Buying a Home Takes Planning

Preparing before buying a home is a must and as important as finding the right home for you and your family. You may want to be able to make a substantial down payment and this of course will lower those monthly mortgage payments. You will want to conscientiously save money for this purpose.So you’re buying a home. No doubt you’ve considered the location and know essentially the size of home you will need for you and your family and hopefully you have an idea of specific features you’d like in the home you select. A real estate professional will be able to help you in saving time as well as maximizing your purchasing power.

Examining Finances Before Buying a Home

Getting yourself and your family on a budget is key in doing this. Often with a few discussions and making buying a home the whole family’s goal, they will get on board with you. It’s important to examine your monthly expenses and look for areas in which you can cut back or eliminate some expenses entirely in order to build that savings.

Your income, debt, and credit history are all important considerations. Now that your plans are set on buying a home, this is the time to take a long hard look at where you stand. Getting a mortgage and the interest rate you’ll be charged will be dependent upon your credit history.

The comparison of your income and outstanding debt will be the lender’s deciding factor on just how much you will be allowed to borrow for a mortgage. You don’t have to have a huge income when buying a home but that income to debt ratio will determine how much home will be available to you.

It’s very important to avoid taking on any new debt during this time of preparation for buying a home and having a mortgage. In reality you are not only preparing to get approved for a mortgage but these disciplines of good money management will also help you in making those monthly mortgage payments faithfully.

Buying a home is the largest and most long term investment most people will ever make. A sound and reasonable budget that will incorporate paying down or paying off debt and creating a savings to go toward a mortgage down payment are the first wise steps in buying a home.

Original Article found at the Superpages.com

Carson Daly Buying Long Island Home

AUTHOR:ERIKA RIGGS
ZILLOW BLOG

Source: IMDb

With a new gig on the “Today” show, it looks like Carson Daly needed a new home as well. The man of many career hats — producer, VJ, radio DJ, TV host and now social media reporter, is in contract to buy a place in Manhasset, Long Island, according to Long Island news site Newsday.

Built in 2005, the 6,034-square-foot home is a colonial, complete with dormer windows, Juliet balcony and white-columned porch. Inside, the 6-bedroom home has a curving staircase, several fireplaces and ornate moldings. A swimming pool and lawn make the 1.3-acre estate ideal for Daly’s two young children.

The home was first listed at $6.875 million in June 2012. The price was dropped to $6.499 a year later, and it looks like it was removed from the active market in late October. The final sale price is not currently available.

Marybeth Avallone of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty was the home’s listing agent.

Household Cleaning Tips: The Tough Problems

Speed clean chandeliers

From the Family Handyman

Use chandelier cleaning spray

Cleaning a chandelier the old-fashioned way—spraying and wiping each piece by hand—takes forever. And it doesn't help that you're standing on a ladder. Want an easier way? Try a spray-on chandelier cleaner. First spread a plastic tarp on the floor under the chandelier to catch the drips. Then turn off the light and spray the solution on the chandelier until liquid beads start to run (you'll use a lot of spray, but it beats wiping). The spray rinses off the dust. The solution that's left evaporates quickly and doesn't leave water spots. The spray works well on hanging crystals, but don't expect it to remove dust from crevices.

Prime downtown Miami retail site on the block for $5 million

BY MARTHA BRANNIGAN

MIAMIHERALD.COM

The Foot Locker site on Flagler Street — once the home of F.W. Woolworth — has been listed for sale for $5 million as the redevelopment of Miami’s central business district shows signs of momentum.

“It’s a perfect opportunity for someone to come in and redevelop,” said Ryan Shaw, a senior associate with Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, who represents the sellers, Foot Locker and its minority partner, in the listing.

Under Miami’s zoning, the site, which includes a 32,838-square-foot, two-story, 1934-vintage building and spans about 0.4 acres of land on the key downtown street, could be redeveloped into a high-rise, Shaw said.

The listing comes as several other properties in the vicinity have changed hands recently. The Foot Locker site, at 38 East Flagler Street, is just east of the Macy’s at 22 East Flagler, a site that was acquired this year by New York-based Aetna Realty Group. Flagler Station, an old-style urban mall to the east of Foot Locker, was sold about a year ago by Sergio Rok, a major downtown landowner, Shaw said.

Shaw said the owners’ decision to put the Foot Locker property on the market on Nov. 26 was unrelated to Macy’s long-expected announcement last week that it plans to open new Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores as anchors in the Miami Worldcenter project in the Park West district west of Biscayne Boulevard across from AmericanAirlines Arena.

While a Macy’s spokesman said “no decision” has been made on the future of the Flagler Street store, where Macy’s has a lease until 2018, local business leaders say the eventual shuttering of that old store seems inevitable.

Downtown redevelopment advocates were sanguine about the old Foot Locker site hitting the block. “In the long run, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s a good thing,” said Jerome Hollo, a board member of the Downtown Development Authority and vice president of Florida East Coast Realty.

After years of depressed commercial activity on Flagler Street, “every week we’re hearing of someone else coming in,” said Jose Goyanes, a DDA board member and owner of several downtown businesses, including Tre Italian Bistro on Flagler. He predicted the Foot Locker site would draw keen interest. Flagler has “the best foot traffic in South Florida,” he said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/09/3808747/prime-downtown-miami-retail-site.html#storylink=cpy

The best of Art Basel’s real estate

New York Post

By David Kaufman

One Thousand MuseumPhoto: Handout

Art, parties and real estate — or maybe real estate, art and parties!

These were the three key themes that seemed to dominate Miami’s Art Basel week, which has just come to a close. With the world’s deepest-pocketed art buyers all in town, local (and global) luxury real estate developers spared no expense to debut their highest-profile — and priced — condos, penthouses and villas. At Art Basel itself, event partner Douglas Elliman actually presented a portfolio of their top East Coast penthouses to VIP viewers, while over at Art Miami, Christie’s International Real Estate served as a co-sponsor. “Miami has become a true global city and cultural center,” says Susan de Franca, President and CEO of Elliman Development Marketing, “it made perfect sense to invite our global strategic partners to this relaxed and casual setting.”

Here is a look at the cream of the beach-front crop.

Bath Club Estates

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Back when it was built in 1926, Miami’s historic Bath Club was a members-only “restricted” beach club that didn’t allow minorities. Today, it’s owned by Don Peebles — an African-American. Having already built a luxury Bath Club condo tower next to the facility, Peebles is now launch the Bath Club Estates nearby — with 13 massive homes set in an elegant building designed by Arquitectonica. Each home will be individually finished by the world-class interior designers Jennifer Post, Alexandra Champalimaud, Alison Spear and Joao Armentano. Peebles — who hosted an intimate dinner during Basel for top global brokers — calls the homes “estates in the sky” and Art Basel itself as “helping to transform Miami into a true global city.” Prices range from $8 to $30 million.

The Surf Club

Located close to ultra-posh Bal Harbour, the Surf Club is another one-time members club now slated for a sleek 21st century retrofit. While most of the landmarked 1930s Spanish-style original complex will remain, architecture icon Richard Meier will add a stunningly translucent new structure with an 80-room hotel and 175 residential units on an 8.7 acre plot with more than 800 feet of ocean-front.

Penthouse at Faena House

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Since debuting earlier this year, the residences at Faena House — the Norman Foster-designed tower developed by Argentine style icon Alan Faena — have garnered nearly $2,800 per square foot. Now the complex has finally released their long-awaited Penthouse — an 8,000 square-foot ocean-front lair with 8,000 square feet of interiors space and 10,000 square feet of roof-top terraces and gardens. The Faenas hosted a series of Argentine-styled “asados” — or South American barbecues — during Art Basel week, which lured the likes of uber-gallerist Larry Gagosian and Leonardo DiCaprio. Buyers at Faena House, according to reports, already include global titans like Goldman Sachs Group CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black. Price: A cool $50 million.

Marea

Miami developer Jorge Perez is getting lots of attention for PAMM — the Perez Art Museum Miami, which just opened funded by a $40+ million Perez donation. Perez’s other news is his on-going construction in SoFi — South Beach’s newly exclusive South of Fifth district. Here, Perez’s elegant Marea building — designed by Canadian talents Yabu Pushelberg — has emerged as the area’s top spot, with 30 units where prices can reach upwards of $7.5 million.

One Thousand Museum

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Zaha Hadid finally landed in Miami earlier this year with this futuristic tower with prime views of the new Perez Art Museum Miami. The 60-story tower features a criss-crossing concrete exo-skeleton with supporting 83 residences priced from roughly $4 million — with penthouses possibly slated to reach $50M. Hadid makes for an excellent Miami fit, says One Thousand Museum-developer Louis Birdman “because she is as well known in the art world as for her architecture…and is creating a building that is very much a work of art in itself.”

Oceana Bal Harbour

Luxe Bal Harbour may be best-known for its exclusive Bal Harbour Shops indoor-outdoor shopping center, but it’s also where many of the world’s wealthiest choose to live. Starting in two years, the newest area residence will be Oceana Bal Harbour, a sprawling tower designed by Architectonica and developed by Argentine property titan Eduardo Costantini. Set on 5.3 ultra-prime beach-front acres that was once the Bal Harbour Beach Club, the complex will include 260 homes on 28 floors along with a pair of stunning sculptures by art legend Jeff Koons. Italian interiors ace Piero Lissoni will complete Oceana’s interiors. Prices are expected to run from $1.5 million to nearly $30 million.

Jade Signature

Jade SignaturePhoto: Handout

This much talked-about condo up in increasingly-exclusive Sunny Isle is the latest Miami project from Swiss architecture icons Herzog & de Meuron — who also designed PAMM along with the groovy parking garage at 1111 Lincoln Road. Here, at Jade Signature, the firm has created a 57-floor parallelogram-shaped tower on a lime-stone base with nearly 200 apartments — each with 10-foot ceilings and a clutch of massive penthouses. Art Basel served as an ideal showcase for projects such as Jade Signature, observed project developer Edgardo Deortuna, CEO of Fortune International Realty. “So many of our art patrons and collectors have second and third homes in Miami,” he says, “many of our buyers are arriving to sign contracts and enjoy the art events”.

Prices will range from roughly $2 million to over $25 million.

Ritz-Carlton Residences Miami

Located on a private, seven-acre parcel of Surprise Lake near Downtown Miami, the Ritz-Carlton Residences are the first state-side head-to-toe project for Piero Lissoni. Set on the former Miami Heart Institute, the water-front complex will include 111 condos and 15 villas — all with Lissoni’s luxe-minimalist aesthetic and Ritz-Carlton levels of service. Prices will range from some $2 million to $25 million.

1 Hotel and Homes

Legendary hotelier Barry Sternlicht is back on the beach with this SoBe project set in what was once the historic Roney Plaza Hotel — and later the ill-fated Gansevoort Hotel — with interiors courtesy of Brazilian designer Deborah Aguiar. Directly facing the beach — and also slated to include a five-star hotel and tasty Tom Colicchio-helmed restaurant — 1 Hotel and Homes will feature nearly 165 units designed and delivered with a strong respect for the environment. Look for similarly-styled Sternlicht projects soon in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Coconut Grove Bank

This former banking HQ in upscale Coconut Grove is being completely transformed by Miami-developers the Terra Group into one of the most unique condo developments in America. The six-tower site will be designed by Dutch architecture kings Rem Koolhaas’ OMA — who beat out other world-class offices including Jean Nouvel, Diller Scofidio & Renfro and Christian de Portzamparc in a hotly-watched competition. Prices for the apartments — which are still being configured — will start at $2.5 million and the site will also include a two-acre sculpture garden.

Inside the Homes of Sports Stars

 

By: Neal J. Leitereg
REALTOR.COM

While the home selling and buying adventures of Kurt Russell, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift were the hot-ticket celebrity items on realtor.com® in 2013, a host of Hall of Fame athletes made real estate moves worthy of our highlight reel.

From a one-of-a-kind St. Louis Cardinals souvenir, to Jerry Rice’s mansion sale and Agent Zero’s shark tank, here are the top real estate stories from the professional sports world.

Bill Buckner’s Boise RanchLeading off our lineup of athlete homes is the residence of a former ballplayer whose World Series legacy won’t soon be forgotten: Bill Buckner. The retired Boston Red Sox player is best known for his fielding folly — when he let a ground ball go between his legs during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. However, we were much more interested in his ranch estate in Boise, Ida., which hit the market for $1.7 million in July.

Derek Dooley Irks Volunteers’ FansThe expression “Hell hath no fury like a college football fan scorned” took on a whole new meaning in March with the revelation that disgraced Tennessee Volunteers football coach Derek Dooley was selling his home in Knoxville. Looking to close the door on his Rocky Top tenure, Dooley listed his 17-acre spread in Knox County for $2.9 million, and drew the ire of Volunteer faithful in the process.

Stan Musial’s Home for SaleSt. Louis Cardinals fans in the market for a one-of-a-kind souvenir got more than they could have imagined when the estate of the late Stan “The Man” Musial went on sale in May. When he died in January at the age of 92, the beloved Redbirds icon left behind a city of admirers and a rich baseball legacy as one of the game’s all-time greats. Musial also left behind this longtime home in Ladue, Mo. The three-acre property originally had an asking price of $1.795 million and eventually sold in July for $1.6 million.

Kevin Durant’s Real Estate SlamKevin Durant certainly knows how to light it up on the basketball court, but it was the pump-fake the Oklahoma City Thunder star made off the court that caught our attention. With plans to merge two brownstone units in the city’s Deep Deuce historic neighborhood, he looked to pass his suburban mansion to another owner, listing the gated property in late September for $1.95 million.

Jerry Rice Catches a BuyerArguably the greatest football player that ever was, Jerry Rice proved he had staying power by making our list of top stories for the second year in a row. Last year, the San Francisco 49ers legend made waves when he lowered the price of his 13,908-square-foot home. Equipped with $500,000 worth of weights and training equipment, a sauna, and a steam room complete with a cold-plunge, the Hall of Fame receiver’s Atherton, Calif. mansion was the stuff of real estate legend. So, it came as little surprise when Rice’s $9 million sale was the talk of the town in August.

Johnny Manziel’s Family Pulling Out of College StationIt was a summer of ups and downs for Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, one that nearly brought a premature ending to the Heisman Trophy winner’s NCAA career. While the world awaited the fate of Johnny Football, his parents looked to hightail it out of College Station in August by chop-blocking the price of their Bryan, Texas, home.

Stephen Curry’s Bay Area PenthouseAfter purchasing a posh penthouse in November 2012, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry is looking to sell his unit at The Ellington, the only high-rise building in Oakland’s Jack London Square in the San Francisco Bay Area. The All-Star guard is currently shopping the property for $1.695 million. Located just 11 minutes from Oracle Arena, Curry’s modern abode offers three bedrooms, four bathrooms and approximately 2,084 square feet of living space. The property is a corner unit apartment and features floor-to-ceiling windows, three balconies and a patio with a gas fire pit.

Gilbert Arenas’ Shark Tank ManorOnce he became the proud owner of a $111 million contract extension, former Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas, aka Agent Zero, went about spending that money — and confirming his reputation as an oddball — by constructing one of the most excessive mansions in all of the District of Columbia. The infamous display, complete with a world-class grotto and multiple shark tanks that cost a rumored $5,000 a month to maintain, previously made waves in 2012 when it listed for $3.5 million; and it then proved it was no one-hit wonder in July, when it resurfaced for the same price.

Troy Aikman Buys Big in DallasTroy Aikman may not be a general manager, but he made a major splash in July when he pulled off one of the biggest real estate trades of the year to lock down the No.2 spot on our list. The legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback finally found a buyer for his $24 million mansion in Highland Park and celebrated by buying another massive mansion in the same affluent neighborhood. Though slightly smaller and comparatively less expensive, there is no question that Aikman’s new Dallas digs are well-suited for their Hall of Fame owner.

Greg Jennings’ Last Lambeau LeapCities get attached to their local sports stars, which is why news that Green Bay receiver Greg Jennings was selling his home sent shock waves through the Packers fan base and was the top sports real estate story of the year. The All-Pro wide out and then soon-to-be free agent said it was merely “business” when he listed the home in January following Green Bay’s playoff loss to San Francisco. However, fast-forward to the following season and the wide receiver star now suits up for the Minnesota Vikings.

Organizing Kitchens and Clearing the Clutter

Coffee maker under the cabinets

By the DIY experts of The Family Handyman Magazine

For serious coffee drinkers, stowing the coffeemaker inside a cabinet just doesn't make sense; you'll only have to pull it out again in a few hours. Here's a solution: An under-cabinet coffeemaker is always available and doesn't take up valuable counter space.