Wow! My Payment is Only $940 . . . . Or Is It? You decide that you want to buy a house and you start looking on line just out of curiosity. Of course, you go that site which so many buyers unwittingly go which will completely mislead you. You see a house which is similar to one that you are renting where you are paying a rent of $1700 per month. On this site, it shows that your monthly mortgage payment would be $940.  Wow! Why am I renting?! Would your payment be only $940? This payment is calculated with you putting 20% down on the house.  You might put this much down, but many buyers, especially first time buyers do not have that much money available and are likely to put no more than 5% down.  This means the payment would be higher. This payment of $940 only shows principle and inter... 04/18/2017

The Order of Things: Real Estate Agent, Lender, Home Search What does this mean? It means that there are certain people with whom you should speak before you speak with other people and that there are certain things that you should do before other things when you are planning to purchase a home. The home search is not the first step.  It is critical that consult with a lender before you start to search for a home.  The lender will tell you how much you can afford and how much money you will need to bring to the table.  It makes no sense to look at homes when you do not know if you can afford them.  You should determine what you can afford and then look at what you can afford. But, you should not just run out to any lender or even to the one that seems to offer the lowest rate.  It is im... 04/18/2017

Your Job Matters, So Do It In a real estate transaction, there are many people who have a job to make the transaction successful. Just as a start, here are a few of the jobs, which are potentially involved in the transaction:  Listing Agent Buyer's Agent Loan Officer Loan Processor Loan Underwriter Home Inspector Pest Inspector Well and Septic Inspectors Appraiser Insurance Agent Title Abstracter Property Lien Reviewer Title Attorney Short Sale Negotiator HOA/Condo Document Preparer and others.  Some of these people may get paid regardless of what happens, but most of these individuals do not get paid if the transaction does not take place. In other words, whether you get paid minimum wage or you are making $150,000 per year, the actions that you take or do not take and the speed at whi... 04/09/2017

A Fireplace in The Attic It, generally, is just a run of the mill town house. It has a finished lower level.  The main level has a living room with an adjacent half bath, and a kitchen with an adjacent dining area. The upper level has three bedrooms and two full baths. The master bedroom has its own full bath. The next part, although some townhouses have it, is more rare.  In the master bedroom, the ceiling is raised, basically into the area where the attic would be and another set of steps leads to a loft which overlooks the master bedroom. The loft by itself is a nice feature as it provides a quiet hideaway from the rest of the house. In this particular loft it, also, has a wood burning fireplace, which just upon observation gives it a warm and cozy feel. However, this fireplace is ri... 03/31/2017

Enhanced Title Insurance? What's wrong with Standard Title Insurance?  Why should I get Enhanced Title Insurance? When you buy a real estate property, the title company will bring up the topic of title insurance. If you are buying the property with a loan, then the lender will require that you get title insurance to protect their interest, which is the loan, in the deal. Whether or not you buy the property with a loan, the title company will ask if you want to purchase title insurance for yourself. This is different than when you buy a lawn mower and are asked if you want to purchase insurance for the mower.  For the mower, you will be thinking: isn't it new, doesn't it have a manufacturer's warranty, isn't there an implied warranty, what kind of junk are you selling? With title insuran... 03/30/2017

Save Thousands of Dollars by Not Paying a Commission? This is the line that some investors use. They will approach you about buying your house with cash, in as is condition, and with no commissions or fees. They usually take it a step further by suggesting that a commission would be 7% of the purchase price. But, they do not stop there.  If a house were worth $300,000, then they would ask you to lower the price of the house to $279,000, or by 7%, because you would not need to pay a commission to an agent. What?  I thought that I would be saving thousands because I would not have to pay a commission.  You are asking me to give the money that I would have given to a real estate agent to you instead.  So how is it that I save thousands? Also, the average commission is closer to 5% not 7%. ... 03/20/2017

Is zillow a good place to find the value of a real estate property? Zillow provides an estimate of a home’s value, which they call a zestimate.They state that this is a starting point for determining a home’s value (not an end point).It is based on a proprietary formula which uses, as its input, both public and user-supplied data.The less data that is available to input into the formula, then the less accurate the result will be.For Baltimore County, zillow claims the following about their estimate:      52.9% of the time, it is within 5% of the sales price.      72.9% of the time, it is within 10% of the sales price.      87.2% of the time, it is within 20% of the sales price. Their results for Baltimore County are some of their closest results to the actual value.It is possible to pot... 03/15/2017

