Blog – Page 33

Buying a Waterfront Condo – Things to Consider

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

If you’re thinking of buying a waterfront condo, there is a lot to consider. First, is the waterfront life for you and second, is a condo right for you. Here are some things you might want to keep in mind.

Waterfront living can be great. Great breezes that keep you cool and keep bugs away. An environment that is clean and encourages a healthy lifestyle. Beaches to walk run or swim on. And let’s not forget that resale values of properties are good, since properties are in high demand. If you decide to move inland, they make great investment properties to rent. There are drawbacks. Those same resale values mean buying is more expensive.

Insuring your property will be expensive because of the possibility of natural phenomenon that can damage your property. Maintenance costs are more expensive because of corrosive salt or wet air. And then there are seasonal crowds. You have to decide if the payoffs overshadow the problems.

What is great about condo living is that you don’t have the responsibility to take care of things like lawns or outside maintenance on the roof, sidewalks and so forth since you own just your unit. Many condo developments have great amenities like pools, gyms and clubhouses. Condo owners have access to these as part of their ownership. Again, it’s without the need to personally maintain them. Other positives include good resale value, but a lower purchase price and higher rental income.

With the good comes the bad. Condo associations have rules. They generally cover maintenance of common areas, but also deal with what you can and can’t do. If you like to fix up old cars, most condo associations won’t let you do it in their lots! Some won’t allow holiday decorations on the outside of your condo, or even pets. Often there are rules about noise and other nuisance things to keep neighbors from fighting. Condo fees for maintenance can also be a con, because if a big expense comes up, you are required to pony up your share. You can’t decide to put it off as you would be able to do with a single family home.

Deciding if waterfront condo living is for you has its pros and cons, but buying a waterfront condo could be just what you are looking for.

Survival Tips For House Hunting With Kids | Buying A House

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

House hunting is exciting, exhausting and stressful… and that’s only for the adults. Throw in a few small children and it can be almost too much. So how do you manage to hunt for your next home with the kids? Here are some survival tips for all the parents out there.

Use a sitter or Grandma

Survival Tips For House Hunting With Kids First, if you can leave the kids at home with a sitter or drop them at grandma’s house, do it. Think about it, your six year old heads in one direction, the four year old in the other, all while the two year old goes directly for the most dangerous thing in each room.

And you’re going to be able to concentrate on the home you are touring? Hardly! So if you can, leave them home. If you want them to see where they might be living, then do a second look through of your narrowed down choices.

If you have to bring the kids, be prepared!

Pack snacks, drinks and their favorite toy. If you have an iPad or tablet with some games, bring that. Then keep the house hunting moving. If you walk into a home that just doesn’t appeal to you from the git-go, tell the Realtor immediately so you can move on.

The other consideration is safety. You never know what may be behind a door, handrail-less stairs or sunken tubs or rooms that kids could hurt themselves with or in. Set basic rules with the kids that they keep their hands to themselves, don’t open doors, hold parental hands and that misbehavior will NOT be tolerated should be reviewed before each house showing.

Also, follow in your own car so you don’t have to move car seats or worry about kids spilling the aforesaid drinks or snacks in the Realtor’s vehicle. The upside? You can discuss the properties without the listening ear of the Realtor!

Older kids can also be helpful in the house hunting

Have them do some of the footwork about the area on the internet, and when at homes have them take pictures or keep a checklist. Younger kids can feel included if you let them have input about what they want in their new house. Their own bedroom? A playroom? Big backyard? BUT, don’t let them think they have the last word. As parents and the people paying for the home, you are in charge. They may want that huge house you saw with the inground pool, but you know it’s out of your budget. Be the parent!

Tips For Pricing Your Home When You Live On A Busy Street

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Smart sellers know that pricing your home correctly is one of the most important decisions when selling. It’s not an exact science and can be tricky. Nothing is trickier than pricing a home that sits on a busy street.

Given the choice between the exact same home with the exact same amenities, acreage and price; the only difference being one is on a busy street and one is not, buyers will take the not busy street hands down. And why not? Less noise, less danger from traffic and less worries about all of that. But you bought your home on that same busy street…why? What was it about your home that drew you in and enticed you to buy? Think about those things when you start to prepare your home to sell.

One thing is price. The reality is that you will need to hit the right price on the head right away. No overpricing to give you room to move that price. For homes on busy streets that probably means a lower price than comparables on less busy streets. Seriously, the typical difference between those exact same homes above is anywhere from 5 or 5 percent to 15 or 16 percent. That was probably the case when you purchased it as well. A bargain – something you couldn’t afford in another location but in your price range at the location it sits.

So what do you do to make sure it sells? Think about making the inside a quiet retreat. If you haven’t already done so, install new windows to dull any noise. Triple pane or noise reducing windows will do the trick. Make sure the weather stripping and caulk around the windows and doors facing the busy street are in good shape.

Always emphasize the plusses, even more so than with a home in a different location. Making sure the listing has all of the new updates front and center is a big help. Have your Realtor put an extra on the sign highlighting that it is fantastic inside to entice buyers to look. Add or spruce up your landscaping. First, trees or shrubs along the road can block sound and give some added privacy. If you can fence the front, that will block out sound too, although it will keep that gorgeous landscaping from view. That fencing will also make the worries about privacy and safety go away.

Most importantly, don’t bring up noise, loudness or anything like that. Loud or busy are words that will change with perspective. For someone who lived near an airport, a little traffic noise will be negligible! Should the subject come up, however, point out the things you’ve done to mitigate the noise or share your experience with how great it was living there.

