Basement Home – Wynfield Forest, Huntersville

Fabulous BASEMENT home in sought after Wynfield neighborhood! Located in The Arbor in Wynfield Forest. 5 bed / 4.5 bath home, 4200 sq ft. home also boasts multiple gathering spaces. Hardwoods throughout the home with tile in the bathrooms. Unbelievable closet space in this home!  Many updates already done! Must see this home.

Private wooded backyard and mature shade trees in the front.  Side entry garage for fabulous curb appeal.  Basement boasts theater space, space for billiards or ping pong, a full bath as well as a room for an office or bedroom.  500 sq ft workshop and unfinished storage space in the basement.

Wynfield Forest is loved for it’s sidewalks, bike lanes and fabulous neighbors!  Great for running, walking, biking and dog walking.  Common area has a clubhouse, pool, playground, basketball, tennis and sand volleyball courts.

Close to I-77 makes commuting to Charlotte or the airport easy!  Convenient to shopping at Birkdale and Northlake Mall.

$434,900  ~~  Call us for more details or to see this home!  704-641-9601

Here are just a few pictures.  To see the full listing check out our featured listings page.

 

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Not Sure How to Price Your Home? Expert Strategies Help You Hit the Spot

Not Sure How to Price Your Home? Expert Strategies Help You Hit the Spot

By: Jamie Wiebe

Pricing your home based on data, not emotion, can mean a swift sale.

You don’t need to be Bob Barker to know when the price just isn’t right. Just ask Candace Talmadge. She originally listed her Lancaster, Texas, home for $129,000, but “eventually had to accept the market reality” and chop $4,000 off the price.

The home’s location proved challenging: Buyers were either turned off by the area — a lower-income neighborhood south of Dallas — or unable to afford the home.

“Sellers have to keep in mind the location,” says Talmadge. “Who are going to be the likely buyers?”

Home pricing is more of a science than an art, but many homeowners price with their heartstrings instead of cold, hard data. Here’s why crunching the numbers is always the better route to an accurate home price — as well as what can happen when home sellers overlook those all important data points.

Related: 5 Things You Need to Ask Yourself Before Turning Down a Low-Ball Offer

The Pitfalls of Overpricing

Homeowners often think that it’s OK to overprice at first, because — who knows? — maybe you’ll just get what you’re asking for. Although you can certainly lower an inflated price later, you’ll sacrifice a lot in the process. The most obvious damage: A house that remains on the market for months can prevent you from moving into your dream home. Already purchased that next home? You might saddle yourself with two mortgages.

“You lose a lot of time and money if you don’t price it right,” says Norma Newgent, an agent with Area Pro Realty in Tampa, Fla.

And worse: Continually lowering the price could turn off potential buyers who might start wondering just what is wrong with your home.

“Buyers are smart and educated,” says Lisa Hjorten of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty in Redmond, Wash. “You’re probably going to lose them.”

The Pricing Traps

It’s easy for homeowners to stumble into two common traps:

1. Conflating actual value with sentimental value — how much they assume their home’s worth because they lived there and loved the time they spent there.

2. Assuming renovations should result in a dollar-for-dollar increase in the selling price — or more.

“Many homeowners think, ‘Of course my home is worth a bazillion dollars,'” says Newgent. If they put in a few thousand dollars worth of new flooring, for example, they might overestimate the upgrade’s impact on the home’s value into the tens of thousands.

Talmadge’s Texas home came with a built-in renovation trap: It was already the nicest home in the area, making it harder to sell. Major additions had inflated the square footage — and the price, according to one appraiser — without accounting for the surrounding neighborhood. That created a disconnect for buyers: Wealthier ones who might be interested in the upgraded home disliked the neighborhood, and less affluent buyers couldn’t afford the asking price.

“Don’t buy the nicest home on the block” is common real estate advice for this reason.

That’s not to say that renovations aren’t worth it. You want to enjoy your home while you’re in it, right? Smart renovations make your home more comfortable and functional but should typically reflect the neighborhood. A REALTOR® can help you understand what certain upgrades can recoup when you sell and which appeal to buyers.

Another culprit for many a mispriced home is online tools, like Zillow’s “Zestimate,” that prescribe an estimated market value based on local data.

The estimate is often wildly inaccurate. A Virginia-area real estate company, McEnearney & Associates, has compared actual sold prices with predicted online estimates for several hundred homes in the area for the past few years and concluded the predictions failed half of the time.

