My Reviews

Testimonials
479007
' Avery is very dedicated and his easy going personality makes selling and buying a home a little less stressful. He was always quick with a response ... more '
5.0/5.0
by user89261367
422702
' I'm very happy with Avery! He was very patient and did whatever to make showings happen when we wanted to look! Ended up buying house through him and ... more '
5.0/5.0
by user8521382

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Flood Insurance: What You Need To Know

For homeowners who do not live directly in a flood zone, flood insurance may not be a common concern. Many homeowners may not even realize that their standard homeowners insurance policies do not cover the home in the instance of a flood.


Flood insurance, which is provided by the federal government through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through private companies and agents, is a valuable asset for nearly any structure. Here is some background to help people understand the benefits of this type of protection and what they should know about it.

Who Should Buy Flood Insurance?


Shockingly, an estimated 25 percent of flood insurance claims come from homes located in medium or low risk flood zones. This is because while floods are commonly caused by rising water, such as lakes or rivers, they can also be caused by melting snow, large amounts of rain, hurricanes, water backup, and other common household experiences. Without flood insurance, the damage caused by the water will most likely have to come out of the pocket of the homeowner. This is why homeowners should carefully consider buying flood insurance, even if they are in a low risk area.

On the other hand, for those who own homes that are in a high risk area, it should not even be a question of if they are going to get flood insurance. On the maps of Flood Insurance Rates, those who are in the high risk zones stand an approximate one in four chance of being flooded over the course of the life of the mortgage. With such a high risk, flood insurance can end up being an enormous lifesaver when it comes to repairing the home after an unfortunate flood.

Anyone who lives in a community that participates in the NFIP can purchase flood insurance. Those who live in Coastal Barrier Resource areas or Otherwise Protected areas are not eligible to purchase National Flood Insurance. Homes or buildings that are entirely below ground or out over water are not covered either. These people should research and discuss with their realtors to learn the best ways to protect their homes.

Understanding How Flood Insurance Works


Flood insurance is a separate type of insurance from standard homeowners’ insurance. There are approximately ninety different private companies as well as 60,000 private insurance agents who sell National Flood Insurance and who can help supply policies to those looking to purchase a policy. The cost of the flood insurance policy will vary depending on the year and type of construction on the home as well as the homes location and estimated flood risk.

Homeowners should be aware that when they purchase flood insurance, there is a thirty day wait period before the policy goes into effect. This means that homeowners can not purchase insurance because they hear on the news that the storm of the century is coming straight towards them. If a flood occurs and damages the home within that thirty day wait period, the home will not be protected.

On the other hand, if the homeowners purchase a flood insurance policy while they are taking out their mortgage, then the thirty day wait period does not apply. That is why it is best to buy flood insurance in the beginning rather than waiting to see if it is going to be necessary. Waiting on buying the policy places the home at unnecessary risk. Some mortgage lenders will make flood insurance required for the loan, in which case the lender may escrow the premiums to ensure coverage.

Benefits of Flood Insurance


Many homeowners mistakenly believe that floods will not happen to them and if it does, their homeowners’ insurance will help. Unfortunately, as previously discussed, everyone is at risk for floods and homeowners insurance policies do not cover flooding. Another misconception is that the federal government will help should the flooding be caused by some natural phenomenon. This is also not true, unless the president declares a disaster zone. Flood insurance offers homeowners peace of mind, knowing that they will be covered should water cause damage to their home.

Cleaning up after a flood, or any home water damage, is a trying experience. Water in the home quickly causes mold issues and even structural damage in just a few days and it can be very difficult to completely dry out the area. Often anything that was in the flooded area, including boilers, hot water heaters, washing machines, and more are damaged if not destroyed. Bad flooding can require calls to professional restoration specialists. Flood insurance helps homeowners tackle the cleanup and repair costs so that they do not have to pay entirely out of pocket.

What can sometimes be troublesome about the need for flood insurance is when a flood map changes. In a recent home sale in Zionsville, the seller was never required to have a flood insurance policy. During the time of home ownership however, the flood maps had been changed creating the need for the buyer of the property to purchase flood insurance in order to get a loan. As you can guess the buyer was none too happy to find out they had this unexpected out of pocket expense.

The seller realizing the could potentially lose a sale agreed to contribute a fairly large chunk of funds to satisfy the buyer.

Home sellers need to be aware of the steps that must be taken to protect their property, as well as to sell their home in the future. The FEMA flood maps changed in 2013 along with the phase out of subsidization of insurance rates for the following types of properties in flood zones: second homes, multi family homes, commercial and properties that have experienced recurring flood damage above the value of the property.

