Tri-Cities WA Homes Buying

July 18th, 2011

A great article was recently posted on Trulia regarding the 5 questions you should ask your home inspector after purchasing a home. As a home buyer take a look at this…

“Most home buyers feel like they are bona fide real estate experts after all the studying up on loans and neighborhoods, online house hunting and open house visiting it takes just to get into contract on a home these days. But for all but the most handy of house hunters, getting into contract and starting the home inspection process only surfaces how little you actually know about the nuts and bolts and brick and mortar of the massive investment you’re about to make: a home!

So, you hire a home inspector, but it seems like they’re speaking an entirely different language – riddled with terms like “serviceable condition” and “conducive to deterioration” – about your dream home! Here are 5 questions you can use to decode your home inspector’s findings into knowledge you can use to make smart decisions as a homebuyer – and homeowner.

1. How bad is it – really? The best home inspectors are pretty even keeled, emotionally speaking. They’re not alarmists that blow little things up into big ones, nor do they try to play down the importance of things. They’re all about the facts. But sometimes, that straightforwardness makes it hard for you, the home’s buyer, to understand what’s a big deal and what isn’t so much – the information you need to know whether to move forward with the deal, whether to renegotiate and what to plan ahead for.

I’ve seen things categorized in home inspection reports under “Health and Safety Hazards” that cost less than $100 to fix, like replacing a faucet that has hot and cold reversed. And I’ve seen one-liners in inspection reports, like “extensive earth-to-wood contact” result, after further inspection, in foundation repair bids pricier than the whole cost of the home!

In many states, home inspectors are not legally able to provide you with a repair bid, but if you attend the inspection and simply ask them whether or not something they say needs fixing is a big deal, nine times out of ten they will verbally give you the information you need to understand the degree to which the issue is a serious problem (or not).

2. Who should I have fix that? I always ask this question of home inspectors, with dual motives. First, very often, the inspector’s response is – “What do you mean? You don’t need to pay someone to fix that. Go down to Home Depot, pick up a ___fill in the blank__, and here’s how you pop it in. Should cost you $15 – tops.” And that’s useful information to know – it eliminates the horror of a laundry list of repairs and maintenance items at the end of an inspection report to know that a number of them are really DIY-type maintenance items. Even buyers who are really uncomfortable doing these things themselves then feel empowered to either (a) watch a few YouTube vids that show them how it’s done, or (b) hire a handyperson to do these small fixes, knowing they shouldn’t be too terribly costly.

And even on the larger repairs, your home inspector or your realtor might be able to give you a few referrals to the plumbers, electricians or roofers you’ll need to get bids from during your contingency period, which you may be able to use to negotiate with your home’s seller, and to get the work done after you own the place. Dropping the inspector’s name might get you an appointment booked with the urgency you need it in order to get your repair bids and estimates in hand before your contingency or objection period expires.

And same goes for any further inspections they recommend – if neither you nor your agent knows a specialist, as the general home inspector for a few referrals.

3. If this was your house, what would you fix, and when? Your home inspector’s job is to point out everything, within the scope of the inspection, that might need repair, replacement, maintenance or further inspection – or seems like it might be on it’s last leg. But they also tend to be experienced enough with homes to know that no home is perfect. Many times, I’ve asked this question about an item the inspector described as “at the end of its serviceable lifetime” and had them say, “I wouldn’t do a thing to it. Just know that it could break in the next 5 months, or in the next 5 years. And keep your home warranty in effect, because that should cover it when it does break.”

This question positions your home inspector to help you:

• understand what does and doesn’t need to be repaired,
• prioritize the work you plan to do to your home (and budget or negotiate with the seller accordingly),
• get used to the constant maintenance that is part and parcel of homeownership, and
• understand the importance of having a home warranty plan.

4. Can you point that out to me? Often, when you attend the home inspection, you’ll be multi-tasking, taking pictures of the interior, measuring for drapes or furniture, even meeting the neighbors, or fielding several inspectors at a time. Worst case scenario is to get home, open up the inspector’s report and have no clue whatsoever what he or she was referring to when they called out the wax ring that needs replacement or the temperature-pressure release valve that is improperly installed.

Your best bet is to, at the end of the inspection, while you’re all still in the property, just ask the inspector to take 10 or 15 minutes and walk you through the place, pointing out all the items they’ve noted need repair, maintenance or further inspection. When you get the report, then, you’ll know what and where the various items belong. (One more best practice is to choose an inspector who takes digital pictures and inserts them into their reports!)

