Category: Real Estate

20 Markets With Strongest Kickoff to 2017 | Realtor Magazine

The time it has taken for homes to sell nationwide in January has decreased at a rate of 4 percent compared to a year ago, despite record-high housing prices, according to realtor.com®’s latest housing report.

“We saw evidence of a stronger-than-normal off season starting last September and October due to pent-up demand and surging interest from first-time buyers,” says realtor.com® chief economist Jonathan Smoke. “The downside to this strong off season is that we have started 2017 with a new low volume of available homes for sale and a new high for prices.”

Listing inventories are down 11 percent in January compared to a year ago. Also, the median list price for the month is an estimated $250,000 — 10 percent higher than January 2015, realtor.com® notes. Nevertheless, “the threat of rates approaching multiyear highs in the months ahead is creating a sense of urgency [among buyers],” Smoke says.

The following are the top-performing markets this month:

1. San Francisco
2. San Jose, Calif.
3. Vallejo, Calif.
4. Dallas
5. San Diego
6. Sacramento, Calif.
7. Yuba City, Calif.
8. Denver
9. Stockton, Calif.
10. Fresno, Calif.
11. Oxnard, Calif.
12. Columbus, Ohio
13. Colorado Springs, Colo.
14. Nashville, Tenn.
15. Detroit
16. Modesto, Calif.
17. Los Angeles
18. Tampa, Fla.
19. Santa Rosa, Calif.
20. Fort Wayne, Ind.

Real Estate Tips 27 Jan 2017

 

It is harder for buyers to get their offers accepted in a seller’s market. Yajnesh Rai of Team Yaj – Keller Williams Realty shares a series of tips for buyers on Radio De Hotties’ Pam Pam Show. Here are tip number 7 & 8

 

7.     TLC (Tender Love and Care – House needs work) – TLC means that the house requires some work. Many first time home buyers may not be comfortable with having to do work on the property. It could be that they never done anything like this or they may not have the resources (time and/or money) to do it. Having a background in remodeling homes, I do help clients understand that it may not be as big as it feels and they might want to consider it. It helps to be open for those things in a competitive market and be able to capitalize on these opportunities.

 

8.     Contingencies (Terms or Conditions) – Contingencies are there to protect the interest of a client (Buyer or Seller). In a competitive markets these become tools or way of using them as strategies to get an edge over the competition. Sellers prefer Clean Offers (with least or no contingencies). This helps reduce the chances of TFT (refer to a blog from Jan 20^th) and hence reducing chance of seller having to let go of the property for lower price.

 

a.     Pre-Approval – One of the big contingencies is Loan Contingency (if one is buying with a loan). This means that the buyer cannot buy if the loan does not get approved. If the seller has a choice of another offer that does not have this contingency, he would pick that over one with a loan contingency. Therefore, it helps to get Pre-Approved upfront. There is another term called Pre-Qualification and there is a big difference. Pre-Approval is a much stronger assurance for loan getting approved that the pre-qualification.

 

 

More tips to be shared on the Pam Pam show and on this blog.

If you or anyone else you know that is looking to buy their first home, an investment property or sell their home, please reach out to me via either contact method.

 

Thank You, Yajnesh Rai – “Yaj”

Team Yaj, Keller Williams Silicon Valley

Real Estate Consultant, Broker Associate, CNE

 

2110 S Bascom Ave, #101, Campbell, CA

408-547-7845 | www.YajneshRai.com

www.Facebook.com/YRConsultant

CalBRE# 01924991

When Should Buyers Lock in a Mortgage Rate? | Realtor Magazine

A rate lock helps protect your buyers from fluctuating mortgage rates as they’re getting ready to buy a home. It locks in the interest rate for a loan for a certain period of time until the buyer makes it to closing. Your buyers will know what to expect and won’t then fall mercy to a week of rising rates, for example. However, if rates dip, they could get stuck paying a higher rate too. So it can be a catch-22.

Here is when your buyers likely will want to lock in their mortgage rate right away:

1. An offer has been made, accepted, and is under contract. Many lenders will lock in a rate for free for 30 days. But you may want to lock in for longer, for example, if the buyer is giving sellers more time to find a home or if they’re self-employed and a lender needs longer in underwriting their loan. As such, lock-ins are also available for 90 days, 120 days, or even 150 days. But expect to pay to get longer lock in periods.