Baltimore Real Estate Market: Prices Go Up; Inventory Goes Down The active inventory of homes is at its lowest level in over 10 years.  For 18 consecutive months, there has been a decline in the year-over-year inventory levels. The median sales price has increased every year since 2011. The median sales price of $230,000 for February 2017 is up 2.2% from February 2016 and is at its highest February level since 2009. A shrinking inventory, supply of available homes on the market, considered in isolation, should create an upward pressure on prices just as has been seen over the last few years. Other factors to consider are mortgage interest rates, inflation, and wages. Mortgage interest rates have been at historically low rates for several years now, but they have started to slowly move u... 03/11/2017

Perry Hall High Ranking According to US News & World Report, which evaluates and ranks public high schools around the nation on a yearly basis, Perry Hall High, for 2016, ranks as follows: --- Number 9 out of 29 (top 31.0%) high schools in Baltimore County;--- Number 65 out of 244 (top 26.2%) high schools in Maryland; and--- Number 2575 out of 21,000 plus (top 12.3% or better) high schools nationwide.--- There are over 26,000 public high schools in the United States.--- Some schools were not included in the rankings, if their graduation rates were below 68%.--- When considering these schools, it would put Perry Hall High in the top 9.9% or better nationwide. Some factors which were considered in their evaluation included: --- Student graduation rates;--- Reading and math proficiency for... 02/27/2017

Baltimore County Public Schools in Perry Hall The following are statistics, which are taken directly from the Baltimore County Public Schools web site, for the school year 2016 to 2017.This data is related to size and capacity.  It does not include performance data.  Is this data, by itself, sufficient to determine if the schools are acceptable?If the performance of the students is good, then does that indicate that these numbers are acceptable?Should changes be made, based on this information, regardless of student performance? Perry Hall ElementarySchool Capacity: 528Total Enrollment: 746 Average Class Size: 21.9 – 24.9 (I don’t know why an average has a range.) Classrooms: 30Re-locatable: 9 (I take this to mean trailers.) (Parents hate them; students love them.) Teachers: 48 Computer... 02/27/2017

Ramble Brook and Ramblebrook II in Perry Hall, Maryland This is a development of nearly a hundred homes located on the northeast side of Baltimore County in the community of Perry Hall, or if you prefer, Nottingham, since it is in the zip code of 21236. The homes in this neighborhood were built in two phases, with the Ramble Brook portion being built in the years from 1968 to 1973, and the Ramblebrook II portion being built from 1973 to 1978. The homes in Ramble Brook are situated more to the southwest of the community and are located on Joppa Road, Ramblebrook Road, Soth Avenue, and Camellia Road. The homes in Ramblebrook II are situated more to the northeast of the community and are located on Gardenia Road, Lobelia Road, and Cornflower Road. The homes should not be confused with the ... 02/26/2017

Baltimore County Real Estate Values In a recent post, I showed that the value of real estate in Maryland and in most of its counties had appreciated when comparing January 2016 to January 2017. However, some may be concerned that Baltimore County was one of only 4 counties that had negative appreciation. To give this some additional perspective, I offer the following: Keep in mind that this is just a comparison of one month and not an entire year, so it is more susceptible to statistical anomalies. Although in each year the sales are around 600 units, in 2016, there was a higher than normal number of high end homes, which sold in the 1 to 3 million dollars range, which could have skewed the average sales price higher than normal. However, there are other long term factors, which could l... 02/11/2017

The Heathermill Community of Nottingham In a tucked away neighborhood of Nottingham, Maryland there is a small community of about 65 single family detached homes located in the subdivision of Heathermill. The homes are of a modern colonial architecture, but many with color schemes that almost make it feel like Colonial Williamsburg. At the time that the homes were constructed, in the mid 1980s, the builder wanted to put up detached homes, but the zoning was for townhouses.  As a compromise, to meet the zoning requirement, and, to meet the builder’s desires, the homes were constructed as detached homes, but with a “connector”, which is not seen anywhere else in Nottingham and which allows for them, technically, to be considered townhouses. Shown below is the recent real estate activity f... 01/08/2017

