In a residential real estate transaction there are many terms that will need to be negotiated between you and the sellers and the closing date is one of them.  

As a buyer, you are probably ready to move-in to your new Spring Texas house tomorrow.  As the sellers can’t seem to get their stuff, out of what you are already calling your house, soon enough. 

As a seller, moving out tomorrow would be impossible because over the years you have lived in your home you have collected stuff.  Not just a little stuff but a lot of stuff.  All of it needing to be packed. Packing which certainly can not be done in just one day.

As a buyer, its impossible to try to predict what date the sellers would prefer to close on.  Instead its just best to worry about what date fits your schedule. Later you can determine a date that will work for both yours and the sellers schedules.

Where to begin?  To decide upon a date to close on, you need to ask yourself a series of questions:

• How long will it take your lender to process your loan?  30 days? 45 days?
• Do you have any upcoming trips that will have you out of town on certain days?
• Do you have to be out of your apartment or the place you are currently living by a certain date?
• Are you trying to bring the bare minimum amount of money to the closing  table?  If the answer is “Yes”, then you will want to close towards the end of the month to reduce the quantity of days you are charged interest on your home loan.
• In Spring Texas, closings take place at title companies.  Closings only occur Monday – Friday.  As the title companies are NOT open on Saturdays and Sundays nor on Holidays.  So those days are out.
• When are you wanting to move in?  If you are wanting to move in over the weekend, then ask for a closing date that falls on a Friday.

Review your answers to these questions and decide what date works best for your schedule then let the negotiations begin.  Typically negotiating the closing date is fairly easy, especially if the sellers are truly wanting to sell their Spring Texas home.  But there are other times when deciding upon a closing date turns out to be the most difficult term for buyers and sellers to reach an agreement on. 

 Read also:

• What is a sellers leaseback and should you get one?
• What stays and what goes with a Spring Texas house?

Here’s an excellent video created by Texaplex that highlights the many things Houston has to offer and why so many people have decided to call Houston and the surrounding areas “home”.

Want to know why I have decided to call this part of the U.S. “home”? Here’s my Top 20 reasons to live in Spring Texas.  The main reason I live in Spring Texas is due to its high standard of living.  The after tax living cost is 12% below the national average and the housing costs are 26% below.  Search homes for sale in Spring Texas to discover just how far your housing dollar goes.

New Form  – form 5405 is the form you need to claim the first time home buyers tax credit.  But if you purchased your Spring Texas home after November 6th, 2009,  not just any form 5405 will do.  You need to use the revised form 5405.  You can download the revised form 5405 and its instructions.  

No e-file- that’s right only snail mail will do. Due to six year old children claiming the first time home buyer tax credit, the IRS is requiring buyers to provide a copy of their HUD-1 settlement statement as proof that a house was actually purchased.  Smart idea on our government’s part to require documentation.  But not as convenient for you to claim the home buyers tax credit.

Longer wait- Due to the snail mail requirement and the IRS not being ready to process any first time home buyers tax credits until mid-February, your check will be showing up in your mailbox a couple of weeks later.  The IRS typically processes refunds in 4 to 8 weeks but early filers should expect the processing time to be 7 to 11 weeks.  

Read also:

• Home buyer tax credits: What are they? … How much are they? … When do they expire?

Top 10 list of the worst real estate advertising phrases found in the Spring Texas MLS

10.  Opportunity of a lifetime

9.   Must see to appreciate

8.  Motivated Sellers, bring all offers

7.  You can’t go wrong at this price

6.  Home will sell itself

5.  This home will take your breath away

4.  This house is to die for

3.  Hurry, this one won’t last long

2.  Honey, stop the car

1.  A real cream puff

If your real estate listing contains one of these advertising phrases it could be the reason behind your house not selling.

Read also:

• Does your real estate listing have Web Appeal?

Before you put your house on the Spring Texas real estate market you should go and stand at the curb and take a good long look at your house.  What message will your house be sending to potential buyers? 

Does your house say “Welcome!  My owners love me.  They have maintained and cared for me.  They have kept me clean and painted and updated my appearance.”

or

Does your house say “My owners are too busy to take care of me.  I know they wanted to take care of me but they could just never find the time.” 

Whether you are going for a job interview, on a first date, or selling your home first impressions count.  Give your house curb appeal and you will have buyers falling in love with it at the curb.    

Read also:

• Top 30 things to do before putting your home on the Spring Texas real estate market
• How to increase your list price and attract more buyers

Where exactly are these red light cameras?  The Texas Tribune has a cool interactive map that shows where all the red-light cameras are located in Houston Texas and the surrounding areas. 

