Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Tips for the First Time Buyers

Going to buy your first condo home in Seattle? As a first-time buyer, you will have your hands full. From researching about the market to obtaining the best loan---there are lots of aspects to take note of. Your home is going to be one of your greatest assets in the upcoming days, so you just can not afford to make any error here. Here is a list of basic “Dos” and “Don’ts” that would make the whole purchase process simple for you.

"Dos"
1. Buying your first home means starting from the scratch. But it becomes a great learning experience for you. When it comes to buying your first condo, you must divide the task into four basic groups:
First of all, you must develop an idea about current market for Seattle condos.
Secondly, you have to work out a practical budget depending on how much you can afford.
After you have determined the budget, now you have to shop for the right loan.
Meanwhile you have to search for the Seattle condos that rightly support your lifestyle.
Fulfilling all these tasks to perfection is not easy. By taking a step-by-step approach, you can ease up the entire process.

2. Shop for the Seattle condos, browse through the websites and compare the prices of Seattle condos in different neighborhoods. Consult the established real estate information Web sites---they will provide you information you are looking for and even more.

3. Before starting your hunt for Seattle condos, make up a contingent list of professionals’ including a real estate agent, attorney, mortgage broker and a home inspector. They will help you locate quality Seattle condos that suit your needs as well as your budget.

4. Most importantly, before choosing the property, make sure how long you are planning to stick around. Pay heed to all your family responsibilities and professional commitments before you decide on the size, type and location of your first condo property.

"Don'ts"
1. Do not cross your budget and consider only those Seattle condos that you will be able to comfortably afford. Consider the factors such as the down payment, closing costs, monthly expenses and taxes to work out a practical budget.

2. Do not accept the very first mortgage that comes your way; shop around for the best deal. Avoid those multi-option loan products that make you confused.

3. Don’t judge your options by heart, weigh the options with your brain. Lifestyle is the key factor in choosing the right property at the right neighborhood.

To round it up: make your own research about the Seattle condos market, even though you have hired professionals for the purpose. It helps a great deal when you know in advance what you may expect.

Unique Mix of Seattle Condos and Seattle Hotels

The concept of condo hotels are around for nearly a decade now. But it was not until 2006 that Seattle became the hub of some major condo-hotel projects. The rage that kicked off with the opening of high end Madison Tower, is giving no signs of dying down. Being an important business district, Seattle is visited by huge number of business travelers every year. With its attractive coastline, sparkling lakes and mountains, Seattle is an important tourist destination too. It comes as no surprise then; buyers are very enthusiastic about these high end projects that are an innovative fusion of luxury hotels and upscale Seattle condos.

If you are looking for a second home in Seattle, you can choose from one of these prestigious real estate projects that offer you the best of both worlds---five star amenities and ownership of a branded property. In addition of the vacation home buyers, the baby boomers also find these properties very attractive.

These Seattle condos will offer you all kinds of amenities and services that you find in four or five star hotels. Starting from weather controlled swimming pools to full service spa, state of the art fitness centers to multi cuisine restaurants, parking space to concierge---condo hotels will offer you all that you can expect from a dream stay at one of the world’s best hotels.

Single Women Buying Seattle Condos

With increasing number of condominium towers filling up downtown Seattle’s skyline, a simple question often crosses our minds- who are buying these high end Seattle condos?
According to the real estate surveys, couples still top the list of condo-buyers. One third of the buyers are single men. The remaining 17% buyers are single women. And the emerging trend indicates to an interesting fact---the numbers of single women buyers are constantly on rise. From young girls to aged professionals---single women of all age groups are finding Seattle condos the right place to be in and to invest their money.

This rise in the percentage of single women buyers has been attributed to the rising income level. Even a decade ago, it was the single men who dominated the market. But in the recent years many single women have moved to Seattle condos from their rented apartments. It is the attraction for hassle free lifestyle that an increasing number of women are choosing Seattle condos over a detached home, that is expensive to buy and difficult to maintain single handedly.

