What If You Can't Put Any Money Down?

If you want to buy a home without putting any money down, you might have to get creative with your financing options. These are some of the options you can choose from.

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Are there options to buy a home with 100% financing? Are there funding opportunities for these properties and rehab costs?

If you're considering buying a house as your primary residence to live in, there are definitely options to get 100% financing or very close to it. If you're thinking about buying a house to flip or own as an investment property, it's more difficult to get 100% financing. It's possible, but not easy.

A hard money lender may loan you up to 65% or 75% of a home's value after repair. This means you'd need to buy the home for significantly less than what it's worth, then, have an appraisal done to show the hard money lender that it's really worth more than what you paid. 

There are plenty of options for 100% home financing.

For example, if the value of a house is $100,000 after repair but needs $25,000 worth of rehab, and the hard money lender is loaning you $65,000, you would have to be able to buy that house for $40,000. As you can see, it's tough to buy a house at a priced that low with no money down. Additionally, hard money loans are much more expensive in terms of interest rate and fees.

If you have 20% to put down on a home, a lot of local banks will fund the purchase and the rehab cost since that 20% is a significant amount of skin in the game for you.

Finally, there is the option of finding a partner. If you can find a partner to provide the cash on the condition that you do the legwork, it could be a win-win.

Hopefully, that clears things up for you about 100% financing options for buying a home and some alternatives to it. If you have any questions about this topic or about Athens real estate in general, give us a call or send us an email. We're here to help!

What Are Tenants' Rights?

What does it mean when you see a house listed for sale with tenants' rights? If the home changes ownership, the lease must be honored.

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We always love answering your questions, so this week, I wanted to address a question from a viewer who asked about homes that are advertised with tenants' rights. They wanted to know what specifically the landlord owes the tenant and what the obligation is for the buyer.

So what does this mean? If you're looking online, you'll often see listings with tenants' rights. When you see this, it means there is a tenant renting the house. Most of the time it's under a lease, but occasionally it may be on a month-to-month term without an actual lease. Regardless, it means that there is a tenant currently in the home.

When you buy a house that has a tenant, the lease stays with the house.

If you buy a house that has a tenant, the lease stays with the house. If their lease runs until December and you buy the home in September, you assume that lease. In this case, the tenant would start making their payments to you through the end of December. If you're buying as an investor, it's a great thing because you're buying a house that is already providing income. If you're buying the house with the intention to move into it, however, you have to wait until after December when the tenants' lease ends unless you're able to work out a mutual agreement for them to terminate their lease or leave early.

Simply put, tenants' rights mean that you have to abide by the terms of the current lease when you buy a tenant-occupied home. If the tenant is on a month-to-month basis, Georgia law says that the landlord must give the tenant 60 days notice to vacate.

This is really important information to keep in mind if you're buying an investment property or you're just buying a house with a tenant in it. If you have any more questions about this topic or you have any questions at all about real estate, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

Why Don’t Online Home Valuation Tools Work?

Why are the estimates on Zillow and Trulia inaccurate? How do you know what your home is actually worth in the current market? We’ll go over everything today.

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Recently, we asked you to send in your questions, and today I would like to answer one that we got from Diane. Diane asks, “I would like to know why the estimates on Zillow and Trulia are so low. How can you get a real sense of what your house is currently worth?”

Zillow, Trulia, and other online home valuation tools use an algorithm to estimate your home’s value. The algorithm relies on other homes that have sold in your area, the age of your house, and the size of your house. The computer then takes all of that information and spits out a value.

Your local real estate agent or appraiser can help you figure out what your home is worth.

Keep in mind that because those values are computer-generated, there are many variables that those estimates do not take into account. Location is an important factor, too. For instance, a house on a busy street might not be worth as much as a house on a quiet cul de sac. A lot of those nuances are things that your local agent will be able to take into account.

Even if you look on Zillow’s website, you will see that they say the Zestimate is accurate within 7% of your home’s value about 50% of the time. That means that the other half of the time, the Zestimate is off by more than 7%. If your home is worth $200,000, that means Zillow is probably off by at least $14,000.

So, how do you know what your home is currently worth? As real estate agents, we can compare your home to similar properties in your neighborhood and give you a rough idea of your home’s value. We will look at the condition of your home, the upgrades and updates you have made, and figure out what your home is worth.

Another way to find your home’s value is to order an appraisal, which costs about $400. The appraiser will do a very scientific breakdown of the homes near yours that are similar in age and size. They will find the property most similar to yours and compare the two. For instance, if you have an extra bathroom or bigger lot, your value will be a little higher. On the flip side, if the other house is in better condition than yours, your value will be a little lower.

The reality is that your house is worth a combination of what you are willing to sell it for and what a buyer is willing to pay for it in the current market. If you have any questions about what your home is worth, just give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!