Avoid Mortgage Insurance with Peoples NEW Combo loan!

Avoid Mortgage Insurance with Peoples NEW Combo loan!
The 80/10/10 loan is re-emerging as a viable option for today’s
homebuyer. This is good news for homebuyers who want more
options when deciding how to finance a home.
The first mortgage is opened at 80% of the home’s purchase price. Then, a second loan is opened at
10% of the purchase price. The second loan is often called a second mortgage, home equity line of
credit (HELOC), or a home equity loan.
This loan allows borrowers to put less than 20% down on a home, while avoiding private mortgage
insurance (PMI) and high FHA costs.
80/10/10 Mortgage Facts
• Minimum credit score of 680 to qualify.
• *No mortgage insurance means you save money!
• No prepayment penalty – Pay down the balance on the higher interest rate 2nd loan without
penalty. Save interest and have a fast and easy way to pay down your overall home loan balance
so all you have left is one low fixed rate.
Want to know if a Combo loan is the right one for you? Contact me today!

Peoples Home Loans
A DIVISION OF PEOPLES BANK
Gerald Santoro
Mortgage Banker
NMLS #630694
198 US 9N, Ste 206
Manalapan, NJ 07762
732.800.0060
[email protected]
www.PeoplesHomeLoansNJ.com/gsantoro

Staging is not just INSIDE it is OUTSIDE too for Curb Appeal

Realtor.com and other websites have photographs of your house for sale, and those photographs are a BIG FACTOR in whether buyers choose to visit your lisitng offline.

Curb Appeal today means WEB APPEAL!

• How do I make my lisitng/ house for sale  more photogenicc?

  Start by taking a picture of it form the front. Look at it and critique it.

  What are the best features?

• What is it lacking?

• Are the bushes overgrown and you can't see the windows? trim the bushes down so you can see the window and more light can get in.

• Can you see the trash can from the front?

• Add window boxes for more color and interest they should be the full length of the window and NOT under the shutters

• Is the light bulb on the outside light working? What does the fixture look like old and rusty? Replace it

• Is there a tree with no leaves just branches? get it cut!

• Does the door blend in with the house? Paint it with a contrast color. and if not then place some flower pots with colorful flowers to give it pop.

Anything that you have procrastinated about now is the time to get it DONE! before the buyers start looking and calculating 3 times what the actual cost to fix it would be.

 

  

Current Real estate market advice to Sellers and Buyers to use now...

AS market experts, economists weigh in on their opinion of bail out or other plans, I hope it chosen with common sense. Any person knows that prices do not go up forever and that the interest rates do not continue to go down to zero. The real estate market is not like a bouncing ball although it sure seems like it in the past couple of years. It goes in cycles and there is always movement up and down not peaks and valleys. Real estate is probably the best long term investment a person can make. Presently NOW is a good time to make your investments.

As Warren Buffet states “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful” certainly also applies to real estate. I have some advice for both sellers and potential buyers…

Sellers: We have been on the downward cycle since fall of 2005, yet many sellers have chosen not to listen to their realtors, whom they have hired to market their property as experts in the area, and still want to price their homes at 2004 prices. This is just NOT going to happen NOW, it did not happen last week or month nor will it happen next week or next month. Wake up smell the coffee! If your agent has not been telling you this firmly and politely and has just acquiesced to you and your numbers etc. get another agent who wants to MAKET YOUR HOME and NOT THEIR NAME and wants to have the transaction CLOSE. By the same token if you have a strong agent who has been in constant communication and you know in your heart of hearts that the agent has been marketing your property to its fullest, now is NOT the time to jump ship to another agency. Sit down and talk with your agent and perhaps include the broker so you can brainstorm. Both the agents and their companies spend a lot of money marketing your property and jumping ship to another agency is definitely not going to work especially if the house is not priced correctly to the current market it will not be right with the other agency either. IF the house does not show well now it will not show well with the other agency either. Same thing with showing, NOW is NOT the time to be difficult in arranging showing of your property with buyers. They are scarce and much more competition to look at. Make sure you can get the buyers IN to SEE your property WITHOUT OBSTACLES. Such things as try back tomorrow, pick up the key at the office, 24 hour notice etc. just push your buyer and their agent away from Your property to a competitors property that is much more “buyer friendly”. Are showings inconvenient? Your darn tootin they are. Are you interested in Selling your house? Then that is just a by product to get the house SOLD and your tough and strong agent should be telling you that!