5. Can you show me how to work that? Many home inspectors are delighted to show you how to operate various mechanical or other systems in your home, and will walk you through the steps of operating everything from your thermostat, to your water heater, to your stove and dishwasher – and especially the emergency shutoffs for your gas, water and electrical utilities. This one single item is such a time and stress saver it alone is worth the lost income of missing a day of work to attend your inspections.

November 15th, 2010

Tri-City rentals are hard to come by, so let’s examine buying vs. renting. According to a local Tri-City Herald article (an excerpt and link of which is below) it appears as though our rental market is getting pretty tight and availability is not what it once was. Considering this information and coupling it with the all time low interest rates (30 year fixed is currently 4.125%), it may be a good time to really examine buying versus renting. Buying is not the right move for everyone, so here are some examples of the advantages versus the disadvantages of owning and renting:

Renting Advantages:

• More fixed costs for the term of the lease
• Not gaining equity, but not losing it either
• When the lease is up, you can just move
• There is generally less work in maintaining a home or apartment
• Smaller amount of “up-front” cash

Buying Disadvantages:

• Variable costs
• Equity may go up, down, or stay stagnant
• If you want to move, home generally must be sold
• Work needs to be done by you or paid for by you
• Generally a larger initail investment – the downpayment

Renting Disadvantages:

• No matter what happens with the value of the home, you will never gain equity
• Limited – or no – ability to personalize your living quarters
• No tax advantage to renting. Your landlord gets any and all tax breaks that are available

Buying Advantages:

• Over time, the mortgage balance decreases and equity builds, even if the value of the home does not increase.
• The ability to remodel and redecorate the home to match your needs and desires
• Ther can be tax advantages attached to home ownership. Consult competent legal and/or accounting advice for details for your situation

Below is a link to a buy-rent calculator where you can compare the costs of buying versus renting a home.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html

Finding an apartment to rent in the Tri-Cities is tough, as most of the area’s 12,000 units are occupied despite a steady increase in rental rates. The apartment occupancy rate is 99 percent for Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, according to the latest Apartment Rental Survey by Kennewick’s Crown Property Management Average monthly rental rates for apartments — mostly one- to three-bedroom units — ranged from about $635 to about $950 in Kennewick, from about $660 to $850 in Pasco, and from $780 to $999 in Richland, the survey found. Apartment occupancy is rising steadily across the nation, said Brock MacLean, senior vice president of national sales and development for Norfolk, Va.-based For Rent Media Solutions. His company’s website, ForRent. com, saw a 65 percent increase in traffic in August, he said. About 35 Tri-City apartment complexes, typically offering 100 units or more, are listed on the company’s website and magazine, MacLean said. Their occupancy rate is 94.7 percent, he said.

Read more: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2010/10/10/1203790/tri-city-apartments-hard-to-come.html#ixzz14zDeguyl

September 27th, 2010

CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange. It’s a database report about a home with the history of claims, losses, injuries, and other pertinent information. It is exchanged by insurance companies. It stays with the home, rather than an owner, and is important for figuring out status and future likelihood of claims.

If you have a negative CLUE report rating, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans feel your pain. Not only will your insurance company stop insuring you if you ever get a low score, but your mortgage company will demand insurance, and other insurance companies could quote unaffordable rates or refuse to insure you.

When shopping for a home, never forget to request a CLUE report on the home. Then ask yourself these questions:

            1. Will this property allow me to obtain affordable insurance?

            2. Is the history of the home questionable? For example, has it been in a flood or fire?

After you’ve obtained the CLUE of a property and decided that you would like to make an offer on the property, make sure you anticipate the “real cost.” If the property has a low score, then insurance may be hard or impossible to get.   This can be a great indicator to issues that may not be disclosed in a foreclosure or repo scenario!

If you aren’t planning on buying a new home any time soon, you should find out your home’s CLUE report score. As with your credit report, you should review it to make sure it is accurate, and dispute in writing and follow-up until corrected. It is also important to obtain your Personal Insurance Score. It can impact your homeowner’s insurance rates if it is negative. You can get it at the same site as above mentioned, and you should also review it for accuracy.

If you have any questions regarding this topic, you can contact us directly or give Lance a call at 509-727-8977.  Another great resource for this topic or any insurance questions you might have would be to talk to our insurance expert Ryan Sullivan at State Farm at 509-783-0172.

September 20th, 2010

OK, so you’ve found your dream home you now need to make sure misstep’s don’t prevent a successful closing. Your home purchase isn’t complete until you make it to the closing. Until then, your transaction can still fall apart for many reasons. Below are Five Tips to Help Avoid Mistakes That Can Cause Your Home Sale To Fail.

