ETC Realty

Lake Minnetonka Home for Sale

Lane — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:20:42 +0000

LAKE MINNETONKA HOUSES FOR SALE

THIS IS A TURKEY LAKE HOME

Beautiful move-in ready home with direct access on Lake Minnetonka.

Stunning Euro-style kitchen with ebony bamboo flooring & granite counters. Walk out to the large deck & fire pit with gorgeous views. Gracious master suite overlooks the lake on the entire 2nd level. Impeccably maintained! Extra bonus: Dock & boatlift are included!

MLS#: 4121396

Price: $389,900

Style: Two Stories

Bedrooms: 4

Baths Full: 3

Sq Ft: 2417

Year Built: 1987

County: Hennepin

School District: 277 – Westonka

If you’d like a private showing, or are thinking of selling your home, please call 952-261-9423.

Mound real estate overview

Mound is a settlement in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. ZIP code: 55364. The population was 9,052 at the 2010 census. Lakes in Mound include Black Lake, Dutch Lake, Lake Langdon, Saunders Lake, Seton Lake; Lake Minnetonka encompasses these and many others in the area. Mound schools include Grandview Middle School, Hilltop Primary School, Mound-Westonka High School, and Shirley Hills Elementary.

Based on the Official City of Mound Homepage Mound is a very unique city, nearly surrounded by the bays and inlets of Lake Minnetonka. With over six miles of shoreline, scenic trails, enticing public beaches, and many other recreational opportunities, Mound has a great deal to offer year round.

6706 Bryant Ave N, Brooklyn Center, MN 4 Bed, 2 Bath For Sale

Lane — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:50:23 +0000

6706 Bryant Ave N, Brooklyn Center, MN 4 Bed, 2 Bath For Sale

This is a nice single family home with 4 bedroom,2 bath split level on beautiful wooded lot. Vaulted ceilings in living, dining & kitchen. Large family room down with Chicago brick fireplace. Walkout basement, deck with stairs, privacy fenced back yard. You will not be disappointed for this property. It is priced to sell!!

Offered at: $122,000

Type: Single Family

Bedrooms : 4

Bathrooms: 2

Total Finished Square Footage: 1,876

Year Built: 1976

Lot Size: 80×130

County: Hennepin

About City of Brooklyn Center Minnesota

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : “Brooklyn Center is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies on the west bank of the Mississippi River on the northwest border of Minneapolis in Hennepin County. Brooklyn Center is one of the oldest inner-ring suburbs of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.2 million residents. The U.S. Census Bureau the city’s population at 30,104 in 2010 census.”

Why Live in Brooklyn Center?

Based on City of Brooklyn Center Minnesota website a few reasons to buy a home and live in Brooklyn Center are:

· Easily accessible to I-694/94 as well as Hwy 100, downtown Minneapolis is only ten minutes away.

· Being centrally located in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, residents often enjoy convenient commutes to work, shopping, entertainment and dining, yet can retreat to tranquil suburban neighborhoods at the end of the day.

· Outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy 19 miles of trails, 500 acres of parks and nature centers, and water features such as the Mississippi River, Shingle Creek, Palmer Lake, and Twin Lakes.

· Other recreational opportunities include a Community Center with a fitness center, indoor Olympic size pool, wading pool and 150-foot waterslide; as well as a nine-hole par three golf course.

Home Purchase Programs

A variety of housing opportunities exist – you can purchase a well-maintained house and move right in or remodel and add your own special touch.

The following programs are available to help potential homeowners find a nice home in Brooklyn Center.

· ReNew Buyer Incentive Program - Funds may be used to assist buyer with downpayment, closing or home improvement costs associated with buying a registered, foreclosed and vacant home.

· Hennepin County’s NSP2 Homebuyer Assistance Program - The Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) provides financial asistance for non-homeowners to become homeowners. The target areas for this program are various census tracts and block groups located within Brooklyn Center.

