Renting a home obviously is the easiest of these three transactions. In order to rent a home, usually the client needs to sign a lease. The lease is the contract between the leasee and the landlord. Typically, the lease outlines the requirements that the leasee needs to meet each month. It also outlines the the rent and the other costs associated with the renting of the home/apt.
It will also tell you about pets and the need for insurance if required. One thing to remember, as a renter, you are responsible to maintain the property in its current condition. If you damage the property, the landlord has the right to subtract the costs of repairs from your security deposit, which is typically one to two months of rent collected up front. Selling a home can be a little tricky. Some people try to sell their home on their own, without the help of a real estate agent. Obviously, if you don’t use an agent, you will probably save about 6% which is the typical fee the real estate agent will charge. However, most people believe that the 6% is well worth it.
The agent will list the property on the internet, but also put it on a Multi-listing service that most Agents subscribe to. This can give your home the exposure that it needs in order to be sold. One final thought on selling a home, its important to make all the minor repairs to the home that need to be made. People want a home in move-in condition, they won’t want somebody else’s problems. Buying a home can be very challenging. The first step should be selecting a lender to help you decide how much you can spend on your home. In my opinion, you should have at least 10% down on a home that you are looking to buy. For example, if the home cost is $100,000, you should have $10,000.00 to put down. Don’t forget, closing costs on a home like that could run you about $3,500.00.
The more money you can put down, the better it will be for you, more of a down payment means a smaller monthly payment and typically, less over all interest paid to the bank. After that, you can try meeting with a real estate agent, they should have a variety of properties for you to choose from. The multi-listing service (MLS) is a very good way to search for properties. Remember, the real estate agent usually does not charge the buyer because they are paid by the seller of the property. Other people try to find homes on their own, that seems to be a bit more complicated, especially if you’ve never purchased a home before. In my opinion, a real estate agent is the way to go.

When buying a home look for a fixer upper in an excellent neighborhood. Look to see if the surrounding homes are of great and higher value. Never buy a home if it is the best looking and most expensive home on the street. The higher value of the other homes will increase your value of your home even if it needs repairs. When selling a home always make cosmetic improvements especially to the outside.

Paint windows and paint front door, paint is the most inexpensive way to brighten and improve the outside and inside. When showing your home to potential buyers, always clean. A clean home will sell quicker than a cluttered dirty one. Having to rent because of relocating or renting because you need a place to stay while you are building your own home can be very helpful.

There are all different kinds of leases just make sure you pick the right one for you. Be very careful on what you sign your name to. Some land lords accept pets, some don’t. I have been one of those people that have rented and moved out leaving the property in better shape than when I first moved in. Renting can be a pleasant experience if you and the owner are compatible.

Here is some advice for buying a home anywhere in the United Staes, for the first time home buyer or the more experienced buyer. This is especially true for individuals buying out of state or in an unfamiliar real estate marker.

First, decide what you want in a home: number of bedrooms and bathrooms, size of lot, amenities, etc. Stick as closely to this plan as possible keeping in mind that no houise will fit your bill 100%.

Second, thoroughly research the area you would like to buy in: what is its economy like? Where are the better neighborhoods? What area can you afford? What is the crime rate? How close are youto schools, banks, shopping, etc.?

Third, perform some online research with reputable internet sites. Look up the area and price range you are interested in. See what is available in the area of interest.

Fourth, interview at least 3 Real Estate firms. Come to the table with a set list of questions of what you are looking for in a home AND a realtor. Determine how much experience they have in the field and what their sell rate is or how quickly they in particular turn over homes. How aggressive are they willing to be for you? Choose a company you feel youcan work with. Trust your gut.

Fifth, once you feel you have a home you are very interested in, locate a very reputable home inspection service. Find out what they exactly look for and how thorough they will be. Do they look under the house? In the attic? at the plumbing? The more thorough the better.

Sixth, if the home is not brand new and especially if it is more than 30 + years old, ask the realtor specific questions such as: how old is the furnace (air conditioning), what does it cost to heat(cool)the home? If the home has a water heater, get the age. Have the owners had to make any plumbing repairs recently(within the past year). Has there ever been water in teh basement, or a flood in the basement? When was the roof last replaced? Are there any leaks? Is there any asbestos in the home? Are there any termites, bugs, spiders, mice, stc. When was the last time it was treated for termites or other insects/rodents? When was the fireplace last thoroughly cleaned out?

