Oklahoma City real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it. There is a lot to consider before investing in Oklahoma City real estate.

There are some key factors that you must consider in order to make proper investment decisions. You’ll have to conduct a thorough analysis to find out the profitability, cash flow, and the rate of return before you make any decision to invest or not to invest in any rental property.

When working with Oklahoma City real estate you’ll need to first gather this information to get the correct data to analyze.? This will ultimately help you to make an intelligent and profitable investment decisions.

This information can either be property related or market related.

Property Related Information

You need to know the income and expenses for the rental property before you consider purchasing the property. The income stream of the rental property is more important than the physical state it is in.? The basic income and expenses may vary between the seller and the agent. Analyze the seller’s representation and base it on the length of tenancy, the tenant’s option to renew and the rental rates.

Market Related Information

?This would consist of analyzing the prices of similar rental properties. Conduct a survey on the capitalization rates for a certain type of property in a particular geographic area, then find out what price tenants are willing to pay in the market.

This is the fundamental information you will need to gather to make sure that you invest in the right Oklahoma City real estate that will make you profits and not losses.

The 2011 Parade of Homes Award results are in and for the Edmond area, $450,000 to $550,000 category, Manchester Green Homes’ lovely home at 1508 NW 187th St won for Best Landscaping, Best Owner’s Suite, Best Kitchen, Best Overall Design and Best Decorated.

Congratulations to Jim, Sherry, Lacey and everyone at Manchester Green Homes for your clean sweep of the awards!

If you are considering putting your Oklahoma City home up for sale on your own you should make sure that you know the risks involved. Without having a representative to assist you in the many aspects of selling your home you can end up feeling quite confused.

What you will miss

If you make the decision to put your Oklahoma City home up for sale on your own, you will be losing a lot of potential benefits that a real estate agent could provide. You will not have access to a specialist that will look for buyers and also help you advertise the features of your home. Also, you will not have a person who has experience in the market and knows the value of homes and properties.

You may end up receiving less money than originally expected since you’ll have missed out on the proper guidance needed. It is easy to overlook something that may not have seemed important at the time, but will definitely result in a decrease of value or a negative image of your home. You will also have to host all of the open houses and viewings on your own, meaning more time and energy spent to get the house sold.

How to make the most of your home sale

In order to get the most out of the sale, you will need an experienced Oklahoma City real estate agent who can assist and guide you through the process.? This process of selling your home may seem simple at a glance but it is actually a tedious and time-consuming transaction that requires legal knowledge and experience. A real estate agent will maximize your potential profit and will generally increase the speed of the sale.

By putting your Oklahoma City home up for sale on your own you are taking a huge risk. With a lot of money being put on the line, the simplest and best thing to do is to hire a professional real estate agent.

As an Oklahoma City real estate agent, this is one of the most common questions that I hear. Most people are wondering whether they are flushing their rent money down the toilet every month while they could be building up equity on a home for the same price. The truth is that renting is a complete waste of money, and depending on the location, you may be paying as much rent as you would be on a mortgage.

Inside Oklahoma City

If you are currently renting a house or an apartment inside the city you are probably paying an astronomical amount of rent every month. Somebody else is making money off of your rent check every month. Somebody else owns this property and they are using your rent money to help pay off the mortgage on it or the mortgage has already been paid off and they are enjoying pure profit. When you think about it this way, it isn’t very pretty is it?

If you enjoy the convenience of living right inside the city you are probably paying less for rent then you would be for the mortgage of a house inside Oklahoma City. If, however, you were willing to look at homes just outside of the city, you could very well be looking at a mortgage payment that is the same or lower than the rent you are currently paying now.

It all depends on the down payment

All of the figures that you will be working with to determine how much you will pay on a mortgage versus your rent will depend on how much the property is worth and the down payment you can pay. If you only have a small down payment to make and find a small house just outside of Oklahoma City, you may end up paying less on a mortgage than you would be paying for rent right inside Oklahoma City.

If you are willing to move outside the city and look for a small home, or even one that needs minor renovations, you’d be better off than you are if you are renting an apartment in Oklahoma City, in many cases. As well, even if you do have to pay a slightly higher mortgage, you’ll at least know that your money is going towards eventually owning your own property. There is no better feeling than that. ?And, of course, if you were renting, your rent would probably go up every year or so. ?Unless you refinance or change something, your mortgage payment never will.

If you would like help working out the figures on rental payments versus mortgage payments in Oklahoma City, give me a call. I have been able to help many tenants get into their own homes and start building a future that leads towards homeownership, and I’d love to do the same for you.

You may have heard about mortgage fraud before, but may not understand how it relates to Oklahoma City real estate. Mortgage fraud is growing at an alarming rate and the more you know about this type of fraud, the better you will be at avoiding it.

Mortgage fraud involves criminal actions that misrepresent or omit vital information on a home loan application in order to secure a larger loan. It can be done by an individual or by a group of organized criminals in Oklahoma City.

