5 Things to Know about Buying A House at A Golf Course

The idea of life on a golf course is a dream to many prospective homebuyers. Through each window, a golf course can create lush picture-perfect views of vast, meticulously maintained lawns. In fact, in many neighborhoods and towns, golf course homes offer the best vistas available. Another benefit is that houses are often sited so that neighbors are not directly visible, and all views face the fairway. Best of all, for avid golfers, owning a house at a golf course means that their next round of play is right outside.

In home buying, what seems ideal seldom is. It’s important to consider the pros and cons of living next to a golf course, especially if you’ve never lived on a course. Here are the top five things to keep in mind when hunting for your golf course home:

1. Courses are maintained, early and often. Lawns must be cut and tended to in the morning, before rounds are played. That means that groundskeepers are out on the course before sunrise. In places with a year-round golf season, putting greens are usually maintained every day. If a master bedroom window faces a green, headlights from golf carts and riding mowers will blaze through. The engine noises will be heard as well.
The fix: If you’re a sound sleeper, no worries. If you’re a light sleeper, make sure that your home is located on a fairway and relatively distant from greens and tee boxes that require more maintenance. Select a property that positions your master bedroom away from the course or look for window treatments such as blackout curtains. You may even want to consider investing in a white noise machine.
2. Pay attention to location of cart paths when house hunting. Many courses built in residential developments are lined on both sides by houses. The path for golf carts will run along one side of the fairway from tee box to green. If a cart path is directly behind a home, golf carts will be zipping by all day. This can be more than a little disruptive to the otherwise serene setting a golf course affords.
The fix: Proximity to a cart path does affect housing lot desirability and this should be reflected in the price of a home. Sometimes a house in one of these “high-traffic areas” will be a great deal. Good landscaping can block out some disturbance, but will also block views from the ground level. Smart positioning of outdoor features like decks, pools, hot tubs and other water features is a must to minimize the disruption of carts zooming by.
3. Tee boxes and greens are regular stopping points. Every golfer will park his or her cart at every tee box and putting green during a round of play. If a house is located near these course elements, players will be stopping near your home throughout the day. Their chatting and laughter will be audible, and their loud golf pants will be visible. If a house is on a cart path near a tee box or green, carts will park on the path regularly.
The fix: Where there’s a golf course, there are golfers. This will always be true. So when viewing a house at a golf course, always sit out back or facing the course and wait for a foursome to play through. Take note of where they park their carts and how much noise they make while playing. If you’re not comfortable with the noise and motion of the golfers, then the house is not for you.
4. Understand all of the deed restrictions. One of the potential cons of living next to a golf course is that homes are almost always in deed-restricted communities where certain aspects of home maintenance and modification are regulated by a homeowners’ association (HOA). In order to maintain a certain look and feel of the course, house exterior paint colors usually need to be selected from a limited palette. You probably can’t put a swing set in your backyard, facing the course. Landscaping requirements may mandate that a certain density of trees be planted on your property and which species are acceptable – this may seem un-American, but it is rather common. In golf course communities, homeowners tend to have visible pride of ownership and take these rules very seriously. Golfers who can see your house from the course may complain to the community or HOA if they notice that you’re behind on maintenance.
The fix: If you like the feel of a neighborhood, aspects of the deed restrictions probably appeal to you. It means that many qualities of the neighborhood will be retained for years. Always request the HOA documents and read through them when contemplating the purchase of a golf course house that is part of a deed-restricted community. These documents are often available online. If the rules don’t work for you, look elsewhere.
5. Golf course land is often off-limits for non-golf activities. Golf courses are great for playing golf, but can’t be used for much else. Recreational walking or biking on cart paths is forbidden at almost all courses. You can’t walk your dog along a fairway.
The fix: If you like to walk or bike, make sure that a golf course community also serves these needs as well. Even if you live on a golf course, you won’t play every day, and your golf course home should meet the needs of a well-balanced life.
There’s no question that having a house at golf course provides a great quality of life for many people. If you think a golf course home might be right for you, just remember to weigh the pros and cons and carefully research specific properties before taking the leap into homeownership. Then you can enjoy all the perks of living next to golf course views.


