Ready to Graduate From Renting to Owning a Home?

With graduation season in full swing, many may be pondering a change in their living quarters. Some may be moving out of Mom and Dad's house into dorms, or maybe out of dorms into their own apartments.

But what if you're ready to take an even bigger step—moving out of a rental into a home you can call your own?

Buying a house, after all, is a great way to put down roots and build wealth (since homes tend to appreciate so you can sell later for a profit). But purchasing property isn't a simple process, so you should make sure you're prepared.

So, how do you know if you’re ready to movefrom an apartment to a house? Ask yourself these questions below to get a sense of where you're at—or what you have to do to transition easily into home-buying mode once the time is right.

Can you afford to buy a home?

For starters, let's talk money. Buying a home is a hefty purchase, probably the largest you'll ever make. So, you'll need a down payment (typically recommended to be 20% of the home’s purchase price) and steady income (i.e., a job) to pay your mortgage.
There are other costs also associated with homeownership:

• Closing costs (typically 2% to 5% of the home's purchase price)
• Home insurance (cost varies by state)
• Maintenance
• Utilities
• Budget for unseen repairs and emergencies

While renting might seem more economical than owning at first glance, that’s not always the case; our rent vs. buy calculator can help you compare the costs. You might be surprised by the results!

Another good first step to figuring out whether you can afford a house is to enter your salary and town of residence into a home affordability calculator, which will show you how much you'd pay for a mortgage on a typical house in that area. Or talk with a loan officer about whether you would qualify for a mortgage, and how much you can spend comfortably. Such consultations are free, and will give you a concrete dollars-and-cents sense of where you stand.

Are you settled in your job?

Your job situation is not only important in terms of income to buy a home, but also whether you're happy where you work and plan to stay put. Because once you own a home, your career prospects do narrow somewhat, purely because a home anchors you to one area.

Do you know where you want to live?

Since moving once you own a home is not as easy as just packing your bags (which, let's face it, is a hassle in itself), you really need to make sure you’re picking a home in an area where you’ll be happy.

“It's not easy to just sell a house and move to a new one if intolerable neighborhood issues come up, since the transaction cost to sell.  “So you need to really scope out the neighborhood.”

When in doubt, try renting for a few months to make sure you like the area before you start shopping for a home to own for good.

How much home maintenance are you willing to tackle?

If you love the challenge of fixing a leaky faucet and figuring out which shrubs will flourish in your yard, homeownership may be right up your alley. But if the idea of mowing a lawn or messing with the HVAC makes you depressed, then you may want to stick with renting, which gives you a roof over your head without the work.
“Apartment renters don’t have many home-related responsibilities,” 

 “If something breaks, they call the landlord. Often, they don’t even need to worry about setting up utilities; they either come with the building, or the process is merely changing the name on an existing utility account.”

Living in a house you own is a different story. There’s no landlord to call if anything goes wrong; it’s all up to you. So you have to be either adept as a handyman, or willing to find and pay someone else to do such tasks. Or else consider buying a condo or co-op, where the lawns and public areas around your home are maintained by hired help.

Bottom line: Owning a home is a big commitment. So before you jump into it, you should have confidence that it works for your circumstances.

The decision to Sell or Buy is a personal one that depends on your financial situation, future plans and lifestyle. If you’re interested on a wealth of information to help you get started visit us at Precision Realty & Assoc. LLC or if you prefer a more personal touch, CALL 801-809-9866 today.

#RealEstateForSale #Homeownership #UtahRealEstate

Buyers Crowdfund Their Way Into Homeownership?

To Afford a Home, More aspiring home buyers are increasingly turning to crowdfunding to drum up money for a down payment. 

Several new crowdfunding platforms have debuted, such as HomeFundMe and Feather the Nest, to help potential home buyers raise funds to purchase a home or make home repairs.

Online registries like HoneyFund include the option of gifting a down payment contribution. 

