Before You Make an Offer, Here Are 4 Tips for Success!

So, you’ve been searching for that perfect house to call a ‘home,’ and you finally found it! The price is right, and in such a competitive market, you want to make sure that you make a good offer so that you can guarantee that your dream of making this house yours comes true!

Freddie Mac covered “4 Tips for Making an Offer” in their Executive Perspective. Here are the 4 tips they covered along with some additional information for your consideration:

1. Understand How Much You Can Afford

“While it’s not nearly as fun as house hunting, fully understanding your finances is critical in making an offer.”

This ‘tip’ or ‘step’ should really take place before you start your home search process.

Getting pre-approved is one of many steps that will show home sellers that you are serious about buying, and will allow you to make your offer with the confidence of knowing that you have already been approved for a mortgage for that amount. You will also need to know if you are prepared to make any repairs that may need to be made to the house (ex: new roof, new furnace).

2. Act Fast

“Even though there are fewer investors, the inventory of homes for sale is also low and competition for housing continues to heat up in many parts of the country.” 

The inventory of homes listed for sale has remained well below the 6-month supply that is needed for a ‘normal’ market. Buyer demand has continued to outpace the supply of homes for sale, causing buyers to compete with each other for their dream homes.

Make sure that as soon as you decide that you want to make an offer, you work with your agent to present it as soon as possible.

3. Make a Solid Offer

Freddie Mac offers this advice to help make your offer the strongest it can be:

“Your strongest offer will be comparable with other sales and listings in the neighborhood. A licensed real estate agent active in the neighborhoods you are considering will be instrumental in helping you put in a solid offer based on their experience and other key considerations such as recent sales of similar homes, the condition of the house and what you can afford.”

Talk with your agent to find out if there are any ways that you can make your offer stand out in this competitive market!

4. Be Prepared to Negotiate

“It’s likely that you’ll get at least one counteroffer from the sellers so be prepared. The two things most likely to be negotiated are the selling price and closing date. Given that, you’ll be glad you did your homework first to understand how much you can afford.

Your agent will also be key in the negotiation process, giving you guidance on the counteroffer and making sure that the agreed-to contract terms are met.”

If your offer is approved, Freddie Mac urges you to “always get an independent home inspection, so you know the true condition of the home.” If the inspector uncovers undisclosed problems or issues, you can discuss any repairs that may need to be made with the seller, or cancel the contract.

Bottom Line 

Whether buying your first home or your fifth, having a local real estate professional who is an expert in their market on your side is your best bet to make sure the process goes smoothly. Let’s talk about how we can make your dreams of homeownership a reality!

Christie Cannon | REALTOR
The Cannon Team
Keller Williams Realty Frisco
469-951-9588
www.ChristieCannon.com

Reasons to Smile: Keller Williams Ranked #1 Happiest Place to Work

Ask most business leaders and they’ll tell you that success starts with smart hiring & satisfied workers.  Keller Williams is undoubtedly following this key business guideline and giving its employees plenty of reasons to smile these days. According to career site CareerBliss, Keller Williams is ranked the number one happiest company in America to work for in 2018. The rankings recognize businesses that are dedicated to to creating a happier work environment for their employees.  Each company’s BlissScore includes factors such as company culture, leadership, overall work atmosphere, and one’s relationship with coworkers. Keller Williams tops this list because it prides itself on a unique, agent-centric culture that focuses on cutting edge technology, education & services.

The Christie Cannon Team is proud to be partnered with Keller Williams Realty and look forward to passing on its high level of professionalism & expertise to our clients. You can view the full list of Happiest Places to Work in 2018 here.

Christie Cannon | REALTOR
The Christie Cannon Team
Keller Williams Realty Frisco
469-951-9588
www.ChristieCannon.com
 

Many people understand & believe that home ownership is key to fulfilling the American Dream.  In a world where affordability varies so widely and is affected by so many factors, the folks over at HowMuch.net created an amazing visual aid to offer an easy apple-to-apples comparison.  Using US Census Data  to determine median incomes v/s media sale prices, these experts broke down each cities respective housing costs to the number of hours required to cover an average mortgage.  While Memphis, TN can be home by Wednesday, New York, NY will be putting away some late night hours.

Want to see how your individual city faired, be sure to check out the source data found here: https://howmuch.net/sources/hours-work-afford-home

Christie Cannon | REALTOR
The Christie Cannon Team
Keller Williams Realty Frisco
469-951-9588
www.ChristieCannon.com
 

a.  TX economics remain strong & the “attractiveness” of our cities remains high.