Although the share of women condo buyers is generally rising in Seattle, most of the single women prefer to stay away from the downtown projects. The reason again comes down to the question of affordability. The advertised price for downtown Seattle condos vary between $970,000 and $4 million. Few single women can afford these upscale condos in downtown Seattle.

The developers are well aware of the trend and trying to work out practical solutions. One solution could be developing condominiums in the areas where lands are still cheaper. The industrial areas near Pioneer Square, Sodo and George Town provide good choice; they are close to downtown, yet lands are reasonably priced here.

For the single women, owning Seattle condos is financially more rewarding than continuing to rent. By owning a condo, you can save on rents in the long run.
On the other hand owning a condo means acquiring an asset that appreciates over years. In addition to that, home buyers enjoy tax deduction on mortgage interests. This is especially beneficial for the young women as the high interest rates are adjusted with their income tax.
Owning a condo in the early phase of their career means they have good time in their hands to build on home equity and good credit history.

Las Vegas Condos so attractive for Overseas Investors

Overseas real estate investment comes with its unique risks---it is not easy to find a value for money investment property in another country. But when it comes to Las Vegas condos, the investors can be rest assured that they have taken the right step.

Las Vegas condos make great vacation home or second home for the American as well as overseas buyers. There are several reasons behind this growing trend.
First of all, the buyers can choose from a wide array of variety. For example, you can find 12 high rise and mid rise condos on Las Vegas Strip alone.
If condo residences fail to excite you, then you can choose from this new generation real estate concept called condo hotels, where the hotel chain takes care of your unit and rents it out when you are not occupying it.
However, there is another breed of condo construction---the conversion condos. This type of development involves up- gradation of apartment complexes into condominiums. The conversion condos are typically less pricey than the properties that are originally developed as condos.

Of all types of Las Vegas condos, the condo hotels have the highest demand in the market. These are the most upscale properties and are meant for affluent buyers. These ultra luxury units are well appointed and self sufficient. They have internal tie up with the leasing agents. The units are leased out to hotel guests when the owner is not occupying them. The maintenance and other related aspects are taken care of by the hotel management. Residences at MGM, Palms Place and Trump Tower are some examples of such high end condo properties. Many overseas buyers are taking the advantage of the reduced pricing that Trump Tower marketers are currently offering.

Mid-Rise Condos Market in Las Vegas

When it comes to Las Vegas real estate, most of the buyers are led by the misconception that market has no affordable option to offer to the buyers on budget. But in reality, moderately priced Las Vegas condos are also available for sale; only you must know where to look for them. In fact there are high demands for affordable condos in Las Vegas and it is the young professionals working in The Strip that mainly look for these types of condos.

Las Vegas skyline is dominated by a number of skyscrapers. But a number of mid-rise condos are also there. Mid rise condo units are far less expensive than the high rise towers. Despite being more affordable than the luxury high rise condos, they offer most of the amenities of expensive condos.

Price is not the only advantage with mid rise Las Vegas condos. There are different types of buyers in the market and everyone has his/her own unique real estate needs. For example, there are many home buyers, who prefer to set up their homes in the peaceful and quiet neighborhoods. Las Vegas mid rise condos are designed to provide a cozy community ambience with adjacent shops, restaurants clubs and entertainment centers. Mostly located at the suburbs, these properties are well connected to the rest of the city. If you are not obsessed with the idea of walking to your walk place, then you can easily go with the modestly priced mid rise condos, which can give you a fine and spacious living space away from the hustle bustle of the city’s gaming hub.

To put it in a nutshell, these affordable Las Vegas condos offer you the best of both worlds. On one hand they offer you the carefree lifestyle, so typical of urban condo living and on the others they allow you to withdraw from the city’s high spirited extreme entertainment whenever you get tired of it. Manhattan, Lake Las Vegas, Park Avenue, Boca Raton, Chateau Nouveau, Chateau Versailles, Sullivan Square and V at Lake Las Vegas are some of the prominent mid rise condos, where units are available for sale.

