The general practice among lenders is to require MI with down payments of less than 20%, with an insurance rate of 1.0% to 6% of the initial loan amount depending on these factors:
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By Don Vandervort
Feb. 6, 2017, 10:43 a.m. MOREYour garage door may be one of your home’s most prominent, visible elements, depending upon the garage’s size and orientation. Because of this, the garage door has an opportunity to boost your home’s style and beauty or, if it’s in shoddy shape, significantly detract from the house’s appearance. If your home’s garage door has seen better days, consider replacing it. Few home improvements can increase a home’s curb appeal as quickly and affordably as a new garage door. Garage Door Materials Garage doors have come a long way in recent years. Taking advantage of modern technologies, today’s doors are built of materials that look great and withstand the elements for many years with little maintenance. Garage doors are manufactured from steel, fiberglass composites, wood and aluminum. A door’s main material and construction determine its durability and the maintenance needed to keep it in good shape. [See: 9 Easy Ways to Boost Your Home's Curb Appeal .] Steel garage doors. Major home improvement centers sell steel garage doors more than other types. Steel is strong, secure, easy to maintain and relatively affordable. And a steel garage door can look great – some steel doors have exterior surfaces embossed with wood-grain patterns and finishes that mimic the look of wood surprisingly well. Unlike wood, steel doesn’t crack, warp or degrade from weather exposure. High-tech, baked-on finishes protect steel surfaces from rust and eliminate the need for painting. Single-layer steel doors, the least expensive type, are stamped from a sheet of galvanized steel. Moderately priced double-layer steel doors have a layer of polyurethane or polystyrene foam for thermal insulation, rigidity and soundproofing (polyurethane has a higher insulating value than polystyrene). Premium triple-layer “double-skin” steel doors sandwich the foam insulation between steel layers. With these, an interior sheet of galvanized steel strengthens the door, protects the insulation and dresses up the door’s interior face. The best steel doors are made of 24-gauge steel. Lower quality garage doors utilize thinner 28-gauge steel. Steel door warranties typically protect against rust – in some cases for 20 years or more – but not against fading. Most steel doors are the sectional, roll-up variety. Sections may have flush, recessed, raised or ribbed panels and may or may not contain windows. Wood garage doors. Wood doors can be exceptionally handsome. They have the warm, natural look that most other garage doors try to imitate. But wood is vulnerable to weathering, a considerable problem. Because of this, wood doors need to be repainted or stained every few years. Most manufactured wood doors have only one-year warranties. Most wood doors are sectional roll-up doors, though a swing-up wood door that’s meant to be painted can be affordably built in the driveway from a wood framework and plywood. Custom wood doors are typically made of durable softwoods such as Douglas fir, cedar, redwood or cypress, or from hardwoods such as oak or mahogany. Appearance-grade hardwoods are relatively expensive. Cladwood composites, with resin-impregnated layers, last longer than real wood. In fact, some types are protected by 20-year warranties. Fiberglass and aluminum doors. Though these materials have the benefit of being lightweight, they’re best reserved for special conditions because fiberglass is easily broken and aluminum is vulnerable to bending and dents. Fiberglass can be the right choice in a salt-air climate because it doesn’t corrode. [See: Current Design Trends That Will Date Your Home .] Garage Door Styles If you browse online through major manufacturers’ websites, you’ll discover a staggering variety of garage doors and options – from sleek, flush-panel contemporary doors to matched pairs of classic carriage-house doors complete with crossbucks, or X-shaped detailing. All types of garage doors may include windows that are arched or rectangular, frosted or clear and located at eye level or high enough to allow light without views. The key is to do your homework and find the style that will complement your home. Most garage doors are made by major garage door manufacturers, including Amarr Garage Doors, C.H.I. Overhead Doors, Clopay Building Products, Overhead Door Corporation, Raynor Garage Doors and Wayne Dalton. These doors are sold through home improvement centers or by local garage door dealers. If you visit a dealer or a home improvement center, be sure to take along your existing garage door’s height, width and thickness measurements. Most dealers happily offer free estimates. Garage Door Costs Prices, like the garage doors themselves, run the gamut. You can pay as little as $400 for a door that you install yourself, or several thousand dollars for a high-end premium door that includes all the bells and whistles, including