Buying a Home? If You Can, Buy Two

Buying a Home? If You Can, Buy Two.

I gotta say…I am going to have to agree with Mr. Paulson on this one…this is a guy that knows what he is talking about. And when combining his thoughts on the matter with what I have been witnessing with my very own eyes for the past 5 months…its a great time to get out there and buy! Interest rates have started to creep up a bit, but who cares!? THEY ARE STILL INSANELY LOW!! And even prices are starting to rise, but once again SO WHAT?! Prices have been either down or even for the last few years, so these early price increases are just that: early price increases…that means we are AT THE BOTTOM FOLKS! Anyone familiar with the old phrase: “Buy low, sell high” I’m pretty sure this is what they were talking about when saying those words! Even if you can’t buy two houses, you should really consider buying just ONE! Don’t come to me in a year ask me why you can’t buy a house for XX amount or with a super low interest rate…you had your chance…well you actually HAVE your chance, present tense, RIGHT NOW! THIS IS THE TIME TO BUY! And it’s honestly a pretty good time to sell too! A lot of people are taking my advice to buy, and this is leaving the market very short on inventory…so if you have been thinking you may want to sell, you may want to consider that a little more closely. I have a client who is not even listed on the market yet, but we have already had an INSANE amount of buzz about his house…the three comps on his street that sold in the last few months, they ALL sold for UNDER FOUR DAYS and ABOVE ASK!! If anyone out there wants to talk about the possibility of either buying or selling, or both..please CALL ME!! I will do everything I can to help you come up with the best game plan, you will get a killer price selling and still make out like a bandit on your new home because of interest rates. CALL ME or EMAIL ME (817) 808 3150 ssandlin24@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you all!

(817) 808 3159

ssandlin24@gmail.com

Great New Community = Willow Ridge in HASLET Northwest ISD | DFW Home Builders/New Construction Build Zone

Great New Community = Willow Ridge in HASLET Northwest ISD | DFW Home Builders/New Construction Build Zone.

if you want to get some information on a newer community, with great up and coming potential then go check this one out! Follow the link in the post to a pinterest page with all available inventory/spec homes in the neighborhood!

Fast-paced Dallas housing market frustrating both buyers and agents | Dallasnews.com – News for Dallas, Texas – The Dallas Morning News

Fast-paced Dallas housing market frustrating both buyers and agents | Dallasnews.com – News for Dallas, Texas – The Dallas Morning News.

I have been talking about the state of the market for a few months now. We are in midst of an incredibly hot, very active market in which a large percentage of listings are receiving multiple, multiple, MULTIPLE offers within days of going on the market. Everyone that has been waiting on the sidelines for the past few years, for whatever reason, have all seemed to agree with each other that NOW is the time to buy.

In a “normal” market there should be 6 month’s worth of available inventory — we are down to just two months of available inventory. This is a perfect example of supply and demand…the fact that interest rates, as well as prices, are starting to creep up has caused all those folks who have been waiting for the  “right time” to buy, to collectively say, “IT’S TIME TO BUY EVERYBODY!! LAST ONE THERE’S THE ROTTEN EGG!!”

So all the people that had been waiting to get out there and buy, have been getting out there to take advantage of rates before they go up too much. So a lot of our supply has been dwindling away to all of the local first-time buyers. Along with all the first-time buyer’s, we have another large demographic, the baby boomers.  All the baby boomers are starting to see their kids move out for college, or moving into their first homes, turning a majority of the baby boomer generation into “empty nesters”. So from a local standpoint only, we have younger adults and families purchasing their first homes, and then their parents are stuck in homes that are just way to big for one or two people. So many of these empty nesters are doing what makes sense to them, and that is to usually down size to a smaller home.

And finally, added to all the local demand that is here to start with, the DFW area is home to many large corporations, and their headquarters are based in the Metroplex. We see these big companies starting to relocate people from around the county, and bringing them to Texas. And it’s not just the giant corporations bringing jobs to the area. There are entire businesses that have begun leaving their home states just to take advantage of our location. DFW is the central hub for all business throughout the entire USA. Especially with the international airport being dead center within the metroplex, it is just so much easier for traveling businessmen to live in the area and fly out from DFW to wherever they need to be, you can get to both LA and NY in just a few hours, tops. We also attract even more people and businesses to the state because we do not have a state income tax, and who likes paying any tax? NOBODY.

