Buying and Investments Jacksonville NC Homes for Sale

www.KatieJonesHomes.com  Katie Jones

Your home is probably your biggest investment. To manage it, create a financial plan that takes into account repairs, upgrades, mortgages, insurance, and taxes.

Use a home financial plan budget worksheet, and start by writing a list of expenses, such as:

• Mortgage
• Taxes
• Home insurance, including liability
• Repairs and maintenance, such as new furnace, roof, painting
• Voluntary upgrades, such as a swimming pool, a premium range, a new powder room

What will you learn from this home financial plan weekend exercise?

• How much you have to spend
• How much you need to allot in the short- and long-term for necessary maintenance and voluntary improvements

With this newfound grip on your home’s expenses, you can create a home financial plan that’ll help you there for years with maximum enjoyment and minimum anxiety.

Here’s how to manage other aspects of your home finances:

The mortgage: Pay it — and then some
Insurance: Protect your property
Repairs and renovations: By choice or necessity
Taxes: (Almost) no way around them
The mortgage: Pay it—and then some

Yup, you already shell out a lot for your mortgage, but can you pay more? Even a little extra each month can add up to an earlier payoff. Let’s say you have $200,000 in outstanding principal and a 20-year fixed-rate mortgage at 5%. Your monthly payment is $1,319.91. But if you can manage to pay another $100 a month, you’ll save $14,887 in interest.

Run the numbers yourself for your home financial plan.

Advantages of an early payoff, says Alan D. Kahn, a financial planner in Syosset, N.Y.:

• Less debt means more money to spend later.
• It feels darn good to own your house outright as soon as possible.
• Minimal tax loss. Toward the tail end of the life of a loan most of your payment goes to the principal, not the interest, so you’re getting only a small tax break anyway.

Of course, if you’re still saving for retirement, put the 100 bucks elsewhere:

• A retirement plan
• An account for the inevitable home repairs
• An account for discretionary improvements, which can raise your home’s value

Insurance: Protect your property

Your vegetable garden is pointless without a fence to keep out rabbits; likewise, your home financial plan will come to nothing without an insurance “fence”:

Homeowner’s insurance. Basic coverage for your home and everything in it. The average cost is $636 per year but this varies widely by state.

Liability coverage. Protects you from a lawsuit if someone gets hurt on your property, for example. Your best bet: An umbrella policy. For about $300 a year you can by a typical $1 million policy.

Various disaster insurance policies. Optional policies cover flood, earthquake, and hurricane damage. As part of your home financial plan, you have to research to see what disaster coverage, if any, you need in your area, and what your standard policy already covers. For $540 a year you can buy flood insurance, for example.

Don’t under- or overbuy insurance

For your basic policy, get homeowners insurance with full replacement coverage in case your house burns to the ground.

That sounds simple, but heads up on calculation. Remember that you own a house as well as the land on which it sits. So even though you bought your home for $300,000, it may cost only $100,000 to rebuild it. Your policy limits should reflect this. This difference will vary widely by region.

Another heads up: Don’t make the common and potentially disastrous mistake of thinking that because your home has fallen in value you need less insurance. If you bought a $1.2 million townhouse in Florida during the boom, it’s true it now may only sell for $600,000. But the replacement cost of the townhouse hasn’t changed much, so you can’t improve your home financial plan by cutting insurance costs that way.

Other ways to cut your insurance budget:
• If you make structural improvements, such as adding storm shutters, your insurer may give you a break.
• If you belong to certain groups, such as AARP or veterans’ organizations, your premiums may be lower.
Repairs and renovations: By choice or necessity

You own a home, so you’ll be spending money on everything from a new faucet to — surprise! — a new roof. Freddie Mac and other authorities say as part of your home financial plan, you should be prepared to spend 1% to 3% of the market value of the home annually on maintenance. To be extra-prudent, open a savings account and make regular payments until your account reaches 1% to 3% of your home’s current value.

To help you budget:

Start with the inspection report you received when you bought the house. Did the inspector indicate that you would need a new roof in five years? A new furnace in 10?

Keep a log of your major appliances’ age so you can estimate when they’ll need replacing. Some estimated life spans:

• Roof: 20-25 years
• Heating systems: 15-20 years
• Range/ovens: 11-15 years
• Water heaters: 8-13 years

Then get estimates on what replacements will cost and start saving.

