Connect2Agent - Home Buyers and Sellers

Real estate team says 1st-time buyers can find plenty of housing options in Bucks County Pennsylvania (Part I)

Bucks County Pennsylvania provides plenty of housing options for real estate buyers, at prices that make sense.

I recently spoke with Jane Ramagli-Murray and Diana Farmer, Connect2Agent Members and a dynamic real estate agent team in Bucks County PA, about their real estate market and their real estate business.

Rebecca Levinson: How did you get started in real estate?

Jane Ramagli-Murray: I was a teacher prior to selling real estate. My brother owned a real estate company and so I became a real estate agent at his company. I have been selling real estate since 1988. I thought I would be done selling real estate once my children became school-aged, but they are now grown and I am still selling.

Diana Farmer: I am best friends with Jane's daughter, so Jane is like a mother to me and in fact sold my first house to me. I have been selling real estate for six years now.

RL: How did you become a real estate agent team and how long have you been working together?

JRM: We've been working as a real estate team for a little over one year. I am not very computer-savvy; my background is selling real estate. Diana is knowledgeable about Internet and web marketing.  The two skill sets brought together makes it a rewarding relationship. As a team, we are able to give our clients the best service.

RL: Who comprises your real estate market in Bucks County PA?

JRM and DF: There are many older, retired people who are leaving the area, but they have equity in their homes and so they don't have the same urgency as other homeowners. Because of the adjustment in the market, we have seen an increase in foreclosures and short sales from homeowners who purchased their houses using interest-only and 100 percent-financed mortgages and stretched themselves finanacially.

Our home values in Bucks County PA are beginning to steady and we are seeing great opportunities for real estate buyers. 

Looking for a new 'hood? These two sites will give you the goods

Tired of staring out the window at a sea of endless white-out days? Looking to remove yourself and your belongings before they wither into the still air and always-penetrating heat of the sun? If you answered yes to these questions, you sound like you are ripe for a relocation.

Where can you find a new city that's all about what you want? The following two websites act as a compass to help you find a new place to anchor your boat. Best of all, they are easy to navigate and quick to pull up results.

Find Your Spot

Taking the lifestyle angle is Find Your Spot's key to matchmaking consumers to new destinations. I went on their website and took an eight-minute survey that consisted of eight sections, ranging from weather and outdoor recreation to culture and social services.

At the end of the quiz, I was presented with a contact information form to complete. Not wanting to have taken up eight minutes without seeing the results of my labor, I entered my contact information. 

The next page consisted of a list of advertising offers quite vast but without anything extraordinary, so I pushed on to the next page. 

I was presented with four pages of results, with six suggested cities on each page. Many cities were located in Louisiana (which surprised me) and there were a few in Hawaii (which thrilled me). If I wanted to pay a one-time fee of $9.95, I could receive a list of 525 cities. Meanwhile, I could email the 24 results to myself or bookmark the results to review later.

Not bad.

The top four solutions for your real estate service provider search

When I purchased my first house, I was given a gift. The real estate seller had been diligently collecting receipts, warranties and a little black book of preferred service providers they had done business with during their years of homeownership in the house I was purchasing. They were even kind enough to leave behind extra tile for the bathroom and basement.

Can you say priceless?

Having moved from a large suburban town in Northwest Illinois to a smaller town about an hour away, I was lucky those first few months to find the best dry cleaner, let alone the best painter or plumber. The previous homeowner saved me money, time and sanity by keeping everything organized and providing me with a long list of references. 

The first time I needed to have someone come out for lawn maintenance, I knew who to call. The choices in the phone book and the newspaper were plentiful. After calling a few professionals around town and getting estimates, I chose the professional the previous homeowner recommended to me. I was happy with the end result and the price the lawn maintenace service gave me. I rarely strayed from my original reference list from the previous homeowner again.

Keep your safety net in place when buying a house

Buying a house? One of the most important things you need to do is to set a budget in stone. Homeownership can drain your finances if you go into the deal tapped out from the start. You need to be realistic about the costs of owning a house. 

First are the costs to get into your house:

• Downpayment
• Lender fees
• Attorney fees
• Title company fees
• Government fees
• Inspection fees

Closing costs averaged $2,736 (without the downpayment) in 2007, so you need to make sure you are prepared to pony up those dollars. Then the almighty downpayment, which you should consider at least 10% of the purchase price of the home.

Fast forward to homeownership. Now you are in your dream house and sittin' pretty in your living room on your familiar, lumpy, floral-patterned couch. But wait--did you think you would be happy with the same furniture you had in your apartment in your new house? Survey says, "not likely." You will want to do some redecorating, so you might as well put a place in your budget for new home furnishings. Unless you think you can buck human nature.

How to find first-time home buyer programs

So you want to be a home buyer. You have been a renter and long to cure your homeownership blues, but don't feel you can scrape together enough funds for that almighty downpayment or closing costs. You are also disheartened to hear about programs you might have been eligible for drying up--like 100% financing--or tightening their reigns to consider only the most credit-worthy candidates.

Where can you take your dream and begin the process of fulfillment? If you don't want to wait and build up your piggy bank, you could look into government grants in your area. If you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, the best bet would be for you to check out the following websites:

HUD's website--You can search for local home buying programs by state.  When I did a search for programs in my home state of Wisconsin on this website, I was able to find a program called Downpayment Plus. 

