by rtdosen | Nov 17, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
Top 5 Home Selling Myths By Ryan Dosen Selling your home may be the last thing on your mind this time of year. The holidays are coming. Maybe the in-laws are coming, too. There will be presents to wrap, parties to plan, turkeys to roast and plenty of things to do other than thinking about selling your home. You’ll worry about that in the spring, right? Well, let’s take a look anyway. Maybe you’ll think twice. Myth number 1: Price it High; You Can Always Come Down Later When looking to sell a home, every seller should want to achieve the highest price possible. So, naturally, the inclination for sellers is to price their homes high and near the maximum they could conceivably achieve on the open market. They say they want to test the waters. You never know, right? I mean, couldn’t that random person come along with a giant bag full of money and absolutely fall in love with your home? And maybe they’d be willing to pay whatever you ask so that they can have that one house that will complete them and help them achieve spiritual and residential nirvana. Or maybe not. The thing we tell our sellers is to put themselves in the hypothetical shoes of these head-over-their-heels buyers. Even if you found that house — THE house — would you pay more than you needed to in order to get it? Of course not. We have better things to do with our money than throwing it away. A seller might also think that if they price it high, they can always accept...
by rtdosen | Nov 7, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
Midterm Elections a Win for the Real Estate Market By Ryan Dosen The midterm elections are over and the news is good for the real estate market. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that “real estate issues stand to be well represented in Congress over the next two years as REALTOR® Party-backed candidates on both sides of the aisle won closely watched races in (this week’s) national midterm elections.” The victors are expected to do what they can in Washington to protect our somewhat fragile housing recovery. Mortgage Interest Deduction Massey Knakal Realty Services Chairman Robert Knakal said on Fox Business earlier this week that the biggest threats to the real estate market are interest rates and tax policy, including capital gains rates and the popular mortgage interest deduction. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that homeowners in the U.S. last year received roughly $70 billion in federal tax breaks through the mortgage interest deduction. The deduction makes homeownership more affordable by allowing homeowners to write off their mortgage interest payments every April. Detractors argue that the deduction benefits the wealthy and not the lower-income Americans that typically rent. This may be partially true, but if we’re looking for the housing market to continue to improve, removing the deduction would be a bad idea. Homeownership would be more expensive and difficult without the deduction and less homes would sell. NAR reports that Realtor-backed candidates Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Joe Heck (R-Nev.), Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), and Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) all emerged victorious this week. In fact, whether Republican or Democrat, Realtor® Party-backed...
by rtdosen | Nov 4, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
A Not-So-Scary End to QE3 By Ryan Dosen This morning I will no doubt have a battle on my hands. The battle is a yearly one. And it tends to get messy. Chocolate, after all, does melt pretty easily. My boys, armed with light sabers and an inexhaustible supply of energy, will have no doubt returned from last night’s escapades with a mixed bag of the finest goodies Chester County’s residents have to offer. The war I will wage will be with the young Jedis and myself. I need to make sure we all avoid consuming too much sugar and that we keep the candy casualties to a minimum. Fortunately, consuming a bit of tasty real estate news doesn’t come with a high calorie count or sugar crash. Fed ends bond buying The big news of the week is that the Federal Reserve has decided to terminate its bond buying program, also known as QE3. Last December, the Fed started tapering its monthly creation of billions of dollars for the purpose of buying US Treasuries and mortgage bonds. $85 billion dollars in monthly purchases has gradually and steadily dwindled since late last year and the printing presses are finally stopping. With its easing program, the Fed had hoped to decrease long-term interest rates and boost job and economic growth. Skeptics of QE3 feared that the mass creation of money and the slashing of interest rates could feed bubbles or produce rampant inflation. Historically speaking, interest rates are certainly very low. The unemployment picture is looking much better as well. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment peaked in...
by rtdosen | Oct 28, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
FHFA Director to Roll the Dice on Lending Standards By Ryan Dosen Mel Watt, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), delivered a strong message early this week indicating that he is going to continue his crusade to help loosen lending standards and open the door for more would-be homebuyers to qualify for mortgages. Delivering his speech from the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in Las Vegas, one can’t help but notice the irony that Watt is more than ready to take a gamble on less credible buyers for the sake of supporting our housing market. The Federal Housing Finance Agency The FHFA describes itself on its website as an independent regulatory agency that oversees “vital components of the secondary mortgage market including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks.” The mission of the FHFA, they say, is to “ensure that the housing government sponsored enterprises operate in a safe and sound manner so that they serve as a reliable source of liquidity and funding for housing finance and community investment.” Simply put, the FHFA regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac decide what types of loans will be deemed “conforming” loans. “Conforming” loans do not have to be kept “on the books” by a bank and can be packaged and sold off. The advantage to banks of selling off their loans is that if they didn’t package and sell off their loans, the banks would be limited in their lending abilities by the amount they held on deposit. The ability to package and sell their loans keeps...
by rtdosen | Oct 17, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
See Green and Boost Your Home’s Value with Landscaping By Ryan Dosen The commonly held belief is that good landscaping can increase the value of your home by up to 15 percent. That’s no small chunk of change. TREND, our local MLS provider, reports that the year-to-date median sales price for a Chester County home in 2014 has been $320,000. 15 percent of $320,000 is $48,000. So, how exactly is cutting your grass, pruning your hedges, and planting a few pretty flowers going to increase the value of your home by $48,000? The short answer is that it won’t. There’s much more to landscaping than trimming your trees and planting a ficus…. Landscaping Study and Survey Results This week the website for the National Association of Realtors featured a Virginia Tech Department of Horticulture study by researcher Alex X. Niemiera about the benefits of quality landscaping. The study found that improving a home’s landscape from “average” to “excellent” can raise the home’s overall value by 10 to 12 percent. The study reported that consumers’ “preferred landscape included a sophisticated design with large deciduous, evergreen, and annual color plants and a colored hardscape.” Hardscape refers to the inanimate elements of landscaping, including masonry work, woodwork, patios, paths, decks, fountains, etc. The Virginia Tech survey results “showed that relatively large landscape expenditures significantly increase perceived home value and will result in a higher selling price than homes with a minimal landscape.” The survey also revealed that “design sophistication and plant size were the landscape factors that most affected value.” Therefore, the study concluded that “investing in the services of a...
by rtdosen | Oct 10, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
The Magical 15-Year Wealth Building Home Loan By Ryan Dosen The traditional fixed-rate 30-year mortgage is what most people first think of when they consider how they are going to finance the purchase of their home. It’s the most common form of financing, probably because it often makes your guaranteed payment the lowest. Adjustable rate mortgages can currently give you a less costly upfront payment, but those payments can jump significantly a few years down the road when the rates are recalculated. With today’s historically low rates, many have understandably been chomping at the bit to lock in their 30-year rates at the lowest possible level so that they can enjoy the ride once the Fed allows rates to climb higher. But is the lowest possible payment your best option? It may be your best option if your sole goal is to get yourself into the most expensive and nicest home possible. However, what if you could take a little less house now in exchange for owning your home in half the time? Or, what if paying a little more each month meant being able to apply the majority of your monthly payments to principal right from the start? Maybe it’s time to reevaluate our home ownership priorities. The Wealth Building Home Loan For the first half of a 30-year mortgage, the lion’s share of your mortgage payment is paying interest. It’s not really until you hit the second half of this traditional loan that you’re really doing significant damage to the principal. The problem with this model is that you are really building very little equity...
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