Clay Lee
Broker/Realtor®
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Resort Style Living Right in College Station
August 17th, 2011 Categories: Home Improvement & Design, Pebble Creek, Real Estate News
How many times during the hectic work week do you find yourself asking “When do I get a vacation?”
You imagine yourself relaxing by the pool with a cold drink in your hand without a care in the world.
What you imagine might look a little like this:
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Bridal Registry List: Toaster, Blender, New Home?
August 16th, 2011 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Real Estate News
Seems like asking a lot of your wedding guests, huh? With the FHA’s little known Bridal Registry program, it isn’t that wild of an idea.
Are there keys inside?
Young couples are in need of lots of items when starting their new partnership. What is one of the most important things they need? A roof over their head! Couples can start off on the right foot towards homeownership by establishing a FHA Bridal Registry account. The program, started in 1996, has been recently changed to make it easier for newlyweds to put their wedding gifts towards a home purchase. You can apply these funds towards a down payment on a FHA loan, and even earn interest before you make the purchase!
How to get started:
- Visit your choice of FHA lender and set up a savings account for the down payment
- Give your friends and family the banking info on where their gifts can be deposited
- You can even put gifts received by Uncle Joe who didn’t want to bother with the bank in the registry account
- All of the funds can be used towards a FHA down payment
- You don’t even have to tie the knot before you can close on your new home with this program!
The biggest advantage of this program is that you do not have to follow the typical rules and regulations regarding gifts that are applied to a home purchase. The program allows the funds to be used with simple documentation, no more than a letter from the lender verifying that the funds were gifts from friends and family with no business interest in you purchasing a home. That is the only kicker; builders, Realtors, and any other party that could benefit from the sale are not allowed to give to the account.
This underutilized program could help that soon to be wed couple make their first home purchase even before they walk down the aisle. Share it with friends and family that could put it to use!
For help finding that perfect first home in the Brazos Valley, give me a call @ 979.255.1839!
Clay Lee - Realtor
Century 21 Beal, Inc.
(979) 255-1839
Timeless Service, Quality, and Experience Guaranteed
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My Favorite Websites
December 18th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
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Pebble Creek Elementary Reserved Parking for The Waller Family
September 12th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
Pebble Creek Elementary School has a reserved parking space for the Waller Family? I knew there was handicapped reserved parking. And, I think I remember that the Principal has a reserved spot but who is the Waller Family?
I’m sure the school has a great reason having something to do with the school carnival and fund raising….
Do you know what the Waller Family had to do to get this spot? Please let me know! My children are no longer in Pebble Creek Elementary (grown on up to high school…) but I bet there are other parents who would also LOVE to try to get this parking space next year. If it is a fund raiser, the stakes are going up.
Congratulations Waller Family!!! Let me know how much you are enjoying your space.
Susan Hilton
CENTURY 21 Beal, Inc.
979-764-2100
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The Importance of Good Pictures When Marketing Your College Station Home
September 3rd, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
As a Realtor, I employ various marketing strategies when selling a listing. I consider marketing to be the absolute essential way to get the word out about your home. This can be anything from putting up a webpage dedicated to your home, establishing a virtual tour for it, to listing ads for it in the local home classifieds. The main factor that all of these various marketing strategies have in common is the photo. Without exceptional pictures of your home and property, none of these strategies will fully impress the potential buyer.
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College Station I.S.D.’s rezoning for the 2011-12 School Year
August 31st, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
As I recently reported, College Station will be opening two new schools in the district in the near future. Greens Prairie Elementary is set to open its doors in August 2011, and College Station High School will open in August 2012. To accomodate the opening of these new campuses, the school district has been hard at work on the daunting task of redrawing attendance zones. Not only do these attendance zones affect the new schools, they affect all College Station I.S.D. campuses - elementary through high school.
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Why College Station Homebuyers Should Be Wary of the 2-1 Buy Down
August 27th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
For those with good credit and the means, it is one of the easiest times in history to get into a new home. But for some, though the market is right, they find they just do not quite qualify for that new home loan. In a situation like this, it is tempting to consider the FHA 2-1 buy down. When a buyer applies for a loan, but doesn’t qualify for it at the current interest rate, the option of a 2-1 buy down is often put on the table. In this case, lenders will allow borrowers to temporarily “buy down” the interest rate on a mortgage. This allows a purchaser to reduce the initial interest rate on their mortgage by 2% the first year, 1% the next year, and 0% every year thereafter. (It is important to note that there is generally a fee in the form of discount points to buy down a mortgage.)
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Available College Station and Bryan Foreclosures - Act Now!
August 25th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
Home prices are starting to come down nationwide, while the foreclosure rate is rising dramatically. The number of available foreclosures in College Station, Bryan, and the surrounding areas has risen in July to include 14 additional properties on the market. While some foreclosures can be considered distressed properties, many of these cases are well-maintained homes, simply examples of owners who could not keep up the payments during these hard economic times.
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Existing-Home Sales Plunged in July, College Station and Nationwide
August 24th, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
As I reported yesterday, July was a shaky month in the College Station and Bryan real estate market. There was some positive information, such as the average sales price remaining relatively steady. Further, days a home was on the market before selling was at a record low. However, the overall climate (unlike our current Texas weather) was cold and slow. An astonishing number of new homes were listed (450) but of those homes, only 98 went under contract. This trend is not simply affecting our local communities; it is one that can be seen on a larger scale across the United States. As rough as this may seem for our area, we are still seeing better numbers in College Station and Bryan than the rest of the nation is experiencing. For the country on the whole, existing-home sales plunged to their lowest level in 15 years in July as inventories soared. The main factors affecting the current housing market include absent government support and a shaky economy.
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College Station Home Sales Report for July 2010
August 23rd, 2010 Categories: The Realtor's Life
The recently reported monthly sales for July 2010 presented much positive (and some less positive) data. Though sellers have not been receiving nearly as much good news these days as buyers (considering the historically low interest rates buyers can receive, availability of homes on the market, and bargaining power), sellers did receive a highly refreshing experience in July. The average number of days on the market for a home was drastically low this past month - coming in at only 98 days. In fact, in the College Station/Bryan market, we have not seen numbers this low in years. Even in the more prosperous summer of 2006, average days on the market topped in at 109 in both June and July. Additionally, though it has dropped a bit, the monthly average sales price has stayed relatively even over the past few years. This proves that when a home is priced accurately and marketed correctly, it will sell, regardless of the surrounding real estate conditions!
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