3 Mistakes That Will Ruin Your Home-Buying Experience

In just a couple of months, we’ll be deep in the heart of home-buying season. Some house hunters will succumb to house fever, which can cause calm, rational people to resort to knee-jerk reactions and downright hissy fits in the quest for their perfect home.

You can avoid the troubles that go along with house fever-induced decisions by watching out for these three mistakes:

Buying while still in debt (or without an emergency fund)

Debt and/or the lack of an emergency fund can ruin your home-buying experience quicker than you can say “leaky roof.” Don’t buy a home until you are out of debt and have 3–6 months of expenses saved for emergencies. Save up a down payment of at least 10% and keep your house payment 25% or less of your take-home pay on a 15-year mortgage. You could also choose to buy your home with cash and stay out of debt permanently!


Buying without a home inspection

A home inspection usually costs a few hundred bucks—money well spent if it helps you avoid potential disasters after closing. Your inspection will include a thorough review of the home’s structural elements and electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems. The inspector’s report gives you the information you need to decide to buy the home as-is or to negotiate with the seller to fix the problems or reduce the price.

Buying through the seller’s listing agent

Most real estate agents are friendly and outgoing, so it’s easy to make the mistake of trusting the seller’s agent to help you buy one of their listings. But the fact is, the listing agent works for the seller—that’s who they’re paid to look out for. You need to hire an agent whose sole focus is to represent you in the transaction. These agents are often called “buyer’s agents.” A buyer’s agent’s job is to show you properties and help negotiate your contract to make sure you’re getting a good deal. On average, a buyer’s agent saves you 5% on your home purchase. That’s $7,500 on a $150,000 home.

View complete article here. http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/3-mistakes-ruin-home-buying/?ectid=elp.facebook.post.4-27-2013

Did the Nice Weather this Weekend get you ready to Garden?

April gardening checklist

Gardens start to come alive this month, and if the weather cooperates, it's a time to plant, water everything and take care of the lawn.

In some areas, April brings the first signs of winter's end; in others, it's the gateway to hot, summery weather. But in most climates, it's the magical month when gardens start to come to life.
Remember to adjust gardening tips to fit your own growing season — but most important of all, wait until the last frost date to put tender plants in the ground.
Greenhouses
Here comes the sun, which means that greenhouses are starting to heat up. On warm days, be sure your greenhouse is well-ventilated. Give more regular care to greenhouse plants by stepping up your watering and fertilizing schedule. Also make sure to check your greenhouse thoroughly for pests.

Container gardens
Even beginning gardeners can brighten up a terrace, patio, deck or windowsill with containers tumbling with flowers.

• Use hanging baskets, pots of all sizes and planter boxes — or ask the kids to help you paint old pails or coffee cans — for clusters of color.
• Fill containers with bulbs and bedding plants to be transplanted in warmer weather, or make permanent plantings.
• Spark up potted shrubs and trees by surrounding them with dashes of perennial color.
• Group cactus plants of different heights and shapes, or try your hand at a container bonsai garden.
• Apartment dwellers, if you haven't made a windowsill herb garden, what are you waiting for?

Watering
Don't let your garden dry out before it even hits full stride. Get into the rhythm of watering regularly early in the season to ensure happy, healthy plants.

• Set up a watering system to minimize the work of regularly watering your garden beds. Make sure a hose or watering can is accessible in areas that you will water often throughout the growing season.
• In container gardens, make sure that your geraniums, pansies and other container plants are getting enough water.
• This is an ideal time to check on the moisture of plantings at the base of evergreens or under eaves. These are often left parched, even in rainy climates.

read more at - http://realestate.msn.com/april-gardening-checklist

Buy a home at auction? ....

"...most real estate auctions today are not sheriff's tax sales, but rather are conducted by professional firms specializing in this fast-growing segment of the real estate industry..."