1. Be truthful on your mortgage application: You may think fudging on your income or omitting debts when applying for a mortgage will go unnoticed, but that is not true. Lenders have become more diligent when it comes to verifying information on mortgage applications. If you fib expect the truth to come out and be denied the loan you need to fund your home purchase. Anyway, lying on a mortgage application is a crime.
2. Hold off on big purchases: Lenders double check the buyer’s credit just before closing to ensure their financial condition hasn’t weakened. If you’ve opened new credit cards or significantly increased the balance of existing cards, taken out any new loans, or depleted your savings, your credit score may possibly drop enough to make your lender change their mind on funding your home loan. Even though it may be tempting to purchase new furniture or other related items in anticipation of your new home, wait until after you’ve closed.
3. Keep your job: If you quit or change jobs before your purchase has closed, your lender may refuse to fund your loan. The time to make that decision, or take that step, is after closing, not before.
4. Meet contingencies: If your purchase contract requires you to do something before the sale, do it. If it’s a matter of securing your financing be prompt and provide all the information your lender requires. If you have 10 days to complete your home inspection, call the inspector immediately. If you must deposit additional funds in to escrow, do so, don’t stall.
5. Consider deadlines immovable: Make sure and get the necessary funds for closing together at least a week in advance so not to delay the closing. If you need to provide a certified check for closing, go to the bank the day prior, not the day of closing. Treat deadlines as though they are sacred.

*To see this article in it’s entirety go to Houselogic.com

September 3rd, 2010

So, you’ve found the perfect house to buy, you write up a Purchase and Sale Agreement, you include the inspection and financing contingencies, you come to terms with the seller, and now it’s time to move through those contingencies, the first being having the home inspected by a licensed, professional home inspector. This is a cost that you, as the buyer, pay for, for your protection.

What is it though that the home inspector is actually required to do vs. not required to do? Let’s take a look.

Required to Do:

• Assess the condition of a residence using visual observations, simple tools, and normal homeowner operating tools
• Report in writing deficiencies of specific systems and components
• Abide by a defined rules of conduct and ethics including disclosing of conflicts of interest, not working on the inspected property for one year, and offering inducement for referrals
• Maintain copies of inspections and pre-inspection agreements for three years
• Present prior to the inspection a pre-inspection contract with address, home inspector compensation, a general description of what will be inspected including all items of this SOP, and a statment that certain hazardous substances or other environmental issues will not be included unless specifically agreed to in writing
• Provide the client a home inspection report per the pre-inspection agreement
• Return the client’s money related to a home inspection report when ordered to do so by a court
• Inspect the following systems: Structure, Exterior, Roofs, Plumbing, Electrical, Heating, Air Conditioning, Interiors, Insulation and Ventilation, Fireplaces and Stoves, Site, and Attached Garages and Carports (Note: each system has identified requirements for items inspected and not required to be inspected)
• Report all wood rot and pest-conducive conditions discovered.
• Refer all issue that are suspected to be insect related to a licensed structural pest inspector (SPI) or pest control operator (PCO) for follow up.

Not Required to Do:

• Move personal property, ceiling tiles, furniture, plants, snow, soil, ice or debris
• A technically exhaustive examination
• Identify concealed conditions or latent defects
• Inspect detached garages and carports
• Determine the condition of any system not readily accessible
• Comment on the suitability of any structure for any specialized use
• Determine the remaining service life, strength, adequacy, effectiveness or efficiency of systems or components
• Report on potentially hazardous materials, plants, animals, or diseases
• Report on environmental hazards including molds, toxins, carcinogens, etc.
• Determine operating cost of system
• Determine acoustical properties of systems
• Operate any system or component shut down, disconnected or otherwise not operating.
• Operate any circuit breakers, water, gas, or oil shutoffs
• Offer any warranties or guarantees
• Inspect any underground items such as sprinklers, tanks, piping
• Inspect decorative items
• Inspect detached structures or common elements in condominiums
• Perform any procedure or component deemed dangerous by the inspector
• Enter flooded crawlspaces, not readily accessible attics, or other dangerous area
• Inspect elevators or related equipment
• Inspect swimming pools, saunas, hot tubs, or sport courts
• Inspect or comment on wood destroying insects

A full exhaustive list can be found WAC 308-408C.

If you need a referral for a professional, licensed home inspector, please feel free to contact Lance Kenmore at (509) 727-8977.

August 9th, 2010

Relocating to Tri-Cities, WA or to any new area can often be a very daunting and overwhelming task not to mention how nerve-racking it is to purchase a home in an area you know nothing about. We suggest a few things to help take some of the stress out of the situation.

Step One: Start by working with a good real estate team, such as the Kenmore Team and begin by asking for our lender recommendations. Make yourself comfortable with financing a home in this new area by calling these local lenders and see what kind of financing is available to you.