Seventh, if you cannot get satisfactory answers to any of these questions, do not go through with the sale unless you have an unlimites source of money to make all these repairs! These suggestions will help keep your dream home from becoming a living nightmare!

When buying a home in the US, there are various simple steps to take. If you follow these, you can avoid unnecessary delays, confusion and of course, the stress. First of all, find out what you can “afford”. This depends on your income, monthly expenses, whether you have a good credit rating, if you are able to put down a deposit and how much interest you will be paying. Talk to various lenders and compare their costs and interest rates with regards to a loan. Negotiate for a better deal and consider getting pre-approved for a loan.

There may be various local home buying programs sponsored by your state, local government or other organizations, especially if you are a first time home buyer. Start to shop for a home by choosing a real estate agent. Put together your “wish list”, in other words, what features do you want in your home. Is it better to buy an already built home or do you want to have your home built.

When you find a house you like, make an offer but request a professional home inspection which will tell you about the condition of the home and in turn help you avoid additional expenses towards major repairs. Start to shop around for homeowners’ insurance and make a note of the various ways you can lower the insurance costs. Finally you are ready to “settle” the deal. Be sure to read everything (even the small print), before you sign any documents.

Home buying help - buying a home should be one of the most exciting times in your life. But often times the fun is overshadowed by anxiety — anxiety as a result of not really understanding your own housing needs and financial situation, and not thoroughly understanding the home buying process.

A little research and honest self-evaluation will go a long way towards providing a pleasant, trouble free home buying experience. First, determine if you really are ready to become a home owner. A question to ask when buying a home: Do you have a stable income and do you plan to stay in this home for at least a few years? Can you afford the payments on a home? Determine what price range you truly can afford and reconcile that in your mind before beginning your search.

Talk to a financial advisor or a mortgage lender for more advice. Second, take advantage of the information explosion of the internet. The internet is now one of your best tools for researching the real estate market and for helping you narrow down your prospective homes. View thousands of homes from the comfort of your own home — not only the homes you are thinking about buying, but as many homes as possible to help you determine your likes and dislikes, your favorite area to live, the type of home you like, styles that appeal to you, etc.

From all of this information that you have gathered, make a detailed “Buying a Home Checklist” of everything that you want in a home. Third, talk to real estate agents, family, and friends about the local real estate market and their home buying experiences. Get as much information as possible so that you can avoid any mistakes others have made and create a smooth home buying experience for yourself. Fourth, take the time to drive by the areas that interest you.

Go to open houses to see what different houses and areas look and feel like. Try to get a feel for the area. Determine if the area is a good fit for you. Talk to the real estate agents at the open houses. Use this time to weed out realtors that will not be a good fit for you and try to find some that have the same philosophy as you. Add the potential realtors to a list of agents that could possibly work for you. Fifth, choose your real estate agent and get serious about the house hunting. Once you find the home you have been looking for, close the deal. This part entails a lot of paperwork, but the end result is that you FINALLY hold the keys to your new home!

If you are planning on selling your home, I would suggest starting with a really popular realtor. Find someone who has been doing this for some time.

Make sure that when it comes to the listing price, you don’t always follow their advice because they just want to make money. You should find out what the other homes in your area are selling for. When it comes to showing your home, make sure it smells good. You can either light candles or bake cookies in the oven.

Also, clean out your clutter. Make the rooms look neat and roomy. If it needs painting, do it. Keep the kid’s toys put away and especially in the kitchen, less is better on the counters. The most important thing is curb appeal. If your house doesn’t look good from the outside, no one is going to want to come inside.

Trim the bushes, mow the grass, etc. Only give the realtor a limited amount of time to list your house, such as two or three months. If they can’t do anything by then, drop them and either sell it yourself or look for a new realtor.

With the housing market facing some major headwinds, local real estate agents are looking to tap into buyers interested in “going green.”

The South Central Wisconsin Multiple Listing Service has just launched a feature that allows homes to be screened for their environmentally-friendly features.