Owning a Place in the World’s Casino Capital

Adventure sports, fine dining, shop till drop, casinos---you name them and you will get them in Las Vegas. What can be a more suitable place for the world’s leading developers to come and launch their ambitious projects? No wonder this Nevada city has experienced a huge condo boom and Las Vegas condos have come to be associated with the names of rich and celebrities all over the world.

Las Vegas has innumerable world class hotels. But in recent times, Las Vegas condos have surpassed top hotels in their popularity. Luxury high rise and mid rise condominiums cater to the tourists who flock in the valley in search of top class gambling experience and to experience other fun that the casinos offer. The tourists’ new found interest in condo vacation rentals have contributed to the tremendous condo boom that the city has been experiencing over the past few years. The Hollywood celebs have been buying multiple properties in the city and this also added to the prestige and value of some of the famous Las Vegas condos.

With large estates becoming rare and very expensive, Las Vegas condos have become obvious choice of the home buyers and real estate investors. It is a wrong idea that you can’t find affordable condos in Las Vegas. In fact the market has to offer a wide array of modestly priced condos, alongside the luxury condos. While the most extravagant properties are mostly located on The Strip, the less expensive condos are to be found on the Las Vegas suburbs. Located in cozy neighborhoods, these properties are away from the city’s nerve center, but well connected through various means to the other parts of the city.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

An Overview of Los Angeles Condos Market

Los Angeles is a magical name that attracts real estate investors from across the globe. The largest city in the State of California and second largest in the United States of America, Los Angeles is a city, where rich and famous from around the glob flock in search of the perfect urban lifestyle. No wonder, Los Angeles properties are counted among the world’s most expensive real estates. While luxury homes are the obvious choice of the world famous celebrities like the Beckhams, Los Angeles condos are clear choice of the millions of home buyers, who want to buy luxury residences without breaking the bank.

Los Angeles condos are high in demand and in order to maximize space utilization, developers have been focusing on the condos development for quite some times. At one point of time, Los Angeles condos have been selling like hot commodities. No doubt the recent recession affected the market to some extent. But Los Angeles real estate especially the condos are still one of the most coveted properties in the entire nation and beyond.

Post recession, new condos projects are not coming up at a crazy pace as before. But you can always choose from innumerable resale condos in the city. One of the interesting point about Los Angeles condos market is: depending on your lifestyle needs, you can find suitable condo units all across this huge city. You can choose to buy downtown Los Angeles condos, or to take the advantage of low pricing you can also look for the properties in city suburbs—all condominiums in the city are located in the carefully chosen locations, so that they are convenient for the residents who need to commute to workplaces everyday. In addition to that, these excellent properties are situated next to restaurants, clubs and shopping centers, allowing you to make the most of your life in this city of movie, music and fashion.

Buying Condos in Sunset Strip, Los Angeles

What about buying a property in the world’s one of the hottest neighborhoods, where celebrities are as common a feature as its huge billboards! Whether you are a wannabe Hollywood actor or just an ordinary home buyer drawn to celebrity glitz and glamour, Sunset Strip, Los Angeles condos can offer you the most active metropolitan lifestyle. Sunset Strip, Los Angeles with its rock culture and night clubs and its trademark billboards is a favorite living place of the celebrities. Starting its journey from the early 1920s to the present time, Sunset Strip has evolved into highly desirable neighborhoods for a certain class of home buyers that include the wannabe actors as well as heavy weight Hollywood producers.

At the time of buying or selling real estate, market information plays a vital role in the decision making process. Sunset Strip, Los Angeles condos are no exception. The area called Sunset Strip runs along a mile and half stretch that is bordered with Hollywood at Marmont Lane to its west border with Beverly Hills at Phyllis street. The nerve center of Hollywood’s entertainment, the Sunset Strip comes alive at the evening with its rows of vibrant neons and huge crowd of young visitors.

