Top Ten Reasons to List Your Property during the Holidays
1. Houses “show better” when decorated for the holidays.
2. The seller can restrict showings during family events and still take advantage of their spruced up and decorated “show ready” property.
3. Holiday buyers are serious buyers and are more ready to make a decision.
4. Many people want to buy before the end of the year for financial and tax reasons.
5. Buyers have fewer houses to choose from during the holidays, so the property has less competition.
6. By selling during the winter, the seller gives themselves the opportunity to buy during the spring.
7. Buyers have more time to look for a house during the holidays because they have time off from work.
8. January is traditionally the month for transfers. Transferees can’t wait until the spring and houses must be on the market to capture these buyers.
9. Buyers are more sentimental during the holidays and are inclined to make a decision because of the warmth they feel when viewing a home.
10. Sellers can sell now – but specify a delayed closing or extended occupancy until early next year if it is agreeable within the negotiations of the contract.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Sky Is Falling !!!!
Hey All-
Everywhere you look someone is telling you how bad the real estate market is. Just watch the news once and you’ll see what I mean. Home prices are down. Sellers can’t seem to get their homes sold, and even if they do it takes what seems like forever. Inventory is high. Rates are increasing. Bad Bad Bad Negative Negative Negative How can anyone make sense of it all?
Let me try to put things in perspective.
First let’s take this from the Buyers side since it’s the more obviously advantageous position to be in right now. It is a “buyers market” right now, but what does that mean. First let’s take a look at the inventory on the market right now. With about 35,000 homes on the market in the twin cities metro area there has never been a better selection to pick from. If you can’t find your dream home in this inventory, you’re just not looking. Not only do you have this great selection, but you can get them for a steal. Sellers are not only dropping their prices, but they are paying closing cost too. There has never been a better time for first time homebuyers or investors. Yes, some of the zero down mortgage programs have disappeared but FHA programs have also recently been redesigned allowing more people to qualify. Now what about those pesky interest rates? Interest rates are at an all time low!! I repeat, interest rates are at an all time low!! This is not a gimmick. When my parents built there first new home their interest rate was around 18%!!!! And to make maters even worse, you didn’t even think about buying a home until you had 20% to put down. I really believe that we have been spoiled by temporary 4%-5% rates we saw in early 2000’s. The fact of the matter is that historically the norm is much closer to what my parents paid. I have a graph showing historic rates by year I love to show clients. The looks of astonishment are predictable and priceless. You can’t argue with the facts.
What about the sellers Ben? You can’t argue this market is terrible for a seller.
Well hold on now. Let’s think about this for a second. Most of the time when you are selling a home you’re going to turn right around and buy another, right. Yes you’re going to have to give a deal on the property you’re selling, but you’re going to get a deal on your new home. Yes you had to pay your buyers closing costs, but you will most likely have your new closing costs paid for. To make matters even better the odds are your new home will be more expensive. Most people move up in the size and/or quality of their home. This means the closing costs you pay out will be less than the closing costs you have being paid for you. Let’s take this one step further. Let’s say the home you sold had a market value of $300,000. Now let’s say your new home has a market value of $400,000. For the most part real estate appreciates (gains value) at a consistent rate across the board. For the sake of argument let’s say this rate is a modest 4%. Would you rather have 4% of $300,000 or 4% of $400,000? I think we would all pick the later. Your money has just made a lateral move but you are now collecting $4,000 more in appreciation. Unless you come to the closing table with extra cash you will most likely also get to claim more interest as a deduction against your taxes. Bad market?, no you come out way ahead. So you might have to have a little patience while your agent is finding the buyer for your home. Even this inconvenience can be minimized if you stage and price your home properly.
So you see, in the end this not such a terrible market after all. Please help me spread the good word to all our “chicken littles” out there and calm all the fears. People will always need a place to live and the market is just fine. Let’s stop grumbling and start taking advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Hope this helps, God bless
Everywhere you look someone is telling you how bad the real estate market is. Just watch the news once and you’ll see what I mean. Home prices are down. Sellers can’t seem to get their homes sold, and even if they do it takes what seems like forever. Inventory is high. Rates are increasing. Bad Bad Bad Negative Negative Negative How can anyone make sense of it all?