The Right Stats for the Right Price

The best pricing strategy? Consult a real estate agent, who will use something called comps (also known as “comparable sales”) to determine the appropriate listing price. They’re not just looking at your neighbors; they’re seeking out near-identical homes with similar floor plans, square footage, and amenities that sold in the last few months.

Once they’ve assembled a list of similar homes (and the real prices buyers paid), they can make an accurate estimate of what you can expect to receive for your home. If a three-bedroom bungalow with granite countertops and a walk-out basement down the block sold for $359,000, expecting more from your own three-bedroom bungalow with granite countertops and a walk-out basement is a pipe dream.

After crunching the data, they’ll work with you to determine a fair price that’ll entice buyers. The number might be less than you hope and expect, but listing your home correctly — not idealistically — is a sure way to avoid the aches and pains of a long, drawn-out listing that just won’t sell.

Knowing When the Price is Too High

Once your home is on the market, you’ll start accumulating another set of data that will serve as the ultimate price test: how buyers react.

Agent Hjorten says there’s an easy way to tell if you’ve priced too high: “If we have no showings, it’s way too high. Lots of showings and no offer means you’ve marketed well — but it’s overpriced once people get inside.”

Talmadge didn’t struggle with showings. She says a number of people were interested in the home, but not enough at the price. In the end, Talmadge sold her home for $125,000, with a $5,000 seller’s assist, a discount on the cost of the home applied directly to closing costs.

“It all boils down to location, location, location. In [another] neighborhood, our house might well have sold for well over $130,000,” Talmadge says.

When it comes to finding a buyer, pricing your home according to data — and the right data, at that — is crucial to making the sale.

 

Content credit to REALTOR Content Resource from HomeLogic

It’s Not All Under The Roof – Home Inspections

When a buyer purchases a home, most times they do a home inspection.  The home inspection looks at many areas of the home including, faucets, doors, locks, windows, crawl space, attic space, roof and more.  But what they don’t look at are the items that aren’t attached to the home in the traditional sense.

Buyers should consider looking at things like, irrigation, landscaping, patios, septic system, outdoor fireplaces or kitchens.  All these inspections can be overwhelming.  Not only will a buyer receive much information about the home but the costs of these inspections can run up.   Make sure you have a full understanding from your home inspector as to what is covered in the inspection and then decide what other items you wish to look at yourself or call in a specific technician for review.

Buyers want a full and complete understanding of any potential issues they are taking on when they buy a home.  Is that fence around the property in good condition?  Do all the irrigation heads work?  Are there any large dead trees on the property that may need to be removed?

Keep in mind – it’s not just under the roof you are buying!

 

Mold, Termites and Your Home Insurance

By Samantha Alexander

Nothing’s worse than finding unwanted visitors in your home. A surprise appearance by a spider is enough to make you want to move out altogether. However, some house guests are even worse — you can’t crush them or spray them to get rid of them. Two chief culprits: mold and termites.

Silent intruders such as these can be costly to fix — not to mention a major headache to deal with. Even though standard home insurance policies cover a wide variety of perils, you may not have adequate protection for damage from certain pests.

While you should review your specific policy, here’s a quick breakdown of how mold, termites and other pests typically are covered (or not covered) by standard home insurance policies.

When mold moves in

It goes without saying that mold is not something you want in your home. Even in the most well-kept home, there’s often a little bit of mold somewhere. The problem is when mold is allowed to grow and spread unnoticed. Severe indoor mold infestations can lead to serious health problems, and should be addressed immediately.

Because it costs so much to get rid of mold and repair the damage it causes, some homeowners may hope to rely on their home insurance policy for help. This is where things get tricky. First, it’s important to know what causes mold.

Mold thrives on moisture, which means humid and damp areas are vulnerable. Mold spores can enter your home through doors and windows or can grow after a leak occurs. If the mold in your home is caused by a covered peril such as a burst pipe or leaky roof, repairing the damage it creates could be covered through your home insurance policy.

There’s a ‘but’ coming, of course: Most policies include certain mold exclusions. Many standard policies won’t offer coverage for mold that arises from poor maintenance, chronic or repeated water leaks, or failure to properly ventilate rooms.

