Preferred Properties of Texas

The Preferred way to buy & sell real estate for you

How to Protect Your Home While You’re Away

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It’s holiday season which means many people travel and vacation. Traveling can make your home more vulnerable to burglaries. These are some tips to help protect your home when you’re away.

Securely lock everything

While you know to lock your doors, it is also important to secure windows, sheds, garages, and other structures. This simple step will help protect your home from burglary.

Ask your neighbors

A trusted neighbor can also pick up mail and packages for you while you are away. They can also check the inside and out the trash bins. You will feel like your family is at home, or at least someone is watching.

Take out the spare key

It is convenient to keep a spare key or garage opener outside. Fake rocks and other hiding places will not fool criminals. Install a garage door opener or exterior lock with a keypad entry.

Do not post

You may want to capture your vacation on social media but it is better to wait until you return to home before posting. Posting photos of your vacation alerts potential thieves that your home is vacant and makes it a prime target for a robbery.

Install smart home devices

You can control everything remotely, from HVAC systems to lights and music. You can control everything remotely, whether it’s according to a schedule or through your phone. It will look and sound just like you are at home. It doesn’t take a lot of money to achieve similar results.

Original Post : https://www.texasrealestate.com/members/posts/how-to-protect-your-home-while-youre-away/

Upgrading To A Bigger Home

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For those who have always wished to live in a larger house, then you might be asking yourself when the perfect time is that you maneuver. Larger homes are more costly and require more upkeep. But you might be at a stage in your life financially in which you are prepared for a larger location.

Your existing home might not match your needs, in case your family is still growing. If you are expecting another child, then you are going to require a house with additional rooms. You will also need a house with additional storage space and baths. This is sometimes an extremely frequent reason people attempt to update their houses. By assessing in your region, you may begin to organize your budget before the arrival of your child and ensure that an update is ideal for you.

A lot of men and women go to a more compact home, since that’s all that they could manage. But if you’re able to manage to move to a larger area, now might be the opportunity to perform it. In case you’ve saved a substantial sum of money or are getting more income than you used to, then you can probably deal with the fiscal responsibility of purchasing a bigger house.

When thinking about this kind of move, be certain that you check at a nicer place, for example with better schools and other community opportunities.

Many people are working from home these days, and among the secrets to successfully working in your home would be to get the ideal space. That is the reason you might require a bigger house. Most small homes don’t have sufficient space to accommodate a house office or the area to get a table.

If you reside in a larger house, you may convert a living space into an office area. This may be particularly beneficial if you’re thinking about starting a company, as using a room in your house to perform this can save a great deal of money on lease.

You will love your present residence, but it can be time to search for something somewhat bigger. If your family is growing, it can be time to get more room. Moving to a larger house is also a fantastic idea when you’ve got the funds. Furthermore, a new, bigger house may be a huge help if you work at home and require designated office area!

When your ready to move to that bigger home, give Preferred Properties of Texas a call. We are here for all your real estate needs!

What Is Included In A House Purchase?

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Do not assume that what you see while touring a home includes a house purchase. From decor and furniture to appliances and outdoor gear, sellers will probably require much (or even all) of the private property together when they proceed. It is up for the buyers to spell out in the contract exactly what they need and do not need to be contained in a house purchase. As many evident items (think: built in bookshelves and hardware) are usually included in a house purchase, lots of others aren’t. That is the reason it’s so essential for buyers to think about each element of a house before purchasing it — not only the pretty furniture indoors. Be certain that you work with a experienced Realtor that will write (and review) a contract that satisfies your requirements. The very last thing you need is to walk in your new house on moving day just to realize that half of the appliances are overlooking. Curious what includes the home when you purchase it? Below, we have included an inventory of exactly what is and is not contained in a house purchase.

What Includes the Home? In many home buying contracts, it is apparent that whatever that’s built or permanently affixed to the house includes the home. This may look like common sense, but you would be amazed how many sellers presume they could take just about anything together. Below is a listing of what includes the home in the majority of typical contracts. Remember that if these products (and many others ) are not contained in a contract, Realtors can compose them in.

