Get a Loan Preapproval

 

Nov 8, 2013

By: Michele Lerner 

  Few experiences are more frustrating than falling in love with a home that’s for sale and then discovering you can’t afford to buy it. The majority of first-time buyers need to finance their home purchase, and a consultation with a mortgage lender is a crucial step in the homebuying process because you need to understand your purchasing power before you begin to look at homes.

What Is a Loan Preapproval?

Lenders offer borrowers a prequalification letter or a preapproval letter, but most Realtors® recommend that you get a preapproval before shopping for a home. A prequalification letter will state the amount a lender thinks you can borrow based on your income and your credit profile without any actual documentation. Mortgage lending standards have tightened since the housing crisis and all loans now require full documentation and verification of income and assets, so most sellers will only accept an offer from a buyer with a full preapproval letter that’s based on verified information.

Sellers aren’t the only ones who benefit from you obtaining a loan preapproval, though. You’re better off with a preapproval for two reasons:

• First, you’ll have gone through the credit check and paperwork requirements for a mortgage, so you’ll have clarity about your ability to finalize a home purchase. If the lender finds a problem with your credit or an error on your credit report, you’ll have time to fix it before making an offer.
• Second, since your documentation will already be in place, a loan preapproval based on everything other than the actual value of the home you’ll purchase will speed up the process once you make an offer.

How to Find a Lender

Your Realtor® should be able to recommend a lender or two for you to interview, but you should also ask friends and colleagues for someone they trust. You can check for a loan officer’s license and read reviews online to be sure you’re working with someone reliable. As a first-time buyer, you should call a few lenders to find someone experienced with first-time buyer needs who can possibly help you identify special loan programs in your area that could help you get into a home.

 

What to Expect From Your Lender

The best lenders take a collaborative approach with borrowers and explain all your loan options. When your lender checks your credit report, you should get feedback about ways to improve your credit profile and recommendations for how to handle your money between the time you apply for a loan and settlement day. Your lender should provide advice about when to lock in your loan rate and discuss the pros and cons of various loan programs.

 

What Your Lender Expects From You

Your lender needs you to be honest about your finances and responsive to all requests for additional information, no matter how unimportant it may seem to you. The more cooperative you are with a lender, the easier the loan process will be. You should be prepared with tax returns, W2s, bank statements, employer names and addresses, and your current landlord’s information.

Your lender will generate a loan approval based on your debt-to-income ratio and credit score, but you should also consider your budget and your own comfort level with a payment. There’s no need to borrow the maximum amount you qualify for, particularly if you know you plan to spend money on items that don’t show up on your credit report such as greens fees or ski trips. Your careful planning and preservation of your emergency fund are important for responsible, long-term homeownership.

 

Learn more at www.Realtor.com

Fall Landscaping: How to Prepare Your Yard for Winter

• By: Lisa Kaplan Gordon

 

Fall landscaping preparations ready your yard for a long winter and glorious spring.

Fall landscaping chores are your last chance to prepare your property for winter, and to protect that curb appeal you’ve worked so hard to create. So pull on some gloves, grab your tools, and get ready to mulch, prune, and plant before snow and frozen ground turn the lights out on your landscaping.
 

Spread Mulch
“Fall mulching is better for the plants than spring mulching,” says Dan Taft, owner of The Cutting Edge in Chantilly, Va. “It helps protect roots from frost and helps retain moisture during a cold and dry winter.”

Spread 2 to 3 inches of fresh mulch around shrubs and trees. Taft warns home owners to avoid using free mulch from municipal piles, which often contain disease spores; instead, buy hardwood shredded mulch from home and garden centers, he says.

“Cheap, dump mulch mainly is made from trees that have died from disease,” Taft says. “Many diseases will linger in the mulch, like leaf spot and pine bark borers. You don’t want ground-up diseased plants around your landscaping.”

Remove the Dead and Dying
Fall isn’t the time to prune, because that encourages growth when healthy plants should remain dormant. But don’t shelve your shears and loppers yet. Fall is the time to neaten your landscaping before putting it to bed for the winter.

