2015 BAH Rates in Jacksonville, NC

Here we are, at the end of 2014, and the question on everybody's minds is, "What's my BAH going to be in 2015??"

Well, good news, BAH rates have increased for 2015 across the board!  Some by as much as $40, some as much as $115!  And, by the way, BAH is the acronym most military personnel have become accustomed to using which simply stands for Basic Allowance for Housing. 

Military members who are assigned to a permanent duty station within the 50 United States, and are not furnished with government housing (whether due to availability or by choice) are eligible for BAH, based on rank, dependency status and permanent duty station zip code.  Some units have local rules about eligibility as well.
Another fun fact, BAH is tax free income.  Which means, for instance if your pay grade is E-4 or below and you're stationed aboard Camp Lejeune in 2015, you can receive $948 a month (unless you have dependents, then it's more!) to cover the cost of rent, tax free.  Sometimes you may incur out of pocket expenses if your bills are more than your allowance.  Budgeting can help alleviate that though!
So now, you're planning to live "out in town" or "off base" and you're receiving $948 every month (or  $11,376 a year!) to cover your living expenses.  What if you used this TAX FREE money to purchase a home, instead of renting?  Let's face it, you're going to be paying someone's mortgage, whether you're renting or buying, right?  So what would it look like, if you allowed the military to purchase your house for you?  It's the same amount of money every month, except by purchasing, you're making your money work for you by investing it in your own home.  With the current interest rates (as of today, December 22, 2014,) $948 a month will afford you about a $145,000 home, depending on taxes and insurance.

The reason I suggest this course of action, is mostly because I've done it, and I was able to invest, re-invest, and earn passive income (that's money I get every month without working, because someone is paying me to live in one of my houses!) ten years later, simply by buying a house using my BAH.  (True Story!!)

If this sounds like a sales pitch, I apologize.  It isn't.  It's only a word to the wise.  I have seen too many young service members in the last 15 years blow their money and have nothing to show for it by the time they're 30 years old.  And I want to help educate and help prepare for the future.  
If you are not living in the barracks or in base housing, you are getting at least $11,000 a year for living expenses.  Use it wisely or pay someone to live in their house.  
The choice is yours!
We'd love to help you, whether you decide to rent or buy and you can check out available homes here!  Give us a call for a free consultation to explore your options and talk about the home buying process, the Jacksonville real estate market, or investing in real estate!  910.545.0450  Click here to see the new BAH Rates for 2015!

**Just an update- had some questions about who will be receiving an increase in BAH and some discussion about certain service members not because of time in service.  According to this DOD bulletin, the BAH change is across the board.  Obviously the amount is dependent on location, rank, and whether the service member has dependents or not.

Williams Farm- Exclusive Living in Jacksonville, NC!

Welcome to the exclusive community of Williams Farm in Jacksonville, NC!  This community offers custom built homes that are sure to please with the finest amenities such as gourmet kitchens, home theaters, in ground swimming pools and more!




Homes in this neighborhood have been designed for the utmost grandeur and southern living.  The professional landscaping throughout the community perfectly compliments the architecture that defines Williams Farm.  I was showing homes to some lovely buyers this week from Virginia and they absolutely fell in love with the atmosphere and design of the neighborhood.  They complimented how clean and neat everything is and really liked how spaced out the homes are.

 They specifically wanted to find a home with at least 4,000 heated square feet, 5 bedrooms, large master bathroom, lots of garage space and kitchen to entertain.  We were lucky enough to find several homes that fit this bill and they found the perfect home, with the best spot for their Christmas tree!   

Residents enjoy the convenience of living in Jacksonville and short commutes, as well as privacy and open spaces.  The gated community offers homesites as big as two acres!  Horse lovers are welcome to the stables included in the home owners association.  
Homebuyers interested in building their own custom estate in Williams Farm have several homesites to choose from.  Make your dreams become a reality by designing your own home and enjoy the luxurious living Williams Farm has to offer.  For your personal tour of Williams Farm in Jacksonville, NC, give me a call!  910.545.0450 I'd love to show you around and find the perfect home for you in this exclusive neighborhood!

"We're closing on our house next week, let's go shopping!"

Congratulations!  You're closing on your new house!  But you haven't "closed" yet, so please, for the love of all that's neat and orderly in the world, DO NOT go shopping!

Here's why!
•If you've financed your home purchase, your lender is going to do a double check of your credit before closing.  You DO NOT want to make them redo anything, or make them mad! 
•If you're not financing your home purchase, and paying cash, the funds need to be verified before closing and any large transactions will look a little strange.  

For instance, if there is a washer/dryer set on sale, and you just have to have it!  Please wait.  That could be several hundred dollars (maybe even thousands....) that could make or break the transaction.

