Real Estate
Admirals Cove is a premium country club community that is considered to be one of the finest and most sought after residential communities in the country. Admirals Cove is perfectly located in the warm and tropical town of Jupiter, Florida. Admirals Cove features some of the finest custom built homes that South Florida has to offer from quaint 2000 square foot golf condos to spacious 15,000 square foot custom built estate homes. Prices for real estate in Admirals Cove range from around $700,000 to over $25,000,000. For detailed information on real estate for sale in Admirals Cove please visit the Admirals Cove real estate blog by Waterfront Properties and Club Communities at the link below.
Top Mortgage Advice For 2014!
As you may or may not know the clock is ticking for potential homebuyers who wish to obtain a low mortgage rate this year. However as long as you remain on the top of your game, act as quickly as you can, and maintain your finances correctly. You can still get your hands on a very appealing mortgage deal. In order to help you with this we have gathered the top advice for mortgage borrowers during 2014.
1.) Be Sure To Maintain Good Credit: It is imperative that you maintain good credit if you want a mortgage because it is basically impossible to obtain a mortgage without a decent credit score. This will be especially so during 2014 so if you want that low rate be sure to maintain good credit. The best rates go to borrowers with a credit score of 720 and higher.
2.) Be Sure To Document All Your Finances: It is very important that you document any and all of your financial information. There are lots of new rules this year that are going to put extra pressure on lenders to ensure you have the ability to pay back your loans. So during 2014 lenders are going to be extremely meticulous when it comes to underwriting mortgages.
3.) Be Sure To Shop Around: Be sure you shop around for your lender because as rates have climbed lenders lost a great deal of refinancing business and will fiercely compete for your mortgage during 2014. So utilize your bargaining power and shop around for the best possible rate.
4.) Be Sure To Lock In A Rate ASAP: Due to the fact that the Federal Reserve is expected to greatly reduce its economic stimulus program that is helping to keep rates low. We expect that throughout 2014 mortgage rates are very likely to continue rising. So if you plan on obtaining a mortgage this year so be sure to lock it in as soon as you possible can.
5.) Be Sure To Stay Calm And Not Panic: It is important that you stay calm and not panic. Yes, mortgage rates are very likely to rise during 2014 but you need to remember that buying a home is one of your most important decisions you will ever make in your life and can’t be rushed. Try to move as quickly as you can but only get your mortgage and buy your home when you are truly ready.
Pre-Approval Vs. Pre-Qualification!
Getting a financial frame of reference for your home search is extremely important to the success of your home buying experience. However, it has come to our attention that more and more people don’t fully understand what being pre-qualified and pre-approved means and the difference between the two. These two terms have very different meanings and have different impacts when it comes time to make an offer.
Pre-Approval: Getting a pre-approval from a lender means that the lender has done some extensive and significant research into your financial history and they have agreed to loan you a certain amount. This carries much more weight than pre-qualification and sellers love seeing that a potential buyer has already been approved for an amount equal to the sales price. Pre-approval conveys very clearly to sellers that all of your finances are in order and you are truly ready to buy.
Pre-Qualification: In contrast to being pre-approved, being pre-qualified for a loan is seen as more of a rough draft of what a potential buyer might be able to afford. It really says nothing about what you can afford, and it basically means that you may be able to afford that amount and that you probably could obtain a loan for that amount. When a seller sees a pre-qualification letter in an offer it will hold some type of credibility just not the same as a pre-approval.
While both pre-approval and pre-qualification letters are better than having nothing to show at all. Being pre-approved carries much more weight and conveys a great deal more credibility to sellers than just getting pre-qualified. So, if you are a serious buyer and want to be perceived that way be sure you get pre-approved as soon as you possibly can.
Staging The Right Way!
When selling your home one of the most important things that you can do to better its chances in the housing market is to stage it. Staging a home does not necessarily translate into an increase in selling price but when done right it can help highlight your home’s strengths and downplay its weaknesses increasing its appeal to potential buyers. Which can better its chance of getting sold quicker and at more of a premium selling price.
1.) Clean It Until It Sparkles: It is imperative that the first thing you do is clean, clean, and then clean your home again until it sparkles. The most effective way to freshen up a home and make it more appealing to potential buyers is by cleaning it. This means the entire house even the places that you are positive no one will look because trust me they will.
2.) Clear Out Your Clutter: Once you are done cleaning your home it is important that you clear out any clutter or personal items from your home that you may have come across. You should try and only keep around the things that are an absolute necessity to your daily life or that help add aesthetic appeal. There are a variety of storage options that you can utilize for anything you don’t want to throw away.