Read complete article at http://www.unitedcountry.com/aboutus/articles/WhereToRetire_Article.pdf

Lifestyle, Rural Real Estate Market Interest at All-Time High

United Country Achieves Record Web Traffic in 2012

February 5, 2013 – (KANSAS CITY, Mo.) – Over ninety percent of buyers start their real estate search online, and in 2012 they showed record interest in lifestyle and rural real estate. According to United Country Real Estate, the nation’s largest seller of non-urban real estate, visitor traffic at their over 3,500 websites experienced a dramatic rise in 2012 and early 2013.

“Year-over-year, web traffic at UnitedCountry.com increased each quarter 21, 19, 24 and 33 percent, respectively over 2011’s excellent traffic results,” said David Dickey, chief technology officer for United Country Real Estate. “We received over a million visitors a day each and every month throughout the year, which had not been achieved in the 88-year history of United Country Real Estate.”

According to Dickey, these numbers only reflect traffic for the company’s main website, www.UnitedCountry.com, and does not account for the firm’s other 3,500-plus websites.

“When you include the performance of our other property marketing sites, we capture over 3,000,000 visitors per month – dwarfing the performance of all other major real estate brands on a per-listing, per-office and per-agent basis, and putting lifestyle and rural real estate traffic on the level of leading, primarily urban residential sites, such as Zillow and Trulia,” said Dan Duffy, chief executive officer of United Country Real Estate.

This increase in web traffic was also reflected in strong gains in real estate sales for the company. United Country’s sales volume experienced a dramatic rise in 2012, resulting in a 27.6-percent increase in annual sales volumes versus 2011.

“While we are pleased by a solid performance for the 2012 calendar year, we are especially excited about our growth in closed sales of larger ‘investment grade’ farm, ranch, recreational and timberland properties with sale values ranging from $1 million to $50 million,” said Duffy. “In addition to this over 40 percent increase in land sales, we have seen resurgence in sales of residential homes in the smaller city and towns we serve, which grew by over 12 percent. We also viewed large gains in residential auction sales – 41 percent better than 2011 – as this marketing method continues to gain in popularity.”

Read more at http://www.unitedcountry.com/aboutus/pressreleases/ruralrealestate-webtraffic.htm

Most Expensive Clock sells at Auction

December 2012

Take a look at the clock that auctioned at Sotheby's for a record $6,802,500 on Tuesday, Dec. 4. It's the Duc d'Orleans Breguet Sympathique clock dated 1835. Notice the pocket watch mounted above the clock. Sotheby's calls the clock "a unique and highly important ormolu-mounted red tortoiseshell boulle-style Royal Sympathique quarter-striking clock and half-quarter repeating gold watch." It's named "Duc d'Orleans" after its patron and has the most complex Sympathique mechanism of all known examples: it is the only one known to wind, set time, and regulate its accompanying pocket watch via the cradle mounted onto the clock's pediment.  Read more..

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends, family and clients!

Print out this recipe card and take to your thanksgiving today and write down the recipe for your favorite dish!

United Country Coffey Realty & Auction April Newsletter

HomeGain Survey Finds Home Sellers Fare 50% Better in Getting Their Homes Sold Using a REALTOR® Than Selling On Their Own

HomeGain’s For Sale By Owner (FSBO) vs. REALTOR® survey reveals home sellers’ success rates and satisfaction. Home sellers have greater success and higher satisfaction with the home sale process using a REALTOR® than going FSBO.

HomeGain surveyed over 1,000 homeowners asking whether they used a REALTOR® to sell their home or whether they attempted to sell it themselves. Eighty-three percent said they used a REALTOR® to sell their home and 17 percent said they tried to sell their home on their own.
Fifty-nine percent of home owners that used a REALTOR® to sell their home were successful vs. 39 percent of FSBO’s, reflecting a 50 percent higher closing rate for those home sellers using a REALTOR®.
Eighty-one percent of homeowners that used a REALTOR® to try and sell their homes said they would use a REALTOR® again for their real estate needs.

