Real Estate Information Archive

Cirque De Soleil is known for putting on wacky, zany and mysifying acrobatic shows. They are usually performed in large Metro areas such as Las Vegas, Chicago and NYC however, we who live in Grand Rapids are getting the chance to see one of the Cirque shows starting tonight (1/26) at DeVos Performance Hall. In Cirque Dreams Illumination city dwellers collect objects that are balanced beyond belief, linemen delicately walk wires, daredevils leap tall buildings and flyers redefine the risks of flight. Everyday occurrences are transformed into astounding feats performed by an international cast of acrobatic urbanites, flexible fanatics, world-class athletes, musicians and more. This action packed Cirque Dream is enhanced with over 100 inventive costumes and set in a fantastical cityscape of dimension and special effects. Cirque Dreams Illumination will surpass its "jaw dropping, family friendly spectacle" proclamation by the Los Angeles Times and exhilarate audiences of all ages. To get tickets visit www.broadwaygrandrapids.org.

According to Realtor Magazine there are 10 ways you can update your home for sale without breaking the bank. These ideas are all proven to make an impact on potential buyers without making a huge impact on your wallet. Check out the ideas below:

1. Tidy-Up Kitchen Cabinets-Potential buyers do typically open up cabinets and peek inside. An easy way to make them look better is by organizing with baskets or roll-out organizing trays.

2. Add or Replace Tile-By adding new tile inexpensively you can make a space look much brighter and cleaner than it was. Many stores offer tile for $1-$2 and under. This is an easy way to update bathrooms as well.

3. Add a Breakfast Bar-When a wall separates a family room from a kitchen, cutting out an opening to create a breakfast bar is a low cost upgrade that adds value to the home. This can be done for around $500.

4. Install Granite Tiles instead of a Granite Slab-Granite counter tops are an extremely hot commodity in the home buyer's market, but a granite slab can go for more than $3000. An easy alternative is installing granite tiles, which gives the feel of granite counter tops for around 1/10 of the cost!

5. Freshen Up a Bathroom-Add new light fixtures, updated hardware, a new medicine cabinet and re-grout existing tile. All of these are low-cost ways to improve and freshen up a bathroom.

6. Freshen up the Basement-Even if you don't have a finished basement, there are ways to freshen it up. If you have poured concrete walls, have a contractor fill the cracks with cement and paint with a waterproofing paint. After the waterproofing paint you can add a top coat to add color.  You can also paint the basement floor with a good floor paint.

7. Add a Room- Look for large spaces that can be enclosed to create a bedroom for just the cost of creating a wall. Adding rooms adds value.

8. Spruce up Cabinet Fronts-Recondition old wood cabinets or even paint them. Both of these are less expensive than re-facing or replacing.

9. Replace Light Fixtures-Replacing light fixtures is the easiest way to update a home.

10. Tech up the Garage- The easiest way is to replace the garage door opener with a remote touch-pad entry system.  The cost is low, but makes it look like you have a high-tech garage-opening system.

The Today Show on October 6, 2009 Ranks Grand Rapids Michigan as the 5th Best Real Estate Market to purchase in The United States.

Here is a link for you to view the broadcast:

Interested in a Grand Rapids area Grand Rapids Foreclosures or short-sale home? Now you can get instant, live updates from MarkBrace.com!

Available to you with just a two clicks of the mouse is a complete listing of all homes in Allendale, Belding, Byron Center, Caledonia, Cedar Springs, Comstock Park, East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills, Godfrey-Lee, Godwin Heights, Grand Rapids, Grandville, Greenville, Hudsonville, Jenison, Kelloggsville, Kenowa Hills, Kent City, Kentwood, Lowell, Northview, Rockford, Sparta, Tri-County Area, Wayland, and Wyoming school districts that are shortsales or foreclosures.

To access this information, simply go to the homepage and scroll down. You'll see two lists, one for foreclosures and one of short sales. Click on the school districts you'd like to see the home listings in and you'll be taken directly to the 24 hour, live list.

You may also move your mouse to the navigation bar that appears at the top of any pages within MarkBrace.com (scroll above, underneath the cityscape photo) and use the drop down menu underneath "Featured Homes" to see the option of choosing to see foreclosures or short sales.

Hopefully this easily accessible navigation will make your home searching effortless. Please contact us if you have any questions- we're here to help with all your real estate needs!

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:

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

The Rust Belt city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, takes on a green patina -- and finds that it boosts business

On a sunny afternoon in Grand Rapids, a group of earnest, middle-age folks is gathered in a conference room, looking at slides of wind turbines and charts about wasteful energy use. A full-bearded man, who looks as if he's just back from a nature walk, talks about his plans to build a home showcasing the latest in low-impact design. At the front of the room, the speaker asks, pep-rally style, "What's the most effective source of renewable energy today? Conservation!"