Buyers: Opportunity is knocking! Hello can you hear it? Low interest, lowering prices! Don’t try to calculate when the bottom will drop – it could be now, tomorrow, next week or in 6 months from now. Whenever the bottom drops it will be useless knowledge when the interest rates have gone up. The Fed will not lower the interest rates forever. What goes down must eventually go up. In fact during past recessions the interest rates went sky high. Now is the time to make good deals, like other investors. Just remember the WHOLE not the piece- real estate is along term investment, and when it works as a short term investment- that’s a beautiful thing. Remember do NOT buy above your means, don’t borrow on tomorrow’s pay raise. There is much more to choose from today than in previous years and there ARE lenders that are lending money NOW. Not all banks have lost their heads about lending money to qualified buyers. When you find the house that speaks to you sit down brainstorm a strategy with your agent and make an offer. Do not worry about whether this is the right thing to do or not, again this is a long term investment and chances are it is the right thing for you. I have had buyers who were worried that they were going to miss out on that one special house, special price etc and have waited too long and lost the house that spoke to them in the first place. Remember there will ALWAYS be other houses that come on the market, that may be better, be priced better etc. but will the time be RIGHT FOR YOU?

In short whether you are a buyer or seller, be smart, use common sense and a strong and tough agent who will negotiate on your behalf, now is not the time for the timid and meek, and it is definitely not the time for inexperience or less than a full time commitment from your real estate professional.

Results from my survey on Monmouth County Housing

OK here are the results to my survey.

I emailed to over 1200 people and only 19 people responded. THANK YOU!

What do you think will happen to housing prices in Monmouth County in the next 12 months? 42% felt it will stay flat.

Starting with you last answer, please place ONE check mark in the following columns to "graph" where you think housing prices will be at the end of each of the next five years in Monmouth County relative to current prices (Dec. 2007). 50% felt that the price will drop 3% to 5% in 2008. Everyone felt that the value of houses will start going up in 2010.

What is your timeframe for buying a home? 46% will be buying in 2 years which also seem to corroborate the above numbers.

Given the uncertainty about where housing prices and interest rates are headed in the future, which of the following best characterizes your feelings:  30% of you were please that you did not buy in 2007.

If you are leaning towards using a traditional full-commission, full-service broker, would you be interested in any of the following: This answer intrigues me as the National Association of Realtors say that most do NOT know which realtor they will be using in the future. Here 55% of you know who you will be using to sell and/or purchase a house. [I hope this it will be me :)]

I found this to be very enlightening for me as a Realtor. It seems that the media has definitely dampened the real estate market and that everyone is holding back.

Just as an aside when everyone is thinking of purchasing in 2 years from now then all the great low prices will have started to go up based on this survey; might I suggest your consering purchasing NOW with interest rates at their lowest in 45 years along with the house prices that have dropped. Just my 2 cents worth.

Thank you to all who have taken the time to fill out the survey which is only a few minutes long.

If you would like to add to the survey here is the link:Click Here to take survey">Monmouth County Survey 2008

Taking the Insult Out of an Insulting Offer

Taking the Insult Out of an Insulting Offer

The first step toward taking the sting out of a low offer is to assure the client that the offer is financial, not personal. Most likely the prospective buyers don’t know the sellers or the sellers’ family. They might not even know the rationale behind the number they presented. They may have relied on poor counsel, too much counsel, or an unskilled agent, in which case a well-presented counter offer is in order.

