Author: Kathleen Driscoll

Hello I’m Kathleen Driscoll Broker Owner of Driscoll Realty LLC in Downtown Hamilton, Mt. I have been in Real Estate and Mortgage banking for 30 plus years, I traveled as a military wife for over 20 years, which has given me a great insight into the buying and selling of homes. I'm a 4th generation Montana native, having been raised here in the Hamilton area. I served as a past Ravalli County Commissioner. I dealt with land use, Roads, Bridges, Wells, Septic’s along with Subdivision laws and requirements. Adding to my expertise.

If you want someone who can walk you through the process or buying or selling a home I have a great background & knowledge. Plus I just love people and places to explore. Let me know how I can help you feel more comfortable in finding that home or investment property you've been looking for. The process can be challenging, so let me help make easier for you.

Taxes & Increases in Home Values

May 7, 2015By Kathleen Driscoll

Written by Jaymi Naciri on Wednesday May 6th 2015

You pay attention to real estate values, and you get a thrill every time someone in your community pays more for their house than you did. Equity is awesome. Until it isn’t.

What?

Yes, it’s the catch-22 of rising real estate values, and it might be about to hit you squarely in your mailbox. That dreaded property tax can be a killer, sucking up your money and making that equity seem downright excruciating.

A nationwide trend

“Property taxes will jump significantly in most cities this year,” said Washington state’s HeraldNet. In Snohomish County, Washington, that means a countywide 9.8 percent increase. In San Antonio, TX, 11 percent. And statewide in Massachusetts, an average of four percent. That can mean anywhere from a few bucks to a few hundred dollars a month, depending on your home’s value.

The higher property taxes are the product of an improving economy and rising home values nationwide. But in many cases, homeowners are paying more than their fair share.

“Chances are pretty good that you’re paying more in property taxes than you should be,” said Kiplinger. “According to the National Taxpayers Union, as many as 60% of properties in the U.S. are assessed at a higher amount than their current value.”

So how do you right this wrong and put that money back in your pocket?

Fight back

“With property taxes continuing to rise nationwide, many homeowners are starting to challenge what they see as exorbitantly high demands made on them by their local assessor’s office,” said This Old House. “Follow their lead, and you have a 50 percent chance of succeeding.”

The first step is to “assess your assessment,” said Kiplinger. “Research how your local government assesses property. Look at the length of time between assessments as well as how the market value of a home is determined.”

Homeowners will then want to check for errors in their home’s assessment. “Your local assessor’s office can provide your property’s record card (it may be referred to as the working papers or a worksheet), which has information used to assess your property, such as dimensions and number of rooms,” said Kiplinger. “Check that the square footage listed is correct for both the house and the land. If you find an outright error — for example, the card says your home has three bathrooms but it has only two — you may be able to show the assessor your blueprints to get a reduction and skip the formal appeal.”

Reviewing other comparable properties’ report cards on the assessor’s website may also be helpful to establish if the assessed value is consistent. “You may be able to argue for a reduction based on certain differences between your home and comparable ones,” they said.

File an appeal

If you feel you have grounds for an appeal, “The first thing you should do is contact your local Tax Assessor’s Office to find out the exact procedure for your locality,” said Moneycrashers. In some areas, it’s as easy as visiting the local appraisal district’s website.

“I’m stumped that only about five out of every 100 eligible homeowners use the new tool of protesting property taxes online at an appraisal district’s website,” said the Dallas Morning News. “You plug in your estimate and attach evidence showing your home’s value in the appraisal district’s software. If the software and a human agree, voila. If you’re rejected, you can go to a hearing and continue your protest. Or drop it and pay what they want.”

If a hearing is involved, it’s critical to learn the important dates involved because homeowners have a short window to file their paperwork. “Since you might only have 60 days (from the time you receive the assessment in the mail)…you don’t want to sit on it,” said This Old House. Equally important is gathering as much documentation as possible to prove your case:

Assessments of comparable properties in your area
Detailed descriptions of those properties and especially any features that might make them more valuable than your home (upgrades, additions)
Tax records
Photos
“If you do succeed at getting the tax reduced, great,” said This Old House. “If not, all it will have cost you is a few hours of your time and possibly a $5 to $30 filing fee.”

Other ways to lower your taxes

Homestead exemptions, reduced taxes for those over 65, who are disabled, or whose income allows them to exempt part of their property taxes—these are just a few of the ways homeowners might be able to lower their taxes outside of an appeal.

“Contact your state’s department of taxation or visit its website to see what breaks are available to you,” said Kiplinger.

