Austin Property Talk

Link it Up

4 Links to interesting news & insight about homes, home loans and the real estate market for you on this Friday.  

You want to buy a foreclosure? Remember, there are both great opportunities and great pressures and pitfalls in this market.  First, you have to decide at what stage of foreclosure you want to buy. There are three options: 1. pre-foreclosure; 2. sheriff's auction; 3. repossession, called REO (for real estate owned by the bank). How to Buy a Foreclosure

The number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase homes surged more than expected in March, another sign that government incentives are propelling the housing market this spring. Pending Home Sales Rise 5.3 Percent.  

Taxpayers who labored to meet the April 15 deadline face an even more daunting endeavor: figuring out which documents to save and which can be safely assigned to the shredder.  Save it or Shred it?

You probably know that boosting your home's curb appeal is one of the most important ways to maximize its value. But that doesn't mean you need to take on a pricey job like replacing the windows or installing a blue-stone walk. In fact, you'll probably get a bigger bang for your buck with upkeep that costs a few hundred dollars at most -- like touching up the paint, mulching planting beds, and staining fences and decks.  The Best Outdoor Jobs to Tackle Now

6 Biggest Mistakes Home Buyers Make

CNNMoney.com posted an article on Monday about some of the biggest mistakes that uninformed home buyers make when they go through the process of purchasing a home.  These mistakes can become all the more prevalent with the approaching expiration deadline of the Federal Tax Credits.  Home buyers must be "under contract" by April 30th in order to qualify for either the $8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit or the $6500 Repeat Home Buyer Tax Credit. 

As a result, the tendency is to try to skirt the normal time lines for purchasing a house in order to force a potential purchase that will qualify for one of these incentives.  This is further evidence as to why it is so important to seek out a trusted adviser, a skilled REALTOR who will guide you through the process helping you to avoid careless mistakes and/or oversights.   

According to this article, some of the biggest mistakes that buyers make include:

1) Not knowing your credit score before you start the process.  The differences in interest rate and loan fees can be significant for just a 20-30 point difference in your credit score.  Knowing that up front can help you to take the necessary steps to address errors and clean up glitches.  

2) Making large purchases on credit prior to or during the processing of your new home loan.   Making purchases such as a new car, furniture or appliances on store credit or your Mastercard can significantly effect your ability to secure the proper financing for your home purchase.  

3) Skimping on a Home Inspection.   If you ever watch those HGTV or TLC shows with novice house flippers or investors, one of the biggest mistakes some of them make is failing to have a home inspection.  They think that because the house is a "fixer-upper" anyway, the money spent on an inspection is pointless.  Same holds true for a regular home purchase.  Money spent on a home inspection is well worth it.  

4) Overlooking contract contingencies.  When a contract in Texas is written properly, there should be at least two major contingencies written into every offer.  The first is the option period which gives you a certain period of time to complete inspections and negotiate repairs.  The second is a financing contingency period which gives you an extended deadline to finalize your loan.  Both are meant to protect the buyer and save you money.  Again, all the more reason to seek advice from someone who has skills and knowledge in the real estate field.  

5) Not budgeting for Property Taxes and Insurance.   In Central Texas we are fortunate the we usually don't have to carry expensive insurance policies against major flood and natural disasters.  However, in other parts of the country, those can be a large added expense.  In Texas we do have to budget for higher property taxes than in other parts of the country.  Depending on the value and location of your house, taxes and insurance can run an extra $400-700 a month on top your mortgage principle and interest.  

While the road to home ownership can sometimes seem wrought with pot holes, as long as you are working with a professional, such as a REALTOR, who will educate you, you should not run into as many obstacles.  On the flip side, the road is littered with unfortunate stories of people who thought they could do it on their own or who wanted to save a buck and ultimately ended up in a nightmare situation. 

Buyer's representation on a home purchase is essentially free to you so you might as well take advantage of it.  I've put together a whole library of buyer's resources to help guide you along the way on your home purchase and protect you from unforeseen incident. 