Just as houses and markets are vastly different from state to state and city to city, so are lenders and lending practices. Changes in jobs and incomes, not to mention changes in cost of living, can have a huge impact on what type of home you want to buy.

Step Two: Have your Realtor give you a community tour, so you can get a feel for the different surrounding areas.

Because we help a lot of people move to the Tri-Cities area from elsewhere around the country, we are most frequently asked about the local schools.

It is very important for you to do your own homework regarding your decision on the best school for your kids. We don’t know you or your kids needs, plus we don’t know every school in the area well enough to give an accurate opinion. However, we are able to provide you with a wealth of resources to help set you down the right path.

The best place to start is with the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Amongst many other things on this site, you will find one of our favorite tools that we like to inform our clients about which is the School Report Card. The first page of the School Report Card gives results for the entire state, however if you use the drop down menu at the top, left of the page you can choose a school district, be sure to hit the go button to activate it, and then if you use the drop down menu again, you can choose the exact school you would like statistics for as well as demographics.

There are three main public school districts in the Tri-Cities, Richland School District, Kennewick School District, and Pasco School District. These are boundary maps for the current year for each district, so you can see which area serves which schools:

• Richland School District Boundary Maps
• Kennewick School District Boundary Maps
• Pasco School District Boundary Maps

Take some time to visit the schools, and consider your options. There are a lot of schools in our area, public and private all with unique differences. Take the time to find the best fit for your child.

If we can help make your move smoother, please give us a call at (509) 735-1025 or send us an email to sold@kenmoreteam.com.

November 6th, 2009

President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 into law today. The legislation greatly expands the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit by making more first time homebuyers eligible for the credit and now includes homebuyers that are not first time homebuyers. This new legislation is a huge victory.

First Time Homebuyers
The current law is extended until April 30, 2010. Buyers have until that date to have a signed purchase agreement. There is an additional 60 day grace period to complete the financing. More first time homebuyers are eligible because the new law raises the annual income limits from $75,000 to $125,000 for singles and from $150,000 to $225,000 for married couples.

Current Home Owners
Over 60 percent of current home owners will be eligible for a tax credit of up to $6,500 if they purchase a home by April 30, 2010. These homebuyers must have lived in their home for five consecutive years over the previous eight years to qualify. Qualified homebuyers can get the credit if they purchase a home for $800,000 or less as their primary residence between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010. The income limits are the same as the First Time Homebuyer listed above.

Please see the links below for additional details regarding the new legislation:

Frequently asked questions regarding the new Homebuyer Tax Credit
A chart comparing the original Tax Credit with the new, expanded Tax Credit

For more information on this tax credit or if we can help you find your next home, please contact Lance Kenmore at (509) 727-8977. We look forward to hearing from you.

September 30th, 2009

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 established the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) for the purpose of quickly stabilizing neighborhoods negatively affected by foreclosures and abandoned properties.

The City of Pasco has developed the NSP Down Payment Assistance Program for the purpose of expanding opportunities for affordable home ownership opportunities by offering financial assistance to low to middle-income homebuyers who purchase a foreclosed home.

Funding for this limited program is available for approximately 37 borrowers this year. As of last week, not a single person has taken advantage of this program.

Here is a simplified version of how the program works:

How the Loan Works?:

• The City will provide financing, up to $10,000.00, in the form of a Down Payment Assistance Loan.
• 30 year deferred payment 2nd mortgage at 0% interest.
• Upon completion of the deferral period or upon satisfaction of the 1st mortgage, whichever occurs first, the down payment assistance loan balance is amortized and paid annually over a ten (10) year period.

How the Program Works?:

• Applicant(s) must complete 1st time homebuyer education class.
• Applicant(s) will be required to contribute $1,000 toward down payment.

How to Qualify for NSP Assistance?:

• The house you wish to purchase must be a FORECLOSED home – no longer owned by the owner-occupant, but by the Trustee (Bank, HUD, Realtor, County, etc.)
• You must meet established household income minimums (see the application package for details).

What Do I Need To Do?:

• For more information call Lance Kenmore with the Kenmore Team today at (509) 727-8977 to help you get registered for this program and start looking for you new home.

December 11th, 2008

If you are on the fence about buying a home, you really ought to consider purchasing more seriously. Mortgage rates fell again this week, with the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate declining to 5.80% and the average 15-year mortgage rate dropping to 5.51%. The average jumbo 30-year fixed mortgage rate also dipped to 7.37%. Right now is the time to buy. If we can assist you in any manner, please don’t hesitate to contact the Kenmore Team at (509) 735-1025.