Consider ongoing non-emergency maintenance, too. Do you live in New England? Price a snow blower and get bids from plow services.

Resist the siren call of the home equity loan to take care of everything. That just defeats your efforts to pay off the mortgage early.

Separate out what you want from what you need. Does it make more sense to do a $50,000 to $60,000 kitchen remodel, which recoups about 69%, or a minor remodel, which recoups about 75%, according to Remodeling magazine’s 2013 Cost vs. Value Report?

If you can afford to redo, go for it. Just don’t confuse your necessary repairs (new oil furnace — about $4,000) with your discretionary upgrades (Viking range — $6,000 and up).

Taxes: (Almost) no way around them

Even if your lender handles your property taxes from an escrow account, you need to budget for them in your home financial plan. They creep up almost every year, it seems. Take responsibility for tracking the changes in your area: Look over past tax bills to get a sense of how quickly they’ve risen in the past.

Or if your lender handles escrow and you haven’t saved your bills, ask for an accounting. The median annual property tax payment is $1,812, but that hides the enormous range in medians from state to state.
You can generally deduct property taxes on your federal return. A tax pro can tell you how much of a tax break you’ll get, to help you fine tune your home financial plan.

You may be able to reduce your tax burden by getting a reassessment. Do your homework first: Are comparable houses taxed less than yours? Ask the local assessor what formula is used to set tax rates. You can challenge the assessed value and get yourself a rollback.

If you’re in a special group, you might get some help from state or local programs. Check around to see what’s available in your area. New York State, for example, has its Star Program for giving senior citizens some relief from school-related property taxes.

Katie Jones
Broker/REALTOR®
Keller Williams Realty
Direct 910.650.9598
Email Katie.Jones01@yahoo.com
http://newconstructionjacksonvillenc.com/

Jacksonville, NC real estate areas I specialize in: Carolina Plantations, Towne Point, Peyton’s Ridge Richlands & Jacksonville.

Buying Tips Jacksonville NC

If you are thinking of buying a house, here are a few things that will help you in making the decision once and for all...

Will You Stay Grounded in One Place?

If you are not going to stay in one place for more than five to six years, buying might not be the best option for you. Buying and selling property also have additional transactional costs. If you sell sooner, you might lose more money than you stand to gain. This is especially bad when the prices in the market are falling.

Can You Afford the House?

The general rule of thumb when it comes to buying a house is that you can afford it as long as it is within two and a half times your annual salary. You can also use other calculators available online to see if you can afford it and handle your debts.

You Can Qualify for a Loan

Even if you cannot afford the usual down payment, you will find many private and public lenders who will be interested in offering you mortgages with low-interest and small down payments.

Look for Good Schools

Besides the obvious advantage if you have children, good schools in the neighborhood come in handy when you sell the house as well. Houses in neighborhoods with good educational institutions are often top in the priority list for buyers and help in boosting the property value of the home.

Invest in a Real Estate Professional

A real estate professional will provide you with invaluable aid in the process of buying a house. You can also rely on Internet resources to help you with the process. However, no Internet resource can provide the same kind of wisdom and specific information as an actual professional agent.

Research Before You Bid

Look into the sales trend of homes that are similar to the home you are looking at, in the neighborhood. Concentrate on data for the last three months. If the homes in the neighborhood have sold at price that is 5 percent less than the asking price, your opening bid should be placed 8 to 10 percent lower than the asking price of the seller.

Home Inspection

Your lender will fix a home appraisal at any rate. However, this is done for the satisfaction of the bank. For your own purposes, hire a home inspector on your own as well. This home inspector could point out the potential problem areas within the house that might cost you in repairs in the long run.

Katie Jones
Broker/REALTOR®
Keller Williams Realty
Direct 910.650.9598
Email Katie.Jones01@yahoo.com
www.KatieJonesHomes.com

Jacksonville, NC real estate areas I specialize in: Carolina Plantations, Towne Point, Peyton’s Ridge Richlands & Jacksonville.

