The home buyer tax credit may be gone, but don’t worry. You may have missed out on the first time homebuyer tax credit of $8000, but the opportunities presented by today’s historically low interest rates are even better than they were this spring.  For instance… If you buy a home right now at today’s low interest rates, you can save ten’s of thousand’s of dollars!

Interest Rates Are Low!  A $200,000 30 year mortgage at the current rate of 4.60%* can save you ten’s of thousand’s of dollars over the life of the loan versus the same loan with the 5.50% rate from earlier this year!

Buy a home now and gain so much more than what was possible with the $8000 tax credit. You really don’t want to miss out on this savings and opportunity.  On top of the great savings the low interest rates present, there is another opportunity.

The inventory of homes for sale right now is really great and the prices on many of these homes are really good. To start your home search contact us today at (513) 874-1830 or visit our website, www.LowryTeam.com.  Buying a foreclosed / bank owned home or a short sale can be a great investment opportunity under the right circumstances.  If you would like to receive a FREE list of foreclosures & short sale homes for sale you can request a list using our Foreclosure Finder Service

You can also start your Search Homes For Sale right here!

Thinking of buying a home in West Chester, Beckett Ridge or Liberty Township, Fairfield Township, Monroe or Mason Ohio?

Visit My YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/LowryTeam

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

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Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

1. FHA loans are not only for first time homebuyers.

2. FHA loans are not only for lower-income homebuyers.

Currently in Butler County, Warren County and Hamilton County, Ohio the FHA loan limits are $337,500.  Keep in mind that this is the loan limit.  So, as an example, someone buying a home with a 3.5% downpayment could buy a home for as much as a $350,000 purchase price.  Which leads to my last point on FHA mortgage lending.

For more information on FHA financing or for a referral to a terrific mortgage loan consultant please call Eric Lowry at (513) 874-1830 or visit our website, LowryTeam.com.

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

According to the Cincinnati Business Courier article online today they said six builders have agreed to participate in the 2011 Homearama home show.  The Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati conducts the home show each year. They had previously announced (read my previous post on Homearama 2011 here) that next year’s show would be held in West Chester in the Foxborough subdivision.

The six builders include Artisan Estate Homes, Daniels Homes, Greystone Homes, Hensley Custom Building Group, Jack H. Wieland Builders and Zaring Premier Homes.  The Homearama home show in 2011 will feature homes listed for sale from $550,000 – $850,000.

You can read the full story about the annoucement of the home builders  for Homearama 2011 here

Thinking of buying a home in West Chester, Beckett Ridge or Liberty Township, Fairfield Township, Monroe or Mason Ohio?

Search the entire MLS database of homes for sale here!

 Wondering what your home is worth in today’s real estate market? Request a market analysis here!

Visit My YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/LowryTeam

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

It’s Tuesday, so this must be the Tuesday Open House.

What is Tuesday Open House?? Well, it’s clearly not an “open house”. Open Houses don’t sell homes… good internet marketing does… but it seemed like a good title for this weekly blog post.

It is my way of throwing the doors open on the RealEstate-Ink.com blog and offering up a few quick articles and facts on real estate for the West Chester, Liberty Township, Beckett Ridge, Mason and Fairfield Township, Ohio areas. It is not intended to be all about homes for sale, but it will be about that some of the time…

Beckett Ridge Homeowners Association:  The Board for the Beckett Ridge Homeowners Association has presented to the homeowners of Beckett Ridge a revised set of Declarations and Code of Conduct for their approval.  Each parcel in the Beckett Ridge Association will have one vote in this approval process.  The interesting fact with this vote is that the board has decided based on their legal counsel’s opinion that if you do not submit a ballot, your ballot will be counted for the resolution.  What this means is the resolution is almost guaranteed to pass as a huge majority of the homeowners will not vote.  They never do.  Your ballot must be received by July 28th, 2010 for it to count.  You can find out more about this very important resolution and ballot here >>Beckett Ridge Homeowners Association

Buying a home:  If you are currently in the process of buying a home and getting a mortgage don’t buy anything.  According to the New York Times Fannie Mae has started requiring lenders to recheck a borrower’s finances shortly before closing the loan. If a broker or lender finds significant changes, the loan could be delayed, or in some cases, denied.  For years now we have cautioned borrowers against charging up their credit cards or changing jobs before the closing date on a home loan, but now this advice seems especially prudent.  You can read the entire article on homebuyer financing here>>  Buyer Mortgage Financing