“The number one challenge that we hear from millennials in terms of their ability to buy a home is the down payment,” says Jonathan Lawless, vice president of customer solutions for Fannie Mae.

“Crowdsourcing is an interesting new way that a person can generate a down payment, one made possible by technology. … We think there is a great future for it.” 

A consumer who is prequalified for a mortgage could create a personal page on a crowdfunding site. They can share their journey toward homeownership and then share the pages with family and friends. 

'[Many] people find they can afford [mortgage] payments, but not the down payment to own a home,' Christopher George, CEO of CMG Financial, a mortgage banking firm that launched HomeFundMe, told realtor.com®.

HomeFundMe is the first such site to be backed by mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

Mortgage lenders do have restrictions on down payments being gifted. They usually require a letter from the giver that states the money is a gift, not a loan. But an online fundraising platform can allow buyers to bypass that, realtor.com® reports. 

For example, with HomeFundMe, a gifter can give up to $7,500 to a campaign without any documentation required.Further, HomeFundMe doesn’t charge fees to use its platform.

The firm will also award buyers $2 for every $1 they raise, up to $1,000 or up to 1 percent of the purchase price, if the buyer undergoes counseling beforehand. In exchange, the buyer must agree to get a mortgage through HomeFundMe’s parent company, CMG Financial. They also have to agree to close on a home within a year of accepting their first monetary gift.  

But some financial experts warn caution when using crowdfunding sites to raise money for a home. 

'If somebody is not able to save for their own down payment, it might be because they are stretched financially,” says Lawless. “But it [also] might be that they are bad at saving. The ability to generate savings is a critical aspect of being a responsible homeowner.'

The decision to Sell or Buy is a personal one that depends on your financial situation, future plans and lifestyle. If you’re interested on a wealth of information to help you get started visit us at Precision Realty & Assoc. LLC or if you prefer a more personal touch, CALL 801-809-9866 today. 

#RealEstateForSale #Homeownership #UtahRealEstate #MortgageRates

Hottest Real Estate Markets in 2018

A study of 16,000 U.S. zip codes, overwhelmingly, the ZIP codes seeing the fastest movement of homes are in the West. Nationally, the report stated, houses are generally on the market for an average of 78 days.

But in the 20 markets where homes sold fastest in Q1, they sold after an average 21 days on the market; in the top three ZIP codes, in fact, barely past three weeks.

Salt Lake, in fact, finished 20th on the list. Homes there moved in an average 21 days during the quarter.

This is a 'Slightly Hot' market that is 'Heating Up' compared to last month and 'Heating UP' compared to last year. Median days on the market is 28 days, with inventory moving 7.0% 'Faster' than last year and 31 days 'Faster' than the US overall. Listing in the are received an average of 324 views per month on realtor.com which is 1.1 times'Higher' than the US Average. 

In fact, we speculated as to whether Salt Lake City, Utah is the ‘New Denver’ earlier this year and now we see Salt Lake City breaking into the top 20 ZIPs.” 

The only ZIP codes outside the West and Midwest to break the top 20 were Melrose, Massachusetts; Rochester, New York; and Montclair, New Jersey.  Homes in those markets moved, on average, between 19 and 26 days on the market, according to the report.

12 different states made up the top 20 ZIP codes in the country, California had the most, with seven areas overall. Three—San Ramon, San Diego, and San Jose—were in the top 10. Colorado, which placed the overall hottest zip code in Colorado Springs' 80922, had two markets in the top 10. The other was Littleton.
Fort Worth, Texas, tied with San Ramon for second place on the list. Homes there sold in an average 16 days during the quarter. Colorado Springs saw homes closing in an average 15 days.

But those were not the fastest moving markets of the quarter. Homes in San Ramon moved in 14 days and in Littleton, just 11. These latter ZIP codes were not ranked first and second because of prices and demand. Littleton's homes sold for a median price of $432,000 in Q1, almost $150,000 higher than those in Colorado Springs. But demand was higher, the report stated, in Colorado Springs.