installation. A mid-range, 16-by-7-foot door will typically cost from $750 to $1,500, installed. Premium insulated steel doors run from $750 to $3,500. According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2017 Cost vs. Value report, the average national cost of a garage door replacement is $3,304. The best way to get an accurate fix on cost is to ask for bids from several dealers. Be sure their prices include hauling away your old garage door and hardware. If you’re considering an automatic door opener, plan to order it at the same time. [See: 12 Home Improvement Shortcuts That Are a Bad Idea .] Return on Investment Without a doubt, a new garage door can add to your home’s beauty, value and functionality. It can improve security, reduce energy costs, minimize maintenance, quicken the sale of your property and make the neighbors happy. But will it return your investment when you sell your home? This may depend on how much you spend and where you live. Current data from real estate firms throughout the country show that replacing the garage door raises the value of a home by an average of $2,810, according to Remodeling Magazine's report. Based on the average cost of $3,304, this means that replacing a garage door is expected to return 85 percent of the job’s cost, nationally. When replacing a garage door in the Western U.S., however, the return is predicted to be 110.8 percent of your investment. If return on investment is a priority and you don’t live in the West, your best strategy may be to buy a low- to moderately-priced door that significantly improves the look of your home. Consider adding an automatic garage door opener at the same time. The beauty of a new door and the convenience of an automatic opener are sure to be a winning combination. Loose-fill insulation: This insulation requires a machine that blows a stream of fiberglass or cellulose over the existing attic floor framing. It’s typically installed by a contractor, but you can also rent a blower from a home repair store. One benefit is this insulation fills in tiny gaps and hard-to-reach spaces; it’s also a winner in attics where headroom is limited and rolling batts would be impossible. Step No. 3: Keep soffits clearWhile insulation should extend all the way to the exterior wall, take care to not block the soffits. These are openings under the edges of your roof that help ventilate a home. To keep these openings clear, you can install baffles, which keep the insulation from expanding into these areas. Step No. 4: Watch out around lights If you’re installing insulation near recessed lights, you’ll want to use sheet metal or wire mesh to create a barrier around these fixtures. If insulation comes in contact with lights, it can cause a fire, unless the insulation is marked “insulation contact” or “IC,” which means no barrier is necessary.Buying A Home Still Cheaper Than Renting Despite Rising Home Prices
Even though asking home prices rose 7.0% in the last year, outpacing rent increases of 3.2%, the gap between buying and renting has narrowed only slightly. One year ago, buying was 46% cheaper than renting. Today’s it’s 44% cheaper to buy versus rent. In fact, homeownership is cheaper than renting in all of America’s 100 largest metros. That’s because falling mortgage rates have kept buying almost as affordable, relative to renting. Financial considerationsKnowing where homeownership fits into your larger financial plan is important. Ask yourself: Would I need to make changes in my budget to buy a home? Would it mean stretching to my financial limits? Would owning allow me to still maintain my other savings goals (such as contribution to my retirement fund) and stay prepared for potential costly home emergencies such as a new roof or heating/cooling system? Renting has both advantages and disadvantages. For example, renting may provide you with more leftover cash each month, if your rent is less than a mortgage payment, and renters get to call the landlord to fix the leaky faucet. On the other hand, renters may not be allowed to make any changes to their living space and are often subjected to rent increases over time. Owning a home may provide you with income tax benefits (though it’s important to check with your tax advisor to see how owning would impact your personal situation). Owning a home also offers you the chance to increase your personal wealth as you pay off the Glossary Term:principal layer on your loan over time and build what is known as equity. Glossary Term:Equity layer is the difference between theGlossary Term:market value layer of the home and the outstanding balance of the mortgage loan(s) on the home. Of course, home values can rise or fall over time, so building equity is not guaranteed. And there are significant Glossary Term:upfront costs layer associated with buying, including Glossary Term:down payment layer and Glossary Term:closing costs layer. Personal preferencesOwning a home is a financial commitment that requires you to plan ahead, reflecting on where your life is headed and what you want to accomplish along the way. Ask yourself: What additional