Given the nature of a condominium, mortgage lenders may have a stricter guideline when advancing credit to you. A condominium is an apartment that the owner owns as opposed to renting. Commonly, a condominium owner still shares the amenities in the apartment building with other owners but is legally entitled to their apartment.

It is important to understand the regulations that lenders have before looking for a mortgage for the condo.This is important especially if you plan to resell the condo as potential buyers will want to understand the loan condition of the condo. In case you want some help on this you can contact a mortgage loan administrator for specific guidelines for particular mortgage products.

Ensure the Condo Federal Housing Administration Approved – Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans are frequently being used right now by borrowers with less down payment money available.Ensuring that the condo is FHA loan approved allows you to use the loan service when buying or for any potential buyers to use the service when you resell.

Beware of Building Rental Limits – Simply put, can you move out and rent the condo to someone else? This is vital for two reasons, in case you already have a house and want to use the condo as an extra source of income then it should not have rental limits and two, in case you resell, you potential buyers may be turned off by rental limit clauses.However, the bank may not see it this way and would rather extend a loan to an owner’s only condo.

Check for Pending/Active Litigation – Condos that have open cases in court will not attract any mortgages. this is because the case can result in change of ownership of the complex. Because case can take years to complete, you are better off looking elsewhere in case you are in a hurry or don't mind something else.Also be careful in case the condo oeners are considering possible litigation.

Check for the Rate of Defaulters– Some mortgage institutions have tight regulations or the number of adjacent condo owners that can be ion default in the complex at any particular time to their Home Owners Association (HOA) dues. Reviewing HOA documentation is a good precaution against this.

Go Through the Reserve Study and HOA Future Repair Funds – Condos are annually checked for the lifespan of the various installed systems and the expected costs for repair matched against the HOA funds reserved for this purpose,. In case the reserves are low, mortgage lenders may not advance you a mortgage. You must also ensure that the HOA reserves for the condo you are planing to buy are adequate to avoid rejection by a mortgage lender.

In case you are in the market to buy or sell a condo in Eastside, WA, please contact Hamid for assistance and consultation on the email and telephone number provided.

Congratulations for moving into your new home. Moving can be a tiring period of frantic work and readjustment. As you settle down, we have compiled a checklist that you can use to ensure you get up to speed in your new home with ease.

The Utilities- Confirm that your utility accounts are active and registered to you. This is important so that you get your bills on time and avoid embarrassing service disruptions. Sometimes, all you need is to confirm with your real estate agent that these accounts are set up.Typical accounts include the garbage collection, piped gas, electricity, water and sewer. In case you need to open your account, remember to give the correct details. You can also check if the home security system is on and the account activated.

Get New Locks– To be sure that you are the only people with access to your home, it's a advisable that you change the locks in your new home,. This is easy to overlook, but can be a vital step in securing your home and loved ones. You can schedule a locksmith to visit and replace the locks and get some extra keys for everybody while you are at it.

Clean Up – In case the real estate agent did not meet your standards of cleanliness, that may be the next step of action.You can schedule a thorough clean up that includes cleaning furniture and the subsequent a rearrangement of your home.

Perfect Time for a Paint Job – while most rooms are unoccupied, you should have each room painted to reflect your color preferences. This is also easy because you can paint the house based on your family's preferences before moving in.

Change your Address – In many instances, you may have some regular correspondence and subscriptions that are regularly delivered to your address. Changing the address to a new address as soon as you move can prevent the loss of vital subscriptions and correspondence.

Get the Window Coverings – As soon as your paint job is done, you should get your draperies and window blind up. It improves your privacy and sense of exclusivity. Also, you really don’t want your neighbors peeping into all your home goings on.

Track your Home Expenses-you should have a way of checking the expenses that occur in your home for accountability purposes. Enjoy your new home.

Contact Hamid in case you need some assistance and consultation in buying a new home in Eastside, WA.

