Texas Real Estate

Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended

2009-11-06T12:47:00.004-06:00

The new bill signed by the president includes the following provisions:

Taxpayers must purchase their home, or be locked into a contract to close, before midnight on April 30, 2010. The closing must occur before midnight on June 30, 2010.

The credit is allowed in full for those with incomes up to $125,000 ($225,000 if married filing joint). The credit is reduced for taxpayers with an income between $125,000 and $145,000 ($225,000 and $245,000 if married filing joint) and is not available for taxpayers with an income higher than $145,000 ($245,000 if married filing joint).

Taxpayers who have lived in their home for five consecutive years out of the eight years preceding closing on a new house may qualify for a reduced credit ($6,500 or $3,250 for those who file separately).

Nice Saginaw Short Sale!

2009-08-13T17:43:00.005-05:00

This appears to be a really nice house, worth the aggravation of the short sale process! It's in the Saginaw subdivision of Creekwood and has 3 bedrooms, 2 and 1/2 baths, a study, and a 3 car garage! It also has granite counter tops and backs to a greenbelt. Creekwood is close to the schools too.

Eagle Mountain Lake Foreclosures

2009-08-05T02:11:00.005-05:00

There are two foreclosures available on the lake. One is in Lake Country, built in 1978, listed for $376,200.
The other one is in Oak Harbor and was built in 1992. It's listed at $400,000. They both have docks.

First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

2009-04-08T13:21:00.000-05:00

The name is a little misleading. If you haven’t owned a home in the last three years, you may qualify for a tax credit up to $8000. (10% of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.) It's a temporary credit available on a principal residence purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. Unlike last year's tax credit, this tax credit does not have to be repaid if you don’t sell your home for at least three years. Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full credit.

This is a pretty sweet deal. The tax credit combined with low interest rates and a great supply of available homes, both new and preowned make this the perfect time to buy.

Eagle Mountain Foreclosure

2009-04-06T11:39:00.000-05:00

There is a foreclosure on the lake! I'm asked about this all the time, but they aren't that common. This one is a doublewide with a dock and a pool, on an acre. List price is $117,900. The lake is down about 5 feet right now. We need some rain! It could be worse, Bridgeport is down about 10 feet.

Highland Oaks - Keller, Texas

2009-02-19T17:48:00.000-06:00

1511 Cat Mountain - listed at $186,000.

This is a really great house. Four bedrooms, formal living and dining. All the bedrooms have big closets. The den has new carpet.

New Homes

2008-10-24T09:33:00.000-05:00

David Weekley Homes is closing out several neighborhoods in the Fort Worth area. They have some good deals available. One home that's ready and waiting is a four bedroom two and a half bath in Keller ISD. The entry and living room floors are hardwood. Master bedroom has a sitting area, It backs to a farmhouse. The yard faces west and with the huge covered patio and tree line along the backside of the fence, it would be a very usable yard.

Eagle Mountain Lake Waterfront Homes

2008-07-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

Houses on the lake are still moving. 7 homes sold in June, 4 more so far in July, and there are 6 more pending. There are 51 active listings ranging from a condo for $119,000 to a fabulous home on almost 4 acres with a garage apartment, pool, outdoor kitchen, and incredible lake view for $3,500,000.

There's one that would make a great weekend home for $205,000. I still love the one in Oak Harbor for $684,000. It has a 4 car garage, granite counters, pool, boat dock, and great views. There's one in Lake Country for $435,000. It's been on the market a couple of weeks. I haven't seen it yet, but from the pictures, it looks like with a little updating it would be a great house.

Call me if you'd like a list of what's available or if you'd like to take a look at any of these.

Congress Bans Down Payment Assistance Programs

2008-07-26T15:04:00.000-05:00

Congress passed a bill today to try to deal with the housing - mortgage problems facing the country. Among the many provisions of the bill designed to help home owners avoid foreclosure and shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a provision to end the down payment assistance programs that have become popular with first time buyers over the last several years.

Seller funded down payment assistance programs popped up when someone figured out that the law allows a charity to provide the 3% down payment required when a buyer finances a home with an FHA mortgage. The seller donates the amount of the down payment to the charity along with an additional fee. The charity pays the down payment, and the buyer moves into the home without having to come up with any money out of their own pocket.

President Bush is expected to sign the bill next week and the down payment assistance ban is set to take affect October 1st, 2008. If you're planning on buying a home using one of these programs, there's still time, but you need to hurry!

Short Sales and Foreclosures, Are We Having Fun Yet?

2008-07-04T11:33:00.000-05:00

Short sales and foreclosures can be good investments, but they can take a lot of time and patience. Last month I had a buyer ready to pay cash for a home in the $120,000 to $140,000 range. His lease was up on his apartment at the end of June, so we needed to close on something by about the third week of June. He first contacted me on May 24th, so we had plenty of time... you'd think.