Visit WheatonHomes4Sale.com to view golf-course community homes for sale in your area!

Provided by Katie Oakes Keller Williams Premiere Properties

Wheaton Housing Market Trends

2012 shows signs of an improving housing market as the U.S. economy continues its forward-moving yet slow road to recovery. The Wheaton housing market appears to be no different. In January of 2011 there were 22 homes sold resulting in a median sale price of $237,000. The data is in for this past month, January 2012, and the results are promising with 29 homes sold for that month at an average sale price of $305,000. These numbers show not only growth in the number of homes sold with a 32% increase, but they also show a 22% increase in the median sale price of homes in Wheaton.

The housing inventory in Wheaton also shows signs of improvement. Looking at the numbers again from January 2011 in comparison with January 2012, the    numbers of homes on the market appear to be steadily decreasing and homes pending sale. In January 2011 there were 603 homes for sale while in January 2012 that number has dropped by 21% to 477 homes.  The amount of homes under  contract to be sold in January 2011 was 32 but has now increased by 28% in January 2012 to 41 homes.



The graph depicts the listing invesntory of homes for sale, homes that are pending closing, and homes that have closed in Wheaton from January 2010 to Janurary 2012. Red shows homes that are for sale, blue represents the homes under contract to close, and the green homes depict homes that have sold.


Visit Wheaton Homes For Sale now to browse available homes for sale in your area for free!



Foreclosures, Short Sales and Bankruptcies: Navigating Today's Housing Market

Facing a foreclosure, short sale or bankruptcy can feel like the end of the road. In reality, each of these programs was designed to help those in tough financial straits to get back up their feet. The chart below shows you what you can expect when confronting one of these personal fiscal challenges.

 If you or someone you know is having difficulty or is unable to pay their monthly mortgage payments please call Katie Oakes with Keller Williams Premiere Properties at 630.545.9860 . Our real estate team closed over 40 short sales in 2011 and has helped hundreds of clients back up on their feet.

Visit the WheatonHomes4Sale.com for more information.

New Listing! 860 Malibu in Carol Stream

8 6 0    M A L I B U    C O U R T    I N    C A R O L    S T R E A M

Updated and move-in ready large family home in desirable Western Trails Subdivision of Carol Stream. This home includes many updates including: exterior siding/soffets and fascia, roof, premium Pella windows with internal blinds, carpet, 2 Stage furnace with a warranty and a central humidifier! Don't miss the vaulted ceilings, fenced yard with a playset, 2 car garage, skylights, bay window, and a charming finished lower level with a cozy fireplace. This home is much larger than it looks! Don't miss out on this amazing deal, check out the property details and view today!

Pictures and Property Details 860 Malibu Court

For more questions on this or other properties for sale please contact Katie Oakes with Keller Williams Premiere Properties at 630-545-9860 or by email at KatieOakes@WheatonHomes4Sale.com .

Looking for homes for sale somewhere else? Visit WheatonHomes4Sale.com and take advantage of the free and extensive property search, listing all the homes for sale in NW Illinois including parts of IN and WI.

Wheaton Housing Market Trends: January 2012

For more accurate and detailed information on the housing market and trends in your area visit Wheaton Homes For Sale and then click on Market Insider and just input the desired areas zip code!

The median listing price for a home and/or condo in Wheaton (60187 and 60189) is just over $405,000 with homes actually selling around $292,000 (from sold data calculated up to Nov 2011). As these homes are listed for sale it is taking about 124 days on the market in order to sell these homes.  There are currently 367 active listings in the Wheaton area with a just about 19% of those listings being distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales).

Price Trends Sold vs Listed in Wheaton 2011-2012

Provided By: Katie Oakes; Keller Williams Premiere Properties

Take Advantage of New Year Mortgage Rates

Average fixed mortgage rates in the U.S. over the past week finished the year near all-time lows, with the 30-year home loan at 3.95%.