Buy the House of Your Dreams and Avoid Being “House Poor”

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Buying the house of your dreams doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be house poor. You’ve heard the term before “house poor,” but do you know that you can avoid being house poor? Here’s how to avoid it.

Be Firm With Price Points

Negotiating to buy a home can become a situation where what you want can overshadow what you can really afford. You fall in love with the house of your dreams and bending on the outer limits of your set budget can easily happen. One way to avoid that is to firmly set those budgetary price points before you start looking. Be firm with your realtor that going above them is not an option. That will keep you from finding that perfect house that is just above your range and you are scrambling to figure out how to make it work.

Know What You Can Spend- Rely On Yourself

Next, don’t rely on a bank or realtor to tell you what you should spend on a home. Remember all those people who did and are now underwater or were foreclosed because they believed lenders or Realtors assurances that their calculations were right, they really could afford it? Don’t become one of them.

Get pre-qualified for a mortgage and then look below that pre-qualification number. Just because you can qualify to get a $300,000 mortgage doesn’t mean you should get a $300,000 home. Figure out the monthly payments on that pre-qualification amount and make sure that it is a number that you can afford… if nothing comes up or goes wrong. Leave yourself enough space in your income to debt so that you can save for those inevitable emergencies.

Do Your Homework

One way to be sure is to do your homework. A good way to estimate what you really can afford is to take your annual household salary and multiply it by 2.5 in order to get a figure for the price you can afford. Then take that amount and figure out what the real estate taxes and homeowners insurance would be and add those amounts to the monthly mortgage amount. Now, does it fit into your budget? If it’s too close to your last penny each month, you need to look for a less expensive home and avoid being “house poor”.

Clearwater Relocation – 5 Tips To Make Your Florida Move Easier

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

You found the perfect home in Clearwater, and now you are ready to start your Clearwater relocation journey. Here are some tips to make your Florida move easier.

First, planning is a good thing

Packing and unpacking takes days. Planning your packing means you won’t be unpacking everything all at once, and making a huge mess to find items you need right away.

Best idea? Pack a bag like you’re going away for a week, and a box with specific household items you need immediately. That would be things like toilet paper, a set of towels and sheets, personal care items, coffee maker and a few dishes and cups.

Another good idea for those right away needs? Get a clear storage container so you can see what’s in it immediately. And remember, enough for each person in your home!

Remember, a label maker is your friend

Whether you use a moving company or pack and go yourself, all those boxes will look the same once they are all packed. Use a label-maker or thick black marker to write the name of the room that each box came from, and number them. That way you will know that there should be 10 boxes from the kitchen and know to keep looking if only 9 make it.

Save time and money- use clothing and towels to pack breakables

Moving is expensive, so save some money and time by skipping things like bubble wrap. Use clothing and towels to do the same job, you have to pack it anyway, right? So breakables from your bedroom, use your clothing. Breakables from the bathroom? Use your towels. If you have something very valuable that needs the extra cushioning, splurge, but clothing and such works well and saves a bundle. Old newspapers work well for packing dishes and glasses.

Take a picture!

Save the hassle with wires for computers and TVs by taking a picture with your smartphone before unplugging. It will save you aggravation later when you try and put them back together.

Moving doesn’t have to be horrible, planning a bit will save all kinds of frustrations.

Why You Might Not Be Able To Get Homeowner’s Insurance In Clearwater Florida

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Looking for a great home in Clearwater? If you are moving from another state, one with much higher home prices, Florida real estate seems like a bargain investment. The problem comes in after you buy Florida real estate and try and procure homeowner’s insurance to protect your investment from fires, people hurting themselves in your home or theft.

Its not all Sunshine

Let’s face it, while the Sunshine State has plenty of sunshine, it also has some darker sides to it as well. Things like hurricanes that destroy properties, flooding and sinkholes that pop up all over the place. In fact, a few years in a row of rather destructive hurricanes sent many large insurance companies running. They had large losses paying homeowners for claims from the hurricanes. Then they packed up and left.

Smaller insurance companies

Now there are a number of smaller insurers who do insure in Florida. Premiums are high because of the risk involved. The smaller number of companies, along with a state run insurance program, are the only choices. In this case, competition is not keeping prices down, due to the smaller number of companies. Larger companies, who have brand recognition and the ability to spread the risk nationwide, bailed. They are now only 17% of the market in Florida.

How larger companies do it

Larger insurance companies have the ability to keep prices lower because they can have their customers share some of the risk. After Hurricane Isabel in 2003, many homeowners in areas that were not hit as hard found their insurance rates going up. For example, while parts of Maryland were hit hard, and areas like Baltimore City and Annapolis were badly damaged and flooded, other western counties only had minor wind damage.

However, those western customers had their rates raised the next time they renewed their policies… whether they had a claim or not. It may seem unfair, and it is, but it is one way that bigger insurers stay in higher risk areas and keep premiums for those customers reasonable.

Citzens Insurance Company

If you can’t get private insurance and you have a hard time finding a big carrier to insure your home, you can always check out Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Citizens was formed in 2002 from the merger of two other entities to provide both windstorm coverage and general property insurance for home-owners who could not obtain insurance elsewhere. It was established by the Florida Legislature in Section 627.351(6) of Florida Statutes as a not-for-profit insurer of last resort, headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, and quickly became the largest insurer in the state.(1)

So Florida home prices may not be as high as some other places, and you CAN find insurance, but be prepared to have to look around to find coverage.

If you are thinking about buying a waterfront home in the Clearwater FL area and would like to learn more about some of these and other issues, give Deb Ward a call today! 727-410-0336