Louisville Real Estate Blog | Brad Long Real Estate Group | Keller Williams Louisville East

After a very long multiple year wait, the groundbreaking took place on the bridge that will connect downtown Louisville and Jeffersonville. The governor, community leaders and many residents were on hand to witness the beginning of the construction of the bridge. The downtown crossing is half of the $2.6 billion Ohio River Bridges Project.

The other half is an East End bridge that will connect Prospect Kentucky with Utica, Indiana. Both bridges are scheduled to be completed  in 2016. The new downtown bridge will carry six lanes of northbound Interstate 65 traffic, working in tandem with a revamped Kennedy Bridge, which will be converted to six lanes of southbound traffic. The downtown bridge project is expected to employ about 500 people.

Flash-Local real estate professionals are elated over latest stats showing how hot the Jefferson County real estate market and sales have become.  According to Metro Search Inc. statistics, 37% of the homes on the market in Jefferson County have been selling in 20 days or less. That includes the peak period of the real estate bubble in 2005 when 26% of the homes on the market sold in 20 days or less. Some experts are saying that some homes are actually selling in the first few days on the market. Home sales in Jefferson County for the first five months of this year are up 17% over the same period last year. Sales are pending on about 29% of the homes on the market in Jefferson...

When purchasing a new home, you want to always protect yourself from unwanted surprises. Yes we think we do everything possible like a home inspection, title searches, etc., but few of us ever think about going into the building department and asking about old permits that may have been taken out on the property that we are looking at to buy. You always want to find out as much as you can about the property before the closing.

I always suggest that the offer should include an inspection contingency even if you're making an offer in any kind of competition. The contingency wording should be broad enough for you to inspect whatever you deem necessary, so you will have the confidence that the home will satisfy your housing needs within a budget you can afford. You should always have the option to withdraw from...

If you are like most people, when you decide to buy a new home, you will make a down payment and get a mortgage loan on the balance.  If that amount falls short of 20% of the homes value, and you are going to get a conventional loan, be aware that you will most likely have to pay for 'private mortgage insurance' (PMI). Most lenders go by the old rule that the more a person puts into the purchase then the lower is the risk.

Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is a policy that protects the lender against financial loss if you should default on your loan. Lenders always will seek to minimize their risk by asking for a substantial down payment, usually 20% or more, or will want insurance that will guarantee them the principal amount if they have to foreclose.

The lender benefits from the PMI insurance but the borrower has to pay for it. The premiums...

I am often asked by my customers about what the difference is between a bank and a credit union especially when one of my Louisville buyers is looking for a mortgage loan source. I am probably asked the same question several times in a month.

To be as brief as possible:
Bank and Credit Unions are more alike than they are different. The key philosophy behind them are different in that banks operate with the goal of generating profits and credit unions are community based institutions that are non profit. In credit unions, you must have a membership and it requires that you have an account with minimum deposits, and each member is a part owner in the credit union. The higher the deposits, or shares, the higher the share of profits.

The credit union has a Board of Directors who makes the major financial decisions. A bank is owned...

To most of us, it seems like the credit reporting agencies are constantly spying on everything we do and every move we make. Our names, address and social security number along with our birthdate appears on our credit reports. There are some things though that don't appear on credit reports, and the lenders, or banks, can't see when they run a credit report on any of us.  Here are 7 secrets that your credit report won't reveal:

1    YOUR SALARY
Salaries stopped being on credit reports in the early 1990s. They had been up to then but it was decided that there were too many variables involved for them to be accurate. Other reasons are that income really isn't a measure of credit worthiness, it is just a measure of capacity. A credit report and your credit scores are meant to tell a creditor whether or not you are going to make a...

Almost every day I somehow get involved with having to explain to customers and potential customers, the importance of having and maintaining a good credit rating.  In recent years, most of us have gone through some sort of situation where our credit rating (good or bad) was threatened or jeopardized in some way. Most of us are pretty well informed about credit ratings and how they work. Many times a day, we hear about identity theft and how it can hurt your credit rating. With all of this said, I thought maybe I could clarify some misconceptions regarding credit and credit reports. The subject is important to me as it affects my business and my customers and potential customers.

If you are about to purchase a home, refinance your present home, rent an apartment or home, then you know how important your credit rating can become....

The beautiful town of Anchorage is located  in Eastern Jefferson County. The town boasts an abundance of beautiful oak and magnolia trees, parks with great walking and bike paths. Real estate is a little above average with the 2012 median home price for Anchorage KY is $475,000.

As responsible homeowners, we all know that there are certain things that must be done routinely with regards to the proper maintenance of our most prized possession, our home.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the time or the monetary resources to do the job correctly or even address some of the types of preventative maintenance that's required. Most of us don’t know the most important items that need to be checked routinely, so we wait until something goes out, or doesn’t work anymore, then we do something about it. Sometimes, that isn’t even an incentive to act, or react. This is not a good way to maintain your most expensive possession, and it is a good way to get your homeowners insurance...