There’s another circumstance in which damage from mold is not covered: when it’s caused by flooding from rising waters such as lakes, rivers or oceans. Flooding isn’t covered by standard home insurance, and neither is mold caused by flooding. For that, you’ll need a separate flood policy. Learn more at FloodSmart.gov, the website for the National Flood Insurance Program.

Curious about your level of mold coverage? Call your home insurance company and find out what your policy says. Many carriers offer add-on coverage for extra protection.

The truth about termites

Every homeowner, at one point or another, has wondered if termites are quietly eating away at the unseen parts of his or her home. It’s a very real fear. Termites can destroy the structural integrity of your home, if they go unnoticed. Unfortunately, termite infestation is something that isn’t often covered by standard home insurance policies.

Each year, termites cause more than $5 billion in property damage, according to the National Pest Management Association. Fortunately, there are a variety of ways to prevent a termite takeover from happening to you.

Termite barriers, bait and monitoring systems, and soil treatment are all effective methods of preventing termites on your property. If you’re serious about prevention, you may even want to consider hiring a professional to check your property annually — many mortgage lenders will require this, in fact.

In addition to mold and termites, other unwanted visitors can wreak havoc on your home, including bed bugs and rodents. Most of the time, damage caused by or removal of these pests is not covered by standard home and renters insurance policies. The best way to avoid a costly run-in with a pest is by maintaining your home and conducting regular home maintenance checks. If you see a problem, deal with it before it gets out of control.

Termite damage typically isn’t covered, while mold can be, but only under specific circumstances. Home insurance, in general, is no substitute for proper home maintenance.

All homeowners should familiarize themselves with their insurance policy. If you have questions about your coverage or policy limits, a licensed agent is the best resource.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow.

 

Article from Zillow:

http://www.zillow.com/blog/mold-termites-home-insurance-184244/

 

 

7 Tips for Staging Your Home

By: G. M. Filisko

Make your home warm and inviting to boost your home’s value and speed up the sale process.
The first step to getting buyers to make an offer on your home is to impress them with its appearance so they begin to envision themselves living there. Here are seven tips for making your home look bigger, brighter, and more desirable.

1. Start with a Clean Slate
Before you can worry about where to place furniture and which wall hanging should go where, each room in your home must be spotless. Do a thorough cleaning right down to the nitpicky details like wiping down light switch covers. Deep clean and deodorize carpets and window coverings.

2. Stow Away Your Clutter
It’s harder for buyers to picture themselves in your home when they’re looking at your family photos, collectibles, and knickknacks. Pack up all your personal decorations. However, don’t make spaces like mantles and coffee and end tables barren. Leave three items of varying heights on each surface, suggests Barb Schwarz of Staged Homes in Concord, Pa. For example, place a lamp, a small plant, and a book on an end table.

3. Scale Back on Your Furniture
When a room is packed with furniture, it looks smaller, which will make buyers think your home is less valuable than it is. Make sure buyers appreciate the size of each room by removing one or two pieces of furniture. If you have an eat-in dining area, using a small table and chair set makes the area seem bigger.

4. Rethink Your Furniture Placement
Highlight the flow of your rooms by arranging the furniture to guide buyers from one room to another. In each room, create a focal point on the farthest wall from the doorway and arrange the other pieces of furniture in a triangle around the focal point, advises Schwarz. In the bedroom, the bed should be the focal point. In the living room, it may be the fireplace, and your couch and sofa can form the triangle in front of it.

5. Add Color to Brighten Your Rooms
Brush on a fresh coat of warm, neutral-color paint in each room. Ask your real estate agent for help choosing the right shade. Then accessorize. Adding a vibrant afghan, throw, or accent pillows for the couch will jazz up a muted living room, as will a healthy plant or a bright vase on your mantle. High-wattage bulbs in your light fixtures will also brighten up rooms and basements.

6. Set the Scene
Lay logs in the fireplace, and set your dining room table with dishes and a centerpiece of fresh fruit or flowers. Create other vignettes throughout the home — such as a chess game in progress — to help buyers envision living there. Replace heavy curtains with sheer ones that let in more light.
Make your bathrooms feel luxurious by adding a new shower curtain, towels, and fancy guest soaps (after you put all your personal toiletry items are out of sight). Judiciously add subtle potpourri, scented candles, or boil water with a bit of vanilla mixed in. If you have pets, clean bedding frequently and spray an odor remover before each showing.

