Madison Home Blog

The Real Estate Guy Team in madison wisconsin  has just written the following for publication in the latest RealEstateGuy Update.

Text Messaging, the latest marketing tool for selling homes.

Real Estate Guy is very happy to provide to all sellers a system for prospective buyers to learn about our listings while sitting outside the home.  To do this they simply need to text.   Our system will send them an instant email with options to:-

• view pictures,
• learn more
• request a showing
• sent to someone else

So we have potential buyers get quick information, but the best part is that the team also gets a text or email with that person’s phone number so we can call and talk about the home while they are still outside it.

We place a free standing sign on the property to encourace callers to text.

This is in addition to all of our great tools we use.  Part of the reason that we have been so successful even in a tough market.

Help us hepl someone!!Do you know someone having trouble paying their mortgage?  Call us!

We might be able to get them out of that stressful situation.

(go to realestateguy.net and click on a left tab, foreclosure and short sale)

www.RealEstateGuy.Net offers many tools for buyers & sellers.

www.RealEstateGuy’s website provides a huge amount of information and some great tools for potential clients to use. Here is a selection of them:- Preview RealEstateGuy’s site here

Seller Tools: Market Snapshot is a tool where the homeowner can receive info on recent sales as well as homes currently for sale in a predefined area/neighborhood.   This is great when trying to determine your home’s value.  “Click on “receive neighborhood sales info”

Search tools:   We have a very nice mapping search where searches can be saved and updates automatically sent to client.   We also have a number of preset searches.  in price ranges.   Also a Waterfront page, with a lakeshore search on Madison homes.

We have created a page dedicated to presenting our “Hot buys of the week”   go to www.MadisonHotBuys.com

Guy’s blog. info on the First time buyer Tax Credit, our Virtual tour of properties, foreclosure and shortsale info.

First time buyers, Sign up for a free book.  Also link to us on Twitter and facebook.

We would love to have feedback from you.  Let us know if you think we could improve in any way.

Your Real Estate Guy Team

Guy, Jen, Bev, John, Jody and George
Real Estate Guy Team
Keller Williams Realty, Madison Crossroads
www.RealEstateGuy.Net
SEE MY BLOG AT www.MadisonHomeBlog.com

(608) 513-1123
Improving client’s lives thru real estate.

•  view pictures,
• learn more
• request a showing
• sent to someone else

Help us hepl someone!!

Special financing, low prices, low financing rates, Federal tax credit!!   Why wouldn’t you buy a home? 

But wait!!!!!  Don’t you want to do better financially.   Why not go for a 2 unit, or duplex?  Your first home will become your first rental property when you move up. 

Buy with 3.5% down.   some duplexes qualify for down payment assistance. 

So it long term investment in RealEstate is a goal, now is the best time to get started.  With a bargain price

RealEstate Guy will point you to a lender who is knowledgable in these subjects.  Then we’ll help you find a property to suit your particular needs.  And we will always be there for future guideance.

Start looking for homes at RealEstateGuy.Net  Lots more info at realestateguy.net

Check out this history of Keller Williams

Note how Gary Keller Willimas overcame adversity to dominate his market, then go on to become a major North American Real Estate company.

Agent control,
Top Education,
Best Technology answers
Profit share

Real Estate Guy is proud to be associtate with Keller Williams in Madison Wisconsin.

Search for homes in Madison Wi

It has been a very successful few months.  We at the RealEstateGuy team are happy to present our latest listings. 

First a wonderful lakeside listing on Belle Isle in Monona, opposite the capital. 

   A wonderful community awaits you.  with a well designed 4 bedroom home that has views from every living area.   Read more about this fine lakefront home here.

Verona home for sale.

    This is a lovely updated home rance home on 4 acres just a mile outside of Verona.  See this fine home for sale Verona .

North East Madison, immaculate home for the discerning buyer.  Cul de sac, fenced yard and spacious deck.

 Designer open custom kitchen  home for sale

Great West side home,  great price, masses of space  

Includes a soaring cedar ceiling.  see more here

View our VIRTUAL TOUR INVENTORY of this and our other offerings.

Check out our free mapping search function.   to find more homes for sale

Homes Marketed by Real Estate Guy, Madison Wisconsin, Homes for sale Madison Wisconsin 

Email RealEstateGuy@kw.com   Real Estate Guy is affiliated with Keller Williams Realty, Madison Crossroads, Wisconsin.

Buyers short on downpayment funds may still be able to take advantage of the favorable market conditions because the IRS is allowing tax payers to use the tax credit as a downpayment.

Really this is all you need to know.  Ask your lender for more details as to how it could work.  If you do not have a lender in the Madison Wisconsin area, or your lender does not know how, than I will put you in touch with someone who can help you.

And if you want more details, here is the excerpt from the National Association of Realtors to explain more:-

In his speech at the National Association of REALTORS® Housing Summit on May 12, 2009, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced a program that allows borrowers to use the first-time homebuyer tax credit for a down payment or closing costs on a FHA-insured mortgage. On May 29, 2009, HUD published Mortgage Letter 2009-15 regarding monetization of the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credits (FTHBTC) for home purchases. The ability to “monetize” the tax credit and apply it to a home purchase will not only help families purchase their first home, Donovan said, but will “present an enormous benefit for communities struggling to deal with an oversupply of housing.”

The “monetization of the FTHBTC may be accomplished with a loan secured by a second lien or by a lender “purchase” of the FTHBTC.