3.) Keep Everything Neutral: It is important that you attempt to keep everything in your home as neutral as you possibly can. The colors you choose to display in your home when staging it can make a huge difference and may greatly affect the way your potential buyers feel about your home. It is important that your home appeals to both men and women of all ages and ethnicities.
4.) Optimize Your Lighting: It is critical that you optimize the lighting in your home as much as you possibly can. One of the best ways to make your home more warm and welcoming is with great lighting done right. This includes everything from pulling back the shades and opening up the blinds on your windows to adding more lighting fixtures throughout the property where needed.
5.) Infuse Some Aromas: Staging your home is more than just visual you need to tap into other senses like smell. Aromatic scents can have an extremely profound effect on the mood your home radiates to potential buyers. This can be achieved with vases full of fresh flowers or bowls of fresh fruit. But be sure to stay on top of them because no one wants to see wilted flowers or overly ripe fruit.
6.) Don’t Neglect Curb Appeal: It is crucial that you don’t forget about your curb appeal. The way your home looks from the outside is very important to how your potential buyers will develop their first impressions of it. You should consider investing in hiring a lawn service to help you keep your yard in tiptop shape at all times through the selling process.
What Do You Do After You Sell Your Home?
So you have closed on your home and now all of your work is done right? Wong, there is much, much more that you can and should do. After the sale of your home has come through you should consider doing the following things. These things will help a great deal after you are done selling your home.
1.) Collect And Keep All Of Your Paperwork: It is imperative that you collect and keep any and all of the paperwork that you have related to the closing and settlement of your home. Even though it may be tempting to consider shredding all of your paperwork it will come in very handy when tax time comes.
2.) Rectify Your Change Of Address Notice: It is extremely important to you and your family that you rectify your change of address as soon as you possibly can. The U.S Postal Service suggests that you consider completing your change of address notice as early as 30 days prior to your move.
3.) Put Your Cash In A Money Market Fund: Unless you plan on buying a new home right away it is extremely important that you consider putting the revenue from the sale of your home into a money market account. This is a very safe place to put your money that will afford you with a reasonable amount of return.
4.) Stay On Top Of Tax Laws: Due to the fact that tax laws tend to change often it is very important that you keep on top of them. For example a past law may not allow you to exclude a portion of your sale from tax but a recent one will. You will want to be sure and keep up to avoid loosing any money.
5.) Choose Your Buying Agent Carefully: Just like when you put a great deal of time and some very careful thinking into choosing your seller’s agent it is as important when it comes time to choosing your buyer’s agent. Buying and selling real estate take different skills so you want to keep this in mind.
Five Moving Mistakes To Avoid!
Buying a home is stressful enough there is no reason why you should pack on any unneeded stress with a difficult moving experience. Moving is often viewed as an arduous process that makes us tied, overworked, and full of stress. However, it doesn’t need to be that way and often most of the difficulty and stress involved in moving is brought on by unnecessary and avoidable mistakes. So here is a list of very common moving mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.
1.) Forgetting To Label Your Boxes: Labeling your boxes is a very simple and easy task, yet when people go to move it is often forgotten or neglected. For optimum efficiency you should not only label what is in your boxes but where they are going in your new home too.
2.) Packing Harmful Or Hazardous Items: This is a huge and very dangerous mistake, you should never ever pack away chemicals or hazardous items. These types of things should always be transported safely in a separate vehicle to ensure the safety of everyone involved in your move.
3.) Not Packing Yourself A Survival Kit: Anyone who has moved before will tell you that they would have loved a survival kit for their moving day. This can be anything from extra toilet paper and headache pills to a flashlight, scissors, and a screwdriver.
4.) Thinking You Can Do It All Yourself: One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming you can handle everything on your own. Do it yourself moving jobs take a great deal of advanced planning and feature more potential pitfalls and may not be as cheap and easy as you think.
5.) Not Having Sufficient Packing Materials: This is an extremely common mistake that infuses stress into your moving experience. This can be anything from not having enough boxes or tape for packing to an inadequate amount of space in your moving vehicles.
Must Have Upgrades For Your Luxury Home!
Owning a luxury home is an experience unlike any other and with that comes a lifestyle that exceeds most people’s expectations. When you own luxury real estate you expect your home to satisfy all of your needs and wants and often this requires you to put in some upgrades and extras. So we have developed a list of the top must have upgrades for your luxury home.