“If you remove dead landscaping in fall, you don’t have to look at it all winter,” Taft says.

• Remove dead annuals.
• Deadhead spent blooms, and cut back dead and desiccated ornamental grasses and perennials.
• Lightly prune dead and dying branches from shrubs and trees. Carefully remove dried blossoms from hydrangea, but don’t remove dead-looking stalks, where new buds will form in spring.
• After the first frost, cut back tea roses to about a third of their height.

Wrap Delicate Shrubs
Heavy snow, ice, and high winds can dry and split your delicate and pricey shrubs. To protect your landscaping from the winter elements:

• Hide small plants under overturned plastic pots or buckets.

• Wrap shrubs, such as boxwoods, in burlap.

• Surround vulnerable trees with shredded leaves.

Take Advantage of Fall Sales
Early fall until the ground freezes is a good time to plant trees and shrubs. Not only do cooler weather and autumn rain put less stress on young landscaping plants, nurseries often have sales to empty their shelves before winter.

“They need to sell every plant by Dec. 1,” Taft says. “Nurseries generally pay a third of the price that you’re paying. So don’t be afraid to offer less than the asking price. If you’re buying several things, the manager may give you a break.”

Lisa Kaplan Gordon is an avid gardener, a member of the Fairfax County Master Gardeners Association, and a builder of luxury homes in McLean, Va. She’s been a Homes editor for Gannett News Service and has reviewed home improvement products for AOL

 

        

Read more: http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/landscaping-gardening/fall-landscaping-how-prepare-your-yard-winter/#ixzz2kSl9YxuT

Halloween Home Maintenance: Spooky Sounds and Strange Smells

• By: John Riha                                

Are you haunted by strange noises and weird odors? With the proper maintenance, you’ve got more than a ghost of a chance to rest easy                                                

If you neglect your home maintenance projects, you could end up with problems scarier than any ghost or goblin. Image: Knape/Vetta/Getty Images
 

Creaking and Popping in the Night
The many materials that make up your house — wood framing, plywood, glass, metal ducts, nails, plumbing pipes — all expand and contract at different rates.

When a house cools at night, these materials may move slightly, rubbing against each other and making noises. Occasionally, they’ll contract with an audible pop.

These sounds tend to be more noticeable in fall, when warm days give way to rapidly cooling nights. The bad news? Not much you can do about it. The good news? Those sounds are harmless and normal.
 

Zombie Odor
It’s either time to throw out the garbage, or you’d better call your gas utility to check on your gas lines and connections.

Natural gas is odorless, but natural gas suppliers add a foul-smelling odorant — butyl mercaptan — to alert occupants to any leaks. The smell is like rotten eggs.

Leaks can occur at your gas-fired water heater, fireplace, clothes dryer, and any gas line. Leaking natural gas is potentially dangerous — leave the house and call your natural gas provider to assess the situation. Most utility companies perform safety checks for free.

Footsteps in the Attic
Amplified by an unfinished attic space, a raccoon or even a good-size squirrel on your roof might sound like an ax murderer is doing the polka overhead.

These rooftop transits are normal for critters — roofs offer a nice long unobstructed highway.

Make sure your soffit, rafter, and gable roof vents are covered with screens and in good shape, or your rooftop buddies might find their way into your attic for real. Trim back branches that provide critters easy access to your roof.

Something’s Burning
You can smell the odor of burnt wood, but the smoke detectors aren’t going off and there’s no smoke in the house. The culprit could be your fireplace — even if you haven’t had a fire for days.

The probable cause is a drafty chimney and negative air pressure in your home, meaning that outside air is infiltrating down your chimney, bringing stale burnt smells with it.

Stop drafts by making sure your damper has a good seal. Regulate air pressure by adding more cold air return ducts to your HVAC system. You’ll get rid of the odor and save on your energy bill, too.