financial goals would I like to accomplish as I make payments on a home loan? What’s more important to me: the opportunity to build equity over time or to perhaps have more cash available now? Renting usually makes it easier to relocate (to pursue a job opportunity, for example). And if your rent is less than a mortgage payment, renting could allow you to contribute more toward specific savings goals, such as retirement, college, future travel, investments or even putting away money for a down payment for a home in the future. Owning a home could make sense for you if you want to put your monthly living costs toward something you could eventually pay off and own outright. In addition, it also makes sense if you plan to stay in the area and prefer to feel settled in a home that reflects your personal tastes. 01/10/2017 | Author: TAR Legal Staff The Possession Paragraph in TREC contracts includes a checkbox for delivering the property to the buyer “upon closing and funding.” Sometimes there can be confusion about when the funding part of that provision has occurred because it is not defined in the contracts. A transaction is considered to have closed and funded when the title company is prepared to issue funds—not when the funds are actually received in the seller’s bank account. Another way to describe it: A transaction has closed and funded when there are no conditions left that prevent the title company from moving forward. People may think that a wire transfer is an instantaneous transaction; however, there are manual steps that must be taken by the receiving bank before the funds show up in the recipient’s account. It’s possible for wire transfers that occur at the end of a day to not be displayed in the seller’s bank account until the next morning or after the weekend. Nevertheless, the transaction has closed and funded. The seller must deliver the property to the buyer. Note that if the title company has a federal wire reference number (often called a “fed number”), then the wire has been sent, regardless of whether the recipient’s bank has found that wire or posted it to the seller’s account. Reprinted from the December 2016 issue of Texas REALTOR® magazine. Don't trash your Christmas tree — recycle it into nutrient-rich mulch for your garden! There are drop-off locations throughout the city that will be in operation on two separate weekends.In an effort to minimize the amount of landscape debris entering the landfill, the City of San Antonio Solid Waste Management Department is once again providing locations where you can take your Christmas trees to be recycled into mulch. The sites are located throughout the city and will be in operation on two separate weekends from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
2017 Christmas Tree Drop-Off Sites Click to view map. Rusty Lyons Sports Complex6300 McCullough78212 Bitters Brush Center 1800 Wurzbach Pkwy78216 Southside Drop-off Center 5450 Castroville Road78227 Southeast District Center7402 S. New Braunfels78223 Northwest District Center 6802 Culebra Road 78238 Northeast District Center10303 Tool Yard78233 Nelson Gardens8963 Nelson Road78252 Eisenhower Park19399 NW Military78257 Stone Oak Park 20395 Stone Oak Pkwy78258 Pine or juniper tree mulch is excellent for both gardens and landscape beds, especially if some needles are included. The needles, bark and woodchips of these trees tend to be acidic in pH, which assists in nutrient cycling within the soil. Plus, there's that wonderful aroma! If you can't make it to the brush recycling centers, another great option is to use the tree somewhere in your landscape as winter shelter for resident and migrating birds. Simply cut it up into pieces about 2 ½ to 3 feet long and create little teepees or square boxes in the back of your yard. Wildlife will appreciate these snug little homes during the winter and early spring months. What about a repurpose option? You can accessorize your old Christmas tree with edible and attractive nuts, peanut butter and citrus, place in a corner of the backyard, and then sit back and watch your feathered friends frolic and feast! Don't let this wonderful landscape asset go to the landfill. Use as much Christmas mulch as possible so you can keep a little Christmas in the yard all year round or provide our feathered and furry friends a little holiday treat Pamper your poinsettia. With proper care it’ll serve you long after the holidays as a xeric evergreen perennial in your landscape. Living in South Texas has its perks. One of them is the opportunity to grow poinsettias for annual holiday beauty. If you’ve been taking proper care of the poinsettias prior to and during the holidays, then you have the opportunity that many people in the rest of the country do not. Incorporate them into your landscape for perpetual beauty! Poinsettia is a semi-tropical but semi-arid plant. In other words, it does not like temperatures below 40 degrees or being watered every week. It’s a perfect plant for a large container outdoors or a specific bed in the landscape. Follow these tips to keep your poinsettias thriving during the holidays.