· Hennepin County’s FPP Homebuyer Assistance Program - The Foreclosure Partnership Program (FPP) provides financial assistance for low income non-homeowners to become homeowners. The target areas for this program are for various census tracts and block groups located within Brooklyn Center.

Bank of America Refines the Short Sale Process

Lane — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:16:59 +0000

The following Short Sale NEWS is from Bank of America .

” 3/22/2012

Bank of America Refines the Short Sale Process

Every day, Bank of America works with agents like you to help homeowners complete short sales. On April 14, we will strengthen our partnership through an improved task flow in Equator.

The new Bank of America short sale process will enable short sale specialists to complete tasks such as document collection, valuations and underwriting at the same time, reducing the time from initiation to closing.

Before April 13, you must complete the Submit Short Sale Offer, Upload Offer Documents and Upload Supporting Documents tasks in Equator for all short sales submitted with an offer. Your file may be declined if these tasks are not completed prior to April 13.

Starting April 14, you’ll see several changes:

Five documents will be required for short sales initiated with an offer:

1. Purchase Contract including Buyer’s Acknowledgment and Disclosure

2. HUD-1

3. IRS Form 4506-T

4. Bank of America Short Sale Addendum

5. Bank of America Third-Party Authorization Form

We are requiring the new Bank of America Third-Party Authorization Form for short sales initiated beginning April 14.

All messaging will remain in Equator. Agents will receive a standard notice to log in and retrieve their messages.

New Timeframes: Five (5) days to submit a backup offer when a buyer has walked. ”

Common closing costs for buyers

Lane — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:04:00 +0000

Common Closing Costs for Buyers

You’ll likely be responsible for a variety of fees and expenses that you and the seller will have to pay at the time of closing. Your lender must provide a good-faith estimate of all settlement costs. The title company or other entity conducting the closing will tell you the required amount for:

1.Down payment
2.Loan origination
3.Points, or loan discount fees, which you pay to receive a lower interest rate
4.Home inspection
5.Appraisal
6.Credit report
7.Private mortgage insurance premium
8.Insurance escrow for homeowner’s insurance, if being paid as part of the mortgage
9.Property tax escrow, if being paid as part of the mortgage. Lenders keep funds for taxes and insurance in escrow accounts as they are paid with the mortgage, then pay the insurance or taxes for you.
10. Deed recording
11.Title insurance policy premiums
12. Land survey
13. Notary fees
14. Prorations for your share of costs, such as utility bills and property taxes

A Note About Prorations: Because such costs are usually paid on either a monthly or yearly basis, you might have to pay a bill for services used by the sellers before they moved. Proration is a way for the sellers to pay you back or for you to pay them for bills they may have paid in advance. For example, the gas company usually sends a bill each month for the gas used during the previous month. But assume you buy the home on the 6^th of the month. You would owe the gas company for only the days from the 6^th to the end for the month. The seller would owe for the first five days. The bill would be prorated for the number of days in the month, and then each person would be responsible for the days of his or her ownership.

How to Cut Down Payment On A Home?

Lane — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:23:36 +0000

How can I cut my down payment on a home and is it possible to roll the closing costs into the mortgage loan?

Q: We are looking to buy a home. We can only make a minimal down payment. Is it possible to roll the closing costs into the mortgage loan, or am I dreaming again?

A: You’re dreaming, but there is a way you can achieve the same result. With a fair credit score and sufficient income, financing from the Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, will let you borrow up to 96.5 percent of a home’s value. You can finance the upfront mortgage insurance premium, or MIP, by including it in the loan amount, but you can’t finance the closing costs.

Instead, closing costs can be paid in part or in full through seller concessions. Historically, the seller has been allowed to provide up to 6 percent of the purchase price of the home as a seller concession to be applied toward closing costs on an FHA loan.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, which oversees the FHA mortgage guarantee program, is considering steps that would reduce the amount of seller concessions allowed with an FHA loan. The thinking is that the concessions are baked into the home’s purchase price, which makes loans with high seller concessions riskier to insure.