Let me try to put things in perspective.
First let’s take this from the Buyers side since it’s the more obviously advantageous position to be in right now. It is a “buyers market” right now, but what does that mean. First let’s take a look at the inventory on the market right now. With about 35,000 homes on the market in the twin cities metro area there has never been a better selection to pick from. If you can’t find your dream home in this inventory, you’re just not looking. Not only do you have this great selection, but you can get them for a steal. Sellers are not only dropping their prices, but they are paying closing cost too. There has never been a better time for first time homebuyers or investors. Yes, some of the zero down mortgage programs have disappeared but FHA programs have also recently been redesigned allowing more people to qualify. Now what about those pesky interest rates? Interest rates are at an all time low!! I repeat, interest rates are at an all time low!! This is not a gimmick. When my parents built there first new home their interest rate was around 18%!!!! And to make maters even worse, you didn’t even think about buying a home until you had 20% to put down. I really believe that we have been spoiled by temporary 4%-5% rates we saw in early 2000’s. The fact of the matter is that historically the norm is much closer to what my parents paid. I have a graph showing historic rates by year I love to show clients. The looks of astonishment are predictable and priceless. You can’t argue with the facts.
What about the sellers Ben? You can’t argue this market is terrible for a seller.
Well hold on now. Let’s think about this for a second. Most of the time when you are selling a home you’re going to turn right around and buy another, right. Yes you’re going to have to give a deal on the property you’re selling, but you’re going to get a deal on your new home. Yes you had to pay your buyers closing costs, but you will most likely have your new closing costs paid for. To make matters even better the odds are your new home will be more expensive. Most people move up in the size and/or quality of their home. This means the closing costs you pay out will be less than the closing costs you have being paid for you. Let’s take this one step further. Let’s say the home you sold had a market value of $300,000. Now let’s say your new home has a market value of $400,000. For the most part real estate appreciates (gains value) at a consistent rate across the board. For the sake of argument let’s say this rate is a modest 4%. Would you rather have 4% of $300,000 or 4% of $400,000? I think we would all pick the later. Your money has just made a lateral move but you are now collecting $4,000 more in appreciation. Unless you come to the closing table with extra cash you will most likely also get to claim more interest as a deduction against your taxes. Bad market?, no you come out way ahead. So you might have to have a little patience while your agent is finding the buyer for your home. Even this inconvenience can be minimized if you stage and price your home properly.
So you see, in the end this not such a terrible market after all. Please help me spread the good word to all our “chicken littles” out there and calm all the fears. People will always need a place to live and the market is just fine. Let’s stop grumbling and start taking advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Hope this helps, God bless
Friday, November 16, 2007
Opt Out / Credit Problems
Hey All-
I was meeting with a client last week, discussing some discrepancies we had found in his credit report. As we spoke, I came to realize that he was unaware of a few simple steps he could use to protect his credit and identity. Normally that in itself would not be enough to inspire me to a "Jerry Maguire" moment, feverishly writing family and friends. The problem is, as I help people buy and sell their homes, I'm seeing this type of thing more and more often. I am concerned that what I thought was common knowledge, is really largely unknown. If this is affecting my clients, there's a chance it's hurting others I care about too. My conclusion was to write a quick e-mail to everyone, and offer some information as well as a couple of websites.
I'm sure most of you are familiar with the three major credit-reporting agencies. They are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Collectively they are called Consumer Reporting Agencies or the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies. What most people don't know is that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, these companies and lenders are allowed to give/sell lists of consumers who have recently made credit inquiries, or what they call "firm offers". They sell these lists to other lenders, collection agencies, credit card companies, etc. They are allowed to do this under the guise of providing the consumer with options and choices.
Once these companies acquire lists, they start sending you "better offers" or offering junk you don't need. This includes those "preapproved" offers you get. (You must have the money to spend, right?) I have even heard of some credit card companies sending out offers that actually include the credit card. They only need to be activated.