Seventy-one percent of FSBOs who managed to sell their homes on their own said they would try and sell their home on their own again.
“It is especially striking that homeowners fare significantly better in selling their homes using a REALTOR® than selling on their own.” said Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of HomeGain. “Due to that relative success, the level of satisfaction in the home selling process is also higher for home sellers utilizing the services of a REALTOR® than those who try to sell their homes on their own.”
Twenty-four percent of FSBOs eventually decided to enlist the aid of a REALTOR® to help sell their homes.
The survey was conducted from February 7-15, 2011.

Read Full Story at HomeGain.

Sellers: 6 disclosures you must make, or it could cost you

What you don't say could come back to haunt you, in the form of blown sales or lawsuits.

These days, the trend among cash-strapped home sellers seems to be to say less in hopes of getting more at closing. But in the long run, this less-than-full disclosure can prove costly.

Lawsuits stemming from nondisclosure of a property's problems are becoming a bigger issue, according to respondents in the National Association of Realtors 2011 Legal Scan survey. Of the agents who responded, about 75% ranked this issue among their "top three current and future issues."

While the rule with homebuying was once "caveat emptor," or "buyer beware," an increasing number of sellers are finding themselves on the hook for nondisclosure.

"I think a lot of sellers don't have a full understanding of what the seller disclosure statement means when they fill it out," says Illinois home inspector Jack McGraw of Jacks Home Services. "You can often tell there has been work done" on a house, he says, but these fixes don't show up anywhere on paper.

Indeed, sometimes there is a big effort to cover up any signs of trouble. Omaha, Neb., appraiser John Bredemeyer says he recalls one home that had a giant console television pushed up against a door angled in one corner of the basement. Once the property was sold and the TV hauled away, the new owners found a big surprise.

"They opened up the door and the foundation was crumbling," Bredemeyer says. Ultimately, the home's original owners wound up paying to fix it.

Sellers must disclose anything that could affect the property's value or desirability, from big problems such as a compromised foundation to — in some states — simple neighborhood nuisances such as that dog next door that barks every night.

Disclosure laws vary. Some states require sellers to look for and cite certain problems even if they are not aware of them.

No one gets out of these disclosures: Even those marketing a home "as is" have to obey state disclosure laws, says Ilona Bray, real-estate attorney and co-author of "Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home." As-is sellers are simply advertising that they're not going to negotiate on price because of these issues.
Here are the six things that a seller must reveal about a home to avoid legal trouble down the road.

1. Repairs
This is a pretty broad category but one that a lot of buyers seem confused about. If you have made repairs to your property, you should disclose them, even if the problem has been resolved.
That could be something as major as a crack you had sealed in the foundation, or something as minor as snaking your sewer line every year to clear tree roots.
Any repairs to the roof, plumbing, electrical system or heating and cooling unit that you are aware of — including any repairs disclosed to you by previous owners — should be laid bare, as well as any drywall or structural repairs to remedy water damage.
"If you knew that there had been hail on the roof and it was leaking, you should disclose that," Bredemeyer says. "If you knew last fall that the A/C didn't work, that's something you should disclose to a buyer."
The bottom line is that sellers should disclose anything that is not readily identifiable by the buyer.

2. Termites
One such invisible problem is termites. If your home has a history of termite infestation, especially if it has been treated more than once, it should be disclosed to the buyer, because it can greatly affect the value of the home.
To lessen the impact of this disclosure, sellers can get another termite inspection before listing their home that shows it to be clear of the pests. This disclosure, along with any information about treatment warranties that could be transferred, should be given to the buyer at closing.

3. Water damage/mold
If the home has had a leaky roof, a flooded basement or dampness and mold in certain areas, these water issues must be disclosed.
A good home inspector can often spot the signs of water damage, even if they have been painted or plastered over, McGraw says. But it's no sure thing. That's why water damage is one of the biggest causes of disclosure-related lawsuits, says Joseph Rand, managing partner and general counsel for Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Rand Realty in Nyack, N.Y.
One buyer that Rand's firm represented had to call out a plumber soon after the purchase for some serious flooding in the basement. Once there, the plumber told the buyer, "I was just out here six months ago for the same thing."
The sellers were successfully sued for not disclosing this fact. "It was one of the few times that the buyer caught the seller red-handed," Rand says.

