Buying and Selling Rancho Santa Fe Homes

Rancho Santa Fe Home Inspection

The purpose of a thorough home inspection is to ensure that Rancho Santa Fe home buyers know exactly what a home’s condition is prior to completing the transaction. A good Rancho Santa Fe home inspection should include an evaluation of the foundation, framing, roofing, site drainage, attic, plumbing, heating, electrical system, fireplaces, chimneys, pavement, fences, stairs, decks, patios, doors, windows, walls, ceilings, floors and built-in appliances. All significant or pertinent findings should be reported in writing to the prospective Rancho Santa Fe homebuyer. The home inspection report gives the Rancho Santa Fe homebuyer the information he or she needs to determine whether to buy the property as is or to ask the seller to make repairs.

In most cases, when an Rancho Santa Fe homebuyer makes repair requests, sellers usually agree to some if not all of the conditions.

Rancho Santa Fe Housing Patterns

Rancho Santa Fe Housing patterns tend to be homogenous, meaning homes worth $100,00 are located in $100,000 neighborhoods. It is important for properties to be within the general pricing patterns of their neighborhoods because over-valued homes, even if they are exceptional, are sometimes difficult to sell at full market price. Remember, lenders want to compare your home to nearby homes. If your Rancho Santa Fe real estate is located in a neighborhood of $100,000 homes but you have added another $100,000 in improvements, you may have over- improved your property in that lenders will be reluctant to lend the higher amount.

Many sellers think that the price of their home is determined solely by what they are willing to accept and what the buyer is willing to pay. However, the lender’s appraisal in Rancho Santa Fe is one more variable and it can complicate the sale of your home. In these cases, it helps to have a knowledgeable REALTOR working on your side.

Guidelines for Buying Rancho Santa Fe

Let’s say everything is a GO! You have found the perfect Rancho Santa Fe home. You know you can afford it and it is actually priced below what you expected to pay. What a bargain! Yes there are bargains to be found in Rancho Santa Fe. At this point it is fine to put in an offer on the property but only with a well-planned contingency. Of course, it the home is going to be financed, the lender will want a Home Inspection before agreeing to lend money on the property. However, you need to protect yourself by making an offer SUBJECT TO a clean bill of health from the Home Inspector of your choice. This kind of a contingency gives you an out if the inspector finds a problem with the roof, or foundation or other structural problem that was not apparent to the seller or to your agent. This does not mean you will not buy the house but you will have a good reason to renegotiate the price with the seller.

Green Remodeling Your Rancho Santa Fe

If you are planning to remodel your Rancho Santa Fe, keep home resale in mind and consider going green. Green remodeling is becoming more popular as homeowners consider health issues, skyrocketing energy costs and Earth’s natural resources. And, when it comes time to sell your home, your energy efficient and Earth saving remodeling may help you sell your Rancho Santa Fe quickly and for top dollar.

Rent or Buy Rancho Santa Fe

In the early years of your Rancho Santa Fe mortgage, nearly all of every monthly payment is interest. This means you are only paying off a tiny bit of the loan principal, but it is good news in terms of tax savings.

The monthly payment for a $100,000, 30-year, 8% mortgage on your Rancho Santa Fe would be about $734. In the first year of your mortgage, $7,970 of your $8,805 payment or 91% would be deductible as mortgage interest. Even in the tenth year, almost 81% of your payments would be deductible. What this is worth to you depends on your tax bracket but this tax savings built into the home-buying equation is why you can afford to make higher mortgage payments than your current rent payments without squeezing your budget. There is no similar tax subsidy for renters.

The Benefits of Selling Rancho Santa Fe

In order to sell Rancho Santa Fe as your personal residence, you must have lived in it for two out of the five-year period ending on the date of the sale of the property. This means that you can buy a second home and live in it as your personal residence while renting out your first home. If, in a couple years you decide to sell your first Rancho Santa Fe personal residence you can sell it and still benefit from the $250,000 to $500,000 Capital Gain tax exclusion. The law says that the home must be your personal residence for at least two out of the past five years.