Budget for closing costs prepaid loan interest and home insurance premiums

Entering into escrow on a home can be both exciting and stressful. The excitement comes from knowing you are close to moving into the new home. The stress comes from issues that will arise.

Budget for Closing Costs – Prepaid Loan Interest and Home Insurance Premiums

As part of any closing, you need to go through certain steps to make sure you are both getting what you think you have purchased as well as paying for it. Each of these steps has an associated cost, known as closing costs, and you have to pay them before you can take possession of the home. If you do not, the deal will not close and you will lose the home.

When going through escrow, costs associated with closing can accumulate quickly. Here is a closer look.

Prepaid loan interest is an ugly little surprise for many first time homebuyers. The lender will often require you to pay the interest that accumulates between the day the loan is funded and the day you are actually scheduled to make your first loan payment. Many people mistakenly believe they have roughly a month before they have to start paying. This is rarely the case, and the sudden requirement to pay a hundreds or thousands of dollars can be a nightmare. If at all possible, you should try to get the lender to fund the loan as close as possible to the actual closing date, even on it. Try to avoid closing the loan on a Monday. The lender will have to fund the loan the previous work week, which means interest will be growing.

Homeowners insurance is something you are going to need and most people expect as much when buying a home. If you are not informed, however, you will be surprised at closing when you find out you have to pay the full premium for the first year of the policy. Depending on the value of your purchase, this can add a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars onto your closing costs. Again, it is important to budget for this cost when putting funds together prior to purchasing a home.

If you are going to purchase a home, you are going to have to pay these two items at closing. Make sure you budget for them to avoid running into cash flow problems.

Online property management

When comparing online property management software solutions, you discover two basic principles fairly quickly: all of them can take a rent payment, and all of them have branched off in different directions. All of them are trying to guess what it is that you, the property manager, would probably want to do along with taking a payment. It is not necessarily my design to discuss all of these directions, but rather to consider a couple of the innovative things that one online property management software, Resident Map, has considered in defining itself as an innovative leader in the property management industry.

The Resident Map

The first innovation is a patent-pending technology that Resident Map is introducing. It is the ability to view and manage your community from a map of the community itself. Mobile home parks, apartment buildings, storage units, multi-user storefronts, and office buildings are all manageable through this interface.

The resident map, a Flash application with multiple options available for each space, is a map of the community or building provided by the owner of that property and enhanced with Resident Map’s patent-pending technology to transform it into a one-stop management tool. It removes the need for searching through pages and pages of resident names or for using a provided search tool. It puts the information and the navigation for the vast majority of your tasks on one page, and it does so in a way that makes it very easy to use and very intuitive, even for the novice computer user.

Automation of Charges

Another advantage that sets this software apart from the competition is that Resident Map has is the ability not only to manage the month to month charges statically, but it also allows the property manager the ability to manage the events responsible for those charges. The automation of charges includes, but is not limited to, automatic late fees, utility reads and rates, rent raises, notices for delinquency, non-sufficient fund (NSF) charges, and mortgage and amortization schedules. Managing all of these in one location, rather than importing them from a variety of third party solutions, keeps the management of these monthly charges much simpler by putting them all in one place and providing an easy-to-use interface for managing them. Very few packages on the market offer more than one or two of these, but Resident Map offers all of them.

This was only meant as a small sampling to interest property managers in what is available from Resident Map, the most innovative online property management tool available on the market. To get a more in-depth look at one of the most easy-to-use property management solutions available, go to residentmap. com and ask for a free demonstration.

Selling tips determining your market

The decision to sell a home is more complex then many people first realize. One of the primary issues to consider is your market and how it will impact the sale of the property.

Selling Tips – Determining Your Market

People sell their homes for a variety of reasons. In some cases, the sale is involuntary due to issues that arise in every day life such as a job-related transfer, divorce and financial problems. For a vast majority of people, however, the decision to sell is made under less trying circumstances. If you fall into this category, determining the nature of the real estate market in your area is a critical step to take.

When determining a market for real estate in a particular area, the central issue is what kind of a market is present? There are two types – the seller’s market and the buyer’s market. Each market has particular characteristics and will impact how much time and money will be involved in your selling effort.

A seller’s market is one where there are more buyers than properties being listed. It is no secret that the United States has been in one of the hottest seller’s markets ever seen for the last seven years, but it is really starting to cool off. This doesn’t mean, however, that the national trend reflects the situation in your particular area. If your area is still red hot, you are in the cat birds seat. You can list your home with a high price for your area and still reasonably expect to get offers.

A buyer’s market is one where there are more listings than buyers. In such a situation, homes tend to sit on the market for substantial amounts of time. Many parts of the country, such as Texas and Colorado in general, have historically been buyers markets. For some reason, these two states never really benefits from the massive seller’s market push the last few years.

Anyway, if you are in a buyer’s market, you need to determine two things. First, do you have sufficient equity in your home to make selling it at a competitive price a worthwhile decision? Second, would it perhaps be better to wait a few years until the market falls in your favor? Unless there is a compelling reason to sell, many homeowners will wait out buyer’s markets. If there is a compelling reason, you need to price your home near the bottom of the market for comparable homes in your area to get a quick sale. If it is any comfort, you should be able to turn around and find a good deal in your area as a buyer.

At times, the real estate process can be a confusing one for buyers and sellers. If you take the steps to determine your market before making a specific decision, you will be better off.

The party wall agreement isn t all fun and games

Before jumping into the purchase of a duplex, there are some legal issues that you'll want to consider. Many are unaware that duplex living is akin to living in a condo, and there are certain agreements that should jointly agreed upon, and on paper, before you sign the dotted line.

Duplexes have become more and more popular as they are a great way to afford the luxuries of home ownership without becoming totally housebroke. Generally much more affordable than the average single family home of equivalent square footage, the duplex appeals especially to young families and to couples looking to get into the market. But like any "great deal" there's a flip side that should not be overlooked.

To begin with, you're entering into ownership beside a neighbor, a very close neighbor in fact. So close, is your neighbor that you'll share a wall that divides your respective homes. The part of duplex living and ownership that is similar to that of a condo, is the legally binding agreement called, "The Party Wall Agreement". No, this is not only there so you can mutually decide on who's having parties, and when. Although, it may delineate acceptable noise levels for your prospective parties. But, what it really is, is a sort of home association for a party of two.

The Party Wall agreement, will cover how the two sides of ownership will deal with shared expenses such as insurance, structural issues, including roof upkeep and replacement, foundation and shared utility service lines. It may also include routine maintenance and address stylistic and architectural issues such as the exterior look of the home, and the construction of other improvements such as fences and sheds.

Consider that before purchasing a duplex you are entitled to peruse the already existing party agreement and to enter into negotiations to make amendments, if necessary. If this is the duplex owner's first time selling one half of the duplex, you might want to have, "negotiating a party-wall agreement" as one of your offer's subjects. Note that down the line, should one duplex owner break the rules, the other owner is technically protected by the agreement and can put a lien on the other's properties in order to collect funds, if need be.

Of course, you can have the world's best legal documents, but if your uber close neighbor is a "not - so-nice" person, well then you're likely to have problems. This being said, just as in a condo development, if you can meet with you're fellow neighbor, and get a sense of who they are, and what kind of life they lead, it may give you more insight into whether or not you'll want to live close to them, and enter into a legal agreement with them. The flip side, is of course nothing but the agreement can really protect you. Seemingly great people, can turn out to be terrible neighbors. Not to be a kill joy here, but if you're considering purchasing a duplex, keep in mind the true dual nature of ownership you're entering into. It can be a wonderful investment so long as you collectively set the appropriate rules to make it so.