Restaurant Week is Coming!

The Downtown Kalamazoo Retail and Restaurant Association (DKRRA) hosts Kalamazoo Restaurant Week offering a new series of special dishes, drinks and pairing from our Downtown restaurants and retailers. Food galore and a chance to explore the power and taste of local.

This is your chance to come Downtown, browse great deals on the Kalamazoo Mall and pop by all the restaurants of Downtown for special tasting menus all week long!

 Best of all – nothing is over $25! Click here for more information

Source: Downtown Kalamazoo Retail and Restaurant Association (DKRRA)

Kalamazoo’s Chili Cook-Off January 23, 2016!

It’s our 10th anniversary!!! Downtown Kalamazoo’s Annual Chili Cook-off is how we’ve stayed warm on a cold Saturday in January for the past 10 years. It’s our annual tradition to explore downtown, sampling over 30 chili recipes, and visiting new and familiar retail stores and restaurants. In addition, we’ve added the familiar downtown Holly Jolly Trolley! The Holly Jolly Chili Trolley will be making the rounds, transporting chili tasters all over downtown so you don’t miss a single one!

 Also, back by popular demand, commemorative tasting spoons! Pick yours up for only $5 at either the Mall Plaza Information Booth or at one of the participating retailers.

 Kalamazoo Chili Cook-off is a Downtown Retail and Restaurant Association event that is put on by a volunteer committee who is dedicated to the growth and success of our downtown community. Along with a growing list of amazing sponsors, the DKRRA works to continually grow and improve this event each year.

 Chili sampling is available at each of the locations listed below, while the chili lasts. Stop at any one of these businesses and pick up a chili passport/voting card that will guide you through the many chili stops. Enjoy a sampling of some of the best and most unique chili around. Some sites will even offer vegan and vegetarian options! Then, vote for your favorite! Click here for more information.

Source:  Downtown Kalamazoo Retail and Restaurant Association (DKRRA)

Top 5 ways to boost the value of your home! – Learn how to make 10 percent more money when selling your home

How do you make the most money, no matter which end of the transaction you’re on? For answers, the Consumer Reports National Research Center turned to the people most in the know for answers—the real estate professionals who broker almost 90 percent of residential sales.

A panel of 303 pros from around the country (covering markets big and small, hot and cold, city and suburban) completed our recent online survey, filled with essential questions: What are the costliest mistakes sellers make? When is the best time to put a home on the market? How negotiable are broker’s fees, really?

The answers may surprise you. If you’re a seller, advice from the pros on smart presale fix-ups, coupled with our expert product ratings and tips, can help you get the best sales price for your home—an additional 12 percent, on average. With median single-family home prices hovering at about $205,000, that’s a potential gain of $24,600. In pricier markets, the profits will go many times higher.

Both buyers and sellers can come out ahead with our guide to savvy financial and negotiating moves. Avoid the most typical mistakes and you could gain 11 to 20 percent, and even more in some markets, of the home sale’s price. Click here to read the full article.

Source:Consumer Reports

Spectacular Home on 2255 Shelter Pointe

Shelter Pointe is a unique, private community with private drive and entrance located in the desirable Winchell neighborhood. The entrance to Asylum Lake is across the street and easily accessible. This 2007, custom built 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath home has nearly an acre of beautifully landscaped land, with irrigation and a backyard surrounded by decorative fencing. The main floor consists of large cook’s kitchen, with stainless appliances, granite counter tops, large snack bar, eating area and family room with sliders to a large  deck. Living room off kitchen features a 3 sided stone gas burning fireplace, custom built bookcases and cabinets, and more sliders leading to the deck. Completing the main floor is a spacious den/office with French doors for privacy, a formal dining room for entertaining and a half bath. The 3 stall garage opens into a large mud room with custom built wood lockers. Upper level has 4 BR, 3 BA. (1 Jack and Jill) Master suite with ensuite bath. Many custom built ins such as window seats and storage. Finished walkout level has another bedroom, full bath, large family room, complete with bar, refrigerator, dishwasher and entertainment center. Three zoned forced air furnace/central air conditioning to keep all 3 levels at desired temperatures. State of the art EPS security system includes satellite link and mobile access.

Click here for more information!

Beautiful Home Located on 2224 Benjamin Ave

Charming Winchell home with many updates. This well-maintained home has newer appliances, beautiful hardwood floors and an impeccable yard. The main floor features a formal dining room, large living room with cozy fireplace, private study and sunny four season room. Upstairs are two spacious bedrooms and a large master suite with built in vanity and extra closet space. Private backyard patio, attached two car garage and fenced play area are also included in the home. Move in ready and close to Winchell Elementary. Kalamazoo Promise Qualified. http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2224-Benjamin-Ave-Kalamazoo-MI-49008/74156600_zpid/

Next Association Meeting

January 20, 2016
7:00 pm ~ Winchell Elem. Library
(Meeting starts at 7pm; Meet & Greet @ 6:30pm)

– Our speaker in January will be Peter Copeland, Parkwyn Village Resident. Peter will be discussing the history of Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Kalamazoo!

Remember – ODWNA meetings are open to all! NON-Association neighbors are always welcome!

