Southern Maryland Real Estate~ Jonathan Benya

Maryland homeowners who are underwater, as well as those who have been foreclosed on, are about to see a big pay day. MD Attorney General Doug Gansler has announced this morning that anyone in the state of MD that has been foreclosed on by one of the 5 big banks is now eligible for a restitution payment of $1,800-$2,000.

The 5 banks involved in the settlement are:

• Bank of America
• JPMorgan Chase
• Wells Fargo
• Citibank
• Ally Financial Inc.

These banks were specifically targeted for deceptive mortgage lending practices during the housing boom. In addition, those who currently have mortgages with these banks and are underwater may have the option to refinance their homes at the value of their home now, and thereby pay a dramatically lower interest rate in future payments.

The banks goal is to have all of this completed within one year, and the banks will be contacting the home owners to inform them that they are eligible for the program. The Attorney General's office will also be following up with phone calls to affected home owners to inform them of their eligibility.

If you think you may be eligible for this settlement, contact your lender now! There's a limited pool of money here, so the clock is ticking. If you're at risk of foreclosure and want to save your home, this may be your opportunity to do it!

I've been planning to build a detached garage for some time now. It was on my list of things I wanted when I bought a house last year, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. I know own a beautiful house, but I have no garage.

The lack of a garage is a pretty serious issue, for me at least. Not having one is simply not a long term option as far as I'm concerned. With that being said, I'm now in the process of getting permits pulled to build one(I'm less than thrilled, but what can you do?). With the upcoming construction of my new garage, I will be committing one of the cardinal sins of home ownership: DON'T OVER-IMPROVE YOUR HOME!

Make no mistake, a detached garage can be a beautiful thing. I love a good man-cave as much as the next guy, but on a dollar-for-dollar re-sale basis, my future automotive showroom is going to make me bleed red ink.

Odds are good that my garage project will cost in the neighborhood of $30,000. From a resale perspective, it's probably only worth an additional 5%-8% of value for my home, which would add $10,000-$16,000. It's safe to assume that I will end up losing half of the money I put into the project when it comes to selling the home.

The issue is not with the quality of construction or size, but rather it's a limited benefit to my home's future owner. I have a need for the space. Where else could I store an antique car safely with it's own security system?

Most people don't care for that sort of thing, so if you're like me and in need of a private, detached space for your vehicles, knock your socks off, but don't expect a dollar-for-dollar return when it's time to sell your home. (photo courtesy of EPA Smart Growth via Flickr CC)

It's time to get excited, Charles County! The AMC Loews Movie Theatre in St. Charles Towne Centre is getting a much needed makeover! AMC plans to spend $4.5 Million to finally make this theater decent again.

I've hated going there the past few years, i fact I can't even recall the last time I actually sat through a movie in the old theater. The changes include a complete redesign of the lobby, concessions, bathrooms, and theaters. It's all scheduled to be completed sometime this summer, and plans include power leather reclining seats, Sony digital projectors and even perhaps an I-MAX! Anyone who lives in the Waldorf area should be thrilled with the upcoming changes, I know I am!

I remember when the theater was built, and attending movies every month during my high school years, but it's difficult to justify the ticket prices in recent years when other theaters in the DMV region are offering newer, cleaner theaters with reclining stadium seats and digital video quality. Honestly, it's a pain in the you-know-what to drive 30 miles to another theater just for better amenities, but lots of people do it.

It's a huge relief to see that AMC has finally recognized the problem and they're willing to spend millions of dollars to fix it!

Getting a bad appraisal hurts. When an appraisal comes in below the agreed sales price, it can throw an entire contract right out the window. It doesn't necessarily have to happen that way, but it is a distinct possibility. First, let's look at the "WHY" when it comes to an appraisal. A low appraisal means one of two things:

1. Your house isn't worth the contract price due to other recent sales in your area that were lower than yours.
2. The appraiser made a mistake.

You can always request a review of the appraisal if you think the appraiser made a mistake, but you (or your agent) are going to need to back that claim up with proof, i.e. other recent sales that the appraiser may have missed or omitted and the reason why you think there was an error. Hopefully the appraiser can justify changing the appraised value and the sale can continue on as normal. If not, then there are still options:

1. The seller can agree with the buyer to lower the sales price to the appraised value
2. The seller can ask the buyer to pay the difference, but understand they cannot finance that overage and would need to pay the difference in cash
3. The seller and the buyer can release the contract, and try and sell the house to someone else.

None of these options are ideal, unfortunately. If you lower the sales price, that means the seller is going to make less money from the transaction, possibly thousands less. If you ask the buyer to pay the difference, they are not obligated to say yes, and they may choose to walk away from the contract and find another home. If you do end up releasing the contract, the seller may run into another problem with the appraisal. Some types of appraisals are actually attached to your house, possibly for as long as 6 months! If the seller tries to sell it to someone else, their appraiser may be able to see the old appraisal, preventing them from writing one which is higher (and more favorable to the seller). This could make all of the seller's work trying to sell the house to someone else a worthless endeavor, so make sure you check that before cutting a contract loose.

Are Florida rooms really that bad?

A Realtor in Arizona, Elizabeth Newlin, recently wrote a howling criticism of Florida rooms called "A Bitch Slap Regarding Arizona Rooms", and I feel compelled to write a rebuttal to her commentary, because it's obvious that she just doesn't "get it".

It's probably not her fault; after all she calls these sunny, enclosed spaces "Arizona Rooms", as if Arizona was the place that invented such spaces. Unfortunately, they're an east coast creation, and her literary barbs are slightly mis-directed.

Out in Maryland we know of these home spaces as "Florida Rooms", and rightfully so. I would imagine that the Arizona heat has probably cooked Elizabeth's brain a bit too long, or she has never experienced they joy of living in a swampy, wet region of the country. Florida rooms are an essential part of a luxury home, and quite often the only barrier between homeowner and insect during the warm summer months.

Do they not have mosquitoes in Arizona? If not, I would be more than happy to have the local population shipped to her, free of charge, so that she can enjoy the constant, putrid summer scent of bug repellant on her skin, citronella candles burning on the porch, and the incessant crackling of the bug zapper struggling to keep up with the incoming horde.

Without a Florida room, the summertime experience in Washington wouldn't be complete without Benadryl on hand to reduce the swelling from the dozens of bug bites you are sure to incur, but there's more to it than just that. I've heard that Arizona isn't exactly familiar with what 2 feet of snow looks like. No worries, we can correct that too. We'd be more than happy to trade winters with Arizona and watch them struggle to dig themselves out of the next blizzard! In the wintertime a Florida rooms acts as the perfect location to place a hot tub. Nobody like to trudge through the snow in a bathing suit to jump in, and without a Florida room, that's exactly what us in Suburban D.C. would be forced to do. Being that we're not exactly fans of Pneumonia ~OR~ Hypothermia, we like to keep our hot tubs in an enclosed space.

Arizona wouldn't know anything about that though. The weather out there has spoiled them, and just because a Florida room is wasted space in THEIR state, it's a welcome addition in OURS. You see, we get rainfall more than a dozen times a year, we see blizzards in the winter, and yes, we might have a slight insect control problem, but our Florida rooms are the salvation from all of that. Just don't ask someone from Arizona, they wouldn't understand.