Second Liens. The letter allows state and local government entities to make advance loans to homebuyers using the FTHBTC according to the following limitations:

• The FTHBTC advance, when combined with the FHA-insured first mortgage, may not result in cash back to the borrower.
• The second lien may not exceed the total amount needed for the down payment, closing costs, and prepaid expenses.
• Secondary financing may be “soft” (silent) or require a monthly repayment.
• If payments are required, they must be included within the qualifying ratios and, when combined with the first mortgage, cannot exceed the borrower’s reasonable ability to pay.
• Payments must be deferred for at least 36 months to not be included in the qualifying ratios.
• If the FTHBTC advance loan has a short term for repayment, it must also provide that if the borrower fails to repay by the designated deadline, principal and interest payments begin automatically or the loan converts to a “soft” second.
• The secondary financing may not require a balloon payment before ten years.

Credit Purchase. The FTHBTC mortgagee letter also allows all FHA-approved lenders to “purchase the tax credit anticipated by the homebuyer,” but the sale of the FTHBTC may not be used towards the FHA 3.5% minimum downpayment. The FTHBTC purchase is subject to the following conditions:

• The proceeds of the sale of the FTHBTC may not exceed the anticipated tax credit due the homebuyer based on the computations of form IRS 5405.
• The borrower must submit a signed certification that the FTHBTC is not subject to offset due to other indebtedness.
• A copy of the borrower’s tax refund and/or the IRS 5405 must be collected and retained in the FHA case binder.
• Any costs attendant to the purchase of the FTHBTC are to be nominal and discounting the anticipated credit to cover the costs and expenses of the transaction must be reasonable and disclosed to the homebuyer. In FHA’s view, fees and costs that total more than 2.5% of the anticipated credit are considered excessive. (Example: $6000 to be refunded, with all fees and costs discounted, borrower should receive not less than $5850.00 for sale of tax credit.)
• Pursuant to 12 U.S.C. 1709(b)(9), the homebuyer’s downpayment required for eligibility for FHA insurance may not consist of any funds, including funds derived from a sale of the FTHBTC, provided by the mortgagee, the seller, or any other person or entity that financially benefits from the transaction (or by any third party or entity that is reimbursed, directly or indirectly, by the financially benefiting person or entity). Accordingly, the proceeds of the sale of the FTHBTC to FHA approved mortgagees, the seller or any other person or entity that financially benefits from the transaction, may not be used to meet the 3.5% minimum FHA downpayment, but may be used as additional downpayment, to buy down of interest rate or for other closing costs. The 3.5 % minimum FHA downpayment may come from a housing finance agency or may be a gift from a family member, employer or a nonprofit, charitable organization.
• This type of product may not be immediately available to consumers because lenders will need some time to develop documentation for this process.

REALTORS® should contact their FHA approved lender and ask them what the bank is doing to implement the new program. The WRA is working with WHEDA on this development.   Read the HUD mortgage letter.
Real Estate guy sells homes in Madison WI

Yes we have a search to make finding lake homes in Madison Middleton and Monona a cinch.

Search for LakeFront Homes Madison, Middleton, Monona

Don’t go driving round the lakes when you can shop online.  Save gas here!

This list is updated daily.

RealEstateGuy sells Homes in Madison Wi.  Search for homes in Madison Wi

In the residential home market in Madison Wisconsin, we have noticed a dramatic change in the market, particularly in the lower price ranges, $150,000-230,000.

I have also noted a shift in the buyers Psyche.  They are starting to realize the bottom has been reached, or passed.  Now instead of waiting for a better deal, they are worrying they might lose out.  This is prompting action.

Low interest rates are having an effect, as is the $8,000 for first time buyers.   Wow is this having an effect!  The point to note is that closing has to take place BEFORE DEC 1 2009 to qualify for this credit.

The temporary nature of this credit is in effect borrowing buyers from the future.  There will be a rush to close on homes between now and December.  Hence the market may drop flat there after.

Does this benefit only first time buyers?  Well first timers get the direct benefits, but if you are stuck in a home and wanting to move up you are benefitting because the first time buyers are acting to buy the low end homes.  This enables the first move up buyers to act.

As progressively higher priced homes get sold, the market moves upward like a wave.    We look forward to this.

But there is a chance that it could all come collapsing Dec 1 unless:

1. This deadline is extended or the economic outlook looks promising enough to maintain progress.
2. Right now the market is starting to move again.

Now is a very good time to sell your home and move up.
Real Estate Guy sells homes in Madison Wi  Search for homes in Madison Wi

We would like to invite all to our latest listing on Madison’s beautiful NE side cul de sac rance home.  Everything updated- immaculate as new.

Yes this is a pleasant commute to down town Madison and Sun Prairie, great access to I90/4.

New Drive way, siding, doors, windows.  Love the upscale kitchen with island and open to the living room for great entertaining.  Also a wonderful fenced yard, with deck and play set.

View more details of 9 Granby Circle and come to the open house.

Real Estate Guy sells homes in Madison Wi.  Search all area homes, Madison WI

The Wisconsin Realtors came out with figures for the first quarter of 2009.   (seeing as it is now mid May, and 45 days after the fact, I do not really find them helpful to give me clues of where the market is heading as the market is changing so rapidly, however I am reporting for the benefit of all. )

Statistics have finally shown what I have been expecting.  That is a size-able drop from a year ago.   Interestingly enough, up until December 2009, stats were showing little if no decline, however on the ground I knew that was happening. 

Wisconsin Sales highlights- these are a comparison of the first 3 months in 09 against the same period in 2008. 

Wisconsin home sales dropped 22%  and Prices dropped, 9%

In Dane County,  Home sales dropped 24.6%   (695 units down from 908)  This is a greater fall than the Wisconsin figure.

Prices, however dropped just 4.4%.  (average price came down from $213,600 to $204,200). 

If you’d like more info, follow this link

RealEstateGuy sells homes in Madison Wi  search all area homes in Madison Wi