That could include searches for Green Built Homes, Wisconsin EnergyStar Homes or homes with other elements like EnergyStar appliances. Previously, there was no way to search the MLS for a home that was green built certified or energy efficient.

South Central Wisconsin is only the fourth MLS nationwide to add this type of green search category — following Seattle, St. Louis and Portland, Ore.

“With all the negativity of the market right now, it is exciting to see such positive change and I think it was an important move by our local MLS to bring us to the front lines of the green movement,” said Sara Alvarado, Broker/Owner of Alvarado Realty Estate Group.

Alvarado has been active in a group called Madison’s Green Agents that urged the MLS board of directors to approve a new searchable category for “Environmentally Friendly Features and Green Homes.” She said the interest in protecting the environment is a lifestyle that many people want reflected in their home choices.

“If we don’t set the standards for what a green home really is, then we can’t properly market one or help a buyer purchase one,” she said.

The South Central Wisconsin MLS works as a clearinghouse through which more than 500 local real estate firms exchange information on properties they have listed for sale. It covers Dane, Columbia, Dodge, Grant, Green, Iowa, Lafayette, Rock and Sauk counties plus parts of Adams, Crawford, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Jefferson, Juneau, Marquette, Monroe, Richland, Vernon, Walworth and Waushara counties.

CHEYENNE - The number of licensed mortgage brokers and lenders in Wyoming decreased by more than 20 percent last year compared to 2006, according to the state agency that oversees the industry.

The decline is in part the result of the state not renewing the mortgage licenses of vendors whose lending practices violated state or federal law, said Jeffrey Vogel, Wyoming’s banking commissioner.

He said others voluntary handed in their licenses because they did not have enough business.

Starting July 1, the oversight of who is authorized to work in the mortgage industry in Wyoming is due to become more stringent. That is when amendments to the Wyoming Residential Mortgage Practices Act go into effect.

Those involved with the legislation passed this year say the most important change is the authorization to perform a national criminal background check, complete with fingerprinting, on license applicants. State officials are specifically looking to see if an applicant has been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony related to the financial sector.

“We need to know what they’ve done outside the state before they come into Wyoming to do business with residents,” Vogel said.

The amended law gives Wyoming the authority to participate in the National Mortgage Licensing System, which includes a database that allows regulators to view the history of mortgage companies and individual brokers and lenders.

When applicants previously sought a license, they were asked to voluntary divulge and explain their relevant criminal history. The ability to share information with other states was limited.

David R. Johnson, executive director of the Wyoming Bankers Association, said the association fully supports the increased accountability.

“We think knowing who you’re doing business with and something of their business record and past history is very important, and this bill allows that to happen,” he said.

At last count, Johnson said, 42 states, including Wyoming, had either signed up for the national registry or passed legislation to participate in the database.

State Rep. Amy Edmonds, R-Cheyenne, is a member of the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee, which sponsored the legislation.

Edmonds said in debating the law, legislators weighed the responsibility between protecting consumers from dishonest mortgage dealers and not making the requirements too stringent that it will be difficult for small lenders to stay in business.

She believes the legislation accomplishes both objectives by preventing companies from coming into Wyoming, fleecing prospective homeowners with a mortgage and then leaving the state.

“That’s the biggest pressure a family is going to make during their lifetime, and we want to make sure we’re protecting them,” she said.

In 2005, there were 444 state-licensed mortgage brokers and lenders in Wyoming. The number jumped to 1,196 in 2006 before dropping to 926 at the end of last year, according to the Banking Division within the Wyoming Department of Audit, which oversees the issuance and annual renewal of the licenses.

Vogel explained that the small number in 2005 was due to the Wyoming Residential Mortgage Practices Act not going into effect until July 1 that year.

During the third quarter of 2007, Vogel said Wyoming had one of the lowest foreclosure rates in the nation, based on a compilation of statistics by RealtyTrac.com, the Federal Reserve and the Mortgage Brokers Association.

“I don’t see a big number escalation in the number of foreclosed-upon properties in Wyoming,” he said.

The recent amendments to the act may not be the end of refining the state’s licensing standards. There currently is no uniform requirement for applicants to have education specific to the lending industry.