1.) Built In Surround Sound: One of the best and most desirable upgrades that you can add to your luxury home is a built in surround sound system throughout the property inside and out. There are systems out there that allow you to turn music on or off in any area on the property from the master bed to the pool and spa area.
2.) A Custom Wine Cellar: Luxury living and fine wine go together better than anything else in the world and that is why a custom wine cellar is a must have for your luxury home. There are many different ways to incorporate a wine cellar in your luxury home and they can go anywhere from the basement to the attic.
3.) Custom Outdoor Living Areas: Your luxury home needs the perfect custom outdoor living area to really deliver that luxury lifestyle and appeal. A fire pit with some highlighting water features makes a great outdoor getaway. Be sure to furnish your outdoor living area with everything from comfy furniture to a state of the art grill.
4.) Exotic And Tropical Landscaping: A luxury home is just not a luxury home without the perfect custom designed exotic landscaping full of lush warm and tropical mature vegetation. Highlighting your luxury home with some custom designed exotic landscaping will boost its appeal to the next level. Be sure to showcase this landscaping at night with some landscape lighting.
5.) State Of The Art Toilets: The super high tech toilets from Japan have generated an international craze especially amongst the luxury real estate community. These state of the toilets can boast anything from seat warmers to automatic flushing and lid closing. Put state of the art toilets in your luxury home to really boost your luxury appeal.
6.) Master Control: Now A day you can control your entire house from the volume on the stereo to the lights in your pool area. This can all be done from your smart phone, tablet, laptop, etc. There is nothing that says luxurious living more than having the control of everything in your home right at your fingertips. Install a master control in your luxury home
Increase The Value Of Your Home!
When you own a home its value is by far the single most important thing, and improving it is always on your mind. Even though making home improvements don’t automatically translate into a boost in your homes value some can actually end up lowering it. So follow these tips on home improvements to better your chance at increasing your homes value and make it more competitive to comparable homes.
1.) Upgrade To State Of The Art Kitchen Appliances: If your kitchen appliances are more than four or five years old you should consider upgrading them to newer more state of the versions. Potential buyers like seeing newer appliances in the kitchen with more features and designer style finishes. For the broadest appeal go with stainless steel versions.
2.) Replace Your Kitchen Cabinetry: New cabinetry in your kitchen makes it look fresh and updated and delivers a great deal of appeal to potential buyers. When a potential buyer walks into a kitchen the first thing they notice is the cabinets and their appeal will help develop an overall feeling of the space. Re-facing older cabinets and adding new hardware can deliver a similar effect.
3.) Install New Plumbing Fixtures Throughout: If the plumbing fixtures in your home are older than ten years or more you should consider upgrading them. Consider upgrading to fixtures with higher end finishes and designs in everything from your showers to your kitchen sinks. Try coordinating all fixtures in your kitchen or a bathroom to maximize the appeal.
4.) Turn The Master Bedroom Into A Master Suite: Your master bedroom should seem like a retreat with a suite like feeling. Upgrade to raised tray ceilings and allow for multiple lighting options. Another great idea is adding some recessed lighting on a dimmer switch. Incorporating in some wall sconces will help develop an ambience and appeal reminiscent of luxurious high-end suites.
5.) Give The Master Bath A Spa Like Feeling: As part of the master suite your master bath should boast a spa like feeling. Potential buyers want their master baths to offer everything from multiple heads in a spacious shower to private toilet nooks and so much more. A spa like bath is sure to improve the appeal and value of your home.
6.) Don’t Forget To Invest In Curb Appeal: It is imperative that you don’t forget to invest in the curb appeal of your home. Your curb appeal will help determine the first impression your potential buyers develop about your home. The value of curb appeal is endless and the way your home looks from the exterior can really help increase the appeal and value of it.
Home Improvement No-Nos!
A common mistake among homeowners is thinking that anything they do to improve their home will translate into a boost in home value. This is often because people tend to automatically associate the words “home improvement” with a guaranteed return on investment. Unfortunately, not only will not all home improvement projects deliver a return on investment some can even actually lower your home’s value. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you be sure to stay away from the following home improvement projects.
1.) Turning A Bedroom Into Something Different: To lose a bedroom is by far the worst thing you can do to your home. You may think that whatever you are turning it into will add more value to your home but it can never make up the value lost with the bedroom.
2.) Installing An Above Ground Pool: While an above ground pool may seem like a great home improvement to you at first. When it comes to potential buyers they are often viewed as eyesores and most of them will just view it as something they will need to get rid of if they buy your home.