Moaning and Clattering
These classic spooky sounds often show up when the wind blows and there’s a storm brewing.

Vents for clothes dryers, bathrooms, and water heaters exit out the roof or the side of the house. To prevent backdrafts, these vents have dampers — flaps designed to let vented air out and prevent outside air from coming in. These flaps sometimes move and rattle in high winds.

Because dampers often are located in attics or in between floor joists, the sound can be difficult to pinpoint. You may need a new damper ($85).

John Riha has written seven books on home improvement and hundreds of articles on home-related topics. He’s been a residential builder, the editorial director of the Black & Decker Home Improvement Library, and the executive editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Read more: http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/maintenance-repair/spooky-house-noises-bad-smells/#ixzz2j7tUTI1O

Fall Stunners: Trees with Colorful Curb Appeal

• By: Lisa Kaplan Gordon    

Trees are arguably the most valuable aspect of your landscape. These no-fuss knockouts will claim center stage each autumn.

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Scarlet Oak

Quercus coccinea
Height: 50-70 feet
Spread: 40-50 feet
Zones: 4-9 

Fall color: Bright scarlet

Care: Plant in dry-to-average, well-draining soil; even tolerates sandy conditions. Give it plenty of room to grow.

Value add: Fast growing; grind its acorns to thicken stews; large songbirds and wild turkeys love it.

Image: Doc Searls

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Halloween Lighting Ideas

• By: John Riha

 

When you stroll through your neighborhood this Halloween season, get ready for some front-yard tricks and some awesome lighting treats. Halloween displays are more sophisticated — and fun — than ever, headlined by energy-saving CFL and LED extravaganzas, and powered by creative home owners who pull out all the stops when it comes to making spooky delights. Click through our slideshow and enjoy the magic!

        

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Scary Good Savings

If you like lots of spooky light for your Halloween display but are scared to death about wasting energy, try floodlights with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). A 20-watt CFL floodlight is as bright as a 100-watt incandescent, but uses one-fifth the energy. They come in many colors; a weatherproof, 20-watt CFL floodlight is about $10 and will last 8,000 hours, or more than 30 Halloweens.


Credit: James Barker

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October home-maintenance checklist

With fall in full swing, now's the time to get your home and yard ready for winter.

By Anne Erickson of MSN Real Estate

 

 

October is the first full month of fall; by the end of this month, most of your winterization should be completed. Falling leaves and dwindling daylight signal a final opportunity to do some outdoor organizing before winter settles in.

 

Repair roof shingles
Try to do this on a warm day if you have asphalt shingles on your roof, so the shingles will be flexible. Use roofing cement to seal cracked and torn shingles and to reattach curled shingles. Then tack down the damage further with galvanized roofing nails, and cover the exposed nail heads with roofing cement. Split wood shingles can be patched with roofing cement as well.

 

Repair siding
Do a fall siding inspection and remedy any problems you find. Look for damaged paint, warped or split wood, cracks or holes in stucco, and missing or slipped siding panels. Your repair tool kit will depend on what kind of siding you have: For example, wood siding may require wood putty, waterproof glue, nails and screws; stucco may require wire mesh, stucco patching compound, a trowel and a chisel. Most types of siding require a coating of sealant or primer, and paint to finish the repair and ensure waterproofing.

Reinforce windows
Replace your screens with storm windows. If your screens are dirty or damaged, repair and clean before storing them to prevent further deterioration. Light scrubbing followed by a blast from a hose will eliminate bird droppings and other grime. Small tears can be sewn up with thin wire. If you have older single-pane windows and no storm coverings, apply heat-shrink plastic to the inner or outer window frame to create an insulating air space and save heating expense.

 

Fire fluency
Make sure your damper is in good working order by opening and shutting it prior to lighting the first fire of the season. If you didn't clean your chimney at the end of the heating season, do it now — especially if you burn soft woods, which release more creosote. Often the first indication that a chimney needs cleaning is a chimney fire, so preventive maintenance is important.

