Tag Archive for: new home buyer

Items to Negotiate When Buying Your Home

So, you think you got the hard part out of the way when you were able to find a home to buy, in your price range and location, and it’s either a new home or quality home that is perfect for you.  However, before you hand over your precious investment money, there are several items to negotiate that you are going to want to address in the offer that you make on your new home.

Financing

In order to make you a more “quality buyer,” you are going to want to have a very good idea as to how much home you can afford.  Before you ever start your home buying process, you should make sure that your income and credit are in order, and you should meet with a lender in order to get a lender commitment letter to use in making the offer

on your home.  This letter shows the seller of the home and the Realtor or Realtors involved that you are a real buyer with financial backing who will be able to close on the home in a reasonable time period with minimal hassle.  This will make you a solid prospect, and you may be able to use this to beat out any other interested bids or prospects on the home.

Inspections, Repairs, & a Home Warranty

Unless the home that you are buying is an “as is” purchase, where you are taking the home without any changes, you will want to make sure you get a home inspection.  For the sake of expediency, you may want to put a time limit on the amount of time a seller has to get an inspector and make the inspection of the home. If there are repairs or major systems that have issues, you will want to negotiate the cost of these repairs off of the seller’s price or have the seller repair them before closing.  If the home passes inspection but is an older home or has questionable systems or appliances that will potentially bread down quickly, you can ask the seller to provide a home warranty on the home as part of the items to negotiate.

Closing Date

The sooner that you offer to close on the home, the better as far as any motivated seller can attest.  However, there will be times when a seller is selling and trying to move into another home and may be “stuck” in between the two homes during your home buying process.  In order to make you a “better buyer,” you can offer a short-term lease

back as part of your offer which gives you a small break on the purchase price and gives the seller more flexibility in their moving timeline.  Then you and the seller can agree on a fixed closing date that works for both, making you an attractive buyer with your willingness to negotiate to fit their lifestyle.

Closing Costs

In most of the items to negotiate above, you as the buyer are making yourself totally flexible and available to the seller, but don’t forget to take care of you.  If possible, you should ask that the seller help you pay some of the closing costs associated with your home purchase.  They may stick firmly to their selling price, but some sellers will be willing to give a little if they are getting a solid home buyer prospect who will close quickly and work with them on repairs of the home.  Closing costs can add up with the abstract of title, title insurance, deposits into escrow – prorated taxes and insurance – and your loan origination fees, so definitely try to negotiate these costs to get the seller to step up for some of them.  Remember, all the seller can say is “no,” so it doesn’t hurt to ask!

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Louisiana in Top Tier of States Leading Housing Recovery

NAHB Spring Construction Webinar Forecasts Strong Housing Growth

When comparing statistics in housing trends, the National Association of Home Builders place Louisiana in the top tier of states leading housing recovery nationwide.  The top states include Montana, North Dakota, and Utah, and the 2nd tier of states include Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Alaska.  There are several factors that contribute to Louisiana’s (and other states’) housing recovery.  Some states, such as the top 3 states of Montana,2-Woodstone, Lot 25 Exterior North Dakota, and Utah did not have as big of housing bubbles as other states.  Therefore, their “fall” during the Recession was not as great, so their housing recovery was faster and better.  States like Texas and Louisiana are mainly energy sector states, so the Recession did not cut as deeply into employment and statewide income as other states.  Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has consistently held one of the highest rankings in housing recovery since the beginning of 2015 which helps with Louisiana’s housing statistics.

“The basic principle remains the same,” said NAHB Senior Economist Robert Denk. “A strong economy – whether helped, hindered or unaffected by the energy economy – will be a key factor driving housing recoveries going forward.”

Economists predict that by the end of 2017, the top tier states will have a housing recovery of 102% of normal (based on statistics pulled of the housing numbers during the last “normal” housing market pre-Recession).  The bottom tier states will have recovered to just 65% of where they were before the Recession.  The reason for the predicted recovery numbers in 2017 is based on the underlying housing market fundamentals of population and insulation-1job growth which are typical in driving supply and demand in real estate.  The cycles of “boom and bust” are mostly over according to Denk.

“A common theme has emerged,” said Denk. “The progress of market recovery is no longer a function of the boom-and-bust cycle marked by price bubbles, excess supply and foreclosures. The key driver of the housing recovery is now back to the underlying housing market fundamentals of population and job growth.”

Factors that will help builders and sellers to sell their new homes for sale and homes for sale are a predicted increase in household formation by home buyers that were previously unable to secure a mortgage, stabilized home pricing that now offers tiers of homes for sale available and affordable to purchase, less foreclosures, rising employment and the first increase in wages in over 8 years, and home prices that are in line with incomes and rents making it an easier transition from renting to owning.

