With all of the hot weather lately folks are starting to stay inside where it is nice and air conditioned. With all the extra time you are spending inside these days, why not get started on some home improvements so that you can get your house ready to put on the market! Below are a few ways you can get started on home improvements both inside and out.
A fresh coat of paint inside your home is a great way to improve the way your home looks and get it ready to put on the market. Try to keep a neutral theme if you can when painting because you want others to be able to see themselves living in your home and not the other way around. You will likely be amazed at just how much difference a fresh coat of paint will make to your home.
Panting your front door a color that pops is a great way to get awesome curb appeal. Many folks will love your home simply because it has a red door and it stands out above all the others in the neighborhood. Use a pop of color on your front door to your advantage when trying to sell your home!
Pressure washing your home is a great way to make it shine if your home is vinyl siding. You may have lived in your house so long that you forgot what color your siding actually is until you pressure wash it. This is another way to have great curb appeal when you put your house on the market.
If your house has columns at the front it may be a good time to replace them or at least give them a fresh coat of paint. Over the years columns tend to expand and crack and make the house look older than it actually is. Give your home a facelift by taking care of issues like these before you put it on the market.
Refinishing your hardwoods is another way to make your home look its best. You can do this yourself or you may want to choose to hire someone to do it for you. Either way, refinishing your hardwoods is a great home improvement idea!
Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.
You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently. You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.
Still searching for the ideal holiday gift for your adult child? How about helping your child with their first home purchase? Hopefully your child already has a job lined up so that they can afford to pay for their new home once you have helped them to achieve the goal of home ownership, if not you may want to postpone this plan until they do.
Many kids just out of college have a huge student debt that has accumulated over the last four years but that doesn’t have to stop them from owning their own home. Parents can help their children be able to purchase their own home and to come up with the down payment by gifting the down payment to them. Make sure that you do not loan them the money because that can work against them in the long run, rather give them the down payment as a gift. This type of gift is much better than any house warming gift you could ever give them and it’s the gift that will keep on giving. You will need to write a “gift letter” so that the lender realizes that the money is in fact a gift and not a loan.
If you simply cannot afford to gift the money for the down payment to your child then you can give them a loan but the lender will have guidelines that you must follow. The lender will consider the loan a second mortgage on the house and you may also be prepared to have interest in the loan as well. The interest rate will most likely be the current market rate.
You can apply for a mortgage jointly with your child if you want to help out in that way. You will be considered a non-occupant co-borrower. If however your child fails to pay the mortgage, guess who will be responsible for it? Yes, you. This type of help towards a home purchase should only be done as a last resort.
You may want to choose to let your recent graduate move back home with you until he or she can afford to take on a home mortgage without having to have help from you. By letting them move back in you are allowing them to be able to save money towards a home purchase and that in itself is a huge help in the right direction.
Hopefully this gives you a few ideas on how to help your child afford to purchase a home of their own.
Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.
You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently. You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.
With fixed rate mortgages as low as they are, most purchasers or owners wanting to refinance might not even consider an adjustable rate loan. The determining factor should be how long the person plans to be in the home and which mortgage will provide the cheapest cost of housing.
For instance, if you compare a $300,000, 30 year term mortgage with a 4.125% rate on the fixed and a 3.25% on the 5/1 adjustable, the breakeven point would be almost seven years assuming the rates adjusted the maximum that they could in each year.
Therefore, if a person is going to stay in the house less than 7 years, the ARM would provide the cheapest cost of housing. This example shows that at the end of five years, the ARM would generate almost $13,000 savings over the fixed-rate.
On the other hand, this could be a good time for homeowners with an existing adjustable rate mortgage to consider refinancing into a fixed-rate mortgage. The longer that they intend to stay in their home, the more advantageous it might be for them to convert their mortgage to lock-in their payment and fix their housing costs.
A trusted mortgage professional can analyze the alternatives to provide you with the information necessary to make a good decision. You can try the Adjustable Rate Comparison with your own numbers to see the effect.
Information provided by Orlando Real Estate Expert Teri Isner.
Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.
You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently. You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.
Gatorland® is a one of a kind experience offered in the Orlando area. This is a 110-acre theme park and wildlife preserve. The northern section of Gatorland® is home to “Gator Lake” where the largest reptiles at the park live. You can see the alligators and crocodiles up close and personal from Alligator Island. Then hop on board the Express Railroad which will take you around the Jungle Crocs and the Breeding Marsh/Bird Rookery areas. The train stops at the South end of the park so you can grab a bite to eat at Pearl’s Smokehouse or catch a show at the Alligator Wrestling Stadium. You will also love the Swamp Walk where you can walk at your leisure through the unspoiled native Cypress Swamp. The kids will enjoy Allie’s Barnyard, the Very Merry Aviary and the Gator Gully Splash Park.
Gatorland® is located in South Orlando at the head of the Florida Everglades.
