Rose Cottage Ltd

Believe it or not, only 17 days until the first day of Fall 2014 which is September 23. I have to say that as I’ve gotten older, fall is my favorite season. Less heat and humidity, and I’ve never minded raking leaves. Good thing too since I some how always find myself surrounded by trees. I think it’s a very worthy trade-off!

Happy Weekend!

++ Crashed Plane Belonged To Real Estate CEO

++ Real Estate Investing for Beginners

++ Which DIY adds most value to your property?

++ The Most Expensive Homes On the Market

++ Tiny Homes Attracting Attention

++ Shop heirloom seeds and plants

++ The 16 Best Towns To Live In

++ Retirees turn to farming as encore career

++ Master Gardener – Benefits of Natural design…

++ Easy water features to make for your garden

I heard something on TV yesterday stating that many US homeowners of or nearing retirement age still have a home mortgage to pay.

The musings from the financial pundit seemed to be that people had mortgages at 4% plus or minus, and were putting money into stocks and bonds – trying to gain a little dividend on those – instead of paying down their mortgage.

If anyone out there is listening – particularly if you are say in your late 30’s to early 40’s – get that mortgage paid!

No matter what you think about the economy or the stock market, getting into your mid-50’s and beyond and still having that payment to make each month will be a burden you CAN avoid. And let’s not forget the schizophrenic job market. Finding yourself “let go” from your job is a increasing concern these days. How much better would it be to hit the age of 60 and have NO mortgage left to pay???

This will be hard for those who have the kids and the new cars and the vacations – and for a 20 year span, seem to spend most of what they make. But others, who may be taking dollars each month for a stock portfolio may be shooting themselves in the foot. You can ALWAYS find somewhere to make savings – if you look for them, and making extra mortgage payments is a great place to apply them.

So if you buy a new home at 35 with a 30 – year mortgage, pay on your loan – whenever possible – at the 15 – year mortgage rate, or make an extra principal payment. Poor tax planning got you a larger tax refund than you expected? Put the extra into paying off that mortgage. How good would it feel for our 35 year-old to get to 50 and have a mortgage-free home??? Versus not reaching that point until he, or she, is 65?

I think a lot of people don’t realize that once you get your mortgage, it’s yours to manage. Most loans these days have no pre-payment penalty. If you aren’t sure about yours, check the fine print and shame on you for not checking before you signed.

There are plenty of places online with free mortgage calculators so you can “play” with the numbers. Have a 30 – year mortgage and want to see what you have to pay to be free-and-clear in 15 years instead? You can do it – and who cares if your monthly income didn’t qualify you for the 15 – year loan when you got it. I like Bankrate.com but there are plenty of online resources available to you.

It used to be that having a paid-for primary residence by retirement age was a given. People used to make this a priority. Now, they don’t. Housing prices are high, cost of living keeps increasing, and wages are not keeping up. But if you are just buying your first home now, take this advice from someone on the far side of 50 and consider paying down that mortgage as a financial priority. You’ll thank me later…

Some will say that having too much equity in their home might not be good since they planning on selling and buying again in future. “Too much equity?” There is no such thing. So you pay down your mortgage at an accelerated rate and then decide to sell – and your settlement check is just that much bigger. I don’t see this as a problem.

Another month of 2014 all but gone and Happy Labor Day weekend to all!

++ Terrible Real Estate Photos

++ Foreign investment in U.S. real estate widely underreported

++ Manhattan real estate prices hitting new records

++ What’s Behind The Blue Door of This $22K Tiny House?

++ Why You Should Hire a Professional Interior Designer

++ Wide selection of Eco-Friendly Bird Feeders! Spend $75 or more for FREE shipping

Ideas for semi-arid climates…
++ Free templates for landscape design

This is a scary thought for anyone whose home water is all well-based…
++ California Drought Squeezes Wells

++ Are You Cut out for Life in the Country?

Each week I try to find the most interesting or least publicized topics regarding real estate. This week, I’ve been taking a little turn from large and luxury properties – well, from looking at them anyway, to “tiny” houses and their designs.