If you have been looking to buy a home recently, chances are you have heard the words "Short Sale" floating around quite a bit. In fact, in some markets, as many as 75% or so of homes on the market are advertised as "short sales". The truth is, that short sales, approved short sales, and the like are a bit of a complicated process, but hopefully today we can clear up some of that confusion for you.

A short sale occurs when the value of the property is less than what the owner owes on the loan on the property, and the seller has a financial hardship that will make them unable to make up the difference between the sale price of the house and the mortgage balance. The thing about short sales is that the lender or lenders must agree to the sale.

There are certain things to remember when trying to purchase a short sale home. Just because a home is listed as a short sale doesn't mean that it has been approved by the bank. Until the bank receives an offer from a prospective buyer, they will not begin the process of approving the short sale. Due to this fact, closing time on short sale homes can be a notoriously long wait. The short sale approval process has a ton of steps and can take forever. In a lot of cases, buyers will give up on a short sale home and move on to purchase something else just due to the long wait for approval. So, if you are thinking of buying a short sale home, make sure you have patience, and a good real estate agent.

Sometimes the buyer sticks around until the short sale approval is issued, but then has to cancel for other reasons. Sometimes short sale homes come with a long list of stipulations, including need of repairs that the bank won't pay for, the buyer doesn't end up qualifying for the loan, etc.. Sometimes the bank will not accept the offer the buyer made on the house. On short sale homes, the bank might want to get reasonably close to market value out of the home.

Now, this is where the term "Approved Short Sale" comes into play. In an approved short sale, everyone except the prospective buyer have completed their portions of the work. This is usually what happens when the previous buyer falls through. The good thing is, if you choose an APPROVED short sale home, you have a better chance of going straight to closing and contract, no 2-5 month waits that you are likely to experience with a regular short sale! The important thing to remember is that if you offer less than the approved price, the process will have to start all over again. So, it's only quick and easy if you are willing to pay the approved price.

In short, remember that a short sale and an approved short sale are two VERY different things. By choosing a reputable real estate agent like Hamid Ali, you can navigate through the sometimes confusing home buying processes much more easily!

If you are buying a home, you should get used to hearing the term Hud-1 Settlement Statement. You will be hearing a lot about it on your home buying journey and it can be a little bit confusing, to say the least. Today we are going to try to navigate through the Hud-1 Settlement Statement to try to help you understand a bit more about it.

HUD is the government branch for Housing and Urban Development. The folks at HUD handle all housing, home ownership and development of property legislation in the USA. The HUD-1 Settlement Statement is a three page document that every home buyer receives when they borrow money to purchase a home or property. You may also hear the HUD-1 Settlement Statement referred to as simply the Hud-1,Settlement Statement, Closing Sheet, or Closing Statement. All of these terms refer to the same document.

When you get the HUD-1 Statement, you should take pride in knowing it is one of the final steps before becoming a certified homeowner. The HUD-1 will be used by the closing agent as a way to itemize and explain all fees associated with your home loan. The point of the HUD-1 is to give both the buyer and the seller a detailed list of all of their incoming and outgoing funds.

You must receive the HUD-1 at least one day before closing on your new home. You need to make very sure to review the documents carefully before closing, both on your own, and with your agent. You want to make sure that there are no errors, and that all the facts and figures on the Hud-1 match up to the figures you were provided with in your Good Faith Estimate. Make sure that you understand all of the figures completely before you sign off on it.

There are three pages to the Hud-1 Settlement Statement. The first page is a two column list. The buyer's details will be listed on the left hand side, and the seller's details on the right hand side. The first page is basically summarizing all of the fees and credits that are being processed during the transaction. Each line on the document is numbered, like something you might have seen before on income tax forms.

Some of the things you will find on the top of page one will be housekeeping information like the type of loan/loan ID number, all the personal contact information for the buyer and seller, etc. The next section will be numbered as the 100's which will detail the amounts due for the property, and a total that you owe for the purchase of the home. The next section is the 200's, which will detail the amount paid by the buyer or borrowed on behalf of the buyer, including any deposits and the principle amount of the loan. The 300's will detail the cash that is due from the buyer at closing. The 400's will detail the total amount due to the seller for the purchase of the home. The 500's will include any reductions such as closing costs, taxes, etc. The 600's will detail any cash at the settlement that is due to the seller or from the seller. That will conclude the first page of the HUD-1.