Here's what will happen.  If you finance the washer/dryer (say, using a Lowe's credit card,) that automatically creates more debt and changes your debt to income ratio, which can affect your interest rate, and quite possibly make your lender crazy.  They'll have to redo everything.  Is the new washer/dryer important enough to delay the closing, and sign more paperwork?  
Many lenders will require a certain amount of money "in reserves" when you're purchasing.  After all, you're asking them for hundreds of thousands of dollars, right?  They want to make sure you have at least the first mortgage payment in your bank account before they give you the money!  So if you pay cash for this washer/dryer, it could affect the amount of "assets" or "cash in reserve" that you have to bring to the closing table.

Additionally, don't expect to be able to paint, make repairs or changes, or move in furniture prior to closing.  Sometimes sellers will allow this under the right circumstances and it can be negotiated.  But standard practice is, whoever owns the house gets to make those decisions.  Turn the tables and look at it differently.  Would you allow someone to come in and paint your house, or replace your flooring, or move their stuff in, before you've officially sold it to them?  Probably not.  Better safe than sorry!

So the moral of the story is, please, please, wait until you've closed on your house until you go shopping, make changes or move in to your new home!  For a complete list of homes for sale in the Jacksonville, Richlands, Sneads Ferry, or Hubert areas of North Carolina, click here!  If you or anyone you know would like to chat about purchasing or selling a home, give me a call!  910.545.0450.  I'd love to help, and can explain more about why you should wait until after you've closed and where you can find the best deals to go shopping!!

TOP 5 Reasons Your Home Expired On The Market

This top 5 list will hopefully help those sellers out there whose home has expired on the market.  An "expired listing" is a home whose listing agreement has come to an end and the home is no longer being marketed for sale.

1.  Overpriced?
Sad, but true.  80% of marketing is pricing effectively.  Market price doesn't have any correlation to how much a person actually paid for their house a few years ago.  Ideally, market values go up and homeowners enjoy increased equity, sometimes though, that's just not the case!  Buying and Selling houses is the same as any other market.  For instance, if a gallon of milk cost 4.59 at Wal-Mart, and 2.39 at Food Lion, you'd probably buy your milk at Food Lion.  The same goes for pricing homes- you have to be priced in the market to be considered.

2.  Who was your REALTOR®?
Was your REALTOR® market savvy?  Did they understand the market trends?  Were they internet savvy?  Use social media?  Most homebuyers (92%, according to National Association of REALTORS®) begin their home search online.  So internet presence is a big deal!

3.  Competition?
What was your competition?  What was the speed of the market?  Did your REALTOR® share an absorption report with you?  An absorption report is a great tool to determine the level of competition and the tempo of the market.  This is helpful so that you know how to price your home and when to put it on the market.

4.  Showings
How available was your home for showings?  Did you decline or try to reschedule showings?  When a showing is declined or rescheduled, it almost never works out in the sellers' favor.  How did your home look when it was shown?  Was it clean, neat, decluttered and easy to show?  That's a key to selling your house.

5.  Feedback
From the showings you had, what was the feedback?  Did your REALTOR® discuss the feedback with you and suggest improvements to make it more appealing?  Or, did they negotiate with the buyer's agent to change the home to increase the chance of an offer?

It may be some, or all of these factors.  And sometimes, even the best homes don't sell the first time they're on the market.  I specialize in getting homes sold when they didn't sell before.  If you'd like a free consultation, click here, or give me a call!  910.545.0450.

I'd be happy to discuss with you how to sell your home and help you get a plan in place to get it SOLD.  Don't let your home be victim to any of these top 5 and become expired.  Let's get it SOLD.

What Sellers in Jacksonville, NC NEED to Know!

The current market conditions in Jacksonville, NC have fluctuated from what they have been, leaving sellers with a big question mark over their head.  This is a list of what sellers need to know!

1. Your Goal
First, figure out what your goal is.  Do you want to break even?  Make money?  Just get out from under it?  Move up?  Move down?
Understanding this will help put things in perspective and from there we can develop a plan to meet your goal!

2.  What the current market conditions are
In the past few years, new construction has dominated and saturated the market.  That's just not the case anymore, but it's easy to blame the way things are, on the way things have always been.  That's why you need a recent market analysis.  Sellers also need to see and understand the current market trends.
3.  What your competition is
Long gone are the days where you can base your selling price on what you paid for your house or what your neighbor sold their house for last month.  It might give you a ballpark, but it won't give you any clue as to what buyers are looking, or where.  Sellers need a report like this to help understand how much buyer activity has been in the area and in which price range.
4.  How long it will take

To develop a realistic plan, sellers need to know what the absorption rate is.  "Absorption rate" is a fancy term that means how long it will take something to sell based on how quickly things have been selling.  I use this to help sellers understand how to price, how aggressive to be, and how much competition there is.
5.  The process
No one is born with the knowledge of buying or selling a house.  That's why I'm here.  Sellers need to know the process from beginning to end with updated communication and conditions so that they can make the most informed decisions to get their house sold.