If you are a new home buyer who is interested in building your own custom, dream home in West St. Tammany Parish, Ron Lee Homes in Covington, Louisiana, offers full-service home building strategies such as custom home design, engineered floorplans, complete “end-to-end” home construction supervised by Ron Lee, financing and insurance assistance, and a hands-on approach to building new, custom homes in the Greater New Orleans area.  For More Information, Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

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Real Estate Trends in April Showing Growth and Good News

With the 22.6% increase of single-family home construction starts compared to the previous month and year of March, 2015, real estate nationwide has taken a very positive step forward.  In addition to a substantial increase in new home starts, there is good and bad news when it comes to new homes being built and put up for sale in the real estate market.  The bad news is that builders are finding it difficult to procure land to build new homes, as1-Lot 34 Autumn Creek Front Exterior well as the labor required to start and complete a new home project in a timely manner.  On the flip side, that is also good news in that there are now a tremendous amount of construction jobs available for those trained and experienced in the construction industry.

The lack of land and lots to build also increases the new home buyers’ demand across the entire United States, making it so that builders are building new homes “on demand” for prospective homeowners.  Now home buyers are waiting on builders to supply new homes to buy whereas just a few years ago, it was builders waiting on home buyers to be able to buy a 1.5 years’ supply of new homes.

Existing home inventory currently in the market is also really tight according to the National Association of 17-Lot 207 Fully Bricked Back PatioRealtors.  Right now, existing home inventory is at just a 4.5 month supply – really good news for sellers and Realtors, but not such good news for home buyers.  However, existing home sales increased 5.1% in March, despite the dearth of homes available to buy.

If home buyers are in the market for a new home and can afford to wait to be able to build their dream home, they may consider buying a new custom home from local builder Ron Lee Homes in St. Tammany Parish.  Custom homes built by this award winning builder are “worth the wait,” and by using Ron Lee Homes, buyers get full-service attention on the new custom home building process.  Ron Lee Homes designs floorplans, builds new custom homes, assists with financing, and literally walks home buyers through the home building process from start to finish.  So, if you would like to Consult with a Custom Home Builders in West St. Tammany Parish, Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

 

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New Home Buyers Have More Selection in New Homes

Even though the housing market has been making incredible strides in its recovery since its low in 2008, one of the major obstacles that has been holding the sale of real estate back is the lack of supply for the growing demand of home buyers.  New home buyers especially have been stymied by a lack of inventory from local builders.  Builders themselves have been frustrated by the tightened funding requirements for construction loans from79 Oleander Carriage Style Garage banks and lenders, so there is been a “stalemate” of sorts going on in the new home industry.

However, good news is on the horizon for real estate because single-family home starts have been on the rise and holding steady over most of the months of 2015.  Single-family home startss remained steady from August to September with 740,000 starts nationwide for both months.  Overall, housing starts (including multi-family housing) increased by 6.5% and reached the 1.2 million mark – the highest its been since October, 2007.

From a yearly perspective, quarter-over-quarter, single-family home starts are up 5.7% 3rd quarter from second quarter with a total of 746,000 home starts.  The numbers year-over-year show that single-family home starts are up 11% compared to 2014.

Another strong sign of new home real estate recovering is the number of housing permits for single-family home starts.  The number of permits for single-family homes went up 9.4% year-over-year and also remained unchanged compared to the previous month of August from September, 2015. Trends also show that money of the new home purchases are coming from “contingency sales” where a home buyer has a house to sell and wants to build or buy new which is excellent news for new home builders.

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Conventional Mortgages for New Homes Increase for the 5th Month in a Row

When the bottom dropped out of the real estate market, the biggest indicator that the economy was in trouble was that home owners and new home buyers found themselves paying more for their home than what it was worth.  One of the biggest indicators that the housing economy has been in recovery has been the increase in house pricing regionally nationwide.  These home prices went up steadily during the end of 2013 and 2014, so much so, that investors were concerned that they would cause a housing bubble and throw the entire economy back into a 10-1 Polo Farms Kitchen IslandRecession.  Once again, though, supply and demand allowed for free market commerce to dictate the real estate market, and prices started to stabilize in the 1st quarter of 2015.

For the 5th month in a row, conventional mortgages for new homes have increased to an all-time high of $352,500 in June, and this is also a record for the average loan amount which has not yet so far been above $350,000 after the Recession.  In addition to the average amount of a loan going up, home prices also increased in June to $462,100 from $447,600 which is a 3% increase.  Also a record-breaking statistic, this is the first time that new home prices have been above $460,000 since the Recession as well.

Even though the average initial fees and charges on loans decreased by 3 basis points to 1.08%, the effetive interest rate on conventional mortgages went up to 3.98%.  Home buyers and people interested in refinancing their homes have been “spoiled” with the phenomenally low interest rates over the past 5 years, but an average overall interest rate in the 4% range is still a historically low rate and will probably not be seen again for quite some time.  The Fed was set to increase interest rates in September, but this is not a guaranteed move and has been in limbo for over a year.  Interest rates are still low, credit is easing allowing higher borrowing amounts for conventional mortgages, and Ron Lee Homes is building new, custom homes in St. Tammany Parish for interested home buyers.  Contact Us today to help you start building the home of your dreams.  Call 985-626-7619 or e-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

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