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We’re back today to discuss the third thing you shouldn’t do when buying real estate, which is underestimating your budget.
Contrary to popular belief, Realtors are there to listen to you and help you navigate you toward the home of your dreams. If you aren’t upfront with your agent from the start, however, you could end up missing out on your perfect home.
Our job is to negotiate the best deal possible for you.
Our job is to work for you and negotiate the best deal possible that not only makes you comfortable, but fits your wants, needs, and non-negotiables. The key to accomplishing this is being honest, open, and upfront as a buyer.
If you have any questions for us in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
If you need a loan to buy your home, never pick a lender based on the interest rate they offer. Why?
While interest rates are definitely important, there are many other factors that come into play when it comes to lending that most people don’t realize. The fees that the lender charges to do the loan should also be taken into consideration, as well as their reputation and their ability to close on time.
As you might notice in the video above, I’m standing in front of a pile of leaves. This is because lending these days involves a pile of paperwork, and you need to be prepared for it and know that you’re not being picked on. Every lender has to ask you for lots of documents, and then ask for them again so they can be updated. It takes a lot of effort from you to get a home loan, and that’s the way it should be.
It takes a lot of effort on your part to get a home loan.
Stayed tuned for the third part in our ongoing series providing tips for homebuyers. In the meantime, if you have any questions or are thinking about buying a home in our market, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help you.
We're starting a new series today: The Six Things to Never Do When Buying a Home. We're covering the first tip today, "which is to never buy a home without a Realtor to help you." As you know, us Realtors are specialists in our field and we hope you'll call us when you're ready to buy. However, there's no problem with starting your search online. Once you get an idea of what you like, call us. We'll talk about what you like, what you're looking for, and put together a great list of homes for you. We want to be like your fairy godmother and make your real estate dreams come true.
Once you know what you’re looking for, give us a call.
We can help you navigate the process and make it a great experience for you. It's what we love to do. If you have any questions for us in the meantime, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.
The Red Relief program by Keller Williams is dedicated to providing disaster relief to those impacted by Hurricane Harvey and Irma. Find out how you can help today.
Keller Williams is here to help those impacted by Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma.
When it comes to Keller Williams, family is everything.
Our Red Relief program is dedicated to providing disaster relief to every family impacted by these storms.
Hundreds of Keller Williams agents have gone to Texas to help those in Corpus Christi, Houston, Beaumont, and more. More agents are on their way to help families in the path of Hurricane Irma in Florida.
So far, we have seen a tremendous outpouring of love from our volunteers and donors. Rebuilding these areas is going to take more than a couple of weeks, so it’s important that we keep the energy going in the coming months as we help people get back to their normal lives.
Help us provide disaster relief to those impacted by Irma and Harvey.
As we work to rebuild these areas, we could use your help.
Please consider donating to our Red Relief program. Your contributions will help us supply food, water, clothing, and building supplies to these communities.
If you have any questions about KW Cares, the Red Relief program, and our ongoing disaster relief efforts, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We appreciate your support as we work to help others through this difficult time.
On June 14th, the Federal Reserve increased its federal funds interest rate by 0.25%. They’re also widely expected to raise rates once or twice more over the course of 2017. What does this mean for the real estate market?
While any action by the Fed always garners a lot of attention, we believe these increases will not have any significant impact on our market.
First of all, mortgage rates have actually trended lower in the wake of the Fed’s recent announcement. The 30-year mortgage rate recently hit 3.9%, the lowest level in 2017. In fact, it’s a common pattern for the mortgage rate and the Fed rate to move in opposite directions, and the same thing has happened the last two times the Fed raised rates.
Second, the economy continues to do well. The Fed decided to increase its rate because unemployment and inflation are low, household spending is picking up, and we’ve seen steady growth for the past nine years. This is good news for the real estate market. As expected, we continue to see strong demand and a corresponding increase in home prices.
Third, while the Fed’s rate increase is normally meant to cool off the economy, it might actually stimulate it in this case. Because interest rates were so low for such a long period of time, experts believe the recent increases might ease pressure on the financial system and encourage lending.
These increases will not have any significant impact on our market.
Case in point: since the Fed started raising its rate in December 2016, total mortgages are up 2.5% year over year.
In conclusion, while any move by the Fed is likely to lead to a lot of hand-wringing, we believe the real estate market will not be affected and will continue on its own healthy course. Nonetheless, it’s clear that right now is a uniquely good moment for everyone in the real estate market. Today’s low mortgage rates are good for homebuyers because they make homes more affordable.
If you have any questions about our market or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, give us a call at 877-933-6881 or send us an email at info@welcomehomeabq.com. We'd love to help.
