faq

Apartment F.A.Q.

• How does Citihomes Realty apartment locating work?

Citihomes apartment locating is a free service to you. As soon as you fill out our Houston apartment search form, one of our specialized apartment locators will search the Houston area for all of the apartments that meet your criteria (i.e. price, size, location, etc.) When you have found the apartment that you are happy with, all that we ask, is that you write the agents name that assisted you on your application. This assures the apartment complex that you were recommended to them from one of our, and in turn they will pay a commission to that agent. 

• Why cant I just do the search myself?

Citihomes Realty takes the guess work, and the leg work out of apartment hunting. We have agents specialized in every part of Houston. They can narrow your choices down quickly with out you even having to make a trip out to the property. This saves you time and money.

• Why should I use Citihomes?

Citihomes apartment locating is the largest apartment locating company in the state of Texas. We have been in business for over 20 years, and have a staff of over 200 Texas Real Estate Licensed agents that are ready to find you your next apartment!

Residential Real Estate F.A.Q.

• How much should you offer for a house?
  
  When making an offer, you should consider the following factors:
  
  1. The advertised price of the house.
  2. What you can afford.
  3. Prices for comparable houses.
  4. Whether the local real estate market is hot or cold.
  5.The seller's needs, like whether the seller needs to close quickly.
  6.Whether the house is uniquely valuable to you.
  7.How much you feel good about paying for a particular house.

• What is a house "closing"?
  
  The so-called "closing" is the final transfer of the house to the buyer. It occurs after both the seller and the buyer have met all the terms of the contract and the deed has been recorded. Closing also refers to the time when the transfer will occur, such as "the closing on my house will happen on January 27 at 10:00 a.m." 
  
  The event referred to as the closing frequently takes place at the office of the professional who handles the transaction, such as a title officer or real estate lawyer. 

• What is the difference between list price and sales price?

The list price is the price tag put on a house in a real estate listing; it usually is only an estimate of what the seller would like to get for the property. The sales price is the amount a property actually sells for. It may be the same as the listing price or higher or lower, depending on how accurately the property was originally priced and on market conditions. A seller may need to adjust the listing price if there have been no offers within the first few months of the property's listing period.

 

• How much money will I have to have to buy a home?

Most consumers aren’t able to finance the entire purchase price of a home, but there are expenses you will need to cover out of pocket when purchasing a home. These expenses typically are:

1.Earnest money – or the deposit you make on the home when you submit your offer to the seller. The majority of sellers want to know that a buyer is serious about wanting to purchase the house, especially if it means refusing any subsequent offers. If the seller accepts your offer, the earnest money is applied either to your down payment or closing costs. If the offer isn't accepted, or you meet the terms of the contract under which the deposit is required to be returned to you, the money will be refunded. If you change your mind about purchasing the home after reaching an agreement, the seller may be able to keep the earnest money.
2.Down payment – is a percentage of the price of the home that you fund directly. The balance of the purchase price of the home is then financed.
3.Closing costs – the fees associated with the completion of the paperwork when purchasing a house, covered on the settlement statement. These can include, for example, appraisal fees, title search and recording fees.

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Commercial Real Estate F.A.Q.

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• How do I determine if the property makes financial sense?

1:Prepare a property analysis based on the simple eight step formula 
shown on our home page. 

2: Using the eight step formula, it will be virtually impossible to 
make a bad investment decision. 

Never buy a property without first financially analyzing it. Even if you just fill in numbers on the simple 8 step process, you will know right away if the property makes financial sense. 

3: Once you get the numbers filled in, divide the bottom line number 
(Cash Flow) by your down payment. This will tell you the percentage of return 
you can expect on this property.
(Example: A property shows a "cash flow" of $5,000 a year. If your 
cash investment is $55,000 here is the return you can expect: 
$5,000 /$55,000 = 9.1% return on your investment).

 

• How soon should I expect to pay off the mortgage?

NEVER pay off the mortgage. One major key to building wealth in real 
estate is in using "other people's money" (mortgages) to own a large dollar 
amount of real estate with very little of your own money.

 

• How do I negotiate the best deal for myself?

Use the two basic rules of purchasing property to give you the advantage:
1. Never offer full price. You'll learn amazing ways of getting the best price. 
or other concessions from a seller).
2. Never make a verbal offer. Learn how you can gain unbelievable 
negotiating power. You have virtually no bargaining power with a verbal offer.

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Property Management F.A.Q

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• What type of rental properties do you manage?

We specialize in single family homes, townhome communities, and condo communities  in and around the Houston TX area.

• What areas do you provide your service for?

We currently service the Houston area. From Texas city to Kingwood. We have specialized agents all over the Houston area to assist you with your property.

 

• How do you make sure the tenant is taking good care of my home while renting? 

There are several ways we have of knowing this. The most important way is careful tenant selection and screening. During the lease term, we may have occasion to enter the property for repair or maintenance reasons and will use that opportunity to have a look. If we are fortunate enough not to have any repairs or maintenance at your property over an extended period of time, we will schedule a preventative maintenance walk-through to make sure the air filter is being changed, that the smoke alarms have batteries and that there are no unreported problems at the property.