Trends like economic and social changes can affect the spike of mortgage fraud in Oklahoma City real estate. Customers are looking for quick approvals on their mortgage applications and banks and other financial institutions are feeling this pressure. Also, banks are constantly competing with one another for mortgage customers as the rates change and more appealing features are being offered.

How mortgage fraud occurs

Sometimes a criminal will arrange to have an imposter pretend to be a spouse or a co-signer on the Oklahoma City home loan. In sophisticated crime rings, this imposter may owe money to the ring and is being forced into this compromising situation. The fraudster will be carrying ID belonging to the individual being represented.

Another type of mortgage fraud involves using the identity of a homeowner that has their debt paid of or has secured debt. The criminal will pretend to be the homeowner and use the positive credit history to secure a loan. In this case there has been identity theft that the victim is not usually aware of until it is too late.

Other types of mortgage fraud include:

• Misrepresentation of credit, income, assets or a down payment.
• False appraisals.
• Skimming of equity.

Mortgage fraud is on the rise across the country and the best thing that you can do is keep yourself safe from identity theft. The easiest way to do this is to keep all of your financial information safe by only using credit or debit cards at reputable Internet sites or retail stores and by always covering your PIN. Mortgage fraud affects anyone that is involved in Oklahoma City real estate. As this type of crime increases, it makes it more difficult and a longer process for hard-working citizens to get the home loan that they deserve.

Some real estate agents believe that selling an Oklahoma City house with a pool acts as a deterrent to at least 50% of the home buyers. While some agents may not agree with this percentage, almost all will agree that selling a home with a pool is harder to sell than one without.

Here are the main reasons why many people are not interested in owning an Oklahoma City house with a pool.

1. Children’s safety

Drowning is a major concern for parents of toddlers and many choose to avoid having an Oklahoma City house with a pool for just this reason. Even having a fence and a safety system in place cannot guarantee 100% that a mistake won’t happen.

2. Maintenance

It takes a lot of work to maintain a pool. If you hire a company or an individual to keep your pool clean, you’ll still have to vacuum it between cleanings. If the pool company only comes once a week, you’ll have to vacuum it at least once between visits. If you decide to clean the pool yourself, it involves a time commitment that cannot be broken.

The cost of maintaining a pool is very expensive. Every 10 years the pool will need to be resurfaced and this will cost $5000 and up, depending on how large the pool is. Hiring a company to clean your pool will average about $500 monthly and this may or may not include the pool supplies. Chemicals can run over $1000 for one summer, and the costs will run higher if any repairs need to be made.

3. Cost of damage

If the pool is not maintained it will become stained due to an overgrowth of algae. If it is totally neglect it will begin cracking due to lack of calcium. It would cost more than $10,000 to get the pool repaired at this point.

If you think that you may want to put your house up for sale within the next five years or so, you may want to rethink any plans you have of installing a new pool. It may slow down the sale of your home in the future because many buyers stay away from an Oklahoma City house with a pool.

One of the basic concepts in marketing anything is having an item appeal to the most amount of people possible, and this concept also applies to selling your Oklahoma City home. The more appealing it is to the market as a whole, the faster it will sell.

If you’re thinking about doing some home improvements to add value to your home, here are some that you may want to avoid. These improvements will not add as much value as kitchen or bathroom renovations would when you are selling your Oklahoma City home.

Additions

While some additions can add a lot of value, some rooms appear to be tacked on to the rest of the house. Buyers will get the feeling that the room simply doesn’t belong to the rest of the house and this will be a turn off for a lot of them.

Additions need to take into account the overall flow of the house and need to appear as natural as possible. It can be a problem adding a new room because you may not be able to sense the flow of the house as an insider. If you’re serious about putting up an addition get some outside help from a professional that can look at the layout and make suggestions.

Upgrades

Any type of upgrades that you add to your home need to be matched to the rest of the home. If you have a modest house and buy high-quality upgrades for one room only, that room will look completely out of place when compared to the rest of the house. Again, it is maintaining the flow of the whole house that will attract more buyers when selling your Oklahoma City home.

Pools

A lot of people are not even going to look at a home that has a pool. You will be limiting your target market by adding a pool to your home. If you are thinking of selling in the not too distance future, avoid getting a pool for the home you’re in now and put it in your next home instead.

Talk to a real estate agent about the home improvements you are planning before going ahead with any of them. The agent will let you know what kind of return you can expect by upgrading and whether it will hinder the buyer’s market when you are selling your Oklahoma City home.

MSN reported that according to a real estate forecasting group(Local Market Monitor) that Oklahoma City was number 2 and Tulsa was number 3 on the list of the 5 best markets in cities with more than 400,000.  They went on to predict a 1% rise in prices in Oklahoma City in 2011.  Good news indeed for OKC especially when compared to the worst city Reno which they predict will have home prices sinking 7% in 2011.  It is good to be in OKC.