Selling your home doesn′t just mean hiring a realtor to stick a sign out front. There are a lot of preparations you should make to ensure you get the best offer possible in the shortest time. Repair. Just because you’ve gotten used to the cracks in the walls and the rattles in the radiators doesn’t mean a buyer will too. If you have hardwood floors that need refinishing, be sure to get it done—hardwood is a huge selling point. Buyers like to snoop around, so be sure to fix any sticky doors or drawers as well. Finally, don’t forget to address any issues with the exterior—fences, shingles, sidewalks, etc. After all, without curb appeal, some buyers may never get to see the inside. Neutralize. You want buyers to see themselves in your home. If your living room has lime green shag, wood-paneled walls, and all your collectibles and personal photographs, this will be much harder for them to do. Try replacing any bold color choices in your floors and walls with something more neutral—beiges, tans, and whites. Repainting and reflooring will make everything look fresh and new, and help prospective buyers imagine all the possibilities. Stage. Once your house is clean and updated, it’s time to play dress up. Home stagers can add small details and décor touches that will bring out the possibilities in the various spaces in your home: lamps, mirrors, throw rugs and pillows, flowers, decorative soaps and towels, patio furniture. Home staging can be particularly useful if your home is especially old or if the exterior looks dated. Think of it as a little mascara and rouge—if it’s done right, you notice the beauty, not the makeup. As the events of the last few years in the real estate industry show, people forget about the tremendous financial responsibility of purchasing a home at their peril. Here are a few tips for dealing with the dollar signs so that you can take down that “for sale” sign on your new home. Get pre-approved. Sub-primes may be history, but you’ll probably still be shown homes you can’t actually afford. By getting pre-approved as a buyer, you can save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can’t afford. You can also put yourself in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house. Unlike pre-qualification, which is based on a cursory review of your finances, pre-approval from a lender is based on your actual income, debt and credit history. By doing a thorough analysis of your actual spending power, you’ll be less likely to get in over your head. Choose your mortgage carefully. Used to be the emphasis when it came to mortgages was on paying them off as soon as possible. Today, the debt the average person will accumulate due to credit cards, student loans, etc. means it’s better to opt for the 30-year mortgage instead of the 15-year. This way, you have a lower monthly payment, with the option of paying an additional principal when money is good. Additionally, when picking a mortgage, you usually have the option of paying additional points (a portion of the interest that you pay at closing) in exchange for a lower interest rate. If you plan to stay in the house for a long time—and given the current real estate market, you should—taking the points will save you money. Do your homework before bidding. Before you make an offer on a home, do some research on the sales trends of similar homes in the neighborhood with sites like Zillow. Consider especially sales of similar homes in the last three months. For instance, if homes have recently sold for 5 percent less than the asking price, your opening bid should probably be about 8 to 10 percent lower than what the seller is asking. Watering Tips Unless otherwise noted in the *plant descriptions: Hand water three times a week for three weeks, then twice a week for two weeks to establish. Sites with shallow soils and persistent breezes may need one additional weekly watering the first five weeks to establish. Sites with deeper soils may require one less weekly watering the first five weeks to establish. Generally after the first two weeks, a nice rain means you can skip watering that week completely. Mature plants generally don’t require supplemental watering. For guidance on how to plan your garden bed, see our suggested designs. Trees (min. size 5 gallons) Anacacho Orchid Sun to part shade; can be evergreen with south wall protection, otherwise deciduous. Orchid-like white flowers occur in spring and periodically throughout the year. A multi-trunked small specimen tree or a mounding shrub; it performs well in rocky soil. Crape Myrtle(10′-25′; no dwarf) Full sun only; crape