According Freddie Mac's weekly survey of mortgage rates, the rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been at or below 4% for the past nine consecutive weeks and only twice in 2011 did it average above 5%.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.95% for the week ended Thursday, up from 3.91% the previous week and below 4.86% a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.24%, up from 3.21% last week and below 4.20% a year earlier.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARM, averaged 2.88%, up from 2.85% yet below 3.77% of a year ago. One-year Treasury-indexed ARM rates averaged 2.78%, up from 2.77% in the prior week and below 3.26% last year.

To obtain the rates, 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages required payments of 0.7 percentage point and 0.8 percentage point, respectively. Five-year and one-year adjustable rate mortgages required an average payment of 0.6 percentage point. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.

To take advantage of these historic low interest rates visit WheatonHomes4Sale.com to view available homes and investment properties for sale in your area for free!



Article Provided by Mia Lamar
Taken from WSJ.com
Mortgage Rates End Year Under 4%

Cautioning Consumers on Websites' Online Home Estimates

Over 90% of today's consumers are beginning their home search online. Many of these consumers find themselves on sites like Zillow.com or Trulia.com using the information provided like "home value estimates" to directly influence their home purchase. Perhaps it would be helpful to learn more about these home valuations that so many view as accurate as an official home appraisal. Take a look at this information taken from a recent Wall Street Journal article, "How to Figure the Fuzzy Math of Internet Home Values" by Alyssa Abkowitz.
 
"They're the numbers millions of consumers are clamoring for. After years of real-estate pros holding all the informational cards in the home-sale game, Web-driven companies like Zillow, Homes.com and Realtor.com are reshuffling the deck, giving home shoppers and owners estimates of what almost any home is worth. People have flocked to the data in startling numbers: Together, four of the biggest sites that offer home-value estimates get 100 million visits a month, with web surfers using them to determine what to ask or bid for a home, or whether to refinance.

 

Zillow, Trulia and other websites post estimates of home values. But as Alyssa Abkowitz explains on Lunch Break, these popular sites can be -- by their own admission -- wildly inaccurate.

But for figures that can carry such weight, critics say, the estimates can be far rougher than most people realize. Valuations that are 20% or even 50% higher or lower than a property's eventual sale price are not uncommon, as the sites themselves acknowledge. The estimates frequently change, too—sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars—as sites plug new data into their algorithms.

All of the competitors make it clear their numbers are guesstimates, not gospel. "A Trulia estimate is just that—an estimate," says a disclaimer on that site's new home-value tool. Zillow goes a step further, publishing precise numbers about how imprecise its estimates can be. And every major site urges home-price hunters to consult appraisers or real-estate agents to refine their results.

But despite the disclaimers, homeowners and real-estate agents say, many Web surfers put enough faith in the estimates to sway the way they shop and sell."

To read the complete article visit  How to Figure the Fuzzy Math of Internet Home Values 

Want to browse homes for sale in your area? Visit WheatonHomes4Sale.com to view properties in your area for free!

Email Katie Oakes with The Synergy Team at KatieOakes@WheatonHomes4Sale.com for information on how much your home is worth

New Listing: Huge Family Home

4 0 4    H u b b a r d

P l a n o ,   I L 

Where can you get 4,000 square feet of living space UNDER $140K? HERE! Don't miss your chance to own here in this beautiful area featuing great schools. This property even backs up to a pond! Huge open kitchen leading to eat-in area and family room. Gigantic master suite has everything you will ever need including a seperate sitting room. Take the first step to owning your dream home today and stop by!

