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Thursday, September 6, 2007
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   Thursday, September 6, 2007

Sell Old Home or Buy New Home First?
Buyers who are "moving up" or "downsizing" often have a dilemma. They can't decide whether to put their home on the market first, or contract to buy their new home first.
If they put their home on the market, it might sell and then they might find it impossible to find what they want. Alternatively, if they find a home they'd love to buy, they realize they could lose out because their old home won't sell quickly enough or the sellers won't wait. What is the best approach?
Alternatives
We've noted so many times that there is seldom a "right" answer. This is another such instance. Looking at some of the alternatives and how they could work for you might make it easier to figure out how to approach getting from where you are to where you want to be.
Home of Choice Clause
Let's say you decide to put your home on the market first because you want to be sure of the amount of money you'll have to work with. You (or your Realtor if you have one) can market it with the provision that settlement is contingent on your finding the home of your choice.
Thirty days is typical for a "home of choice" clause, but I've seen periods of time at lengths as long as sixty, ninety, or even one hundred twenty days. Wording often runs something like, "Settlement hereunder shall be contingent for up to sixty days on Seller's finding and contracting to buy the home of his choice." That can take the pressure off and give you breathing room.
Home Equity Loan
You could apply for a home equity line of credit (often referred to as a HELOC) before you put your home on the market. If you have a significant amount of equity in your home, this can provide you with down payment and closing costs for your new home.
You can then shop for a new home and write a contract contingent on the sale of your old home. If the seller will not accept the contingency, or if you are in competition with a buyer who does not have a "sale of home" requirement, you could choose to remove the contingency.
If you had a non contingent contract to purchase, you'd want to quickly put your old home on the market and get it sold so you wouldn't face the prospect of two mortgages to meet. Still, if part of what you'd borrowed could cover down payment and closing costs, and part could be set aside to meet the old mortgage payments for a few months, it could work with no financial strain.
Borrowing out home equity at the beginning of the process doesn't lock you into anything. It just gives you more options.
A Bridge Loan
Let's explore another possible scenario. Let's say you decide to put your home on the market and get a contract on it before looking for your new home. You (or your Realtor) begin to market it. Your home is getting lots of showings and you're sure you'll get a contract soon.
You decide you'll do some preliminary shopping for your new home "just to see what's out there." You find the "perfect" home and "fall in love" with it before you get a contract. The seller will not accept a contingent contract. Is there any way you can avoid losing out on the purchase of this home?
It isn't cheap, but if you have very good credit and a lot of equity in your home, you can probably get a bridge loan to buy the home you fell in love with. Generally bridge loans have a high rate of interest and are for a period of six months. They can usually be renewed for a second six month period. Typically you can borrow up to eighty percent of the equity in your current house to come up with the down payment you need this way.
As always, there are many choices. We've only mentioned some of them here. You might want to start by meeting with a lender to determine specifically what is possible for you. Maybe you can use the ideas in this article as a starting point for the conversation. Who knows where it will lead? It could be the beginning of developing the perfect strategy for you.
Raynor James is with FSBOAmerica.org - a FSBO homes for sale by owner site. Visit our "Sell My Home" page to list your FSBO Home or visit our home buying page to see fsbo homes for sale.


Home Improvements – The Fun Stuff
Planning home improvements necessarily involves addressing numerous practical matters. That doesn't mean you should ignore the fun stuff!
The Fun Stuff
The first thing to plan for in home improvements is the practical stuff. The second thing you need to talk to family members about is the fun stuff.
Most people have colors they like and colors they don't like. They have things that interest them and things that don't. Get your family to talk to you about those things. Each person's bedroom, or bedroom area, should reflect his or her taste and interests.

A boy who likes green, football, and backpacking can easily have a sage green (it "reads" as more neutral than many shades of green if re-sale of your home is a concern) room with cream woodwork, cream interior shutters, and cream ceiling. Framed football posters and wilderness scenes might be pleasant. Bedding with a rustic motif (rows of stylized pine trees?) from L.L. Bean or Plow and Hearth would work right in. Add a touch or two of a bright color like red or yellow.
Does he need a desk in his room? A chest of drawers? A bookcase? Would he enjoy having a bulletin board? Even if they're small, most rooms need at least three lamps so that illumination is general and even. The shades are usually best in warm, neutral colors. (Light coming through green shades tends to make people look sick.) Lamp shades should be level and the seams should be toward the wall so they're not visible. When the bottom edge of most lamp shades in a room are the same height from the floor, the room tends to look serene and cohesive.
Hanging pictures usually look best if the bottom edges of the frames are the same height from the floor and level with each other, too. There are exceptions to this and every generalization of course. A grouping of pictures can have the bottom tier follow the "rule" while all of the other pictures are higher. A picture over a fireplace often looks good higher than the other pictures in the room.
Pictures usually look best when they have a relationship to furniture or an architectural feature. Pictures centered over a chest, bed, bookcase, or fireplace are good examples. Pictures don't tend to look good if they're scattered willy-nilly around a room, or if they're up near the ceiling (unless they're part of a grouping), or if the height at which they're hung varies wildly with no rhyme nor reason.
A girl who loves pink, the ballet, and swimming can have woodwork the same cream as her brother's while her walls are a soft pink (a pink with a hint of yellow in it tends to go well with cream), and her art work reflects her interests. If she loves to read, make sure she has a good reading lamp near her bed, or near a comfortable chair, or both.
A cream colored dust ruffle with widely spaced pink stripes and a quilted plaid coverlet in pink, green, yellow, and blue on a cream background might look nice. Add cream fabric window shades with large pink polka dots and I'll bet she'll smile.
The bigger point is to simply have fun with some of your home improvements. There is no need to look exclusively at practical matters.
Raynor James is with FSBOAmerica.org - a FSBO homes for sale by owner site. Visit our "Sell My Home" page to list your FSBO Home or visit our home buying page to see fsbo homes for sale.


Property boost expected from Britain's tax rebates for South Africans
The new system will allow any person paying British tax to invest tax-deductible funds of his or her choice into self-invested personal pensions (Sipps). A whole year's income may be invested this way and the money used to buy property or other assets in South Africa. All rent earned from the property will be tax-free. Sipps, which will be implemented in April next year, raised a lot of interest at an event organised by International Property Solutions in Chelsea earlier this month. IPS assists South Africans to invest their savings in property back home, instead of in low-interest bank accounts. South Africans stay in London for an average of about five years, said IPS CE Scott Pickens."The new flexibility of Sipps gives them a way to boost their earnings by making them tax-free and buy SA properties at a large effective discount," he explained to media people who attended the seminar together with about 200 South Africans.An estimated 750 000 South Africans –most of them between 20 an d 30 years old – live in London alone and will stay for an average of about five years. It is expected that the new tax incentive will encourage a large number of them to buy property in South Africa.When they return to South Africa they will have a tax-sheltered offshore trust to which they will be able to contribute until they are 55, if they reach this age after 2010.Tax experts explained that the law is being changed because the British government, like other European governments, is concerned about the increasing pension burden it will be facing as people reach a higher age. The new system will enable more people to be independent when they retire.
For more information on investing in property in South Africa, please visit http://www.evolvepro.co.za