A friend of mine recently applied for a home loan modification, and ultimately was denied for having too much equity in her home... but that's another story. What I want to share is this. She always paid her taxes and homeowner's insurance herself. After she was denied the modification, she decided to refinance the house at a lower interest rate. After spending what seemed like forever on paperwork for the bank, she was approved and on her was to closing. Here's the interesting part, apparently, since she applied for a home loan modification, it somehow kicked in that her mortgage company paid her taxes for December. She also, not being aware of this, paid her taxes for December. So, when she went to get her closing dollar amount, it was nearly $4,000 more than what she anticipated. The bank had no good explanation except to say because she applied for the home modification, half of her taxes were paid by the bank and now she had a negative escrow and it had to be paid off at closing.
I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but it was a very unpleasant surprise being she had applied for the modification because she fell upon a hardship. Just a heads up.
My son, Logan just turned five years old as many of you know. And he is a lovely polite boy, very well mannered (if I do say so myself). And one thing he loves is psghetti. He insists on twirling the fork into the spoon to get a nice sized ball of psghetti. The only thing is, well, it's a little messy. He's an adorable boy under all that sauce.
I apologize in advance to all photographers for posting a picture that is far less superior than it could have been. I took this photo through the glass and screen of my bedroom window, rather than opening them to get a clean shot. But, have some compassion for me, it's 29-degrees outside! :)
I was just reading the online REALTOR® Mag which states that sellers have a better chance of selling their houses by using a REALTOR®. HomeGain.com did a survey of 1,000 homeowners; nearly 60% were successful selling their home with a REALTOR® as compared to the 39% that were FSBO's. The survey found that 83% of the surveyed used a REALTOR® while 17% tried to sell it on their own. According to NAR's 2010 Profile of Buyers and Sellers, 88% of buyers were assisted by a real estate agent.
“It is especially striking that home owners fare significantly better in selling their homes using a REALTOR® than selling on their own,” says Louis Cammarosano, general manager at 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.”
I have also heard, but can't remember the source, that sellers make on the average of 33% more money when using an agent or REALTOR®.
Inherent in these statistics is that one is more likely to sell there home using a REALTOR® and will likely make more money when the transaction is completed.
Today is my son's fifth birthday. He hasn't stood still long enough for me to take a picture of him. But I'll share a cute one, or two of him before he suddenly became King of the Castle, LOL. He thinks he rules the roost today... and I suppose we'll let him. Just for today. He's so easily pleased with just a few activities and presents. I love that about him.
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