As a seller, what else do you think you need to know to sell your home in the Jacksonville, NC area?  Want an updated market analysis to understand how it effects your home's value?  Click here!  I love a good reason to get out and meet more sellers in the area and help them understand the current market in Jacksonville, NC.

TOP 5 Things FSBOs in NC Don't Know!

Working with many homeowners in the Jacksonville, NC area, I've come across dozens who are deciding to either list their home with me or sale via For Sale By Owner, aka, FSBO.  This is a list of the TOP 5 things that most FSBO homeowners don't know about selling their home!

1.  Residential Property and Home Owners Association Disclosure Statement.
This form is required by NC law to be completed by any homeowner selling a home or land in NC and provided to any potential buyer.  The instructions to complete the form, are pretty simple.  You simply choose the answer that best fits the situation, either yes, no, or no representation.  The details are listed on the form.  But the most important thing to know is, that by law, homeowners are required to provide this to potential buyers.  Even homeowners who choose the FSBO route.

2.  How many showings the competition receives.
REALTORS® in the Jacksonville, NC area have a tool to show our homeowners how many showings they can expect per week, and how many other homes were shown in comparison to theirs.  FSBOs have access to the statistics provided by the websites that they've paid to advertise on, but that doesn't include REAL market data.

3.  What typical closing costs are.
I'm going to use the analogy of the wife going grocery shopping vs the husband going grocery shopping.  Typically (in most cases, especially mine!!) the wife knows about how much ground beef, for example, to buy in a months time, and just about how much it will cost.  Send the husband to the store, he might come back with one pound of ground beef and may or may not have paid the correct price, because he might not be as familiar at purchasing groceries.  If he is, chances are he doesn't do it with regularity so he's not accustomed to the typical price to pay, where to shop for it, or how much he should buy.  The same goes for FSBOs and estimating closing costs.  There are two types of closing costs- buyer's closing costs and seller's closing costs.  The amount you paid when you purchased the house, probably isn't the same when you sell it.  Unless you're familiar with the 'going rates' and who provides the services, you might not be getting the best deal you can get.

4.  Which attorney to use....among other services.
Unless you're intimately acquainted with your attorney, or familiar with the real estate industry in Jacksonville, NC, you may not even know of an attorney that handles real estate transactions regularly.  And there is a difference between a family law attorney and a real estate attorney.  As well as title services, termite companies and repairmen.

5.  How To Negotiate Due Diligence.  
Or, for that matter, what due diligence consists of.  All to often, once we're under contract, the agreed upon terms change due to discoveries during the due diligence period.  (Say that five times fast, I dare you!!) Whether it's because the buyer's rate changed before they locked in, repairs that need to be completed prior to closing, the appraiser determines value differently, and the list goes on.  Negotiating this part of the contract can literally make or break a deal.  FSBOs that go into this blindly often walk away with less money than they anticipated, or lose the buyer.

If you're considering FSBO in the Jacksonville, or surrounding area, give me a call!  910.545.0450 I'd love to discuss your options and help you set up a successful plan to sell your home!  You don't know what you don't know!

Foreclosure Homes at the Beach!

Have you checked out the foreclosure homes at the beach lately?  Not too shabby!  I mean, if you're going to choose a home, why not a beach home.  And if you're going to choose a beach home, why not choose a foreclosure home?
The fact is, there are a ton of homes on the market in our area, and the reality is, a lot of them are foreclosures.  From a buyer's perspective, it's kind of a win-win!  A beach home + low monthly payment + possible equity + possible income producing property + (did I mention you'd be living at the beach???) = Awesome!

The home buying process doesn't change a whole lot from a conventional purchase to a foreclosure.  Buyers still have the opportunity to do their due diligence before purchasing, there may be some 'sweat equity' involved, and there is usually always the opportunity for equity in these situations.
If I told you, you could OWN a beach home for around $1500 out of pocket, would you call me crazy?  Probably, but maybe for different reasons!  But it's the truth.  And if I told you that there are some hot deals out there to keep your payment reasonable, would you believe me?  Maybe not.  And that's exactly why I'd love to show you!
If you have an afternoon in the next couple weeks, we'd love to sit and chat with you to show you that you can certainly purchase a foreclosure home at the beach and enjoy the sunrise and dolphins playing in less than two months.  True story.  Wanna know more about buying your beach house?  Call us today!