The Brian and Kindra Show

On Episode 41 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they discussed tips on how to prepare your home for fall. A great place to start is fixing the cracks in your concrete and asphalt. As water penetrates through cracks and freezes, expanding and contracting, it can cause larger cracks and even wash away the concrete underneath, causing the surface to become hollow. You can accomplish this by applying a sealer using a caulking gun or a hydraulic concrete patch. Next up, stain your deck!  If you don’t have trex decking (composite decking that weathers well) then your deck will require some maintenance for preservation. You should seal your deck every 4-5 years with paint or wood sealer. Check your fire extinguishers. Believe it or not, fire extinguishers have an expiration date. Also, make sure you know how to use it. It might be more complicated than you think!Spruce up your yard. Plant perennials and shrubs before the first freeze. However, make sure that any previous or newly planted shrubs are away from the home, not against it. Also, now is when you plant bulbs! Put them in a place that gets plenty of sun, then come spring they will grow. Aerate your yard. This will get more oxygen to your plants, helping it grow better. Reseed and fertilize your yard. It’s also important to clean up any grass clippings and/dirt on the side of the house, so it’s not harboring moisture for bugs.  Inspect trees near and around your home and powerlines. When winter comes you risk the chance of them snapping. Trim anything now before it becomes an issue.  If you haven’t set a date for when you’ll stop operating your sprinkler system, do so. Also, check the drainage around your home. Water should drain away from the house, not towards. Inspect your home's exterior. One of the most common deferred maintenance is cracked and peeling paint on soffits and eaves. Whenever you keep this nicely painted, it protects the wood of your home and your home investment. Check your siding for cracks and openings. Insects, especially wasps, will find these cracks and have a home for winter. With masonite siding, be sure the bottom edge is sealed. If water gets onto or underneath the siding, it can deteriorate quickly. Do a roof check. Make sure the valleys are clear. Most holes and leaks happen in these areas. Back-up of leaves, pine-needles, etc. should also be cleared. In addition, make sure your gutters are clean and clear. Heading into fall, it might be a good idea to invest in gutter guards, but if you can’t - make sure there is no old debris in your gutters. Along with the roof, check any chimneys and fireplaces. Make sure your flue functions properly. Otherwise, you are letting a bunch of cold air in throughout the winter. Have a professional chimney sweep inspect and verify you are safe to build a fire.  Any build-up could be potentially hazardous. Don’t let water penetrate through the top of your chimney by making sure your chimney cap isn’t cracked. Roofing companies can replace chimney caps or patch them with the hydraulic concrete mix.Now is also the best time to have your furnace checked prior to the cold weather. If you wait to call until you have a problem, your service call will be a greater expense.  Clean out your garage! There is nothing better than having a place to park your car in the cold months. Finally, if you get through this list and need more to do, go around and inspect your home as if it wasn’t yours. From there you can see what needs maintenance or what projects need completed. Brian and Kindra hope these tips have been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.

 On Episode 40 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they discussed ten first-time home buyer blunders to avoid.#1 - Shopping without loan pre-approval: This can be tricky! Brian and Kindra LOVE meeting new customers and can easily show a vacant home if the seller doesn’t require a pre approval for each buyer. However, when interested in an occupied property it’s important to take other’s time and efforts into consideration. Not to mention, it is sorely disappointing to fall in love with a home only to find later that it is outside of your budget. OR even limiting your own shopping range when you could actually afford more! Speaking with a qualified loan specialist will give you the price range and help you narrow down your search. Online resources are often way off with taxes and insurance. Always obtain loan pre-approval.#2 - Buying a home you don’t feel great about due to pressure from others: Advice is great to have if someone is an expert in a field. However, home purchases are personal and it important that you find what you love. It’s your home and your investment. Be sure to evaluate your own needs and wants first.#3 - Passing on a great home because of trivial cosmetic features: A house can be painted, new floors can be laid, etc. Brian and Kindra know the right resources to fix issues like this, so don’t be afraid to have the conversation.#4 - Searching outside of your price range:This goes back to getting pre-qualified. It’s not advisable to look over your pre-qualified amount by 5% in our current market as that is the approximate range of listed to sold price. In order to have an offer accepted and avoid discouragement, it is best to shop in within the appropriate price range. This allows buyers to be more competitive with their offers.#5 - Assuming your offer will be accepted: Remember, it’s impossible to know if the seller will have other offers arrive at the same time as yours! And, just as each buyer wants to find the best deal, most sellers also deeply desire to obtain the best return on their investment through the home sale. Have the conversation with your real estate professional to know how to be competitive with your offer.#6 - Assuming the deal is done once an offer is accepted: After an offer is accepted, a lot has to happen between accepted offer and closing! Inspections, appraisals and loan underwriting can all affect if a transaction will close and fund. A transaction is not closed until the purchase is funded. The bank can take a couple of hours or a couple of days to release funds.#7 - Making large purchases or incurring new debt: Right before closing, a lender does a final credit pull and if the debt-to-income ratio is too far off, the deal can be over. If anything changes with your income or debt while under contract, you must tell your lender. #8 - Being unaware of closing costs: The lender will send this right at the beginning and you’ll know what to expect. Many buyers are surprised by the fees. Be sure to ask questions and be prepared!#9 - Misleading your mortgage lender: They will pull all your financial records and credit, so everything comes out in the open anyways. Be honest and up front!#10 - Working with an agent who doesn’t care: Seek an agent who is interested in you and cares about you just as much as you care about buying a home. Brian and Kindra hope these tips have been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.