The obvious danger in all this junk mail is, if it falls into the wrong hands it contains huge amounts of personal information. The more junk mail you receive, the higher the odds are that something will happen. In the case of the credit cards; someone activates it, maxes it out, and tosses it. Before you know what’s happened, you’re stuck with the damaged credit score and the bill. I even know of one case where the credit card company sent out one of these cards, the person ripped the envelope in half thinking it was junk mail, and threw it away. Almost a year later, they received a letter saying they were past due and their "privileges" were going to be revoked. They found they had been charged an annual fee. The annual fee had then incurred late payments. All while they never even knew they had the account. Even after they fought to get these charges reversed and the card canceled, the company never corrected it with the credit bureau.
Another danger is if one of these lists/reports falls into the hands of a collection agency, they can refresh a dormant collection account. Simply put, an account that has stopped hurting your credit will now start again.
The good news in all of this is that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, there was also included a mandate to let people opt out of this. (Remember the ‘purpose’ of all this was to offer you options. If you don't want these options they can’t make you take them.) The Consumer Reporting Agencies were required to create a website to allow you to do this. That website is OptOutPrescreen.com. My wife Annie and I did this, and it cut our junk mail down to less than a quarter of what it was. It also helps stop some of the tele-offers you might get if you don't have your phone number blocked. It is extremely easy to do. It takes a little while to have an effect but is well worth it when it does.
Consumers are now also allowed to get free credit reports once a year. The best website to do this is AnnualCreditReport.com. It’s free, and it will help you catch discrepancies before they get out of hand. This way when you go to buy something like a house or car you are not surprised.
If you would like to monitor your credit report more often than that, there are also some great credit monitoring services. The one I recommend and use myself is FreeCreditReport.com. It's not perfect, but it's a good start. For $10/ month you can look at your credit report as many times as you want throughout the year, and they will alert you of any changes to your report via email as they happen. This includes any inquires, late payment infractions, address changes, etc.
I was meeting with a client last week, discussing some discrepancies we had found in his credit report. As we spoke, I came to realize that he was unaware of a few simple steps he could use to protect his credit and identity. Normally that in itself would not be enough to inspire me to a "Jerry Maguire" moment, feverishly writing family and friends. The problem is, as I help people buy and sell their homes, I'm seeing this type of thing more and more often. I am concerned that what I thought was common knowledge, is really largely unknown. If this is affecting my clients, there's a chance it's hurting others I care about too. My conclusion was to write a quick e-mail to everyone, and offer some information as well as a couple of websites.
I'm sure most of you are familiar with the three major credit-reporting agencies. They are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Collectively they are called Consumer Reporting Agencies or the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies. What most people don't know is that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, these companies and lenders are allowed to give/sell lists of consumers who have recently made credit inquiries, or what they call "firm offers". They sell these lists to other lenders, collection agencies, credit card companies, etc. They are allowed to do this under the guise of providing the consumer with options and choices.
Once these companies acquire lists, they start sending you "better offers" or offering junk you don't need. This includes those "preapproved" offers you get. (You must have the money to spend, right?) I have even heard of some credit card companies sending out offers that actually include the credit card. They only need to be activated.
The obvious danger in all this junk mail is, if it falls into the wrong hands it contains huge amounts of personal information. The more junk mail you receive, the higher the odds are that something will happen. In the case of the credit cards; someone activates it, maxes it out, and tosses it. Before you know what’s happened, you’re stuck with the damaged credit score and the bill. I even know of one case where the credit card company sent out one of these cards, the person ripped the envelope in half thinking it was junk mail, and threw it away. Almost a year later, they received a letter saying they were past due and their "privileges" were going to be revoked. They found they had been charged an annual fee. The annual fee had then incurred late payments. All while they never even knew they had the account. Even after they fought to get these charges reversed and the card canceled, the company never corrected it with the credit bureau.
Another danger is if one of these lists/reports falls into the hands of a collection agency, they can refresh a dormant collection account. Simply put, an account that has stopped hurting your credit will now start again.
