Grand Rapids Michigan Real Estate Blog

HUD Good Neighbor Next Door Home Sales Program

This HUD program is available to a select group:

• Law enforcement officers
• Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade teachers
• Firefighters
• Emergency medical technicians

These buyers are offered a discount of 50% from the list price of a HUD home.

The buyer must remain in the home for 36 months and be your sole residence.

The program is being offered in certain areas, revitalization areas, are listed

only for sales through the Good Neighbor Next Door Sales program for purchase

through the program for five days.

HUD requires that you sign a second mortgage and note for the discount amount.

No interest or payments are required on this "silent second" provided that you

fulfill the three-year occupancy requirement.

The number of properties available is limited and the list of available properties

changes weekly. To learn more, go to Good Neighbor Next Door.

Originally published at Grand Rapids Real Estate Blog

Top 5  Items on a Grand Rapids Home Buying List

What does your future home look like? Where is it located?

As you hunt down your dream home, consult this list to evaluate

properties and keep your priorities in the top of your mind.

  1.  Neighborhoods

What neighborhoods do you prefer?

  2.   Schools

What school systems do you want to be near?

  3.  Transportation

How close must the home be to these amenities:

• Public transportation                         
• Airport
• Expressway
• Neighborhood shopping
• Schools
• Other

  4. Home Style

• What architectural style(s) of homes do you prefer?
• Do you want to buy a home, condominium, or townhome?
• Would you like a one-story or two-story home?
• How many bedrooms must your new home have?

  5. Home Condition

• How many bathrooms must your new home have?
• Do you prefer a new home or an existing home?
• If you’re looking for an existing home, how old of a home would you consider?
• How much repair or renovation would you be willing to do?
• Do you have special needs that your home must meet?

    Important Home Features:

• Front Yard
• Back Yard
• Garage(___cars)
• Patio/Deck
• Pool
• Family Room
• Formal Living Room
• Formal Dining Room
• Eat in Kitchen
• Laundry Room
• Finished Basement
• Attic
• Fireplace
• Spa in Bath
• Air Conditioning
• Wall to wall carpet
• Wood Floors
• Great View

Give Terry a call when you are ready to look for your new home.  We can set up

a daily MLS search that can send new listings right to your inbox - no more searching - 

see the latest new listings that meet your criteria as soon as they arrive.

Syndicated form Grand Rapids Real Estate Blog

Even though Eleanor is in North Carolina, requirements for a mortgage today

require lots of paperwork and detail checking wherever you live.  After reading Eleanor's

blog post, it should give you some idea of what we are all dealing with on a daily basis.

If you can react quickly to all requests, it could make your closing happen faster.

Every delay could foster another document or two.

 And try to be patient with the process, it is exasperating for everyone!!

If you are renting and sharing an apartment with room-mates, this video will

 give you a few laughs. It might inspire you to buy a home and take advantage

 of the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit up to $8000.  There are still bargains

to be had and home inventories are still fairly high.  Overall home prices are

down to 1998 levels but we have seen keen competition on well priced homes

 in great condition.

Michigan Association of Realtors Video

Last February we received a call on a property that had been foreclosed on

 by HUD (Housing & Urban Development).  The buyer was looking to

purchase the house and rehab the property.

When we met the buyer, his thoughts were to purchase it and put

 his daughter in as a tenant. This sounded like a great idea and after

looking as his 401k, a smart use of what money he still had in his account.

In Michigan the process to buy a HUD-owned home is similar to a number of states.

The offer is presented on line -  if you are successful in your bid you have 24

hours to supply the paperwork to the attorney firm that is handling the process.

All went quite well and HUD accepted our offer on the property.

Now we wanted to do inspections. As is typical in vacant HUD properties, we

need to turn the utilities on to do the inspections. The local power company

would not turn the power on  until an electrical upgrade was completed.

We called the attorney firm and they indicated another department in Arizona

took care of that. It would take a few days to get the quotes in to authorize

 the upgrade. As it turns out, they need  3 quotes and the guy in Arizona only

had 2 approved contractors. After a few weeks of waiting we did our own quote

and called the attorney and asked if we could do the upgrade at no cost to HUD

 and then do our inspections.

