Aurora Builders constructed this Five-star built home recently restored to move-in condition, nestled on a conveniently located city lot in a newer pocket neighborhood complete with public utilities (no failed well pumps or septic tank pumpings!).

In addition to the 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, large family room and oversized single garage:  extras include lower gasoline costs due to this home's central location, a peek-a-boo view of hills to the North, a whole raised bed of perenniel berries and green & flowering plants bordered by landscape block accents, upper AND lower decks for outdoor enjoyment, good-sized shed, and 2 small planting garden areas - one of which is responsible for repeated tomato harvests by the current seller!

Generously sized rooms provide plenty of entertaining or gathering spaces on BOTH levels as well as a flexible floor plan which can be suited to virtually any family structure with 2 bedrooms + oversized common bath and common rooms upstairs... and 1 bedroom, bath & ample family room downstairs.

Located a quick 5-8 minutes from UAF & West Fairbanks or downtown, and complete with radiant floor heating on the lower level and vaulted ceilinged upstairs common rooms, this home is ready and waiting a new owner to love it as much as the current owner has.

If you haven't already had a chance, take a look at the extensive virtual tour above!

Financing comments:  This property is in superior condition and should easily qualify for your choice of any conventional or government loans, including AHFC (PUR's available in disclosure package).

Drive-by Directions:  College Road, turn onto Pine Street.  Pass Tamarack, then turn R on Kassi Court.  Home is straight ahead (after turn onto Kassi), look for signs.

It's easy for pre-qualified buyers to set up a pre-arranged showing appointment.  Just call your REALTOR/Buyer's Representative, the showing instructions for them are available in the MLS. No REALTOR of your own?...just contact Lori at 347-7244, and she will be happy to assist you.

While the property is still actively for sale:  You can view, download or print 24/7 extensive information regarding this home including disclosures, utility history, survey, & more.  Just click on the link above that says "Disclosures" or the red link below.  In addition to the primary information posted here, there is also other miscellaneous additional information collected from prior owners that will be made available to those getting ready to write an offer.  Once the property is under contract/sold this info will no longer be available.

Frustration 1:  If you become the owner of the home after January 1, then you won't quality to get this exemption/"tax discount" this year.  Sorry that's just one of the long-term rules.

Frustration 2:  Even if you do own it before January 1st... if you forget to apply for this benefit before the end of March (as of 2011 that is the current deadline), then you also miss out - but just for this year.

Good news #1: You can always apply the next year!

Good news #2: once you are approved, the exemption sticks - just as long as you are still living there.   There are a lot of people that, innocently or otherwise, don't update the borough when they move out.  And as a result, the borough is stepping up the process of double-checking to make sure folks still qualify.

Did you know that many home insurance policies have greatly reduced or even NO coverage if anything happens and the home has been empty for longer than allowed?  Empty homes are more likely to have break-ins and also means that there's a better chance for small problems to become bigger ones.  The extra coverage may just take the form of a modification to your policy or actually a separate add-in mini-policy.  The cost is usually relatively small, but even if it isn't - it's still cheap peace of mind and you can usually take care of it in a few minutes on the phone with your insurance agent.

Conner, Margaret & daughter and their dozen or so junior racing mushing dogs are looking for dog-friendly home in the Rural Fairbanks area.   Although they are looking everywhere, they are concentrating on homes that are within the West Valley School District and will consider homes anywhere from $200,000 up to $400,000 for just the right place.

Bare minimums (in addition to musher friendly zoning & neighborhood covenants) for their new home are a minimum of 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths and 1,000 square feet of living space on at least 1 acre of land.

Extras that would encourage them to tip towards the higher end of their price range are: direct/immediate access to trail systems, more acreage & living space, garage or workshop already present.

If you, or anyone who know is currently selling (or is planning on selling) a home that seems to meet these buyer's needs, please contact Lori Price at 347-7244

For Sale By Owner's Welcome!