SELL THAT HOUSE: APPEARANCE IS EVERYTHING Salability is directly related to appearance.If you want to buy a car, but it has a dented door, then you will probably pass on the car rather than pay $2000 for a new door, even if the seller discounts the price by $2,000.   So a car that would be worth $20,000 suddenly becomes worth nothing if it has a defect.Worth NothingLikewise with a house, if it were worth $300,000 in good condition, it may suddenly be worth nothing if it needed carpet and paint that may only cost $10,000.Allowance is Not EnoughYou could suggest an allowance, but typically that is not enough.  The Buyers decision has already been "emotionally" made.On the surface, this makes no sense, but in practice, believe me, this is what happens.  A home that only needs carpet and pa... 01/06/2017

Perry Hall, Maryland Real Estate Activity  This is real estate sales activity for just a few of the many neighborhoods that make up the very desirable area in North East Baltimore County of Perry HallShown below is the recent real estate activity for Tartan Hill, Lawrence Hill, and Stable Gate. It does not include new home sales, townhouses, or homes built prior to 1980.  It shows homes which are actively on the market, which are under contract, and which have sold since 1-1-2016.  Average Purchase Price: $259,238  Highest Purchase Price: $299,900  Lowest Purchase Price: $220,000  Average Closing Help: $4,238  Average Days on Market: 75  The price for any given home will vary based upon factors such as: livable square footage, number of bathrooms, finished basement or not, garage or not... 01/02/2017

A Potential Concern with Appraisals If only one property is used for comparison, such as a short sale, then the comparable price would tend to be lower. If only one property is used for comparison, such as a standard sale where the price was raised for closing help or where the buyers just had to have the house because it was next door to mom, then the comparable price would tend to be higher. Obviously, the above two statements show the need to compare to more than one house. A question arises as to how many houses should be used for comparison. An appraiser typically uses 3 to 5 properties for comparison. However, if more properties are used for comparison, then it is more likely to take out any statistical anomalies. For a given property there may be 18 reasonably comparable properti... 12/18/2016

It's Not the Appraiser's Fault A buyer and a seller agree to a price on a property, sign the contract, and, then the appraiser comes back with a report with a value that is lower than the contract price. Was the seller asking too much for the property, which most sellers do? Did the real estate agent prepare a comparative market analysis to show the seller what a reasonable price would be?   Did the real estate agent take the listing even though the seller wanted to list well above market value? Did the buyer's agent prepare a comparative market analysis to show the buyer what a reasonable price would be? Did the buyer, or the seller, even have an agent representing them? Knowing that a borrower can default on a loan, is it likely that a lender would want to give a loan for more than a ... 12/14/2016

SELL THAT HOUSE: SET UP FINANCING Many people start to search for a home to buy before they review their finances.  It sounds a bit odd when you consider that buying a house may be the biggest investment that one makes in a lifetime. Some of these shoppers will state that they will seek financing once they find a home that they like.  They figure that if a lender pulls their credit that it will reduce their credit score and if they do not find a house right away, then a lender will pull their credit again which will reduce it even further.  Also, the price  of homes may be going up or down and interest rates may be going up or down, which would make it difficult to determine just what they really could afford at any given time in the future. These excuses miss the point.  Reviewing one'... 11/29/2016

I Service Maryland's Real Estate Needs; Give Me a Call   What do the areas listed below have in common?  They are all areas, in Maryland, with fully satisfied real estate clients of Ron Trzcinski. If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Maryland, then call Maryland's Real Estate Agent, Ron Trzcinski, to help you. Washington County, Frederick County, Montgomery County, Howard County, Carroll County, Harford County, Cecil County, Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Prince George's County, Dorchester County, Worcester County. I make it a point to stay on top of real estate happenings around the state so that all you have to do is select the right home for you.  Give me a call on my direct line and let's see how I can help you with your real estate needs.   From star... 11/29/2016

Century 21 is Doing Okay There are reasons for why buyers and sellers of real estate choose the real estate companies that they do. In the case of those who have chosen Century 21, it is a good chance that it is because of the overall satisfaction that they know they will enjoy in several facets of the real estate transaction. J. D. Powers is an organization which ranks customer satisfaction in several industries.  In the real estate industry, J. D. Powers considers the following elements of the real estate experience:   Satisfying clients in the first time buyer and seller markets. Satisfying clients in the repeat buyer and seller markets. Keeping buyers and sellers informed throughout the selling or buying experience, especially first time buyers and sellers. Providing sellers with a ... 11/09/2016