Why Are Millennial Buyers Afraid of Buying a Home?

Many millennials hesitate to enter the real estate market because they fear another housing crash. However, the market won’t crash like that again, and there are a few reasons why.

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Many millennials have fears about homeownership because they felt the devastating effects of the 2007 housing crash firsthand. Millennials watched their parents lose their homes, and many fear that it will happen again.

If you want to move your millennial out of your basement and into homeownership, let them know that it’s impossible for the market to crash in the same way that it did in 2007.

One huge reason that the market crashed back then was the loan availability standards dropped so low that just about anybody could get a loan. People could claim that they earned $100,000 a year and no one would verify their income. As a result, most people purchased homes that they couldn’t afford in the first place.

These days, it is more difficult to get a loan than it was during the housing boom. If you look at the mortgage credit availability index, you will see that it’s more difficult to get a loan today than it was back in June of 2004. Restrictions are much higher now, which means that the people getting loans for homes can actually afford to make the payments.

When you look at homeownership from an investment perspective, even the most conservative experts predict that your home will appreciate 9.9% by 2020. Optimists predict that homes will appreciate by 24.7%. Ultimately, you should see an average appreciation of 17.5% by 2020.

Chief economist Rob McLaughlin explains that owning a home is one of the most common ways for families to build long-term wealth, as it acts as a forced savings account. Instead of paying your landlord, you can pay yourself in the long run by paying down the mortgage on your house.

In fact, there are four specific ways in which owning a home is a good investment:

1. Mortgage payments can be fixed, while rental rates go up.
2. Equity in your home can be a financial resource later. If you find yourself in a bind, you can borrow against the equity that you’ve built in your home.
3. You can build wealth without paying high capital gains taxes.
4. You will lower your income tax liability through the standard mortgage deductions.

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You won’t experience the benefits of homeownership while living in your parents’ basement.

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You can’t accomplish any of those things while living in your parents’ basement.

Still, millennials are afraid that they won’t have enough money for a down payment or that their credit score just isn’t good enough. Do not fear—you can conquer those hurdles quite easily.

We will explain more about that in the future. In the meantime, if you have any questions or are interested in buying a home, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!

Is Fall a Good Time to List Your Home?

Contrary to popular belief, fall is a great time to list your home. Not only will you face less competition from other home sellers, but the buyers out looking for homes will be far more intent on making a purchase.

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Is the fall a good time for you to list your home? There are a few compelling reasons it very well may be.

Sometimes, it pays to go against the crowd. What do I mean by that? I mean that in spring, everybody wants to list their home. The summer is when most of these homes are sold. By choosing to list your home now, you will have less competition. You have the advantage of being a newer home with a fewer number of days on the market than other homes that have been listed longer.

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Listing your home during the fall means
 having less competition to deal with.

”

Fall is also a time when home buyers are more serious than usual. If you’re out looking for a home during the fall, you typically have a very pressing reason. Most buyers want to find something before the holidays get here. It’s also important to remember that interest rates are good right now, and we don’t know how long that will last.

If you are thinking of selling your home in the fall, then there are a few things to keep in mind.

It is important to have your home prepared and in good condition because buyers are only looking for homes that are in good condition. Fix all the little things that need repairs. For example, we’re all going to start running our heaters regularly, so check your HVAC and change out the filter so the home is warm and fresh-smelling.

Pricing the home appropriately is always key to getting it sold, but this is even more true in the fall because there is less time to recover if you need to do a price adjustment. Pricing appropriately involves looking at comparables, knowing the condition of the market in your specific area, and figuring out a strategy that will get the job done.

Our team would be happy to meet with you and talk to you about all of these things. If you’re thinking of selling your home sometime during the fall, give us a call or shoot us an email. We would be happy to help you!

Join Us at Our Client Appreciation Party

You are invited to our client appreciation event this year. Bring the kids for some games and crafts while you enjoy great food, drinks, and music by Elvis!

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Today I’m here to invite you to our client appreciation party!

We will be at Chez Shari in Manteca on November 16th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., so come on out and join us for a good time!

If you haven’t been before, Chez Shari is the little restaurant above the golf course. They have wonderful food there, and we will also have some interesting guests at our event.

Santa will be back so you can take pictures with your kids, and we will have some fun games and crafts for them as well. Elvis will even make a special appearance. That’s right — Elvis will be our entertainer for the evening!

Please RSVP at tlcsells@tlcrealtors.com by November 11th to let us know if you are coming. We look forward to seeing you there!

What Our New Name Means for Us and for You

Hi, I’m Lori from TLC Real Estate.

Does that sound a little odd? I know it does for me. In case you haven’t heard, we recently changed our real estate team name from ‘The Lori’s & Company’ to ‘TLC Real Estate.’ What I wanted to talk to you about today is why we made the change, how this will impact us in the future, and how it will impact you.

How did we get the name The Lori’s & Company? Lori Adams and I started this business back in 2010, and our clients actually started calling us ‘The Loris.’ That nickname evolved as we grew and added people to our team until we decided to officially call ourselves The Lori’s & Company.

