Real Estate Information Archive

The City of Wyoming recently made a policy change that is important to note of anyone currently owning or looking to purchase a rental unit within Wyoming units. Now, the Rental Registration Program includes one and two family rental units. While registration is free, there is a fee of $98.00 per unit, and a $500 penalty if the property is not certified or registered.

March 1, 2009 is the deadline for all rental properties to be registered. Program requirements state that inspections will occur on a biennial cycle. A Certificate of Compliance will be issued once inspections are completed and approved. If you have any questions contact the Rental Registration Inspector, David Rupert, at 616-249-3843.

 

For the registration form, please click below:

http://www.ci.wyoming.mi.us/Building/Rental%20Registration%20Form.pdf

 

 

 

 

As part of Congress's stimulus bill, a generous tax credit is available to those buying a home for the first time. If you qualify, you may get up to $7,500 or 10% of the home's purchase price.

In order to obtain the Federal tax credit for first time homebuyers, you'll want to make sure you fill out the forms below.

While the stimulus bill is still changing within Congress, the latest buzz is that it will change to $8,000 for first time buyers only.

 www.markbrace.com/agent_files/1sttimehomeownertaxform.pdf

If you have recently purchased a home, or had your home reassessed and are surprised by the assessment,  don't lose hope-there is an appeal process. While the City of Grand Rapids requires documented proof and details on your home, the time spent on the appeal could save you big.

To start the process, please view a copy of the necessary appeal form at:

http://www.markbrace.com/links.asp 

 Click underneath the Assessed Home Value Appeal Link. Once you have all the relevant information gathered, send in the form by February 13, 2009 to:

Office of City Assessor

300 Monroe Ave NW

Grand Rapids MI 49503

Top 6 Mistakes in Order:

1.       Flying Solo - Not working with a Realtor

2.       Being unfamiliar with the law or process

3.       Thinking Short Term – “I can Flip it!”

4.       Seeing only the sticker – Not looking at the amount of repairs

5.       Searching too broadly – Target an area and get Grand Rapids Foreclosures listings ASAP.

6.       Taking no prisoners – Offering too low on already reduced prices

Nothing illustrates the devastation of America's housing bust more vividly than the abandoned properties now blighting the nation's communities. In the third quarter alone, foreclosure filings were reported on more than 750,000 properties in the United States, a 71 percent increase from the same period last year, according to RealtyTrac. But for real estate investors, one person's tragedy can be another's good fortune. With so many foreclosures on the market, "this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for many people," says Steve Dexter, a foreclosure expert and author of the forthcoming book Buy and Hold Forever-Building Real Estate Wealth Far Into the 21st Century.

Still, the purchase of foreclosed property—an often complex and involved process—presents would-be buyers with plenty of opportunities to make costly mistakes. In an effort to help consumers avoid such pitfalls, U.S. News spoke with a handful of experts to create a list of six common blunders that individuals make when attempting to buy foreclosed properties.

1. Flying solo. While enterprising do-it-yourselfers can certainly get away with going through the traditional home buying process without an agent, foreclosed real estate is another matter. Such complex transactions require the expertise of not just any real estate agent but one with a background in buying and selling foreclosed homes. "In today's uncertain times it's important to be working with someone who has been through market cycles before," says Patrick McGilvray, president of TheHomeBuyingCenter.com, which links homeowners and owners of foreclosure real estate with potential house buyers. So unless you are truly a real estate expert, do some research and find an agent with foreclosure experience in your market.

2. Being unfamiliar with the law. It's important to remember that real estate agents aren't lawyers, and foreclosure laws can change significantly from state to state. "A lot of people don't realize [that] foreclosures are heavily regulated and every state has its own set of laws," says Alexis McGee, the president of Foreclosures.com. "If you don't have the language proper in your contract, or if you have even the font size wrong, it's criminal and civil damages-don't count on every Realtor knowing this." As such, McGee advises against relying on a real estate agent for legal advice. Instead, consumers should review the foreclosure laws in their state and then get qualified legal advice from a local real estate attorney.

