How Do I Protect My Home From Nursing Homes?

 

Video Summary

 

How do I protect my home from nursing homes?  Well, this is a question I get asked quite often in that nursing homes do not take your home away from you.  Now, this is Florida specific, in that your home is considered your homestead and cannot be attached by any of your creditors.  But a nursing home is going to require payment for you to stay there, and if you have to be in a nursing home, you do need skilled nursing care.  So the question is: how do we pay the nursing home if you don’t have to sell your house?  Well, that comes in as far as applying for Medicaid, and you can make application for Medicaid provided that you meet certain asset tests and income tests and your homestead property does not count as far as your assets are concerned.

 

So if you’re concerned about your skilled nursing care and nursing homes taking your home away from you, you don’t need to worry about that.  However, it might be well to do some planning as far as Medicaid planning and qualifying or being qualified to get assistance through Medicaid for your skilled nursing care.

 

If you’d like to do some Medicaid planning, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Read more
No Comments

Do I Need An Attorney To Evict A Tenant?

 

Video Summary

 

Do I need an attorney to evict a tenant?  Well, the answer to that is no, you don’t if you know how to evict them.  Usually, you evict tenants because they haven’t paid the rent, and that starts by the landlord giving the tenant a three-day notice.  A three-day notice is spelled out in the Florida statutes, and it can only be for rent.  So if you’re going to do the eviction yourself, you need to look up that notice and deliver it to the tenant and give them three days from the date that you deliver the notice.  You don’t count the day you give it to them, and then you start counting the days.  You can’t count Saturday or Sunday or a legal holiday, and after the three days have expired and they haven’t paid the rent or vacated, you’re then in a position to file a complaint for eviction, and that’s where you can try and find the law suit or complaint.  I think there’s some forms out at the law library or whatever, and you can complete those and basically attach the notice to them saying that they haven’t paid the rent and that they owe you the money, and then you can file that in court.

 

And then after that, you then have to see if they file a response.  If they do file some response, the judge will then usually set a hearing to determine the amount of rents owed, and you have to appear in court.  Sometimes it just sits there and nothing happens, and that’s whenever you get frustrated or need to talk to a lawyer, or you go to a hearing and the judge doesn’t evict them and sends you on your way.  So at that point, you probably do need a lawyer, and then we’ll have to look at your handy work to see whether or not – how good a lawyer you are.

 

So no, you don’t need a lawyer if you know what you’re doing.  Some landlords who have multiple properties are a little pro at it and so that they’ve been doing it by themselves for some time, whereas if this is the first time that you’ve tried to evict a tenant, you probably need to go ahead and hire a lawyer and then copy what he does so that the next time you’ll be able to do it ’cause hopefully he’ll make it look easy for you.

 

So no, you don’t need a lawyer.  But if you do need one, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Read more
No Comments

Foreclosure Commercial

 

In his continuing efforts to educate and serve the community, Chip Waller talks about real estate foreclosure and what your options are in this commercial.  If you have questions about a foreclosure or questions regarding your options with a mortgage that you are having financial difficulties paying, call our office and schedule an appointment to become better informed and make an educated decision.  We are here to help you!

Read more
No Comments

What Do I Need to Do to Start a Business?

 

Video Summary

 

 

Read more
No Comments

How Can I Decide What Mortgage is Right for Me?

 

Video Summary

 

How can I decide what mortgage is right for me?  Well, the first thing you have to do is decide how long you want the mortgage for, and for what purpose.  If you simply want a short-term mortgage and you just need it for a short period of time until you sell some other property, you may consider obtaining what they call a home equity loan, which can be closed fairly quickly and without a whole lot of paperwork or closing costs.  They’re offered at right now a very low interest rate.  Usually, it’s an adjustable interest rate, and so you can borrow money and use that for a short period of time and then pay it off with minimal closing costs.

 

If you’re buying a home and you anticipate staying in the home for some time, then you would look for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and find out what the payments are.  If you would like to get out of debt quicker, well, then you can ask them what is the interest rate on a shorter-term loan, such as a 15-year fixed rate loan.  If you want to try and keep your payments low for the initial period of time of, say, two years, you can talk to the lenders about an adjustable rate loan.

 

In fact, over the course of time, I think adjustable rate loans have proved to be less expensive than fixed rate.  But most people like to have the peace of mind knowing that their mortgage interest rate will not go through the roof so that they will be priced out of their home.  So a lot depends on your financial wherewithal, what your income is, and what you can afford to pay, and how quickly you would get out of debt, and for what period of time you would like it.  If you’re dealing with investment property, usually you want to try and get the low interest rate for as long a period as you can, and with the right to prepay your loan, which you usually can negotiate or that’s usually a factor that is included in most notes and mortgages.

 

I will say presently, the underwriting requirements for mortgages has gone up substantially, so it is very, very time consuming, tedious, to obtain a mortgage from an institutional lender, no matter who you pick.  And it takes a lot of paperwork and a lot of patience.  And usually, it takes you probably about 45 days to obtain a loan, even if you have good credit and the property appraises for the amount that you’re purchasing it for or what you’re attempting to refinance.  Usually, you can obtain a mortgage at 80 percent loan to value and not have to have any mortgage insurance.

 

However, if you have a small down payment, well then you might want to explore getting an FHA loan or a BA loan, which will require up to three percent down payment.  However, built in both of those loans will be some mortgage insurance.  Or if you just get a conventional mortgage with mortgage insurance, you can get a high interest rate, high percentage loan to value loan.  But it is gonna take some time and patience.  So if you have any questions, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Read more
No Comments