On our first trip to look at homes, he and his fiance wanted to see homes with pools. We looked at about six homes. They loved the last one. It was a fantastic house with five bedrooms and a pool. It was a short sale, meaning the lender would need to approve the sale and agree to take less at closing than was owned on the home.

I called the agent and was told that she had submitted an offer to the bank over two months ago, in March. She was still trying to get the bank to set the price they would accept. She didn't know for sure if that buyer was still interested, but she didn't think so. We submitted an offer but continued to look at homes.

We found another home they really liked. It was a foreclosure. Big house with four bedrooms, a game room, and a media room. All the ceiling fans and doorknobs were missing, but it seemed to be in pretty good shape otherwise. We put in a full price offer. They received 8 offers and the agent informed me that another offer had been accepted. Darn!

We found another foreclosure in the same neighborhood as the short sale, with almost the same floor plan, but no pool. They had just lowered the list price from $159,900 to $120,900. We put in an offer for about $5000 over list price. The bank received 12 offers and chose another.

We were still communicating with the short sale agent and she was still trying to get an answer from the bank. We were into the middle of June by now and panic was setting in. On the 16th of June the agent for the foreclosure with the media room called me to say they were accepting our offer. Woo hoo! Never really found out what happened the week before when they said they had accepted someone else's offer.

Now all we had to do was get all the paperwork ready to close before the end of the month. We were shooting for about June 25th, but the resale certificate from the HOA wasn't received until the 26th, so we closed on Friday the 27th, leaving the buyer 3 days to replace ceiling fans and door knobs and move out of his apartment.

The agent for the short sale with the 5 bedrooms and fantastic pool called me this week to say the bank has said they are willing to accept $137,000 with no buyer concessions. The original buyer has moved on so... if you're interested in this home call me! It's located in the Eagle Mountain - Saginaw school district. This one should go really fast now that the lender is ready to move it.

Eagle Mountain Lake Real Estate Update

2008-06-03T09:20:00.000-05:00

May was a busy month. Five waterfront homes closed and there are a dozen more sales pending. Some really nice ones went fast. A few that had been on the market for more than a year are now gone too. Luckily a couple of my favorites are still available though.
If you want a lake front home, the best way to see the good ones as soon as they come on the market is to let your agent set up an automatic search that will email you every morning if there is a new listing that meets your criteria.

Tarrant County Foreclosures

2008-05-08T03:00:00.000-05:00

There are still an incredible amount of foreclosures. There were more than 1300 homes posted for sale at the Tarrant County court house for May. Many of them won't be sold and will be listed with an agent and available through the MLS system. Foreclosures can be a good deal, but you need to look them over carefully and have a qualified home inspector do a full inspection. Owners about to lose their house aren't known for stellar home maintenance. I guess on the bright side, many of them are almost new, so lax maintenance, hasn't had time to hurt them. More and more brand new homes are coming up as foreclosures as some builders get deeper into trouble and lose their homes.

Mortgage Rates

2008-05-03T18:43:00.000-05:00

Rates for a 30 year fixed loan are at 6.06% this week, very little change from 6.03% last week. 15 year fixed rate mortgages are averaging 5.59%, down a little bit from 5.62% a week ago.

Eagle Mountain Waterfront

2008-04-15T08:25:00.000-05:00

There's a new listing on the lake for someone looking for a small home or weekend lake house on the east side of the lake. It has about 1450 sq. ft. with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. It looks like it needs some updating, but it has trees and a dock. It's listed at $299,900.

If you're looking for a more substantial home, there's a really nice home in Oak Harbour Estates. Granite kitchen, pool, fireplace in master bedroom, and very nice view of the lake. They're asking $694,000.

There's one available in Lake Country Estates for $424,900. It's not on open water, but it's a really nice house. It has a 2800 sq, ft., and a nice deck.

At this time there are 51 waterfront homes listed on the lake ranging from $79,500 for 1.25 acres with a gazebo and mobile home on a little bit of water to $2,500,000 for over 10,000 sq. ft., pool, 5 fireplaces, 7 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half baths with a nice view of the lake.

New Listing

2008-03-16T20:21:00.000-05:00

New listing in North Fort Worth, Keller school district. 5 bedroom, 3 living areas, 2 dining areas, great kitchen, big backyard and patio. Really pretty house.

Catching Up

2008-03-03T17:00:00.000-06:00

Haven't posted in a long time. Went on a cruise in October, then the holidays, busy with real estate, time just flies!

Our office dropped the RE/MAX franchise. We're now Texas DFW Homes. Eagle Mountain Lake doesn't have too many really interesting listings right now. The best lake property I've shown recently is in Oak Harbor Estates. Has a big yard, pool, and good views of the lake. Priced at $694,000.

Eagle Mountain Lake Waterfront Foreclosure

2007-08-30T09:03:00.000-05:00

The foreclosure on Eagle Mountain Lake listed for $103,000 has been returned to active status. I've shown this house in the past, before it became a foreclosure. It's been listed as high as $279,900. The area is not one of the best on the lake of course. It's a pretty run down.

Need a Home for You and Your Horse?

2007-08-10T12:11:00.000-05:00

Fossil Creek is a nice gated horse community north of Saginaw. Lots range from 2.5 acres to about 4 acres. It has riding trails and an arena. Many of the homes have barns, but some don't. Of the three houses available at this time, two have barns, one doesn't. One has a pool. These are priced from the $340s to the $370s. The school district is Northwest ISD.

Waterfront Homes on Eagle Mountain Lake - Fort Worth Texas

2007-08-06T10:32:00.000-05:00

Eagle Mountain Lake has houses on open water with wonderful views of the lake and there are houses on sloughs, coves, and canals. Some of those have pretty good views, others don't. Many lakes in the area are Corp of Engineer lakes and don't allow private docks. Most homes on Eagle Mountain lake either have a dock or could have one built.

Lake levels can vary from year to year, but they are building a pipeline from Richland-Chambers and Cedar Creek to help keep the levels up. It should be ready next spring. Of course we've had tons of rain this summer, so the lake if full and houses are selling well.

There 59 houses (4 are condos) available on the lake right now. Days on market ranges from 3 to 775. It's not unusual for lake front homes to take a while to sell. There are 14 pending contracts and 34 homes have sold in the past 6 months.

Some interesting homes available at this time:

There is a small one bedroom one bath condo available for $84,950. It's on the southern portion of the lake. No boat slip, but very close to a marina. It's been on the market for a couple of weeks.

Snug Harbour is a small community of homes and condos. I believe the HOA dues are $400 per year. The condos pay an additional $150 per month that I understand includes yard care and water. They have a pool, tennis court, and a play ground. There are 4 homes available. One is a condo. I've seen all 4.

The condo is offered at $168,000. It has 2 bedrooms. The master is a loft on the second floor. It has 2 decks and a boat slip.

My favorite is a home listed for $300,000. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. It doesn't have a dock, but the listing agent says one could be built. Most of the homes in Snug Harbour face coves so your view is the boat docks and other homes. This one is at the end with views of open water.

That's enough for now. Call or email me if you want more information about these or others on the lake.

Buying a Brand New Home - Should You Use an Agent?

2007-08-05T08:05:00.001-05:00

You can walk into a model home and buy directly from the sales rep, but who does that person work for? Not you! They aren't trying to figure out which floor plan, which builder, which subdivision is right for you... they are trying to sell you their product. A good Realtor® will talk to you and match you up with the builder that is offering the best home for your needs. Do you have kids? Do you want to live in a community with pools and parks and walking trails? Would you rather live in a quiet neighborhood with little or no HOA dues?

A good Realtor® stays informed about special and closeouts being offered to get you the best deal on your new home. A good Realtor® represents YOU throughout the process. It doesn't stop when the contract is written. It doesn't stop at closing.

One of the great deals available now - For the month of August Centex is offering buyers 3% for closing costs, the owner's title policy, and will include a washer, dryer, and refrigerator in one of their communities. Buyers must use CTX Mortgage. This deal includes specs and build jobs! The community doesn't have pool. Centex Homes was rated 2nd in the J. D. Power new home builder survey for 2006.

HUD Homes

2007-08-04T07:06:00.001-05:00

I have a lot of people ask me about buying HUD foreclosures. A HUD home is a property that was financed with an FHA insured loan. The government ends up with it instead of a bank or other lender. You must use a HUD registered agent. Sometimes they offer certain homes in a lottery period before they are listed with a real estate agent and available to the general public. These are designated for disaster evacuees, policemen, teachers, etc...

Once they are listed and available to the general public, they start with a 10 day bidding period. During this time owner occupants are given preference over investors. If the home isn't purchased during this time, it goes to daily bidding where each morning they review any offers from the day before and choose one IF they've received an acceptable offer. Usually they will start dropping the price if it hasn't sold in about a month. When they drop the price they go back to a bidding period instead of daily bids. This lasts 5 days. If they still don't have an acceptable offer, they go back to daily bids. You can go to the HUD website http://firstpreston.com/ and see what offers have been submitted on an available property. You can also see the winning bid on a closed property.

If you're bidding as an owner occupant you can ask them to pay some of your closing costs. Owner occupants must sign an addendum stating that they haven't purchased a HUD owned home within the past 24 months and that they will use the home as their primary residence for 12 months after purchase.

It takes about 30 - 45 days to close once your bid is accepted. The earnest money is $500 for a sales price of $50,000 or below. $1000 for homes over $50,000. This must be in certified funds and in your agent's possession at the time the offer is submitted.

Well there's more to it, but this is getting long. Play around with the HUD website http://firstpreston.com/ and call or email me if you have any questions.

Why a Blog?

2007-08-03T09:08:00.001-05:00

I guess it's time to jump into this. I often have information I'd like to add to my website, but it takes so much time to create a page and make sure it's linked to the rest of the site correctly. I create and update the site myself, and if I spend all day on it, I'm not showing houses, etc...