As we continued to grow, though, we started thinking about making a change to fit the whole team. At the same time, the California Bureau of Real Estate (BRE) instituted some changes to their guidelines regarding team names. Their number one new rule prohibited the use of first names. This was obviously bad for us since our whole team name was a first name.

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At the end of the day, we’re the same
group as before.

”

In response, our team brainstormed with the BRE to figure out what would work best for us. What we came up with was TLC. As you know, TLC is an acronym that stands for ‘tender loving care.’ We adopted this name because it represents one of our core values—to care for our clients and to provide service to them.

If you’re out and about or surfing social media and you see our new brand, think about what it means to you. We have the same team here to support you, and we will continue to grow and be the same group that makes sure that your home purchase or sale is as seamless as possible.

If you have any questions or real estate needs, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Preparing and Planning to Buy Your First Home

The path from here to homeownership involves three steps: preparing, planning, and purchasing.

Preparing primarily involves acquiring all necessary information. You do this by sitting down and speaking with a residential mortgage lender that you trust. Just approaching them, explaining that you want to buy a house, and giving them all your information will help them assess when you can buy.

Devising a plan of action can go many ways. This might involve saving for a down payment, working to improve your credit score, paying off debt, or addressing any number of other procedural requirements. Again, conferring with a lender to formulate this plan will help immensely. It sounds strenuous, but in most cases, it just takes a little time.

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It might sound strenuous, but it
just takes a little time.

”

Following the first two steps will do wonders for your confidence and put you on the right track once it’s time to get out there and make your purchase.

If you have any questions about buying a home, please feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to working with you.

The Latest From Ripon and Manteca Real Estate

We’ve got a quick market update to share with you today for both Ripon and Manteca. We’ve been seeing a lot of exciting trends as of late. Let’s start with what’s going on in Manteca so far this year:

• 626 homes have closed escrow
• The average time on market is 26 days
• The average price per square foot is $179
• The average sold home price is $353,000

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Our market is strong for 
buyers and sellers.

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These are all great numbers and show just how strong our market is for sellers right now. Let’s move on to what’s happening in Ripon, which is a much smaller community:

• 151 homes have closed escrow
• The average time on market is about 49 days
• The average price per square foot is $202
• The average sold home price is $451,000

These numbers indicate that we have a strong market for both buyers and sellers. With 3.2% interest rates for FHA loans, your buying power will continue to be strong. Prices are up as well, which is good news for sellers.

If you have any questions for us or have been thinking about buying or selling yourself, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Should You Get a Termite Report Before Listing?

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Is it necessary for you to get a termite report before you list your home on the market? It’s a question that’s bandied about every day. Many people, we find, would prefer to put their home on the market and hope they’ll receive an offer without asking for any repairs.

What we’re seeing right now, though, is that buyers want their homes in good condition. This means they’re asking for repairs which could become offensive to the seller later on. Only you can know whether it’s worth it or not to get a termite report, but I would strongly suggest getting one before listing your home on the market for these reasons:

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A termite report helps you avoid unwanted costs and other surprises.

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1. You know where you stand during the negotiation. If you get a full price offer or something higher, the buyer will expect that home to be in very good condition. But once they do their inspection and find that there could be problems, you might be getting less than what you thought.
2. It helps you avoid surprises. You simply have more options if you do it in advance. You can disclose it to buyers and let them know it’s being sold as is, or you can just take care of it yourself and in your marketing let buyers know you’re providing a clear pest report. They’re not too expensive, and they allow you peace of mind.
3. You can be prepared with covered patios and wood decking. These features are notorious for giving us surprises we don’t want. They can look like they’re in good condition, but only a little pressing can reveal a problem. If that’s the case, it can get costly.

If you have any questions about termite reports, pest reports, or why they might be important, give us a call. We’d also like to talk about any real estate questions you have.

What Factors Determine an Appraisal?

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If you’re buying or selling a home, knowing about appraisals is very important. Over the last five or six years, appraisers have been held to the wire, so to speak, and their jobs have changed as far as what they can do and how they process an appraisal. This affects you whether you’re trying to buy or sell a home. Here are some of the things to look at so you’re prepared when the time comes:

1. Location. The first thing an appraiser looks at is where is this home located. Is it in a neighborhood? If so, they’re going to want to compare homes in that same neighborhood. If they have to go out because there aren’t enough comps, they likely won’t venture out farther than a mile.
2. Square footage. In this situation, size does matter. You can’t compare a home that’s a lot bigger just to attribute value. Same goes for being smaller. An appraiser looks at homes based on the price they sold, not square feet. As a seller, be mindful of that when setting a price. As a buyer, be mindful when making an offer. If the square footage isn’t within 10% smaller/larger, the appraiser might extend that range to 15% or 20%, but they’ll always start close to the same size of the subject property.
3. Property age. Appraisers don’t consider homes that are brand new as comparable with homes that were built in the 70s or 80s. If you’re looking at homes that have just sold and just been built, we can’t use those in an appraisal situation.