They also have data on a per light basis of the quantity of red light citations issued, the estimated revenue of these citations, the number of crashes, and the number of red light related crashes. 

The closest red light cameras in the Spring Texas area are located by the Willowbrook Mall (one of our regional malls).  The cameras are located at F.M. 1960 & Texas 249 Southbound and F.M. 1960 & Texas 249 Northbound. The data available for these locations was from the time period of July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. 

I have first hand knowledge of the traffic around the Willowbrook Mall area but I was still surprised with the quantity of citations issued.  At the F.M. 1960 & Texas 249 Southbound intersection 2,147 citations were issued for an estimated revenue of $112,718 and at the F.M. 1960 & Texas 249 Northbound intersection 4,121 citations were issued for an estimated revenue of $216,353.  During a 12 month period 6,268 citations were issued at these two intersections.  That’s a lot of tickets issued for running red lights.

One more thing to know about the red light cameras is you do not receive a pardon just because you performed a rolling stop before turning right on a red light.  As far as the camera is concerned stop means stop!

Read also:

• Tips on navigating the roads in Spring Texas
• State Law prohibits cell phone use in Spring Texas school zones

The purpose of the new GFE (Good Faith Estimate ) is to help make shopping for a home mortgage easier for borrowers and the purpose of the new HUD-1 (Housing Urban Development -1  settlement statement) is to make comparing the GFE to the settlement statement easier.  Both really good things for borrowers and changes that were long overdue.

The new GFE is a huge improvement over its predecessor and it should make it easier for borrowers to compare the loans terms amongst various lenders.  

What was wrong with the OLD GFE that the NEW GFE fixes?

1.  Standardization.  Previously the GFEs provided by lenders did not look the same making it difficult … if not impossible to compare GFEs from different lenders. 

2.  Identification of fee originator.  The old GFE did not identify whether a fee was charged by the lender, the title company, or the insurance company.  If lender 1 estimated lower third party charges than lender 2, you were lead to believe that you would be spending less money by using lender 1.  As a borrower you were left trying to make decisions based upon misleading information.  

3. Lender charges reduced to two items. Its a whole lot easier to identify the bottom line or the bottom number when all of the lender’s charges are rolled up into just two line items.  Previously you had a list of 8 to 10 separated out charges which would be okay if Lender A called his charges the same as Lender B but that was not case. Lender A would call it a processing charge and Lender B would call it an administrative charge.

The amount of the lenders charges on the GFE have to match exactly to the HUD-1 / closing statement.  They can not change. 

4.  Terms of loan are front and center.  The old GFE did not identify if the interest rate on a borrowers loan could increase, if the loan has a balloon payment, or if there was a prepayment payment.  These are all identified now on page 1 of the GFE in the Summary of your loan section.  Below is an example.

The GFE does freeze the origination charge but it does not commit the lender to the rates and points shown on the GFE.  The rates and points on the GFE are not final until they are locked by the lender. If the loan has been locked when the borrower receives the GFE, the GFE will show the lock period of usually 30 to 60 days. 

5.  Limits placed on fees changes.  The new GFE also changes the way in which third-party charges are disclosed. HUD has imposed strict limits on how much the GFE figure can change. Some charges like the origination fee can not change at all. Others like the title search fee can change but by no more than 10 percent. If the numbers on the HUD1 / closing statement are outside their allowable tolerance levels, the parties can still close but the lender has to fix the discrepancy within 30 days.

Below are the three pools that every fee on the GFE has to be placed into.

If certain charges increase between the GFE and the HUD1 settlement statement then a new GFE must be provided and the buyers must wait 3 days before closing.  By restricting the quantity of fees that can change at closing and limiting the potential increase of fees, there will fewer unpleasant surprises at the closing table for home buyers.

6. ONLY identifies the borrowers monthly principal + interest and mortgage insurance premium. This is a MISTAKE.  The old GFE provided an estimate to the borrower of his TOTAL monthly payment including homeowners insurance and real estate taxes plus principal + interest, and mortgage insurance premium.  If you are going to buy a home in Spring Texas you need to know how much your monthly payment is going to be not just a portion of your monthly payment.  This is the only beef I have with the new GFE.