One of these types of loans was a USDA (also locally called an "RD" or Rural Development loan out of old habit) that concentrates on homes a certain distance from urban centers--with some other requirements as well.  Now, every loan presents particular advantages and disadvantages - that's a whole other blog topic entirely - but the point of this is that I did some VERY careful checking only later to have the seller's realtor told via a 2nd local lender that 'per USDA' for reasons other than location this home did not qualify.  While I won't bore you with why right here--it was needless to say a let down.

Flashforward, 2 or 3 weeks later and another buyer-client of mine is exploring the same options (two loans, one maybe a USDA).  So, because I'm thorough I ask the exact same question of yet a 3rd local lender--and you'll never guess what they said.... Yep, Per USDA (and this lender forwarded me the exact email) the home (the original one we were talking about above) WOULD qualify. 

...USDA went on to say that the rules are understandably a bit confusing, and that they also underwent changes periodically...

The capper?  after all of this, the USDA representative failed to mention that "oh, by the way, our funding runs out day after tomorrow for the foreseeable future, so unless you are almost DONE with a purchase (rather than just starting one as these two clients were) then you're out of luck for probably at least the next few to several months..."

Huh.  Sometimes this business is a serious head-scratcher.

The Moral of this story is that *What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You"...which means it can pay  big to have both a seriously capable, and engaged Lender AND REALTOR both of whom are willing to commit the time & the effort to dig-dig-dig to get to the bottom of things.  If you have those, then if it can be discovered...between the two, they can usually get to the bottom of it.

*Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act

In case you weren't aware, most short sales have a TERRIBLE success rate.  Typically the failure rate can be mainly due to inexperience on all fronts, procastination/delays on the parts of lenders, and lack of cooperation on the part of the sellers. A few of the minimum requirements to even be considered under these new guidelines are:

*You have to live in the home your trying to short sale;
*You have to be behind on your payments or close to defaulting;
*You had to close on the loan BEFORE 1/1/09 (for no more than $729,750)
*Your total monthly mortgage payment must be more than 31% of your before tax income.  (Why? it appears that more and more folks are doing "strategic" short sales/defaults where they could actually pay the difference if they wanted to). 

This plan also commits specific amounts of compensation payments to the involved parties including the borrowers, loan servicers, 2nd mortgage holders and more.   More good news: owners who complete a short sale under these guidelines have to be "fully released" from future liability/responsibility for the debt...

The amazingly close-in, but rural location means you get to preserve your precious free time normally spent on a long rural commute--while still enjoying the extra privacy of living just "outside" of town. 

This lovely small home has had major upgrades including a fully engineered self-contained above-ground Lifewater Septic System, and an above ground 1000g water holding tank.  This means virtually no below ground piping or sewer components to move and shift underground in soils like this to potentially break at the most unpredictable (and expensive) moment!  If you are unfamiliar with the Lifewater above-ground engineering septic systems, you are encouraged to look into it on-line. Other improvements include recent interior painting, new vinyl flooring, newer appliances, a recent complete addition housing the larger bathroom and utility/laundry area, greatly improved upper level storage and closet space and more!

This home is very clean and tidy, bright and open with plenty of windows to take advantage of the wonderful natural light provided by its southern exposure.  A large cleared yard area, complete with grassy field is a rare and enjoyable improvement for this size and type of home.  If you are a musher-enthusiast or just a dog-lover, take a look at the attached property information to review the fairly relaxed neighborhood covenants & zoning for this property.

Floor Plan: Main Floor consists of Open Living area, Kitchen-Dining-Livingroom, large closet (great for pantry, since there are other places to hang your coats), bathroom & laundry.  After you go up the newly built staircase (vs. earlier ladder access) you'll see the open loft and separate large closet (or use part as an office!)  

Utilities Overview:  Delivered water (costs vary depending on delivery method), the toyo heating unit uses a ridiculously small amount of fuel (see historical fuel records in the attached disclosures), and you'll notice electric records are a bit higher than usual for a home of this size due to electrical requirements of the above ground utilities and associated heat-tapes, as well as back-up electric heat in the laundry area.  Electric costs are massively offset by the seriously itty bitty fuel expenses!

