Now that you made it through house hunting, negotiating, and the loan process, you’re in the final stretch, closing. This is a very exciting time for both you and the sellers, since this is when the ownership of the home will be transferred. To ensure you are prepared for the closing process, here is what to expect.
1. The Walkthrough: After the sellers have moved out and before the actual closing occurs, you will need to do a final walkthrough of the property to confirm that the condition of the home is as it should be according to the sales contract. Some real estate professionals say you should allow 30 minutes or longer for a walkthrough, while others say you should walkthrough the home 24 to 48 hours before closing to allow time to handle any issues that may arise.
2. Closing Table: After you complete the walkthrough of the property, you will have to sit down with your attorney and possibly other various people including the seller, and your real estate agent at what is known as the “closing table”. Everyone will come together at a predetermined location to sign several legal documents in order to close on the purchase of the home. You will be required to review and sign the purchase agreement, a promissory note for the loan, mortgage documents, title documents, the settlement statement, and the truth in lending statement. The sellers will also have to sign the settlement statement, and the deed to the home. This whole process may take about an hour to complete.
3. What To Bring:
Buyers
- Each buyer will need a government issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license.
- A certified check or a cashiers check to pay for your share of the closing costs. Your lender will also provide a check with the remaining balance
that is due on the home.
- Proof of payment for your homeowners insurance and your flood insurance policy (if you have one) just in case
your lender wants to review them.
- Any other outstanding documents or paperwork you have not provided.
Sellers
- A government issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license.
- Certified or cashiers check made payable to the title or closing company, if these costs aren’t being ded
ucted from the sales price.
- Copies of all the keys to the house
- Garage door openers
- Codes to the alarm or keyless entry system
4. The Keys: After all the paper work has been signed, and everything is in order, you will then be given the keys to the home. The home is now officially yours!
The underwriter is one of the most important people in the mortgage approval process. Without the approval of an underwriter, no lender will fund or close on a loan. It is the job of the underwriter to ensure a borrower can repay the loan they are applying for and to determine that the sales price is supported by the appraisal value before granting lending approval.
The approval of a mortgage loan is based on several things: income, credit history, debt ratios, and savings. A borrower must be able to prove a stable income and job history needed to repay the loan. They also must have a credit history that reflects a stable record of repaying obligations and a balanced debt to income ratio. Additionally, a borrowers monthly debt must fall within acceptable limits determined by the loan product’s guidelines. Lastly the borrower must show that they have enough money saved for their down payment and closing costs. It is also smart to have a few months of mortgage payments saved away in case of an emergency. The underwriter will evaluate all of this information and sometimes ask for more information or explanations from a borrower. So if you want to speed up the process of getting approved for a loan, the best thing to do is to respond with prompt and complete information.
A property’s appraisal value is also reviewed by the underwriter to ensure it supports the amount of the loan you are requesting. A good underwriter will also take into consideration the location of the property and how it may be affected by natural disasters, such as floods.
An underwriter does his or her best to calculate the risk involved when lending to a borrower. If an underwriter did not follow all guidelines and made a poor lending decision and the loan defaults, meaning a borrower stops making payments on their mortgage, it can result in a hefty cost to the lender. As you can see, the role of an underwriter is no easy job, as they must make important decisions based on their own judgements and experiences.
Supply and demand, economic and physical infrastructure, and local income levels all play an important role in the cost differences among regions. Rising food, gas, and health-care costs have some Americans wondering where their dollar can go further. So we decided to do some research and discovered what the cheapest and most expensive cities were on the East Coast.
Most Expensive
1. Manhattan, NY- Manhattan, New Yorks most expensive town, is the only area in the country where living costs are more than double the U.S. average. They say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
2. Stamford, CT- This small town has one of the highest concentrations of millionaire households in the country. Here, the housing costs are more than double the national average and living expenses run anywhere between 8% to 27% above average according to the 2014 research by the Council for Community and Economic Research also known as C2ER.
3. Washington, D.C.- The cost of living here is 40.1% above average, according to the C2ER. Local housing expenses at 2.5 times the U.S. average can be taxing, but other goods and services such as utilities, transportation, and health care have near normal prices.
4. Boston, MA- While this city is definitely not cheap, Boston offers the most affordable housing expenses and home values among these expensive cities. Unfortunately, the savings stop there.
Least Expensive
1. Memphis, TN- Memphis is the biggest city in Tennessee, yet it doesn’t have the big city prices. In Memphis, you can buy a house for less than $100,000, according to the C2ER. This is a price tag difficult to match in a similar sized city.
2. Springfield, IL- The cost of living in the Springfield metro area is about 14% below the U.S. average according to C2ER. However, the median household income is higher in comparison to the other least expensive cities.