 The answer: No, they would not allow anyone in the house that was not approved. 

I went through the layers of management to get to a supervisor that indicated he

"was all over this" and he would make it happen. Another month of phone calls

and frustration finally got the bids in and received a call from another department.

This department indicated the bids were in but now they had to check with HUD to

see if they would do the work since all properties were purchased "as is". I asked why

they did not mention that we would not have the opportunity to do our inspections

before we had gone through nearly 3 months of waiting.

He did not have an answer but would get back to us.

Finally approved but the approved contractor could not get to the job for a while. 

The buyer, totally frustrated by now, decided he still wanted the property. With

nearly  3 months of phone calls and lack of actionby HUD, he offered to buy

the home if  they would give a credit at close for the electrical repairs.

The calls were made and the approval granted. FINALLY!!!

Now we have 3 days to get the home closed before the offer expires. 

If not closed in 3 days, we would have to file for an extension of the agreement

which might cost the buyer because he had not closed in a timely manner.

We did close on the last possible day without too much issue. 

Why do we do this?

 Because the buyer is so happy!  The Buyer's daughter actually bought the

 home and has a mortgage from the parents so she can get the

"First Time Buyer Home Credit".

They are happily cleaning and preparing to move in to the home.  The electric

is upgraded and the repairs are being completed. 

The moral of the story:

In this housing market, buyers that never would have been able to buy can own

a home ------- if they have patience to go through the process.

**Having a parent or relative fund the mortgage is another option to a bank

 mortgage.

The $ Benefits of the First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit

Buying with the 2009 First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit Video

If you have the patience to buy a HUD-owned home or other  foreclosure

Home, please contact us at 1-888-240-1968 ext 0 or email us at:

terry@terrywestbrook.com

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty

Copyright 2009 All rights reserved

A short video to discuss the 2009 tax credit for first time home buyers:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

There is additional information on my blog:

First Time Buyers $ Benefits in the 2009 Tax Credit

Give me a call if you have any questions about the tax credit and how it can

benefit you in purchasing your first home: 1-888-240-1968 ext 0

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty

Copyright 2009 all rights reserved

The first attempt to give a credit to buyers last year seemed very limited in

 benefits. I looked at it as an interest-free loan that had to be repaid.

The accounting alone would discourage buyers about taking it.

With the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 comes a

new easier first time home buyer program. The following chart provided by

 NAR gives an overview of the changes and benefits.

Let's do an analysis on buying 3 different homes:

Starting with a home with an $80,000 loan, then $150,000 loan and finally,

 a $300,000 loan.

Remember you must be a First Time Buyer [or not owned a home for 3 years]

and make less than $75,000/yr for a single owner and $150,000/yr for a couple.

 The examples are estimates based on an estimated 10% down payment with

 PMI(Private Mortgage Insurance).

Other loan terms and down payments are available and will cause these

calculations to vary. Call me & we can see how it will impact you specifically.

Hypothetically, you just bought a home for $88,000, with $8000 down.

Loan               $80,000

Int Rate              5.5%                  Payment    454.23

Taxes                 1200                  Tax / mo   100.00

Insurance             500                   Ins / Mo     41.67

PMI                     420                    PMI/ MO    35.00

Total payment per month                             $630.90

Now, what is the best way to use your $8,000.00 credit?

Option 1: Increase your Federal Income tax deductions with your employer

paying in $8000.00 less in taxes and use the extra money to make

the payments for a year and live in your new home for free for the first year.

Option 2: Increase your deductions so you pay in $8000.00 less in taxes. Send

the extra money into the principal on your mortgage every month. With the

additional payment to principal you will reduce the term of the loan by 6 years,

saving $26,000 in interest over the term of the loan. Potentially paying the loan

down far enough that you can ask for the PMI insurance to be removed, since

you now have an additional 10% payment to principal.

