Is Your Home Outdated? Realvitalize

As we get closer to summer our home project list starts to grow.  If you are going to sell your home this summer you will want your home to look its best.

Making sure the outside of your home should be updated to move to near the top of your “to-do” list.  Curb appeal is key to getting potential buyers inside your home.

Here are a few ideas to give your home a facelift:

Update Your Concrete: If you have uneven concrete that has cracks or cracks in the concrete parging on your foundation – this could be a sign your home is dated.

Paint Your Front Door – Your front door is often the first impression a buyer may have. So, updating the paint on your door to tie in with the rest of your home can make a great first impression.

Add Exterior Path Lighting – exterior lighting is a great way to give your home a modern look. Having lighting to highlight the path to your home or trees and shrubs. This lighting can be used for more than looks, also for safety, and security.

If you need to update your outdated home to get it ready for the market there are a number of opportunities available for making improvements and having the expense cost delayed until closing.

Coldwell Banker has a great program through Realvitalize which will help you with updates needed to your home so that you can get the best price possible so you can move on to your next home, sometimes with even more equity to pay towards your next home.  If you are thinking about putting your home on the market ask me if Realvitalize can help you get more money from your home.

What Did It Cost You to Keep Renting?

I hear this excuse often, and my friend Rob Schiller at Shore United Bank said it today and I took his lead!!  I have been a Realtor in Maryland since 2003 and I have seen many different types of real estate markets over the years.

2007 – OMG, Home values are too high and they are going to crash

2008 – Home values are starting to come down, I’m going to wait for the bottom of the market.

2009 – there is real blood in the streets, I’m sure home values are going to go down some more.  I am just going to wait to buy and get a Real Deal!!

2010 – Home values have spiked, but I know there is a huge amount of “shadow inventory” and foreclosures banks are holding on to, so I’m going to wait for when values come back down.

2011 – Home values are going up, but that shadow inventory is going to come to the market any day now and I’m going to get a real deal.

2012 – These people buying houses and competing against 20 offers are dumb. Don’t they know a huge amount of shadow inventory is coming to the market any day? I’m going to get a deal when the values drop.

2013 – These home prices are crazy – but rates are up, which will cool down the market, then I’ll get a deal.

2014 – We are in a bubble, I’m going to wait to buy. Prices have to come down.

2015 – We are in a bubble, I’m going to wait to buy. Prices have to come down. Diane Olick on MSNBC said so. We are in a bubble, right?

2016 – we are in a bubble, I’m going to wait to buy. Prices have to come down.

2017 – We are in a bigger bubble, I’m going to wait to buy. Prices have to come down. I’m going to be the smart one.

2018 – OMG, OMG, OMG we are in an even bigger bubble. I’m going to wait to buy. Prices have to come down, and rates are even going up, which will slow the housing market down.

2019 – OMG, my lender friends are complaining about high rates and margin compression. Rates are going up so supply has to go up and prices have to come down. I’ll buy soon and I’ll look so smart.

2020 – OMG I’m really worried about Covid, but this pandemic has to make values come down. People are losing their jobs, there are going to be foreclosures and fewer buyers. I’ll buy then and look so smart.

2021 – OMG, these low rates and panic buying must be the cause of these higher prices.  I’ll wait till rates go up to buy. Then I’ll get a deal and be the smartest one in the room.

2022 – OMG, Finally, rates are going up.. that will make prices come down. I’ll buy this year and beat the system.

2023 – OMG, rates are up, but values are still going up and/or holding strong. I’m back to having to compete against 10 offers if I want to buy a house.

I’ll just wait until 2024 to buy a home.  That $300,000 I have paid in rent over the last 15 years is going to help me once I get a deal on a new house.

Meanwhile, homeowners who bought at any time in the last 15 years have stopped paying rent, taken the tax savings of being a homeowner, and have seen anywhere from 10% to a 100% appreciation in the value of their home.  So, how much did it cost you to keep renting? How much of a return on your investment in your landlord’s property gain you?

The best time to plant a tree was yesterday, the second best time to plant a tree is today.  Don’t wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait.

First Time Homebuyer Myths

I often get ideas for blogs from situations that present themselves or from something someone else has written or newsletters I get in my email.  In this case it is two of these!!

So many first-time home buyers think they need to put 20% of the purchase as the down payment.  But, in fact, depending on the type of loan they qualify that is simply not the case.  FHA loans are popular and only require 3.5% downpayment, there are some conventional loans that are as low as 3%, if you are a Veteran, you may be able to qualify for no money down and if the home you are buying is in a certain area you may qualify for a no downpayment USDA loan.

If my mortgage requires private mortgage insurance (PMI) I am stuck with it for the life of my loan.  This, again, is not the case.  In some cases, you can simply have your lender cancel the PMI when the value of your home reaches around 80% of its appraised value.  Or you can refinance your existing loan when you feel the value of your home is high enough to allow the loan to value to reach that 80% range.

My parents can’t help with my downpayment.  Mortgages popular with first-time buyers often allow their relatives or employer to chip in with “gift funds”. It’s also possible for the adult children of first-time buyers to chip in too, which is the case with recent clients of mine.  You may also consider opening a special bank account, much like an account for an IRA or college savings account to save to buy a house, and instead of gifts for birthdays and holidays as family members to deposit that cash to your account to help you save to buy a home.  In some areas of Maryland and DC there are government programs to aid with your downpayment too.  Check out some of my previous blogs about these programs:

This is part of a series of blogs outlining some of the downpayment assistance programs in Baltimore City.  In case you missed the others, links to these blogs are here:

First Time Homebuyers Incentive Program

Buying a Home in Baltimore City Live Near Your Work

Baltimore City Employee Homeownership Program

Baybrook Boost Downpayment Assistance Program

Direct Homeownership Assistance Program

Home Ownership Counseling in Baltimore City

A Journey Starts with One Step

I have been selling Baltimore City homes since 2003 and have helped hundreds of homebuyers become homeowners.  I can help you too!!

Is The American Dream Dying?

A recent study shows that 25% of Millennials have given up trying to buy a home because buying their dream home is too costly.  But, if you ask anyone who lives in a lovely house, they didn’t start there, they started off in a cheaper property and used that as a stepping stone to the next one, and so on.  The reality is the American Dream is not dead, you just have to start with a cheaper property and grow from there.

If you read my blog a few days ago, What Did It Cost You to Keep Renting? you see how much equity homeowners acquired over the last few years and how they could use that equity to “trade up” to a larger and more beautiful home or even use that property as an investment and create even more generational wealth.

The average homeowner moves every 5-7 years and with each move, they purchase a larger and more beautiful home until they become empty nesters and then sell and purchase a retirement home.

Are you thinking about buying your first home?  Let’s talk about your options and how you can start creating generational wealth for your future.