Real Estate Q&A

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Staff

By Special to the Sentinel
Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Welcome to Ask Dave, the weekly Q&A designed to answer your questions about the local real estate market. The author, Dave Kimbrough, has a decade’s worth of experience helping clients buy and sell homes in the Grand Valley. He is a Realtor, a Certified Negotiation Expert and a member of the Grand Junction Area Realtor Association. He leads The Kimbrough Team at RE/MAX 4000 and specializes in residential sales.

Dave,
We will be moving out of state, to a city where we know absolutely no one. How do we go about finding the “best” Realtor to help us in our new location?
Thanks,
Andrew, Grand Junction

Andrew,
Great question.There are several ways to go about finding an agent in the city where you are moving. First, if you need to sell your home here, you can ask you real estate agent to refer you to an agent in their network with their company.This typically works great, because your local agent will do his or her due diligence to make sure the agent in your new city is experienced, professional and knows the ins and outs of the new market.

You can also search the Internet and look for homes in the area and take note of names that you see over and over. Those agents, unless they are just working foreclosures, are probably well known and well connected and have a good base of knowledge of the local market. Be careful not to only take the recommendations of “find an agent websites” because many times the agents referred off these sites are not producers — they are paying the websites a fee for buyer referrals. It may have nothing to do with ability, knowledge or results, but everything about who is paying the website for the referral. Your best bet is to find a local agent here that has connections and can find you a qualified agent in your new city. Best of luck, I hope this helps.

Dave,
We have seen several older homes that need a lot of work to bring them up to acceptable standards. How can we include the costs for the needed improvements in our mortgage? We do not have a lot of cash to put in the home after we purchase.

Thanks,
Troy, Fruita

Troy,
Yes, many times you can include improvements or repairs of an older or foreclosed home into your mortgage. The loan program is called a 203K or 203K streamline loan and you can call your local lender and they will be able to give you all the information about how these loans work and what the qualifications for the program are. I think you will find that most homes that need updating will qualify as long as they meet the value needed for appraisal after the updates are complete. I might add finding a lender experienced in doing these loans is very important as they require more attention than a typical home loan. Ask your agent what they know and who they would recommend for this type of loan program, but don’t let the perfect home slip away until you research your 203K options.

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team, RE/MAX 4000, Inc

Do you have a question? Send it to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and Dave Kimbrough will personally answer it in this space. Some questions may be more technical in nature than others and require more time to research. Due to volume we can’t guarantee a response to every question.