Dc Fawcett – Guidelines for foreign nationals on buying a home in the U.S.

There are certain things that foreign nationals have to consider and evaluate before they buying a home in the United States of America and in this article Dc Fawcett gives guidelines for foreign nationals on the same.

You have to determine the purpose of the property

Before you buy a property in the United States of America, you should determine the purpose of the property. Consider

• Whether the property is going to be used as a vacation home
• How many years you will own the property
• If you are going to do business in the United States of America
• If you are going to bring up your kids there
• The U.S. does not allow visitors to stay for duration longer than the Visa permits and if you want to do so, then you should consult an immigration lawyer. This applies to property owners also.

Know about mortgage obtaining processes

You should know about the policies for obtaining a mortgage and this process in the United States of America is a very lengthy one. It takes around 45 days to get an approval for your loan and the costs are very high in the United States. Interest is payable monthly and the U.S imposes additional charges on foreign mortgages by charging foreign national premium. This is a safety precaution that it undertakes since it does not know about the credit history of the mortgagee.

Research about Average closing costs

Average closing costs include real estate agent fees, home inspection costs and lender’s costs and these add to the final purchase price. Closing costs can be as little as 100 dollars or as much as thousand dollars. Lenders fees form a chunk of closing costs and foreign buyers in the U.S are required pay larger down payments. Determining average closing costs can provide the buyer with an approximate figure since most home purchases are not average and you have to research state-wise. But this research is very crucial and has to be done.

You should find a suitable real estate agent

As a foreign national, you should be very careful in finding a real estate agent, so research various blogs, talk to friends and some local acquaintances, verify foreign client history and so on. When you hire a real estate agent, ask him questions and take a friend who knows the local procedures with you. You should choose a real estate agent who can speak your native language since even though you can obtain translations of conversations between the seller and the agents and other standard real estate documents in your native language, the closing formalities usually come in English. So, choose an expert and versatile real estate agent.

 

Dc Fawcett Reviews – The downsides of absentee landlordism

 

Absentee landlordism is a concept where the landlord who owns the property is not present at the property site. Mostly, absentee landlords are those who invest in foreign properties. Imagine your lessor calling you up for every little thing and instructing you for everything. For instance: if your landlord was not an absentee landlord, you will have a tough time keeping pets, partying and have no flexibility in rent payments. On the other hand, there are downsides for absentee landlordism. In this article, Dc Fawcett, a real estate entrepreneur and mentor analyses the negatives of absentee landlordism.

Downsides for the renter

No proper communication

Sometimes, you cannot communicate urgent matters to the landlord. The distance serves as a big hurdle. Your messages may be overlooked. Your calls may not be received.

Repair work

There may be some urgent repair works that have to be done. Although, there are property managers to whom you can communicate, some things have to be dealt personally by the landlord and he cannot be contacted easily or come down soon.

Downsides for the landlord

The distance

There are some matters which you should deal with in person. You may not be able to come due to the distance. Although, you have hired some property managers to manage property affairs during your absence, there are some concerns which you must inspect on your own. For instance: you have to check repair works to see if the quality is as good as your payments. The final supervision is yours.

Conducting the business will be too hard

Conducting the business will be really hard especially if you are new to the field. As a new landlord, you will not have enough income to hire people for every concern. Thus collecting rent, signing contracts, inspecting initial repair works and so on is tough. Also, when you are purchasing property unseen, you may be paying more than what is required.

Buying in foreign markets is risky

You cannot rely on local track records for buying property abroad. Foreign markets are different in nature and even adept landlords may fail when it comes to investing abroad. The investments are higher and involve the risk of loss of millions if you fail to get a good property. Also, you cannot file a law suit as easily as you can do locally. Foreign rental and property scams may be hard to tackle for you and you have to do a lot of research or hire a trusted real estate agent.

Managing tenants

Tenants may take things for granted. They will not pay in time. They will misuse your absence. For instance: they will keep pets even if they are forbidden to do so and they may cause great damage to your property sometimes.

DC Fawcett Tips On How To Handle Absentee Landlords

Absentee landlordism is a kind of landlordism in which owners buy properties but they are not onsite. They often manage the properties with the help of a property management company which performs     so many functions like marketing, arranging home inspections, taking care of repairs and emergencies and so on.

Absentee landlords usually buy properties abroad and they leave the country to their own country. Thus they are absentee landlords. Absentee landlordism comes with a host of positives and negatives. To get a deeper insight into the pros and cons of absentee landlordism read Dc Fawcett’s articles on pros and cons of absentee landlordism. In this article, Dc Fawcett gives tips on how to handle absentee landlords.

