask questions and stay in touch with your loan officer and realtor on a weekly basis or more often if necessary. (With everyone’s busy schedule, email updates are a great way to keep in touch and to document the loan process.) If there are times of stress, just remember your goal and ours is to move you into your new home.
A professional home inspection can be a crucial step in the buyer's decision-making process. If a house has defects, they may use an inspection report to request seller repairs to be done prior to purchase. A home inspection will help a buyer pinpoint the areas that they may want to improve or enhance. It can also give them peace of mind.
Buyers will want to know ahead of time what works and what does not work in the house before the sale proceeds. A complete home inspection report can be a tremendous benefit when negotiating the final sales price. A thorough home inspection by a reputable company could cover hundreds of items both inside and outside of the house including: - Foundation
- Exterior
- Walls
- Roof
- Attic
- Basement
- Kitchen
- Bathrooms
- Windows
- Insulation
- Air and heating system
- Interior
- Electrical
- Plumbing
Before deciding which house to buy, think about your lifestyle, your current and anticipated housing needs, and your budget. It’s a good idea to create a prioritized list of features you want in your next home – you'll soon discover finding the right house involves striking a balance between your "must-haves" and your "nice-to-haves." To start, consider your lifestyle. If you love to cook, you'll want a well-equipped kitchen. If you're into gardening, you'll want a yard. If you're planning your office at home, you may want a room for a separate library or work space. If you have several cars, you may require a larger garage. Use this list as your search guide. Next, think about what you might need in the future. As you consider your housing needs, it's important to consider how long you may live in your home. If you're newly married, you might not be concerned with a school district right now, but you could be in a few years. If you have aging parents, you may want to look at homes that offer living arrangements for them as well as you. It’s important to think about your new home’s location just as carefully as you do about a house’s features. Location is a huge part of any move. In addition to considering the distance to work, you need to evaluate the availability of shopping, police and fire protection, medical facilities, school and day-care, traffic and parking, trash and garbage collection, even recreational facilities. Perhaps the most important decision is deciding on the type of home you want. Do you want a condominium or a co-op? A town house or a detached single-family home? Do you want brick, stone, stucco, wood, vinyl siding, or something else? Do you prefer a new home or an older one? Through all of this, make sure to talk to your real estate professional about where you want to live. While more buyers now use the Internet to gain access to listings, or available properties for sale, it is still a good idea to use an agent. The agent brings value to the entire process: he or she is available to analyze data, answer questions, share their professional expertise, and handle all the paperwork and legwork that is involved in the real estate transaction.
Sales of existing U.S. homes moved upward again in January, making a three month streak, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales rose 2.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million units, from a downwardly revised 5.22 million in December, and up 5.3 percent over the year before. "The uptrend in home sales is consistent with improvements in the economy and jobs, which are helping boost consumer confidence," Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, explained. "The extremely favorable housing affordability conditions are a big factor, but buyers have been constrained by unnecessarily tight credit. As a result, there are abnormally high levels of all-cash purchases, along with rising investor activity." The national median home price dropped once again, to $158,800 from $168,800 in December, and is down 3.7 percent from January 2010. The NAR defines existing homes as all previously-owned single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, and co-ops. The group "seasonally adjusts" the sales numbers to factor in things like inclement weather, school sessions, winter holidays, etc to smooth out the trends. The NAR also describes its sales data based on an annual pace. The monthly figure represents the total number of housing units that would be sold in one year if the current rate were to continue unchanged. 
Sales Pace by Region - Month to Month Sales rose in all areas but the Northeast. There the numbers fell 4.6 percent to an annual rate of 830,000 in January, from 870,000 in December. Sales were also down 1.2 percent from a year ago. In the Midwest, sales increased 1.8 percent to 1.14 million homes, from 1.11 million the previous month, and up 3.6 percent over January 2010. The South saw sales jump up 3.6 percent to an annual rate of 2.02 million, from 1.97 million in December. That is up 8.0 percent over the year before. Sales in the West bounced up 7.9 percent to 1.37 million from 1.33 million one month earlier, and is up 7.0 percent on a yearly basis. | Home Prices The median home price, the point at which half of all homes are sold for more and half are sold for less, took some significant falls in all parts of the country in January. In the Northeast, the median price fell to $236,500 from $237,300 and it was down 4.0 percent over last year's price. The median price in the Midwest dropped to $126,300 from $139,700 in December. The new price is down 3.2 percent from January 2010. In the South, the price sank to $136,600 in January from $148,400 and fell 2.1 percent in a year-over-year comparison. The median price in the West declined to $193,200 from $204,400 and fell 5.7 percent from the previous year. 
Inventory Inventory fell 5.1 percent in January, to 3.38 million units for sale. At the current sales pace, there is a 7.6-month supply, down from an 8.2-month supply the month before. Inventory is now at its lowest point since December 2009. 
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WASHINGTON – Feb. 17, 2011 – Banks increasingly tell borrowers that if they want to buy a home, they need to come with a higher downpayment. The reason: Banks hope to minimize the risk they’re taking on should home prices continue to fall. Plus, banks say larger downpayments discourage delinquencies.