2. Interest rates are rising. If interest rates are trending higher, lock in sooner rather than later, say mortgage experts.

3. Interest rates are volatile. If interest rates are going both up and down, buyers may want to lock in sooner for greater stability during their house hunt. “Rates today are unusually volatile—they are making large moves up and down in short periods of time,” says Joe Parsons, a loan officer at Caliber Home Loans in Dublin, Calif. “For this reason, prudent borrowers are locking their rates early in the process.”

4. You may not qualify for a loan otherwise. A buyer may need to lock in a rate sooner if they are borrowing near their limits. A fluctuation in rate could prevent them from getting their loan approved. For instance, if a higher interest rate pushes a buyer’s monthly mortgage payment above a 28 percent threshold (most lenders believe a house payment should be no greater than 28 percent of your gross monthly income) then a lender may not approve her for a mortgage.

Where Homes Sold the Fastest This Winter | Realtor Magazine

Homes across the country are selling faster than they were a year ago. Nationwide, properties stayed on the market for an average of 52 days in December, down from a 58-day average a year ago, the National Association of REALTORS® reported in its latest housing report Tuesday. Thirty-seven percent of homes sold in December were on the market for less than a month.

The following five metro areas had listings that stayed on the market the shortest amount of time in December, according to inventory data from realtor.com®:

• San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.: 49 days
• San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif.: 50 days
• Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tenn.: 50 days
• Billings, Mont.: 51 days
• Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.: 51 days

NerdWallet: January, February Prime Months To Purchase A Home

Key Takeaways

·        Ready to become a homeowner? Nerdwallet and Realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke say January and February are the best months to purchase a home.

·        The median home sold in January sold for $7,003 less than the listing price, and home sales drop by 47 percent.

·        Smoke says another reason buyers should act now is an upcoming hike in mortgage rates, which are expected to reach nearly 5 percent.

New year, new home?

The NerdWallet team says January and February are the prime months to purchase a home, thanks to lessened competition, lower home prices and higher mortgage rates looming ahead.

Take advantage of savings now

According to two years of realtor.com data that includes the 50 most populous metro areas, home prices in January and February are, on average, 8.45 percent lower than prices in July and August — two of the most popular homebuying months.

This trend is expected to hold true in 2017, but realtor.com chief economist Jonathan Smoke says the savings won’t be as large as seen in years before.

 

The fall 2016 housing market, which the National Association of Realtors dubbed the “autumn revival,” was especially strong, which means sellers didn’t feel the pressure to lower their sales prices in order to get their home off the market.

Despite this, Smoke still suggests homebuyers grab whatever savings they can get because spring home prices will likely increase more than normal.

Cold weather keeps competition at bay

According to NerdWallet, home sales in January are 47 percent lower than in June, which means less competition for buyers looking for the perfect home.

But there’s one caveat — buyers will still have to battle with low housing inventory, although the offset in competition helps.

“You basically face almost half of the competition with almost the same amount of inventory in the market,” Smoke says.

For the savvy buyer and agent, this can lead to savings through tactful negotiations with sellers. NerdWallet says the median home sold in January sold for $7,003 less than the listing price. Score!

Higher rates ahead

Out of the three reasons to buy a home now, homebuyers are most likely concerned about higher mortgage rates, which are predicted to rise to nearly 5 percent.

“As we look toward spring and later in 2017, that’s another reason to buy in January and February,” said Smoke. “Because rates are expected to be about 50 basis points, or half a percent, more as the year goes on.”

 

5 Staging Props You Need to Stop Using … Now!

here is good staging. There is bad staging. I mean, like really bad staging. In an industry with no regulations, no standardized accreditation system, and tons of “hobbyist professionals”, one gets what one pays for. The problem here is not if that inexperienced or bargain basement stager will do a good job, rather if they’ll actually stop your house from selling, dead in its tracks.

It’s true; good, thoughtful staging can most certainly help a house sell for more money and in less time. Bad staging can bring the selling momentum of a great house to a screeching halt. The absolute best way for bad staging to kibosh your sale is to have it offend potential buyers.