This program pays up to $5,000 worth of closing costs for eligible home buyers with the following requirements:

• Earn household income at or below 80% of area median income
• Participate in home buyer counseling
• Sign a 5-year retention agreement
• Notify lender of refinance or sale of property, and repay pro rata portion of AHP subsidy as necessary
• Use the home as your primary residence

Three steps to an easier home buying experience (Part II)

Are you in the market to purchase a house, but dreading dipping your feet into the water? In Part I of this two-part series, we discussed how to build your dream by beginning your research process on the Internet. Not only will this help you get the lay of the home buying land, but it can be done on your time frame, on your terms and without any drain on your gold-gilded gas tank.

Next, we recommended you document your findings. Keeping written record of the good, the to-be-desired and the wish-it-were of your housing trips will help you decide whether you need to keep looking or if you can narrow down your choices. Tracking the details will allow you to make an educated decision and save you from serious buyer's remorse.

Need help in keeping all this house information together? That is where we go to Step 3.

Three steps to an easier home buying experience (Part I)

Are you a home buyer flushing out your choices in a real estate market saturated with fat inventory? If so, a little patience and organization can go a long way to help you to get the cream to rise to the top. 

In this first of a two-part series, we will outline a three-step recipe for house hunting success:

Step 1: Start with the Internet. Your first step is to start researching houses online. This is guaranteed to make a difference in your home buying experience. If you are in the real estate market as a first-time buyer, you may not realize the convenience the Internet has brought into a real estate buyer's life. Prior to this, if you wanted to see a listing, you needed to go to your local real estate agent and have them drag out a big hefty book of listings currently in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service).

...Not to mention the fact that you needed to hope the agent was hooked up with new house listings hitting the MLS.

Now, as an Internet buyer, you have the advantage of viewing houses online before you grace the front doorstep of a prospective abode. Take time to view videos, virtual tours and interior photos. Many real estate agents will also set you up on their email program, which will deliver real estate listings that meet your criteria to your inbox.

Not all properties are created equal: What you need to know about defects in foreclosed houses

The real estate market is upending with foreclosure properties. The flood of inventory has spurned a keen interest from real estate buyers who are seeking a good deal.

With every type of real estate transaction, there are unique circumstances. There are also traditional methods and differences that only an expert educated in your needs should be helping you with. There is a difference between buying a house from the homeowner and buying a house from the bank.

A good read on this topic is a post from Kacey Sides and Andy Hodes, "Want to Buy a Foreclosure? Read this First." I recommend this read to anyone interested in purchasing a foreclosure property. As an avid reader of blogs, especially of the real estate kind, I took particular notice of two points made:

1. "Keep your inspection period short."
2. "Don’t ask for repairs."

Does Washington DC finally have affordable housing? Real estate agent Natalie Dean breaks it down

At Connect2Agent we are lucky enough to partner with real estate professionals across the country who can share their local real estate news and advice. Natalie Dean, a Connect2Agent member and real estate agent in the Washington DC area, breaks down the current housing situation and opportunities for real estate buyers who are considering whether they should purchase. Following is her guest contribution to the Connect2Agent Home Buyers and Sellers blog.

"Does Washington finally have affordable housing?"

This economy continues to spiral out of control. Other stock market giants buy huge static corporations like Bear Stearns and a record number of bankruptcies of small- and medium-sized businesses are being filed. Consumer debt and spending has reached well into the billion-dollar mark and the resounding woes of the housing crisis continue to flood the airways--it is easy to become overwhelmed.

No need to despair, there are options for real estate buyers

However, there is light hovering at the end of the tunnel. In the Washington area, one of the wealthiest in the nation, housing prices--although not plummeting--have stabilized, allowing many renters to cash in as first-time home buyers.

The correction of the real estate market has led to a series of wonderful changes allowing for affordable housing in Washington DC. FHA loan limits have risen from their traditional $362,000 to well over $729,750 in high-cost areas. Homeowners are now allowed to receive 6% closing help through the assistance of Ameridream and other seller downpayment assistance programs.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the institutions utilized to back conventional mortgages, raised conventional conforming loan limits and houses are in much better condition than in times past, with homeowners willing to do any and all necessary repairs (cosmetic and noncosmetic) in order to attract area buyers.

Foreclosures are on the rise and not are just for the savvy investor, but are popping up all over our Multiple Listing Service, giving homeowners in the Washington DC area an edge in getting a bargain in the market.

This is a good time to purchase real estate.

Your real estate dream can become your reality

I was thinking last night about the first time I bought a house. Maybe it was because on one of the real estate forums I was browsing, I stumbled across a remark that made my bleary eyes blink at midnight,

"Please convince me to buy a house"

It made me take a trip down memory lane to my first home buying experience. I was 22 years old and had been renting a townhome from the real estate attorney I worked for. My fiance and I were looking for room to grow and he was feeling the pains of non-homeownership kick in. If you have ever rented, you know what I mean: "Why am I paying someone else instead of paying myself?", "If I do any home improvements, the rewards are going to go in my landlord's pocket and not mine", "Working nine to five for zero return isn't all it's cracked up to be.", etc. 

Are you feeling me?