Luczak Group - The Blog

Information for happenings in the Real Estate Market in the Pikes Peak Region... and some things we just find interesting!

Tips for Home Buyers

The Financial Corner - January

Happy New Year!! In an effort to constantly improve information provided to our clients, we will present a monthly blog on financial information useful to buying or selling a home. We will call it “The Financial Corner”. This is the first in a series of twelve monthly blogs for the Financial Corner – and it provides basic guidelines to getting approved for a mortgage loan. Hope it provides you with useful information. Continue reading ...

Tips for Home Buyers

Frequently Asked Questions For Buying HUD Homes

What Is A Property Condition Report? An initial Property Condition Report (PCR) is immediately ordered when the property becomes part of HUD's inventory. This process is a visual inspection of the property and a plumbing pressure test. The PCR is not prepared by a certified inspector; therefore, no warranties are made in conjunction with the report. The preparation of the PCR is not a home inspection and is not intended as a replacement for the home inspection. Buyers are strongly encouraged to hire a professional inspector to complete a full home inspection. Continue reading ...

Tips for Home Buyers

Fighting Foreclosures: Homebuilders Point to Pitfalls

Homebuilders trying to fight off customers’ attraction to cheap foreclosures are doing more to show buyers that the good deals can come with pitfalls. The companies are increasingly trying to woo buyers like Arizona couple Katie and Mike Zwanziger, hoping that warnings about unknown repairs, limited selection and haggling with banks might help them recover from the most dismal year for new home sales in more than 50 years of record-keeping. Continue reading ...

Tips for Home Buyers

How to Utilize REIT to Buy Real Estate

A real-estate investment trust is known by the acronym, REIT. Stockholders who have invested in property-investment corporations receive dividends, which signify profit gained from rent and other fees. REITs correspond negatively with the NASDAQ Composite Index and seem to do well when other stocks don’t. They suffered greatly in the late 1990s, but have made a successful comeback in the bear market that began 10 years ago. Continue reading ...

Tips for Home Buyers

Choosing a Home with Resale Appeal... Part 1

Without doubt, the perfect time to think of promoting Colorado Springs real estate houses is before you get it. The truth is, there’s a saying in skilled real estate circles that, “You make your capital when you obtain.” Unlike prior generations, today’s house owners will ordinarily sell their house inside 5 to seven years. That might seem like a long time within your personal individual life, however it is just minutes inside the globe of Colorado Springs real estate sales. Continue reading ...

Tips for Home Buyers

Lease/Option vs. Contract for Deed

Lease/Option vs. Contract for Deed by Attorney William Bronchick Many investors are generally familiar with the concepts lease option and contract for deed (aka “installment land contract”). Many investors confuse the two, and this article will help you understand the tax, legal, and practical issues between the two. Lease Options First, let’s start with the lease option, which is really two things, a lease and a purchase option. A lease is a contract for the use and possession of land, creating a landlord/tenant (or “lessor/lessee”) relationship. Continue reading ...

Tips for Home Buyers

Why It's Safe To Buy Homes Again

It's no secret: We've just been through an economic nightmare. And it was all because of a corruption of the American Dream. What caused the mortgage mess? Instead of being the blessing that promised wealth, independence and self-determination, homeownership became a shackle that still ensnares nearly 11 million Americans. These are the souls who now live with the burden of negative home equity. You know the story. Ultralow interest rates, caused by Federal Reserve errors and Chinese currency manipulation, encouraged a housing boom, the greatest of all bubbles and the resulting fallout. Unemployment. The bank bailouts. The automaker bailouts. The stimulus package. Even the European debt crisis. But that's old news. And many, including value investor and hedge fund operator Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital, who made billions shorting housing-related bond insurer MBIA (MBI, news, msgs) in the last days of the boom, are now calling for its resurrection. In a leaked research report titled "How To Make A Fortune," Ackman doesn't just say the path to wealth through homeownership has been restored. He says this road has seldom been easier. Continue reading ...

Tips for Home Buyers

How to Pay Bi-Weekly Mortgage the Right Way

I first heard about biweekly mortgage payment plans when I became a homeowner, and although it sounded like a brilliant way to save, it seemed as if I had more than enough on my plate as a new homeowner than to try to figure out how to join such a plan. As a personal finance column from the Los Angeles Times explains, paying off your mortgage biweekly rather than monthly can shave years off the life of your loan and save you thousands of dollars in interest — just because of the one extra mortgage payment you make each year. However, it sounds like I wasn't the only one who was wary of these payment plans, since it turns out that signing up for such a plan through your lender might not be the most cost-effective way to make those payments. Continue reading ...

Tips for Home Buyers

Open House Tips

**** Open House, Saturday 11-4  6349 Baxter Drive, Colorado Springs, CO  80923 ****

Often potential home buyers will get a jump on the process by attending open houses in the neighborhood or neighborhoods that they are interested in.  This is a great idea and helps in a couple ways: 1) it gives the buyer a good idea of what homes in certain areas cost.  It's extremely important for buyers to understand what they are getting into cost wise.  2) It gives them a chance to shop among the potential agents hosting the open house.  This is a good and bad thing.  It can certainly give the buyer an option to shop around and find an agent they have a chemistry with... it also gives the buyer a chance to get a high- pressure showing of a house.  Here are some tips for home buyers that will make for a no-pressure, easy open house experience.

1.  Don't be shy- Although qualified buyers are like gold in this market, agents are also nervous about dealing with potential clients.  Don't be shy, they want to provide you a service, not hard sell you.
2.  Be Up Front- if you have an agent, or are not interested in working with an agent, be up front about it.  Tell the agent right away that you are not interested in buying, and that you are just looking.
3.  Make yourself at home- Act as if you are seeing a house with your agent, or alone.  You are certainly allowed to look around and take an in depth look at the house.  The agent (and home seller) wants you to.
4.  Fill out Correct information-  If you are asked to sign in or give the agent your information, do so properly.  Filling out a fake name or fake information is not helpful to anyone, and as long as you are straight forward with your intention, you wont receive constant calls or bothersome emails.
5.  ENJOY!!!!  Previewing homes is fun!  Have fun with it.