When you take everything into consideration, from the first-time buyers to those who are looking to downsize. People that have been relocated through a large corporation or someone moving their own smaller business to the area for tax reasons. Plus all the other people that you have moving to the area, seeking out a great opportunity combined with lower taxes, and a lower cost of living. With all this considered it becomes incredibly clear as to why we only have two months of inventory. And it all comes back to the basic economics of supply versus demand. We have a HUGE demand for a tiny amount of inventory (It’s been 10 years since I took macro or micro economics, but I can see the graph in my mind..) and the graph in my brain shows that prices are on the rise, which they are.

If you were thinking about buying, don’t take this as a negative and decide you don’t want to pay a higher price for something, because prices have not gone up too high as of yet, and interest rates (especially when compared historically) are still pretty low. All this information is very useful because it shows you things are getting better, and that means things will start to increase in price.

But if you have been thinking about it, and you would like to try to buy something before prices go up a lot, I would jump into high-gear search mode, look through all the homes that make up the two month supply of inventory, and move quick on a home that you can see yourself living in for the next 5-7 years. And if you do get overwhelmed, confused or lost, or want help trying to find something that fits your needs that may not be listed yet, call up a Realtor and let them know you need a buyer’s agent that can assist you with finding “something of XX size, X/X bed/bath , with a pool and a yard, in Keller for no more than $500,000”

Looking for a home can get overwhelming, and exhausting, and if you don’t know what you are doing or you are not sure exactly where you want to be and what you want in a home, CALL ME OR EMAIL ME. My service will cost you nothing, and I will make sure to find a home that fits your lifestyle and will then negotiate on your behalf to make sure you get the home for a fair price and all the terms of the contract are in your favor.

It can be daunting to do this on your own. Call me and you will have a great time throughout the entire home purchase process. Please call my cell 817 808 3159 or email me at ssandlin24@gmail.com if you have ANY questions, or if you would like some assistance with any real estate related issue. Take Care Everyone, and until next time, you stay classy DFW…..

Stephen Sandlin

What to do if your appraisal comes in below contract price?