3. Youngstown, OH- This town has struggled to find its place in a modern economy. Home values are 73% less than the national median, and household incomes are 54% below the norm for the U.S.
4. Augusta, GA- For one week every April, Augusta becomes one of the priciest places in Georgia due to the Masters Golf Tournament. The other 51 weeks, Augusta is remarkably affordable, with the cost of living 12.9% below the U.S. average.
If you are relocating for a job or for a change of scenery, looking into the cost of living would be a great detail to consider. Certain factors, such as job type, salary, and what the area has to offer are also aspects to think about when making a location decision.
Solar panels have increasingly become more popular over the past few years, and don’t show any signs of slowing down. At the end of 2014, there were more than 600,000 homes outfitted with solar panels, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Leasing options have contributed to this growing number, since some leasing programs require little to no money up-front. The deals can seem attractive, but a question for homeowners is, should you lease or buy solar panels?
Buy:
Installing solar panels on a house to generate electricity often costs $20,000 or more. However, there will most likely be a certain percentage of federal tax credit that could bring down the cost right away. Not only will you be able to take advantage of tax breaks, you will also be able to start saving money on your utility bill each month, and take advantage of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates, or SRECs. Power companies that are required to get some of their electricity from renewable sources, buy these SRECs from homeowners. Currently the SRECs are worth about $200, but the prices fluctuate. Every time a homeowner accumulates 1,000 kilowatts hours of energy, they will be able to sell one certificate, which can generally add up to about seven certificates a year, depending on the system and location. By purchasing a system outright, a homeowner will typically get the most savings, but there is a trade off. The customers are then responsible for maintaining the system. Installers say that the systems are generally reliable, but the panels are not guaranteed past 25 years or so, and the inverters, which converts the direct current to the alternating current that comes from a socket, only lasts about 10 years.
Lease:
For most homeowners, paying upfront for solar panels is not an option. Leasing, on the other hand, gives more homeowners the opportunity to go solar. Just like a conventional mortgage or car loan, the real cost to customers varies depending on how much they are able to pay up front. The homeowner would also have to have good credit to be eligible to lease. The monthly cost to lease would typically replace your monthly electricity bill. While the lease payment stays consistent, the monthly power bill could potentially go up. Another benefit to leasing solar panels is that a homeowner would not have to figure the incentives and subsidies associated with buying. Beyond that, if a homeowner decided to buy the panels in the future, they could at a discounted price. Customers should also be aware that there is no easy way out of the deal if they decided to sell their home. The system generally stays with the house and the homeowner could either decide to find a buyer who is willing to take over the contract, or prepay for the remaining electricity charges and include that into the purchase price of the home.
If you have ever done research online to either buy or sell a home, you’ve probably used a popular website like Realtor.com or Zillow. While both sites offer free real estate market data, and are very similar, they both have their differences. Lets compare the strengths and weaknesses of these real estate websites, to see what each has to offer.
Searching: When it comes to searching “homes for sale” on the web, Zillow will most likely appear at the top of the search results, while Realtor.com might appear lower down on the page. This is due to the fact that Zillow maximizes their marketing efforts in order to appear higher in page rankings. This is why many people searching for homes will end up on the Zillow website over Realtor.com.
Finding Homes: If you want to look at listings of homes for sale, you can do so on both Zillow and Realtor.com, they display featured homes along with more in depth information about the homes. However, when doing identical searches on both sites, where price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, and location are all the same, Realtor.com displayed more houses. A study done by a competitor of Zillow discovered that out of 6,401 home listings in 33 zip codes from 11 metro areas, Zillow was missing about 20% of the listings. The study also found that Zillow tended to lag by about a week in displaying new listings, and about a third of the properties shown as active on Zillow, were no longer for sale.
Realtors: Zillow displays “featured” homes that are listed by agents who pay to have their listings appear at the top of the search results. Zillow also displays agent profiles alongside those of competing agents. Realtor.com just displays the listing agent for the house being displayed. Realtor.com, however, is based off of the MLS listings and is operated by the National Association of Realtors, therefore, Realtors prefer Realtor.com to Zillow.
Estimate Property Value: There are many reasons to estimate a property’s value, but can you rely on these numbers to be accurate? Realtor.com and Zillow both display estimated property value, but both don’t take into consideration all the upgrades or changes an owner has made to the house. These estimates are good to get a ballpark idea of the value, but the appraisal value is what the lenders use, not the estimation on these websites. Both websites, however, make it easy to see comparable listings and recently sold homes near a property.
The bottom line is that both of these sites have strengths and weaknesses. If there is one unique aspect that is particularly important to you, it might make sense to favor one site over the other. Despite the information both sites offer, you may not want to use either site as your primary resource if you are actively searching for a home. Relying on your Realtor is always the best bet.