Link it Up

4 Links to interesting news & insight about homes, home loans and the real estate market for you on this Friday.  

What's that in your mailbox (or directly deposited into your checking account)?  Woo-hoo -- your tax refund from the IRS! But that giddy feeling can lead you to squander most or all of the dough on stuff you don't really need. Here are three ways to make it easier to save at least some of it. (How to Save some of your Tax Refund)

Mortgage rates yesterday ended a rally streak that brought consumer borrowing costs back down toward their best levels of 2010. Almost erasing all the losses experienced before and after the Federal Reserve exited the secondary mortgage market. (Mortgage Rates Give Back Gains after Steady Winning Streak)

Spring in Texas: Bulbs blooming. Hail pounding your roof. There's nothing quite like that helpless, sinking feeling of wondering how many thousands of dollars you'll be out or worrying about what's happening to the new home you're trying to buy. (Know what to do when Hail and your Roof Meet)

Austin ranked 18th on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listing of metropolitan areas with energy efficient buildings, falling behind both Houston and Dallas. Read more: (Austin ranks 18th on green building list, behind Dallas and Houston - Austin Business Journal:)

Fancy Hands

I always have my eye out for cool ideas.  I subscribe to a lot of blogs in my Google Reader, but I'll admit I rarely devote the time necessary to get through them many of them.  There is one blog/website in particular that I check on a regular basis.  Daily Dashboard is a website by Dean Jackson and his wife Sony.  Its geared toward real estate agents but they usually post interesting content. 

This morning I went over there to see what they have posted recently and I came across a post that Dean wrote yesterday about Fancy Hands.  Fancy Hands (@fancyhands)?  What is Fancy Hands?

Fancy Hands promotes itself as "Personal Assistants in the Cloud"  Okay, still what the heck is that?

Well, Fancy Hands is a new start up side project by Ted Roden that provides a blanket virtual assistance service for all tasks menial.  For an introductory rate of $30 per month, the team of assistants at Fancy Hands will take 15 small tasks off of your plate.  These tasks can range from calling to make a dinner reservation to scheduling car service to researching Fantasy Baseball statistics for your upcoming draft.  You just send Fancy Hands an email with instructions for what you want to accomplish and they take it off your plate.  This frees your time up to spend on something more important. 

"It's not about the value of the task, it's about the value of me not having to do it, or even think about it anymore." That is how Ted Roden describes Fancy Hands.  

When you think about it, that is pretty cool.  For example, on my way home late last night, my Service Engine Soon light came on.  I have been holding off on getting service done on my Infiniti because I don't want to take it into the dealership anymore.  They always take one of my arms and one of my legs when I'm done servicing my car there.   Maybe Ill get fancy hands to research a local shop that can service my car in the next day or two because I don't have the time or the desire to research it myself.   

In his post on Daily Dashboard, you'll see that Dean asked for some help in finding a local store that had an IPAD in stock for him to pick up over the weekend.   The response that he got was pretty neat and probably saved him a good 30-45 minutes of research.   And that is just one task.  He gets 14 more.  My guess would be that this service wont be this affordable for long but it might be worth giving a test run at such a low introductory price. 

Here is another review/article about Fancy Hands.

Link it Up

5 Links to interesting news & insight about homes, home loans and the real estate market for you on this Friday. 

Austin space is the place. Texas' capital largely avoided the brunt of the recession because there was no home appreciation bubble to burst. At about 4 percent, the city enjoys one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation . . . (Hottest Housing Markets for 2010)

Think you spend lots of money in your city? According to a study by Bundle.com, residents of Austin, Texas spent an average of $67,076 a year on non-real estate purchases, putting it ahead of Scottsdale, Arizona and San Jose, California as the highest spending metro areas in the US. (Austin Texas Named Highest Spending City in US)

Central Texas builders started nearly 31 percent more homes in the first three months of this year compared with a year earlier, the first year-over-year quarterly increase in 3½ years and a sign the local housing market may be turning around.  (Austin New Home Starts Jump)

Attention shoppers: You have barely a month left before the homebuyer tax credit expires. But depending on where you live, you might not want to rush out to buy. First-time homebuyers may qualify for up to $8000, while those who are trading up could get as much as $6,500. But either way, buyers have to ink sales contracts by the end of April and close before July 1 to see the refund. (30 Days and Counting: Homebuyer Tax Credit Expires)

April 1, is day one in the mortgage market’s expedition into uncharted territory — uncharted in the sense that mortgage rates have been corralled by the Fed’s MBS-purchase program for well over a year now. The big question — the 800-pound gorilla in the room, if you will — has been, “what will happen to mortgage rates now that the Fed has stepped out of the picture?”  (Predictions abound as Mortgage Market Enters Uncharted Territory)