3. Thinking short term. Since many foreclosed homes may decline further in value in the coming months, it's important that buyers approach the transaction from a long-term perspective." If you are not looking at a piece of foreclosed property from a 10-year time horizon-as an investor or as an owner occupant-then you will likely suffer," McGilvray says. So if you are just trying to cash in on a quick flip, don't buy a foreclosure. Only investors with the resources and patience for a long-term real estate investment and homeowners who can afford a fully amortized fixed-rate mortgage should consider buying foreclosed property, McGilvray says.

4. Seeing only the sticker. While the price you negotiate for a foreclosed home may be significantly less than its value just a few years back, many such homes may require substantial repairs. McGilvray says that anyone buying a foreclosed property should make sure to set aside an additional 10 percent of its price tag for repairs. "Make sure you have 10 percent, especially if the home is a few years old," he says. "It is amazing how quickly houses can deteriorate." Prospective buyers should keep these additional repair costs in mind when they are negotiating the home's price.

5. Searching too broadly. With so much inventory coming onto the market these days, it's easy for buyers to become overwhelmed. To that end, Dexter recommends that anyone in the market for a foreclosure target a specific neighborhood and contact an agent with experience there. Make sure to specify the type of property you are looking for in order to avoid being inundated with listings. Tell the agent, "I want all these kinds of houses in this neighborhood that are bank listings [and] I want to know about them all as they come on the market," Dexter says. The agent will then be able to shoot you all the listings that meet your requirements as they become available. "If [the buyer is] patient enough and they get plugged in to the flow of new bank listings coming in, they can pick up some awfully good deals."

6. Taking no prisoners. While buyers can certainly get good deals on foreclosed homes, it's a mistake to assume that banks will accept any and all offers. (Unless, of course, the listing specifically says so.) Banks aren't set up to sell houses, so they typically outsource their foreclosed properties to real estate agents, McGee says. In such cases, agents can receive listings in bulk, perhaps 50 at a time. While these agents want to get the properties sold off quickly, they also want to get a good price for the seller so that the bank will give them additional business in the future. "Saving face is important for them," McGee says. "A lot of people just assume that because this property is bank-owned they will just take half off. Well, that's just not true." As such, insultingly low offers have the potential to tank the negotiations over foreclosed homes, McGee says. So make sure you present your wholesale offer case well both in writing and verbally with the listing agent.

Information Taken From: "The Top 6 Mistakes of Foreclosed-Home Buying" By Luke Mullins, U.S. News Nov. 18th 2008

This Article was taken from MSN Real Estate.

Falling prices make homeownership increasingly realistic in some areas. Just don't expect to make a fast buck.

According To CNN Money on May 7th, 2008; Grand Rapids, was ranked 8th in nation as the one of the fastest growing real estate markets with a projected appreciation rate of 1.9% by May of 2009, This is in sharp contrast to the other side of MIchigan in which CNN projects that The Farmington HIlls Market which is the only major Market to have negative 5 year appreciation of -7.5%, and is also projected to fall another 5.9% by May of 2009. It's very Difficult for people from other states to seperate the 2 metro markets but Grand Rapids is a positive market and is building into the future and the east side of Michigan  around the Detroit Metroplex is struggling.

Why Selling Now Makes Sense

Home owners who are reluctant to sell because prices have fallen, should do the math, and realize that the market downturn could work in their favor, say practitioners in hard-hit, but still pricey Boston.

Their reasoning may work in many other parts of the country as well.

"People are finding houses at prices they thought they'd never see again," says David W. O'Neil of Century 21 Spindler & O'Neil Associates in suburban Boston.

O’Neil points out to potential sellers that if the house a buyer covets used to be $500,000 but its price has fallen 20 percent to $400,000, it is a deal, even if the buyer’s own home also has lost 20 percent of its value.

In general, the toughest sell is people who bought about four years ago at the height of the market, says Zur Attias of The Attias Group at Barrett & Co. in Concord, Mass. But even for these home owners, selling now may make sense as long as they can at least break even.

He argues that almost everyone forgoes something, and probably several things, that he or she wanted when buying a house. For instance, the home may be in the right school district, but on a busy street. Or it may in a great neighborhood, but it's a Cape, not a Colonial. These are things Attias calls "unchangeables."

He says it’s a good time to sell if a seller can get rid of the most negative unchangeables in his current home, and replace them with better unchangeables in a new home. Once the market really turns around, the growth will be bigger in the better house, he predicts.