Source: http://www.winchellneighborhood.org/

New Years Eve Fest!

If you are looking for something to do on December 31st, there is still time to purchase a button for the NYE Fest in downtown Kalamazoo. Buttons are $5 in advance or $10 at the door and children 3 years and under get in for free. Click here to find out more information.

8 Hacks for Hosting Thanksgiving at Home

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is almost here. Harder still: the concept of having to host the holiday at your own home. Even if you love opening your home to friends and family, hosting on turkey day can induce stress in even the most experienced home entertainers. To help out, we’ve collected some tricks that make cooking faster, clean up easier, and the whole event less expensive. Bonus: You won’t lose your sanity and snap at a guest (at least not more than once). Click here for Thanksgiving tips

Credit goes to Celeste Perron on Realtor.com.

 

In Defense of Buying a Historic Home: It Could Be Downright Amazing

Maybe you’ve always dreamed of buying a beautifully built home, something that doesn’t look like it came out of a cookie cutter.

And you probably also get some side eye as soon as you mention your historic-home dreams. Real estate agents, friends, and family are often quick to tell you to think twice before investing in an older home. And they’re not wrong. Click here to continue reading.

Article By: Rachel Stults on Realtor.com.

Borrowers, Beware! Four Home-Loan Horror Stories

Here is a great article from the Wall Street Journal. Enjoy!

In the spirit of Halloween, scary scenarios that almost killed the deal.

ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS GASH

By

ANYA MARTIN

Oct. 28, 2015 10:50 a.m. ET

At Halloween, everyone enjoys a good monster movie, but the last thing a home buyer wants is a mortgage horror story. In the spirit of the year’s spookiest holiday, we asked jumbo-mortgage lenders for some recent “scary” scenarios.

The Haunted House

A San Francisco attorney agreed to buy a house right across the street from his elderly father before the property was even listed. Because the homeowner knew him, he let him go ahead and move in, says Mathew Carson, a broker with San Francisco-based First Capital Group.

A home appraiser sent by the lender reported the “early habitation,” an irregularity that is a red-flag to lenders that typically hold jumbo loans—those over $417,000 in most parts of the country and $625,500 in high-price areas—on their portfolios.

Spooked by the unusual move, the lender declined to finance the mortgage, despite the borrower’s excellent credit score, a 40% down payment on the $1.26 million house and more than sufficient income to qualify for the mortgage, Mr. Carson says.

Conforming loans, those below the jumbo limits, don’t have as rigid occupancy requirements as jumbos. So Mr. Carson says he restructured the deal into two loans, a conforming loan for $625,500 and a second mortgage for $235,000, with a different lender.

Credit-History Gremlins

A New York businessman’s income easily qualified him for the jumbo mortgage he needed to buy a Manhattan condo. Rather than make the sale contingent on his ability to get a loan, the buyer committed to close within 30 days, says Ray Rodriguez, regional mortgage sales manager for Cherry Hill, N.J.-based TD Bank. A credit check, however, revealed that the home buyer had been slow in paying small balances on about 10 credit cards.

The borrower was able to hire a credit-repair agency and get his score fixed quickly, but not fast enough to make the 30-day closing commitment, Mr. Rodriguez says. The home had multiple offers, so to get the seller to wait an extra 10 days, the buyer had to add another $30,000 to the purchase price.

Aside from paying his bills on time, the borrower should have gotten preapproved for a loan, which would have revealed the problem before he made an offer, Mr. Rodriguez adds.

The DTI Deal Killer

The debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, reflects the percentage of a borrower’s monthly income that goes toward the borrower’s debt. Mortgage lenders like borrowers with a DTI of 43%—the maximum by federal rules—or lower.

So high-net-worth borrowers who rely more on their assets than their income to qualify for a mortgage may need more time to shop around for a lender, says John Walsh, chief executive of Total Mortgage.

Total Mortgage had a home buyer who earned $1 million in the previous year, but only $250,000 was straight salary and the rest was a profit-sharing bonus. The buyer was rejected for a $1.1 million jumbo mortgage by a large bank because he didn’t meet the 43% DTI ratio using just his income. “He was a super well-qualified borrower with fantastic credit, who was declined on ability-to-repay rules,” Mr. Walsh says.

Total Mortgage found a mortgage lender that would underwrite a loan for this wealthy borrower by factoring in capital gains from the sale of stock market holdings, but the approval came down to the wire, Mr. Walsh says.

Dial D for Deadline

In a competitive real-estate market, home buyers may feel the urge to rush a deal to get their dream home. But jumbo borrowers tend to have more complex income streams with substantial paperwork to validate, and that takes more time than the average conforming-loan borrower, says Mike Lyon, vice president of mortgage operations for Quicken Loans, a national lender.

One such high-net-worth borrower came to Quicken with a purchase agreement that had a three-week commitment to close. Quicken Loans was able to squeak the deal through and make the tight deadline. Still, because of waiting periods required by new federal lending rules that took effect Oct. 3, few mortgages are likely to close in less than 30 days, Mr. Lyon says.

Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/borrowers-beware-four-home-loan-horror-stories-1446043807?cb=logged0.5625367525499314