Searching for Homes For Sale:  Searching for homes for sale in West Chester, Liberty Township, Beckett Ridge, Mason or Fairfield Township?  Search for homes using our MLS search feature which gives you access to the entire Cincinnati MLS and allows you to save home searches, receive notifications of new listings and also be alerted to price changes on home listings that match your search criteria.  You can search for homes for sale by clicking here to start your search now >>Search the MLS

Our facebook fan page of the week is: The Cincinnati Reds  You can find information on the Reds, information on events and giveaways and great player information.  As of this writing their page has 140,410 fans, so I ask that you check out their fan page, become a fan and invite your facebook friends to do the same.

While you are on facebook checking out the Cincinnati Reds fan page, please visit and become a fan of our facebook page:

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

Are you getting your home ready to list it for sale?  Preparing to sell a home in West Chester, Liberty Township or Beckett Ridge can be an overwhelming task if you are not prepared.  The process of getting your home ready can be simplified by breaking the areas of your home up into groups. 

In my previous post, >>Preparing Your Home To Sell, we covered Curb Appeal, Front Entry / Porch & Landscaping.  Today we will cover your first impression (interior, foyer).  When selling your home in today’s real estate market it is critical that the first impression that homebuyers have of your home is a welcoming one.  A welcoming space is one that invites the homebuyer in and lures them into the rest of the house.

Many times homeowners don’t even come and go through their front door and thus don’t place a great enough emphasis on this area of the home.  This is the area of the home that starts off the showing for the homebuyer and this is where they begin to anticipate the rest of the house.

The homebuyer needs to be able to envision themselves in your home, so this is definitely an area of a home listed for sale that should have all personal effects, photos and clutter removed.  Generally speaking, any furniture that is located in this area should be removed with the exception of a properly sized foyer table.  Be sure that there are no pieces of furniture or babygates blocking the path or view from the foyer in the rest of your home.

Be sure to de-clutter your foyer closet.  A full and cluttered foyer closet simply tells homebuyers that you are short on closet space.  The foyer closet should not be more than half full.  Store unused and seasonal coats in plastic tubs in a storage area away from the living spaces of your home.

All personal/family photos should be removed from the foyer area.  If your foyer has a space that you feel needs decorating consider a mirror instead of photos.

The foyer paint color should be neutral and an earth tone.  Under no circumstances should your foyer have wallpaper on the walls.

As buyers enter your home, the scent that they smell must be clean and very subtle.  The use of candles or spray air freshener is not recommended.  Many homebuyers can have adverse reactions to these strong smells and in some cases may actually wonder what it is you are trying to cover up.

We have now created a great first impression for homebuyers as you continue preparing your home for sale in today’s real estate market.  In the next post in this series of articles we’ll cover Living Room, Dining Room, Family Room & Study.

Read the first article in this series here >>  Preparing Your Home For Sale In Today’s Market Part I

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

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The Congress is close to passing a law to give homebuyers who were under contract on a home purchased by April 30 an additional three months to close on the home and still be able to claim the federal homebuyer tax credit.  The new deadline is going to be September 30th, 2010.

This will not extend the deadline for homebuyers to qualify for the tax credit.  To qualify for the credit you had to have purchased and had a fully executed contract by April 30th, 2010.

The reasoning given for the extension was that many homebuyers were not going to be able to close on their new homes in time for the June 30th deadline due to a backlog of loan applications that lenders were trying to handle.

The real issue here though, are the short sales.  Many of these sales were not going to able to be closed in time due to the long delays that occur in trying to complete a short, thus there was going to be a large number of  “fall-thru’s” (sales which do not close) and all of these properties were going to be coming back onto the market with a large number of them headed for foreclosure.

Looking for deals on short sales and foreclosures in West Chester & Liberty Township?  >>Get a free list here

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

It’s Tuesday, so this must be the Tuesday Open House.

What is Tuesday Open House?? Well, it’s clearly not an “open house”. Open Houses don’t sell homes… good internet marketing does… but it seemed like a good title for this weekly blog post.