“That’s something that will probably need to be out there in the future,” Vogel said.

As president of the 6,500-member New Hampshire Association of Realtors, I was disappointed to see the Sunday Monitor recently fall into the trap of presenting national news as a local story (”Is this a good time to buy a home?” Business section, March 2), ultimately presenting a conclusion (”Well, no, stay on the sidelines a bit longer”) that is far too general to be relevant.

Just as one wouldn’t turn to the national weather forecast to determine whether it’s a good day for a raincoat, a bankrate.com story about national real estate trends is unlikely to provide worthwhile direction for a prospective buyer in New Hampshire.

What’s more, the story went on to provide evidence contrary to its own conclusion - “In some markets . . . the outlook for prospective first-time homebuyers is much better” - leaving the reader to wonder where New Hampshire fits into the picture.

Now that you asked: In fact, New Hampshire is far more closely aligned with the states provided as examples of “better” markets than it is with the “troubled markets such as Florida and California.” While the median price in the nation’s worst residential real estate markets dropped by as much as 12 percent from 2006 to 2007, and while the national average decline for that period was 3.3 percent, New Hampshire’s median price fell by a relatively modest 1.6 percent.

For a little historical perspective, there’s no doubt that a correction was in order following seven years (1998-2005) during which the average median price increase of residential homes in our state was a breathtaking 16 percent. But New Hampshire’s corrective two years since have each seen median-price declines of less than 2 percent, a trend far more accurately described as “leveling” than “plummeting” or “crumbling.” No, it’s not a perfectly rosy market - sales volume is down and inventory is up - but those of us who have been in this business for decades as opposed to months know that market cycles are a fact of life. We’re not panicking.

There is no single right answer for the broad spectrum of prospective home buyers out there. Our business as Realtors is not to blindly sell homes but to give a proper, honest assessment to each individual client as to what is in his or her best interest.

Every market is unique, which is why we encourage everyone, with the help of a local Realtor, to look at his or her own circumstance before determining whether it’s best to act now or later.

(Jim Lyons is president of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.)

Rhode Island’s real-estate market in January continued to deteriorate, as house prices recorded their steepest month-over-month decline in 19 years, according to a report released yesterday by The Warren Group.

The median price of a single-family house in Rhode Island fell 12.8 percent compared with the previous January — nearly three times the rate in Massachusetts — to $235,000. That marks the largest monthly decline in Rhode Island house prices since the Boston-based research firm began tracking the market in 1989.

The median condo price in Rhode Island fell 13 percent, to $206,500, compared with $237,500 a year earlier, the report said.

Until now, the price declines could be blamed partly on the large number of properties being repurchased by banks at foreclosure auctions. Typically, banks repossess properties to cover the outstanding balances on loans, which may be substantially less than the market value.

The Warren Group’s latest report, however, attempts to more accurately measure the market by excluding from its calculations all properties that banks repurchased at foreclosure auctions, sales between family members and other “non-arm’s length” sales because they tend to distort the statistics, said the research group’s data analyst, Alan Pasnik.

Rhode Island’s prices fell far more sharply than in Massachusetts, where the median price of a single-family house in January dipped 4.4 percent, to $325,000, The Warren Group reported. The median condo price in Massachusetts during the same period ticked down 1.5 percent, to $270,000.

“In a small state like Rhode Island, month-by-month numbers do not always indicate trends,” the company’s chief executive, Timothy Warren Jr., said in a statement. “But we have seen declines in single-family home sales hover around 20 percent for the past five months, and monthly price drops leading up to January have been pushing toward 10 percent.”

Rhode Island’s single-family house sales in January fell 24.3 percent, to 393, compared with 519 sales in January of last year. Condo sales during the same period declined 26.2 percent, to 127, compared with 172 sales a year earlier, the report said.

The Warren Group reported single-family house price declines in Providence, Kent and Washington Counties.

Newport and Bristol Counties reported that prices rose 7.2 percent and 25.5 percent, respectively. (The data do not include Barrington, because the town assessor’s office does not differentiate between types of residential properties or residential and commercial sales.) The median condo price fell in every county except for Bristol, where the median rose about 1.4 percent, The Warren Group reported.