If you happen to be lucky enough not to have a mortgage on your property, the need for flood insurance may not have crossed your mind. In all the years of living at your home, you may never have thought about a policy for flood damage. If you are thinking of selling your property in the near future however, it is extremely important to know what the insurance costs will be.

While you may choose to not carry this insurance, the next buyer will almost certainly required to have it. If the buyer of a home in a flood plain has to get a mortgage, which most buyers do, the lender will mandate flood insurance on the home.

The amount of flood insurance that is required will become extremely important as it will have an effect on the overall value of your property. Is the cost only going to be a few thousand or will it cost the buyer tens of thousands? This is a key question you should have the answer to before you list your home for sale with a Realtor.

Recent News About Flood Insurance


Over the past year there have been some developments in the National Flood Insurance Program. In 2012 the president signed into law a bill that reauthorized the program, which helped to re – energize the real estate market in areas where flood insurance policies are required; as there had been various disruptions in the areas that required the federal insurances.

The bill also:

  • Made flood insurance more available and affordable for those who needed the insurance
  • Introduced some new provisions, such as a method for establishing responsibility between the flood and wind insurance providers when it was difficult to determine what precisely caused damage to a home
  • Redrew the flood maps used to determine a home’s flood risk
  • Established an independent appeals board for individuals and communities looking to challenge the maps
  • Guaranteed that a homeowner who is successful in his appeal of the maps will be reimbursed for related costs

Homeowners should also be aware that in some areas the subsidies that helped people afford flood insurance are being phased out. The people primarily affected by the loss of the subsidies are those who live in older structures known as pre – FIRM structures because they were built before the first flood maps were drawn. Not all pre – FIRM properties will be affected. The majority of the changes will influence the insurance rates of those residences that are not used as primary residences, business properties, and properties that have experienced severe and repetitive loss due to flooding.

Flood insurance is a valuable asset for those who own homes or businesses. Even those who do not live in a high risk flood zone face the threat of flooding, and water damage can devastate a building. Learning about how flood risks affect the local area and discussing the matter with the real estate agent can help homeowners make wise decisions about flooding and help protect their families and assets.


Avery Garrett is a top Indianapolis Realtor serving the Indianapolis Metropolitan area from Coldwell Banker Kaiser. Avery is Zillow.com Premium 5 Star Agent and Top Contributor, and is a Member of the Metroplitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors. Contact Avery for a complimentary, no obligation, Market Analysis of your home at 317-721-2274, or SoldByAvery@gmail.com. See Avery's reviews and search for a home at www.SoldByAvery.net.

Avery is proud to help home sellers and home buyers in the following communities: Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield, Cicero, Sheridan, Lebanon, Zionsville, Brownsburg, Avon, Danville, Plainfield, Mooresville, Camby, Greenwood, Bargersville, Martinsville, Franklin, Shelbyville, Southport, Beech Grove, New Palestine, Greenfield, Lawrence, Greensburg, Nashville and beyond.

Friday, November 22, 2013

What Can I Afford in a Home?

What Can I Afford in a Future Home?

In today’s booming Philly real estate market, homes are available in every size and location, from starter townhouses to move-up colonials to luxury properties. Before the current low interest rates begin to shift higher, you may be considering locking in a larger mortgage and skipping ahead a few steps in your home buying process. Determining an appropriate purchase price is an important first step that will help to focus your home search.

Key Components of the “What Can I Afford?” Equation

Your ideal home price depends on how much of a down payment you have saved and the monthly housing payment which fits into your budget. Income is the primary input used to determine what you can afford to pay for a house. Remember, income includes all sources of cash inflow, including your base salary, tips, bonuses, overtime, commissions, or payments from a second job.

Front-end Analysis

The real estate industry uses the front-end ratio, which allocates 28% of your gross monthly income towards a housing payment. A monthly housing payment includes your mortgage, real estate taxes and home insurance. To calculate the front-end ratio, divide your income by twelve to determine a monthly amount. As an example, if all of your income sources total $100,000 annually, then your monthly gross income, before income taxes, would be $8,333 and your affordable housing payment would be 28% of that figure, or about $2,333.

