Welcome to the New RealTown! Submit Feedback
Member Login | Join RealTown
The Real Estate Network

Discover Columbus

Worthington, Ohio

Discover Columbus is a site about Columbus Ohio. Originally named "Columbus Best Blog," it was never the best blog in Columbus Ohio. It was a blog about the best in Columbus and Central Ohio! Best restaurants, best real estate company, best schools, best neighborhoods..... written by Maureen McCabe a licensed real estate agent with Columbus Ohio's best real estate company, Real Living HER. Discover Columbus is just a site about Central Ohio.

Subscribe

Your E-mail Address:
Subscribe to:

Recent Comments

RE: Polaris Area Indian Restaurants
  Personally I don't know that the two I hav...
RE: Polaris Area Indian Restaurants
Great! customers who are looking for different kin...
RE: Central Ohio Thanksgiving - 2009
  It was a good Halloween.  thanks for...
RE: Central Ohio Thanksgiving - 2009
It was  a good Halloween...May be thanksgivin...
RE: Central Ohio Thanksgiving - 2009
 thanksgiving day, a day to remember all the...

Site Feed

RSS Feed

Discover Columbus

Real Living's Peace of Mind Mortgage Protection

May. 30, 2009
Categorized in: Real Estate

It’s called “Peace of Mind.” (.pdf document from Real Living HER with details, terms)

” The Columbus-based real estate firm Real Living HER announced today that it will cover the mortgage of clients who lose their jobs.

The firm, the largest in central Ohio, says it is the first real-estate company in the area to offer the protection, which some car makers and home builders also offer.”

You have to work with a Real Living HER agent (have I mentioned I am one?)  and get a  Real Living mortgage on the home of your dreams.  The Peace of Mind insurance program is for a limited time. *

Buy a Real Living HER listing and the benefits increase…. this would be a great weekend to visit some of the Real Living HER Open Houses huh?    Real Living HER is in Central Ohio.  I am an agent with Real Living HER  Worthington.  Looking for a home?

I'd love to hear from you if you have a comment on the topic. All comments are moderated so you will not see your comment immediately. Thanks. Copyright 2009 Discover Columbus and Maureen McCabe

Mortgage Video

Jan. 24, 2008
Categorized in: Finance
Tagged with: finance, mortgage

What happened in the mortgage market in the past six years? Why do we have so many foreclosures nationally? 

From mortgage professional Dan Green in Cincinnati, a graphic video  that shows how it happened, the  mortgage market expanding and then contracting, changing mortgage guidlines. This is not / was not just sub prime mortgages.

Dan writes The Mortgage Report - he called the entry about his video Mortgage Video: Why It Matters When Mortgage Guidelines Change


I found Dan's video on Teri Lussier's The Brick Ranch blog about Huber Heights Ohio (Dayton area.)  If you go really far back somewhere on this blog there is at least one post inspired by Dan Green... but it was when he was in Chicago. 


Need mortgage info...  read Dan Green's blog...

Why Mortgage Rates Didn't Fall More When The Fed Made A Surprise 0.750% Rate Cut

Why More Talk Of Recession Makes Mortgage Rates Fall


Readers: I'd love to hear from you if you have a comment on the topic. All comments are moderated so you will not see your comment immediately. Thanks.

Copyright 2008 Discover Columbus and Maureen McCabe

Biweekly Mortgage

Oct. 22, 2007
Categorized in: Finance

A mortgage set up for biweekly mortgage payments pays down principle on the mortgage quicker.

In his Real Estate Notebook column in This Week Community Newspapers last week Bill Evans wrote about "A biweekly mortgage payment plan"

"A biweekly mortgage payment plan means that half of the scheduled monthly payments are made every two weeks, which means that you make 26 payments per year -- one extra payment per year. "

Evans makes the point that setting your mortgage up for bimonthly payments is not refinancing.

This Week Community Newspapers are published for many Central Ohio communities including Clintonville, Dublin, Gahanna, Grandview Heights, Hilliard, New Albany, Northland, Olentangy, Upper Arlington, Westerville amd Worthington and are published weekly. Evans, the president of Real Living HER writes a weekly column in the papers.

Mortgages / finance are the thing I hate blogging about more than anything else. I did recently write these two posts myself with info I learned in a class taught by Real Living Mortgage Branch Manager Susan McKnight.

Home Seller FHA Finance Quiz

Home Buyer FHA Finance Quiz

FHA is government insured financing.

Home Seller FHA Finance Quiz

Oct. 17, 2007
Categorized in: Finance
Tagged with: fha, mortgage, seller

Central Ohio home sellers here's a quiz on FHA financing and what it means to you as a seller.

True or False


1. FHA requires "Electrical Ground Fault Interrupters (GFI)" circuits to be installed when a plug / outlet is within 6 feet of a water outlet.

True
False

2. FHA requires handrails where there are three steps or more.


True
False

3.
FHA requires a termite inspection on a home.

True
False

4. FHA requires an electrical certification on a home.

True
False

5
. FHA requires a roof certification on a home.

True
False

6. FHA requires a furnace certification on older homes with gravity feed or steam (registers) heat furnaces.

True
False

7. FHA requires the seller to pay for the underwriting, commitment and processing fees for the buyers loan.

True
False

8. FHA appraisal are more likely to under-appraise than a conventional mortgage loan because the appraiser has a different set of requirements.

True
False

9.
FHA loans allow for carpeting and /or decorating allowances in a purchase agreement.

True
False

10.
FHA requires chipping paint to be scraped and repainted on homes built after 1978.

True
False

Tabulate your answers...


and scroll down to see the correct answers for FHA financing today... in 2007






The answers to all the questions is "False."

The seller does not have to worry about certifying roofs, the electrical system, the structural system (except on manufactured housing) Or a heating system. There is not a requirement for GFI outlets to be installed. There is not a requirement that the house be tested for termites or other wood destroying insects (the purchase contract may require a termite exam but FHA does not. It is negotiated in the contract with the buyer.)

That is not to say that if the roof is leaking you don't have to disclose it. Or that if there are signs of a defect in the roof for example that the appraiser is not going to ask for a roof certification. If there is a stain on a ceiling the appraiser could ask for the roof to be certified but not all roofs, electrical systems, structural systems, furnaces, etc. have to be certified.

In the old days a house was considered guilty until proven innocent by FHA certifications to the contrary. Not anymore.

Homes built prior to 1978 the appraiser may require chipping paint to be scraped and repainted because of lead paint.


The seller no longer pays for any charges for the buyers loan other than the tax service fee ($80.)

The questions and answers were part of a quiz for a continuing education class taught by Susan McKnight, the branch manager for Real Living Mortgage in Columbus.

Contact me about offering your property to buyers with a free 1%, 1 year buydown. 30 year fiixed FHA financing with one year at a lower interest rate.