Built-ins — anything which built into the house (examples: built in bookshelves, built-in window chairs and built-in closets ) includes the house.
Mailboxes — Whether it is streetside or wall mounted, then sellers will always leave a residence’s mailbox with the house.
Ceiling fans — Ceiling fans are connected to the house and consequently, stay with the house.
Range and oven — Even though a few appliances do not come with the house, built-in ovens and ranges always do.
Vacuum — The vast majority of sellers incorporate the dishwasher together with the purchase price of the house.
Landscaping from the floor — Trees, shrubbery and some other landscaping that’s implanted in the ground includes the home. Potted plants, on the other hand, typically do not.
Pendants, chandeliers and other light fixtures — Light fittings which are affixed to the house include the home. When the light fixtures are especially costly, the sellers generally operate this cost into the purchase price of the house.
Drapery rods, blinds and window treatments— Since drapery rods, blinds and other window treatments are often mounted and attached to the house, they typically include the home.
Smoke sensors — Sellers must always leave a home’s smoke detectors when purchasing a home. Whenever buyers move in, we recommend checking the batteries to be certain that they are functioning correctly.
Garage door openers and other accessibility apparatus — Sellers always leave any accessibility codes or devices together with the newest owners. Including garage door openers, gate openers and any type of security apparatus.
Storm shutters and panels— If you live in a hurricane prone region, then you will need to ensure that the sellers depart all of storm walls and panels beneath.
Pool gear — Even though pool accessories do not have the home, the pool gear typically does.
HVAC units — All these are a part of the house and are always contained in purchasing the house.
Constructed exterior cooking gear — Does the home have a built-in outside grill, oven or dining space? Because this is connected to the house, it typically includes the property.
Above-ground pools — Above-ground pools are usually contained in purchasing a house. In case the purchaser needs the swimming pool disassembled, they might attempt to negotiate with the vendor to make them pay a portion of the price tag.
All installed hardware— Most hardware includes the home. Including doorknobs, cabinet knobs and pulls, bathroom fixtures, etc..

What’s occasionally included with the Home? These things aren’t typically included using a house buy — but occasionally they are, based on the requirements and wishes of this vendor.

Refrigerator — Many buyers have noticed a home with no fridge at a certain stage whilst house hunting. That is because sellers normally have the best to select the refrigerator together. This is almost always a good idea of extra fridges, like a garage refrigerator. If the buyers would like to have the refrigerator, they will normally need to make a notice in the purchase agreement.
Microwaves which are not constructed — Countertop microwaves aren’t always contained in a house purchase. These belong to the vendors and might be taken together.
Washer and drier.– A home’s washer and drier aren’t technically built and so, do not technically include the house unless otherwise suggested by the vendors. Many buyers ask the washer and drier in their own offer.
Spa — A standalone spa does not necessarily include the house. Given how expensive and difficult hot tubs would be to proceed however, many sellers will happily incorporate the spa at the selling of the house.
Mirrors — Even though toilet mirrors usually include the home, not all of wall mirrors perform. Be certain that you double-check which mirrors remain and which mirrors move prior to purchasing a house.
Carpets and curtains — While built in window treatments are all included using a house, curtains and curtains may be an exception based on the vendor’s wishes.
TV mounting mounts — These are generally left with the house — but not necessarily. Buyers must consult the vendors about whether they intend to leave the mounts installed from the walls.
Garage shelving or electrical methods — Any garage organizational or shelving system which is not built into the house does not necessarily include the home.

What does not come with the Home? These things are almost never included in purchasing a house. But they are occasionally bought by the buyers individually.

Indoor and outside furniture. Furniture and decoration don’t usually include the home unless otherwise noticed by the vendors. When the sellers are available to relinquishing their furniture, buyers might opt to buy furnishings out of the sellers individually or as part of their purchase arrangement.
TVs — Televisions (even people affixed to wall-mounted brackets) don’t typically include a house.
Remember: what Is negotiable when buying a home or condo. Buyers can always request to add or buy items which aren’t normally within a house purchase. On the reverse side, sellers can always decide not to include specific items in the selling of the house that are usually contained in a house purchase. As an example, a seller can decide they would like to carry their window drapes together into the new residence. If that is true, then the vendor will have to negotiate this thing with the buyer or work this consideration in the asking price.