Back-end Analysis

The front-end ratio, while a good starting point, does not take certain extenuating factors into account. A better determination of an affordable housing payment would be what is known as the back-end ratio. This calculation estimates your housing payment as 36% of your net income, (gross income minus taxes), less monthly debt, such as car payments, student loans and credit card bills. It’s a good idea to review the last few months of your checkbook to ensure you include all debt obligations, and then add a cushion for unexpected expenditures such as emergency repairs (and possibly a spontaneous trip to the Philadelphia Premium Outlets).
Note how the back-end ratio results vary: Several home buyers, all with same $100,000 in gross income used in the original example, will calculate the same front-end housing payment, but household expenses will change their back-end results. One individual may prefer living in the city of Philadelphia, where the wage tax is 3.9%, versus 1.0% in most suburbs. Another may have student loan obligations or a new car. These slight differences are incorporated into the back-end ratio, with varying results.
For illustrative purposes, include a $500 student loan payment, $500 car payment, $200 credit card payment, and another $200 for miscellaneous expenses in the back end ratio. Assuming 30% of gross income goes towards taxes, net income would be $3,666.10. Thirty-six percent of that amount comes to $1,596, significantly less than the front-end amount of $2,333.

Non-Financial Factors

How much risk do you feel comfortable assuming? Based on your earnings stability or your job security, you may not want to allocate 28% of your gross income towards a housing payment. The term of a mortgage loan is also a factor. To avoid locking yourself into thirty years of payments, you may trade a higher monthly cost now for a shorter payback period. Some home buyers limit vacations and new cars in order to buy a larger home in a desirable neighborhood. The purchase of a home is one of the most significant expenditures in your life, so take the time to make sure it is the all-around best decision for you.

Avery Garrett is a top Indianapolis Realtor serving the Indianapolis Metropolitan area from Coldwell Banker Kaiser. Avery is Zillow.com Premium 5 Star Agent and Top Contributor, and is a Member of the Metroplitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors. Contact Avery for a complimentary, no obligation, Market Analysis of your home at 317-721-2274, or SoldByAvery@gmail.com. See Avery's reviews and search for a home at www.SoldByAvery.net.

Avery is proud to help home sellers and home buyers in the following communities: Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield, Cicero, Sheridan, Lebanon, Zionsville, Brownsburg, Avon, Danville, Plainfield, Mooresville, Camby, Greenwood, Bargersville, Martinsville, Franklin, Shelbyville, Southport, Beech Grove, New Palestine, Greenfield, Lawrence, Greensburg, Nashville and beyond.

Friday, November 15, 2013

4 Key Steps to Buying a Home


1)      Find a Good Realtor.

A good Realtor buys and sells houses for people on a regular basis. They know the market, and will help you figure out what is most important in your search. They also will have a grasp of different financing programs, and will be able to guide you to the appropriate lender that best serves your needs.
A Realtor does not cost the home buyer any money. Commissions are paid by the seller from their net proceeds. By the way, I happen to be a good Realtor! Give me a call!

2)      Get Pre-Approved by a Lender.

This is where I always start with my clients. When I first became a Realtor, I took a client around looking at homes, and they found their perfect home and fell in love. We then talked to a mortgage broker and found out they couldn’t afford this home. It was heartbreaking!

Taking this step will let you know how much home you can qualify for, and more importantly, will give you an idea of what a monthly payment will actually be so you can make sure it fits in your budget.

Once I get an approved amount from a lender, I set up a search through our MLS of homes that meet my client’s criteria within that price range. They let me know which ones they want to see, and I schedule the showings.

3)      Have realistic expectations.

You must have a little give and take. If I got my clients everything they wanted, I would be a Realtor God! The truth is that you have to take the good with the bad, and decide which option on the market best fits your needs.

4)      Be Prepared for Obstacles.

Murphy’s law states that if something can go wrong, it will. I have very seldom had a real estate transaction happen without some sort of obstacle to overcome. The key is to be resilient and calm through the transaction. There may be glitches in financing.  Inspections often times turn up things that Buyers get leery of. Sometimes offers get rejected and the Seller accepts another one.

The thing I have learned in this business, and in life in general, is that situations usually end up turning out just the way they are supposed to. When things don’t go your way in a deal, that probably means there is another deal out there waiting on you that will work out better.
 
 

Avery Garrett is a top Indianapolis Realtor serving the Indianapolis Metropolitan area from Coldwell Banker Kaiser. Avery is Zillow.com Premium 5 Star Agent and Top Contributor, and is a Member of the Metroplitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors. Contact Avery for a complimentary, no obligation, Market Analysis of your home at 317-721-2274, or SoldByAvery@gmail.com. See Avery's reviews and search for a home at www.SoldByAvery.net.

Avery is proud to help home sellers and home buyers in the following communities: Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield, Cicero, Sheridan, Lebanon, Zionsville, Brownsburg, Avon, Danville, Plainfield, Mooresville, Camby, Greenwood, Bargersville, Martinsville, Franklin, Shelbyville, Southport, Beech Grove, New Palestine, Greenfield, Lawrence, Greensburg, Nashville and beyond.

