How to Stop Paying PMI Today

If you put less than 20% down on your home purchase, you are paying private mortgage insurance. However, there is a way to get rid of it.
Looking to sell a home in Athens, Georgia? Click here for a Home Price  Evaluation
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I’ve got a tip to share with you today that will potentially save you thousands of dollars on your mortgage payments.

If you’ve bought your house in the last decade but put less than 20% down on it, you’re probably paying private mortgage insurance, or PMI. At this point, you’re probably not even thinking about it, as it is rolled up into your monthly payment. It costs you $100, maybe $150 per month.

However, once you pay down the balance on your mortgage to a 78% loan-to-value ratio or once the value of your home increases enough to cross that threshold, you can eliminate having to pay PMI for the remainder of your loan term.

It’s a smart idea to have your home re-appraised.

How do you do this? Just contact your mortgage lender and ask them to have the home appraised once again to eliminate your PMI. If you bought your home in the last 10 years, especially around 2011 or 2012, it has risen significantly in value. If you’re currently paying PMI, you should look into eliminating it. It will save you thousands of dollars over the loan’s term.

If you have any questions for us or we can do anything for you or anyone you know, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

5 Tips to Prepare Your Home for the Market

Today I have five quick, easy tips that will ensure your home sells successfully.
Looking to sell a home in Athens, Georgia? Click here for a Home Price  Evaluation

Looking to buy a home in Athens, Georgia? Click here to perform a full home search

If you’re thinking about selling your home, I want to give you five quick, easy tips on how to prepare your home for the market.

1. Clean up and clean out. Wipe down your trim, blinds, ceiling fans, etc. Make sure all of your surfaces are spic and span. Also, if a room has too much furniture, move it out before you show the home. When selling, less is more.
2. Improve your curb appeal. Trim your bushes, cut your grass, paint your shutters, and put out fresh mulch or pine straw. A buyer’s first impression is of the outside of your home, so take the time to make it look neat and well taken care of.
3. Get professional photos taken. Buyers will see various qualities of photos when searching for homes online. Professional photos make a home stand out online and are more likely to convince a buyer to see your home in person.
If a buyer can’t get in to see your home, they’ll just move on to the next.
4. Be willing to accommodate showings. Your home needs to be show-ready at all times, and if a buyer calls, you need to let them see it when they request to. The market is very active right now, so if a buyer can’t get in to see your home, they’ll just move on to the next.
5. Price your home properly. Don’t price it too low or too high. Find a good agent, do your research, and make sure you know what the market is doing. Prices are rising rapidly in our area, so you need to make sure you get a professional opinion on what the value of your home is in the current market. This will keep you from selling yourself short and from pricing yourself out of the market.

If you or anyone you know is looking to buy or sell a home or you have any other real estate questions, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

What Happens If the Appraisal Comes in Low?

If for whatever reason a home doesn’t appraise, here are each side’s options in how to proceed.
Looking to sell a home in Athens, Georgia? Click here for a Home Price  Evaluation

Looking to buy a home in Athens, Georgia? Click here to perform a full home search

What happens when a home doesn’t appraise?  
Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, the first order of business is to make sure the appraisal was done correctly. Our local appraisers do a good job, but occasionally we’ll get an out-of-town appraiser who doesn’t know the market or just does a bad job. However, if it’s determined that the appraisal was legitimate, what are each side’s options?

If you’re a homebuyer, as long as you’re still in your appraisal contingency, you have three options:

1. Ask the seller to adjust the price down to the appraised value. If they agree to that, we adjust the price and you buy the house for less than what you thought you were going to.
2. Terminate the contract if the seller doesn’t agree to lower the price.
3. Bring additional cash to closing and purchase the house at a higher price. The lender will only loan on the appraised value or the purchase price—whichever is less. Say you’re under contract for $210,000 and the appraisal comes back at $205,000. On top of your down payment, you’d also have to bring in an additional $5,000 to bridge that gap between $205,000 and $210,000 because your loan will be based off $205,000.

Whether you’re the buyer or the seller, everything is open to negotiation.

If you’re a seller and the buyer is still in their appraisal contingency, you also have three options, but they’re the inverse of what the buyer is facing:

1. Reduce the purchase price down to the appraised price.
2. Refuse to lower the purchase price, in which case the buyer has the option to either walk away or pay extra.
3. Negotiate between the appraised price and the purchase price and end up somewhere in the middle. Remember—everything is open to negotiation.

We work with good, local appraisers and lenders, so most of the time this situation doesn’t happen. If we do have a problem, though, we know how to work through it and resolve the situation for both parties.
If you have any questions about this topic or there is anything I can do for you whether you’re a buyer or a seller, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to speak with you.