What's the name of my mortgage broker?

For those of you that are in the business of rehabbing homes and selling them to retail buyers, finding the right members of your team can be almost as important as finding a qualified buyer. Adam, what are you talking about members of your team? What I mean is screening, interviewing, and qualifying your mortgage broker just as much as you would for an interested buyer.

I can tell you from experience that finding a great mortgage broker that will anticpate problems before they happen is ABSOLUTELY invaluable. Also, your mortgage broker should be following up with you daily throughout the closing process. You should know every aspect of the qualifing process so that you are not surprised the day of the closing.

One other tid bit to think about. I have countless stories about loans failing days before closing because my buyer's mortgage broker did not anitipate problems ahead of time. You should direct all buyers to use YOUR mortgage broker and not there own. Sometimes I have paid extra closing cost for a buyer just to incentives the buyer to go with my mortgage broker.

Pick a GREAT mortgage broker and you will solve 90% of your loan processing issues.

For information on how to Buy a Home in Jacksonville, Rent a Home in Jacksonville, Sell a Home in Jacksonville, or Invest in Real Estate in Jacksonville, visit our website at http://www.progresshomebuyers.com/.

Cold Weather Tip...

Tip of all of the rehabbers out there that are like me and think "we live in Florida, it's warm all of the time". When the temperature dips into the 30s-40s at night, you need to think about how that will affect your current rehab project. I can tell you from experience that the number one problem we have is getting dry wall mud to dry. My rehab manager, Alex Sifakis, decided to buy industrial strength space heaters to get the inside of the home up to 80 degrees so that the mud will dry. In some cases, we have seen mud take 4-5x longer to dry than it should in cold weather.

So learn from us, turn the heat on, buy a heater, and get the home warm or you will find your rehab project weeks behind schedule.



For information on how to Buy a Home in Jacksonville, Rent a Home in Jacksonville, Sell a Home in Jacksonville, or Invest in Real Estate in Jacksonville, visit our website at http://www.progresshomebuyers.com/.

Quote of the day...

“Your most valuable asset is the ability to decide for yourself.” – Anonymous

More FHA Changes = More Fun

More news about appraisals... If you buy a home for a deeply discounted price and then put a large amount of money into the house to repair it, you will find yourself having to do TWO separate appraisal's to justify the increase in value. This adds time and cost to the closing process. I recommend ordering both appraisals at the same time to really cut down on the time it takes to close.

Good Luck!




For information on how to Buy a Home in Jacksonville, Rent a Home in Jacksonville, Sell a Home in Jacksonville, or Invest in Real Estate in Jacksonville, visit our website at www.ProgressHomeBuyers.com.

Appraiser's feel the down turn...

You can imagine that less homes being sold each year would affect more than just home owners and sellers. If affects all the industries that support real estate as well. Home inspectors, insurance agents, title agents, and surveyors have all felt the down turn in the market. Appraiser's are the newest victim to the down turn.

It is customary to have an appraisal done before the closing but not have to pay of it until closing. Not anymore! So many homes were under contract and appraised but they would never make it to closing. This cause appraisers to spend their time and money to do all the work valuing homes but they were not getting paid.

Now home owners have to pay up-front for an appraisal. That can be tough on a young family that are getting City Grant Money to help them pay for closing cost.



For information on how to Buy a Home in Jacksonville, Rent a Home in Jacksonville, Sell a Home in Jacksonville, or Invest in Real Estate in Jacksonville, visit our website at www.ProgressHomeBuyers.com.

Rental Homes and Utility Bills...

Here's a tip for anyone looking to rent out a investment property. When you sign a lease, tell the new resident that the utilities will be turned off on the day they are scheduled to move in. It is the residents responsibility to get the utilities switched over into their names.

I can't stress the tip enough. Forget to do this and you almost guarantee yourself the head ache of finding a full month's water and electric bill on YOUR statement and then the dreaded collection call to your resident trying to get reimbursed.

For help on how to Buy a home in Jacksonville, Rent a home in Jacksonville, Sell a home in Jacksonville, or Invest in Real Estate in Jacksonville, visit our website at www.ProgressHomeBuyers.com.

More Free Money to Buy a Home

It doesn't get any better than this... FREE money given out from the State of Florida to help new home buyers pay all of those expensive closing cost and down payment requirements. How much free money you might ask? $10,000 of 0% interest money for a full 15 years. How do I get approved???

• You currently cannot own a home.
• Your household income must fall in the low-moderate income scale range for your city.
• You have to live in the home you are buying.
• You credit score and report must meet FHA guidelines. (ie. 600 mid score, <$4000 in collections, and no judgements)

This money is here only for a limited time. If you are interested in buying a home and having the goverment pay you, click on the link below.

http://design.progresshomebuyers.com/new_lead.php

Rates Dropped

Great news for first-time home buyers looking to buy a home with the Florida Bond Grant money. The rates have just dropped a quarter point to 6.5%. This helps buyers pay less a month on their monthly mortgage payments or it will help buyers get qualified for a slightly higher priced home. Either way, news continues to look better and better for families looking to buy a home.

Happy House Hunting and Go Gators!

New cool website I found

Guys, you know how much I love technology (haha, yeah right), but I just came across a pretty cool website. It allows you to do free conference calls. The website is www.freeconferencecall.com.

Me and Adam are going to use it today to talk to one of our new prospective 10 Year Real Estate Millionaire buyers. It allows for up to 96 people, I think, on the call. And the sound is really clear. Definitely beats two guys huddled around a speakerphone!

Another cool thing it does is records your conference call. In the future, I see us recording our calls and then using them for educational purposes.

Have I ever told you how much I love technology?

By the way, make sure you all check out the new website at www.ProgressHomeBuyers.com. We're still optimizing the site, but we've made some big changes over the past month or so!

H2H Grant Program

Did you know that the City of Jacksonville will pay new home buyers closing cost and down payment for them? This is a really neat program that pays up to $15,000 for low income families to help them purchase beautiful homes. We currently have multiple families approved for this grant money and we are exicted to spread the news to anyone else that we can help. Give me a call if you have any interest. 904-755-7777

New Member of the Team!

I want to congratulate Neal Hemenway for joining the Progress Home Buyer's team. He will be in charge of Public Relations and monitoring the blog post. He will be working with us for entire Spring 2009 semester.