Living on the Columbia River

By visiting your local Vancouver Realtor, you can review the unbelievable for sale listings showing homes with breathtaking views of the Columbia River, the City and Mountains.  Homes ranging all the way to upscale luxurious with amenities not seen in many homes anywhere. These are custom designed and custom built homes with features like private theatres, wine rooms, master suite fireplaces,and many outdoor upper end features like retractable pool covers, steam showers, complete outdoor kitchens and more. A visit to your local Vancouver Realtor and looking at the MLS listings will offer many of these beautiful homes that are available right now.

Tweet

Some Common Myths About Our Credit

If you are considering purchasing a Vancouver Home or a piece of  Portland Real Estate, be sure you are well informed today about how credit ratings work and are more aware of our own credit rates.

• If we have a lot of cash in the bank and a great income, a great job, we will always qualify for a home loan. No matter how much cash you have, or how much money you make, if you want a mortgage loan, you must meet the lender’s FICO score guidelines, and those guidelines are getting tougher and tougher.
• If we have no late pays and basically no debt that we will not have a problems getting credit. False! Financial responsibility and good credit are two different things completely. Having no credit accounts or debts doesn’t give you good credit, it gives you NO credit.
• Another misconception: By checking your own credit score before filling out an application at the bank, because you can make sure you have no negative surprises. The fact is that the bank or mortgage loan originator must run their own independent of your credit report and it might very well have a different score and other line items that the one you ran on yourself. Another myth: If you have had a foreclosure or a short sale on your record, you will not be able to get any credit for at least 7 years. This depends on your particular circumstances.In some cases your credit score can be rehabilitated enough to secure certain credit.
• Having a short sale show up on your credit report will have less impact than having a foreclosure show up on it. The fact is: Short sales and foreclosures have the same impact on your credit score, according to the credit reporting agencies. There are exceptions and your own particular circumstances can determine which way the agencies will rate you.

Tweet

Vancouver Offers Many Gated Communities

Gated communities and home developments have become very popular in recent years and for good reasons, however there are some things that should be considered prior to making that big move. These communities can be found in numerous Vancouver Neighborhoods.

• Gated home communities such as Steamboat Landing offer advantages that traditional neighborhoods can’t offer like security, little or no through traffic problems, safer environment for children to play, and lower crime rates where the gates are actually guarded. In the cases where the gates do not have guards on duty, one car can simply follow another car through the gates when they open with no problem.

• On the down side, every time you have to call for a needed service like appliance repair, or cable outage, TV repair, you will have to let in the service truck and that can be annoying. The same is true when you order anything delivered to your home.

Property values hold up better and there seems to be more pride in ownership in gated communities however. Many gated communities have homeowner associations and additional fees to be paid, and certain restriction may apply. Many things to look into before making a decision on buying a home in any gated community

Tweet

What is more improtant? The House or the Vancouver Neighborhood

Sometimes when we decide that we are going to relocate,we look and look at a diverse selection of homes, in many different neighborhoods such as  Edgewood Park and find out that there are many choices, and narrowing down the choices can get complicated by the fact that many nice homes are available today in the Vancouver area.

There are many modern and updated older homes available in older neighborhoods, most of them somewhat smaller than the newer and more recently built homes in the newer neighborhoods or developments. The older homes tend to be larger and have all of the modern amenities, and some are sitting on much larger lots. The newer homes are much smaller in size, modern and sitting on much smaller pieces of land.

Making a decision on which type of property to purchase can be difficult and you must consider several things.

• If you are purchasing a home just for the resale value and the home you are interested in is in an older neighborhood with upper end values and you can get that home at a great price then it may be a great buy.
• Are the other homes in the same neighborhood similar and updated as the one you are interested in?
• Overall, is the neighborhood on the upswing or on the decline?
• Have you spent time in the neighborhood?
• Walked the sidewalks at evening and during the night hours to see what it like?
• Are there traffic problems and a lot of noise or party noise? What about crime rates?
• Are there children in the neighborhood?
• How are the lawns and yards maintained?
• Does the city maintain the streets well and keep it clean?
• Spend some time in the neighborhood and even talk to the people living there and ask questions and you will soon find out if you want to live there or not.

Tweet

Shopping Around for a Mortgage Loan

When purchasing a new home in Vancouver or the Portland area, be sure you shop around to find the best deal in mortgage loans. Compare all of the costs involved and specifically the origination costs. Those costs can be as little as zero dollars and go all the way up to thousands.

Call Terrie, she  is an experienced Vancouver Real Estate professional for many years and has built relationships with numerous lender in our area. So talk with Terrie and she can guide you to the best Mortgage Bankers in the Vancouver or Portland Area.

Tweet

Next Page »