On Episode 39 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they discussed what to know about termites and sand burs. This week they sat down with Jake Persall of JCP Services. Sand burs in Northwest Oklahoma are a part of life. Unfortunately, there is no one solution to getting rid of them. If you are serious about getting rid of sandburs it will take several steps and perseverance. It’s advisable to bag grass when you mow. Since sand burrs produce seed heads, you won’t be replanting them when you bag. If you can pick the plants, that helps too. These steps in addition to adhering to a consistent spray program will, overtime, solve the problem. A spray program will usually include three to four sprays per year. Starting with a February/March spray applying a pre-emergent will help to deter sand burrs from growing. The pre-emergent provides a 3-4 month residual, so depending how early you start spraying depends how many times you may need to reapply. Sticker plants will germinate throughout the summer, so they will still germinate after the pre-emergent has worn off. The final part of the spray program, in the fall, helps reduce weeds and stickers for the spring. Jake considers a spray program successful if they reduce half the amount of stickers each year.  Moving onto termites, what do signs of pre-existing termites look like? The only visible evidence are signs in the sheetrock from them eating the paper. The paper is a cellulose material, similar to 2x4’s, etc. They eat the paper on the sheet rock, leaving weird tracks in paint on the wall. When you touch the paint it cracks and the paint falls off, revealing their history. Termites are a colony insect that live in the ground like ants, but they aren’t quite as hardy. They need moisture to survive, if they dry out they die. They build “shelter tubes” from home to food source, which looks like mud tubes along the walls. A sign of termites can be brown substance leaking from the wall, which is actually termites pushing waste out of the mud tubes. What does a home inspection look like? It’s a visual, non-destructive inspection. Jake doesn’t knock holes in walls, etc., he only goes off what he sees. Unfortunately, that leaves room for error, but there are no easy solutions to see behind walls in the sheet rock. He often finds evidence in homes in the areas that are often left untouched. Another common access for termites is bathrooms. Before a foundation is laid, soil is treated for termites. However, the plumber is coming to the home a couple months after and often must disturb the dirt to run the plumbing, so if the soil isn’t re-treated it can lead to termites. Another attraction to termites is condensation lines from exterior leaky faucets or AC condensers. Really, any water around the house is an issue!  Termites need the moisture to survive, so providing a place for moisture against a home makes it easy for them to have a colony near the food & water. There can also be issues from flower beds right next to the home with wood mulch. You are constantly watering the flower bed, making it a great conducive condition for them. If you think you may have a termite problem at your home, the first thing to do is not panic! Termites are a common, solvable issue. It’s often stated, “it’s not IF you find termites, it’s WHEN you find termites”. The next thing to do is call a professional. Killing termites is not a DIY project. A professional will inspect and evaluate that it is actually termites and then there are two treatment options. There is the common liquid soil treatment, or the newer Sentricon Bait System. The bait system not only provides food for termites, but is poison to kill the colony.Brian and Kindra hope these tips have been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real es

On Episode 38 of “The Brian and Kindra Show”, Brian & Kindra discussed multiple offer situations which happen when a property listed for sale receives more than one offer to purchase their property at the same time. Buyers could be represented by Brian & Kindra, by other agents also with KW Elite, or by agents from other brokerages. If all offers come in from other agents, Brian & Kindra will present all offers to the sellers which includes discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the offers and the estimated net proceeds to the seller for each offer, and then the seller decides how they want to proceed.If Brian & Kindra have one offer from a buyer and another offer is coming in from another agent, they will send their offer directly to Lora, the office manager for KW Elite, and instruct the other agent to do the same. Lora, a neutral, licensed agent, will present the offers to the seller. This way, Brian & Kindra never see the competing offer until the seller has made a decision at which point they can step back in to complete the transaction.When making an offer as a buyer or receiving an offer as a seller, most think simply in terms of the bottom dollar. However, there are many aspects to an offer to consider when determining the strength of that offer including the loan type or lack thereof, the down payment amount, closing cost assistance requested, earnest money put forward, inclusions requested, and so much more that can vary widely from situation to situation. The highest price isn’t always the most attractive offer.When a seller is presented with multiple offers, they choose how they want to proceed: they can simply accept one of the offers, they can reject both offers, they can choose to send a counter-offer to one of the buyers, or they can send a form disclosing to both buyers that multiple offers were received, and to please issue their highest & best offers.Brian & Kindra are proud of the system that they have put into place to make sure that multiple offers are handled professionally, efficiently, and with the utmost integrity. They hope these tips have been helpful for you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional. 

