Yajnesh Rai

Marketing Tips: Steps to Take Now for a Faster Home Sale Next Year : News : Realty Today

When it comes to selling homes, finding the right methods and approaches is among the best options to satisfactorily sell a home. A home sale is a decision that any person have to think through.

It doesn’t happen at night and thorough planning is needed before deciding to sell your home. According to a recent statement by yahoo.com, “Investing in strategic home improvements will help facilitate a quicker and more profitable sale.” When it comes to selling homes, there are various factors that are involved. Factors such as emotional and financial aspects are all involved when it comes to selling homes.

One method to ensure a faster home sale for the next coming year, is through connecting with a local agent. According to a recent report by Zillow, “Real estate agents shouldn’t just show up, list a home, hold an open house and move on.” When real estate agents are helping homeowners in selling their homes, there is a higher possibility of sale than those that solely depend on themselves to sell their home. Zillow further reported that, “A good agent will provide helpful information, advice and assistance on an ongoing basis, in hopes of working with you on the eventual sale.”

The second method to ensure a faster home sale is conducting a proper property inspection. Yahoo previously stated that, “For a few hundred dollars, homeowners can have a licensed property inspector assess the home’s major systems and components.”

The third method to ensure success is through revamping their homes or implementing developments. When a home is revamped, there is a higher possibility of selling it in the market for the next few days, weeks and months. Yahoo suggested, “Cosmetic fixes like laying new carpet, painting cabinets or cleaning the yellow grout in the bathroom.”

The final assurance for easier home sale for the next coming year is getting a home warranty. Based on a report by Yahoo, “A home warranty is like a one-year insurance policy that addresses major appliances and most systems.”

 

Is it better to buy or rent a home?

 

To initiate a discussion with a real estate professional, please contact Yajnesh Rai – yrai@kw.com, 408-547-8745.

Do you fork cash over to a landlord in exchange for freedom of responsibility for residential maintenance, or take out a mortgage and shell out monthly for the pride – and eventually financial payoff – of homeownership?

A recent study from Zillow, the online real estate service, shows that homebuyers nationwide face more challenges this year, with inventory down 6.5% from 2014 and home values up 3.3% over roughly the same period.

While the market appears to be in the seller’s favor, many still opt to buy for stability, tax benefits or some other plus. As a financial planner, I often discuss real estate’s potential effect on a financial future.

There are plenty of reasons to buy and likewise plenty to support renting a home. Below are a few considerations.

Buying. A home provides a place to live – stability for you and your family. When you own a home, you are no longer at the mercy of a landlord who changes terms or, even worse, sells the property. With each mortgage payment you also know you’re closer to outright owning that asset.

Among other good points:

• No surprises. While a leaky roof or broken water heater might catch you off guard, your monthly payment typically doesn’t vary. This helps with budgeting, cash flow and other aspects of a comprehensive financial plan.

• Tax benefits. As a homeowner, you can deduct many related expenses. And unless you owe more than $1 million, all the interest in your mortgage payment is deductible.

• Diversification. While real estate doesn’t always prove the best investment over a long time – often barely keeping up with inflation – it can serve as a great portfolio tool.

Just as you commonly invest in stocks, bonds, cash, certificates of deposit and the like through brokerage and retirement accounts, you can use real estate as another asset class that can help diversify your investing. Plus, as a tangible asset, real estate appeals to many other potential buyers and investors.

•  Equity building and retirement planning. As a homeowner, you build your equity through paying down your mortgage over the years. If successful, you will likely enjoy a lower cost of living in retirement.

Renting. If you’re part of the population that’s unable to buy at this time, you have a few good reasons to rent.

• Flexibility. Maybe you prefer to move around, seeing new neighborhoods and cities; it’s hard to put a dollar value on that experience and enjoyment.

If you anticipate a career or job change renting might suit you better, as buying a home can hinder your flexibility to pick up and move.

• Avoiding homeownership costs. Homeowners are painfully familiar with such extra, unforeseen and often hefty costs as Realtor fees, mortgage origination fees to start your loan, property taxes, moving costs, furnishing, decorating, leaky pipes, gardener wages – you name it. As a tenant, you enjoy the perks of your home without the worrisome financial burden.

• Liquidity. Generally, you can’t turn a house into cash overnight. Many people invest a lifetime’s savings into a home, putting the bulk of their net worth into an illiquid asset. Risk comes with tying up a large portion of your wealth in such an asset. Renting allows you flexibility and other investment options.

