Thinking about buying a home in Hampton Roads? Congratulations! You’ve chosen very well. To make that transition as smooth as possible, we’ve got some helpful hints and tips.
- Buy the house you love when you love it. If you’re waiting for the “best time” to buy, you’ll miss out on a great house in Norfolk, a great neighborhood in Virginia Beach, a great school district in Chesapeake. The real estate market is cyclical, but not in any way that makes buying a house in August any better than buying one in December. If you see a house, you like, make it your home before someone else does.
- Get Pre-approved for your home loan. The biggest mistake new home buyers make is confusing pre-qualified with pre-approved. Being pre-approved means you’ve shared your financial information with your bank or lending institution and you’re clear on what you can afford. This also means that if you can afford to live near the Oceanfront, your Realtor can seek out homes that fit all of your sand-between-the-toes needs.
- Don’t play with credit cards. If you’re getting ready to buy a house, the worst thing you can do is start opening credit cards and filling rooms you don’t own yet. As a home buyer, you’re going to have people evaluating your financial stability so keep your money in your pocket until after the sale.
- Work with a professional realtor. You may think you’re saving money by going it alone, and if you have a ton of free time on your hands you may be correct. But consider this: a professional realtor does more than facilitate the sale once you’ve found your dream home. The biggest value they offer is unearthing any hidden issues with your home before you’re committed to it. A professional realtor knows everything about your home, your neighborhood, your school district, your tax assessments, any fees, any liens, property disputes and more. By working with a professional you get your own personal advocate.
Follow these tips and you’ll set yourself up for smooth sale-ing!
Information isn’t that difficult to find anymore. Turn on your Twitter account or Facebook page, and the news comes to you – customized the way you want it. If you’re looking for homes for sale in Virginia Beach or Norfolk, you have a number of options: follow real estate Twitter feeds, apply an RSS feed or two to a starter page, or have new listings pinged to your cell phone (if you have the right kind of phone and apps, that is).
Finding the information is simple enough, but when you’re ready to actually do something with the data are you prepared to see the purchase of a new home to the end? Buying a home involves more than answering a blog post or “tweet,” for you need to know what is expected from you as a buyer and what the home seller is willing to do as far as closing costs, conveyed appliances, and repairs. If you do not have an agent and the seller does, you could be taken advantage of. Your Realtor brokers the negotiation between you and the seller to ensure the best deal for you.
It doesn’t mean you should stop shopping online for a new home. Nancy Chandler associates has Twitter accounts that listing homes for sale in Norfolk, the beach, Chesapeake, and the Peninsula. We present you the information – when you’re ready to use it, call us at 888.622.7356 today to learn how we will work it for you.
WASHINGTON — Nearly one in three borrowers who applied for a mortgage last year was denied as lenders kept their standards tight as the mortgage crisis accelerated, the government reported Wednesday.
In its annual look at mortgage practices among lending institutions, Federal Reserve said the denial rate for all home loans was about 32 percent last year — about the same as in 2007, but up from 29 percent in 2006. The denial rates for blacks and Hispanics were more than twice as high as the rate for white borrowers.
The report highlights massive changes in the lending industry after the housing market bust. Overall loan applications were down by a third from a year earlier, and were half the level in 2006.
Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration soared to 21 percent of all loans made last year from less than 5 percent in both 2005 and 2006.
Read more from The Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) – U.S. mortgage applications jumped last week to their highest since late May as interest rates tumbled below 5 percent, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications USMGM=ECI, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended Sept 18 increased 12.8 percent to 668.5, the highest level since the week ended May 22.
Read the entire article at Reuters.com.
The market for homebuyers is improving, especially in the Hampton Roads area. If you’re looking to buy a home for sale in Chesapeake or Virginia Beach, Nancy Chandler Associates is the Virginia real estate agency for you. Call us today at 888.622.7356 and talk to one of our experienced Realtors to learn how you can find the home of your dreams right here in Virginia.
Refinance home loan rates are getting very close to all time lows. Mortgage interest rates have been below 5% for almost a full week now and it is quite possible that we are going to see rates drop below 4.9%. This would be the first time we have seen mortgage rates this low since May of 2009. The all time low for the 30 year fixed mortgage rate is right at 4.75%. It will be very interesting to see if we can get close to these levels.
Read more from SubPrimeBlogger.com.
For assistance on home loans and refinancing in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach area, contact Nancy Chandler Associates today at 888.622.7356.
In the interest of providing immediate information on homes for sale in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and the Upper Peninsula, we at Nancy Chandler are happy to provide specially categorized Twitter feeds featuring available properties in these respective areas. If you are looking for a new house in a particular area of Hampton Roads, there’s no need to wade through an RSS of irrelevant information. Follow the feed you want and get the information you need before you buy.
Please follow these Twitter accounts to stay updated on properties for sale:
@BuyVBHomes – for Virginia Beach
@BuyNorfolkHomes – for Norfolk homes for sale
@BuyChesapeake – for Chesapeake and Suffolk
@PeninsulaHomes – for Hampton, Newport News, and Williamsburg
As always, you can follow our main Twitter at @NancyChandler for updates on buying a home in Hampton Roads, financing and to contact us.