“Colorado ZIPs continue their hot streak highlighting the meteoric rise of Denver and its neighboring metros over the past decade,” the report stated. That reflects “a pattern that other markets hope to replicate. 

The largest surprise, the report stated, was Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, which finished tenth overall. Homes moved an average 25 days after being put on the market in the first quarter.  

“The Kansas City metropolitan area itself has been hot this spring,” the report stated. “Overland Park is leading the pack in a new set of boiling hot neighborhoods in the Midwest.”

The median price for a home in the top 20 markets was $377,000, the report stated. That's about one-and-a-half times the national median during Q1.
 
The decision to Sell or Buy is a personal one that depends on your financial situation, future plans and lifestyle. If you’re interested on a wealth of information to help you get started visit us at Precision Realty & Assoc. LLC or if you prefer a more personal touch, CALL 801-809-9866 today. 

#RealEstateForSale #Homeownership #UtahRealEstate #MortgageRates

Visiting Open Houses

What we Learned, Still, though, my experiences have turned me into an open house aficionado of sorts. I know what makes buyers swoon (myself and others), as well as what repels buyers the moment they set foot inside.

 

So if you're a home seller who hopes to bowl over buyers rather than send them running, I'm here to help.

 

Let me tell you about a few things I've learned that could kill your chances of selling your home.  

Personal quirks on display

Steak sauce, mustard, and hot sauce. These condiments were not in the kitchen (as one would expect) but on a dresser in a bedroom. Right then and there, I knew I had to get out of the house. Who knows what was going on there, but it was just too weird for me to stick around and ponder the possibilities.

“First impressions matter,” Remember, you want the prospective buyer's attention to be on the home, not your personal life.”

Remove all personal items, including family photos, unusual collectibles, memorabilia, and misplaced condiments.

Hovering home sellers (or their kids)

I walked in to find cute kids under the covers half-a . Granted, these kids weren't there alone; their parents were lingering, too. But adult supervision or not, all these family members nearby made me want to flee, because I felt like I was intruding on their personal space.

“Home sellers often make the mistake of leaving their place too late and returning too soon,”  A well-advertised open house will attract people early, and there will definitely be people arriving just as the agent is locking up. So plan on getting everyone up and out of bed an hour before the open house starts.

Dark, dusty rooms

A three-bedroom, two-bathroom condo I checked out in the suburban county was spacious, but very dark.

The windows were covered not only by lace curtains, but also by valances and vertical blinds. It felt less like a home and more like the inside of a crypt. I tried to open the curtains to get a sense of what the room would look like. But there were too many window coverings to remove, and I could manage to let in only one ray of sun. Then I gave up and got out.

“The aim is to get as much natural light as possible and then turn on every lamp.” 
We also recommends dusting blinds. If you don’t, the light will catch the dust and make the whole house appear dirty.

Cluttered closets and drawers

Open houses are all about strangers opening and closing things—closet doors, kitchen cabinets and drawers. I recall one apartment I instantly loved and was ready to make an offer on—until I opened the kitchen pantry. There were products in there with packaging I recognized from my childhood ... at my grandmother's house. It was only then that I realized the house actually needed a ton of work and had not been updated at all since the 1980s.

Bottom line: Every detail of your house resonates with buyers. 

'Clients will say, 'People don’t care what my closet looks like!'' 
But buyers do care, and all the details they glean help them form an opinion of your property 'Rather than remembering the beautiful skylight, they remember the medicine cabinet with a leaking bottle.

Lack of snacks

There’s something about a platter of baked goods that makes people like me go wild. Think cookies and small bottles of water. (You may want to skip baking the cookies yourself, which can make savvy buyers think you are trying to conceal funky odors.)

“Refreshments are a nice touch,”  After all, going to an open house takes effort—sometimes I went to several a day. When an open house offered a little snack to greet visitors, I would be in a better frame of mind when testing the water pressure in the shower. Having no snacks is not necessarily a deal killer; but in general, I've noticed that the better open houses tend to have something to nosh on, perhaps because they were managed by people who paid attention to details.