It takes a lot more creativity to get all the necessary requirements into 400 square feet than it does into 4000!

Below are links to some books available via Amazon that may spur some new ideas – not only for someone wanting to downsize, but for anyone wishing to make the most efficient usage of whatever space they have. It’s YOUR space – so don’t think you have to be stuck with what the previous owners or the builder decided on when you study how you use your home.

This book explores the philosophies behind the tiny house lifestyle, helps you determine whether it’s a good fit for you, and guides you through the transition to a smaller space. For inspiration, you’ll meet tiny house pioneers and hear how they built their dwellings (and their lives) in unconventional, creative and purposeful ways. They’ll invite you in, show you around their cozy abodes, and share lessons they learned along the way.

Tiny Houses is an invitation to dream and, perhaps, to build any one of the 43 charming tiny houses. Both playful tribute and handy how-to, this is a wonderfully illustrated volume that features hundreds of photographs and detailed scale drawings. Whether you’re a student of philosophy aspiring to build a replica of Thoreau’s cabin, an ice fisherman in need of four walls to fend off winter winds, or just a dreamer with a vision of a humble cottage on a quite seashore, Tiny Houses is a precious resource for ideas, instruction, and inspiration.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a tiny home? Dream of having a smaller mortgage? Or none at all? Want to live a bit more simply and focus on the things that are really important in life? Tiny houses are becoming more and more achievable for thousands of people all over the world. This is a budding phenomenon that is seriously being considered by many people and for good reasons! There are many different motivations for adopting a tiny home and the lifestyle that comes with it. Less stress, more money in your pocket, more time to focus on other interests.

Inside Tiny House Floor Plans you’ll find over 200 interior designs for tiny houses – 230 to be exact. A tiny house is exactly what it sounds like, a house with many of the amenities you’d expect in a home tucked neatly into a super small space. Often these homes are built on trailers giving them the added benefit of mobility. But these designs could also be built on your choice of foundation. Each chapter focuses on one size footprint to show what can be done inside each size space – 14 in all.

Most if not all of these have a Kindle edition – and you know Amazon, if you want to get started Monday – they can probably get this info to you by then!

Hope everyone has a great and safe weekend!

In a real estate world of “bigger is better” there are still the few of us who keep fighting the trend. I don’t need several thousand square feet of living space to be happy and I can do without the $200,000+ mortgage that usually goes along with it.

Check out this site for some additional ideas for smaller footprint living. You might be amazed to find that the cozy little cottage pictured above was built for around $4,000 – with a bit of creative thinking and planning thrown in!

++ Top 10 Real Estate Investor Mistakes

++ Zillow Buying Trulia – Antitrust?

++ House Hunting in – Scotland

++ Mortgage Rates Remain in Holding Pattern

++ 5 DIY projects using wooden crates

++ Economist who predicted busted housing bubble says another recession is coming

++ 10 Luxury Homes With Slashed Prices

++ Luxury Real Estate: The Best Addresses in Europe’s Top Cities

++ Real estate agent and former tenant disputing with alleged squatters

We haven’t had a lot of problems with “squatters” so far in the US. For anyone who doesn’t know, squatters will move into a vacant property and then after some period of time – could be days, could be weeks, will attempt to claim “ownership” of the property. It’s too much to get into the details at the end of this post but I’ll be writing more about it next week. With the number of illegal aliens on the rise in the US – and many properties sitting vacant due to foreclosure – this is about to become a HUGE issue…

++ Foreigners Buying Up American Real Estate

++ Real Estate Valuation Websites Differ Greatly

++ FAA Has Commercial Drone Regulations Backwards

++ Off the Grid in a Florida Suburb, Fighting Municipal Code

++ Bathroom remodeling should start at the studs

++ Zombie houses haunt the market

++ Phoenix: Largest drop in homeownership in U.S. cities

++ Housing market is a ‘crapshoot’

Yes. It is. And if you read further than the headlines you’ll know why. Nearly 45% of real estate sales that are being reported as some sign of a real estate “recovery” are actually reporting all cash sales – from foreign buyers. In Florida, Texas, California and Arizona: International Home Buyers Cashing in on U.S. Market – it’s 55%.