If your ready to look for a new home to buy, don’t do it alone. The agents at Preferred Properties of Texas are just a phone call away and would love to help you!

Tips For First Time Home Sellers

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Selling a home is very different from buying a home. Buying a home generally involves emotions and feelings, but selling a home typically centers on what listing agents like to call maximizing profit potential. Here are a some tips for first-time homesellers.

Price Your Home Accurately

Your agent will analyze comparable sales and prepare an estimate of value—often called a CMA—for comparative market analysis.

Home Staging Boosts Selling Power and Appeal

Ask your agent to advise you on preparing your home for sale. Most homes show better with about half of the furniture removed. If a buyer walks in the door and wonders if anybody lives in the house, you’ve done your job correctly. Consider home staging to boost your selling power and appeal.

The Best Day to List Your Home

Choose the best day to list your home. This time period will vary depending on your local community, the weather, time of year, and a host of other factors, including the state of your present real estate market. You basically get one chance to present your home in its best light the first day on the market.

Ask About Your Agent’s Standard Real Estate Commission

If the agent’s standard real estate commission seems reasonable, consider the big picture and benefits to you to hire this individual.

Be Flexible With Home Showings

Be flexible with showings. The best way to sell your home is to let a buyer inside with their buyer’s agent to tour in peace and quiet. Leave the house when buyer’s agents show up.

Host an Open House

Allow an open house if your home is conducive to an open house or ask your agent if they advertise the open house online. Many a home buyer has had no desire to buy a home until they spot an open house and subsequently fall in love.

Insist on Professional Photography

The most popular photos are rich in color and depth, and they entice. Ask to approve the virtual tour or photo tour before it publishes.

Review Your Listing Online

Look at your home listing on various websites to make sure the information conveyed is accurate. Agents do their best to ensure accuracy, but since it is your home, you know the details better than anyone.

Respond Promptly to a Purchase Offer

Try to respond promptly to a purchase offer. Many purchase offers contain a date by which the offer expires. Notwithstanding, it can drive buyers crazy if they are forced to wait for a seller to decide whether to accept their offer or to issue a counteroffer.

Line Up Movers Early

Line up your movers early. You can start packing before your home hits the market, which will give you a head start on the process.

If you’ve been thinking about selling contact our office to schedule an appointment with one of our agents. We are here for all your real estate needs!

 

Avoid Getting Your Mortgage Unapproved

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There are many ways buyers can get their mortgage pre-approval or final acceptance revoked before closing on a home. Here are the most typical mistakes borrowers make after being pre-approved which need to be avoided at all costs!

Changing employment.
Getting a different job is common enough that you might not believe anything of altering employment if a brand new, better chance presents itself. But once you’re pre-approved to get a mortgage, you ought to avoid making any adjustments that could affect your loan.

Your pre-approval was predicated on your standing at the time of application, along with your job status was a significant element in the decision of the lender. When you move change tasks, you throw the whole equation in disarray.

If you’ve got the chance at a better job talk to your mortgage agent about it. They may advise you not to create any work change before the house has closed. Lenders prefer to see stability in employment. It is possible if you are changing jobs, but into the same line of work, it won’t be a problem. Verify this is the case, however, before making any decisions!

Apply for other loans.
Among the most common ways people get their mortgage acceptance refused is taking on additional debt before closing on their property.

Now you know that you are going to get a house, it may be tempting to start shopping for all of the items you’ll need to fill it. The loan you’re pre-approved for relies on not just your employment status but also on your credit standing.

The lending company intends to authorize the mortgage because it believes that your credit standing indicates you can make your payments. Should you take out other loans, like signing up for a credit report with your local furniture retailer, then you risk negatively affecting your credit status and missing out on your mortgage.

Purchasing a home is an exciting time where lots of people get anxious and need to go out searching for their new location. Maintaining your house spending in check is an absolute must so you do not jeopardize your mortgage approval being refused.