Online Prices & Actual Local Market

April 9, 2015By Kathleen Driscoll

Written by Blanche Evans

Plenty of sellers have visited online home valuation sites such as Zillow, Trulia, and others only to be shocked at the published value of their homes. Most sellers are pleased when the values appear higher than they expected, but many online valuations come in far lower. So should you use these values to price your home for sale?

Estimating a home’s market value is far from an exact science. What these sites attempt to do is provide greater transparency to homebuyers and sellers by making data derived from public records more accessible. They publish what you paid for your home and how much you pay in taxes. Many have satellite views so accurate they can spot your cat laying on the front walk.

But few consumers realize that two homes right next door to each other could have been purchased at different times and have vastly different tax bases which in turn skews values. The property tax base resets for each home every time it’s sold. Then the taxes can go higher every year, remain the same, or go down according to market conditions. Most communities impose ceilings so that your taxes don’t escalate to an unaffordable level in a single year.

If you’ve only owned your home for five years, you are likely paying much more in property taxes than your retired neighbors who bought their home 30 years ago. Yet your home may not be “worth” more unless you’ve done some substantial updates and/or additions.

Then how do these sites come up with valuations? All property is registered with the city and county for property taxing purposes. Home valuation sites contract with major title companies such as First American to obtain county tax roll data. They also find ways to become members of local multiple listing services, which are either subsidiaries of real estate associations or owned by local real estate brokers. That way, they have access to current listing data and recent solds.

Between tax roll data and listing data, home valuation sites apply their own secret sauce, or algorithm to come up with “zestimates” or approximate values of what homes in a given area are worth. Sometimes the results are spot on, but they can also be inaccurate.

First, transaction data has to be recorded with the county, which could take weeks. But, what alters the algorithm most is that properties not currently on the market are included in the data. These homes have not been tested by the current marketplace and cannot possibly contribute to recent market values.

In addition, the algorithms may include whether or not a home has been updated, but there’s no way to quantify subjective information such as how well the home is maintained, curb appeal, interior design, window and yard views, and neighborhood popularity. For these reasons, online valuations should be used only as one of many tools to estimate a home’s value.

Your best approach to choosing a listing price is to ask your real estate professional for a comparative market analysis, or CMA. He or she can show you the most recent listing asking prices and sold comparables in your neighborhood. These results are accurate up to the hour in most cases. Realtor.com updates listings from MLSs every half hour.

If your home is estimated for far less on a home valuation site than current comparables, be prepared to argue pricing with buyers who take these numbers as gospel. If they have a real estate agent representing them, the agent can confirm the comparables you show them to help them understand the market a little better.

By the same token, don’t expect to get more for your home if home valuation sites put your home in a higher price bracket. Recent comparables tell the true story of the current market as long as buyers and sellers are using the same search parameters.

Remember, a set of comparables is only a guide to pricing your home, so you can sell your home quickly and for the most money possible in the current market.

Good Credit Is Just As Important After Your Home Purchase

March 23, 2015By Kathleen Driscoll

Written by Jaymi Naciri on Thursday, 19 March

 Everybody knows how important it is to have great credit when you’re buying a house. But keeping your credit good after you’ve purchased is just as critical. Letting your score take a hit after you close escrow can negatively impact you in a few important ways.

Credit Cards

It’s easier than you think to get into trouble with credit cards once you become a homeowner. One late or missed payment is all it takes to get your first ding.

 Even if you don’t have any credit cards when you buy your home, make your first mortgage payment and watch your mailbox fill up with pre-approval offers. While it might be tempting to get all those cards and charge them up with new furniture and window coverings and TVs and appliances, it might be best to wait. As a new homeowner, you don’t yet know what your total monthly nut will be.

Maybe the utilities are way more than you expected. Perhaps your air conditioning goes kaput the first time you turn it on in the spring or your handyman discovers asbestos while scraping the cottage cheese ceilings in your living room. What if rising values in your area means higher taxes for the next year? Delaying some or all of those purchases until you know what you can easily afford can help you stay in good financial shape.

Refinancing

If rates drop after you’ve moved in or you didn’t get the greatest rate to begin with, refinancing might be your answer since it can save you money every month and over the life of your loan. If your credit score has gone up since you purchased, which often happens after a mortgage payment or two, you might be in a good position to refinance. If your credit score has dropped since your lender approval because you took out too much credit or were late on any of your payments, you may not qualify, which would mean sticking with your existing rate.

Another good reason to refinance is lower private mortgage insurance (PMI) rates for those with a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan. The lower rates are expected to save homeowners up to $900 per year, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Cars, cable, and cell phones, oh my!

The bump in your credit score post-mortgage can help you get a better rate when buying a car, whereas a credit score in decline could mean not qualifying at all. But even smaller purchases and necessary services can be affected by poor credit.