Check out all the pictures and information about this home on by following this link WheatonHomes4Sale.com



Housing Market Update November 2011

November 2011 Market Update

While home sales in September were down slightly from a relatively strong month in August, they were up from a year ago, giving encouraging signs of a strengthening market and potential for stabilizing, if not appreciating, home prices. These signs include an increasing demand, shown by the number of people shopping for homes, and the decreasing inventory of homes for sale, in conjunction with some of the lowest levels of new housing construction since the 1960s.
Of the 3.48 million homes sold in September, 32% were first-time home buyers. With more and more people entering the market, the persisting obstacle for most is still the restrictive lending environment. In a plea to banks and policy makers, NAR President Ron Phipps said, "We need to remove the roadblocks to a housing recovery—not place more obstacles in the way of financially qualified buyers."

With an increasing demand and shrinking inventory, it is hoped that banks will begin to see the market potential and start to lend to otherwise creditworthy home shoppers, opening the road to a more rapid recovery. While consumer confidence still remains at all-time lows, retail spending increased 1.1% last month, a positive sign of growth fueled by the approaching holiday season, which could propel the U.S. into a promising new year.

For more housing market data relative and specific to your area visit Real Estate's Market Insider and enter the desired zip code.

To browse homes for sale in your area for free visit WheatonHomes4Sale and enter your search criteria!

Buying a Home in Wheaton or Glen Ellyn

Check out this graph below which accurately depicts the trend of 30 year fixed-rate mortgages in the US over the past thirty years. In 1981 the average home buyer locking in a mortgage received an average interest rate of 16.63%. Over the past 2 weeks, we have seen rates go down as low as 3.75%.  The average interest rate over the 30 year time span was right at 8.74%. If you are on the fence about purchasing, this chart should convince you that buying a home has really never been more affordable.
 
To browse available homes in your area visit WheatonHomes4Sale.com and begin your property search today. Want to learn how to get started in taking advantage of these rock bottom interest rates? Email Katie Oakes at KatieOakes@KW.com .

Remodeling Your Home? These 10 Items Should be Included in Your Remodel Contract

10 Things Every Remodeling Contract Should Include

1. The contractor’s name, address, phone number, and license number.
2. Details on what the contractor will and will not do.
3. A list of materials for the project in your contract. This includes information about the size, color, model, brand name, and product.
4. The approximate start date and completion date.
5. All required plans. Study them carefully for accuracy. Insist that you approve them and that they are identified in your written contract before any work begins.
6. Written notice of your right to, without penalty, cancel a contract within three business days of signing it.
7. Financial terms, spelled out in a way that you understand. This includes the total price, payment schedule, and any cancellation penalty.
8. A binding arbitration clause, which you’ll need in the event a disagreement occurs. Arbitration may enable you to resolve disputes without costly litigation.
9. Everything you’ve requested. Consider the scope of the project and make sure all items you’ve requested are included. If you do not see a specific item in the contract, consider it not included. Never sign an incomplete contract.
10. A warranty covering materials and workmanship for a minimum of one year. The warranty must be identified as either "full" or "limited." The name and address of the party who will honor the warranty (contractor, distributor, or manufacturer) must be identified. Make sure the time period for the warranty is specified.

Find out home much your home is worth! Visit WheatonHomes4Sale.com for a free estimate.

Article taken from RealtorMag.REATOR.com
April 09
Kelly Quigley

Got Junk? Visit Wheaton's Upcoming Electronics Recycling Event

September Electronic Recycling
 Sept. 10, 9 a.m.-noon

Drop off your unwanted electronics and old batteries for recycling during the City's monthly collection event Sept. 10, 2011. This month's event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon at Commuter Parking Lot 9, which is located at the corner of Carlton Avenue and Liberty Drive. Please enter from Carlton Avenue. Note: This is the location for the September collection only. Electronics such as televisions, computers and printers and small household appliances such as toasters and hairdryers are accepted along with household batteries. For more information on this recycling event and what items are accepted please visit City of Wheaton's Site.


Interested in buying or selling your home in Wheaton or a surrounding area? Visit WheatonHomes4Sale.com to browse homes currently listed for sale and for helpful community information on the current local housing market.