Option 3: Save the money and get less than 1% interest.

The same comparison of Option 2 for a buyer with a $150,000 loan: it reduces

the loan term by 3.5 years and saves $28,800 in interest over the life of

 the loan. 

The same comparison of Option 2 for a buyer with a $300,000 loan: you reduce

 the loan term by 1.8 years and save $29,700 over the life of the loan.

However you decide to use your $ 8000 tax credit, as long as you stay in the

home for 3 years there is no penalty or payback. At the very least, you are

ahead by $8,000 and you could have an additional $26,000 to $29,700 in

interest savings on the life of your home loan. 

 If you were hesitating about buying a home, this should encourage you buy

a home soon.  I would be delighted to discuss the 2009 Tax Benefits to you.

***This analysis is based on estimates I have made based on real estate taxes,

Interest rates, Insurance premiums and will vary based on the home you select.

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~Westbrook Realty

Copyright 2009 All rights reserved

What are Designations?    

Are they important to me? 

In most cases buyers and sellers get in to an

agreement with an agent and have no idea of

the qualifications of the agent they have selected.

 They might use several set of criteria to make

their decision. This information may assist them

in the decision or at least have them realize that

 all agents are not created equal and some have spent years educating

themselves to assist buyers and sellers.

Four of the more popular designations most buyers and sellers should have

information on to assist them in making a decision on selecting a Realtor®.

                CRS     GRI      e-pro       ABR 

 Check to see if your agent has graduated to one of these designations:    

      The Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) is the highest

Designation awarded to sales associates in the residential sales field.

The CRS Designation recognizes professional accomplishment in both

experience and education.

Since 1977 the Council of Residential Specialists has been conferring the

CRS Designation on agents who meet its stringent requirements. There

are over one million REALTORS® in business today. So if you want to find

 that one-in-a-million REALTOR®, start with the over 39,000 who hold the

 Certified Residential Specialist Designation. CRS is the symbol of excellence

 in residential real estate. Our members have proven they have the experience,

 training and commitment to be among the best in their profession.

Requirements to become a CRS.

Why Choose a REALTOR® With a GRI designation?

Buying property is a complex and stressful task. In fact, it's often the biggest

single investment you will make in your lifetime. At the same time, real estate

 transactions have become increasingly complicated.

New technology, laws, procedures and the increasing sophistication of buyers

and sellers require real estate practitioners to perform at an ever-increasing

level of professionalism.

So it's more important than ever that you work with an agent who has a keen

understanding of the real estate business. The GRI program has helped the

best and the brightest in the industry achieve that level of understanding.

GRIs are:

•   Nationally recognized as top performers in the real estate industry
•   Professionally trained
•   Knowledgeable
•   Dedicated to bringing you quality service

A GRI can make a difference

When you see the letters "GRI" after an agent's name, you can count on

receiving the knowledge and guidance you need to make your transaction

go smoothly. In short, you can count on getting the best service available

from a real estate professional.

Requirements to become a GRI.

The vision for the future of e-PRO Certification is to create a well-trained,

core group of real estate professionals who are thriving in the on-line-based

 real estate industry. The e-PRO Internet Professional belongs to a special

community of highly skilled and continuously trained real estate professionals

 who collaborate to enjoy deeper satisfaction and greater financial rewards as

 the result of their e-PRO Certification status.

This Program will teach the REALTOR® about Internet business principles

required to remain in the center of the real estate transaction, including:

• Options and requirements to Get Connected
• E-mail Communication and Marketing Practices
• WWW Marketing Strategies and Practices
• Creating and Maintaining Personal Technology Plan of Action and your Internet Marketing Plan.

Requirements to become an e-Pro.

The Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR®) designation is the benchmark

of excellence in buyer representation. This coveted designation is awarded to

 real estate practitioners by the Real Estate BUYER'S AGENT Council (REBAC)

of the National Association of REALTORS® who meet the specified educational

 and practical experience criteria. 

Requirements to be an ABR.

 Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate  ~ Five Star Real Estate

Copyright 2007 All rights reserved