The good news in all of this is that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, there was also included a mandate to let people opt out of this. (Remember the ‘purpose’ of all this was to offer you options. If you don't want these options they can’t make you take them.) The Consumer Reporting Agencies were required to create a website to allow you to do this. That website is OptOutPrescreen.com. My wife Annie and I did this, and it cut our junk mail down to less than a quarter of what it was. It also helps stop some of the tele-offers you might get if you don't have your phone number blocked. It is extremely easy to do. It takes a little while to have an effect but is well worth it when it does.
Consumers are now also allowed to get free credit reports once a year. The best website to do this is AnnualCreditReport.com. It’s free, and it will help you catch discrepancies before they get out of hand. This way when you go to buy something like a house or car you are not surprised.
If you would like to monitor your credit report more often than that, there are also some great credit monitoring services. The one I recommend and use myself is FreeCreditReport.com. It's not perfect, but it's a good start. For $10/ month you can look at your credit report as many times as you want throughout the year, and they will alert you of any changes to your report via email as they happen. This includes any inquires, late payment infractions, address changes, etc.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
My Real Estate Blog
Hi Everyone
My name is Benjamin Kruse. I am a real estate professional in the Minneapolis/Twin Cities metro area. This is my first attempt at a blog, so I hope everyone finds it fun and informative.
In my career as a realtor I have found there are many misconceptions about the real estate industry. Not only are there misconceptions about the industry, but there are also many misconceptions about the professionals who choose to work in it. One of my goals behind this blog is to help clear up these misconceptions and show the fun side of real estate. I desperately want to answer questions and take the stress and confusion out of real estate for people. (If you have any specific topics you would like me to cover, please email me with them at bakruse@cbburnet.com. Please put “potential blog topic” in the subject line.)
The first thing people usually think of when they hear the words real estate is their personal home. Home ownership has for a long time been a huge part of the American dream. Many consider it a marker of success. There is a certain level of pride that goes along with owning your own home. Shelter is a necessity of life. It feels good to have a sense of control over such an important part of our lives.
Real estate is also a huge part of our economy. Just think of all the jobs that revolve around the industry. You start with the people who make the materials and actually do the building of the home. You have agents, lenders, closers, etc who specialize in the sale of these homes. Then we fill our homes with all kinds of stuff: furniture, appliances, etc. Once we fill our homes with this stuff we need people to help us keep our homes nice. We hire carpet cleaners, cleaning people, designers, decorators, landscapers, and so on.
These are just a few of the reasons I love real estate and am so interested in it. I hope to share many more with you in the future. It is truly a passion for me and I’m excited about the opportunity to share that with everyone.
My name is Benjamin Kruse. I am a real estate professional in the Minneapolis/Twin Cities metro area. This is my first attempt at a blog, so I hope everyone finds it fun and informative.
In my career as a realtor I have found there are many misconceptions about the real estate industry. Not only are there misconceptions about the industry, but there are also many misconceptions about the professionals who choose to work in it. One of my goals behind this blog is to help clear up these misconceptions and show the fun side of real estate. I desperately want to answer questions and take the stress and confusion out of real estate for people. (If you have any specific topics you would like me to cover, please email me with them at bakruse@cbburnet.com. Please put “potential blog topic” in the subject line.)
The first thing people usually think of when they hear the words real estate is their personal home. Home ownership has for a long time been a huge part of the American dream. Many consider it a marker of success. There is a certain level of pride that goes along with owning your own home. Shelter is a necessity of life. It feels good to have a sense of control over such an important part of our lives.
Real estate is also a huge part of our economy. Just think of all the jobs that revolve around the industry. You start with the people who make the materials and actually do the building of the home. You have agents, lenders, closers, etc who specialize in the sale of these homes. Then we fill our homes with all kinds of stuff: furniture, appliances, etc. Once we fill our homes with this stuff we need people to help us keep our homes nice. We hire carpet cleaners, cleaning people, designers, decorators, landscapers, and so on.
These are just a few of the reasons I love real estate and am so interested in it. I hope to share many more with you in the future. It is truly a passion for me and I’m excited about the opportunity to share that with everyone.
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