myrtles will not bloom well in the shade around your live oaks. Bare in winter. A wide range of sizes, forms, and pink, purple and white varieties are available, with attractive trunks, peeling bark and terrific fall color. Desert WillowFull sun. Deciduous, with narrow leaves. Pink tubular flowers throughout the warm season. Very drought tolerant; do not overwater, especially in winter. Desert willow has an irregular growth habit and blooms on new wood only; it responds well to pruning. European OliveFull sun or light shade. Evergreen, silvery green leaves with white undersides. Can be grown in small orchards in the residential landscape, though fruit production is very dependent upon ideal cultivation, irrigation and climactic conditions (mild winters, and long dry summers). Olive is long-lived and drought hardy and tolerates alkaline soils. Cold tolerance increases with age; small trees may be damaged in extreme winters and killed below 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Of the many recommended varieties, ‘arbequina’ and ‘mission’ are among the hardiest. Laurel ViburnumSun or shade. Evergreen, with ovate leaves and pink or white flowers in spring. ‘Spring Bouquet’ is a widely available cultivar. On its own it may grow to tree form, but it’s often seen as a hedge. Allow it about two years to establish fully. Mexican BuckeyeSun/part shade; deciduous (with excellent yellow fall color!) Fragrant pink flowers resemble redbud but appear a bit later in spring. The large seed pods provide winter interest. It can usually be substituted for redbud, but it’s lower, wider and bushier. It can be trained to an upright tree form with some effort. Mexican OliveSun; nearly evergreen; very ornamental, with large, thick leaves, a rounded crown and, often, multiple trunks. White trumpet flowers appear all summer long and sometimes year-round. It drops leaves in extreme freezes and can be damaged by subfreezing temperatures (15 degrees F), but even then it returns vigorously from the roots to regain full size. If in doubt, give it a south wall location or frost protection, especially north of San Antonio. In deeper soils, Mexican olive is drought-hardy and it survives without irrigation along roadsides and highways in the Rio Grande Valley. Mexican PlumSun or shade. Deciduous, with attractive striated bark, resembling a cherry. Fragrant white/pink flowers appear in late winter. Fruits are edible but small and somewhat sour. The leaves droop heavily at the end of summer, before they drop, but don’t be fooled: Mexican plum is drought-hardy as long as soils are deep enough. Mexican/Texas RedbudMorning sun or dappled shade (it won’t bloom as well in the dark under live oaks.) Deciduous, with thick heart-shaped leaves; blooms pink, magenta and purple, very early in spring and sometimes by Valentine’s Day; fast growing. Possumhaw HollySun/partial shade; deciduous, with dull paddle-shaped leaves resembling yaupon holly. Admired for the red fruit, which persists through winter when the tree is bare. Attracts fruit-eating birds. Roughleaf DogwoodSun/part shade; deciduous, with the characteristic large, heavily veined teardrop-shaped leaves of dogwood. White flowers appear in spring, with bountiful fruit in autumn. Versatile and thicket forming, especially common at creek sides and deep understory. Nice fall color; this is a natural addition to any wildscape edge. Texas Mountain LaurelSun; evergreen, with thick round compound leaflets and grape-scented flowers in March or April. Bright red seeds are poisonous. In this area, mountain laurel is most commonly found on dry limestone ledges with excellent drainage, but it can be grown in clay and sandy soil. It is a very popular landscape plant, virtually indestructible except by overwatering and fertilizing. It grows very slowly. Texas PersimmonFull sun, or partial shade. Deciduous, with a dense twiggy crown. Attractive silvery bark peels in a manner resembling crape myrtle. Female specimens bear sweet black fruit in late summer with a taste like fig or prune. (The black juice can stain, so brush your teeth.) Persimmon is very, very slow growing but long-lived, strong-wooded, and quite striking. It is a popular ornamental and grows wild throughout Bexar County, even in thin rocky soils. Texas PistacheFull sun or part shade. Semi-evergreen, with small compound leaflets and red fruit clusters in autumn. Grows naturally to a loose, airy tree form, but also cultivated as a hedged shrub. A Texas native, in canyon country and along the Rio Grande. Yaupon Holly(standard only; no dwarf) Sun or shade; evergreen. Red