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Time to Buy a Vacation Home?

By Phoebe Chongchua on Jul 30, 2011 in Lifestyle & Home

Housing prices are more affordable than ever and that’s not just for a primary home. Today, the second-home luxury market is loaded with deals.

Second-homes that once were out of the price range for many are now viable options, according to The Wall Street Journal.

That means that homes that once were $1,000,000+ are now being offered for significantly less. For instance, a Hilton Head Island property in South Carolina sold for $1.2 million back in June 2006. However, by April 2011, the same three-bedroom home sold for $750,000.

Price cuts like these are causing buyers to take note. Reports in The Wall Street Journal indicate that the second-home housing market won’t stay soft forever. Right now some vacation markets are starting to stabilize and prices are even beginning to creep up in, for instance, luxury markets in California and Colorado.
However, hot spots exist for those interested in a vacation home in Miami, Florida, Martha’s Vineyard, or Vail. In these areas foreclosures are helping to keep prices from rising.

Here are some hot spot markets for vacation homes as reported in The Wall Street Journal.

1. Santa Barbara, California: Today’s median home price: $695,000 as compared to five years ago: $1,000,000. Certainly prices are still high in this California market but lower than they were several years ago. It appears this market is stabilizing and may see increases in the future.

2. Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts: Today’s median home price: $403,000, but five years ago it was: $638,000.

3. Vail, Colorado: Today’s median home price is $385,000, but five years ago it was $562,000.

4. Miami, Florida: The median home price is now $130,000, but five years ago it was $302,000. In Palm Beach, the median price there today is $254,000, but five years ago it was $758,000.

Earlier this year, the vacation communities saw increases in prices that reached levels equivalent to the days before the housing boom. Analysts attribute the increase to steep discounts and cash purchases.

Homes in prime locations, like those near the water or ski slopes, are selling well. Real estate experts say that foot traffic has increased in some areas by about 30 percent.

Of course, on the lending side, banks are still cautious about making second-home mortgages, especially if they’re jumbo loans (higher than federally guaranteed limits). Many banks have implemented stricter standards for second-home loans.

But for many second-home buyers, getting a loan isn’t a big concern. Many of these buyers pay all cash and skip the entire mortgage process. According to the National Association of Realtors, more than 80 percent of second-home buyers bought their homes not for investment purposes but instead simply for enjoyment and a place to live. Last year 36 percent of the vacation-home sales were all-cash transactions. That’s increased from 2009 when the figure was just under 30 percent.

If a second-home is on your wish list, this may be the best time to shop and find a bargain!

Buyers Want Lifestyle Options in Housing

By Phoebe Chongchua on Jul 22, 2011 in Lifestyle & Home

The adage when it comes to real estate has been “location, location, location.” A recent survey, though, shows that lifestyle options are a priority. These include health and safety, access to cultural activities, and family-friendly neighborhoods.

Of course, location is still important, but today’s buyers are looking for a sense of belonging in a community as well as creating a desirable lifestyle with the home they buy.

More than 1,000 homeowners and future home buyers were surveyed for the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC and the Meredith Corp report. The respondents indicated that how satisfied they’ll be with the purchase of a new home may depend significantly on the home’s surrounding community. About 84 percent of those surveyed were homeowners and an additional 10 percent had plans to buy within three years.
Here are some of the results. The survey found the following lifestyle options are top priorities for buyers.

Ease of commuting by car: 38%

Access to health and safety services: 34%

Family-friendly neighborhoods: 33%

Availability of retail stores: 32%

Access to cultural activities: 21%

Public transportation access: 19%

Nightlife and restaurant access: 18%

Golf-friendly area–access to golf courses: 6%

If you’re a seller what should all this mean to you? It’s an opportunity to target buyers based on their interest. Just like businesses need to know who their target market is so that they can build a brand and solicit to those consumers, so too, for sellers.

If you’re selling your home and you know that the above priorities can influence buyers, it only makes sense to play up the lifestyle options that apply to your home.

Often sellers focus predominantly on their home and the upgrades and amenities. While those features are very important, remember that practically any home can be remodeled. If you’re in an excellent location with easy freeway access, on a low traffic street in a friendly neighborhood, surrounded by retail stores and hot dining spots, it’s time to play it up. Those features aren’t always easy to find.

Promote your lifestyle features with not only creative writing in the Multiple Listing Service detailed section, but also in ads with photos. You should also try using video of your home and the surrounding area. These days marketing goes beyond the MLS and glossy flyers. An archived video on the Internet doesn’t get tossed in the trash like a piece of paper often does.

Showcasing your home on social media sites and giving a taste of the neighborhood in a well-produced video can be a fantastic marketing tool. However, don’t use a poorly shot video; that may hurt you more than help you. Hiring a videographer or even a video journalist to tell a story about the area is well worth the money you’ll spend. This style of storytelling can greatly increase interest in your home and, ultimately, the sales price.

Another option is to use footage (link or embed the video) from local retail outlets and post it on your social sites so that you can showcase some of the fun, nearby entertainment establishments. Create an album on your social sites so that all these photos, videos, links to articles are housed in it and then share it with friends. Don’t make this album about you and your family in the home. Instead, make it like a review of the area. You are showcasing, through pictures, videos and words, the great places that you enjoyed while living in your home. Putting all these items online gives you greater exposure as people forward them to others.

Reality TV is popular for a reason; it takes people along for the journey, exposing life as it really is. Showcasing your home, neighborhood, and nearby restaurants allows potential buyers an opportunity to imagine the things that they would do if they lived in your home. We are becoming a very visual society and because so many properties are viewed first, and sometimes only, via the Internet, it’s worth making what buyers see online valuable and persuasive. Seeing all that your home and its surrounding area has to offer in a video is as close as they get to actually experiencing it. The next step is literally stepping into your home for a closer look.

A little extra effort and promotion to highlight what’s important to buyers may get you the sale faster and the price you’re hoping for.

Extended-Family Living: Making Room For Grandma

Extended-Family Living, Making Room for All Under One Roof

By Phoebe Chongchua on Apr 18, 2011 in Featured, Lifestyle & Home, Videos

Whether the grandparents are moving in or your grown child is coming home to live with you to cut living expenses, extended-family living is becoming prevalent in these tough economic times.

See how one family had a whole-house remodel by Marrokal Design & Remodeling to make room for grandma while still giving the family its own privacy under one roof.

For more information visit Marrokal Design & Remodeling.
Video produced by Live Fit Films.

How to Install Reflective Glass in Your Fireplace

By Phoebe Chongchua on Jan 05, 2011 in Featured, Lifestyle & Home, Videos

How to install reflective glass in your fireplace

Tired of messy wood-burning fireplaces or those fake logs? Live Fit Magazine shows you how to easily convert your natural gas fireplace into a unique focal point using reflective glass.

Video produced by http://www.LiveFitFilms.com

Tired of messy wood-burning fireplaces or those fake logs? Live Fit Magazine shows you how to easily convert your natural gas fireplace into a unique focal point using reflective glass.
Video produced by Live Fit Films.

How to Turn Your Tract House into a Custom Home

By Phoebe Chongchua on Nov 17, 2010 in Lifestyle & Home, Videos

Think you can’t afford a custom home? Think again. In this video, see how two homeowners changed their homes and their lives with custom remodels that saved them money, time, and energy. Discover all the possibilities… from creating more space, flowing floor plans, built-in, smart coffeemakers, and making use of outdoor living. Phoebe Chongchua shows you how Marrokal Design & Remodeling creates dream homes from tract housing.

Getting Your Home Ready for an Open House

By Phoebe Chongchua on Oct 17, 2010 in Lifestyle & Home

Many sellers have a love-hate relationship with open houses. They love them because open houses bring potential buyers. They hate them because, let’s face it, they have to clean and get their home organized to capture buyers’ interest.

But preparing for an open house doesn’t have to be difficult. You can leave the hard work to your real estate agent. Things like signage, flyers, listing the open house in newspapers or online, your agent can handle. However, if you’re living in your home and trying to show it, here are a few quick tips to get you organized.

Coil it up! This might not come to mind right away but, until everything is wireless, we have to deal with those unsightly long cords. Using devices, such as the Cableyoyo or even twist-ties, will clean up the clutter and leave your electronic areas looking much better.

When you have electrical cords in a jumble behind your entertainment center (but still in view) it creates a feeling of chaos and clutter–not to mention, the cables collect dust and then can create an impression in the buyer’s mind that the home is dirty.

Off the table into the portable bin. Organizing experts often recommend at least a two-drawer file cabinet per home. Now, a file cabinet may look out of place in, say, the living room, yet that’s often where paper clutter winds up.

So, here’s a tip. Get a portable file cabinet–small but one that can hold about a week’s worth of papers. Leave it in the living room and instruct family members to place their papers in their labeled folder when they’re finished reading them.

Homework, newspapers, documents that need signing should all be placed in the family member’s folder and not stuffed in between couch cushions, entertainment center shelves, or left on the coffee table. Just before the open house, you can easily and quickly do a sweep of the rooms, picking up papers and storing them in the appropriate folder in the portable file cabinet. Then these folders can be transferred to a more permanent file storage system or packed for the move when the home sells. All too often, when you don’t have a portable system and you’re in a hurry to make the home look organized, papers are swept up into a heap and frequently accidentally thrown out or misplaced.

Go green selectively. I’m talking about your house plants in this next tip. The folks at HGTV recommend that your house plants be placed on a cute stand or in several decorative pots. While plants are usually seen as a welcome addition, creating a jungle with too many big, sprawling plants in your living room won’t go over well, unless, of course, you’re showing your home to Jane and … well, that other guy that likes swinging from trees and vines.

Minimize product-overload in the bathroom. I have a teenage daughter so I know how sensitive the bathroom clean up is before showing a home. Teenage girls have tons of hair, face, and make up products–okay, I do too.

Somehow these products end up everywhere and, if you’re tight for time, gathering up the toothpaste, night cream, lotions, perfume, lipstick, powder, cotton balls, etc., can take more time than you have. Homestagers recommend buying a tub and storing it under the sink. Place all of your every day products in it. It’s convenient, easy to access, and putting away the products quickly won’t cause a big commotion from your teenage daughter. Another good rule is, every time you pull out the tub, evaluate whether you really need or use the products in it. If you don’t use a product toss it out–eliminate the clutter.

Implementing these quick tips can help you be prepared in a moment’s notice, saving you hours of searching for items that would have otherwise been swept up and crammed into any hidden place.

How to Design Like a Pro: Check Out These Tips From the Pros

By Phoebe Chongchua on Sep 01, 2010 in Lifestyle & Home, Videos

When you walk into a well-designed model home that’s been skillfully constructed architecturally and then professionally staged, it provokes emotion, draws you into the home, and makes you want to stay — with any luck, forever. Deal done. Contract signed. Home purchased.

A lot of us selling our homes aren’t, of course, starting from scratch. But, with spring in the air, many homeowners get the itch to remodel or at least redesign the interior of their homes both for comfort and for greater marketability and value when they place their houses for sale. For some, interior decorating is a fun, exciting process but for others, it’s challenging and causes a lot of stress. There are some simple tips to help homeowners decorate like a pro. “I think that when people start the remodeling process they are overwhelmed with the amount of selections and things that are out there,” says Kelly Smiar, interior designer for Marrokal Design & Remodeling.

The first important tip from the pros is to narrow down the options. Find something in your home that’s really working for you. Smiar says once you discover that then all the other materials and products brought into the home support the style or theme that’s already working in your home. Then it’s a matter of just building on that. Another vital tip is to begin with one room, complete it and then move to the next. Keep a notebook handy and fill it with ideas, wish list, color schemes, room themes, notes, receipts, and any other information necessary for your home decorating project.

In the world of interior decorating, not all changes are equal. For instance, let’s work on the kitchen because this is a high-interest level for buyers and for homeowners it’s very often where people gather when visiting—food attracts all of us! In the kitchen, cabinets are very important in homes, says Smiar, “because they’re furniture that you don’t change.” Since cabinets will stay in your home for a long time, choosing the right finish is a big part of creating the overall look and feel of a well-decorated room. Some popular cabinet finishes are painted rather than stained wood, creating a vintage or traditional look that’s both appealing and durable. Experts recommend neutral colors that provide a solid base to build on. Then color in back-splashes, countertops, and flooring really coordinates and perks things up in the room without becoming overwhelming.

Smiar reminds homeowners that the cabinets, countertops, flooring, and back-splashes are just part of the overall look. Next comes the furniture and that adds a style and colorful dimension that must be considered when making interior decorating changes. “[Homeowners] are going to have furnishings and décor that is going to add to that so you don’t want to overwhelm it before they even have their things brought into the home,] she says.

Another great way to add appeal to a home and tie in the cabinets is with a custom range hood. There are many different looks but, if you don’t overlook the hood, you’ll find that you can blend your entire kitchen together in a seamless fashion by integrating colors, textures, and design with a hood. Rather than a stainless steel hood, a custom hood in a subtle finish can soften the feel of the kitchen and integrate well with the cabinets.

In any redecorating, remember functionality and aesthetic appeal should be equal parts to create a design that’s comfortable and inviting. Getting expert help can make the process go faster and flawlessly.

Mortgage Rules Change

By Phoebe Chongchua on Sep 01, 2010 in Lifestyle & Home

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported recently that mortgage applications decreased according to their weekly survey (ending 6/18/10). However, some banks are hiring mortgage lenders—a sign that banks are optimistic that requests for housing loans will increase.

J.P. Morgan Chase is planning to hire 1,200 loan officers, according to CNNMoney.com. Christine Holevas, a spokesperson for the bank said, “We may not be inundated with applications tomorrow, but we are confident the need will be there.” Despite any slight downturns, expected increases in the mortgage business are estimated to go from $725 billion in 2010 to $916 billion by 2013, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

If you’re looking to get a home loan here are a few things you should consider. If you’re self-employed the rules have changed considerably and not just for mortgages but also personal loans too. Some lending institutions are now requiring self-employed borrowers to provide documentation from assets to income and the documented income is then checked with IRS records. “It used to be nobody checked your IRS records,” says one source in the mortgage industry who agreed to be interviewed about the inside changes but could not be named.

Another big change has to do with what borrowers may have done in the past. “When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac discover loans where the borrowers misrepresented their income, the agencies are requiring the lenders to repurchase the loan from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In turn the lenders then have the option to go after the borrowers in the form of foreclosure—even if the loan is not delinquent,” says the source. There’s no statute of limitation for fraud. The source says, normally, if the loan is current, they won’t pursue the borrower. One major lending institution hired a company to go through all its stated-income loans looking to see if there was fraud. “At first they started with all the delinquent loans and then they moved into performing loans. Then they started requiring lenders to buy back all these loans which put lenders out of business. That closed down some shops,” the industry expert told me.

The problem that many self-employed borrowers have today is that they need to be able to show that their business is legitimate in order to get the loan. The typical documentation includes, but is not limited to, a Web site, CPA letter, 411 listing, and business license. And if you’re not self-employed, the rules for loans are tight as well—bigger down payments and better documentation are a must. While some lenders will allow as little as 5 percent down, most are looking for more than that. Everything you submit to a lender is now being double-checked.

Doing your part to make sure that your finances are in order prior to applying for a loan ensures a smoother process. Here are just a few helpful tips:

1. Make no major purchases such as a car prior to applying for a loan

2. Have complete documentation of your income

3. Check and clean up your credit before attempting to borrow

4. Reduce the number of outstanding credit options: close unused credit cards

5. Remain current on all your loans

For more information on protecting yourself when applying for a loan, read my column: Don’t Get Caught In Mortgage Fraud.

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Category: Lifestyle & Home

Time to Buy a Vacation Home?

Buyers Want Lifestyle Options in Housing

Extended-Family Living, Making Room for All Under One Roof

How to Install Reflective Glass in Your Fireplace

How to Turn Your Tract House into a Custom Home

Getting Your Home Ready for an Open House

How to Design Like a Pro: Check Out These Tips From the Pros

Mortgage Rules Change

Get Cozy in Comfortable and Chic Fashions

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