But this isn't a meeting of Earth-loving Hippies Reunited. The speaker, Michael Ford, is an executive at Cascade Engineering, a plastics manufacturer that makes ducts for Ford, dashboard silencers for Chrysler, and all manner of doodads for other industries, and he's presenting at the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum's monthly meeting. The attendees are top managers from major companies in and around Grand Rapids, the region's commercial center and Michigan's second-largest city. "We are in business to make money," Ford reminds them. They're doing it by turning eco-friendly, in the belief that reducing the environmental cost of commerce will raise their profits, boost the regional economy, and burnish Grand Rapids' increasingly credible claim to the title of greenest city in America.

Grand Rapids leads the nation in the number of LEED-certified buildings per capita. In 2005, Mayor George Heartwell pledged that more than 20% of the city's power would come from renewable sources by 2008; it hit that target a year early, and Heartwell upped the target to 100% by 2020. The municipal government's energy use has been cut by more than 10%. The public-transit fleet features hybrid buses. And here, in the heart of the Rust Belt, manufacturers are leading the greenification charge. Office-furniture heavyweights Herman Miller and Steelcase both have LEED-certified buildings in the area, as do industrial firms such as Cascade Engineering.

Peter Wege, Steelcase's retired chairman, is the father of green Grand Rapids. "In 1937, when I started working in the desk plant of my father's metal-office-furniture company, I learned that we recycled steel to cut costs," Wege recalls. "Seven years later, flying an Army plane into Pittsburgh on a sunny day, I became an environmentalist when I had to ask for tower lights because I couldn't see the airport through the black smog. Those two experiences helped make me an economicologist -- a word I coined to define the balance we need between economy and ecology."

Over the years, Wege ordered various eco-friendly moves, introducing the reprocessing of toxic solvents and investing in a baler for recycling packing materials -- a purchase he cites as a proof of economicology because "once the baler was paid for, Steelcase began saving $20,000 a year." Last year, Wege gave $20 million for the construction of the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the world's first LEED-certified art museum.

Wege also popularized the term "triple bottom line" here, listing human welfare and environmental responsibility on par with fiscal profit. Today, that's the most common eco-biz buzzword in Grand Rapids. "Environmental drivers may be the reason companies try sustainable business practices, but eventually business drivers take over," says Dave Rinard, Steelcase's director of global environmental performance. The company's LEED-certified wood-fabrication facility, for example, cost up to 5% more to build than a traditional plant, but it uses about 30% less energy; Steelcase recouped the extra cost in 18 months. It also refined its wood-manufacturing process, replacing harsh solvent-based chemicals with a water-based one. The new finish costs more but proved easier to recover and reuse, and takes just 24 hours to cure wood, compared to 90 days for the toxic solvents. It also makes workers happier. "At the finishing point in most plants, workers wear hazmat suits and respirators," says Steelcase manager Kevin Kuske. "Ours wear shorts and T-shirts."

Like Steelcase, Cascade Engineering sought LEED certification -- its HQ is rated platinum -- and greenification has opened the company's eyes to new lines of business. Its new EcoCart, a curbside trash receptacle made with recycled plastics, has quickly become a hot seller, and the firm has inked a deal with a Scottish company to be the exclusive North American marketer of an innovative wind turbine that includes a plastic propeller produced by Cascade. "Most businesspeople think of instituting sustainability as a zero-sum game," says Cascade founder and CEO Fred Keller. "But it is the right thing to do -- and we think we can make it a good business, too."

In becoming a green center, Grand Rapids is also turning itself into a lab, a training camp, and both an exporter and a magnet of expertise. Keller teaches a sustainable-business course at Cornell University, and it was there that he recruited Michael Ford, one of his MBA students, who has launched two energy-related subsidiaries in the past two years. Integrated Architecture, designer of several of Grand Rapids' LEED-certified buildings, has an expanding list of out-of-state clients drawn by its hometown work. Aquinas College launched the nation's first undergraduate-degree program in sustainable business in 2003, underwritten by a $1 million donation from Steelcase's Wege. "We see ourselves as part of the new knowledge-based economy," says Bill Stough, CEO of Sustainable Research Group, a consultancy with a growing national business. "We're exporting the information we've learned to other parts of the country."

Matthew Tueth, chair of Aquinas's sustainable-business program, goes so far as to call what's happening in Grand Rapids a "movement" that could secure the region's economic future. "You can make lots of money while at the same time having a restorative -- not just a less-bad -- effect on the environment," he says. "This is not a fad. And if it is, we're done as a species."

Thinking about moving to Grand Rapids click here to view available homes

Article taken from Fastcompany.com: View Original at : http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/129/new-urban-eco-nomics.html?page=0%2C0