Some more factors to think about that could affect the value of your home is if you’re in a unique area, a rural area, have a large yard, or even have a custom home. Those kinds of things can add value to your property and it will allow the appraiser to make adjustments that they might have otherwise not been able to make in a traditional neighborhood.

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Location, square footage, and 
property age are determining
 factors for appraisers.

”

Keep in mind, if you do have upgrades or renovations in your home, have numbers available to share so they know what that value is. We never get the exact amount back, but just knowing that value could help them give you a boost.

If you have any questions about appraisals or anything regarding real estate, just give us a call or send an email. We’d love to talk to you.

7 Tips to Help You Sell in Central Valley

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We have had a lot of success meeting with Central Valley sellers and getting their homes sold quickly for a great price. I have seven tips for getting top dollar that I give to clients selling their homes, and I wanted to share them with you.

1. Fix anything that's broken. Anything from cracked windows to torn screens to loose cabinet pulls; take care of them before your home goes on the market.
2. Clean, clean, clean. Nobody wants to move in onto somebody else's dirt. Clean top to bottom, including light fixtures and under the furniture.
3. Paint. Touch up or repaint if you must. Get rid of colors that don't appeal to the masses, and definitely touch up any marring on the walls, baseboards, trim, and doors.
4. Stage professionally. We include a staging consultation with our services because we think this is invaluable to the seller. Our stager has an eye for making your home appeal to buyers, and makes your move easier.
5. Curb appeal. Our stager takes this into account too. Be aware of what will be going through the buyer's mind when they pull up to the house. You want to have the best looking house on the block - pretty flowers, a green lawn, and that kind of thing.
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Be aware of what's going
through a buyer's mind when they
first pull up to the house.
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6. Professional photography. We also include this in our services, because having crummy pictures online won't bring you top dollar. In fact, some buyers will eliminate your home from their search before they even come out to see it.
7. Price your home correctly. This might be the most important thing you can do. If you list too high, you'll waste precious time on the market. If you price correctly, a lot of people will come through, and if you follow the other six steps, you may even get multiple offers.

Thanks for watching today! I hope you find these tips helpful. If you have any questions for us, please feel free to reach out to me!

Top Tips to Strengthen Your Offer in a Competitive Market

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The market here in Central Valley is awfully competitive right now. However, you can strengthen your offer to win your dream home.

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You must be pre-approved to buy a 
home in this market.

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1. You need a letter of pre-approval. You want to work with a local lender in order to get one, and you need to advertise this to sellers. Most sellers actually won’t even entertain your offer without a pre-approval. This is probably the most important thing that you can do for yourself in this market.

2. Work with your Realtor to write a strong offer. A stronger offer doesn’t always mean that you’re willing to pay the largest amount of money. Rather, find out what the seller wants to see and do your best to emulate that in your offer. Some sellers want money, and others want convenience. It’s your job to find out which.

3. Don’t be nitpicky in this market. There is no time to quibble over a small issue. Sellers will just move on to the next best buyer.

4. Write in an escalation clause if you really think a home is worth it. You could pledge to offer $1,000 above the highest offer, and you could then cap it at a certain price. This shows the seller how serious you are about buying the home. We have had some success with this in the past, and you shouldn’t worry about overpaying because the home has to appraise to an appropriate value before selling.

5. Avoid writing too many contingencies into your offer. Nobody likes to see these because they just stall transactions and it puts people in awkward positions.

6. Pay with cash if you can. Sellers always love to see a buyer that doesn’t have to worry about financing.

Last but not least, you need to work with a great local Realtor. You’re much more likely to be successful when you work with a talented agent. Who you work with really matters.

We would love to help you with any of your buying or selling needs. Please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Our Three Tips to Sell for Top Dollar

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Do you want to sell your home in the shortest amount of time possible for the most money possible? Then we’ve got a great topic for you today. We are going to give you three great tips for how you can help your home sell for top dollar.

1. The first thing you need to have is great marketing. You can’t just list your home for sale and hope it sells, you’ve got to have gorgeous photos, a list of all your upgrades, and floor plans if you have them. Buyers want to know everything about a home, so the more info you can give them the better. Having a full-time agent really can help you do this.
2. The second thing you need to do is actually all about what you shouldn’t do. Don’t test the market by pricing high. We do not live in a time where you can price your home high and hope that someone will eventually buy it. Right now, we are seeing that if you price the home at market value, you can get multiple offers.
3. Finally, you’ve got to stage your home to sell. It could be a partial or full staging, or maybe just some decluttering. However, you need to make sure your home is very clean, lights are on, curtains drawn, and you have great curb appeal. That’s what buyers want to see.

These are just a few of the things we suggest for you to do in order to get the highest price in the shortest time period. If you have any questions for us, give us a call or send us an email. We can’t wait to hear from you!