Cloth booties

At the last open house I went to a few weeks ago, the agent had visitors put on cloth booties to protect the floor. This is fairly standard procedure, but this house had steep, narrow stairs. Two potential buyers slipped on the staircase within 20 minutes. I pictured myself buying the house, only to fall to my death as I went downstairs for coffee. 

So as much as I liked the home, I didn't make an offer that day. My husband made me tour the home again, sans booties. And after discovering the stairs were safe if you didn't wear slippery booties, I fell in love and made an offer.

In this case, at least, I learned a lesson: First impressions can be deceptive. So if no one's swooning over your open house immediately, don't obsess about what you've done wrong. Sooner or later, the right buyer will come along.

The decision to Sell or Buy is a personal one that depends on your financial situation, future plans and lifestyle. If you’re interested on a wealth of information to help you get started visit us at Precision Realty & Assoc. LLC or if you prefer a more personal touch, CALL 801-809-9866 today. 

Mortgage Rates Level Out

#RealEstateForSale #Homeownership #UtahRealEstate #MortgageRates

Now Is the Best Time to Sell …

Or Is it? Rising home prices and a squeeze on inventory has more millennial homebuyers and potential sellers looking atupgrading their home admitting to being obsessed with timing the market to increase their gains, according to a recent study by ValueInsured.

The study found that among all homeowners surveyed who were interested in selling their home 69 percent said that they were concerned with trying to time the market, an increase of 13 percentage points from 56 percent during the same period last year.

Among those wishing to buy a home this season, the study found that 60 percent said they were concerned with trying to time the market, again reflecting a 13 percentage points increase over last year.

The pressure to time the market was most acute among millennials with 65 percent potential millennial homebuyers admitting that they were more market-timing conscious, up from 45 percent last year. Among millennial homeowners too, ValueInsured’s study found 73 percent millennial homeowners who wished to upgrade but were waiting for better prices admitting that timing the market was key to a better deal.

The study revealed that an eroding preference for owning over renting was one of the many factors that coincided with rising concerns over timing the market due to home prices and rising rates.

“Americans, homeowners and non-owners, far prefer owning to renting if given a choice. However, that preference is sliding steadily, even among homeowners,” the ValueInsured study said.

While 68 percent non-homeowners believed that owning a home was better than renting, the data revealed that this was still a 4-point from 72 percent expressing the same sentiment last year. The percentage ped among homeowners too, with 87 percent homeowners believing that it was better to own than rent, compared with 90 percent during the same period last year.

The study found that non-homeowning millennials were more confident that the housing market was moving in a direction that was more favorable to renters than owners, with nearly three in four (72 percent) millennial homeowners surveyed now believing that the housing market favored renting over buying.

“High home prices and good economic conditions helped push the share of Americans who think it's a good time to sell to a fresh record high.”  “However, the upward trend in the good-time-to-sell share seen since last spring has done little to release more for-sale inventory. The tightest supply in decades, combined with rising mortgage rates from historically low levels, will likely remain a hurdle for mobility and a persistent headwind for home sales.”

The decision to Sell or Buy is a personal one that depends on your financial situation, future plans and lifestyle. If you’re interested on a wealth of information to help you get started visit us at Precision Realty & Assoc. LLC or if you prefer a more personal touch, CALL 801-809-9866 today. 

#RealEstateForSale #Homeownership #UtahRealEstate

High Demand for Homes

Homes Are Fetching More Than Asking Price, low inventories is 
prompting bidding wars. Thirty-seven percent of properties that closed in March sold at or above the list price, according to the March 2018 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey.

That's higher than a year ago, when 35 percent of properties sold at or above the list price, and during the months of January in 2012 through 2015, about one in four sold at or above the list price.