Buyers Agent Jacksonville NC Real Estate

When you are applying for a home mortgage loan, you will work closely with a mortgage broker. The broker acts as an intermediary between you and the financial institution. It is very important that you are honest and open with your broker to get the best results so that you can close your loan in peace. Here are some of the things that you need to discuss throughout the process.

Bank Accounts

Your mortgage broker needs to have recent information from all of you bank accounts. You should have records of the amount that you have set aside in your mutual funds or savings accounts. You also need to hand over the last few bank statements from your checking account.

Your mortgage specialist will use this information to verify the numbers that you have told him during the interview process. If you try to withhold information, such as overdraft charges or other negative data, it will show up on your bank statements. This may cause the broker to question the other information that you have told him.

Withholding negative information may also affect your eligibility for a loan. While it is possible to still get a loan despite problems with your accounts, you may end up paying a higher interest rate. However, this is better than being denied because you failed to be honest with your broker.

Fees

While it is important that you are honest with your broker, he also needs to be honest with you. He should fully disclose all costs and fees that are associated with obtaining the loan. These may include surveys, appraisals, notary fees and closing costs. You will also have to pay your mortgage broker for working on the loan.

While your mortgage broker will know ballpark figures, he may not know the exact cost of the fees that will be incurred throughout the loan process. You need to be open to the idea that these might change. The cost may also change as your loan is submitted to the lender. Banks often ask for additional reviews or information in order to feel comfortable approving the loan.

Your broker may be able to roll these extra fees into the mortgage. If not, then you may have to bring money to closing.

When you and your mortgage broker don’t communicate effectively, it can make the loan process even more difficult. Keep the lines of communication open, and you will find that everyone is happier and that you won’t be wasting each other’s time.

Katie Jones
Broker/REALTOR®
Keller Williams Realty
Direct 910.650.9598
Email Katie.Jones01@yahoo.com
www.KatieJonesHomes.com

Jacksonville, NC real estate areas I specialize in: Carolina Plantations, Towne Point, Peyton’s Ridge Richlands & Jacksonville.

Foreclosures in Jacksonville NC...The F-word in Real Estate

Finding a nice home for a good price can sometimes be difficult. Foreclosure homes for sale are a good option for those who cannot afford a new home that is in great shape, but they can afford a home that is a fixer-upper. Some people have the ability to fix up a home and make it like new. If you have this ability, then you should take advantage of it and save money on a house that has potential.

Buying a foreclosure can be a little scary. Sometimes some awful things have been done to them. You would be wise to go through the house and take note of all of the issues. You should then figure out the cost to have the repairs made. Add that amount to the asking price, and you will know the total cost to you. You will probably go down a little in the price that you offer, but it will at least be close.

Homes for sale that were foreclosures are often in the shape they are in because the people who lived there were angry that they had to leave. These people often ruin the home so that it is of less value to the ones who are taking it from them.

There are other homes for sale that are not foreclosures but are still fixer-uppers. They will still cost less than your average house that is being sold, but it will take a lot of work.

It is so sad that the people who owned the foreclosures had to lose everything. Think about this as you are looking at homes for sale. It is important that you do not make the same mistake as the prior owner. It might be tempting to spend a lot in fixing up a home like this because the initial cost was so little. Things add up quickly though, and you could soon find yourself too far in debt.

As you fix up a foreclosure, you should really plan the repairs according to necessity. If the plumbing is messed up then that is an initial step to consider. Electricity is another important one. It should be inspected to make sure it is safe to try and turn on.

You might need to have some extermination done right away. Rug removal or extreme cleaning might be something important to do as well. You never know what may be on the carpets. Your bathroom and your kitchen need to be in working order. You also may need some form of heat if it is cold outside.

Homes for sale that are foreclosures have a certain draw to the individual who likes a challenge. If you find a home like this for a good price, take the challenge and make a profit on the reselling of it.

Katie Jones
Broker/REALTOR®
Keller Williams Realty
Direct 910.650.9598
Email Katie.Jones01@yahoo.com
www.KatieJonesHomes.com

Jacksonville, NC real estate areas I specialize in: Carolina Plantations, Towne Point, Peyton’s Ridge Richlands & Jacksonville.