Many prospective first-time homebuyers think their first home has to be perfect and that they'll be there for a long time. I encourage you, however, to think of your first home as your first investment property.
If you're saving up to get your first dream home, it might be time to buy your first home that's not necessarily your forever home, but one that's a two- or three-year house that you live in and then keep as an investment when you move to your next home. If you keep it as a rental home, someone else pays the rent while you get the equity.
While someone else pays your mortgage, you might also then be in a better position to buy that dream home as your second property. It's something to consider as you shop for your first house.
Think of your first home as an investment property.
Now, not everyone can buy a house without first selling their current home. In the short-term, it could make more options for you during your home buying process.
If you have any questions about buying your first home or about owning property as an investment, don't hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We'd love to help you!
Over the years, we’ve been honored to assist many people who’ve flown into or out of Kirtland Air Force Base. If you’re PCSing into the Kirtland Base in the near future, we’d love to help with your housing situation and living arrangements, and there is a lot of information we can provide you with.
Let’s start with housing options. Homes in our area are typically single-family homes on single lots. We do have townhomes and condos available as well. We have lots of land, so our single-family homes are usually on their own lots, and most of their backyards are fully walled-in.
As far as schools go, there are many resources available online, so we can get you links to enable you to research the best option and connect with people who already have their children in schools.
Commute times in our area can vary. Right next to the base there is a newer neighborhood, but most of the homes situated within five to 15 minutes of the base are older. Many of the new homes in Albuquerque are in the northwest quadrant or in Rio Ranch. Depending on where you might find those newer homes, your commute might stretch to 30 minutes or an hour. Prices for new homes range from $175,000 to $250,000.
There are lots of ways we’d love to help you with your PCS into Kirtland.
If you get an opportunity to come to Albuquerque to house hunt, we would be glad to show you around. We also know you might not be able to arrange a trip to pick your house, so we have many resources to complete the process remotely. Once we’ve helped you narrow down your favored areas, we can help show you houses via Skype or Google Hangout.
There are lots of ways we’d love to help you with your PCS into Kirtland. You can also visit our website at www.welcomehomeabq.com for more information. If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call. We look forward to working with you.
What’s happening in our market now that the first quarter has come to a close?
If you look at the chart showing closed sales for single-family homes over a 10-year period in the video above, you can see that in 2007 through 2009 there was a huge shift in the market. We had a little bump up when we had the tax credit in 2010 and we’ve had a steady incline since then.
The other chart is the pending sales. Pending sales for April were at an all-time high. Days on market has dropped down to about 50 days on average. Tighter supply and more demand are causing homes to sell a lot faster.
The average sales price has been steadily increasing since 2012. The average price per square foot has also been rising pretty steadily. Last year we had a 4.8% market appreciation and this year seems to be on track for the same trend. Higher price ranges are not seeing as much appreciation, especially when you get into the high-end luxury homes.
It’s a great time to be a buyer or a seller.
The next chart shows the number of bank-owned homes that are being resold. At the peak, there were about 30% of these types of homes, which is currently down to 10.8% for April.
This is just a quick overview of some average numbers in our market. We would be more than happy to go through the numbers for your specific area or neighborhood with you in more detail. The market is hot, but it’s not hot for all neighborhoods or price ranges.
To find out what’s going on in your area, or if you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We’re always happy to help.
Today we’re going to take a quick look at the Albuquerque real estate market, specifically the Rio Rancho area. We’ve got some interesting trends and important statistics to share, so let’s start with vacant land sales.
As you can see in the graph above, they have been relatively slow. Back in 2006, we were really busy with more than 700 sales, but it’s been pretty flat over the last few years. I don’t see that changing, unfortunately. There are a lot of lots for sale in Rio Rancho right now and frankly, there isn’t much demand for them.
Now let’s jump into homes sales. We had 2,165 single-family home sales in December. That’s the most we’ve had in a long time, going all the way back to 2007.
Another thing I wanted to discuss is the month’s supply of inventory. It’s a figure that measures how many homes are on the market and how many are selling each month. We had just a 2.6-month supply in December, and that dropped to 2.4 months in January. That’s the lowest level we’ve seen since 2006.
We haven’t seen these numbers in 10 years.
The average price per square foot also gives us a good idea of where prices are going. As you can see, it was flat for quite a few years, but we have some positive movement now. In fact, we are up 7% over the last year alone. In the Albuquerque market overall, it looks like we are going to end up somewhere around 4% appreciation for 2016. That's a healthy, sustainable level.
This is just a quick snapshot of the market. If you have any questions about your specific area or neighborhood, I have plenty of information I can dig through to get you the latest numbers in your neck of the woods to help you make better decisions in the market. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.
