What is the home buying process? Where do we start?

That’s always the question I hear on the first conversation with my clients, specially first time home buyers.

Step 1: To make sure that you can qualify for a loan which is the mortgage.

This step is very important for couple of reasons;
First, you will know if you can get a loan (pre-qualify or pre-approval) and for how much and if not qualified, at least you will know what you need to work on to be qualified in a few months.
The second reason, that most of home sellers including banks for foreclosure properties, requires that the buyer sends the pre-approval letter with the offer, otherwise, they are not going to consider the offer.
Third reason, that you can have some expectations on how much downpayment you will need to pay and closing costs, so you can plan accordingly.

I can’t tell you how many times people went out for months looking for a house and then they found out that they are not qualified when they wanted to submit an offer; also can’t tell you how many times people lost a great deal because their offer was not considered without the pre-approval letter and other buyers got the house.

You can contact mortgage lender for pre-approval or contact me for a list of lenders in the Houston Area. I don’t recommend at all working with any of the big banks for many reasons.

Step 2: At this point, we can start looking for houses. I will set up a page based on what you are looking for as of how many bedrooms, bathrooms, price range, location, size, school district, etc and will email you all the houses that meet your searching criteria and then we can go view the houses you like of the list.

I will not talk in details here about the remaining steps as I will be working with you and guiding you through the whole process step by step

Step 3: Making an offer
Step 4: Have inspection
Step 5: Remove contingencies, if any
Step 6: The loan process
Step 7: Closing & Key for your new house

 

Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX Homes for sale in Katy TX See All Foreclosure Homes

Market Analysis of Vicksburg in Missouri city

MISSOURI CITY MARKET ANALYSIS
This is the market activity in Vicksburg Subdivision and Missouri City TX in 2012 as of 7/9/2012
There are two subdivisions in Missouri City, Vicksburg Village of Cumberland and Vicksburg Village of Shiloh. They have a total of 510 homes combined. The median year built is 1990
	Vicksburg	Missouri City TX
Homes for Sale	14	490
List Price	$98,500 - 217,500	$30,000 - 1,799,999
Foreclosures or Short Sales	2	68
% of Foreclosure of Homes for Sale	14%	13.87%
Houses SOLD	11	608
Sale Price	$100,000 - $185,000	$21,000 - $855,000
Average Days on Market	50 days	86 days
Average Price per Sq. Ft.	$46.63	$68.67
This information is about the Homes in Vicksburg and Missouri City TX, the analysis can vary from one neighborhood to another. For more information about the market analysis in your neighborhood, please feel free to contact me any time for FREE consultation.
For more information, contact Jimmy   Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com

What are the benefits of owner financing to buyers and sellers?

Buyers With the economic conditions in the last couple of years in the country, many people went through some hard times and resulted in loss of credit points. In the same time, banks have been adding more and more requirements and restrictions regarding credit score. People still want to live in a house but don't want to rent and don't have the credit to qualify for a mortgage. So here comes the owner financing as an option. Owner financing or seller financing is a process by which the seller offers to be your mortgage provider. Here are some of the benefits to buyers who are interested in owner financing homes in the Houston area. Qualification The buyer may have poor credit due to any reason like job loss for a while that made the buyer default on bills, student loans, bankruptcy, divorce, transferred to a new job after a period of unemployment or self-employed who is not reporting the income and cannot meet mortgage requirements. Seller's requirements are less restricted than regular lenders. Improving Your Credit With the assistance of some escrow agencies, they can report to credit bureaus that the buyer is making payment on the current owner financing loan which should help the buyer improve the credit score in a reasonable period of time. Loan Costs An additional benefit for the owner financing transaction, the buyer doesn't have to pay all the fees charged by lenders to get a loan. Terms Owner financing terms vary from one house to the other as each house is individually owned and each owner might have different requirements. In general, most of sellers require at least 10% down payment, interest rate can be 7-9% and a balloon payment in 3-5 years. Balloon means that the buyer will need to refinance with regular mortgage in 3-5 years. Closing Going through a mortgage company, it can easily take 40 days to close on a house. With owner financing, the whole process can be done in a week. Sellers For Home sellers, they are also been affected by the restrictions imposed by lenders and waiting for 2-3 weeks hoping that the underwriter will approve the loan but unfortunately when the loan process goes south, the seller has to restart the whole process again with a new buyer. That being said, so sellers have to consider some creative ways like owner financing to sell their house. Price With owner financing, the seller is offering a lot easier qualifications than a lender which gives the seller the privilege of asking for the full market price for the house. Downpayment Seller may ask for a downpayment that covers the broker fees, the closing costs, and some extra cash in hand. Also, with the use of the escrow agency company, they can service the loan for the seller with some small fees (usually charged to the buyer) they will collect the monthly installment from the buyer and pay the original mortgage of the seller which provides peace of mind for both the buyer and seller. Closing As discussed under the buyers section, closing can be done in a matter of one week. See Owner Financing homes for sale in Houston, Sugarland, Missouri City, Spring, Katy, Pearland and surrounding areas

For more information, contact Jimmy Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com

What is Earnest Money?

In buying or selling a home, buyers and sellers might be confused because of all the different new terminology used. Sellers don’t remember the terminologies and need refreshment and a first time buyer might need a dictionary to help them.

What is Earnest Money?

When a buyer offers to purchase a home, the offer usually includes Earnest Money.

Earnest Money is to demonstrates to the seller that you are serious and interested in buying the home.

Many agents would say that “Earnest Money is one percent of the offer price of the home”, I would say that it is negotiable and depends on how interested you are in the house. I had a buyer who offered 25% earnest money to show how interested he is in the property. In Texas, earnest money is usually paid to the title company within 2 days of the executed contract. (Executed contract is when buyer and seller have the contract signed by both parties)

Buyers are always wondering what will happen to the money in case they decided to buy or not to buy.

In case, buyers decided to continue with the contract and buy the house, the earnest money will be used as paid amount towards the price of the house (as it is part of the downpayment) and you will be able to see it on the HUD statement at closing.

In case, buyers decided to terminate the contract, it will depend on the terms of the contract. For example, when you make the offer, you request an option period of 10 days (A negotiable period of time that can be 7 to 10 days of the execution date). If you terminate the contract in day 5, you can get your money back. If you terminate the contract in day 11, you will lose your money.

It is very important to have a Realtor helping you in the process to explain the details in the contract and do the negotiation part for you and make your real estate transaction as smooth as possible.

I am a real estate professional representing buyers and sellers, my job is to do the best of your interest.

For more information, contact Jimmy Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com