Should you rent, or should you buy? When applied to the home, people will offer different opinions on how to proceed. In my experience renting homes and apartments, and searching for places to buy, I’ve met people who have been happy to do one or the other. Because circumstances do not allow us to buy right now, it’s helped me gain a better perspective on long-term renting. It is my hope that my personal experiences will guide others into an easier decision with regards to finding a home.
Renting a house, condo, or apartment as opposed to buying outright has its pros and cons. If I have learned anything from doing the former for so long it’s this:
1) Renting makes home repair easier. If you have a leak, or a broken down appliance – assuming you haven’t caused the damage yourself – you need only to pick up the phone and call the landlord. If you live in a complex, chances are you don’t have to worry about lawn care and lanscaping either. It all comes out of your rent.
2) Renting can restrict the way you live. If you want a dog, or wish to paint a wall, you may not be able to if your lease forbids it. While renting does take away some of the responsibility of repair, it also limits what you can do to the house in the time you live there. Even things you view as improvements may not fly if the owner doesn’t wish it.
3) Renting is convenient for temporary situations. If you know for certain you don’t plan to live in town long, renting can make it easier when it comes time to move. You don’t have to worry about whether or not the house will sell, and if you have a flexible landlord you may be able to dissolve your lease terms early.
4) Renting may cost as much as buying. Look at the check you’re about to write for the month. Is it as much as a mortgage payment on a house? When you think about it, the money you shell out for essentially “borrowing” a home could be applied to something that eventually becomes yours. Isn’t that money better spent?
How you choose to live is up to you. You may not think you are ready or able to buy right now, but unless you research or enlist the help of a real estate agent you won’t really know. Consider all options of renting and buying a home before you make a decision.
K. Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on homes for sale in Virginia Beach and condos in Norfolk.
How often have you turned down a residential street to see a “For Sale” sign planted on a front lawn? How often have you wished you could put a bid on a house, and move into your very own home without having to worry about going through a lease and obeying a landlord’s rules? In this age of economic uncertainty, it may seem an impossible dream to buy a home, but there is some good news on the horizon. As real estate prices are predicted to fall from 2009 through 2010, one may be able to find a good home at a great price.
The question then becomes, how does one buy a home with so little down? You may be concerned if you can keep up payments, but there is assistance you may not realize exists. Did you know you could qualify for a government grant or loan to help with the down payment and closing costs on a home? If you know where to look and where to apply, you could receive several thousand dollars to use toward making a house purchase in Virginia.
For first-time buyers, however, Virginia has no specific grant programs. This doesn’t mean, however, you can’t apply for a grant or loan to buy a home. There are other opportunities available. When you visit the website of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development you can research your option and choose a program that could assist you in your home-buying endeavors. Another good government site to browse is Grants.gov, which lists available government assistance to citizens who qualify.
Research the assistance available to you to apply toward buying a home in Virginia. You just may find your dream of walking into a house you own may soon become a reality.
Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on homes for sale in Virginia Beach.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Twitter, which allows people to communicate with the world in short burst of spontaneity. Maybe you have a Twitter account and follow the musings of friends and breaking news from media outlets. You might wonder: is there more to this social media network than broadcasting what you ate you lunch? What information can I glean from other “Tweeters” that I will find useful?
It’s true many businesses are turning to this site to advertise products and services, but perhaps you’re not aware that search functionality on this micro-blogging network practically rivals that of Google search. When people search for news, they check Twitter often these days. Lately you’ll find, too, people use Twitter for large purchases, including homes.
Why pursue real estate listings on Twitter as opposed to checking tried and true classifieds and Web sites? For one, social networking brings a sense of immediacy to business. With access to the Internet via cell phones and PDA devices, a real estate agent can post a new listing or adjust an older listing in real time. If the market favors homebuyers, it’s often necessary to jump on an attractive deal before others bid on the desired home, and monitoring sites like Twitter give buyers an edge.
If you’re serious about buying a home and are looking into alternate methods of search, try pulling up Twitter’s main search page. Test keywords relevant to your desired location with specialized “hashtags” (set keywords preceded by the pound sign to denote categorization within Twitter) like #realestate or #homes to see if any listings are active. If you find posts by a Realtor or agency, you may want to consider following their feeds for updated information.
Alongside real estate listings in the newspaper and online classifieds, Twitter is fast becoming an important tool for real estate agents and home buyers. Keep an eye out via this social site for homes for sale, and you just may find the perfect place.
Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Virginia Beach homes for sale and Richmond web design.
No doubt about it, the market is hot right now for home buyers in Hampton Roads. Look around your town and you’ll see many For Sale signs marked “New Price” or “Reduced.” That’s because sellers are ready to negotiate. As a homebuyer you have the upper hand right now, and Nancy Chandler can help get the home you want at the price you want. You can buy a home in Norfolk right now at a great price!
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