4. Lead
If you are selling a house built before 1978, you must comply with a federal law that requires disclosure of all known lead-based paint and hazards in the house.
Buyers must receive a copy of the Environmental Protection Agency pamphlet "Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home" and they must be allowed a 10-day window to test the house for lead.
The contract must include that warning as well as signed statements from all parties verifying that the requirements for disclosure were met. If a seller doesn't comply with these requirements, the buyer can sue for triple the amount of damages suffered. More information from the EPA on lead disclosure is available here.


5. Natural hazards
Some states, such as California, require sellers to disclose any risk of natural disasters such as a flood plain or earthquake zone or susceptibility to wildfires. This disclosure is meant to warn buyers of the financial risk and danger they face from these catastrophes, as well as alert them to trouble they may face in getting insurance for a home in that location.

6. Infamous past
Even a home's notorious past must be disclosed. One New York case many years ago involved a home that reportedly was haunted and was the subject of many articles and tours. When that ghoulish past wasn't disclosed to the new buyer, the seller was successfully sued for nondisclosure, because that notoriety was likely to diminish its resale value, Bray says.
The same holds true for a home's criminal past. Some states require disclosure of murders on the property, others do not. But since these horrific events tend to lower the value of a property, most real-estate agents choose to disclose them rather than risk legal action. In fact, the NAR even published a field guide for agents to deal with these "stigmatized" properties.
Other special disclosures might include a historical designation that restricts remodeling, or any other special zoning or local environmental concerns.
The bottom line is that if there's a question in your mind about whether or not you should disclose something, you probably should. "Anything that the buyer would feel misled by is something that you should disclose," Bray says.
However, disclosure does not mean sellers are obligated to fix a home's problems, Bray says. Rather, the disclosed issues can merely become a point of negotiation between buyer and seller.

How can sellers protect themselves without blowing a sale?
To find out which disclosures your state requires, you can contact its department of real estate. Bray also suggests sellers get a home inspection before listing the home. It's not required, but it can help you figure out what to disclose.
If repairs must be done, McGraw suggests getting bids from a few contractors so you can negotiate more effectively. If a problem was fixed, disclose it and let people know what you have done to resolve it.
McGraw suggests preparing a binder for potential buyers of repairs, permits and warranties. It makes you look like a conscientious seller. And if you're not disclosing something on a form, remember to document it in writing, even it's just an email copied to a witness, Rand says.
It might seem strange, but sometimes a heavy dose of disclosure can actually make a buyer more ready to act. "They will say, 'This is an upfront person that I can work with,'" Bray says.
In a depressed housing market, no one wants to give up money from the purchase price, but full disclosure is one way to make sure you're not giving up a lot more of it later on.
Article from MSN Real Estate 

This Spring Could Be The Best Home-Buying Season In Years

The lion’s share of home sales typically come in the spring and early summer. April, May, June and July account for more than 40% of all housing transactions annually, in large part thanks to weather. Economists, realtors and Wall Streeters have been quick to surmise that 2012 will be the year of the market bottom, and with that prognosis circulating, it begs the question of what sellers and buyers can expect in housing as that high season nears.
“The spring home buying season looks bright because of an elevated level of contract offers so far this year,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist of NAR, said in a statement earlier this week. February home sales, despite a slight dip from January to February, remain well above 2011 numbers. The Pending Home Sales Index, which reflects signed contracts that have yet to close, from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) was 9.2% higher than February of 2011 and existing-homes sales, or closed contracts, were 8.8% higher than last year.