Among the more prevalent mortgage mistakes people make is purchasing a car while they’re also buying a home. Many loan approvals have been revoked because of this mortgage blunder.

 Making massive deposits that you can not document.
Before getting your mortgage loan that the lender may wish to see current documents indicating the status of your accounts, such as your savings account and checking account. When there’s a substantial deposit in any of these statements which do not match up with your typical income, then it can throw off the loan.

Before you obtain any gifts from family or make any big earnings, like purchasing a vehicle, get in touch with your mortgage lender and discover out all of the documents you will need to spell out the massive deposit. Many lenders will require a letter of excuse documenting the reason behind the massive deposit.

Lenders will be particularly careful to look over your last 3 decades of spending habits.

 Getting divorced.
If you applied to your mortgage using a partner, the pre-approval you obtained is only going to work if you are still married when you buy your home. All of the calculations that made up the loan process were based on you and your spouse being together. Getting separated is one of the subjects I talk about seeing selling a house when getting divorced.

If you get divorced, then everything changes. You can expect the lender to diminish the mortgage, or at the very best, the lending company will authorize a loan considerably more compact than the one you’re pre-approved for while married.

Connected : Take a look at a few fantastic information about purchasing a home after divorce. Among the main takeaways is making sure your financial house is in order before going out and buying a home.

Forgetting to pay your credit cards
Ahead of the creditor provides final permission for your mortgage, it is going to discuss all your data again to find out what’s changed. Your credit standing will be scrutinized carefully, which means that any overdue charge card payments are going to show up and throw a red flag for the lender.

One late payment might not be enough to shed your mortgage but it may. It is ideal to be as cautious as you can and avoid doing anything which will negatively affect your credit score.

Your credit history makes up thirty-five percent of your credit score. It is the biggest determining factor for credit scores.

Close a credit card account.
You may be on a roster at the moment financially, and all your hard work has resulted in you paying one or more credit cards. Paying off a card could be exciting, but do not make the error of closing out the accounts prior to getting your mortgage. It may be counter-intuitive, but closing a credit card accounts can set a ding on your credit status.

One factor that enhances your credit score is the duration of time you’ve had an account available and in good standing. When you close the account, you erase the history of responsible credit use.

In addition you lessen your percentage of available credit, which can also negatively impact your status. Therefore, if you shut a longstanding credit card accounts, it could reduce your credit rating.

Paying your rent overdue.
Your years of on-time lease payments reveal the lender that you’re likely to cover your mortgage on time. If you become careless and fail to pay your rent when you need to, the creditor may decide that you’re not as accountable as you seemed at pre-approval. The lender will look back over at least two years of lease payments.

Buyers have to be keenly conscious of just how not paying their obligations can return and bit them in the ass.

Missing your last mortgage payment.
This may seem like an odd mortgage mistake, but it is surely possible. Lately, I’ve a client who was buying a new home in Millbury Massachusetts. Their existing home required to be sold before they can close on their new construction purchase. The closing in their current home took place in the first part of June. Unfortunately, they didn’t make their final mortgage payment believing it was not an issue given the fact they were closing in little over a week.

It was be a major problem, as Bank of America, looked at it as an overdue mortgage payment. The buyer wasn’t able to qualify for the mortgage on the new home, and their mortgage approval was removed! This caused a significant hassle as the purchaser could not close in their new construction buy. They had to go out and secure different funding from another lender. The credit hit also forced them to go away from a traditional mortgage in an FHA mortgage.

Settling old collection accounts.
You would think that paying debts off would be a fantastic thing, however your credit score may be hurt if you pay off old set accounts right before you get your mortgage.

The pre-approval procedure already factored on your old set accounts, so there is not advantage to paying them to provide at the moment. In fact, paying them off could cause your credit score to drop for a brief period — only enough to wreck your mortgage.

 Spending your savings.
When you tell a creditor that you have a certain amount of savings at your disposal, you’re expected to have that money still once you receive your mortgage.

It is not difficult to invest your savings at time leading up to the home buy, but you want to avoid doing so. If you can’t confirm that you have the savings listed in your initial loan pre-approval, you risk being denied by the lender.