7. Make the Entrance Grand
Mow your lawn and trim your hedges, and turn on the sprinklers for 30 minutes before showings to make your lawn sparkle. If flowers or plants don’t surround your home’s entrance, add a pot of bright flowers. Top it all off by buying a new doormat and adding a seasonal wreath to your front door.

G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer who occasionally rearranges her furniture to find the best placement—and keep her dog on his toes. A frequent contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR® Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, business, personal finance, and legal topics.
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4 Tips to Determine How Much Mortgage You Can Afford

By: G. M. Filisko
By knowing how much mortgage you can handle, you can ensure that homeownership will fit in your budget.
Homeownership should make you feel safe and secure, and that includes financially. Be sure you can afford your home by calculating how much of a mortgage you can safely fit into your budget.

Why not just take out the biggest mortgage a lender says you can have? Because your lender bases that number on a formula that doesn’t consider your current and future financial and personal goals.

Think ahead to major life events and consider how those might influence your budget. Do you want to return to school for an advanced degree? Will a new child add day care to your monthly expenses? Does a relative plan to eventually live with you and contribute to the mortgage?

Consider those lifestyle issues as you check out these four methods for estimating the amount of mortgage you can afford.
1. Prepare a detailed budget.
The oldest rule of thumb says you can typically afford a home priced two to three times your gross income. So, if you earn $100,000, you can typically afford a home between $200,000 and $300,000.

But that’s not the best method because it doesn’t take into account your monthly expenses and debts. Those costs greatly influence how much you can afford. Let’s say you earn $100,000 a year but have $1,000 in monthly payments for student debt, car loans, and credit card minimum payments. You don’t have as much money to pay your mortgage as someone earning the same income with no debts.

Better option: Prepare a family budget that tallies your ongoing monthly bills for everything — credit cards, car and student loans, lunch at work, day care, date night, vacations, and savings.

See what’s left over to spend on homeownership costs, like your mortgage, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, and community association fees, if applicable.
2. Factor in your downpayment.
How much money do you have for a downpayment? The higher your downpayment, the lower your monthly payments will be. If you put down at least 20% of the home’s cost, you may not have to get private mortgage insurance, which protects the lender if you default and costs hundreds each month. That leaves more money for your mortgage payment.

The lower your downpayment, the higher the loan amount you’ll need to qualify for and the higher your monthly mortgage payment.

But, if interest rates and/or home prices are rising and you wait to buy until you accumulate a bigger downpayment, you may end up paying more for your home.
3. Consider your overall debt.
Lenders generally follow the 43% rule. Your monthly mortgage payments covering your home loan principal, interest, taxes and insurance, plus all your other bills, like car loans, utilities, and credit cards, shouldn’t exceed 43% of your gross annual income.

Here’s an example of how the 43% calculation works for a homebuyer making $100,000 a year before taxes:

1. Your gross annual income is $100,000.

2. Multiply $100,000 by 43% to get $43,000 in annual income.

3. Divide $43,000 by 12 months to convert the annual 43% limit into a monthly upper limit of $3,583.

4. All your monthly bills including your potential mortgage can’t go above $3,583 per month.

You might find a lender willing to give you a mortgage with a payment that goes above the 43% line, but consider carefully before you take it. Evidence from studies of mortgage loans suggest that borrowers who go over the limit are more likely to run into trouble making monthly payments, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns.
4. Use your rent as a mortgage guide.
The tax benefits of homeownership generally allow you to afford a mortgage payment — including taxes and insurance — of about one-third more than your current rent payment without changing your lifestyle. So you can multiply your current rent by 1.33 to arrive at a rough estimate of a mortgage payment.

Here’s an example: If you currently pay $1,500 per month in rent, you should be able to comfortably afford a $2,000 monthly mortgage payment after factoring in the tax benefits of homeownership.

However, if you’re struggling to keep up with your rent, buy a home that will give you the same payment rather than going up to a higher monthly payment. You’ll have additional costs for homeownership that your landlord now covers, like property taxes and repairs. If there’s no room in your budget for those extras, you could become financially stressed.

Also consider whether or not you’ll itemize your deductions. If you take the standard deduction, you can’t also deduct mortgage interest payments. Talking to a tax adviser, or using a tax software program to do a “what if” tax return, can help you see your tax situation more clearly.
G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer who’s owned her own home for more than 20 years. A frequent contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR® Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, business, personal finance, and legal topics.

Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

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