'Home Buying' Category

Pay attention to the street lamps, signs, playground equipments or park benches that the developer has added if they are installed. Are they aesthetically pleasing or simply the minimum grade necessary to keep local governments authorities satisfied? Pay particular attention to any areas where the developer plans to put in a retention pond to hold a rush of water after heavy rain. [...] Read More

One of the best ways to learn about a new neighborhood is to follow its community newspaper for a while. The big city daily paper might not print much about a developer’s quest to build a new McDonald’s branch or an upcoming bond referendum to build a new school, but the tiny newspapers will. You can ask local real estate agents if there are any small papers covering the community. [...] Read More

The most common of the contingencies mentioned in our previous blog post is the one that deals with financing, since the average home buyer can’t afford to fork over cash for a six-figure purchase. Make sure that the purchase and sale agreement includes a provision stating that your earnest money deposit will be refunded if the sale has to be cancelled because you are unable to get a mortgage loan. [...] Read More

Once your offer is accepted an the contract(s) signed, a number of wheels are put into motion , some of which can affect whether you make it to the closing table for that particular home. Most of these variables are addressed as “contingencies” in your initial offer, and they should all be included to ensure a win-win situation for both parties. The most used contingencies include the financing or mortgage contingency, the home inspection contingency, the contingency on the sale of a home, and the clear title contingency. [...] Read More

When you make an offer in the form of a sales and purchase agreement, the contract will stipulate how much time the seller has to respond to your offer. Generally, you will allow at least forty-eight hours but not too much more because allowing too much time gives the seller opportunity to shop other buyers. You or the agent or attorney representing you will present the contract to the seller who must pick one of three options upon reading it. [...] Read More

The greatest of the Modern/International-style homes are truly work of arts that have come into creation when a wealthy owner commissioned an architect to produce a masterpiece. They first appeared in the United States during the 1930s and 40s. One of the best examples of a true International-style home is the late architect Philip Johnson’s Glass House which is a see-through box of glass with a steel frame that he built for himself in 1949 in New Canaan, Connecticut. [...] Read More

Split-level homes built mainly in the 1950s, 60s and 70s are an outgrowth of the ranch-style home. They usually feature a staggered set of three levels, each only a half flight of stairs away from the other. One single-story side typically holds the living room, dining room and kitchen. [...] Read More

Many Tudor-style homes were built in the first half of the 1900s as the first ‘streetcar suburbs’ sprang up outside major cities thus allowing the financially comfortable to escape the city yet keep their in-town jobs. The hallmarks are heavy exposed half-timbering in the frame, steeply pitched roofs, tall and narrow windows as well as prominent chimneys (not to mention the prominent hearths at the base of those chimneys. [...] Read More

The original detached houses and townhouses built in the Victorian/Gothic style date back to the latter half of the 1800s. The most striking element of these homes is that they are teeming with ornamentation, with arches and frills made of wood or stone extending from the front door to the eaves beneath the roof, even further up to, perhaps an elaborate finial topping the peaked roof of a tower. [...] Read More

Colonial-style homes have been built in the USA since before the Boston Tea Party back in the early days of the 1600s and 1700s as the name implies. The style has never really gone out of favor. One of its nicest variations is the center-hall colonial which has a roomy area inside the front door for receiving guests. [...] Read More