Friday, November 8, 2013

USA's Most Expensive Home Markets

Coldwell Banker just released its 2013 Home Listing Report, ranking the prices of 2,000 markets across the nation. Most of the 25 priciest markets are in California, as you might expect. Still, the list does contain a few surprises: One Minnesota town manages to crack the top 10. Yet Hawaii, hardly known for cheap real estate, occupies just one spot, and that's all the way down at No. 20.
 
Now, rankings like these are pretty common in the real estate industry; in fact, the National Association of Realtors releases data every quarter, including a release on Wednesday. But whereas most rankings look at the median price of all homes in an area regardless of size, this list zeroes in on the average listing price of solely four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes. And whereas many rankings look at federally designated Metropolitan Statistical Areas, the markets on this list are simply the cities or towns in the addresses of each real estate listing.
 
The idea is to provide more of an "apples-to-apples comparison across markets," Coldwell Banker told Yahoo Homes, to get closer to answering this kind of question: What would a home in, say, Cleveland be worth if the same home were in Malibu?

It's an interesting approach. By focusing on four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes, Coldwell Banker is trying to filter out extremes at the ultra-high end as well as the very low end. It wants to put a price on the kind of home that's bigger and better than a starter home, comfortable for a family but not a mansion: "aspirational" but not fantastical.
 
On the pricey side, Malibu in Southern California came out on top this year, with an average listing price of more than $2 million for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home.  That's about 20 percent more than the city that came in second: Newport Beach, also in Southern California.
"Malibu is undergoing a transformation from a seasonal destination to a year-round locale,” said Madison Hildebrand, co-star of Bravo’s "Million Dollar Listing" and a Coldwell Banker agent in Malibu.
 
One important note on methodology: To qualify for ranking, a market had to have at least 10 ColdwellBanker.com listings of four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes during the six-month data period of January to June. Markets like Beverly Hills and Manhattan are unranked because they didn't meet that 10-listing threshold, Coldwell Banker told us. Homes with more than four bedrooms didn't count, and neither did homes with 1.5 bathrooms or 2.5 bathrooms or anything other than exactly two bathrooms. So bear that in mind as you look at this list of the most expensive real estate markets in America:

25. Newton, Massachusetts
Average listing price: $912,745

24. Westport, Connecticut
Average listing price: $966,582

23. Larchmont, New York
Average listing price: $972,150

22. Campbell, California
Average listing price: $974,212

21. Mercer Island, Washington
Average listing price: $999,276

20. Kailua, Hawaii
Average listing price: $1,004,567

19. Danville, California
Average listing price: $1,018,300

18. Santa Barbara, California
Average listing price: $1,061,475

17. Sunnyvale, California
Average listing price: $1,077,025

16. Wellesley, Massachusetts
Average listing price: $1,079,600

15. Greenwich, Connecticut
Average listing price: $1,087,300

14. Pasadena, California
Average listing price: $1,092,087

13. Great Neck, New York
Average listing price: $1,103,364

12. San Mateo, California
Average listing price: $1,132,523

11. Breckenridge, Colorado
Average listing price: $1,177,795

10. Redwood City, California
Average listing price: $1,203,357

9. Weston, Massachusetts
Average listing price: $1,229,000

8. Orono, Minnesota
Average listing price: $1,251,873

7. Cupertino, California
Average listing price: $1,292,400

6. Stone Harbor, New Jersey
Average listing price: $1,301,727

5. San Francisco, California
Average listing price: $1,309,559

4. Los Gatos, California
Average listing price: $1,360,497

3. Saratoga, California
Average listing price: $1,684,261

2. Newport Beach, California
Average listing price: $1,773,824

1. Malibu, California
Average listing price: $2,155,900




Avery Garrett is a top Indianapolis Realtor serving the Indianapolis Metropolitan area from Coldwell Banker Kaiser. Avery is Zillow.com Premium 5 Star Agent, and is a Member of the Metroplitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors. Contact Avery for a complimentary, no obligation, Market Analysis of your home at 317-721-2274, or SoldByAvery@gmail.com. See Avery's reviews and search for a home at www.SoldByAvery.net.

Avery is proud to help home sellers and home buyers in the following communities: Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield, Cicero, Sheridan, Lebanon, Zionsville, Brownsburg, Avon, Danville, Plainfield, Mooresville, Camby, Greenwood, Bargersville, Martinsville, Franklin, Shelbyville, Southport, Beech Grove, New Palestine, Greenfield, Lawrence, Greensburg, Nashville and beyond.