Home Mortgage and Refinancing » real estate bargains

Why do investors fall in love with real estate in Granada, Nicaragua

Mortgage Maven — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:26:06 +0000

The best real estate decisions are based on a combination of hard data (the prices, the trends, the infrastructure and so on) and softer, more emotional factors like the way a place makes you feel. Granada stands out from other options for real estate in Nicaragua by delivering on both. Visitors first connect emotionally with the city and it’s lifestyle and then, once they run the numbers, many uncover the logical case for investing as well.

500 year old Granada is a beautiful town with a very coherent historic center. Investors fall in love with the Spanish colonial architecture, the tall adobe walls, terracotta tiles, wooden pillars, open courtyards and rich colors. The municipal council is doing a good job in ensuring that all restoration work preserves the colonial architecture and design detail. For example builders are not allowed to change the facade of any of the historic homes and have to maintain the central courtyard and any existing adobe walls.

Granada is located in Nicaragua’s tourism heartland. It receives more international visitors than any other destination in the country and the interest does much to support the value of the Granada Nicaragua real estate. At only 45 minutes from the capital city, Managua (on a double lane highway), 7 minutes from the famous Apoyo crater lake and just steps from Lake Nicaragua and it’s hundreds of isletas (tiny islands), the town has a very strategic location. And we know that location is everything in real estate.

The town has seen a range of infrastructure upgrades and more and more services are available. Recent examples include the improvements to Calle Calzada the prime street running from the central park to the lake and a brand new shopping mall to the north of town. The widened sidewalks on Calzada are now home to cute cafes, trendy restaurants, art galleries, handicraft outlets and boutique hotels.

It’s easy to make the case for property investment in Granada. After all it’s the only place where you can buy a historic colonial property in the oldest city in the Americas. Then, once you study the cost of living numbers, you’ll also find that you’ll be able to enjoy a rewarding lifestyl

Appraising Investment Property

Mortgage Maven — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:34:04 +0000

Real estate appraisers help in knowing the value of your home. Such appraisers assist in giving you an idea of not only the value of the home, but much more and this is also true in the case of looking at investment property near Atlanta. There could be quite a few reasons which call for use of the services of a real estate appraiser. For one, if you want to sell your home for whatever reason, like a divorce or applying for a loan from a local bank, you can get an appraisal done. This is also true in case of those people who have a doubt that their property taxes are quite high and need to be reduced by means of a fair assessment of the property value.

There is something known as the Multiple Listing Service, which contains details of all properties in an area, including those who are pending, sold or active. The appraiser first looks at this inventory for the Atlanta GA area of investment. In some cases appraisal of new constructions is also necessary and this is something that the MLS looks at. This is the main basis and the starting point based on which the appraiser looks to assess the per square foot cost of the property as compared to similar homes in the area.

It is also required here to look at properties not only in the direct or closest proximity, but to consider those properties that exists in the greater Atlanta area. This also includes properties that have been foreclosed or sold short, even though in the past such properties were not include in the assessment. In recent times, the number of such properties has increased manifold which means that it does have a bearing on the value of the house being assessed. In most cases, however, it is found that houses that are foreclosed or sold short are not in any good condition. This is why these would help increase the relative value of the house that is being assessed.

The valuation of appraisers is generally preferable and more accurate as compared to that of a program or an estate agent’s analysis. This is because the assessor or the appraiser attends special classes for this and spends more time to conduct a more thorough appraisal of the property. It is here that appraisers also help in assessing properties for FHA, VA, convention and jumbo loans, not to mention options that are approved by national giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In case of investors, they look out for properties that have been specially appraised by appraisers before they decide in invest. This is why an appraisal is needed, even if it does cost some money. The appraiser is also able to give you details of how the land being appraised can be put to the best use and if the area is zoned, so that the value from the land is maximized. These are critical appraisals because they can make or break real estate deals just like that and perhaps even deny financing options. If you are staying in a neighborhood where properties are slow moving in the real estate market, you have to look at an appraisal before deciding to put up your house for sale.

Finding Real Estate Bargains

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:38:04 +0000

The housing boom of 2002 to 2006 caused an amazing burst of beautiful homes to be built, buyers let into the market with lending standards based on imaginary incomes and adjustable rate ticking time bomb mortgages; while this was a story that played out across the country, it happened to hit Central Florida in spectacular fashion. There are entire subdivisions with bank foreclosure signs that have popped up like dandelions, as more homeowners, having come to the conclusion that the loan on their home is worth more than the home is worth, are walking away.

For real estate investors, or people looking to get into the housing market, there may never be a better time to get a home in the Orlando area. Houses are large, and on well situated lots, because during the crazy years leading up to 2007, everyone was obsessed with ‘bigger and better’. Deals can be had, and they can be had for some interesting terms.

All that said, while the opportunity is golden if you’ve got cash to spend (or are one of the diminished handful that can get credit sufficient to cover a mortgage), there are extra hurdles to jump through to buy a home. There are enough extra hassles in buying a distressed property that you may want to have an expert along for the ride; this can make the difference between getting a stunning deal and a merely good one. Distressed home sales run through a number of steps – the earliest one is called a short sale. In a nutshell, a homeowner who’s behind on his mortgage, and unable to find a buyer who will pay what’s left on the debt to take over the house will try to act as the intermediary between a prospective buyer willing to pay less, and a bank which may be willing to take less rather than go through the process of a formal foreclosure. This type of sale starts to show up when housing prices fall or merely stagnate.

The win-win-win scenario in a short sale is that the seller doesn’t torpedo their credit from walking away from the house, the bank loses less money than if they foreclosed on the house, and the buyer gets a house for a significant discount. In a number of Orlando neighborhoods, houses in a short-sale situation can be had for as much as 40% 50% or 60% off of their present appraised value.

What short sales aren’t are fast. Each party in the three-way transaction has their own interests to watch out for, and none of those interests are conducive to a fast transaction. The bank needs to assess how much of a loss they’re willing to take to cut out on the transaction, the buyer wants to push the price down as far as he can, and the seller wants to keep the price as high as possible to preserve his credit rating. Expect this to take four to nine months to resolve, and longer if the property has multiple mortgages.

So, as a home buyer, expect to exercise patience. Because of the collapse of the housing sector, even assessing proper values on a home can be tricky. The largest discounts on short sales are for very large houses; houses in the $300,000 or less range (and many condominiums) are holding their value well. Also, as with all things dealing with real estate, location and neighborhoods have an impact on top of this.

Another thing to consider, when buying a distressed property, is how much you’ll have to spend to get it livable, or ready for resale. While some people made a lot of money flipping houses during the real estate bubble, this is a different market. If you’re buying a house as an investment property, you’re better off holding the long view on its value. Finding a new buyer in today’s market is a challenge to say the least.

Still, Central Florida remains a destination of choice, and for people who are buying a home to retire in, or a vacation home, distressed properties are a window of opportunity at the moment.