Archive for August, 2007
Straight from the Dog’s Mouth
NOTE: This blog is not at all real estate related. My dog has something to say.
Libby here. I’m pretty upset with this Michael Vick business. A dog’s life should include walks, meeting buddies like Rugby and Peach at the park, eating rawhides, and sleeping- alot. I can’t quite understand why anyone would think that dogs want to fight. We’re a lovable bunch. It’s sad to see that people use us for monetary gain and some sick form of amusement. I hope Michael Vick gets the maximum amount of time in the cage and can’t play football again. It would only be a small consolation for all of the pain and suffering he and his buddies inflicted on countless doggies. I shudder to think.
That being said, you can do something to improve the situation. If you think you’d be a responsible pet owner, go to your local Humane Society, SPCA, or Petfinder.com to find a friend for life. My people rescued me from Louisiana and I couldn’t be happier in CT. It’s a lovely state.
Libby out.
The Making of a Landlord
The hubby and I recently became investment property owners in West Hartford. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Kind of like watching your teenager learn to drive, but with your car.
It took us about a month to get the place rented after our closing. Here are a few tips you might find useful if you’re thinking about investing:
1. Craigslist is a free and easy way to find potential renters. We used it in combination with Postlets and that seemed to do the trick as far as finding people interested in our unit.
2. Try to do a phone pre-screen before meeting the people at the apartment. Do they smoke? Do they have pets? How many people will be living there and signing the lease? Make sure if you own a condo that they will follow the condo association rules and regulations.
3. ALWAYS run a credit check. We had a few people fill out the application and then bug out once they learned we were actually going to run their credit history. It will save you a lot of trouble and potentially money down the line.
4. Don’t be lazy and make sure the place shows well. The unit we bought was in fairly good shape, but had bright yellow and baby blue walls. It was clean, so we didn’t think much of it, and decided not to bother painting. After 3 weeks of no takers we decided to paint all of the walls a neutral color. It made a huge difference and the place was rented the next day.
ARM mortgages are just beginning to adjust and I believe that a lot of investors that bought at the top of the market are going to be squeezed soon, flooding the market with investment properties. Additionally, due to the tightened mortgage lending practices, there are going to be fewer buyers out there, so more people will need to rent. This will keep rental rates healthy. So, if you have some extra cash and think that being an investment property owner might be the thing for you, it might just be the time to start looking.
Doh! You Missed Out on a Great House…
If you are thinking about buying a house any time soon, please keep “speed” in mind. No, I am not talking about drugs. By “speed” I mean your ability to react quickly if you happen to come across the house of your dreams. Here are two perfect scenarios where you will almost always lose out:
1. You have a house to sell that is not yet on the market, and you can’t afford to carry two mortgages at once.
2. You go open housing on the weekend and are not actively working with a real estate agent.
In the past two weekends I have seen this happen twice to two different couples. In the first scenario, the couple had just started thinking about moving into a larger home. So they went open housing on Sunday. And they fell in love with a house that is in perfect condition. The sellers of the house want nothing to do with a Hubbard clause, where the buyer has to sell their house before they can actually buy. The potential buyers now have to get their current home on the market pronto and hope that they can secure an offer before someone else comes in and has an offer accepted on their dream home. Chances of this happening are slim to none and, as they say, Slim just left town…
In the second scenario, the buyers were actually working with a real estate agent, just not very actively. They also went to an open house and fell in love with a house. But then they waited 2 days to contact their agent to let them know about it. Unfortunately in the meantime, another offer was accepted on the house. They missed out by about an hour. I am not kidding. And now they are very disappointed.
There are a few morals to these stories.
1. If you are in either of the two categories above and cannot deal with disappointment, please don’t go to open houses on Sundays.
2. If you think you have one iota of interest in a house and are working with an agent, call them immediately. They will go look at the house with you and help you understand if it’s really for you. And if it is, they should be able to help you react quickly enough to at least stand a chance of putting in an offer.
3. If you own a house, think you want to move, and cannot afford to carry two mortgages, at least put your house on the market with the contingency “Sale contingent upon seller finding acceptable housing.” This at least throws your hat in the ring. Otherwise you are just sitting on the sidelines with no real chance.
Hopefully this helps because it’s painful to see disappointed buyers doing “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda”…