 

Detect deadly gas
If you heat your home with wood heat or a gas heater, a carbon-monoxide detector is a must. These devices look and sound like smoke detectors, but they detect carbon-monoxide gas instead. Units that plug into an outlet are also available.

 

Check batteries in smoke detectors
Daylight saving time ends Nov. 7. Get into the habit of checking smoke-detector batteries when you "fall back" and "spring ahead." Also make sure household fire extinguishers are fully pressurized and in good working order.

 

Close seasonal air conditioners
If you live in a place where air conditioners are used seasonally instead of year-round, this is a good month to close them down. Switch off power, make sure the condensate drain is clear, and clean condenser coils and filters (a vacuum will do). Either remove window units or cover them, to protect your home from drafts and the units from inclement weather.

 

Bleed air from radiators
Radiators can get air pockets in them when not in use. If air pockets stay, they will keep the unit from heating up to its full capacity. If your unit doesn't have automatic air valves, you need to bleed it prior to every heating season. To bleed air out, turn on the furnace and circulator and open the supply valve to the radiator. Find the bleeder valve (it's usually opposite the supply valve) and open it while holding a pan to it. Air should be released, followed by hot water (thus the pan). Close the valve as the water comes out. Lightly feel the radiator to make sure it is heated along its entire surface; if there are gaps, repeat the procedure.

Cut brush back from the house
Before stowing all of your gardening equipment for the winter, walk around your house with a weed whacker and a pair of pruners and cut back any brush, weeds or branches that contact your house. This task will eliminate a common access point for insects, rodents and rot. It will also keep branches and shrubs from scraping away at your siding during windstorms.

Watch those leaves
If you don't want the tannin in fall leaves to leave hard-to-clean imprints on your deck and concrete walkways, keep those surfaces leaf-free. If you do get some leaf prints, try a solution of half water and half bleach (test it first in an unobtrusive spot — it may lighten the wood on your deck) or trisodium phosphate (commonly known as TSP) and warm water. Or, just leave the prints and consider them an artistic addition to your exterior look.\

Store outdoor furniture
Scrub and store outdoor furniture; even furniture designed to stay out year-round will last longer if protected from extreme cold and wet. Store or cover your barbecue unless you cook with it all year. Empty and store large planters — clay or terra-cotta units will crack if left out to freeze and thaw. Clean and store your gardening tools, but don't put them completely out of reach — shovels are useful year-round.

Winterize external plumbing systems
This is the most important job of fall if you live in an area that freezes in the winter. The simple fact that water expands upon freezing has caused countless homeowners innumerable woes. Ignore this job and flooding, water damage and thousands of dollars worth of plumbing bills will be your constant winter companions.

Here's your to-do list:

• Drain underground sprinkler systems.
   
• Have outdoor pools drained and professionally serviced.
    
• Drain exterior water pipes and any pipes that run through unheated areas (such as a garage, crawl space or unheated porch). If draining these pipes isn't possible, wrap them with foam insulation or heat tape.
   
• Cover exposed spigots with foam covers. Or, if cosmetics and ease of removal don't matter, wrap spigots in layers of newspaper, cover the newspaper with a plastic bag, and seal the whole affair with duct tape.
   
• Drain and store garden hoses. Leave one hose and nozzle somewhere that's easily accessible; you'll need it for gutter cleaning and car washing.

Read more at www.realestate.msn.com

7 Wacky, Weird, and Wonderful Garages

• By: John Riha
                                

Most of the time our garages don’t get a lot of attention, but that’s usually by design. Nevertheless, some garages definitely deserve a closer look — if not a jaw-dropping double-take. Ready for the unusual? Enjoy our slideshow of tantalizingly weird garages.

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Room to Zoom

Most of us are happy with a garage that has enough space to include the leaf rake and spare folding chairs. But a home owner in Japan built a 2,000 sq. ft. house with garage space for nine exotic cars, plus an elevator so he could display them in his living room. Need spare chairs? Bring up the Lamborghini!

Credit: number fives architectural design office

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