It is my way of throwing the doors open on the RealEstate-Ink.com blog and offering up a few quick articles and facts on real estate for the West Chester, Liberty Township, Beckett Ridge, Mason and Fairfield Township, Ohio areas. It is not intended to be all about homes for sale, but it will be about that some of the time…

The Union Centre Bash:  There have been a number of questions recently regarding the Union Centre Bash and when it was, etc.  So after a little research I found that it is no longer called the Union Centre Bash, but is now known as the Union Centre Boulevard Blast.  It is scheduled to be August 13 -15, 2010.  According to an article in the Journal News that I found online the “Blast” will be more of a regional draw, employing some best practices from similar showcases across the country.  The direction of The Blast will be directed at families, adults, teens and children with multiple activities happening at the same time, “sort of like what you’d see at a state fair.  You can reach the entire article online here >>Union Centre Boulevard Blast

New Listing: 5466 Sugar Maple Run, Liberty Township, Ohio.  Check out this new listing in Falling Water subdivision in Liberty Township, Ohio.  This is a terrific two story home located on a private,  wooded lot and features a finished, walkout lower level, island kitchen w/ adjoining morning room & hardwood floors and much, much more!  >>See all of the details including interior photos, video tour on LowryTeam.com

Searching for foreclosures or short sales?  Get a list of all of the foreclosed (bank owned) homes and short sale homes listed for sale in our area for free.  Don’t pay for a list of foreclosures, short sales or distressed properties and don’t pay a subscription fee to any website for one either.  These are homes that are listed for sale and you can have the information on these homes for sale, for free and without any obligation by just clicking here >>Request your list of foreclosures and short sale homes for sale here

Homes Sales Graph West Chester & Liberty Township

2010 Home Sales in West Chester & Liberty Township, Ohio:  The tax credit is over and now is when we find out if the homebuyer tax credits for both the First Time HomeBuyer and the move up homebuyer have had an impact on home sales overall.  The key thing to watch moving forward is the unit sales numbers each month for West Chester & Liberty Township compared to last year.  As can be seen on the graph, the last couple of months have seen home sales above last years totals.  The real indicator of the housing market’s recovery will be what happens moving forward with home sales.  Clearly the homes sales in West Chester & Liberty Township Ohio picked up when the tax credits were in effect, but what remains to be seen is; Will the home sales in the next few coming months remain at or above last year’s numbers so that the total sales numbers for the year remain above last year?  If the sales remain stable and we can stay at or above last years sales numbers, then we would have to judge the tax credits to be a success in stablizing the housing market.  If the sales numbers in the few months are not able to be sustained and in fact fall to levels below last year, then all we will have accomplished will be to move sales up into the early months of the year from the later months (July, August, September) and we will not have really improved the West Chester & Liberty Township housing market in the long term.  What you can see on the graph is a steady increase in the home sales from January through May of this year in a much more dramatic peak than in the last two years indicating that there clearly was an impact from the homebuyer tax credit incentives.  We will continue to monitor the home sales numbers and we will see where we go from here.   >>You can read my 2010 1st Quarter Real Estate Market Report here

Our facebook fan page of the week is: West Chester Farmer’s Market  You can find information on the Farmers Market, the products that are available there through the summer and more.  As of this writing their page has 129 fans, so I ask that you check out their fan page, become a fan and invite your facebook friends to do the same.

While you are on facebook checking out the West Chester Farmer’s Market fan page, please visit and become a fan of our facebook page:

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

New Listing on LowryTeam.com!

5466 Sugar Maple Run, Liberty Township, Ohio 45011

Liberty Township, Ohio 45011

Falling Water Subdivision

Lakota Schools

$269,900 - Four Bedrooms – Three Full Baths, One Half Bath

This Is A Terrific Two Story Home In Falling Water Subdivision:

• Like New, Move In Condition
• Private, Wooded Lot 
• Island Kitchen w/ 42″ Cherry Cabinets & Hardwood Floors
• Bright, Open Morning Room w/ Cathedral Ceiling
• Warm, Inviting Family Room w/ Gas Fireplace
• Spacious Master w/ Adjoining Luxury Bath & Walk-In Closet
• Finished, Walkout Lower Level w/ Rec Room, Study & Full Bath
• Formal Living & Dining Rooms Feature Hardwood Floors
• 9′ Ceilings On First Floor, Security System
• Large Deck Overlooks Wooded Rear Yard
• Dual HVAC Systems

Click here to see more information on this terrific Falling Water Subdivision home, in Liberty Township, Ohio home for sale including many more photos

Thinking of buying a home in West Chester, Beckett Ridge or Liberty Township, Fairfield Township, Monroe or Mason Ohio?

Visit My YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/LowryTeam

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio