Northern Michigan Real Estate: Michigan: Traverse City

Many neighborhoods around the state are seeing more and more homes being rented out or just unoccupied.  If you find yourself having to relocate because of a job change or any other circumstance, make sure you check with your insurance company about your coverage. 

If your home is unoccupied for more than a month and suffers damage as a result, you may find yourself non covered for the damage.  The actual amount of time you can leave your home unoccupied before it affects your coverage will vary from insurer to insurer.  Insurance companies view unoccupied homes as a higher risk policy and you should expect to pay a higher premium for coverage.  Some companies will not insure at all on these higher risk properties.  An independent insurance agent can help you search for policies that will fit your circumstances.

If you are renting what was your primary residence, you will also need to contat your insurer and get a new policy.  Insurerr also consider a rental property a higher risk policy than one that is owner occupied.  This is due to the renters having less interest in caring for the property.  If you are going to rent out your primary home, you must place a landlord policy on the home.  These premiums are higher but they do cover for loss of rental income if the house burns or becomes otherwise uninhabitable.  Landlord policies will not cover tenant possessions if they are stolen or damaged, so it is important to encourage your tenant to purchase a tenant homeowners policy.  Renter's insurance is relatively inexpensive.  Premiums are usually less than $250 a year.

Traverse City Home Builders Association Expo

Today is the last day of the Traverse City Home Builders Association home expo.  Over 100 vendors are on display at the East Middle School today from 11:00 - 4:00.  There is everything from building your own home to furnishing it.  I attended yesterday and made many wonderful contacts with some great vendors from the area.  This is a great way to get out and visit many local businesses and see just what they do, all under one roof.  Be sure to stop by and support your local Home Builders Association.  There are many great lenders there as well who can give you current pricing on lot loans, construction loans and fixed rate mortgages.  Be sure to stop by the First Place Bank booth, located in the gym and say hi to Holly Hack and the gang. 

I recently attended a training through Bank of America in Traverse City on FHA 203K Rehabilitation Loans.  This program was presented by Corbin Buttleman, Holly Hack and John Klingelsmith.

Potential buyers for proeprties in need of repairs are facing significant challenges for financing these days.  The solution to this challenge is the FHA 203K Rehabilitation Financing Loan.

Highlights

• One loan purchase price plus repairs
• FHA mortgage limits apply for area
• Minimum rehab $5,000
• Health and Safety first
• Customer desires
• Value based on after improvement value (loan not to exceed 96.5% of improved value)
• Convert a one unit to a two, or a two unit back to a SFR

Program Requirements

• Owner occupied only
• Down Payment 3.5% of sale price plus rehab amount
• Allows for 6% seller concession
• Self help is allowed
• Loan will be based on contractor/labor total any unused portion returned to customer via principle reduction

Rehab of over $35,000

• Customer meets with a 203K consultant to determine required repairs and additional items desired from customer
• Work write up completed by consultant and supplied to lender/appraiser
• As is value determined and after improved value
• Loan is processed and closed

Loan amounts under $35,000

• Streamline product
• Buyer provides two bids from licensed contractors for any work desired
• Contractors are registered with Bank of America
• Loan is processed and closed
• Buyer receives half of the escrow about two weeks after closing, remainder is dispersed after work is completed.

Rehab Items

• Structural alterations and reconstruction
• Modernization to homes function
• Elimination of health and safety issues
• Changes to improve appearance
• Repair plumbing, new well/septic
• New roof, gutter, downsprouts, windows
• New flooring, appliances
• Making home handicapped accessible
• Energy conserving improvements
• Renovate existing or add new bathroom
• New kitchen
• New furnace/air conditioning

I am excited to announce that Northern Michigan now has a chapter of Women's Council of Realtors.  We have been working diligently since July to form our chapter.  Currently, we have 25 Realtor members and 10 Affiliate members.  For those of you who may not be familiar with WCR, it is a fabulous organization for both women and men.

Nationally, WCR has over 16,000 members.  WCR is not only a wonderful networking organziation but they are founded on the basic principals of helping its membership grow their business through leadership training as well as referrals from other members.

The mission of the organization is to build and sustain a strong sense of professional community, create business opportunities, provide educational content relevant to today's real estate professional, create opportunities to try new skills in a supportive environment.

If you do not have a chapter in your area, any Realtor can start a WCR Local Chapter by following the guidelines set forth by WCR.  Everything that you need to know about WCR can be found on their web site www.wcr.org.

The Northern Michigan Chapter is hosting an event on October 6, 2009.  In conjunction with our local Board of Realtors, we are bringing National Speaker, Andrew Wooten to our community.  Andrew speaks Nationally on Safety and Identity Theft.  We are lucky enough to have him here in Northern Michigan for three speaking engagements on the 6th of October.  He will be in Empire at Century 21 Sleeping Bear Realty from 9:00 am - 10:30 am, Traverse Area Association of Realtors from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm, and at the Kalkasks Kaliseum from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm.  To register or get additional information, contact Lora at Lora@taar.com.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

"A Tradition of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

There are no bigger buzz words in real estate today than "Short Sale" and "Foreclosure".  Everyone wants to buy one of these two gems because they believe that they are the best deals on the market. 

You might be surprised to find that this could not be further from teh truth.  Although, there are many great deals out there in these two categories, there are equally as many great deals in the market that are not short sales or foreclosure properties.

If you are interested in pursuing a short sale or foreclosure there are some things that you shoud first take into consideration:

Once you make an offer you wait weeks, sometimes months to get a response.  Not having an answer can be stressful.

You have no real idea what you are buying.  You won't get any information.  You have no history on the house.  Is there something hidden about its condition?  Even inspections do not reveal everything.  You could be buying a money pit.

These home sare customarily sold "As Is" and most lenders do not make any repairs to the homes before they close.  Many times there has been significant damage done to the homes by the previous owners that will result in costly repairs.

The closing process can take month.

The lenders do not return the signed documents sometimes for weeks.  Meanwhile you don't have an executed contract.  Lenders can and sometime do change their mind and refuse your offer after accepting it.  There are usually pages of lender addendum's that will accompany an accepted offer and ALL of these documents are in the lender's favor and will usually allow them to accept other offers up to the day of closing.  Again, this leaves you not knowing if you really have a deal.

The one thing that we can be sure of when dealing with Short Sales and Foreclosure properties is that they are setting the market value of homes.  When Realtors educate their sellers to these facts, motivated sellers will price their homes in accordance with this new information. 

The lesson to learn here is that there are many real "Bargains" out there that are well maintained, have an available history, have fair, realistic market prices and motivated, realistic sellers.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS

Free Seminar

Bayshore Resort, Traverse City

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

 Experts will be available to answer all of your questions regarding the First-time Home Buyer Credit.

This new $8,000 credit is part of the American Recover and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The tax credit represents 10 percent of the purchase price of a home up to a maximum of $8,000

For the purpose of this credit, a first time homeowner is defined as one who has not owned a home for the 36 months ending on the date of purchase.

COME LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF HOME OWNERSHIP AND VIEW SOME OF THE INVENTORY THAT IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE IN GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St.  Traverse City, MI

Michigan State Transfer Tax Exemption

In 1993, the State of Michigan implemented the state real estate transfer tax.  When a home is sold in Michigan, there is a transfer tax that must be paid by the seller.  This tax is based on the sale price of the home and is equivalent to $7.50 per $1,000 or the sales price on all home sales (unless the transaction is exempted under the statute). 

There is a portion of this statue that can potential help some sellers.  It has been on the books for years but is only coming to light due to our recent decline of values.  If the current owner sells their property and the current assessed value is less then when they purchased the property, they do not have to pay the State Transfer Tax.

This could affect owners that have purchased a property in the top of the market and are now forced to sell at a loss.  Since the tax is calculated on the "Sales Price", some due diligence must be done to find out if your seller qualifies for this exemption.  This is not the duty of the title company, it is your accountability duty to your client to research this information and find out if they are eligible for the exemption.  This could potentially save your client thousands of dollars depending on the price of the home. 

This exemption only applies to the STATE tansfer tax.  There are NO exceptions to the COUNTY transfer tax.

Christie Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St.  Traverse City, MI   49686

The March of Dimes Mission
To improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. We carry out this mission through research, community services, education and advocacy to save babies' lives.

This morning at 8:30 am over 450 registered walkers started their 5 mile "March For Babies".  This annual event was held at the Grand Traverse Civic Center.  There were many families in attendance that had heart warming stories of how March of Dimes helped them through the challenges of their pre-mature babies early days of live.  There were also families in attendance that were walking in memory of their child who did not survive their pre-mature challenges despite the wonderful support provided by March of Dimes.

This event is the largest find raising event that the local March of Dimes Chapter does annually.  Many of us do not know the challenges faced during a challenging pregnancy or in the first few critical hours, days and months of a pre-mature baby.  Some of these babies weigh less than a pound at birth and go home months later a very healthy baby.

1 in 8 babies are born too soon.  Premature birth can happen without warning and for no known reason.  Much needed research is done through donations received by the March of Dimes in hopes that someday, we will have better answers to the reasons that some babies are born premature.

If you would like to donate to this wonderful cause, you can visit the web site below to make a donation to a chapter in your area.

https://www.marchofdimes.com/michigan/38394.asp

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.Stalsonburg.com

http://www.stalsonburg.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St.  Traverse City, MI   49684

In a previous blog, I mentioned the box exchange service that I offer to my clients.  The one thing that I forgot to mention was the alternative to those expensive peanut packing products that are out there.  If you have not had the opportunity to stop by and price those little jewels, they are quite priceless.  They would be a great commercial ad for Mastercard because they are priceless.  I cannot even begin to try to rationalize why it costs so much to purchase a bag of Styrofoam peanuts.  I suppose it is simple supply and demand.  I have found an alternative to packing peanuts. 

Most of us have a shredder at home and we can put it to good use for our clients.  I recently was packing items in my Arizona home to send out to my home here in Traverse City and ran out of those "wonder peanuts".  I went to the local packaging store and just about choked on my words when the clerk told me how much they were going to cost.  I immediately went home and ranted to my husband about the incident.  His response was "we have a shredder and that ton of newspapers in the garage".  Why don't you just shred those and use it for packaging.  What wonderful idea.  That is just we what we did and it turned out just great.  I had all of the packing fill that I needed and it did not cost me dime. 

This is something that we can do for our clients.  If we have shredders at home, why not shred and package all of our paper into large trash bags to pass on to our clients when they are moving.  It makes great fill material and your clients will love you for not having to go to the store to purchase those high priced packing peanuts.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St.  Traverse City, MI   49686