Currently the median price for a home in the Mount Clemens MI real estate listings is $138,900, but prices start at $54,900 for a one bedroom condo with a view of the Clinton River. If you are interested in buying Mount Clemens Michigan real estate, but have past credit issues and can’t get a lender to give you a loan for a mortgage, there are solutions.
On the flip side, if you need to sell a home quickly, because of a job transfer, to avoid foreclosure or for other reasons, there are ways to sell a property quickly that you may not know about.
Here we have accumulated some information on these strategies after a brief history of the area.
The city is named for Christian Clemens, who surveyed the area in 1795 and liked it so much that he decided to settle there four years later. He and his friend John Brooks built a distillery there, which helped to attract other settlers. The discovery of mineral wells by Dorr Kellogg in 1870 attracted both settlers and tourists to the growing city. The city was incorporated in 1879.
The Mount Clemens Michigan real estate market boomed during the early years. Many fine hotels and bath houses lined the streets. It is said that people came from all over the world to take the “healing” baths. Most of the hotels and bath houses closed during the Great Depression, but one, the Arethusa, remained open until 1974.
Today about half of the Mount Clemens Michigan real estate market is residential. The other half is commercial or industrial property. Industrial areas are located mostly on the city’s northwest side or near I-94 at North River Road.
Retail businesses, shopping centers and restaurants are found along Gratiot Avenue, Groesbeck Highway and in the downtown area. Since it is the county seat of Macomb, government offices and county courts are located within the city.
124 acres of city parks, playgrounds and ball fields, as well as the Clinton River provide outdoor activities. The Art Center offers classes and a museum for hobbyists or professionals. The downtown night life includes numerous restaurants, bars, billiards and theaters. With all the activities, festivals, historic areas and beautiful scenery, it is no wonder that many people are interested in buying Mount Clemens Michigan real estate.
At the last census, there were 17,312 people living in the four square miles covered by the Mount Clemens MI real estate market. Some work in the industries or retail establishments in town. Some commute easily to other towns in southeast Michigan for work.
If you can afford to rent, you can probably afford to buy one of the homes in the Mount Clemens Michigan real estate listings. Interest rates are low, but qualifying is more difficult than it used to be. If you have been denied financing because of past credit issues or little established credit, then the way for you to become a homeowner is to simply buy the home with no bank involved.
Well, that’s great you may say, but how? The answer is you find a homeowner willing to sell his property via seller financing. In effect, the owner becomes the bank and therefore, there is no real bank involved to get into the home. One of the most common strategies for this is called the lease option (also known as the rent to own).
Of course, most people who will do seller financing don’t want to do it forever. At some point they want to be cashed out of the home so that you become the new owner. This is why while you are paying the mortgage on a lease option, you will be re-establishing your credit. The duration of the option term in a lease option is usually all the time you need to do this. Once your credit score has improved enough so that you do qualify for a bank loan you then get it, and exercise your option, thus buying the home.
Now you are the new legal owner of the home! A lease option is a powerful way to achieve home ownership now even if you don’t think you can.
Yes, there are some requirements. Generally, you need to have reliable employment and a down payment (called option consideration, which is usually about 3 to 5% of the property’s price). So, for example, if you want to buy a $100,000 home, then the seller will generally want $3,000 to $5,000 down as option consideration for you to move into the home. The good news is you will get the consideration back when you exercise the option because it comes off the sales price of the home.
For example, if you buy a home on a lease option for $100,000 and put down $5,000 option consideration, and then after a few months when your credit score has improved, you exercise the option, the purchase price of the home becomes $95,000 because the option consideration you put down to get into the home is applied toward the purchase price when you buy!
If you already own Mount Clemens MI real estate, but need to sell quickly, your solution is the flip side of the coin. Meaning: instead of just trying to sell it to people with a mortgage loan approval from a bank, offer seller financing and you will open up your home to a much larger segment of the market.
The Mount Clemens Michigan real estate market is “soft” right now, as it is throughout the state and much of the country. This means that many properties stay on the market for months and foreclosures are not uncommon. Seller financing is the key.
Currently there are over 100 properties in the Mount Clemens MI real estate classifieds that are listed as foreclosures. Foreclosures can damage a person’s credit rating irreparably, sometimes making it impossible to buy another home for years. If you can’t make payments anymore and need to sell your home quickly, seller financing (even if you owe to the bank what the home is worth) may be the solution you are looking for to avoid foreclosure.
For example, if you living in a $150,000 home and have little to no equity in it and basically owe that amount to the bank but suddenly lost your job, you will eventually face foreclosure unless you regain employment. Trying to sell your home with all of the other thousands of homes on the market is difficult. But if you offer seller financing — such as selling your home on a lease option — you will open up your home to a large segment of the home buying populace who cannot get bank financing upfront but may otherwise be serious buying prospects.
Mount Clemens Michigan real estate investors who do rehabs are one source of great seller financed homes because after they rehab them, they are often flexible in their financing.