Here are five potentially offensive staging props that could threaten your sale:

1. Alcohol. Alcohol is a common thing found in many homes. It can raise both positive and negative emotions in buyers. We aren’t too worried about the positive emotions on this one as nobody is going to walk into your house and say, “They drink Chablis, I drink Chablis, let’s buy this house!” That being said, a potential buyer may very well be uncomfortable or even offended by alcohol for various reasons.  They could be in recovery or alcohol could be prohibited by their religion. For any reason, a buyer could be offended by alcohol sitting in the living room, on the counter, or next to the bathtub (tacky) in what could potentially be their new home. Even worse is staging with two-buck-chuck and offending the connoisseurs.

2. The tipi (also spelled teepee or tepee). Cultural appropriation is a hot button topic these days. I’ve noticed a good number of home stagers using tipis in kids rooms and play areas.  I spoke to a friend who happens to be a Plains Native American to help me understand why the use of a tipi in home staging could be offensive. He explained that the tipi is a very sacred structure used for ceremonies and rites of passage and to use that sacred piece of somebody else’s culture to sell a house is less than thoughtful. It would be like using the pages of a King James Bible to wallpaper a bathroom, pretty but disrespectful. Whether you agree that using tipis is offensive or not, it’s important to understand that it may raise questions and emotions that are not related to “buy this house”.

3. Dead animal parts. These items are going-to-town, off-the-charts popular. Walking into staged homes all over the county is not unlike walking into an animal autopsy. There are pieces of the beast strewn on the table, tossed over the chair, laid out on the floor and even hung on the wall. Whether it is antlers, hide rugs, fur throws or pillows, these are all clearly recognizable parts of animals that were once alive and are now dead.  Don’t get me wrong, I love me some creepy dead animal decoration, but I know that I am not in the majority. Truly, it’s a very popular trend right now, but many of us are offended by it. A potential buyer might be vegetarian or vegan, an animal rights activist, or even just have a weak stomach. Needless to say, if your potential buyers are any one of these things and need to walk over the ripped-off epidermis of a recently murdered bovine, they might think twice about buying the house they actually love but can’t stomach the though of purchasing.

4. Blow-up mattresses. Did you hear that? It was the sound of a blow-up mattress deflating. Or perhaps it was the sound of somebody crashing to the ground after sitting on a blow-up mattress, which was in-turn sitting on top of four 5-gallon buckets. It sounds an awful lot like a lawsuit, doesn’t it? Not only do blow-up mattress look like blow-up mattress (i.e. horrendous), they are unpredictable at best and dangerous at worst.  It’s a stager’s responsibility to demonstrate that a real mattress and box spring can get up the staircase and into that perfect bedroom your buyer had in mind.

5. Word art. Do you really need a 3-foot tall E-A-T sign to get a buyer to understand that this room is the dining room? Shouldn’t the dining table surrounded by eight chairs tell that story that this is, in fact a dining room, designed for the specific purpose of E-A-T-I-N-G? Word art is fun, isn’t it? I always love to add one extra word or phrase to each one I see like “Life, Love, Family… Barf”. Ultimately, the staging should tell the story of how happy, successful, and fulfilled one could be if they bought the house. Word art is simply a lazy way to ineffectively send your message. (P.S. My favorite one so far? A big pink canvas that said “Dream Big” next to at toilet, with the lid up nonetheless. Ugh.)

When it comes to home staging, we all make choices. You can choose to simply pick the latest trends that you love and take the chance offending your potentially buyer. Or, you can make thoughtful selections that keep your buyer paying attention to the house and not the staging. Choices, darling… choices.

Builders Pick Up the Pace This Winter | Realtor Magazine

Housing production nationwide edged up 11.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in December due to a surge in multifamily construction, the Commerce Department reported this week. Multifamily production – often viewed as volatile month-to-month – surged 57 percent to 431,000 units in December.

Single-family starts, on the other hand, fell 4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 795,000 units. But builder sentiment remains high for the single-family market’s outlook.  

“Despite the slight dip in single-family production, December’s rate is still the fourth highest single-family pace since the Great Recession, and single-family starts also posted solid gains for the year,” says Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders. “Builders remain confident and we expect further growth in the single-family market in the year ahead.”

Across the country, combined single and multifamily housing production increased 31.2 percent in the Midwest; 23.5 percent in the West; and 18.5 percent in the Northeast. The South was the only major region to post a loss, dipping 1.4 percent last month.

“This report represents firm growth for housing in 2016, as single-family starts rose 9 percent and multifamily production was down slightly,” says Robert Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist. “We expect that 2017 will be another year of gradual, steady improvement in the housing market. Multifamily starts have been volatile in recent months, but should level off as supply meets demand. Meanwhile, single-family production continues to gain momentum but is limited by supply-side headwinds.”

