Some Highlights:

• Many buyers who are searching for their dream homes are turning to new home construction after 10% of all new home buyers sighted a lack of inventory of existing homes as their reason for purchase.
• The median home price decreased slightly from September’s high of $314,100 to $304,500 in October.
• The West saw the largest month over month jump in sales at 28.7%.

by The KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

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.

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Are you an unmarried couple hoping to buy a home together? In today’s culture, more unmarried couples are purchasing their first homes together. Mark Sheets, real estate author and blogger, offers some good advice about potential pitfalls to research before you buy.

Financially, ownership of your home can be very advantageous. However, it can be more difficult to end a co-ownership than it is to get a divorce. So, you need to prepare in advance. You want to make sure the process gives both of you the outcome that you expect.

When making the decision to purchase a home with your significant other, you and partner must know that a property agreement is a legal contract. One of the more important aspects of purchasing a home together is determining how the investment will be split. In many cases, one partner may initially invest more money into the home than the other.  Unequal ownership can be handled, but it has its own set of problems.

Another issue to confront in the process is filing for a Joint Tenancy With Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS).  A JTWROS allows for the home and assets to be passed to the surviving partner if the other were to pass away. This lets the partner avoid inheritance taxes, as the home won’t go through an estate.  Married couples are automatically granted JTWROS whereas unmarried couples are not.

If the relationship were to end, a dividing of the assets needs to take place.  Although everyone in a relationship hopes for the best, preparing for the worst-case scenario will alleviate a lot of pain in the future. The goal is to anticipate different scenarios under which you may want to dissolve the co-ownership.

When the time comes to apply for a mortgage, the lender needs to run both of your credit scores.  This can backfire if one of you has a great credit score and one has a not-so-good score.  If this is the case, then you may not get the loan. Investigate ahead of time to know where you stand. You will also want to check your individual state’s laws regarding an unmarried couple purchasing a home together, as some states don’t allow it.

An option to co-ownership might be for you to form a business partnership or a limited liability company to own the property. They are both legal business entities that can take on many forms. The business would then own the property and collect rent from the individuals living in the home. This eliminates any issues with state laws that prohibit co-ownership of unmarried couples. It potentially also makes transfer of ownership easier at a later date.

In any case, you must first consult a real estate attorney in your state to determine the pros and cons and to determine the best legal form of ownership to accomplish your goals.

Information provided by Orlando Realtor Teri Isner.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

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.

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If you’re considering buying an Orlando FL home here are some key questions to ask before you commit…

Why are you buying a home? Simon Sinek is the author of a book called Start With Why. It’s a business book, but is very applicable to life’s decisions. Sinek says that you must know why you’re doing something before you start figuring out how to do it. His advice surely applies to buying a home!

According to a survey by the Joint Center of Housing Studies at Harvard University, the top four reasons for buying a home have nothing to do with money. Typical reasons given were…

• I want to have control over my living spaces
• I want my children to go to good schools
• We need more space for our growing family
• We want to have influence over our neighborhood

There is no right or wrong reason for you to want to buy a home. It’s personal. The decision to buy also tends to be more emotional than financial. Make sure you know what your personal reasons for buying are, and use them to guide your decisions. You can’t avoid the financial issues, but that’s not the place to start.

Where are home values headed? According to the last quarterly survey by Pulsenomics.com the average predictions of over 100 economists said national home vales would rise 4.28% in 2014. That is a national average. So, ask your favorite Realtor what they think concerning future values of homes for sale in Orlando FL.

Buying a home is not an investment in the real sense of that word. A home should be seen as a hedge against inflation. Therefore, you want to feel secure the home values are likely to grow more than the inflation rate. The NAR has predicted home values will increase 6% in 2014. That’s higher than Pulsenomics’ survey predicted. It is also higher than inflation is expected to be.

Where are interest rates headed? NAR predicted interest rates could hit 5.4%, or 1% higher than the end of 2013. That news should be saying to buyers there is no point waiting to buy. Don’t sit around hoping that mortgage interest rates will drop. Keep up with interest rates here.

That all says it’s probably a good time to buy. So, know your credit score and arrange your finances to make sure you qualify for a loan.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home shopping website.

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.

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