HomeBuying

Well, it's been a minute since I bought my first home, but it occurred to me that there are some things that I really wish I had known. So here are the seven things that I wish I had known when I bought my first house. Number one, as soon as you start looking at Pinterest, scrolling through apps, and looking at homes, find yourself an agent. Whether it is your next-door neighbor's best friend, or you find someone online on social media, ask your friends, ask your family, and find an agent that is going to work for you. Number two, the listing agent represents the seller. So if you are scrolling through homes online, and you roll up into an open house on a Sunday, and you love it, the only agent that you have now had any sort of communication or relationship with is the agent that represents the seller, that is not necessarily the agent you want representing you. Number three, don't be afraid to ask questions. And I mean, ask questions, there is no stupid question. Ask your lender, ask your friends, ask your agent, and make sure that all of your questions get answered, I see this almost more with folks who have purchased multiple homes than I do with first-time buyers. So even if you've bought five, six, or ten houses, you probably haven't bought them this year in this market, and maybe not in this state or in this city or county. So don't hesitate to ask, I promise we're not going to judge you and think it's a stupid question. Number four, know your numbers. So you're obviously going to be saving for your closing costs and your downpayment, and all of that stuff. But remember, you're going to want to furnish that house too. You might want to buy some plants, you're gonna have to pay for movers. So make sure that you're accounting for those things. I have some great checklists and your agent probably does too. Make sure that you're preparing for all of those circumstances that are going to come up. Number five know the disclosure laws. Here in Virginia, we are a buyer-beware state which means the seller doesn't have to tell you all of the stories about the times that the pipes leaked or anything else. They are going to say as far as we know, it's okay. Unless as far as they know, it's not. They are required to disclose if they know there's a problem, but proving that they knew or didn't know later is very difficult. Have an inspection with an inspector you trust and again, ask questions. Number six, just to reiterate, have an inspection. You can have any and all inspections as long as you have listed those in the contract and agreed upon that with the seller in your contract for purchase. So not just a whole house inspection, but if you're particularly concerned about the roof, you can get a roofer out there to check it out. You are going to pay for all those inspections but it is a whole heck of a lot easier to do that than pay for a new roof after closing. Finally, number seven, lean on your agent. This goes back to selecting an agent that is somebody that you are comfortable with, comfortable asking questions and comfortable getting referrals from. My clients call me years, months, whatever later and asked me for a great lawn care person or a great gutter guy. If you want somebody who can be a resource, make sure you have all your information. I promise you a will make the process so much easier. If you are looking to buy a house I would love to talk to you. I am happy to help answer any questions whether you are here in the central Virginia region and I would love to help you but I have agents and friends all over the country that I can put you in touch with to give you the same level of service.