That increased demand from buyers has pushed inventory levels 19% lower than they were this time last year, with an estimated 2.43 million homes available for sale. In fact, housing inventory is at a five-year low nationally right now. It means owners tinkering with the thought of selling have less competition to contend with, compared to the past five years. It also means housing may be inching toward a long-awaited recovery.
Here are five factors that will affect what the spring season brings and ultimately, whether 2012 is truly the year of recovery.
Weather
The mild winter weather played a big role in the relatively strong sales numbers with which 2012 has kicked off.  ”Right now it’s hard to say whether the housing market is recovering or whether it’s warm weather,” asserts John Canally, an economist and investment strategist for LPL Financial. “But there are a couple factors that suggest the rising number of home sales are indeed for real: home builder stocks are way up since last October, lumber prices are higher, and home builder sentiment is getting higher.”
(Building permits, which rose 5.1% from January to February, were 34.3% higher than February of 2011, according to the U.S. Census and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Housing starts were 34.7% higher than last year.)
The Midwest has welcomed the most sales activity since 2012 commenced. The region clocked the most newly signed contracts, jumping 6.5% from January to February, with a 19% increase year-over-year. It was also one of only two regions that welcomed an uptick in completed sales as well.
“If it’s 30 below and snowy that doesn’t inspire people to go look at houses, but this year it has been so mild that our market didn’t slow down,” says Ellen DeHaven, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Burnet in Minnesota.  ”So we’ve been selling many more houses this year than we typically would at this time and it’s brought down our inventory levels both in foreclosures and in general.” DeHaven expects that sales surge to only grow as the year unfolds.
One concern may be whether the warm winter’s relatively strong sales have been pulling activity forward, meaning whether buyers who would typically have purchased in the spring have done so already, translating into less sales later on. Canally and others suspect that that’s not the case. NAR predicts sales will rise 7% to 10% this year, reaching the highest numbers seen since the housing bust began five years ago.

Tight Lending
Interest rates hover at record lows. Housing affordability is at record highs. However, lending remains tight. NAR estimates that 31% of all pending contracts collapsed in February due to failed financing. Compare that to a 9% cancellation rate in February 2011.
Jed Smith, managing director for quantitative research at NAR, says stringent lending practices are a reflection of two things: either a potential buyer whose credit may not be strong enough according to post-bubble standards or a lending institution whose portfolio remains bogged down by poorly underwritten mortgages in years past. He notes that many of the larger lending institutions, like Bank of America for example, suffer from this, whereas the smaller, community banks and savings and loan associations may be more willing to underwrite mortgages.

Tight lending has led many buyers to pay in cash (approximately 30% of all buyers), a purchasing method that may have more benefits than taking out a mortgage. This is especially true of investors, who have been successfully using cash to land accepted offers, even if it means the seller accepts less money. This cash-is-king phenomenon has caused many a mortgage pre-qualified first-time home buyer to lose out on properties, as investors and first-time buyers tend to compete for lower priced homes in a market.
“The single biggest obstacle for a home buyer right now is availability of credit,” asserts Canally. If prospective buyers can find a way to finance their purchases, sales will arguably continue to grow. Smith estimates 500,000 more sales would be completed this year than projected if lending standards eased even just a little bit.
A Flood Of Foreclosure Sales
Now that the $25 billion foreclosure settlement has been reached, the uncertainty banks have felt about processing foreclosures is expected to subside.  RealtyTrac estimates that there will be one million completed foreclosures, or REOs, in 2012 — a 25% increase from 2011.
That doesn’t mean we will see 25% more homes slide into default; it means the foreclosures that stalled in the processing pipeline after 2010′s robo-signing debacle will finally make their way into the hands of buyers in short sales and onto bank books as REOs (bank-owned properties).
“We will see more foreclosed homes come to the market later this year,” predicts Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia. He and Canally both think banks will list larger percentages of their REO inventory this year, a move that, depite being a long-term positive for housing, could further depress home prices in the immediate future.  Since distressed property sells for about 30% less than non-distressed property on average, those discounts pull both listing prices and appraisal numbers down on non-distressed property in response.
However, investors have been eagerly snatching up distressed properties, which typically account for one third of all sales each month. So even if more short sales and foreclosures make their way to the sale block, there may be a market for them. The sooner they are cleared from banks’ books, the sooner prices can stabilize and begin an upward march.

Read entire story at Forbes