Buyer demand continues to outpace supply of homes being listed for sale in the market, sustaining the upward pressure on home prices.“ the National Association of REALTORS® reports on its Economists’ Outlook blog. 
Seventeen percent of properties sold at a net premium in March, up from a 9 percent share in 2014 and 2015, according to NAR. Of the homes that were sold at a premium, 87 percent sold at 101 to 110 percent of the list price; 7 percent sold at a premium of 11 to 20 percent; and 5 percent sold at more than a 20 percent premium. 

Properties were typically on the market for 30 days in March. REALTORS® wrote an average of 2.4 offers per client, according to the report. The two most common problems encountered for contracts that had a delay to settlement, REALTORS® reported, were from issues related to obtaining financing (38%) and appraisal issues (19 percent). 

Use the data visualization below to view the median listing price of properties listed on Realtor.com in March 2018. Red areas are areas where the listing price is higher than the U.S. median sales price of all existing homes sold in March 2018, at $250,400. Hover on the map to see the distribution of listing prices from June 2012 through March 2018 on Realtor.com data.

The decision to Sell or Buy is a personal one that depends on your financial situation, future plans and lifestyle. If you’re interested on a wealth of information to help you get started visit us at Precision Realty & Assoc. LLC or if you prefer a more personal touch, CALL 801-809-9866 today. 

#RealEstateForSale #Homeownership #UtahRealEstate

Rents Inch Back Up

After Brief Slowdown, Just when the signs were pointing to a slowing rental market, landlords are finding that demand is warranting higher prices. 

Rents are posting the highest annual growth rates since the end of 2016,according to a new analysis of 250 of the largest U.S. cities by RentCafe, a nationwide listing service for the apartment sector.

Rents are up 3.2 percent year over year, and the national average rent was $1,377 in April. 

Rental costs rose in 84 percent of the nation’s 250 largest cities in April, and ped in only 2 percent of cities compared to a year ago. 

The 20 fastest growing rents are in small cities. Five cities posted double-digit annual growth in April for rental prices: Odessa, Texas (35.6%); Midland, Texas (32.6%); Yonkers, N.Y. (11.5%); Reno, Nev. (10.8%); and Hollywood, Fla. (10.6%). 

On the other end, the cities seeing the slowest year-over-year rent changes in April were: Norman, Okla. (-2.5%); Lubbock, Texas (-2.5%); New Orleans (-2.2%); Brownsville, Texas (-1.7%); and Hillsboro, Ore. (-1.6%). Some bigger cities are seeing rents decline or stagnate, such as in New York; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Portland, Ore.; and Austin, Texas. 

April Rents Rev Up for the Rental Season with Highest Annual Increase in 16 Months

Key takeaways:

• The national average rent was $1,377 in April 2018, having increased by 3.2 percent year over year, and by 0.3 percent ($4) month over month, according to data from Yardi Matrix.
• Rents increased in 84 percent of the nation’s biggest 250 cities in April, were unchanged in 14 percent of cities, and ped in 2 percent of cities compared to April 2017. 
• The top 20 fastest growing rents in the country are in small cities, including Reno, NV, Boise, ID, and Orlando, FL. 
• Among the largest U.S. cities, Las Vegas, Denver, and Detroit had the fastest rising prices in April, while rents in New York, Baltimore, and DC stopped rising. 

“Housing supply, rent stabilization, and affordable rents are of critical interest nationwide,” says Doug Ressler, director of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix. “Continued rent activity is expected specifically in 22 states and the District of Columbia, which have built too little housing to keep up with economic growth in the 15 years since 2000, and have resulted in a total shortage of 7.3 million units (based on research by Up for Growth National Coalition).

A key driver in the changing rental markets will be the individual or families’ cost of living and the percentage required for housing.” 

Are you Ready to Stop Renting and invest in your future! We have a wealth of information to help you get started visit Precision Realty & Assoc. LLC or if you prefer a more personal touch, reach out to a us, CALL 801-809-9866 today. 

 #RealEstateForSale #Homeownership  #UtahRealEstate #Rents #Rentals

Source: RentCafe Blog (May 3, 2018)