Posts Tagged ‘Your Brooklyn real estate agent’

Renters: Are You Ready to Buy Brooklyn Real Estate? Pros and Cons of Home Ownership

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Should You Rent or Buy a Brooklyn Home?

If you’re sitting in your apartment right now thinking: I wish I could paint it, but my lease doesn’t allow it, maybe it’s time to talk to a Brooklyn real estate agent about purchasing a new home.  Before you rush off to the store to look at paint samples or, more importantly, sign on the dotted line of any mortgages, consider the pros and cons of buying.

Pros

  1. Financial Investment: Given the gloomy news on foreclosure rates across the country, it is easy to forget that buying Brooklyn real estate is also a means of saving and investing.  The money you pay in rent to your landlord goes to your landlord; the money you put toward a mortgage goes toward building equity in your home.
  2. Pride of Ownership: By buying a home, you will be able to paint the interior walls any color, renovate to your heart’s content, put nails in the walls and know that it is truly your territory. As a homeowner, you have a level of control over your environment that renters lack.
  3. Putting Down Roots: Purchasing Brooklyn real estate is a commitment to a community, akin to staking a flag in the ground.  You’re not just passing through, if you own your own home.  Most mortgages are 15 to 30 years.  Certainly, you can sell before that time is up, but with closing and moving costs and an uncertain market, the era of flipping houses for fun and profit is at a close. Buying your first home may involve considerations on other long-term decisions such as where you want to raise your children.

Cons

  1. Additional Expenses: Even if the mortgage you secure on your home is less than your current rent, home ownership comes with a lot of extra bills. You may not have considered the cost of yearly real estate taxes, insurance, repairs, and maintenance.  If your water heater dies as a renter, your landlord is required to replace it.  As a homeowner, you’re looking at the time and expense of getting it replaced yourself.
  2. Less Flexibility: Rental leases often include provisions for leaving before the termination of the lease.  So, if you’ve decide to accept a job offer in Paris, while you might lose some money in security deposits, you can sever your connection relatively easily. That’s not the case with a mortgage.  You are responsible for the payment on the mortgage whether you live in your home, rent it out while you’re in Paris or leave it vacant. Buying [city] real estate is a serious, long-term commitment.
  3. Less Time: With most apartments, someone else is raking the leaves, shoveling the snow, mowing the lawn, and replacing that broken water heater.  As a homeowner, those duties would fall to you or someone you hire to tend to those issues.

Whether you’re ready to stop renting and buy a home or you need more information before taking the plunge, I can help. Give me a call today Charles D’Alessandro Your Brooklyn real estate agent with Fillmore Real Estate at 718/253-9600 ext 206 or email me at [email protected]

3 Tips to Get Short Sale Offers on Your Brooklyn Home Accepted by Your Lender

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011


When a buyer makes a short sale offer on your Brooklyn home, it’s impossible to know for sure if the offer will be accepted by the lender.  Even when you’ve negotiated the offer with the buyer and come to an agreement that meets both of your needs, there’s still no guarantee that the lender will say yes to the short sale.

Here are three tips to help get short sale offers on your Brooklyn home accepted by the lender:

  1. Convince the lender that you have a legitimate hardship. Submit a hardship letter, pay stubs, bank statements, monthly budget and profit and loss statement to demonstrate that you cannot make your monthly payments and have no disposable income. Here are examples of hardships to mention in your letter:
    1. lost your job
    2. reduced hours/pay at current job
    3. have to move more than 75 miles from home to get a new job
    4. death of a borrower
    5. divorce
    6. onset of a disabling illness
  1. Negotiate with the buyer to exclude terms and contingencies that complicate the sale. Lenders do not like to accept short sales when they include time contingencies or when the short sale is contingent on the sale of another home.

  1. Submit paperwork as a complete package. Ask your lender for a list of all documents needed. Fill out the paperwork and collect all other documents required. Make copies of everything. Put together a complete package, including all the documents your lender requested, and only then send the entire package to your lender. If the lender later tells you they can’t find a particular document, don’t waste your time arguing about it, just resend the information – it’s easy to do because you already have copies prepared!

If you’d like more information on the possibility of selling your Brooklyn home as a short sale, give me a call today Charles D’Alessandro Your Brooklyn real estate agent with Fillmore Real Estate at 718/253-9600 ext 206 or email me at [email protected],