As stated previously, you need to be consistent with your budget before closing on the house. Following the closing on the house, you’ll be safe from the pre-approval being removed, but that doesn’t mean that you ought to be any less fiscally responsible.

Getting in legal problem.
If you are involved in a litigation between the minute you are pre-approved and the period you want the mortgage money, you can lose your loan. If the lawsuit does not go your way, there’s a possibility your wages may be garnished; you could be subject to fines or lose a considerable amount of revenue. None of those things seems good to a creditor.

If you end up in a lawsuit make sure you notify your lender, which means that your mortgage acceptance doesn’t get denied.

Deciding the wrong home to buy.
Were you aware it is possible to purchase the wrong home? It is true! There are some properties where your pre-approval will become void because they don’t meet creditor guidelines as mortgage agent, Luke Skar points out. It is very important to check on the credentials of the house you are purchasing depending on what type of loan you’re getting. There are some Kinds of financing you can get including:

Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac backed loans
FHA financing.
USDA funding.
VA funding.
Each of these loan types are going to have certain restrictions in regards to the home you are purchasing. Luke does a superb job summarizing a few of the common stumbling blocks with getting a mortgage on each one of these loan types.

Make sure you are not purchasing a home with funding that will not work! Many people pick certain loans because they want to avoid paying private mortgage insurance. That is great but not if the loan application is not the ideal match for the house you are buying.

 Appraisal Issues.
Appraisal problems are somewhat different that these other 12 strategies to receive your mortgage approval removed. These other reasons are for the most part in your control while getting the home you are purchasing to evaluate is not. It’s possible you could encounter an appraiser that feels you are overpaying for the house you’re buying.

In instances like these, the owner or their real estate agent will most probably fight the low appraisal amount. There is no guarantee, however, that they will be prosperous. You might find the conditions of your sale need to be shifted to keep your loan acceptance.

Fraud.
Committing fraud on a home mortgage application isn’t a smart thing to do. Doing so, obviously, will most likely result in your mortgage approval being removed.

Lenders today are more careful than ever when it comes to lending money. They all inspect the information given to them by borrowers very thoroughly. Thinking you’ll put one beyond a mortgage business today is unlikely.

Each of these fourteen things can cause your closing mortgage approval to be removed. Avoid these common mortgage mistakes, and you will not have a thing to be worried about. When you’ve made these errors, it’s important to get in touch with your mortgage representative immediately and let them understand.

What Not To Do When Selling Your Home

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So you have decided to place your house on the market. Congratulations! As you begin checking things off your to-do listing, it’s also very important to cover mind of exactly what not to perform.

Do not over-improve.
As you prepared your house for sale, then you might realize you’ll find a fantastic return on your investment should you create a few changes. Updating the appliances replacing that cracked cupboard in the toilet are all fantastic ideas. However, it is important to not over-improve, or create improvements which are hyper-specific to your own tastes. Imagine if your customers are family oriented and need a cellar area for their children to play ? This rock-and-roll room may seem to them like a massive job to un-do. Make any necessary fixes to your area, but do not go beyond and above –you will eliminate money doing this.

Do not over-decorate.
Over-decorating is equally as awful as over-improving. You will love the look of lavender and lace, but your prospective buyer can enter your house and cringe. When prepping for sale, neutralize your decorating strategy so that it’s more universally palatable.

Do not hang around.
Your agent calls to allow you to know they’ll be bringing buyers through this afternoon. Great! You rally your entire household, Fluffy the dog contained, to be waiting in the doorway with fresh baked biscuits and large smiles. Right? Wrong. Buyers want to envision themselves on your area, not to be faced by you on your area. It is embarrassing for them to really go about judging your house while you stand at the corner grinning like a maniac. (On the flip side, if you are purchasing a house rather than selling, subsequently making it private is the thing to do, especially if composing your offer letter.

Do not take things personally
Property is a business, however purchasing and selling houses is quite, very psychological. If a client lowballs you or says they’ll have to replace your precious 1970s vintage shag rug with something”more contemporary,” try to not raise your hackles.

 

Preferred Properties of Texas

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