Why buy a home now in Jacksonville NC

When it comes to buying real estate, some people remain worried. Is the market stable? Will your investment make you money in the long term? In many cases, the answer to this is yes. You do need to work with an agent you can trust to help you to find the right property for your needs. You also want to be sure that the purchase you make is one made on solid financial ground. Looking to the long term, this is still a good purchase option for many individuals. It has plenty to offer to you, and it can be a safe investment.

The Rates Are Lower

If you plan to purchase and sell right away, you may find it harder to do if you don’t put any value into the property. However, for those purchasing real estate to build a dream home or a home to live in, the value is there in most areas throughout the country. One of the reasons for this is the lower overall pricing on property right now. It simply costs less to buy property today than it did a few years ago. Though prices are climbing in some areas, it is still a good deal right now.

Interest Rates Are Lower

The current interest rate market is ideal for big investments. If you used to pay eight to ten percent on your home’s mortgage a few decades ago, you may be leery about buying now. Don’t be. Many people are able to get a significantly lower interest rate on mortgage loans. This means that you will find great loan offers that translate into lower monthly payments and a lower cost overall to buy your home.

Property Is Available

It is a buyer’s market in many areas of the country. You will find large areas of land available to you. You’ll find properties in the limited, high-end areas of any city. You may even find your dream home just waiting for you on the market. If you have been putting off buying because you didn’t know your options were available, think again. Most areas have plenty of real estate on the market ready to be bought. All that is required is for you to fall in love with a home to make this purchase a good one.

Before you buy real estate, work with an agent to learn as much as you can about the current landscape in your area. Find out what the value of property is, how long it is sitting on the market, and whether or not it is a buyer’s market. That way, you can feel good about buying now and getting into your dream home.

Katie Jones
Broker/REALTOR®
Keller Williams Realty
Direct   910.650.9598
Email  Katie.Jones01@yahoo.com
www.KatieJonesHomes.com

Selling a home in Jacksonville NC?

If you are planning to buy a new home then you already know how important it is to get rid of the old one. If you do not sell the house you currently have, it can be difficult to buy a new one. If you can’t sell the old house, you probably won’t have the money that you’ll require for the brand new one. Many people find new houses in a price range that they can only afford with the sale of their previous home. If that’s the case, you’ll need a quick house sale.

Without a quick house sale, you might fail to see that awesome house that you truly desire as you do not have the money. You certainly don’t want that. Therefore you must ensure that you could sell the house you already have quickly. Now, how will you accomplish that? You’re going to need some assistance. That could mean going to a dealer. A dealer can put your property up in the marketplace and with luck, will be able to sell it easily. Obviously, with the industry the way it is getting a quick house sale with a regular Realtor could be hard.

An agent will put your property up on the market but will not do something more. All they will carry out is put your property in the marketplace with a good outline and wish that someone will be interested. Which means for a quick house sale a dealer most likely isn’t your best option. They will likely have a lot of different houses they are trying to sell in a market that doesn’t have several sales. You’d be one in more than 20 probably.

If you’d like more personalized support then you will most likely want one thing aside from a broker. You will need someone who can concentrate on your particular house which has a much better rate of sale. The right way to get a quick house sale is to cooperate with a company that buys and sells houses as part of their business. These folks don’t make a profit when they’re not selling homes, unlike an agent who makes a fee of your stuff just for placing your property in the marketplace. These firms must sell your house quick to get a penny.

This means that if you want to make a quick house sale you will want to ensure that you work with a firm that specializes in buying and selling homes like yours. These companies will sell your home quicker than a broker since they know how to sell and where they will be able to obtain the best cash for your house. All you have to do is use the ideal firm in London to work with. You’ll find different options but you want one with an outstanding reputation for selling properties.

If you are planning to get a new house, you will want to be sure you have enough money. That means you have to be capable of making a quick house sale so that you will have enough cash to get the new house. So how will you make a quick house sale? You’re going to want to make sure that you find a person who has the ability to do just that. A dealer might have a tough time selling your home in this market however, a firm in the industry of buying and selling houses will not.

There are many ways to have quick house sales in order to help you sell house quickly. All you have to do is to take advantage of how to do it. You can be helped when you get the best service when it comes to it.

Katie Jones
Broker/REALTOR®
Keller Williams Realty
Direct   910.650.9598
Email  Katie.Jones01@yahoo.com

www.KatieJonesHomes.com