On the flip side, the sellers’ house may be overpriced, either because the sellers insisted on a high price or because the market environment changed between when the home was listed and when the offer arrived. When a home is radically overpriced then a fair offer can look insulting when it really isn’t.

When the sellers’ home is overpriced, one must get them to focus on the gap between the low offer and fair market value, not the difference between fair market value and their inflated listing price. Likely you’ll remove tens of thousands of dollars of “insult” through this calculation alone. When that doesn’t work, ask the cooperating agent to share the rationale behind the offer.

A good agent won’t write an insulting offer. I was asked many times to write ridiculously low offers. I consistently refused to represent those on the equivalent of a fishing expedition. One client chastised me, saying I was required by law to write whatever she wanted to offer.  I corrected her misinterpretation of my responsibility. Agents are required by law in most states to present all offers they write, but nothing forces agents to write garbage that is embarrassing to present and wasteful of their time, and costly to their reputations.

Getting beyond emotion

People get emotional during the closing for a number of reasons. For one thing, money is at stake. For another, both parties are anxious to get the deal done and time is ticking away. For a third, home inspections and low-price offers reveal opinions about a home’s value that can feel jarring to sellers who have viewed the home with pride and joy for a number of years.
The only antidote to an emotional uprising is a pragmatic focus on the goals the parties are trying to achieve and a renewed commitment to find common ground and get the deal done.

He was such a typical seller! His big issue was the sales price. I asked him the question I often pose to get to the core of what’s affecting a sale negotiation:  “Is the reason you want this price for the house based on your ego or do you really need the money?” There was silence on the other end of the phone.   I knew he didn’t need the $20,000 he was so emotional about.

From that point, he was able to find common ground with the buyer and get the home sold.

When you hit a buyer-seller impasse, find a way to ask: Is this about ego or income? Do they want the bragging rights that come with a high price, or do they need the money? Usually, you’ll bring your client back down to earth in a hurry. You’re asking, in essence, what are you really fighting for?

21 QUESTIONS THAT HELP MAKE A HOUSE SELL FASTER!

21 QUESTIONS THAT HELP MAKE A HOUSE SELL FASTER!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Will the answers to these questions help me get more cash for my home, in a shorter period of time and with the greatest of ease?)

 

 

 

 

 

1.   Does the house or any part of the house need painting?

 

 

 

2.   Shall I re-seed the lawn and get my landscaping in top shape?

 

 

 

3.   What about the window & screens? Any holes or cracks? Do they work will or do they need attention?

 

 

 

4.   Does the carpet need cleaning?  How about replacing?

 

 

 

5.   Are pets under control at all time?

 

 

 

6.   Are all appliances in good working order?

 

 

 

7.   Should I stay out of a prospective buyers’ way?

 

 

 

8.   What is the buyers’ first impression of the exterior of our house?  What can I do to improve it?

 

 

 

9. What is the buyers’ first impression as they step inside my house?  What can I do to improve it?

 

10.  Since the buyer will be looking in the closets, should I take some of the clothes out to make them look roomier?

 

 

 

11.  Can I take items from the kitchen cabinets to make them more spacious?

 

 

 

12.  Is there any furniture I could store or dispose of to make rooms appear larger?

 

 

 

13.  Do any cabinets need to be touched up or refinished?

 

 

 

14.  Should I remove an ornate item that a buyer may want as part of the house?  For example, a special chandelier?

 

 

 

15.  What about the door mats? Should I replace them with new ones that are neutral and omit our family’s name?

 

 

 

16.  Should I give my real estate agent a list of things my family likes about the house and our neighbor hood?

 

 

 

17.  Should I ask my real estate agent for a list of recommendations prepared specifically for helping market  my house?

 

 

 

18.  Is the price and terms offered going to appeal to most of the buying public in by my price range?

 