Anyone that has ever purchased a home, or is in the process of purchasing a home, knows that it is not a simple task. You can’t just write a check, or swipe your credit card, and even if you pay cash it is still a complicated, time consuming process. These last few months (in DFW) have been the most active months in real estate since the housing bubble burst. Inventory is low, prices have started to creep up, and low interest rates have been driving buyer’s out in droves. Just because your offer is accepted by a seller, and you enter into a contract to purchase, nothing is set in stone and you are not guaranteed to close on the property. There are many different stipulations that must be met in order for the contract to remain valid, and if either party to the contract does not follow or adhere to their contractual obligations, then the other party may terminate without penalty. In recent months we have begun to see many contracts terminated due to the appraisal coming in lower than the sales price of the house. In order to protect their investments, lenders require that the appraisal come in at, or above the amount being loaned. If the appraisal comes in less than the borrowed amount, the lender will not have sufficient collateral, and they will not make the loan. The reason we are starting to see all of these low appraisals is tied directly to the rapid market fluctuation. Over the past few years home prices have been depressed for a number of reasons. We started to see a ton of homes go into foreclosure because so many people took out mortgages they just could not afford. Following the housing bubble, the rest of the economy entered into a recession, and this led to mass unemployment. The fear and uncertainty from the recession kept all the people that could buy on the sidelines. Now that things are starting to look better, people are not scared to spend their money. With things looking up, and interest rates still at record lows, all those people that were waiting on the sidelines have decided that NOW is the time to buy. With so many buyers, available inventory has shrunk drastically, and anyone that knows basic economics should understand supply and demand. We have a low supply and a huge demand, so what happens? Prices go up! and up, and up, and up! Prices have not increased too rapidly, but sellers are catching on and prices are definitely creeping up. On top of this we have many homes receiving multiple offers, this turns into a bidding war, and now homes are selling more than asking price. This is great for the sellers, but due to the extremely short period in which we transitioned from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market there are not enough comparable’s to justify these new higher prices. Eventually the market will correct itself, but for the time being, we have to be aware of the possibility that any home sold may come up short on the appraisal. When this happens, deals start to fall apart, and people begin to question whether or not they should be purchasing a home. But just because an appraisal comes in short, there is no reason to immediately assume that a deal is dead. Depending on how short the appraisal is, there are a few different strategies one could take to overcome this obstacle. The first option would be for the seller to lower the price to what the appraisal says. The next option would be for the buyer to bring additional cash to cover the difference between the loan amount and the purchase price. If nobody is willing to take care of the appraisal issue themselves, then the next, most obvious solution would be for both parties to split the amount. So for example: Mr. A is purchasing a home from Mr. Z for $560,000 but the appraisal comes back and says the home is only worth $500,000. When an appraisal comes in this low the seller is generally going to be paying more of it than the buyer, this is because if the deal falls through and Mr. A walks, whoever comes along and enters a contract with Mr. Z will run into the same problem. So no matter who buys the home, Mr. Z will have to realize he is asking too much and will most likely not sell it to anyone for his price. So he must then decide whether or not to cancel his listing, or to come down in price. Nothing is ever set in stone though, and no two deals are alike, the seller could be very stubborn or emotionally attached to his home and refuse to come down in price, or the buyer could refuse to come up in price. Either way we have the same situation, after agreeing on an initial price and terms, if the home does not appraise the buyer can either negotiate the price down, offer to put more money down, or terminate the contract. Playing with the price is the most common way two parties resolve the low appraisal situation, but if you or your agent can get creative, you will usually be able to find something the other party would want or need. Examples of this would be the buyer allowing the seller to lease back the property for XX amount of days at no cost to them, or maybe the seller can leave their furniture to the buyer because they had to put more money down in order to close. Every real estate deal will be different, and everyone has different needs, if you are able to understand what makes the other party to a transaction tick, you should be able to add something to the deal that they value (besides money) so much that they can overlook the appraisal. There are always going to be certain properties that do not appraise, regardless of the state of the economy. But as we get further away from this recession, and as more homes begin to close at these higher prices, we are going to start seeing a decline in the amount of low appraisals. This is because after a certain amount of time there will be more and more comparable that appraisers are able to use when determining the value of  home. As long as you know that an appraisal coming in short could jeopardize a deal you are working on, you will be able to enter negotiations with a game plan already in place for if this does happen. With this knowledge you should be able to negotiate effectively, using logic and reason, not emotion, when coming to terms with another party. And if for some reason the appraisal comes in low, you will already be prepared to continue in a rational manner. Many times people will do great up until the point where they receive a low appraisal, and then as soon as they realize they may need to bring more cash to closing, or they will not be selling their home for as much as they would like, a switch goes off in their head and they go into a purely emotional reaction. This is what causes deals to fall apart. This is also a time when most people begin to wish they had been working with a Realtor instead of going at it alone. An agent will be able to handle minor hiccups like this without a problem, and they can then pick up the pieces, save the deal , and continue with the transaction. So if anyone out there is thinking about purchasing a property, I would highly recommend calling and interviewing a few exclusive buyer’s agents, and then hiring whoever you felt was the most knowledgeable and willing to dedicate as much time to working with you as needed. And because you will spend a lot more time with a buyer’s agent than you would with a listing agent, I highly recommend that you higher someone that you think will get a long well with you. And you also need to remember the best thing about buyer’s agents: THEY DON’T COST YOU A DIME! So if anyone out there is looking for a new home, and you would like for someone to assist you with your house hunt, I would love the opportunity to assist you with locating a home and sharing everything I know about real estate, and then using what I know to help you negotiate the best possible terms on whichever home you decide to make a move on. And to anyone out there that actually reads my blogs, thank you for supporting me, and helping me to grow my web presence. It means a lot to me that people are interested in what I have to say. Until next time, THANK YOU ALL!!

