Are housing values dropping now? Potential homebuyers who contact me for a mortgage are now frequently asking if they should wait to buy a home. The implication is that people are now worried that housing values are going to fall. So why buy now? Isn’t it smarter to wait? Maybe, maybe not. It is understandable why everybody is asking the question, “are housing values dropping now?” Read More
Buying a home Non-Contingent on the sale of your current home is hard. I often get asked to get a potential buyer pre-approved to buy a new home, without the mortgage being contingent on the sale of the current home that they own. While this is possible, it is difficult.
First, you have to have the cash for the down payment and closing costs for the new home without the benefit of the sale of the current home. Then you would have to be able to qualify to carry the debt of both mortgages at the same time. Read More
According to Realtor Magazine, 72% of the time, buyers use the lender that the agent refers. How do lenders meet realtors to get those referrals? Lenders can meet realtors through many methods. A common one is to ply them with what I like to call the three D’s. Bringing doughnuts to the weekly realtor meeting. Picking up the tab for drinks. And buying a realtor dinner. The endgame is to make a realtor like you and hope that they become a referral source. Is there a better way? Read More
RIS Media produces a monthly magazine publication called Real Estate Magazine. I read an article on their website a while back I would like to discuss entitled, “CRM: Cheaper to Keep Em.” Bob Corcoran is a real estate coach and speaker who was interviewed by RIS Media for this article about CRMs, which stands for customer relationship management. CRMs are a type of database software that salespeople use. This blog is geared towards realtors, but it is also important for homebuyers and sellers to see how realtors and mortgage loan officers, or anyone for that matter, organize and use their data.
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It is very common for realtors to ask a homebuyer who their mortgage loan officer is and where they are located. There is a belief that a lender, and for that matter all the service providers to a real estate transaction, needs to be very local.
Realtors assign some magical powers to a mortgage loan officer who is Read More
There is a certain section of society that thinks they can do everything themselves. I am all for a do-it-yourself project. But I find that usually it pays to have someone else do it for me. I find that professionals can do it better. And quite frankly, after saving me time to allow me to stay productive in my work and earn more money, they can do it less expensively. For those of you that think you can sell your home on your own, known as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO), good luck with that! I know there is a perception of big savings. Read More
I have numerous online profiles where clients can review me. The main benefit is so that future clients can see how I perform when they make a decision on whether or not to work with me. It is important to see loan officer online reviews. Just a few of the places that you can see reviews are Yelp, Zillow, Google and Redfin. But now I see that these reviews have brought other benefits to my clients, as well as myself. Read More
How do you source a realtor to help you as a buyer agent when you are ready to buy your next home? Face it, most of us go off of a very few opinions from some friends and family, and hope for the best. It is like buying something off of Amazon.com that has 4.5 out of 5 stars. But it only has 3 reviews. Why not buy something off of Amazon.com that has 4.5 out of 5 stars and has 53 reviews, or 198 reviews? Read More
Do you know how to make an offer on a house? It’s simple, right? There are many things to consider when you are making an offer on a house. When it comes to making an offer there are some key things that can make a difference! Below are some important topics related specifically to the mortgage when you’re getting ready to write up an offer on a home. Read More
Is It Cheaper to Rent or Own a House? If you are planning on moving and are financially stable enough to potentially qualify for a mortgage, there is a lot for you to consider. Buying a home usually requires a down payment plus closing costs. Renting also comes with its own fees, but those are generally less than you will need to buy a home. Here, we will explore whether it is cheaper to rent or own a house. And the pros and cons of both.
I sometimes hear how a buyer thinks they can save 3% by cutting out the buyer agent when buying a home. Then they represent themselves, and end up saving 3% by dealing directly with the listing agent. And I think I will do my own surgery. Maybe represent myself in court. I’ll put a new roof on my house on my own. Some people think many things are easy and take almost no time at all.
Online reviews are playing an increasing role in the mortgage industry and here’s why:
TEXT: Hello. I’m doing a video blog today while on my treadmill, that’s why I’m bouncing up and down a bit, on online reviews. Online reviews were thought only to be for restaurants and bars. And you would go to a website like Yelp to see if you wanted to go to a certain restaurant in your neighborhood. Read More
I recently had a refinance client who got their home appraised for $1,000,000. You would think this would be good news, except that the client was expecting $1.2MM. Uh oh, I guess we didn’t get good news. However, the more important question is, did we get accurate news? In other words, was the appraisal valuation accurate and were the comparable sales used in the appraisal appropriate? This is where the debate started. Read More
Short Sales, Hype Or Hope? Short sales sound like a dream come true for those who can qualify for a mortgage to buy one, but are they hype or hope? I lean towards hype. Read More
I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the best day to list your home for sale. It turns out it is Friday. To be specific, the article said that Friday is the one day of the week that beats any other in terms of capturing online viewers. But it went on to say Tuesdays are best for scheduling and taking home tours. I am guessing that as with anything in real estate, this is market specific, and even house specific. Read More
I had a client I was working with recently who had a realtor I didn’t know. This realtor wanted me to write a pre-qualification letter for an offer they wanted to make on a house. They wanted me to write up a pre-qualification letter for a mortgage amount I did not think the buyer could qualify for. The realtor just wanted to get the property under contract and tie it up to see if we could work it out somehow after the fact. They just wanted to take a shot at getting the realtor commission. Think this is a rare event? Read More
To determine whether it is more financially sound to rent or buy economists generally use a rule of thumb: divide the purchase price of a home by the annual rent of a similar property. Anything over a 15, and you should rent because it will cost you less over a period of time. Below 15? Start looking for homes. Read More
Clearly most people today are using the Internet to search for a new home. But where exactly do they turn most frequently for their information? Their local multiple-listing service website is the top place home buyers look for homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Below are the results of a 2012 survey they did. The following are the most popular websites used in a home search according to the survey. They are in order of popularity. Read More
The real estate business is one of the most highly competitive job markets. And all real estate agents are in fact small business owners. They have an ever-growing client list, new leads, open houses, scheduling, marketing, budgeting, mailers, and websites. It is a never-ending list of responsibilities that seems to demand more and more time. It’s a fast-paced competitive housing world out there. Without the best tools and resources it’s possible to lose your clients to a more established realtor or realty team machine. Read More
Your home is your castle, truer words have never been spoken. You may own a 1,000 square foot modest townhouse, but it is yours. It may not be fancy, but it provides shelter, memories, and a place for family. Then why do people treat a home as if we were buying a coat, chair, couch or some other simple purchase? Why do people look for ways to save money, instead of ways to ensure they are getting the best representation to purchase their castle? Read More