Sunset Strip is a favorite resting place for the Hollywood aspirants. You can find many celebrities especially in the nearby Hollywood Hills and Laurel Canyon areas. Starting from Crescent Heights Boulevard on the east and Doheny Drive on the west, the Sunset Strip area can offer an assortment of fine condos. The homes as well as Los Angeles condos here offer brilliant city and hillside views. There are many roads off Doheny Drive and Sunset Plaza that are led upward on the hilltop and have the concentration of some of the excellent view condos.

How to Find Affordable Austin Condos?

The Austin condos make good real estate investment, but their exorbitant price put off prospective investors from taking the plunge. However, it is possible to get a deal that sits well within your budget. Being in the limelight for celebrity penchant for this Texan city, the properties attract buyers from all over the USA and also abroad. A majority of them can go to any extent to include an Austin condo to their real estate investment portfolio and they are ready to cough up the money mentioned in the listing without any trace of bargain. But not everybody is blessed with this large fortune; even then you can fulfill your dream of owning an Austin real estate by taking the right route.

Find the right neighborhood
Just like the other cosmopolitan US cities like Chicago, New York, or Boston, Austin is famous for its multi-cultural flavor. In some respect, Austin condos are even cheaper than the same quality properties in New York. All the Austin neighborhoods possess the community features of a metro city. So if you do not have the obsession with celebrity neighborhoods, then you can strike gold with an Austin condo in an area just 10 to 15 minutes from downtown. A standard 3 bedroom condo unit in these Austin neighborhoods will naturally cost lesser than the same unit in Austin proper. So the trick lies in finding the right Austin neighborhood that have all the beauties of Austin, and within the distance of fifteen to twenty minutes from the Austin proper.

Buying Luxury Austin Condos? Make Sure You Get All You Have Paid For

Everybody has his/her private dreams about setting up of homes. You might have worked toward this goal for a considerable part of your life---now is the time to realize your real estate dream with an expensive home at the bank of Lake Travis. It does not matter if you can not make it to Austin lake side villas just like Sandra bullock or Jesse James---but owning an Austin condo is not a big deal nowadays in the face of so many financing products available in the market.

Living in a luxury Austin condo is the epitome of fine living---entertaining, having fun with your friends or just spending relaxed evenings with your family---the luxury Austin condos stand for perfect urban living amidst the tranquility of rural surroundings.

Naturally, you have to buy the luxury for a price. And it is important to take a close watch of every feature and amenity that you are paying for. There are a number of luxury condo properties in Austin that will offer you an all inclusive package ranging from furniture to kitchen utensils. Thus buying a luxury Austin condo means hassle- free relocation from your present abode. The household equipments like vacuum cleaner to flat screen television are also commonly included in the package. From your patio to the master bedroom---every nook and corner will come finished with the touches of modern interior decoration.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Los Angeles Condos for Sale- A Glimpse into the Market

Be it the weekend escape for the affluent suburbanites or be it the small homes for empty nesters, or be it the first home for the young professional couples---the Los Angeles condos make practical solution both in terms of price and utility.

When it comes to the search for Los Angeles condos for sale, you will find that quite a large number of new development projects are on the card. In addition to the new development projects, a large of number of high rise buildings is being reconstructed as new age condominiums and lofts to serve the purpose of diverse clientele.

As such, downtown Los Angeles has become a neighborhood in transition. And this becomes advantageous for the buyers, who can find condo properties covering all price ranges. With a variety of Los Angeles Condos for sale, the downtown condo market in the city has become one of the strongest in the entire North America at the moment.

A range of upcoming projects have invoked home buyers interests in Los Angeles condos and they include the opening up of a few multi-cuisine restaurants and bars and a new super market too. All these are meant to cater to the needs of the population that are moving in the new condos in the city. With the infrastructures already in place and with the ones that are coming up shortly, there has been a significant jump in the search for Los Angeles condos for sale---both for the new and the converts.

With the market still suffering from the recession, the prices of the new Los Angeles condos are on a lower side. But it is not very far, when the prices will start soaring up fast. A quick investment decision and you can save lots of cash. When you are going through the list of Los Angeles condos for sale, keep in mind the basic features that you would expect from your condo property in Los Angeles. Most of the property websites will help you stage a refined search on the basis of your budget and features of the unit, such as number of bedrooms, types of interior features and so on.