So, if you’re looking to minimize the down payment you bring to closing and you can qualify for an FHA loan, talk to an FHA lender about loan limits, seller concessions and interest rates. Then start shopping for that new home.

Answer by Joanie Jump-start , Source by http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/cut-down-payment-home.aspx

Why a short sale is far more preferable?

Lane — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:39:07 +0000

A short sale is far more preferable than a foreclosure in most cases.

Lenders are increasingly becoming more accepting over short sales as they seek more solutions to help struggling home owners avoid foreclosure, according to a recent article at MSNBC.com.

“Foreclosure sales are pretty devastating,” Faith Schwartz, executive director of Hope Now, a resource for cash-strapped home owners, told MSNBC.com. “We’d much prefer a [loan] modification, but if [home owners] don’t quality, then the next best alternative is deed-in-lieu or short sales.”

Short sales and foreclosures increased in 2010, but in 2011, short sales continued to climb even more (increasing 26,000 nationwide) while foreclosures dropped by 255,000, according to Hope Now data.

Lenders gain more acceptances over short sales.

Banks are realizing that a short sale is far more preferable than a foreclosure in most cases.

For one, banks tend to make more money off of a short sale vs. foreclosure:The average price of a foreclosed home in the second quarter of 2011 was $164,217 compared to $192,129 for a short sale. Also, foreclosures tend to be more costlier to a lender in legal and administrative resources too.

Neighborhoods also tend to benefit more from a short sale than a foreclosure because short sales tend to sell for less of a discount and, unlike a foreclosure, they don’t often sit vacant, which can make them prime targets for vandalism and depressing nearby property values, housing experts say.

Source: “Increase in Short Sales Give Market a Little Breathing Room,” MSNBC.com (Dec. 29. 2011)

Why you need a buyer’s agent?

Lane — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:28:35 +0000

Why you need a buyer’s agent during your home buying process in Minnesota?

During tough economic times like this it is becoming increasingly important for home buyers in Minnesota to have a buyer’s agent in their corner. A major challenge that is adding complexity to the Minnesota home buying process is when you have a real estate agent who is representing both the seller and the buyer called dual agency. This often occurs when a prospective buyer finds a home listed on the Internet and contacts the selling agent directly. Since there are laws that require real estate agents to protect their client’s interest, the duty of the selling agent is with the seller, not the buyer. As a result, the sales contract may not favor the buyer. As people go online and educate themselves about buying a house they realize that they need someone to represent them.

What a buyer’s agent can do for you?

When working with ETC Realty buyer’s agent, home buyers know we are committed to hammering out the best agreement possible on their behalf. In fact, as buyer’s agents we have helped to negotiate better deals for our clients. Not only we can help you find and buy a home in the location you want to live, but also can give you the assurance to concentrate on finding a property in Minnesota that best meet your needs. Also, our agents’ knowledge of the local real estate market and legal requirements is a critical success factor.

How to find a good buyer’s agent?

Finding the right buyer’s agent can be a difficult and time- consuming process. This is compounded if you happen to be relocating to an unfamiliar city in Minnesota. You need to do your homework to make sure the buyer’s agent you hire has a good track record for getting the best terms for his or her clients. In the current market having a buyer’s agent on their side has helped many home buyers close transactions that otherwise might not have closed.

To avoid potential conflicts and to help buyers overcome the hurdles of the mortgage process, ETC Realty provides a free real estate service that matches home buyer’s needs. Within a few minutes our buyer agent can help you set up your search portal to find and purchase a home.

How to Shop for a Mortgage

Lane — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:47:21 +0000

So here’s how to shop for a mortgage in this new world.

Shop For Loan Agents, Not Rates

Every consumer shops for mortgages and they should. But this is the critical distinction: you should be shopping for the best mortgage advisor. If you have that, you’ll get the best rate.