• Building credit. As consumers, we need a healthy credit for pretty much all we do, from getting a new cell phone plan to buying a car. While renting doesn’t boost your credit rating the same as owning a home, creating a history of on-time rental payments can, in some cases, help build your credit to qualify for a mortgage down the road.

This history begins when (and if) your landlord reports your payment data to credit agencies. Third-party services can help you report this information on your behalf.

Once your credit is solid, you can reevaluate if owning a home seems right for you.

1. Sale of Homes have increased year over year but there is drop from month to month.

2. There is a slight decrease in the median price

 

 

To take advantage of these interest rates before it goes up, please call Yajnesh Rai – 408-547-7845, to set up a home buying consultation.

Average rate on 30-year mortgage rises to 3.89%

WASHINGTON — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week after a sharp drop the previous week, as global markets continued to whipsaw amid economic disruption in China and uncertainty over Federal Reserve interest-rate policy.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.89 percent from 3.84 percent a week earlier. The rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages advanced to 3.09 percent from 3.06 percent.

The rates remain well below their levels of a year ago, when the 30-year loan rate was 4.10 percent and the 15-year rate was 3.24 percent.

Mortgage rates have been tracking the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, as investors have fled turbulent stock markets in recent weeks for the safety of U.S. government bonds, and then markets have sharply recovered.

An increase in bond prices reduces their yields, and vice versa. The yield on the 10-year bond, which dipped below 2 percent early last week when stocks plunged on Wall Street, recovered to 2.19 percent Wednesday as the market rebounded. That was close to its level of 2.18 percent last Wednesday. The yield was at 2.17 percent Thursday morning.

As the markets have gyrated, investors and economic observers are straining to figure out whether the Fed will raise a key interest rate this month, as has been long anticipated. A rate hike by the Fed could bring higher rates for home loans. The Fed has kept its key short-term rate near zero since the financial crisis struck seven years ago.

Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer left the door open for a Fed rate increase this month, saying Saturday that the factors that have kept inflation below the central bank’s target level have likely begun to fade. Fischer said, for example, that some effects of a stronger dollar and a plunge in oil prices — key factors in holding down inflation — have already started to diminish.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country at the beginning of each week. The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for a 30-year mortgage was unchanged from last week at 0.6 point. The fee for a 15-year loan also held steady at 0.6 point.

The average rate on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 2.93 percent from 2.90 percent; the fee remained at 0.4 percent. The average rate on one-year ARMs was unchanged at 2.62 percent; the fee held at 0.3 point.

 

 

Focus on following few things:

1. Upgrade Kitchen

2. Upgrade Baths

3. Clean Windows

4. Clean or new floors

5. Curb Appeal

 

Top home improvements that help sell your home – Ellwood City Ledger: Home & Garden

While certain home upgrades provide obvious aesthetic enhancements, it’s important to ensure the projects are worth the expense.

The following three home improvements provide especially impressive returns on their respective investments, making them excellent choices to consider with an eye on selling your home.

Bath and Kitchen

Bathroom and kitchen renovations are great bets, according to the National Association of Realtors. However, ripping out these rooms and building them completely anew is an extreme expense that might not give you an immediate investment return.

Instead, check out refinishing services, whose work can provide more value than a full replacement. For example, Miracle Method takes ugly bathtubs, countertops, faucets and other fittings, and refurbishes them to look newly installed. This service will increase the useful life of those fixtures by more than 15 years, at a fraction of the cost and time of a replacement.  

Why September Is The Best Month for Buyers | Realtor Magazine

Buyers who are willing to close on a home purchase during the off-peak seasons – like fall and winter – tend to have the upper-hand, according to Jonathan Smoke, realtor.com®’s chief economist. September, in particular, is the best month of this year to sign a contract to purchase a home, according to his analysis.

For one thing, supply is rising, providing home buyers with more choices of homes for sale than they’ve had in the past 10 months. In the third week of August, inventory was at 1.91 million units, an increase from 21 percent since January, according to realtor.com®.

“Normally inventory peaks in August and begins to slow as the nights grow longer,” Smoke says. “But this year the typical seasonal decline will start a bit later. There will be more choices in September than any other month in 2015.”

Also, he says that overall demand is down now that the school year has started so buyers will provide less competition this month too.

“And, of course, with less competition for the most listings all year, pricing power weakens as inventory takes longer to sell,” Smoke says.

As an added incentive to home buyers, mortgage rates are remaining low, for now. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage ended the week under 4 percent due to recent stock market turbulence. In June, 30-year rates were averaging 4.2 percent, but have since fallen.