Mississippi home buying tips.

There are lots of great articles that I have written on buying real estate in Ocean Springs and Biloxi Mississippi (MS). If you will scroll down the right side of this website you will come to my archive, I recommend you look through some of those articles. But as always, I've gotta give you more so hear goes.

1. THE MARKET: Today's market is different than the market was a year ago. After Katrina we real experience a Seller's Market here in Biloxi and Ocean Springs; actually the whole Gulf Coast. Seller's market really means the seller has the advantage because there are not many homes available but there are lots of people trying to buy them. During this time a seller could charge almost anything they wanted to charge for their house and many of them did. Unfortunately that left many people living in homes that aren't worth as much as they owe now; but that's a different subject all together. Today we find ourselves in much more of a Buyer's market, meaning that we now have way more homes than people buying them. Before homes would sell in a matter of days literally, now it's still a matter of days, about 140 of them to be precise. The average days on the market has dramatically increased. So as a buyer this is a good thing for you. You can negotiate a much better price and even some incentives like closing costs and home warranties to be provided by the seller. If you want to know more contact me, I love to help people.

2. Inspections and Disclosures: Sellers are required to provide you the buyer with a Seller's Disclosure." This tells you anything and everything that has happened to the house, that way you can make an informed decision on whether or not to purchase the home. This is a great tool but it CAN NOT take the place of a home inspection. A seller may provide you a disclosure and say everything in his house is fine but the electrical could be messed up, the roof could be about to bust, or whatever. Doesn't mean the seller intentionally mislead you, they may have just not known. Inspections are very important, I made this mistake on my first house and I'm still fixing things that could have been spotted by an inspector. But hey, I was uneducated and was taken advantage of by an investor. BE CAREFUL!! Get a Realtor if you don't know, for your sake guys.

3. Price: As a colleague always says; PRICE IS KING!! Don't over pay for a home. If you do, you will find yourself in a pickle when it comes time to move. This is especially true if you are military and will be moving in 3 years or so. Make sure you get the house at a fair price. Even Realtors can't predict the market, so we can't promise your house will appreciate or depreciate but we can help you get a fair price based on today's market.

I know this whole article has sounded like I'm trying to sell you on using Realtors, I'm not. I just want you to make good decisions, buy your house right, and live happily in your new home. If you don't know what you are doing, contact a professional. I'm an agent and I still ask questions everyday. There is A LOT to this real estate world and you can get burned really fast and really hard if you aren't careful. Hope this helps.

Blog Done. Carry On!!

Sergeant Real Estate vs Sargent Real Estate

It seems we have an imposter; a spy among us if you will!! It seems there is a real estate company in Maine called Sargent Real Estate, please do not confuse this company with me; Sergeant Real Estate. I am a person who works for Prudential Gardner Realtors, the #1 real estate company in southern Mississippi and Louisiana.

It seems this Sargent Real Estate company in Maine is a family owned business whose last name happens to be Sargent.



As a ending note, I don't want any of you other Realtors trying to use Sergeant Real Estate, or the word Sergeant period in connection with real estate, because it is trademarked by me.

Blog Done. Carry on!!

FHA 203K: rehab or update a home.

It's 7:30pm on day 5 of your house hunt. You and you're Realtor have looked at 25 houses already. You've been everywhere from Gulfport, to Biloxi, to Ocean Springs and yet you can't find the right house for you. None of them say to you, "I want this to be my home." Well, there was that one on day 2, your remember right, the one behind the Wal-Mart in Ocean Springs that was perfect, that is, except for that kitchen. Man that kitchen sucked didn't it??!! But you loved the rest of that house, oh and your husband liked that work shed in the back yard, not that it really mattered that much to YOU did it, but you pretended like it did. Oh, what about that one in Biloxi, the one that didn't have the garage but you loved the rest of it and man what a great price it was. Now you've looked at home after home since those and not one of them have you liked. You can tell your Realtor is getting frustrated because they've started asking for gas money from you. So what do you do now? Just give up and settle for a house you don't like? Find a new Realtor? You can't have it all so you just have to choose the one that gives you the most of what you are looking for. Well, a lot of times these are the answers but it doesn't have to be. Not any more though!!


SO my new friend... sit back, while Sergeant Real Estate shoots some knowledge up your tail pipe!! Now, what if I said you to my friend, "friend I know a way you can buy that cute little house behind that Ocean Springs Wal-Mart and fix that kitchen too." Oh, and it would cost you next to nothing. Would you want to know how? Did you're Realtor know how? Oh did they just say, "well, we'll just keep looking." Good thing you dropped by site for some education.

There is this nifty little program called 203k which is offered by by FHA. This type of loan allows you buy a home and finance the rehabs all in one. You can do everything from just repainting the house to added a 4th bedroom. There really are only very few catches, it has to be a home you intend to live in and your after repair value can't exceed the loan amount. Other than that, it's fair game!! Oh!! And you can even use this type of loan as a refinance to fix up that house you live in now.

So does this sound interesting to you? To you want to go back and buy that house in Ocean Springs or the one in Biloxi that you loved? Are you not quit sure exactly what you need to do though? Give Sergeant Real Estate a call, or have your Realtor call me, and I'll help you out. I know the experts in this area and they can walk you through the process.

Now get out there and make your house your dream home.


BLOG DONE. CARRY ON!!