Here’s what happens when shoppers focused only on rate get quoted by a good loan agent: Loan agent quotes a rate only after they’ve analyzed the client’s entire financial profile and analyzed their home’s value and condition—also known as pre-approving them. The client will either tire of the pre-approval analytics or be unhappy with the rate and go somewhere else. Then 80% of those cases come back to that loan agent because the competing rate quote was revealed to be incorrect when the other lender actually completed the client’s profile, or the home’s value/condition made the loan ineligible.

Mortgages are extremely competitive so rates and fees are generally the same with most (established, credible) lending firms. What’s not the same lender to lender is the loan agent’s ability to: (1) advise properly, (2) analyze borrower and property profiles, and (3) close with no surprises. So shop to find the lender and loan agent you feel most confident can perform on these three things. Then work with that loan agent to pick a rate target you can’t or won’t go above, and give them a standing order to lock when they see it.

These guidelines are for refinancers. For homebuyers, you can’t lock a rate until you’re in contract to buy a home, but once you’re in contract, the same approach applies.

Rate Targeting

Their are two reasons for the pre-approval and rate targeting tactics discussed above:

(1) A rate quote that flies through the air means nothing. If a loan agent doesn’t issue you written terms after obtaining a full profile on you and your home, then you haven’t received a quote you can count on.

(2) Rate lows are here and gone in minutes each trading day as mortgage bonds rise and fall on economic and technical trading signals. So if you don’t first get pre-approved then set a rate target with a standing lock order, it’s nearly impossible to hit the lows AND close with no surprises.

Your loan agent also must be able to brief you daily or weekly on the market outlook, so if you’re not sensing market competence from your agent, then keep shopping. A loan agent must have a strong read on what’s impacting the rate market ups and downs to deliver you the best terms. And for further reference about the loan process, here’s another must-read: Refi Roadmap: A Locked Rate Isn’t A Closed Loan

Source: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/channels/MainFeed.aspx

Become A Landlord with Rental Properties

Lane — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:20:53 +0000

Get into the rental property business and become a landlord

A water line serving the very first rental property Jeanne Albert and her husband, Howard, bought 31 years ago broke just three months after they took over the Sherwood Street home on Buffalo’s West Side. The unexpected setback was a lesson well learned.

They now have 55 units on the West Side and in North Buffalo — and they’ve learned many other valuable lessons along the way.

“Believe you me, to this day I check every water line before buying a property,” said Albert, a Hamburg resident who is the hands-on partner of the two.

For anyone thinking about getting into the rental property business, the Alberts are examples of how hard work and strategic, long-term investment can lead to success.

Becoming a landlord in Minnesota can be a good, reliable source of income over time. Landlords may not make a lot of money, but they we are making a profit. Landlords not to expect that after buying and filling their apartments they can simply wait for the rent checks.

Landlords, who bring in good tenants, invest in their properties and stay on top of building code and maintenance issues can develop a steady cash flow business.

The rental market is still healthy in Minnesota. But buying properties and renting them out is a business, and like any other business it’s going to require effort. And it shouldn’t be regarded as an easy way to make money. Given how low interest rates are right now, just over 4 percent for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and it can be a good time to buy property.

Know your neighbors and your responsibilities

The first step for anyone thinking about getting into the rental business is finding the right property to buy.

Be sure that you’ve inspected the property before you’ve purchased it! Most Minnesota investors nowadays are looking for foreclosed properties which are selling below market value. It is important to know the location and neighborhood you are buying into. When you rent the properties out, you can tell your tenants that you know your neighbors are good neighbors.

Many investment properties require fixing up before a tenant can move in. Experts recommend starting on the outside to make repairs before moving inside – do the neighborhood a favor.