The Obama administration last week called for gradually increasing downpayments to a minimum of 10 percent on conventional loans that can be bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The median downpayment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 on properties purchased through conventional mortgages – the highest in median downpayment since the data started being tracked in 1997, according to a Wall Street Journal and Zillow.com analysis.
In the late 1990s, median downpayments once averaged 20 percent in the nine metro cities Zillow analyzed, but in 2001 they started inching downward as banks began requiring little or no down payment in some cases during the housing boom.
Now banks want more, believing that the more a buyer has invested, the less likely they are to default.
Borrowers who can’t afford the higher downpayments are seeking assistance elsewhere, such as loans for veterans or those backed by the Federal Housing Administration that requires a 3.5 percent downpayment, or loans by the United States Department of Agriculture for rural areas.
Source: “Banks push home buyer to put down more cash,” The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 16, 2011)
© Copyright 2011 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
The Multiple Listing ServiceEven before the sign is up and the brochures are ready, your agent should list your property with the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service). The MLS is a database of all the homes listed by local real estate agents who are members of the service, which is practically all of the local agents.
Important information about your property is listed here, from general data such as square footage and number of rooms, to such details as whether you have central air conditioning or hard wood flooring. There should also be a photo, and a short verbal description of what makes your house "special."
Agents search the database for homes that fit the price range and needs of their clients. They pay special attention to homes that have been recently placed on the market, which is one reason you get a lot of attention when your house is first listed. Many agents will want to preview the home before they show it to their clients.
The main point about having your house listed in the MLS is that you expand your sales force by the number of local MLS members. Instead of having just one agent working for you, now you may have hundreds or more, depending on the size of your community.
The listing agent's main job to make sure that the other MLS members know about your house. This is accomplished through listing your house in the Multiple Listing Service, broker previews and advertising targeted toward other agents, not homebuyers.
Nothing says "Be MIne" quite like conversation hearts. This year, one in 80 candy hearts will say "Tweet Me." Thanks to the landslide results of an online survey in which the candy's manufacturer solicited suggestions for new messages.
The chocolate box has been around for more than 140 years. In 1868, Richard Cadbury introduced the first Valentine's Day box of chocolates.
Valentine's Day ranks second highest for seasonal greeting card sales, behind only Christmas, the Greeting Card Association reports.
The "I Love You" computer virus was detected in Hong Kong on May 1, 2000. In four days the virus had mutated into three different generations. Figures by Trend Micro Inc. showed that "I Love You" had infected 3.1 million computers worldwide.
15% of American women send flowers to themselves on Valentine's Day.
By Merrill Corporation
PARSIPPANY, N.J. (January 10, 2011) -- Century 21 Real Estate LLC, the franchisor of the world’s largest residential real estate sales organization, today announced that it is the first national real estate franchisor to implement a new search functionality in compliance with the new National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) policy governing the indexing and display of Internet Data Exchange (IDX) information by real estate franchise organizations. Consumers may now benefit from an expanded search capability that enables one-click access to more than three million Multiple Listing Service (MLS) listings directly through the national century21.com website.
The MLS listings that appear on CENTURY 21® franchise offices IDX websites are now indexed to present the search results on century21.com. The outcome is an enhanced search capability that provides consumers with a comprehensive property search experience that displays information on every home listed for sale in the local MLS in accordance with the newly updated IDX listings display policy. This policy was approved by the NAR Board of Directors in November 2010.
“Consumers want their online home search to be simple and intuitive, and they want relevant results delivered as quickly as possible,” said Bev Thorne, chief marketing officer, Century 21 Real Estate LLC. “By enhancing the home search experience on century21.com, potential homebuyers may now more easily view all home sale listings in their communities. We thank the National Association of REALTORS® and its MLS Policy Committee for its forward-thinking approach that now allows franchise organizations to index and display all of its members’ IDX listings in one location.”
“We applaud CENTURY 21 for being so quick to implement NAR’s new IDX indexing and display functionality on its website,” said Alex Perriello, president and CEO of the Realogy Franchise Group, LLC the parent company of Century 21 Real Estate LLC. “This rapid application speaks volumes to CENTURY 21’s commitment to serving real estate consumers as well as the business needs of its brokers and agents.”
About Century 21 Real Estate LLC: Century 21 Real Estate LLC (century21.com) is the franchisor of the world’s largest residential real estate sales organization, providing comprehensive training, management, administrative and marketing support for the CENTURY 21 System. The System is comprised of more than 8,000 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in 73 countries and territories worldwide. Century 21 Real Estate LLC is a subsidiary of Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services.
©2010 Century 21 Real Estate LLC, A Realogy Company. CENTURY 21® Is A Registered Trademark Owned By Century 21 Real Estate LLC. An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Each CENTURY 21 Office is Independently Owned and Operated
This family could have saved themselves a lot of grief by either going to the Brevard County Property Appraiser’s Website, http://brevardpropertyappraiser.com/ or calling their office at 321-952-4574 to verify they were dealing with the property owner.