This is creating an impression that does not really exist – at least not for US home buyers – and if the government is using this info to show a sign of economic recovery, then you’ll know you’re being manipulated yet again.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July. Lots of people on the roads this weekend so please be careful and remember, do NOT leave kids or pets in hot cars!!!

++ Current Mortgage Interest Rates

++ Home Renovation Popular Alternative To “Trading Up”

++ What really defines luxury in real estate market?

++ Insurance company cancels policy on unoccupied house

++ Wide selection of Eco-Friendly Bird Feeders! Spend $75 or more your order ships FREE!

++ 6 Acronyms Every Beginner Real Estate Investor Should Know

++ RealtyTrac: Top 25 U.S. Markets for Buying Rental Properties

++ Eight housing markets at all-time highs

++ 10 Tips To Avoid Getting Burned By Kitchen Remodels

++ BBQ Grills and Accessories at Exterior-Accents.com

We end this week with “Beware HOAs” (Home Owner’s Associations.)

++ Florida vet says ‘Bring it on,’ as he faces eviction over flower pot flag

“The fight started in 2011 and landed in court a year later where the two sides reached a settlement in which Murphree agreed to display his flag in compliance with association rules. But two weeks later, the board changed the rules, saying flags could only be displayed on a pole outside the garage and that flower pots were only for flowers.”

A good HOA is one that protects neighborhoods against residents who do things like leaving derelict cars on the street, painting their house lime green, and having loud parties with 100 guests on a quarter-acre lot every weekend. The goal SHOULD be that you paid good money for your house and you don’t want someone coming in and ruining YOUR property values because of their behavior.

The story above shows the dark side of HOAs – and this is certainly not the only example. In court, the HOA made an agreement with this homeowner about how and where he could display his US flag – and then they changed the rules – meaning going to court and agreeing to “terms” apparently meant nothing to them.

This is a small US flag the homeowner wants to display – in America – in his own yard, on his own property. So what does the “Association” now want to do? Foreclose on the man’s property because he’s not paying his “assessment” fees. Sounds good for them, but what he’s NOT paying are the fines the HOA is charging (illegally if you ask me) because he is abiding by the 2011 court ruling and they are not.

We, as American citizens are being bullied by HOAs, local, state, and federal governments, energy companies that want to frack or otherwise invade our property without our consent, and the really scary “eminent domain” crowd who will use old and or arbitrary ordinances to sometimes just take people’s property.

In the meantime, certain factions in the US Government have apparently been targeting people with certain political leanings or philosophies that don’t agree with the current regime, and then making sure they get audited by the IRS. Not only is this bullying, it’s illegal – as some are hopefully soon to find out.

It appears US citizens are going to have to become hyper vigilant about protecting our rights. We aren’t lawyers, and most of us can’t afford to hire one big enough to fight a HOA or the IRS. Courts are not just there to protect the rights of criminals – which it often seems is all they do. Courts are there to protect OUR rights as well. Know your rights and be prepared to defend them as this gentleman is doing or, we will continue to be stopped from enjoying the very properties we’ve worked so hard to obtain.

Here we are past the middle of the month in the middle of the year and time for the longest day of the year. I won’t start counting down the days until Christmas just yet though – we’ll leave that for some other blog.

Here are some items of interest from the world of real estate for this past week…

++ VA home loans underused, real estate experts say

++ Housing Market Falters Amid Rising Prices, Lower-Paying Jobs

On the other hand…

++ Eight housing markets at all-time highs

++ Here’s What Wealthy People Want In Their Luxury Homes

++ Cow Hollow home listing price jumps from $3M to $13M after flip (WHOA!)

++ Thinking Out Loud: Creating Native Landscapes

++ Are Home-Remodeling Reality Shows Distorting Reality? (VIDEO)

My answer: Only if you forget you’re watching a “reality” TV show…

++ Previews: International Luxury Real Estate

++ Decorative Outdoor Faucets – Great Gift Idea