Landlords need to know their responsibilities well enough to be property owners under local and Minnesota building codes. For example, while the state for years has required working smoke detectors, a recent change to the law now also requires carbon monoxide detectors. Being ignorant of the law is no excuse for a violation. There are a number of municipal and nonprofit agencies provide resources for landlords. If you’re going to be good stewards of your property, then the community is going to benefit.

Find the good tenant for your rental

Once the property is in rentable condition, the next step perhaps the most important step for a landlord is finding a good tenant. You want somebody who’s going to pay the rent on time, take care to not damage the apartment, be a good neighbor.

How to find tenants for your MN rental?

You can find tenants by advertising in the News and other papers, online and simply by putting up a sign. Make sure to avoid discriminatory language in your ads and describe the apartment instead of who is going to live there.

Experts say it’s essential to have an application that asks detailed questions about the tenant’s finances and ability to handle the required rent and utility payments. You can request references from several past landlords and call them to discuss the prospective tenant. If you can’t reach a previous landlord, you may want to visit tenants at their current addresses to see how well they keep up their property. You also should obtain credit reports on prospective tenants. If the tenants were not approved, you need to give applicants a valid reason for why they weren’t approved.

Consistency in the process protects the landlord, and landlords should offer the apartment to the first applicant who meets the rental criteria. Every landlord and housing expert recommended having a lease that spells out the expectations and responsibilities for both parties. It also helps to have a lawyer review the language in the lease.

How long your lease should run?

Most landlords in Minnesota ask for the first month’s rent and a security deposit, typically equal to one month’s rent, before a tenant moves into a unit. Some also require the last month of rent. Whether you should have the duration of the lease run for 12 months, nine months or month to month, as long as there is a lease the duration of the lease is less important.

How much you should charge for rent?

You can look at ads for other, similar rental units in Minnesota to help decide how much to charge for rent. It is market driven, though sometimes you rather keep good tenants for the long term than give them reason to leave with annual rent increases. For example if you keep your rents as consistent as possible, so that your tenants can plan and stay on a budget, and they can think of the apartment as a home.

Stay on top and be your own property manager

Once the tenants are in the building, you do have to stay on top of calls for maintenance work or emergency repairs. your visiting rental properties frequently is necessary to make sure smoke detectors are working, garbage is being taken out and sidewalks are cleared of snow. Most property owners try to do as much work as they can themselves, or with their families. But specialized tasks, such as plumbing, should be done by a professional to avoid problems later.

Landlords do have to put money back into their houses and apartment complexes, which are long-term investments. You’ve got to be budgeting a portion of that rent to put back into the property. It is looking after that investment, first, and worrying about the income, second.

Source: By Stephen T. Watson, The Buffalo News, N.Y.

Tips For Selling Your Home Quick

Lane — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:49:53 +0000

TIPS FOR TRYING TO SELL YOUR HOME

1. Clean and repair: Since buyers have the upper hand, few of them want to deal with a fixer upper, or even something that looks junkier than it is, thanks to deferred cleaning.

2. Brush up on the latest trends: Tastes change, and what was once a must-have feature for a home could now seem dated. The HG TV network or website can provide some ideas.

3. Think like a marketer: In other words, get a sense of what potential buyers look for in your neighborhood and price range. Granite counter tops might be a must-have near Utica Square but probably not in an area with smaller, less expensive homes.

4. Avoid nervous spending: One instinct is to engage in a series of major improvements before listing a home, but many projects won’t add value.

5. Get a fresh set of eyes: It’s tough to take an objective look at a home you’ve lived in for years, so getting input from a real estate agent, neighbor or friend can give you a clearer perspective on what needs to be done.

6. Don’t skip steps: Since a majority of buyer interest comes when a listing is new, you need to be 100 percent ready when your home hits the market. Don’t list a home as-is or at a higher price “just to see what happens.

Source: SellSmart Home Staging

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(c)2011 Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.)

Distributed by MCT Information Services

Source: By Robert Evatt, Tulsa World, Okla.