About Madison County, MS

My "other" site for blogging. Yes, I've tried the outside world of blogging by self-publishing a blog outside of active rain called: The Green Building Inspector. Give a try?

Last week I wrote the premiere edition of Foreclosure Friday, a series of blog posts designed to discuss buying foreclosures. As a reminder, the tips in last week's issue were:

1. Arrange financing before beginning your search for a home.
2. Find a qualified agent to help you in your search for a foreclosure.
3. Foreclosures are usually sold "as is - where is" without any warranty or repair allowance.

Following is the process for buying a HUD foreclosure:

• When a property is first listed for sale through HUD, only owner-occupants can submit offers to purchase during the initial "10 day bid period". An owner-occupant, quite simply, is someone buying the home with the INTENTION OF LIVING in the property as their primary residence.
• If no-one purchases the property during the initial 10-day bid process, the status for bids will be changed to "All Bidders". Once the initial bid period has expired, investors are then able to sumit offers to purchase.
• All bids must be in writing and submitted through a real estate brokerage approved to sell HUD homes. Individuals are not allowed to submit a bid on their own behalf.
• Earnest money must be presented at the time of submitting an offer to purchase. In HUD's case, the dollar amount is either $500 or 1% of the purchase price, whichever is greater. If your offer is not accepted, the earnest money IS RETURNED TO YOU.
• Closing typically takes between 30-45 days.

CURRENT MISSISSIPPI FORECLOSURES

Currently, there are 35 HUD homes within the city of Jackson for sale. The city of Brandon has four available HUD homes priced between $66,600 to $96,000, and Pearl has four homes ranging in price from $63,000 to $116,000.

A new listing in Ridgeland, at 613 Harvest Road, is in the 10-day bid period and available to owner-occupants only. It is priced at $131,000.

One home is listed in Florence, MS at 573 Eaglewood Drive. It is priced at $121,000 and is open to ALL bidders.

See all available HUD properties in MS by referring to the weekly Foreclosure Friday report.

Search MS VA Foreclosures

Search all Fannie Mae Foreclosures

Search Freddie Mac Foreclosures

If the prospect of searching through all the foreclosures on a daily or weekly basis seems overwhelming, let me do the searching for you. Send an e-mail or contact me by phone, TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, and I'll do the searching for you. Or subscribe to my blog, Pat Starnes Snippets, where you will receive an e-mail each time a new blog post is written.

Until next time...

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Pat Starnes, a Realtor since 1988, specializes in Mississippi Residential Real Estate and can assist you with buying or selling in the Jackson MS Metro area.

Search all homes for sale in Brandon, Pearl, Flowood, Madison, Ridgeland, Florence, Bryam, or Jackson, MS.

Written and Published by Pat Starnes REALTOR

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If you are a first time home buyer, or haven't owned a home in three years, now is an EXCELLENT time to buy a home. My first post on the subject, Credit for First Time Homebuyers in MS depicts the differences between the old and the new stimulus packages.

If you purchased a home on or after April 9, 2008 but before January 1, 2009, you are entitled to a maximum tax credit of $7500. After January 1, the credit was increased to either 10% of the price or a maximum of $8,000, whichever is less.

What could you do with an extra $8,000?

Before January 1, 2009, the tax "credit" was actually an interest-free loan, to be repaid over 15 years through your annual tax return, beginning in 2010. Should you sell your home before the 15 years elapse, then the remaining credit would be repaid (in full) when the sale closes.

For homes purchased between January 1 and December 1, 2009, you must live in the home for three years without having to repay any portion of the credit. If you have not owned a home for three years, although you are not a "first-time buyer", you are still eligible for the tax credit.

The attached tax form, Form 5405, will explain how to file for the credit, whether you purchased a home in 2008 or 2009.

Rates are lower than ever. If you haven't purchased a home since January 1, 2006, with the additional tax credit available through December 1, can you think of a BETTER TIME TO BUY?

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Pat Starnes, a Realtor since 1988, specializes in Mississippi Residential Real Estate and can assist you with buying or selling in the Jackson MS Metro area.

Search homes for sale in Brandon, Pearl, Flowood, Madison, Ridgeland, Florence, Bryam, or Jackson, MS.

Written and Published by Pat Starnes REALTOR

By TwitterButtons.com

The last month I've been a busy bee with the housing market, but what can I attribute this to? Interest Rates, or Stimulus Package? Maybe and Maybe!

I've got a good idea though my sellers are helping me price their listings at fair market value and that my friend is what is moving this market!

And, as we know, price is king when buyers are looking for homes.

Remember, your results may vary depending on the home condition and the part of the country you are located in. But, the next time you’re ready to list a home, explore the option of pricing strategies. A listing price can be your most powerful marketing tool...

Closing March 20th!

Closing February 27th!

Short Sale Closing Pending!

If your looking to sell your home in the Metro Jackson Area be sure to call me before you do for your home selling consultation.

Contact Jeffrey Dillon

Herrington Realty Company

601.502.4693

Yesterday I shared information about the new MLS system adopted by the Jackson Association of Realtors. Today I've learned how to implement one of the features I've seen agents from other regions utilize, and I wondered "How'd They Do That?"

Now I know!

For one, they had a quality MLS. Second, the agents spent a little time learning the enhancements, the bells and whistles, if you will.

Want to see what I learned? I knew you would.

I can now prepare a search, for instance, for waterfront homes for sale and paste the code into my website or blog, like I've done here. So whenever a consumer wants to look specifically for waterfront properties, the information will be up to date, as I've selected only active listings to appear in my search criteria.

Awesome!

How about homes located in golf communities? Yep. Done.

Homes in BOTH waterfront and golf communities? I can do that, too.

The really cool part is that as an IDX subscriber, my contact information is highly visible.

I'm so excited about this new feature and I'm sure buyers and sellers will love it, too.

(I should remind everyone as a caveat that the system is new and some data was "misplaced" during the transfer of information. Some homes for sale may inadvertently be omitted from the search due to the MLS conversion. There are bound to be glitches with an undertaking of this size.)

If you are looking for a specific home you think should be listed, but isn't on my search report, contact me and we'll try to figure out the problem.

Isn't this cool? Being able to save and post specific searches onto your website has a lot of possibilities.

What do you think? Can you see the value?

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Pat Starnes, a Realtor since 1988, specializes in Mississippi Residential Real Estate and can assist you with buying or selling in the Jackson MS Metro area.

Search homes for sale in Brandon, Pearl, Flowood, Madison, Ridgeland, Florence, Bryam, or Jackson, MS.

Written and Published by Pat Starnes REALTOR