P.S.

If anyone out there has anything they would like for me to write about, or if there is anything or any way that I could make it better, I would truly appreciae the feedback, even negative feedback. It is my goal to build this site into a resource that will help anyone that is interested in purchasing a home in NE Tarrant County, specifically Southlake, Colleyville, Westlake, Troph Club, and Keller. THANKS

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The Home Buying Process- Step by Step

The last couple of posts I made discussed the benefits of owning your own home, as well as whether or not you should rent or buy. Drawing from the conclusions we came to in these past posts, buying seems like the obvious choice when looking for a new place to call home. So now that you have decided you want to buy a home, all that is left to do is to go buy one. A lot of people get to this point where they decide that they would like to purchase a home, but all of a sudden they realize “I don’t know how to buy a home! I am way over my head here, what do I do?!?”Buying a home is definitely not as simple as buying something at the mall, or buying a car even. There is a definite step-by-step process that you need to take once you make the decision that you would like to purchase a home. The first thing you need to do is figure out what your credit score is, make sure that you have enough money for a down payment (20% would be recommended, but with government loans you can put as little as 3.5% or even 0% down) and determine what your monthly budget for housing will be. I would highly recommend sitting down with a mortgage officer and discussing your different loan options. They will also be able to tell you what your credit score is, and help you determine how much house you can afford. This is a very important step because you do not want to buy a home you cannot afford. After discussing your loan options, I would recommend getting a  pre-approval letter from your lender. If you present this with your offer it will make you look that much better to the seller because they know you will have the funds to pay for the home. Once you determine your price range its time to get out there and figure out where you want to buy, and once your set on location start looking at homes that fall within your price range. As a buyer you are not required by law to use a Realtor to help you find a home, but unless you are incredibly familiar with the marketplace and all of the contracts, forms and processes that go into a real estate transaction, I would highly recommend hiring a Buyer’s agent to help you. The great thing about Buyer’s agents is that they seek commission from the seller, so they are actually providing you with a free service. Whether or not you have a Realtor helping you, the next step is to pick your favorite home out of everything you have seen, and make an offer on it. Depending on the state of your local market place, and after looking at comparable sales, you should come up with how much you are willing to pay for a property. Once again, this is a place where a buyer’s agent can really help out. Remember when negotiating with a seller, it is not always about price. There are many creative options for making your offer look more enticing to the seller. You could do an extended closing so they have time to find a new home, or you could offer to lease the home back to them until they move into their new place. This is just two examples of creative offers, there are literally thousands of different ways you can make something look enticing to a seller, the more creative you or your agent are, the better chance you have of your offer being accepted over someone else offer. Once you reach an agreement with the seller, you then have what is called an executed contract. Generally you will have an option period for about 10 days (this can be as many days as you want) during which time you can terminate the contract FOR ANY REASON and get your entire earnest money check back. During this period you will be able to hire and have as many inspections of the property that you want, this is something that you will be responsible for paying, but its worth every penny. If the inspector finds a few items that need to be fixed, you can then go back to the seller and negotiate repairs into the contract, or possibly even negotiate a lower price. After repairs are negotiated, and then carried out, if there are no more stipulations or contingencies that need to be met all you have left to do is close. Closing is where your lender will transfer funds to the seller, and the Title Company will transfer title to your new home to you. After signing page, after page you will be handed the keys to your new property, as well as any other documents that come along with it, and you are now a proud, brand new homeowner! Now your final step in the home buying process is here, moving day!!

*This is a summarized version of events. Buying a home can be different for everybody, and the process is never identical to what I have written here. This is just a general idea of the process, and the steps required to purchase a home. The real process is usually a bit more complicated than this. Because of that, I highly recommend you interview a few different Realtors (I would recommend an Exclusive Buyer’s Agent) and whoever you feel will be the best fit to work with you is who you should hire to be your Buyer’s Agent.

The Home Buying Process- Step by Step – Zillow Advice.

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