“Cell phone companies run a credit check on you every time you sign up for a new contract,” said CNN Money. “The rationale is simple: Wireless companies want to make sure you’ll pay your bill. The company “has revealed that 50% of its customers don’t qualify for its top promotions.”

Utilities like electric and gas as well as cable and satellite may not decline to service your home, especially if they are the only provider in your area. But you may have to pay a higher deposit if your credit is bad—something to consider if you are planning to change to a different provider or plan.

Need more information about the impact your credit score can make? Visit Investopedia.

3 KEY PRE-OFFER HOME SELLER ACTIONS

March 3, 2015By Kathleen Driscoll

Written by  on Monday, 02 March 2015

 
Sellers who wait until they’re faced with a buyer’s offer to purchase before initiating three key actions, may be forcing themselves to make too many decisions at once and too quickly.

Most of us are nervous about decision making. Many lack confidence in their ability. Yet, sellers will be faced with quickly making multiple financial, legal, and lifestyle decisions when a buyer’s offer is presented to them.

 

There are 3 key positive actions sellers should begin before offers arrive, so that they are prepared for decision making and are less overwhelmed by the selling process:

#1. Start thinking that you’re living in the buyer’s new home.

Mentally move out. Let go of “mine.” Cut the emotional cord. Concentrate on making the property as attractive to buyers as possible and practical. If you wait to start this “cut the emotional cord to home” thinking when your real estate professional presents you with an offer, you’re doing yourself a tremendous disservice. Making confident decisions is difficult when you’re distracted by pride of ownership and personal history.

#2. Start thinking about what the buyer may ask you to do.

Anticipate buyer requests regarding financing, moving dates, and other factors that may cause inconvenience or cost to you, the seller. For instance, if you had to wait many months for closing and the money from the sale, what problems could that cause you? Conversely, consider costs attached to moving in less than a month or at least sooner than convenient. Do you understand possible costs and considerations if buyers ask you to hold a second mortgage to enable them to pay the top dollar you ask for? Ask your real estate professional to explain how seller-held mortgages work and what would have to be true for you to sell that mortgage and realize cash.

#3. Start thinking beyond list price to achieve full offer value.

The value expressed in a buyer’s offer to purchase involves 5 key elements – it’s a financial package:

  1. Purchase Price is not automatically the amount the seller receives since other factors, like unpaid property taxes, can reduce the total. It’s not the purchase price, but the net proceeds of the sale that sellers should concentrate on. Real estate professionals can calculate, or at least estimate, the seller’s net proceeds after costs related to the offer and deduction of commission.
  2. Closing Date, or the day ownership is transferred and the seller receives the money, can represent cost or value to sellers. If the seller has to make two moves or has to pay two mortgages during the transition from one home to another, costs can add up and offer value goes down.
  3. Inclusions and Exclusions represent costs and value. Appliances, light fixtures, and draperies are common seller inclusions, but the cost of replacing them in the next home reduces profit.
  4. Terms and Conditions are clauses in the offer which cover “what if” risks and the obligations of both parties. These clauses detail what the buyer asks the seller to do for the purchase price. The degree of uncertainty attached to the conditions and the buyer’s related ability to close effect the value of an offer.
  5. Intent and Sincerity are vital aspects of an offer although difficult to quantify. For the seller, offer value lies in the certainty that the buyer will close in spite of market shifts and other problems ahead.

Note: For more on how an offer can translate into value for sellers, read The Offer: There’s More to It Than Price.”

Weeks or months may pass from the time that you decide to sell and the day your real estate professional receives an offer to present to you. This key stage of selling your home is no time to discover:

  • what you didn’t understand about selling
  • what you haven’t considered thoroughly
  • which details comprise your ideal outcome.

Suggestion: To prepare for offer presentation, read the offer form standard clauses soon after listing, so that you understand what the small print commits you to do, protects you from, and leaves you vulnerable to. For instance, the seller is usually responsible for keeping the property fully insured until title changes hands. Do you understand what responsibilities you have if flooding, storm damage, or fire strikes before then? Ask your listing salesperson to show you typical offer clauses well in advance, so you have time to digest details and ask a lot of questions before you’re up against the offer deadline which may only be a few hours away.

Discussing strategies and contingencies with your listing salesperson ahead of offer presentation will help the professional negotiate a solid high-value Agreement with the buyer. Mentally preparing yourself, and anyone else who has a say in what happens to the property, means no one will be pressured into snap decisions or miss opportunities under the tight timelines common with offers.

Real estate professionals are trained to help sellers make decisions in their own best interest by providing necessary context and details, but these professionals cannot advise sellers exactly what to do, nor make decisions for them.

