Real Estate Trends

We are never going to see an opportunity like this in our life time, if your from 18 to 60 years old right now. Because the market place is inventory that we haven’t seen before, we have low interest rates, the gov’t is assisting with incentives, etc. As a seller positioning your home the best that you possibly can both in price, condition, good inspection report, correct any issues, make the landscaping just look phenomenal so that the buyer who has all of the incentive in the world to come into this market place. When they look at your, they are ready to go. Make your home stand out and take advantage of this great time in the housing market!

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There will be a lot of information coming out of the mortgage industry about using the $8,000 tax credit and leveraging it at closing. The specifics are still coming out but your gonna hear it from the mortgagers. First of all it will be a second mortgage, it would allow the lender to say, I’m gonna give you a 2nd loan that’s gotta be paid back when you get your $8,000. It would not throw your ratios off and would be limited to the amount of your down payment and closing costs. In other words, you can’t get “cash back” but your money  would be immediately available to be used at closing. If you were worried about having enough cash for settlement and your a 1st time home buyer, this is good news from HUD because they may be putting that money you need right in your lap if you want or need to use it at closing.

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For sellers, once you get past de-cluttering the house, staging, etc. Your best best would be to have an inspection done of your home. Any good buyer’s agent these days is going to require an inspection prior to excepting the house, so the seller may as well have it done up front. A seller’s inspection can be very beneficial the sell of your home. You are showing the buyer that you have nothing to hide about the quality of your home. Also, look at the opportunities of a home warranty. It will be covered the day that a buyer puts an offer on your home. The potential to make your listing stand out is there. Your Rinehart Realtor can help with all of the details!

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When we talk about the best time to buy for a buyer. Lots of factors come into play: interest rates, amount of inventory, the quality of the inventory, tax benefits, the $20,000 wait, etc.

Looking at it form a seller’s perspective almost the same factors apply. If the inventory on the market is going quickly because the buyer’s are out there, your house is going to get a lot more attention. Because your coming in replacing some of the inventory that is moving with your quality home there will be more looks, more attraction. If the buyer has a benefit tied to the house, then that makes your house right now worth about $8,000 more in the eyes of the 1st time home buyer. Now’s the time to list with Rinehart Realty and get in the marketplace.

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The national media has used the concept of “the bottom” like they use in the stock market with the Real Estate market. You can not take the economic concepts of the stock market and apply it to the Real Estate market because all Real Estate is local and there is not a local stock market. So when we start talking about a national housing market hitting bottom it refers to different areas of the nation. If you live in LasVegas or certain parts of Southern California, yes, there is a bottom to that market. Not only of transactions falling but they have drug prices down 30-50% in some locations. That’s not York, Chester or Lancaster county, South Carolina! We’ve had consistent prices, actually increasing prices in several areas of the county. When you look at the total number of transactions, while they have fallen off, they are still at a pace that is a good steady Real Estate market.

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If you look at the numbers for April and May, the trend is upwards, which means that our inventory is starting to decrease and demand is up. It could not be a better time to buy and as I’ve said before all Real Estate is local. When you hear the national news saying this could be a great time to buy, we could of hit the bottom of the housing market, etc. Guess what should be going through your mind as a consumer. Buy, buy, buy. I remember hearing Dave Ramsey on WRHI the other week, saying, “look~ you don’t buy in an up market, you always buy when your trending upward.” That’s when you pick up the best deals, whether it’s the quality house your looking for or whether it’s the best price, you can look for both in this market. Remember that Real Estate is local, which means that what’s happening here is the upstate of the Carolina’s is a lot different than what’s happening in California or Florida. Even as different as the north side of Charlotte. We are across the state line in South Carolina. Our taxes are different than Mecklenburg County, our crime is different, and our schools. It’s not just the greater locality, it’s York, Chester, and Lancaster counties.

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Contemplating getting into Real Estate?

Well, I absolutely love this industry! We are starting to see changes in our marketplace and that’s an opportunity for people that are “sales minded”, not the kind of sales that beat you over the head (you need to buy this), but the relationship oriented individuals that want to help people find a new home. Now is the time to look. You always want to go into a marketplace when it is starting on the up swing. I sincerely believe that this year we are going to start seeing the recovery and next year we are going to be full blown into the up swing. As I’ve stated many of times, 2009 is the year to consider getting into the Real Estate market. I am interviewing and would love the opportunity to talk to individuals about a career in Real Estate. Visit our website rinehartrealty.com for basic information, email me through the contact page, or call our main number 803-329-3333.

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One of the buyer advantages that really gives the buyer greater confidence in purchasing that house is the Buyer Protection Program is tied to the mortgage payment and doesnt consider a sliding scale or a percent of income that is lost. That means if both borrowers are protected jointly and one borrower becomes involuntarily unemployed. Then the other income is not even considered, it simply cancels the mortgage payment for that month. The program also applies if either person experiences an illness, disability, hospitalization for more than 2 days and loss of life. So it would even be an insurance policy for the loss of life of one of the borrowers. It can be up to 24 months of coverage so it can cover multiple losses if someone has to move jobs during that period of time and can easily be identified through any home that is on the market for sale as long as you use Suzie Wright and Bank of America. For more information call Rinehart Realty or visit rinehartrealty.com.

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There are a number of Mortgage Protection Programs out there right now. It seems that every franchise has decided that they wanna try and get in this marketplace. The beauty of the Bank of America protection program and it’s partnership with Rinehart Realty is that we’ve been able to eliminate some of the constraints on many of these programs. The big one is that this is the borrowers protection program. The borrower is the one protected which means it is not tied to a seller’s particular home. It is not just limited to employees, it also protects the self employed individual. There is no age limit and as I’ve mentioned before there is no cap in the coverage for your mortgage payment. It not only benefits the $150,000 buyer but also the high end market as well. There are some great deals on the higher end price range but a lot of times people are concerned about their ability to cover that payment should they lose their position. What a great opportunity to take action with Rinehart Realty and Bank of America who has your back should you fall on hard times!

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With our partnership with Bank of America that we began almost 2 years ago, here in town it’s with Suzie Wright, we offer the Buyers Protection Plan. Now that obviously requires you to get your mortgage through them, but it is a phenomenal plan. One of the benefits is: 12 months of payments that covers when someone loses their job, passes away, or becomes disabled. That’s 3 different criteria that allow you to be protected, that is unheard of in this economy. Now one of the differences in the Bank of America plan verses some of the others out there is it is for the borrower. Which means you can buy any home that is listed with any company through Rinehart Realty with BofA and we can provide that to you, the borrower! To explain the 12 months of payment further. If you become unemployed then it would kick in immediately to help make those payments and it’s retroactive back to the date that you 1st become unemployed and there is no cap on the amount. Now you must read the fine print as with anything but this is an awesome plan! 

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