The second page of the HUD-1 is also a two column list, this time a detailed run down of all of the fees and charges associated with the closing of the property. The 700's will be all of your broker fees, the 800's are any items payable in connection with your loan, such as appraisal fee, credit report fee, etc.. The 900's are items that the lender requires to be paid in advance, such as interest charges, homeowner's insurance fees, etc. The 1000's are the reserves that are deposited with the lender. These include all of the escrow payments, etc. The 1100's will detail any title charges, while the 1200's will be for the transfer charges and government recording charges. The 1300's are reserved for additional settlement charges, and finally the 1400's will be the total settlement charges.

The third and final page of the HUD-1 is all about the Good Faith Estimate or GFE. The HUD charges will be listed right along side the GFE charges so it will be easy to spot anything that might be wrong, or any errors that you will need to take a look at. The very last section will detail all of the loan terms and a little more info about penalties. That will be the conclusion of your HUD-1 Settlement Statement. It may sound a bit confusing, but choosing a good real estate agent like Hamid Ali can help you navigate through the process much easier!

Earnest Money. You may have heard the term before, but perhaps you aren't sure what it actually means. Sometimes it is referred to as simply earnest, or as an earnest payment. Today we are going to tell you everything you need to know about earnest money. Earnest money is essentially a deposit made by a potential home buyer to show interest in the property and to impress the seller. It is meant to show good faith in a real estate transaction and to show the seller that the potential buyer is "earnestly" interested in purchasing the property. Earnest money is not a down payment, and should not be confused as such. It is money paid in addition to a down payment, or a fraction of your down payment is a good way to look at it.

How much earnest money is considered proper? Well, for starters, it should be much less than your entire down payment. If you go through with your home purchase, your earnest money will then be applied towards your down payment on your property. Think of it as another form of collateral, used to assure the buyer that you are really interested in their property and that you want for them to choose you as their buyer. The earnest payment will be presented at the time of signing your offer. The earnest payment will be held in escrow until the closing of the property, so it is neither person's "property" until closing.

Earnest money amounts vary greatly from market to market. Your earnest money deposit should be negotiated between yourself and the seller. In the Washington market, the average earnest money deposit is between 1-5%, or $10,000-$20,000 on a $500,000 purchase. There are some markets where as little as $500 or $1000 is acceptable earnest money. There really is no set amount, but you want to make sure that it is enough for you to be taken seriously as a potential buyer. Remember also that if you back out the deal at the very last minute, the earnest money could go to the seller and not back to you.There are different laws and processes regarding this. If the cancellation of the deal is the buyer's fault, then the money will usually go back to the seller. If, though, the cancellation is the seller's fault, then the money is returned to the buyer. Usually the buyer and seller will come up with an agreement so that they can disperse the earnest money fairly if there is a problem. There is a kind of tightrope that you have to walk, a fine line between putting up not enough cash and putting up so much cash that it becomes an financial risk.

Earnest money may be sort of a confusing concept, but if you are dealing with a trusted and experienced real estate agent such as Hamid Ali, you are in good hands, and you will have no problem settling on just the right amount. Your real estate agent can definitely help you come up with a good and acceptable earnest payment.

When you are buying a home, you might also have to join a homeowner's association. One thing you definitely need to do is evaluate your homeowner's association. You need to know what you are getting into, and what will be expected of you. When purchasing a home that is part of a homeowner's association, you will receive a packet of documents detailing the rules, etc. of the homeowner's association. This packet is usually called the "Public Offering Statement". Today we are going to share some tips with you on how to manage those documents and make your own evaluations of the health of a homeowner's association.