Click on the links to view the new GFE  and the new HUD-1.  One more thing …. if you want to find out more about the GFE and the HUD, you can read the Shopping for your home loan booklet published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

If you are going to eat cheese fries you want them to be really good otherwise they are just wasted calories.  A good example of wasted calories is Sonic’s cheese fries. Their cheese fries are limp fries with a small amount of cheese sauce on top.  After you have eaten the first layer all the cheese is gone and all that remains are fries.  Even the fries with the cheese are not that good. 

So who has the best cheese fries in Spring Texas?  Cheddars.  Before Cheddars opened its doors for business at 21001 Interstate 45 in Spring Texas in spring of 2009, Outback Steakhouse had the best cheese fries.  But that was in the past and now the best cheese fries are at Cheddars.

What makes Cheddar’s cheese fries so great?  For starters, you get a lot of cheese fries for a very reasonable price of $5.99.  But price isn’t everything.  If they don’t taste great, it doesn’t matter how reasonable the price is. 

The fries part of the cheese fries are crispy and thin but not too thin like Steak n Shake’s fries.  Next they are covered with two types of melted cheese.  Not cheese sauce but melted cheese. Plus there is enough cheese to have cheese with the first layer of fries and the bottom layer of fries.  Then they are topped with crispy bacon and served with ranch dressing.  

Crispy fries with enough melted cheese to cover all of the fries with crispy bacon and ranch dressing makes Cheddars the place for the best cheese fries in Spring Texas.

Read also:

• Who has the best Mexican food in Spring Texas?
• Where to get great oysters on the half shell

In a nutshell, the changes which will become effective sometime this summer are:

1.  Maximum seller contribution to buyers closing costs reduced from 6% to 3% of the sales price. Of the three changes to FHA home loans, the reduction in the amount sellers can contribute to a buyers closing costs has the biggest impact.  But even the impact of this change is going to be small. 

 A few years ago, it was common practice for buyers to essentially roll their closing costs and prepaids into their loan but these were the good old days.  With the extra scrutiny on appraisals, buyers are no longer able to add the 4% to 5% in closing costs and prepaids on top of the sales price and still have the house appraise. 

2. Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium raised from 1.75% to 2.25%.  The 0.5% increase will be a small increase in a home buyer’s monthly payment.  For example on a $150,000 loan the $0.5% increase would be $750.  The Mortgage Insurance Premium can be added to the loan amount.  

So at today’s interest of 5%, an increase of $750 in the loan amount would increase a home buyer’s monthly payment by $4.03.  Less than the cost of a combo meal at the majority of fast food restaurants.

3.  If a borrower’s FICO score is below 580, the borrower would be required to put 10% down instead of 3.5%.  Requiring borrowers to have a higher credit score to qualify for a minimum down payment of 3.5% is going to be of moot impact. The majority of lenders already require borrowers to have a minimum credit score of 600 or 620 to qualify for a FHA home loan.  Even if the borrower was willing to put 10% down there are very few lenders who are willing to give him a loan.

If you are going to be a first time home buyer and planning on getting an FHA loan what does all these changes mean to you?  

If you are planning on buying before summer, these changes will not impact you. The changes would have been made after you purchased your home in Spring Texas.

If you are planning on buying a home after spring, then you better be ready to bring more money to the closing table.  Because the sellers will only be able to contribute a maximum of 3% to your closing costs and prepaids which will leave you footing the tab for the remaining 1% to 1.5%.

Read also:

• How do damage points affect your FICO credit score?
• First time home buyers tax credit, what is it, how much is it, and when does it expire?

In Spring Texas winter is our bragging season and my family who live in Illinois certainly know this to be true.  A typical Illinois winter is windy with finger numbing low temperatures in the teens and twenties and several snowfalls.  A typical Spring Texas winter is very pleasant with daily high temperatures in the sixties and a mixture of sunshine and rain. 

During the winter my telephone conversation with my sister will start off innocent enough with “How are you doing?  How are the kids?”  She will reply “Great.  Kids are doing fine. They called off school today because of the frigid temperatures and the 5 inches of snow we received last night.”   

This is when bragging season officially begins.  The conversation continues with me saying “It’s really cold here today too.  So cold I had to wear a coat today.”  During the winter months my family and I have will have numerous conversations about the weather.  All of the conversations will be pretty much the same with them suffering through another cold winter and me bragging about our mild temperatures.

My family is always very happy for winter to end and spring to arrive.  But I don’t know if it is because they are tired of the snow and cold temperatures or they are tired of hearing me brag about the weather in Spring Texas.  Winters in Spring Texas are one of the top 20 reasons why I live in Spring Texas.

Read also:

• Month to Month average temperatures for Spring Texas