Pay rent in time

Some absentee landlords especially those new to absentee landlordism find it difficult to hire property managers. Thus they find it difficult to collect rent. Many tenants of absentee landlords usually pay rent late. They take their own time. Don’t do this. Pay your rent in time and you will be in the favorable books of the landlord and in times of emergencies and otherwise also, you will be entitled to more benefits.

Home inspection is crucial

A rigorous home inspection is crucial and you should make sure that all fixtures, home appliances, HVAC, roofs, taps and others are in good condition. When you move in and when you move out, everything must be in good condition. Document all faults and make them legal. Take photos and date them. Stamp all the papers.

You need to adapt to the situation

Flexibility is the order of the day and as a tenant of an absentee landlord, you should be adjustable. For instance: you break an equipment in your house and you want it to be replaced. Decent landlords will remove the old one, buy a new one and replace the old one. The landlord facilitates and pays for everything but in case he is an absentee landlord, the distance does not allow him to arrange these things. You will be asked to do it yourself and pay for it. It is better to do so instead of making it an issue. In this case, absentee landlords will have a good impression on you.They will adopt a friendly attitude towards you and continue to help you out in your future issues. You should maintain a very good relationship with absentee landlords since they live at a distance. If you don’t do so, you will be overlooked and your complaints will be ignored.

DC Fawcett Real Estate – Guidelines On How To Rehab A House Easily

Rehabbing a house is not an easy task and if you have decided to do it on your own then you need a guidance of an expert! Here is a set of guidelines by DC Fawcett VREIC, a real estate expert and a successful rehabber!

You can rehab a house either by yourself or by hiring a contractor. Before starting the rehabbing process, set a reasonable goal and know why you are doing the job and whether it is under your budget. House rehabbing is little bit tedious job to do but with proper guidance of rehab and real estate expert it is not going to be a great deal.

DC Fawcett, being a real estate guru, he has flipped hundreds of houses and dealt with lot of house rehabbing. He has done rehabbing himself and also by hiring contractor, hence he knows the pros and cons of both the ways.

Possible reason behind house rehabbing:

There are many reasons for house rehabbing process.

• Flipping a house which needs rehabbing

• Buying a rental property and rehabbing it for proper accommodation

• Rehabbing the house for your personal accommodation

While doing house flipping, if you have bought an old house to flip, then you need an expert’s assistance to repair it. At such instances, you can hire a contractor to rehab the house which saves your time and money.

If you buying a rental property for cash flow income then analyse the financial issues and decide whether to do a partial or full rehab. If the property is in bad condition and structurally not good then it needs a full rehabbing. Whereas if the house is in good structural condition then it may need only basic repairs and renovations like painting, carpentering etc. At such cases, you can opt for partial rehabbing.

If you are rehabbing the house for personal accommodation then you can either do it by yourself. Not all the complex repairs related to water lines, electric wires can be done but you can give a fresh coat of paint to your house and do some minor repairs.  Based on your financial position, budget and management skills you can either do the rehabbing by yourself or hire an efficient contractor who can complete the task within your budget and on time.

 What if i have to do the rehabbing by myself?

If you have decided to do the job all by yourself, then plan accordingly. The contractor would create a neat plan before starting the rehab job. Likewise before starting the rehab process take a note which tools are required and materials needed and also have a calculated timing. Do not drag the process for so long and complete it within the timeline.

Another important factor is to keep track whether the process gets completed within your budget. Following these guidelines you can easily get the job done completely.

Hiring a contractor can turn out to be a great hassle if you are not finding a good one. Though it saves lot of time by hiring a contractor, finding the reliable one and getting a bid might take long time. So if you are about to start the process then immediately start bidding the contractor soon.

Conclusion:

Generally, a pre planned rehab process never goes out of your budget, but sometimes due to your miscalculations it may go over budget and take longer time than expected. So you need to keep buffer timing before starting the process. With the hectic timeline, you can’t finish the process quickly.

DC Fawcett VREIC is far and wide familiar as the leading creative thinker on real estate trends; impacting the real estate entrepreneurial dealing. The virtual real estate investing club is its hub where so many have benefited as a successful realtor. He has held a number of seminars which throw light on demanding real estate concepts. For more details, stay updated to his blog and read his articles to know how to get into a realty dealing which is scam-free.

It is tougher for the landlord rather than the tenants in absentee landlordism. This Dc Fawcett analysis lists down the key cons of absentee landlordism. Absentee landlordism however comes with benefits also. For more on benefits on absentee landlordism read Dc Fawcett’s article on perks of absentee landlordism.