I've got some good news if you've been thinking of buying a home, and the last couple of years have proven to be just too stressful. The market that has been so consistently crazy for the past couple of years is finally starting to calm a bit, making the buying process just that much less stressful. While we are still in a seller's market here in the Richmond area, the wild times of no inspections, no appraisals, and multiple offers driving prices way over asking seem to be waning, and at least a bit of negotiating power is coming back to buyers. Here are a few of the things we haven't seen in a while that are a sight for sore eyes if you're buying: Negotiation and Contingencies are back!  According to a recent survey done by the National Association of Realtors®,  Homes that sold at- or above-asking price peaked at 82% in Feb. and March of 2022 when mortgage rates were below 4% and dropped to 69% for homes that sold within the last month when rates hovered near 6%. By contrast, the share of sellers who sold below-asking jumped from 18% in Feb. and March 2022 to 31% for those sold within the last month. Additionally, 92% of all recent sellers accepted some buyer-friendly terms. Those included: 41% Accepted some contingencies in the contract (appraisal, home inspection, home sale, financing, etc.) 32% Dropped the price because the home didn't meet appraisal 32% Paid for some or all of the buyer's closing costs 30% Had to be flexible on the ideal timeline for closing 29% Paid for repairs to the home after the appraisal 28% Were not able to rent the home back after close despite asking to How about an inspection? An inspection is always a great idea. Remember, Virginia is "buyer beware," meaning unless there is a material defect, sellers don't have any disclosures they are required to provide. (And trust me, not everyone understands what "material defect" means.) Over the last couple of years, we've seen fewer and fewer inspections requested as buyers with stiff competition try to make their offers more appealing to the sellers. Of sellers who sold in the last month, 95% reported that the buyer requested a home inspection, up from 82% of those who sold 6-12 months ago. More than twice as many buyers of homes that sold in the last month asked for repairs as a result of the home inspection (67%) compared to homes that sold 6-12 months ago (31%). The number of surveyed sellers who refused to pay for any repairs during that time dropped from 8% to zero. Keep in mind, we are still in a low inventory market, and most homes are still selling quickly. However, in our area at least, we are seeing fewer double digit multiple offer situations, and more where there are just a few. Every neighborhood is different, and every home is as well. Those homes that are totally "done" are still selling pretty competitively, but there are opportunities in this market for buyers.  If you're selling, checking all those boxes for things buyers love is starting to make more of a difference than it has, and knowing the market conditions and how to price accordingly is important again. Homes are still selling, and selling well, so don't despair that you've missed your window. You haven't! Whether you're buying or selling, I'd love to talk to you about your individual real estate goals and how to help attain them. Give me a call!  

As we close out yet another "unprecedented" summer, it's a great time to check in on the market and give you a few numbers, but also a breakdown of my assessment on things. Here in the Richmond area, we have definitely seen things cool a bit, but it's by no means ground to a screeching halt. A few things to note, number wise. (These are numbers for the Richmond Metro area, so the city and surrounding counties) The average home price has finally dipped a bit month to month, dropping from $429,015 in July to $420,926 in August. If you look at this graph, you'll see how prices have trended generally over the last year, and it's been pretty steadily increasing all along, until now. (July was a bit lower than June as well.) Days on Market has actually gone up in August over July as well, with the average home now staying on the market 15 days instead of 11. Yep, these are not huge differences month over month, and they are still stronger numbers than last year at this same time. We are very much still in a market with low inventory, and we still have a bit of a backlog of buyers that are still looking for homes. So what does this all mean if you are one of those buyers still looking in this market? Good news! We are seeing more negotiation for buyers, with people able to actually "make an offer" in some cases, as well as have full home inspection and appraisal clauses in their contracts. This is something we haven't seen in some time, and as someone who works with a LOT of buyers, I have to say it's a welcome change! But what if you're selling? Have you missed your window? Absolutely not. As I mentioned before, we still have fairly low inventory, and that means there are still more buyers than sellers, and pretty high demand. Did you miss the window of multiple offers with no contingencies and way over asking? Maybe. We are still seeing plenty of multiple offers, but that's a bit unpredictable, even in the "hottest" of areas. If you need to sell, though (or just want to sell), it is still a good time, just in a more normal sense of good, rather than totally crazy like it was 6 months ago. Do you have questions about the market as we head into fall? I'd love to help you get your questions answered, and make sure you have all the information to make any move you need or want to make. Call me!

Okay, so let's talk about rent backs. What is a rent back? That's something that we're hearing all over the place in the market the last year. So, lots of sellers want to stay in their home after they close because maybe they haven't found a home or maybe they have found a home, but they can't move into it right away. So, when you hear the term rent back bandied about basically what that means is the seller would like to retain possession after closing for a fixed period of time. But how does that work? I mean, it sounds like a great idea, but how does that impact you with the buyer of that home? So when we do a rent back, we use what is called a possession by seller agreement and basically, it's just like a lease, you basically become a landlord for whatever it is that you and the seller of the home you're buying have determined you want to do. There are all sorts of ways to structure this. But yes, you do own the home after closing. Yes, you do want to make sure your homeowners insurance covers it. Every little detail of that process needs to be in writing and you need to understand that you basically have a tenant. So, if the washing machine breaks, it's on you, not them in most cases. So, there's lots to go into that. But remember, if you want to do something like that, that is outside of the details of the actual sales contract, we need to have all of that in writing to avoid any confusion and make sure everyone is covered. So remember, anytime we do anything in a real estate contract, listing or selling, we want to have everything in writing. If you have questions about any of those details, or you have an unusual situation, reach out to me I'd love to answer any of your questions.