winter fruits provide a spectacular show and attract birds and wreath-makers. Yaupon can be sheared into a variety of forms, but on its own forms a small multi- or single-trunked tree or large shrub with a drooping canopy. It performs better in deeper soils. Shrubs (min. size 1 gallon) Barbados CherrySun/shade; a tropical evergreen shrub or small tree (there are many different growth habits.) Usually seen locally with a soft-rounded form that can be sheared or left as a free-form specimen. It’s better adapted to the deep clays and loams of central, southern and eastern Bexar County than to Hill Country rock. In subfreezing winter temperatures it may drop leaves. Pink-and-yellow flowers earn it the name ‘wild crape myrtle’ but it is best known for its tiny, tart fruits, high in vitamin C. The fruit is appealing to many types of wildlife. CenizoFull sun (in shade, cenizo tends to grow leggy.) Evergreen, with silvery foliage. Sweet-scented pink flowers appear briefly after rains in summer and fall. Cenizo tolerates poor soil, full sun, and drought, and thrives with or without rain. It is among the most drought-tolerant of all large landscape shrubs and makes a useful standard by which others can be measured. It’s a frequent victim of overwatering and over-hedging. Earth-Kind® Roses (all)Sun; not suitable for shallow soils; evergreen with cherry red or brilliant pink flowers that bloom from spring until frost. The complete list of Earth-Kind rose cultivars can be found on the Texas AgriLife Extension Service website. Juniper speciesSun or partial sun. Evergreen, with soft fragrant foliage with a tremendous variety of forms and shades. “Pfitzer” and “sargent” are common cultivars of Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis) that emphasize low, shrub-like forms. Many ornamental junipers are adapted to cooler, wetter climates, and the stress of hot summer nights and rust disease keeps them from naturalizing here, but in the right setting they make a nice accent. LiriopePart or full shade; evergreen, with dark green lily-like spreading foliage. An adaptable low-maintenance groundcover or specimen often used in formal or shaded landscapes, especially around live oaks. Inconspicuous flower spikes. Muhly (all)Sun or partial shade. An outstanding fine-textured, clumping grass with ornamental seed plumes and silvery-grey or pink foliage. There are three commonly used varieties: Lindheimer’s muhly is the silver-blue Hill Country native; Gulf muhly is the smaller one with pink flowers in autumn; and Bamboo muhly is the billowing, curly-leaved Arizona variety. All are widely used and hardy. Lindheimer’s muhly is the one often used on thinner soils, especially around seeps. It is often cropped in late winter to control the size and reduce the accumulation of spent leaves. Primrose JasmineSun/shade; evergreen, with yellow flowers briefly in spring. Long, arching branches create a mounding form and root where they touch the ground, making a huge, dense, cascading evergreen screen. Unwatered, it makes a 5′ hedge, but under irrigation can become quite large, swallowing up shrubs, trees, and entire landscapes. It prefers deeper soils. RosemarySun or shade. Evergreen. Whether trailing or upright in form, rosemary is a tough herb that is often used as a small foundation shrub. Trailing rosemary cascades beautifully down retaining walls and rocky slopes, and upright rosemary branches make great barbecue skewers. Both types boast light lavender-blue flowers that bloom spring through fall. SagoSun, but appreciates some afternoon shade in summer. Evergreen to 15 degrees F (trunk damage may occur below 10 degrees, especially with ice). Sago is an ancient plant, with arching glossy leaves and a palm-like form. It is extremely drought hardy once established; adult plants can go for months without supplemental water. Even if plants begin to drop leaves or desiccate in drought, they can usually recover after rain. Overwatering leads to crown and root rot. The leaf bases bear sharp tips and may require gloves for close handling. Yucca/Agave/Cacti/Sotol/Nolina (all)Sun or partial shade. These evergreen, drought-hardy succulents add architectural interest to any landscape. Flowers attract birds and bees. Many have sharp thorns; however, thornless varieties are available. Sotol leaves have rough edges but do not have thorns. *Nursery partner prices and customer plant selection and size will determine the plant package’s final cost. Please feel free to compare prices at participating retailers. |
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