Ray Peckham Real Estate

Surfside Homes Reports

Surfside-Home of Their Dreams

Ever think you would like to build your own Surfside home and have everything just the way you want it? Lots of people do and they often start by looking at land or lots for sale. With many people the idea is to buy a lot today, get it paid off or mostly paid off and then sometime in the future, contract with a custom builder for the Home of their Dreams via Surfside.

Surfside Home Buying Pitfalls

Buying your Surfside home whether you are a first time buyer or an ‘Old Pro’ involves legal, financial and emotional considerations. The more you know about the most common buyer mistakes in Surfside, the more likely you are to avoid them.

Make sure that when you put in an offer on any Surfside home that you have spent time narrowing down just what you are looking for. When the sellers accept your offer, you are involved in a binding contract that could cost you your deposit and other damages should you decide to back out. The opposite scenario, waiting for the 100 % perfect home can be an exercise in futility. With the thousands of variables available in housing, including location, style, size, amenities and condition, perfection is almost always an unreasonable goal.

Surfside. How Much Should You Offer?

Comparable sales figures is a good guide for homeowners who are pricing their Surfside and a good guide for prospective buyers. Make sure you compare homes that are similar to the one your are considering...the same neighborhood, the same size, the same condition. Also, make sure you compare sales within the past six months.

Ask your REALTOR for a comparison of the list price and sales price of comparable Surfside sales. This information may give you a trend and a guideline for your offer. For example, maybe homes in the area have consistently listed for more than they actually sold for. If that is the case, find out what percentage of reduction occurred. Use this information as a basis for your offer.

Buying Surfside Real Estate...Will it Pay?

With a typical 30-year loan, most of your monthly payment goes toward interest payments with only small amounts going to the principle in the early years. Only half the principle is repaid in the first 23 years of the loan. You can build equity in your Surfside faster by choosing a 15-year loan instead of a 30-year loan.

As a Surfside real estate owner you have the right to pay more towards the principle loan amount each month. Let’s say your monthly payment is $700.00 a month and $100.00 a month is being applied to the principle. If you choose to pay $900.00 instead of $700.00, the $200.00 overage will be applied entirely to the principle. Thus, instead of gaining $1,200.00 a year in home equity, you gain $3,600.00. Investing in Surfside can be a very good idea.

Choosing Your Surfside Neighborhood

You’ve probably heard about the three major determinants of Surfside values are: 1) location, 2) location and 3) location. This is not only true about real estate in Surfside; it is true about real estate in general. If you cannot afford what you want where you want it, give up something inside the house rather than settling on a lesser location.

Does Your Surfside Have Curb Appeal?

From cottages to castles some Surfside have so much curb appeal that passersby can’t help but stop and admire them. When visiting property with great curb appeal, prospective buyers often experience 'Love at First Sight' and this disposes them to love the entire home before they even walk through the front door.

Surfside curb appeal is the result of a perfect blend of architectural style, landscaping, up-keep and color choices. Money alone does not guarantee outstanding curb appeal. I’ve seen very expensive Area homes with costly landscaping that fail to appeal and I’ve seen very modest priced Area homes with outstanding curb appeal. In part, the landscaping aspect of curb appeal is a matter of personal taste.