We've all heard that old adage, cash is king many, many times. But what do you do if you're trying to buy a home in this market and you don't have a dump truck full of cash? Let's unpack that a little bit. Why is cash king anyway? Well, it's all about risk, right? The seller wants to make sure that what you offer them is what they're going to get at the end of the day, and it's guaranteed not going to have any unexpected loopholes throughout the transaction. There are some ways that we can make your noncash deal as competitive or close to a cash deal without you having to have piles and piles of cold hard cash. A few of those things that are going to help your noncash offer feel more like a cash offer to that seller are going to be waiving the inspection or making the inspection less of a question mark for them. Waiving the appraisal or making the appraisal less of a question mark for the seller. So that's coming up with a little bit of extra cash if the appraised price and the purchase price don't quite meet. And another is, and perhaps the most important make sure that you are well qualified with a local lender who might even talk to the listing agent to let them know how solid your offer and your qualifications are. If you have any more questions about writing the perfect offer in the seller's market, I'd love to talk to you. Give me a call, send me a message. Shoot me a DM and let's get started.

So you just saw that that house you offered on sold and it went for less than you offered, how the heck did that happen? Sometimes it's all about the money. And sometimes it's not having an agent that's going to do the research to make sure that your offer is best positioned to be appealing to that individual seller is going to make a huge difference in getting your offer accepted. Just like you may have an individual reason for buying a home, your family has grown, you're downsizing, you're moving to a new city, new job, things like that the seller is gonna have their own motivation as well. Knowing what those things are, are going to help you find that sweet spot that's going to dovetail your needs with theirs and get that winning offer. If you want to find out more ways to get your offer accepted in this market or get started on the process of buying a home give me a call send me a message I'd love to talk to you.

How do you even go about picking the right Realtor? And is it even important? In the market that we're in right now, or really any market at all, having a good agent on your side on your team really is a crucial component of either selling or buying that house. You really want an agent that's going to be willing and able to have those hard conversations. So that means telling you that your offer may not win and helping you craft the offer that will. That means telling you that your cats smell a little bit more than you maybe think they do. That is telling you that you might need to move that old sofa out and have your home staged. So while we all like to hear what we like to hear, sometimes we need somebody to give us those hard questions hit us with those hard truths to get us where we want to go. Obviously, I'm going to tell you, I am the agent that's going to give you the hard truths, ask the hard questions, and tell you what you may not always want to hear. So if you're ready to have some of those hard conversations that are going to help you get where you want to be in your real estate goals. Give me a call. I'd love to talk to you!

Is this house in a good area or a bad area? What do you think of this neighborhood? How are the schools? These are some of the questions that I get asked all the time. And I hate to tell you, I can't really answer them. Because of a little thing called fair housing, we really can't, as Realtors, tell you what's a good area and what's a bad area. One of the things that I can tell you just as a person and not as a realtor is, we all have a different perception of what that is to just like, my favorite pizza might not be your favorite pizza. Telling you what an area is or is not necessarily going to give you the data that you need. My goal is always to be the source of the source. So I can always provide you with enough information and reference sources to get you where you want to be. Whatever you're looking for in a neighborhood. Remember, what's good for you may not be good for someone else and vice versa. What I can do to help you when you're searching for a home is give you all the information and resources to help you make the best decision for you and your family. If you're thinking about looking for a home and you have questions about any part of the process, please reach out give me a call send me a message. I'd love to talk to you.

