There will be an open house at 10610 Fairmount Falls Way this Sunday, May 1st. This custom built home is located in the prestigious section of Glenmary Estates. Glenmary Estates is a newer section of Glenmary located on the southernmost edge. The Glenmary subdivision is in the southeastern edge of Louisville KY along Bardstown Road.
This 1-story ranch is a little unusual because in Glenmary; 1.5-story and 2-story homes seem to dominate. Upon entry, 12 foot ceilings and the very open floor plan give a dramatic open feel. The fireplace, with its ornate decorative wood and granite, makes it a real focal point. As you would expect, the kitchen is modern with Stainless Steel appliances and granite countertops. To give an example of quality, all of the closets including the basement have built in shelving with no wire rack shelves anywhere.
It is quite obvious there was no expense spared in the construction. It was lived in for 10 months...
Louisville KY is now at its third flood stage of the spring season; with this being the most severe. At this point, the Ohio River has appeared to crest at 8 feet above flood stage after being forecast at 10 feet. It has been a major deal to those with homes under water along the Ohio River; a minor inconvenience to most of us that have had to deal with road closings. There have been several events that have been canceled or postponed. The Hollinden Team planned on attending Waterfront Wednesday, sponsored by WFPK and the location was changed twice. The last time, it was sent indoors to Headliners and renamed, “Hell or High Water”. The great Kentucky Derby Steamboat Race has been postponed until late June. Surely the Ohio River will subside by then and the river becomes more navigable. The weather man tells us that it is bound to dry out for the “Greatest Two Minutes in Sports” also known as the Kentucky Derby.
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I worked with a client last week that was interested in one of our home listings. They informed me that they had some credit issues in the past, but were working through those, and both had good steady jobs. I suggested a couple of loan officers that could get them approved for a home loan and to let me know the amount of the pre-approval.
A few days later, my client calls me and reports that he was turned down for the home loan approval. I was expecting to hear that his credit score killed them and he tells me that it is 650. Not being a Louisville loan officer, I am thinking that this is not too bad and there is more to the story, and there was! A few months back, they had hired a “credit counselor”. They would give the counselor XX dollars a month and the counselor would pay their bills in the way that would best bring up their credit score.
Now here is the rub, the Louisville, KY mortgage officer looked at the fact that they...
Home buyers using FHA backed loans in Louisville KY saw a change in the annual mortgage premium payment this week. Up until April 18th, the annual premium was .90% for LTV (Loan To Value) of 95% or higher. It has now increased to 1.15%.
FHA loans are still very attractive as they have one of the lowest minimum down payments required asking for only 3.5%. This is a far cry from other lenders looking for 20% down.
Let’s use a $200,000 home purchase as an example. We will figure the normal amount of 3.5% down payment ($7,000). At the old rate of .90%, we would pay monthly mortgage insurance of $150 per month. At the newer increased rate of 1.15%, our monthly bill increases to $191 per month. That is $41 per month or nearly $500 per year. That will buy a lot of groceries.
For a couple with a borderline debt to income ratio, this increased rate may make them become ineligible for the home of their dreams.
To try several...
Virtual Tours are certainly the rage now in real estate listings. Most that I see are nothing but a rehash of the pictures already posted set to music.
I have used Visual Tour in the past to make a “Virtual Tour” of a home. I used different pictures from the listing that were stitched together to create a panoramic view of the interior and exterior of the property.
With encouragement from Lincoln Crum in our Keller Williams office, I used a pocket HD camera and have now finished my first video. Lincoln told me that the first one would be the hardest. I think that is for 2 reasons. The first is just getting started and making the effort. It took a while to develop a technique. The second is editing and publishing. I used iMovie on our iMac to edit and publish ours. No matter how easy the software manufacturers say it is, there is still a learning curve. Anyway, here is our first video of 4713 S. 6th Street in Louisville,...
I recently picked up a listing in Glenmary Estates which is one of the newer sections in the Glenmary Development. This house was vacant and in its history, had been listed with 5 other real estate agents. Among other things, we decided to rent some furniture and have it professionally staged.
I had shown the house to a client a couple of months ago; he is a careful shopper and will be making a decision in May. His girlfriend liked it, but he did not care for it. I convinced him to come back for a second look last week and he reluctantly agreed. He was immediately impressed when he opened the door and ended up staying for an hour. The staging helped define area and gave the house a “lived in” look that helped him imagine what it would look like with his furniture.
Our open house had people “oohing” and “aahing” equally. Now, let’s have one of them make an offer.
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