On Episode 37 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they discussed mortgage refinance with Connie Rolen of Bank7. First, a recap of some common loan types. There are three government backed loans: FHA, USDA, and VA.  A conventional loan is a private lender loan.  With an FHA loan, you pay 3.5% down. In USDA and VA, you pay 0% down. A conventional loan down payment varies per financial institution and buyer. Each loan has its own pros and cons. One example is FHA requires mortgage insurance for the life of the loan, while conventional loans do not. A refinance is the replacement of an existing debt obligation with another debt obligation under different terms. When you refinance a home, maybe you are trying to get equity out of your home, get a shorter term, or lower the interest rate. A cash-out refinance is also an option. Maybe you have a lot of credit card debt and the interest rate is astronomical, a cash-out refinance with a 3% interest rate, rather than a 18-20% credit card interest rate could be a smart financial move. Or, a cash-out refinance can help with a small home remodel. Refinancing for a shorter term can also save thousands of dollars.Call your lender to discuss options and find out if a refinance is the best option for you. A good lender can help put the numbers together and see if it’s worth it.  The lender will not only look at your monthly payment, but at interest paid over the life of the loan. There are apps to look at refinancing, but Brian and Kindra believe it’s best to visit with a credible lender as there are many scenarios when refinancing. What fees are associated with a refinance? They are going to be the same as buying a new home. The difference will be when your homeowners insurance and property tax comes due. Knowing if these costs are worth the refinance over time is truly the benefit of having a local lender.  They can provide “in person” feedback and understanding. Refinancing is hard to understand if you don’t do it everyday, so trust your professional. The simple answer of how to begin a refinance is going to a local lender to sit down and put the pencil to the paper.  Brian and Kindra hope these tips have been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.

On Episode 36 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they continued their discussion of foreclosures and the process of buying one. Reminder, a foreclosure is where a person who owns a piece of property with a mortgage from a lender has the property taken away from them due to lack of payment. A foreclosure is initiated due to non-payment of your mortgage. You have to be 30 days late on payment before your mortgage company can file a petition saying a foreclosure will happen. From there you have 20 days to respond. The mortgage company can wait up to 90 days to file a motion of summary judgement at the courthouse that says you owe the full amount of the foreclosure. The courthouse then has a 18-30 day waiting period after the filing before getting the judgement to the mortgage company. After, there is a journal of judgement for the court to sign and have filed. (see this link for more informationhttps://oklaw.org/resource/mortgage-foreclosure-process-in-oklahoma?ref=6R4xC)The Sheriff will send out a notification of the intent to sell the property. At this point, they have probably notified the owner asking if you want to do a “deed in lieu of foreclosure.” This is often found to be less damaging on your credit than a foreclosure. This is where you turn the keys and sign the deed to the house over before the foreclosure happens.  Your credit could still be damaged, but it is an opportunity to avoid the Sheriff’s Sale and foreclosure. You can also start paying on your home at this point, but some mortgage companies want all the behind payments at one time. After the intent of the property is sent, the court and mortgage company begin the process for the Sheriff’s Sale. The Sheriff will call three appraisers. These 3 appraisals are averaged and that is the price at which the property is listed.Once the foreclosure is filed at the courthouse, the next 30 days the mortgage company will gather the publication for the Sheriff’s Sale. At a Sheriff’s Sale the bidder has to buy the home for no less than two-thirds value. Once there is a bid, the current owner of the property has 30 days remaining where they are still in control of the house. They still own the home until the date of confirmation of the Sheriff’s Sale, which is where they sell the deed of your property. The Sheriff will be involved in moving the current owner out of the property if they are still occupying house at the date of confirmation. A huge concern for buyers at the Sheriff's sale is whether they will be receiving a clear, marketable title.  Any time a purchase is made at a sheriff sale, the buyer should do research on the title prior to attending the sale. Also as someone looking to buy foreclosures, do not pay to get foreclosure information. The information is free through legitimate websites and your professional realtor. It’s important to note that during times of hardship and when a foreclosure seems imminent, it is easy to feel defensive. However, there are a lot of things that are in place to help the mortgagor. It’s most important to remain in contact with your mortgage company and maintain open communication.  Brian and Kindra hope these tips have been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.