9 Steps to Buying a Home

To begin browsing homes in your area..for free... or for more information on the home buying process visit my website and register today!

Step 1 – Get ready to buy a homeThere are several things you need to contemplate before beginning your home search. When you begin your search, you'll probably want to form an outline of must-haves, get a feeling for what neighborhoods and school districts you'd like to live in, and begin working on your budget. A good rule to go by is that your mortgage payment should be close to a third of your net monthly income.

Step 2 – Get with a real estate agent in San Diego That's where I come in. I'd be more than happy to schedule a time to meet with you and communicate with you about why you want to buy a home and get an idea of your plans for the future. We'll talk about everything from neighborhoods, school districts in the Chicagoland area, the mortgage industry, to any other economic factors that might affect your buying decision today or in the future.

I can also help you get started on your loan. There are some very good mortgage professionals in Chicago and the outer lying suburbs, and I partner with a lot of them, so you'll be in great hands. They'll help you decide which kind of loan is best for you, as well as help you get qualified.

Step 3 – Start house-huntingAfter we meet, I'll begin looking for available homes on the market that are a good fit for you. I'll get a sneak peek of many of the homes and exclude the bad ones, and then we'll schedule appointments to tour the houses when it's convenient for you.

As we tour houses, I'll show you the good features, as well as negative ones. I'll even ask you what things you like and dislike. It's common for buyers to revise their list of must-haves as we view homes and some features become more essential than others. If that's the case, I'll search the listings once more and narrow it down to the home you've been wishing for.

Step 4 – Understand the housing market
An agent's awareness of the Chicagoland market is an essential component in your house search. And I assure you I'm informed of all the school districts and neighborhoods, and I will alert you to which neighborhoods are "hot" and require prompt action and the ones that are "cold" and allow for cautiousness.

As we view homes, I'll let you know when the seller's asking price has room for bargaining and also when I trust the house is "priced to sell." Every real estate agent will claim to truly know the market, but be mindful, and be sure to ask your agent lots of questions. If it seems like they don't know everything, just call me at (630) 545-9860 or e-mail me at KatieOakes@kw.com, and I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have. My market knowledge will help you stay a step ahead throughout the entire deal.

Step 5 – Find the house you've been waiting forI'm sure we'll find the house of your dreams in the Chicagoland area. When we do, I'll thoroughly create your purchase offer. The offer will be tailored to suit your needs, including some contingencies, such as acquiring financing, carrying out the inspection, and a clear title.
When we present your purchase offer, you'll want to present "earnest money." This is a cash deposit submitted to the home seller to secure an offer to purchase the property. The amount is often put towards the closing costs. If your offer is accepted, we should close on the property about 30 to 60 days after. This allows plenty of time for your mortgage financing.

Step 6 – Negotiate the dealMost deals don't close on the first offer. It's widely common to receive a counter offer. But don't let this discourage you. We'll consider whether or not to take the counter offer, present our own counter offer, or refuse the seller's offer and move on.

Market circumstances determine how aggressively we negotiate the deal. We'll also work within your financing constraints. And at the end of the day, we'll create a contract that is best for you.

Step 7 – Get a loan
Upon finishing the contract, you'll start working with your mortgage lender to close the loan. This shouldn't take much time at all if you're already pre-qualified, but you need to stay in close contact with your mortgage lender. And I'll handle all the property information your mortgage lender will need to close the loan.

Step 8 – Close the deal
Your lender will send you a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) detailing closing costs within three days of receiving your loan application. You'll get a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of your closing costs from your lender within three days of getting your loan application. The estimate is based on the loan amount, and RESPA requirements require that it has to contain all closing costs and be within a tight range of accuracy. I'll analyze the estimate and let you know if everything looks all right.

Then it's time to close on your house. This will most often occur at a title company or escrow office and is often a smooth and easygoing occurrence.

Step 9 – Move in
Congratulations! Now you can move into your new home. Enjoy it. And if you need anything, just contact me at (630) 545-9860 or send me an e-mail.