Tip #1: Visual Inspection

The very first step before even beginning to untangle the documents in the Public Offering Statement, is to visually inspect the property. You should be able to tell how well the HOA is taking care of the common areas of the property right away. Take a look around the property and notice the common areas. How well are they maintained? You should be able to notice if the walls, carpets, fixtures, etc. are well taken care of. If you notice that these things are dirty, or broken, make sure to take that into consideration. The HOA might not be handling everything that they should be. Also notice and see if the building has had any updates over the years or if they are stuck in the past.

Tip #2 Meeting Minutes

Homeowner's associations often keep written minutes of their meetings. If the homeowner's association is well-run, you will see good record keeping and recording of minutes. The signs of a well run homeowner's association will be minutes that show that the association is making improvements and spending money to improve the community. Minutes from a neglected or badly run HOA will show no real decisions being made, deferring important improvements and controversy amongst members. The minutes from HOA meetings can really tell you a lot about how they are run.

Tip #3: Operating Budget

The operating budget can really tell you a lot about the association and how it is run. A well ran HOA will always have good accounting, and you will be able to clearly see all the money coming in and as well as all money going out. A successfully ran HOA will also have a reserve fund set up for larger purchases, such as roof repairs or elevator repairs.

Tip #4: Reserve Study

A reserve study is an outside study that some HOA's have done to determine an estimate of their future expenses. It will also determine the HOA's estimated ability to pay for the expenses out of their reserve fund budget. It is optimal for the reserve budget to have enough funds to cover 70-90% of anticipated expenses. It is important to take a look at the reserve study and see how old the building is and what future repairs it might require.

Tip #5 Special Assessment

If, for any reason, a homeowner's association does not have enough money to fund large improvements, they will issue a special assessment to homeowners. The special assessment is the one time lump sum payment charged to homeowners. Sometimes if the amount is extremely large, the special assessment can be broken up into payments. If you are buying a home in a property where a special assessment is about to be issued, it should not necessarily deter you from buying the property. The improvements that special assessments are used to purchase can be substantial and can add value to your property.

Tip #6: Rules and Regulations

You should take care to research all the rules and regulations of the HOA. The rules and regulations usually cover a wide variety of topics, from acceptable paint colors, to quiet hours and rules about pets. If you are not comfortable or do not agree to the rules or regulations set in your HOA handbook, you should think long and hard about agreeing to become a resident. The rules set by a HOA are notoriously strict and hard to change.

Tip #7 Insurance Policies

The HOA is forced to take out an insurance policy that will cover the building in case of fire, etc.. You will need to examine the documents closely to determine whether or not the interior fixtures of your apartment or condo are covered. Remember that your personal possessions are never covered under the HOA's insurance policy. You need to take a copy of the HOA policy to your insurance agent and make sure that you get the right coverage for your needs.

Tip #8 Owner Occupancy

Make sure to take careful notice of how many owners live in the building, versus how many renters. A high number of renters doesn't always mean a bad situation, but you should keep in mind that sometimes owners who rent out their properties might not want to spend the money for repairs and upkeep, and their standards might be different than those of owner residents. If there are lots of owned units in a complex, it usually signifies a high rate of owner satisfaction. Think about it, if an owner likes their home, they will be less likely to rent it out, right?

Tip #9 Is the HOA Current With The Secretary Of State?

You would automatically assume that a reputable HOA would be good about renewing it's status with the secretary of state, since this is a law. But, this is not always the case. You always want to make sure that the HOA is up to date with the Secretary of State laws, etc. If they are not, you and other homeowners can become personally responsible for any liens, lawsuits, etc. That is not a situation to play around with and should be avoided at all costs.

Tip #10 Are There Any Lawsuits?

Of course, it might be hard getting this information out of the HOA. Who wants to admit to problems like lawsuits? This question might have you digging through those minutes of the board meeting to uncover, but it will be well worth your time to find our for sure. The condo certification for the lender should have a yes or no answer to this question at the very minimum.

As you can see there are a lot of things to remember when evaluating your HOA policy. By having a trusted insurance agent like Hamid Ali in your corner, you will be able to navigate through all of the paperwork and make sense of it all.