Home Purchase Information

First time home buyers may take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit http://www.digits.hrblock.com/tipsandpodcasts/text/homecredit.php?otpPartnerId=2889&CampaignID=2889_0017&pgm=31444300 and MHDC has a program to allow some use of this toward your purchase.

The Missouri housing and development are offering $15,000 to buyers of foreclosed homes http://www.mhdc.com/homes/nsp/index.htm

St Charles county is offering an incentive program to gain new St Charles County home owners. The county provides 500 which is matched by the lender, builder, or seller to provide a one thousand dollar assist with your closing costs. Joe Calcaterra at 314-368-9515 is cooperating with this matching fund program. See http://www.homestcharles.org./ While there also look at the tab for down payment programs available from the cities of St Charles, St Peters, and O'Fallon.

Remember, your least expensive money to purchase housing should be conventional financing. However, this will also require your credit to be at its best and possibly 5 to 10% down payment. FHA mortgages help fill this gap. Read this comparison http://www.fhainfo.com/fhavsconventional.htm

Your VA benefits help your home purchase buy not requiring the 3%+ down payment that the FHA does but also due to government guarantee the credit restrictions are not as strict. Read http://www.vamortgagecenter.com/f/conventional_vs_va_loan.html FHA also has the 203k program to allow for costs of repairs to get you into the house.

As close as Lincoln, Warren, Jefferson, and other rural counties are it is worth looking at USDA funding. The advantage is near 100% financing with less attention to credit score. Read http://www.usdaloanapproval.com/usda_loan_guidelines_index.html

Bankruptcy, foreclosure, unemployment are normally what keeps you out of the housing market. There are tools that often can be used to avoid this if used soon enough.

Probate Property

When faced with handling the family’s probate properties there are quite a number of thoughts that come into play. From just getting rid of it, all the way to the need to maximize return on the property. The logistical difference between being local or cross country from the property makes a difference. If family is in a position to clean up and handle the personal items, household items, furniture, years of accumulation, and furnishings you are off to a great start. If not I can refer you to auction services that you can drop off boxes of items. It is also common to have an auctioneer come in and auction auto, house, and contents. A charitable institution can give you a receipt for tax purposes. There are also services to refer for cleaning, handyman repairs, painting, etc. In some situations deep cleaning and fix up can be avoided by my listing the property “as is”. The price representing current condition and room for an owner occupant’s sweat equity. An investor would offer much less. Many times there is years of deferred maintenance and or what some call being dated. When the situation is such that you really need to get more out of the property even though there is no margin for the cost of staging I have a few tools to enhance the perceived value of the listing without dropping the list price. Some of the ideas are for broadening the market to more buyers. Houses really do sell in any market. To launch a sale we need a solid platform supported by the three legs of marketing, staging and pricing. When two out of three legs are marginal the house will be on the market for an extended time. Sometimes a listing that languishes in inventory will have a negative stigma that will need to be adjusted by freshening the listing. There are times when a listing has been listed for too long and all the tools have been used that it is better to take it off the market for 60 days to reset the clock to zero and totally remarket it several months later. River City Real Estate does Short Sales, in house. This is for those situations where monthly payments can not be made, and there is not enough equity in the property to refinance. Associated with River City Real Estate is a company that will purchase property at about 75% of market value for rental or a rent to own program. I also know several investors that wholesale property (simultaneous closings). I know investors that will buy damaged property for about 40% of market, invest about 20% in it, and resell to an owner occupant at about 80% of market keeping the 20% as their margin for business. Normally it is a matter of providing whatever level of service that best serves the client and the property. http://seniorplanningdwightpuntigan.com/ http://dwightpuntigan.point2agent.com/Popular_Searches/page_203587.html http://dwightpuntigan.point2agent.com/Search_MLS_Listings/page_203592.html