Well, mostly midsummer, at least. It's hard to turn on the news without some sort of daily update about the real estate market, but with so much click bait, so many opinions, and headlines crafted to grab your attention, what is the real story?? (And how much does the national news impact what's going on here in Central Virginia?) I'm here to break it down for you! What's Been Happening for a While? Well, it's no surprise that the real estate market has been going full steam for the last couple of years. The reasons for that are numerous. To name a few: The pandemic created different needs in the home- more work from home situations, more desire for home to be a "get away" when so many get aways were closed (think pools, putting greens, and more outdoor kitchens), and more people becoming something of digital nomads, with the ability to move anywhere. Interest rates dropped to historic lows, so money became so cheap to borrow, and that absolutely spurred the market, make home ownership more attainable for many. Millenials/older millennial buyers dropped into the market in force. Being the most populous generation, they made up 43% of the buyers out there in 2021 and those numbers continue to grow. The production of new housing units dropped after the mortgage crisis in '08, and the supply has diminished since. All of those factors created a serious supply and demand issue, where there were quite literally more buyers than homes. That's been going on for a couple of years now. What we're seeing now and how it's changed over the last few months.  Obviously, rates have risen quite a lot in the last few months, going from a low of 2.68% in December of 2020 to the current rate (as of July 2022) hovering around 5.5%. That has pushed some buyers out of the market completely, and more into different brackets of their price range. In our market, in Central Virginia and the Metro Richmond area, We're still seeing a good number of multiple offer situations. But, instead of 15 offers, we're seeing more 4 or 5 offer situations. Every home is not selling immediately. The homes that have don't have great curb appeal, show a lot of deferred maintenance, or are priced too ambitiously are not flying off the market like they were a few months ago. Buyers are able to be, and are being, a little more picky, and a little more cautious. Fewer buyers are waiving "all the things-" Inspections, appraisals, etc. More price reductions. Price reductions have tripled since early May. Those days of pricing homes by throwing a dart up high, and having offers that still exceed it, seem largely over. In most cases, at least. What is projected in the next few months/looking into next year? (And how will it all affect you if you're looking to buy or sell?) Despite some people's predictions of a housing market crash, that's VERY unlikely to happen here in the Richmond area. Demand is still high, and supply is still pretty low. While we may see a more "normal," market, it is doubtful that we'll shift completely from a seller's market to a buyer's market. It will likely just be more balanced. We're already seeing more home inspections and fewer high appraisal waivers, so if you've wanted to buy and those things have scared you, that window is opening just a bit. All of the experts do predict that rates will continue to rise over the next few months to a year, and that homes prices here will continue to go up (not at the same rate, but still, up) for the next few years, so if you're thinking of buying, don't wait for prices to go down. Buy when it's right for YOU. If you're thinking of selling, you may have missed *much* of the crazy peak of the seller's market, but with supply still low, it is still a good time to sell and leverage the equity you have in your home. Do you have more questions about the market? Follow me on social media and here for more market updates, or give me a call to give you a customized assessment of your unique situation.  

But wait a minute, if you're writing an offer, isn't it always about who is willing to pay the most money? In this crazy competitive market, we've been in now for a while. Sometimes it is. And sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's about those little individual things that make a difference to the seller. Here are a few things that I've seen recently. One, a seller that had 19 offers, the ones that they wanted to negotiate were the ones with no inspection, not because they thought there was going to be anything wrong with the house, but because they had small children. And the idea of not having to clean the house once more made a huge difference to them. When you're getting a mortgage on a home, you are going to have to have an appraisal, your lender is going to require one and if it doesn't appraise for the escalated value that that offer may have been, and you can't make up the difference in cash. You could be offering $10 million on a $300,000 house, but the lender is only going to give you $300,000. And sometimes people are just super emotional about their house. I've also seen situations where the people just knew that the buyer's love, love, loved everything that they had done, and that made a huge difference to them. They wanted someone to love the home as much as they did. Are you curious about more ways to be a lucrative buyer in this incredibly tough competitive market? I'd love to talk to you. Sit down and help make your homeownership dreams come true. Send me an email give me a call.