Important Financing Note: The property design & construction appears to meet most, if not all financing criteria for standard loan types, however it experienced an ice-storm-caused cut fuel line and resulting fuel spill in late 2010 which is likely to prevent those same types of standard financing.   This owner toed the line regarding the spill by contacting DEC (Dept of Environmental Conservation), coordinating clean up and remediation with an environmental engineering company, etc.  Clean up included part excavation/removal - but there are other less affected areas which were deemed by DEC to qualify for the wait-and-let-mother-nature-help-clean-it up program (which they call "natural attenuation").  As a result, this property does not have a "No Further Action" letter by DEC, but instead will require testing several years in the future to verify successful natural attenuation before the property will be removed from the DEC contaminated sites list.   

Successful financing to purchase this property will most likely consist of a local-lender, in-house type loan like that already described by Denali State Bank consisting of terms of a minimum of 20% down, 7% (ish) interest, 10 year term (perhaps 15), and a buyer with a minimum credit score of 720.   It is possible that Spirit of Alaska or potentially Mt. McKinley Bank may have similar options.

Property (land/spill) conditions, and NOT the house or mechanical systems which well thought out and in delightful condition, are the reason why the home is priced 20-25% below the projected current market value at $79,900.

Interested buyers are encouraged to give the property information provided here (or through the MLS, which contains more info) to their choice of lender in order to research the financing issue in advance of making an offer.

Drive-By Directions: Farmer's Loop to Sundance Loop (West of the Musher's Hall) Turn North onto Sundance Loop, 3rd driveway on the left.  See directional signs.

Viewing Appointments:  It's typically easy for pre-qualified buyers to set up a pre-arranged showing appointment with little or no notice.  Just call your REALTOR/Buyer's Representative, the showing instructions for them are available in the MLS. No REALTOR of your own?...just contact Lori at 347-7244, and she will be happy to assist you.

 Additional Info:  While the property is still actively for sale:  You can view, download or print 24/7 extensive information regarding this home including disclosures, utility history, survey, & more.  Just click on the link above that says "Disclosures" or the red link below.  In addition to the primary information posted here, there is also other miscellaneous additional historical information collected from the previous owner that will be made available to those getting ready to write an offer.  Once the property is under contract/sold, this info will no longer be available.

Some of the long-time advantages of this program, which have NOT changed is that they rely a lot less on just a credit score when deciding to approve a loan.  This is great news for the many responsible home-buyers who have been in a bit of a pinch lately and may not have the AA credit rating they once did.  It also offers more options to the self-employed, and even allows family & other FHA-approved sources (like the seller to a limited degree) to help the buyer's out with some of the costs of purchase.  And now that most reasonable options for zero-down-payment loans (except the VA loan, which not everyone can get) have all but disappeared, the minimum FHA 3.5% down-payment looks a lot better than 5%, which is the minimum in many cases with conventional loans.

Recently FHA has also gotten a lot more competitive with conventional loan programs in interest rate (sometimes even LOWER) who (buyer or seller) can pay for what costs and the amount of purchase fees & costs in general. As a result the # of FHA loans has grown enormously in the past two years.

And don't forget, FHA also has a some FAN-TAB-U-LOUS  (much more quick and simple) home improvement loans, as well as options for refinancing (as well as refinancing that involves withdrawing some cash from the equity in your home up to a certain %). 

Just a note:  if you are looking for an FHA loan, they still have slightly different requirements that can change often & quickly as the government streamlines so it pays to make sure the loan officer you are working with not only knows but has done several, and recently.  Also, most lenders say they 'can' do an FHA, but its wiser to make sure the lender is "directly endorsed by FHA".  Don't worry they'll know what that means--all it means to you is that they handle the entire loan processing themselves instead of sending it out.

*FHA=Federal Housing Administration

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