To gain full benefit from the knowledge and experience of the real estate professional who lists your real estate, let them fully prepare you for offer presentations in advance. When an offer comes in (usually at a very inconvenient time), you’ll feel as confident and prepared as possible faced with this life-changing opportunity. You will understand which decisions to make and how to evaluate the full offer.

 

 

What Buyers Should Know About Home Inspections

January 30, 2015By Kathleen Driscoll

By Blanche Evans

For many first-time buyers, buying a home can be a scary experience. They know they’ll be maintaining or improving a home with little to no maintenance experience, so the solution is to buy a home in perfect condition. So they hire a home inspector to point out all the flaws.

The problem is — no perfect home exists. Air conditioners break, plumbing pipes leak, and roof tiles blow off in the wind.

If you’re buying a home, start with a reasonable expectation of what home inspectors can do. Their job is to inform you about the integrity and condition of what you’re buying, good and bad.

 

A home inspection should take several hours, long enough to cover all built-in appliances, all mechanical, electrical, gas and plumbing systems, the roof, foundation, gutters, exterior skins, windows and doors.

An inspector doesn’t test for pests or sample the septic tank. For those, you need industry-specific inspectors.

Here’s what else you need to do.

1. Make sure the inspector you hire is licensed. The responsibilities of home inspectors vary according to state law and their areas of expertise.

2. Ask what the inspection covers. Some inspection companies have extensive divisions that can provide environmental for radon and lead paint. Be prepared to hire and schedule several inspectors according to your lender’s requirements and to pay several hundred dollars for each type of inspection.

3. Some inspection reports only cover the main house, not other buildings on the property. For specialty inspections such as termites, make sure the inspection covers all buildings on the property including guest houses, detached garages, storage buildings, etc.

4. Attend the inspection and follow along with the inspectors. Seeing problems for yourself will help you understand what’s serious, what needs replacement now or later, and what’s not important.

5. Don’t expect the seller to repair or replace every negative found on the report. If you’re getting a VA or FHA-guaranteed loan, some items aren’t negotiable. The seller must address them, but otherwise, pick your battles with the seller carefully.

A home inspection points out problems, they also point out what’s working well. It can help you make your final decision about the home – to ask the seller to make repairs or to offer a little less, to buy as is or not to buy at all.

Home Buyers: What You Should Tell Your Lender

January 19, 2015By Kathleen Driscoll

 

Written by    

Before you go get a loan to buy a home, there is some preliminary work you need to do and some things you need to know to make the borrowing process easier.

First, you need to choose a lender. Ask family and friends whom they would recommend. Interview more than one lender, preferably a local banker, a mortgage broker, and a lender from a national bank. Ask questions such as how long they’ve been in business, how long they take to close the average loan, and how much experience they have with loans you’re interested in, such as FHA or VA, or a jumbo conforming loan.

Fence pup

Most lenders won’t choose to share their list of fees until you apply for a loan. That means sharing your personal information. The lender needs your personal information to decide whether to give you the loan and how much to charge you in interest. If there are any negatives in your credit history, now is the time to come clean.

Once you apply for a loan, your lender will run your credit. She will contact one or more of the three credit reporting bureaus to get your credit report and your credit score. If you have late payments, an account in collections, or a dispute with someone that has resulted in a judgment against you, you need to tell your lender before she runs your credit.

Your lender could help you fix derogatories, especially if it’s going to take time for them to heal. According to a study by myfico.com, a 30-day delinquency can drop an otherwise good credit score by as much as 90 points. And only top credit scores of 740 or higher get the best interest rates.

A delinquency stays on your report for seven years, says credit reporting bureau Experian. According to MyFICO.com, the difference between a credit score of 700 and 698 can cost you more than $13,378 in interest on a $165,000 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. That’s because a 700 credit score may get you a 4.5 percent interest rate, while the 698 score gets a 4.875 rate.

Your lender will know how to help you raise your scores, if your scores are too low to get a good rate, because your rate will also make your monthly payments higher. Once you repair your negative credit problem, take proof of payment or release of lien to your lender. You may have to wait a month or two or three for your credit scores to reflect your improved credit history.

Tell your lender all you can about your finances. Don’t shave time off your present job or inflate your earnings if you’re self-employed. Trying to reach for more home than you can truly afford can be a problem for you now and later. The lender may catch you and decline the loan, or at worst, you could be committing mortgage fraud.

Once your lender knows all the problems that could impact the loan, and all the steps you’ve taken to improve your credit, that’s the time to make your application. From there it will take about 30 to 45 days for the loan to close.

Most homebuying advice says to apply for a loan before you do anything else, but it’s a much better idea to take a few weeks or months to get your credit to the best place you can. That’s the best way to afford more home.