 

 

19.  Do I need to be aware of other houses similar to mine also being offered for sale?

 

 

 

20.    Are the garage and storage areas as clean and neat as the should be?

 

 

 

21.  Before spending needless time and money, should I consult with my Coldwell Banker agent, Gloria B?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enhancing The 3 Main Rooms In The Home

Enhancing The 3 Main Rooms In The Home

1.     Kitchen

Light and airy kitchens set the tone for the rest of the home. Thoroughly clean the windows, floors and counters. Then replace with necessary items such as greenery, pottery and linens. Open the curtains turn on the lights and set the table with your best china! If your kitchen appears small, take out extra chairs and tables leaves. Also, try re-positioning your table for a better effect visually.

Your best investments are: A new tablecloth, place mats, area rug, valances, plants and fresh flowers.

2.     Bathroom:

What’s your best investment in this room? A new shower curtain, coordinating towels and bathroom rug. Simply, they make the biggest impact because they cover the most space visually. Clear off un-used items on the vanity and replace with just a few attractive soaps, magazines and towels.

3.     Master Bedroom:

Remove any clutter. Any pieces that are overcrowding the room. Soften the harsh lines with fabrics and plants and, make sure it’s light, airy and comfortable. Re-arrange furniture when necessary, to appear spacious.

Your best investment: An attractive comforter, throw pillows and matching valances. A few well placed pictures (hung at eye level)

"A Quick Fix"

“A Quick Fix”

Focus on:

1.      Identifying the focal points in the 3 most important rooms: Kitchen, Master Bedroom and Baths.

2.      Furniture placement.

3.      Lighting

4.      Accessories

“Assessing A Home”

-         3 Key Points- Comfort, Style Warmth and Character.

1.      Starting at the front door. Ask yourself….

What is your true 1^st impression?

Remove the screen door and place potted flowers by the entrance. Yards should be freshly mowed and trimmed. And don't’ forget, a fresh coat of paint on the front door and hang a wreath, and you are on your way to a beautiful 1^st impression!

2.      As you open the door, is it bright and inviting? Or dark and uninviting? Now, open the curtains and turn on all the lights (yes, even in the daytime) does the living room feel spacious and bright? To make a room appear spacious, simply rearrange the furniture. Sometimes a new layout can change the entire personality of the home. A quick inexpensive way to enhance your living room is to buy throw pillows, fresh plants and flowers. For those bare corners, use inexpensive decorator round tables with charming linens, and top the tables with family photos and other interesting items. Remember work with odd numbers. It is more pleasing to the eye. From doing this simple task, you can fill space with warmth, character and all very inexpensively. For a fireplace mantel, start with 1 large picture, place larger items 1^st and then fill in the rest of the space with smaller items of interest.

3.      Mirroring the Space:

Strategically placed mirrors will always visually expand and brighten any room.

Money Saving Tips

Money Saving Tips

·        Freshen up paint – Only where needed

·        Have carpets cleaned (Chem –dry does a great job) And use area rugs over the carpet in hallways and focal points,

·        Re-arrange furniture for best impact. Make sure that focal points and furniture groupings have the proper lighting. Use inexpensive lamps when needed, it’s the light that accents the accessories that make the greatest impact.

·        Use fresh flowers in living rooms, kitchen and master bedroom when possible

·        Don’t re-landscape your yards! Instead, mow and trim bushes and add some colorful flowers for the front yard and on the front porch or by the front door.

·        Re-paint kitchen and bathroom cabinets when needed, instead of replacing.

·        Put brighter light bulbs for more effect.

·        Clean or replace switchplate covers where needed

·        Replace toilet seats and shower curtains

It’s Show Time Check List

·         Daily To Do List

1.  Make beds and put away clutter

2.  Vacuum and sweep floors

3.  Pick up kids toys

     4.  Open all curtains and drapes

     5.   Turn on lights day or night