Bryan, TX

Although there are many terrific move-in ready homes on the resale market in Bryan / College Station, there are some that might be better classified as fixer-uppers. These homes can be a great purchase, particularly if you are comfortable living with some moderate construction for a few months.

The obstacle most people come across when considering buying a fixer-upper is how will they be able to both finance the purchase price and the cost of repairs. Will a lender finance a home that may or may not be habitable?

The purchase of a fixer-upper house that needs repairs is often a catch-22 situation. The bank won't lend you the money to buy the house until the repairs are done and you can't borrow the money to make the repairs until the house has been purchased.

So now what?

Well the FHA 203k renovation loan program will provide the necessary funds for both the purchase price and the renovation costs, all nicely rolled into one mortgage loan. Once the purchase of the home has been funded and closed then the renovation funds are held in escrow to pay for the pre-determined and qualified repairs.

So what exactly is a FHA 203k Renovation Loan Program?

• Only 3 ½% down payment is required and this can be gifted by family members.

• More flexible qualification requirements mean that those with less than perfect credit can qualify to purchase a home at competitive rates.

• A single loan for both the purchase of the home and the repair and improvement costs mean only one loan application, one mortgage payment and one set of closing fees, which saves you time and money.

• FHA loans can be assumed by another qualified buyer and there are no prepayment penalties.

• An FHA Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) can qualify you for a larger mortgage so that you can add additional improvements that will result in lower utility expenses.

• Rather than paying a premium price for a move-in ready home you can take advantage of foreclosed properties and homes that are in less than perfect condition which can often result in a substantial increase in equity once the repairs have been completed.

So the next time you are out driving around looking at properties and you come across one that needs a little TLC, you might want to take a closer look at it. There are many bargains out there for the taking and with a planning and perserverance you could find yourself owning your dream home at much less than the cost of buying new.

Bryan / College Station, TX truly is in a real estate and economic bubble.

RealtyTrac® released its Year-End 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report this week listing the top 203 metro areas and their foreclosure rates for 2009.

Bryan / College Station, TX ranked 197 with only 167 or 0.19% of total housing units receiving at least one of the 3 phases of foreclosure, not all of these properties went as far as bank repossession. That equates to 1 in every 519 Bryan / College Station homes.

In comparison, Las Vegas, NV and Cape Coral, FL were listed as having 1 in every 8 homes at some stage of the foreclosure process. To put that number in perspective, that would be at least one home on every street in Brazos County being in some stage of foreclosure.

Of the 167 Bryan / College Station homes that received a notice of default, RealtyTrac® reports a much lower figure for homes that reached the final phase of foreclosure, with College Station, TX having 3 properties that were bank repossessed and Bryan, TX having 9 homes bank repossessed in 2009. Brazos County, TX, Real Estate Trends

With a record 2.8 million homes threatened with foreclosure last year, up 21% from 2008 and a whopping 120% when compared to 2007, this equates to about 1 in every 45 American households receiving some form of foreclosure notice, ranging from default notices to bank repossession.

Bryan / College Station truly is protected from the national real estate and economic crises. For more detailed 2009 sales numbers check out my previous post Bryan / College Station 2009 Real Estate Roundup.....

That's right Poop... is big business! Entire cities don't exist unless they have modern sewage treatment facilities and if they expect to continue to grow they must plan for the future of poop!

Municipalities depend on adequate and hopefully superior modern sewage treatment systems in order to process the sewage that homeowners and businesses generate.

The City of Bryan, Texas has plans to construct a new processing facility, The Thompson Creek plant, located near the Brazos River. It will serve the far west side of Bryan. Indications are it will be operational in about 2 years. The unique part of this plan is that the city is planning to sell the clean water it dumps into the river to someone downstream.

Yep..... Poop is big business!

I can write letters, I can write blog posts, I can write my name at the bottom of a check, I can even write a fairytale story about leprechauns and elves but for some reason I cannot and I mean absolutely cannot write anything for our website static pages.

Everytime I sit down to get this done my mind draws a blank. On the rare occasion that I actually get something on paper, I end up developing a really close relationship with the delete button. What is it that makes this really important task so difficult?

Maybe it's the fact that these few short paragraphs will be representing everything about us. These simple words that join together to form sentences are what the world will see when they click on our website.

Where do I start? There are just so many things about us that I want everyone to know, that trying to get all these elements into a short cohesive statement is proving impossible.

I'm in need of a website script writer. Someone who can make all these misplaced words flow together to form paragraphs that truly represent who we are and what we're about. Paragraphs that will attract a reader and make them what to know more about us. Sentences that don't make us sound like we're boasting or arrogant but lets the reader know that we are proud of whom we are and we have valuable services that the reader may need.

If you think you can fit the bill and you have some samples of your work then please let me know so that maybe this daunting task can be completed and I can go back to writing blog posts without the guilt.