3.) Putting In A Hot Tub: You may love the idea of having a hot tub and may even enjoy it while living in the home. But when it comes to potential buyers they are associated with germs and other unpleasant things. This is a home improvement that typically adds no value to your home and could end up lowering it.
4.) Custom Built-In Themed Bedrooms For Kids: Custom built-in themed bedrooms may seem great when you are raising your kids but what about your potential buyers. It can be very hard to find a buyer looking for a home with a custom built-in themed kids bedroom just like yours.
5.) Anything Done Cheaply Or Poorly Planned: It goes without saying that any home improvement done cheaply or poorly planned is a huge mistake but we just wanted to reiterate it. Don’t make any cheap or poorly planned home improvements they are just poor investments.
6.) Anything Outlandish Or Unusual For The Neighborhood: It is a huge mistake to make any home improvement that is too outlandish or unusual compared to the other homes in the neighborhood. These types of things will generally only appeal to a small niche market and can often alienate many potential buyers.
Better Home Selling!
The selling of your home is a very delicate process that needs to be handled correctly and with care. There are numerous ways that you can enhance the attractiveness of your home that will boost its appeal and deliver you a more desirable home selling experience. So in order for your home selling experience to be a complete success we have developed a list of some great tips and tricks that will help get your home sold fast and at more of a premium selling price.
1.) Differentiate Your Home From The Neighbors: It is important that you attract attention to your home by differentiating it from the neighbors. Consider incorporating some custom designs, landscaping, high-end windows, state of the art appliances, and other things that will increase the aesthetic appeal of your home and make it more memorable to potential buyers.
2.) Stage The Exterior Of Your Home Too: When it comes to the exterior of your home landscaping and a new paint job just aren’t enough. You need to stage it to look more inviting and pleasing to potential buyers. Potential buyers enjoy envisioning entertaining and relaxing outside so this can be anything from setting up the patio area for Sunday brunch to a couple rocking chairs on the front porch.
3.) Maximize The Lighting In Your Home: It is extremely important to light up your home and maximize its lighting potential. Great lighting is one of the top things potential buyers are looking for in a home. So be sure to open up the shades and turn on all your lights when showing a home and during open houses to maximize the lighting appeal of your home.
4.) Sweeten The Deal For Potential Buyers: Another great way to make your home look more appealing to potential buyers is by sweetening the deal for them. There are a variety of ways to sweeten the deal so be sure to discuss with your realtor what works best for your situation.
5.) Get Your Home In Move In Condition: One of the most desirable things potential buyers are looking for is a home in move in condition. A potential buyer wants to be able to move into their home and enjoy it right away. Make sure all of the little things are working correctly and up to current building codes.
6.) Price Your Home Sensibly And Reasonably: Regardless of what you do if you price your home wrong you are doomed to fail. So it is imperative that you take the time to research comparable home sales and consult a real estate professional to ensure you have priced your home sensibly and reasonably for its value and current market conditions.
Real Estate Investing 101!
When it comes to real estate investing advice it seems that everyone thinks they are a real estate professional but this doesn’t mean you should listen. However, there is some great real estate investing advice out there and while every investment situation may be different there are several key things that can help in any investment property experience. Follow these five tips and your real estate investing experience is sure to be a success.
1.) Be Prepared For Anything: It is extremely important that in any investing situation you build in some amount of capacity for change. Any aspect of a real estate investment can change at anytime and you need to be prepared and flexible enough to handle it. It is always to factor in some cushion room to handle anything that pops up.
2.) Invest In What You Know: It is often very tempting to consider getting involved in and investment opportunity that is outside your area of expertise. However, no matter how good the terms may seem your lack of expertise makes these types of investments extremely risky. It is always better to invest in something you know rather than something you don’t.
3.) Compare Your Potential Investment: As any real estate professional will tell you it is imperative that you compare your potential investment property to similar ones in the area. You potential investment will have a related fate to similar properties in the area. Comparable properties will indicate the potential your prospective investment may have.
4.) Figure Out The True Expenses: Another very important aspect to any investment is figuring out the true expenses involved with it. Not only should you determine all the costs involved in purchasing an investment property, you also need to figure out any all expenses involved in running your investment. Often an investment looks great until you really hammer out the details.
5.) Know What Your Buying: With any investment opportunity you need to know exactly what you are buying. So not only should you check out the property from top to bottom yourself, you need to hire a professional to do a complete inspection to determine the standing of your potential investment.