MARCHin' Through

Welcome to, well, almost April. We celebrate Easter this weekend with Good Friday coming up tomorrow. I hope you have opportunities to be with those you care most about and can be present. It is important! 

MortgageNewsDaily.com has the average interest rate at 6.91% on a 30 year conventional fixed mortgage as I'm checking. Several mortgage professionals I know have recommended checking there for current rates as they are a hot topic. What I think most folks fail to understand is that higher interest rates change affordability. I've mentioned it in several other blogs, but, it is very true for the majority of Americans. This means closing costs are often higher and purchase prices have to be lower to accommodate. Every lender has fees. Every lender has a base rate. Every lender has a qualification process. Where do you stand in all of that? The short answer? We won't know until we try. If you are thinking of trying to get a mortgage for any particular reason, it would be great to start by submitting a loan application to see where you stand. I have had several clients come up against surprises on their credit that affected their ability to get a mortgage and timeline to do so. Our house search needed to be put on hold. 

As you might imagine, renting has been a big alternative to buying, at the moment. Please remember that your credit scores, your background, any evictions, frequent changing of jobs, untraceable income, high debt obligations, and everything that flows in and out of your bank account(s) paint a picture of who you are on paper. Be careful with how they present themselves to prospective landlords and property managers. Just as with purchasing or selling, you do not need to have a REALTOR® to represent you or to help you locate a rental property. We can be helpful in presenting your situation and bolstering your profile with what we know about you. It is not fool-proof and it is time consuming. The best thing you can be doing is making sure all of your ducks are in a row. Ducks=credit is as clean as it can be, income is as high as it can be, pets are not aggressive breeds, children are banished to the basements (100% kidding on that, we don't even have basements), and that you are prepared to pay first month's rent, security deposit generally equal to or greater than one month's rent, and if you have pets, a pet deposit (some are non-refundable, some are half-refundable, some are fully refundable), you may have to also pay pet rent, i.e. $25/month/pet on top of the rent, and some management companies have administrative fees on top of application fees. It can be a very expensive adventure to embark on. 

So what do we do? We try to screen listings you like for information that may be helpful in removing that home as a potential, such as credit score requirements of 700+ and you know you're at a 600, and we search for pet information, and we try to contact agents to check in on whether a home has applications under review currently. If so, it may not be worth it to apply until the current applications have been gone through and decisions made on them. Application fees are non-refundable and can range from about $30-$80 per person over 18, most averaging about $50. We can also provide information about flooding, look through the property's archive to see how many times it has been rented/sold, and provide historical data that may affect the livability for you. 

Should you buy? Sure. You can always do a refinance. It costs money, but if you wanted to purchase now and found a home that was well worth it in your eyes, there is nothing "wrong" with buying it. Should you look at getting a mortgage if you're on the fence? In my opinion, yes. Nothing wrong with checking to see what or how you qualify. It may indicate you want to hold on and go through a bit of a remediation plan (such as if your credit score is slightly lower than what it could be to really propel you into a different interest rate bracket), and what you may be able to pay off or consolidate to help get you into the best position for when that perfect home does become available. 

How is inventory? It's good! We are seeing new homes pop up daily. Rentals and for sale listings; also new construction! New neighborhoods are sprouting for Spring all over the place. If you are following my business page, you will see some of my new construction content. I post it to give you an idea of what is around town, in communities that I have trusted partners to work with and know about! 

Should you sell your house with all of this NAR "business" going on? If it makes sense for you to sell, yes you should. More inventory means buyers have a choice; yourselves included. If you are still wiling to help compensate a buyer's agent as a seller, it should be helpful in marketing your home as well as can be utilized in negotiations, just as it always could have been. How do you know if it makes sense to sell? Ask a professional. We work in this industry day in and day out; we know the market we are working in typically, and if we don't, we need to research it and provide you with value. What does value mean? That is highly case-by-case, and very much specific to you. That is why it is very important to understand who you work with, and what your goals are. 

I hope this has been helpful and an enjoyable read. Take great care of yourself and keep doing the voodoo that you do, dude. Have a wonderful Good Friday and Happy Easter!