About Jasper's Bent Tree

Why buy now? There are a ton of reasons not to buy.

1 The economy is weak. I am worried

2 Housing values have gone down we are not at the bottom

3 There are a lot of costs involved in buying a house

4 My credit is not that good

5 I have now money for a down payment

You can add a bunch of additional reasons I am sure you have heard them all. But consider

1 If you have a good job in a weak economy values are available that would normally not be

2 You never know if you are at the bottom until you start to see an increase in prices

3 Uncle Sam has 8000 for you to buy now. Governor Purdue has 600 a year for 3 years for you to buy. Interest rates are low

4 Let's talk about your credit and see what we can do to fix it.

5 If you are a Veteran or if you are in a rural area VA and USDA loans are available, Also FHA is looking only for 3.5 % down

The Biggest reason of all is owning a home is the one step most folks can take to build wealth and security for their future. With a fixed rate loan you are also hedging against inflation. You can find a ton of reasons not to buy. But you will not ,in my opinion , see a better time to buy in the next 15 years. Call your Realtor. Your Realtor is your home buying consultant. Find out how easy it is and how smart it is to buy now

Geese are great animals. Like in the Godfather, family is everything. A Gander will face down an SUV when his family is crossing the road. These shots were taken near a mountain lake as a family prepared to cross the road. This shot is of the geese preparing to cross. In the shot below the Gander is taking offense at me as I have stopped in his path and he wants to get his family across the road. i moved along after this shot as he made me an offer I couldn't refuse

It has been raining a lot in the South lately. But out of the mist and clouds there are some bright spots. This picture is a fully opened Mountain Laurel in the mist

You can see the mist around this picture. The Laurel stands out almost as if it had a light on it. (It doesn't) Remember growing up and waiting for summer corn or Jersey Beef steak tomatoes, or cherries? This is all pre globalization. Well Mountain Laurel here bloom every year. But every second year they are better. This is the second year

Over the next couple of weeks armed with my camera I will be doing photos of the area. I have concentrated on Big Canoe and now will branch out. But let me set the table a bit in this post. Georgia in the last census was 9 million strong. Now think about other states 9 million just about covers a metropolitan area !!! We are about the size of New York State. The greater Atlanta area has 4 million of the 9. So what this means is there are some great open spaces in this state. In the mountains where i work you can be 3,000 feet plus up if you wish. The weather is great and especially mild in the winter when you compare us to other mountain States further north.

Consider the North Georgia Mountains when you are looking for a place to be where the live style is good and the scenery green and clean.

Buyers often use Realtors for the home, but do not ask them about a loan. Now Realtors are not loan experts for the most part. But a good Realtor will know about products available. Case in point was a blog I posted about a buyer losing 22,000 on a deal due to bad decisions.

I often recommend Mortgage brokers as they shop loans. However if you are using Georgia DCA you cannot use a Mortgage broker unless in rare cases that company is going to hold the paper. So a mortgage broker may offer you a number of options but not have that one in his bag. That is 14K you could be giving away!

Lets say you have a property, or a banker you like, and are living in a Metropolitan area. You decide to go "Green Acres". You find a local Realtor and you get a loan from your local bank where you live. Your Banker tells you you qualify for FHA. So you put 3.5 percent down and away you go. What you have missed is USDA 100 percent financing for a rural loan. Your in town banker didn't even think about that loan as she never writes them. BUT your Realtor if they are worth anything should mention it.

To make matters even worse the way FHA does insurance and fees you could , and I have seen it , have a higher monthly payment with the loan you got putting 3.5 percent down! So the point here is as a Realtor I am not an Mortgage expert and quite frankly do not want to be. However as part of my service I do become knowledgeable about types of loans available and loans that may be unique to my market. So when you are moving into an area ask your Realtor about your loan. It is an added layer of expertise that can save you potentially a lot of money.