Single-family permits – a gauge of future construction – increased 4.7 percent to 817,000 units in December. That is the highest level in 2016. Multifamily permits, however, dropped 9 percent to 393,000 units, the Commerce Department reports.

Open Floor Plan Still Popular | Realtor Magazine

Open floor plans continue to reign. Eighty-four percent of builders say that in the typical single-family home they build, the kitchen and family room arrangement is at least partially open. Fifty-four percent say it’s completely open, according to responses from a September 2016 National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

“Completely open” essentially means the two areas are combined into the same room. Partially open signifies areas separated by a partial wall, arch, counter, or something less than a full wall.

Seventy percent of recent and prospective home buyers say they prefer a home with either a completely or partially open kitchen-family room arrangement; 32 percent say they prefer the arrangement completely open, according to an NAHB survey.

Only 16 percent of buyers say they want the kitchen and family rooms in separate areas of the house.

As demand continues to increase for open floor plans, homeowners of existing-homes are also looking to open up their kitchen and family room areas. Professional remodelers report that 40 percent of their projects involved making the floor plan more open by removing interior walls, pillars, arches, etc., according to first quarter of 2016 data in the Remodeling Market Index.

 

Real Estate Tips 20 Jan 2017

 

 

 

It is harder for buyers to get their offers accepted in a seller’s market. Yajnesh Rai of Team Yaj – Keller Williams Realty shares a series of tips for buyers on Radio De Hotties’ Pam Pam Show. Here are tip number 5 & 6

 

 

 

5.     DOM (Days on Market) – DOM mean how long a home is staying on the market before getting in contract with a buyer. This is an indication of the health of the market in general. It is also is an indication of situation of the house with respect to the market. If the DOM for the house is more than the average DOM for the market, then there are two possibilities: 1- House is overpriced or 2- something is wrong with the house. I teach my clients that, since most other buyers are going to shy away from a stale property like this one, it is a good idea to check it out. It the pricing is an issue, may be the seller’s motivation has changed now and he may consider lowering price. If there is an issue with the property, then check out if this will be something that will work you particularly with some adjustments. In a tough market like ours, it helps to be open minded be ready to capitalize on such opportunities.

 

 

 

6.     TFT (Transaction Fell Through) – This mean that a buyer and the seller were in contract but something in the contract did not work out and the contract failed. The home comes back on the market and the seller, in most cases, is at his peak motivation level. He does not like that his property will have long DOM and have trouble selling in future. At this time an agent that very active, agile and smart will jump right in for you and try to loch the deal. Having a buyer educated of such scenarios and be prepared to make quick decisions helps lock in a deal for the buyer.

 

 

 

 

 

More tips to be shared on the Pam Pam show and on this blog.

 

If you or anyone else you know that is looking to buy their first home, an investment property or sell their home, please reach out to me via either contact method.

 

 

 

Thank You, Yajnesh Rai – “Yaj”

 

Team Yaj, Keller Williams Silicon Valley

 

Real Estate Consultant, Broker Associate, CNE

 

 

 

2110 S Bascom Ave, #101, Campbell, CA

 

408-547-7845 | www.YajneshRai.com

 

www.Facebook.com/YRConsultant

 

CalBRE# 01924991

 

 

 

Smart Sellers Will List Early This Year | Realtor Magazine

Have you heard from clients who want to delay listing their home until the season begins? Because sales and prices tend to peak in the spring and summer, it’s a common request in many markets.

However, this year is different. Jonathan Smoke, realtor.com®’s chief economist, stresses in his latest column that the conventional wisdom isn’t correct this winter.

Here’s why: At the beginning of 2017, inventory levels plunged to multiyear lows. Sellers are currently facing very little competition, he says.

Mixed with that, buyer demand is “abnormally strong for the off-season,” Smoke writes. “The climb in mortgage rates that started in October and accelerated in November and December has created a sense of urgency among buyers.”

With interest rates largely forecasted to move higher this year, buyers are more in a rush to lock in a low rate sooner. Plus, your sellers may have to worry about lending rates as well; Smoke estimates that 85 percent of sellers are planning to buy another home after they sell.

So here’s the best tip for your sellers, Smoke says: “If you are thinking of selling and buying in 2017, the early bird may get the worm. And the best new nest.”