While Internet is the best place to hunt for Los Angeles condos , not all websites can provide you all the useful information. So use Internet recourses for collecting useful information about the Los Angeles condo market on one hand, and at the same time rope on to a reputable real estate agent. In no time you will be on your way to a fantastic condo ownership in Los Angeles to meet your every need.

Exploring West Lost Angeles for Condominiums

With all its glamour and glitz and promise of commercial success, West Lost Angeles lures the real estate investors and home buyers into a plethora of condominium offerings. A city with a slew of world famous attractions and huge commercial activities, no wonder West Los Angeles condominiums make the hottest pick for the savvy and serious investors from all over the globe.

A brief flash back will tell you that, Los Angeles condo market reached its peak during the 2006 and 2007. It was the time, when more condominiums were sold in the market than the single family homes. And West Los Angeles was the place to experience the maximum condo boom. As the market took the downturn, the demand for condo property did not decline as sharply as for the rest of the USA. Even during the first phase of recession, the Los Angeles condominiums sold for more than $5 million. Another estimate revealed that during that period, condominiums made up the majority of new home sales in Los Angeles---at about 59%.

So what are the reasons that people are scurrying over to West Los Angeles to buy condominium properties?
The most important reason relates to the city’s well developed transport network. By buying West Los Angeles condominium, you can get the best of both worlds. On the one hand you can enjoy the solitude of suburbs in its quiet neighborhoods of Wilshire and Barrington; and on the other hand, you get the close proximity to the downtown Los Angeles. With good transport links in this part of Los Angeles, it takes less than an hour to hit the downtown. By significantly cutting on commuting hours, the residents of West Los Angeles condominiums are enjoying a better lifestyle.

Until a few years ago, the West Los Angeles was a kind of place where you could find lots of traditional homes with traditional architecture sprawling over vast lands. But these days, these properties are getting demolished and in place of them high-rise condominiums are sprouting up. With the development of these high-rise properties, now more people can live in these areas. And a population growth in turn means more development of the region.

Searching For Los Angeles Condos for Sale

Undoubtedly, Los Angeles is one of the world’s best places to live. With the glamour of Hollywood on one hand and beautiful Californian beaches on the other, with bustling commerce in the region on the one hand and sprouting of new business centers on the other hand Los Angeles right now is the place to be! If you have the money, you can have all the comforts right at your Los Angeles home in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica. But in Los Angeles there are many areas beyond these well known posh neighborhoods, where you can find your dream home for a lower price. The Los Angeles condos for sale near the Union Station in Los Angeles are lot cheaper with some of the units selling at a price of $600,000.

As you start shopping for the Los Angeles condos for sale, you will be overwhelmed by the range of their sizes and prices. It is going to be a tedious process if you do not take a short cut. Here are the tips to make your task a little easier.

When you are searching for condos in Los Angeles or any part of California, your job automatically becomes easier, as here the property laws are well defined and well regulated. In any part of California, including Los Angeles, the government takes active interest in the real estate game. As you launch your hunt for Los Angeles condos for sale, It is the department, through which the government sells condominiums and other properties in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Then there are many websites which will provide you with first hand information about Los angles condos for sale. When you come across a long list of Los Angeles condos for sale, first short list them according to your budget and needs. The next important step relates to having detailed discussions about the property with the company that is managing it.

It is always prudent to fine-tune your search on the basis of location. Your quality of life is influenced by where you live. May be you will need to buy a home near your work place, or may be your priority is to find a home close to your kids’ school. Before you start scrawling down the list of Los Angeles condos for sale, make a list of your priorities and the addresses that you would like to live close to. This little effort will bring you closer to your ideal condo property in the city.

This brief guide gives you an idea about how to fine tune your search for Los Angeles condos for sale. The more time you can afford to spend on researching, more options you will find. The better you are at prioritizing things, closer you are to your dream home in Los Angeles.