 

b.  Corporate relocations continue to be drawn to our area.

a.  Prices in most market areas are still seeing slight increases; however, the pace of increase has slowed dramatically &/or stabilized in almost every area. 

 

b.  For many months, sellers have been able to “ratchet” up their listing price as each home in the community has sold.  This strategy has proven to reach a limit.  We are now seeing large amounts of price reductions daily.  Likewise, there are an increasing number of homes that are having appraisal issues, where a lender’s independent valuation of a home is coming in less than the contracted sales price. 

 

c.  A strong pricing strategy remains among the most critical aspects of selling a home. 

a.  One of the primary drivers that have fueled real estate’s strong numbers over the past few years has been a low inventory environment.  The inventory in almost all price points and cities is on the rise.

 

We measure inventory in both total number & “month supply”.  Month supply is simply the time it would take to sell the existing inventory if new listings ceased coming on the market.

 

 I'll use Frisco as an example of this increase in inventory.  Frisco’s housing supply has increased every month since December 2016.  In fact, August 2017’s inventory was just under double from December 2016.  This is reflected in August as 1,094 homes listed with 320 homes selling for a 3.8 month supply.  This holds true for most of the surrounding cities as well. 

a.  As you can envision, when inventory increases, days on market also rise.  The increase of days on market often slightly lags the changes to “month supply”.

 

b.  It may be surprising, but the average days on market are as high as 90+ days in some price ranges, even in the most popular markets.

a.  When buyers have more choice, Price, Condition, & Location become key!

a.  Our listings that elect to utilize a smart pricing strategy often still see multiple offers & shorter days on market.  There is always a balance between Days on Market & Price.

b.  Expect to see elevated levels of price competition. Timely price adjustments increase timely closing probability & reduces time on market.

c.  Simply imagine you are purchase a new car.  There are 3x dealerships offering the model & features you want. 1x of the 3 dealerships is offering theirs’ for $5k less.  Most buyer’s are not going to make an offer or negotiate with the 2x at higher prices to see if they can make it work; they will simply go the lowest price dealership first & attempt to negotiate.  Should that fail buyers will move to the higher prices to negotiate.

a.  Higher relative seller/buyer ratios (month’s supply) reflect a more competitive market for sellers.

b.  Having a large number of showings relative to other similar properties without an offer (or with a lot of low offers) is a strong indication of overpricing.  The image below provides an overview of how showings, or lack thereof, can be viewed in terms of pricing strategies:

1.  Expanded our marketing team to include an in-house designer to ensure your home is well prepared & properly marketed.  If you think you need a refresher at this time, let us know and we will gladly arrange a time with our designer to come visit with you at your convenience. She is also reviewing your listing photos, marketing campaigns and sites to help improve wherever we can to gain more buyer interest. 

 2.  Conduct more frequent digital marketing reviews for your home, to ensure our listings continue to capture a larger share of interest from buyers.

3.  Expanded our Inside Sales Agent team to increase our ability to directly call agents & prospective buyers who have expressed interest in your home or previously toured your home.

4.  Increased our digital marketing campaigns to include banner ads& more direct to consumer marketing and re-targeting branding with your home. 

5.  Reverse prospecting (where we contact the agents that have clients searching for your “type” home.)

6.  Increase agent & broker tours and direct agent to agent marketing to better introduce and keep your home in front of the market.

7.  The introduction of Special Financing options available exclusively to our KW clients & our KW listings to assist with incentives to buyers and help you stand out!

By now it is no secret that Dallas & Fort Worth real estate dominated national news in 2016, but according to REALTOR.com, Texas holds an overwhelming majority in the top searched zip codes on their national website.

TX real estate's "hot market" factor has earned TX cities 18 of the top 20 spots, with the entire top 10 list being from TX!

North Texas eats up the entire top 10 with Dallas suburbs taking 6 spots!

So why all the love?  For starters, keep in mind we are talking a geographic area the size of Connecticut & Rhode Island combined!  Likewise, this list only factors REALTOR.com's searches.  Other websites, like Zillow.com, are much less accurate (in many cases by more than 20%) in our non-disclosure state. 

And those Waco spots?  Well, according to one REALTOR.com article, a great deal of that search may simply be attributed to the wildly popular Chip & Joanne Gaines' TV show "Fixer Upper"!

It will be interesting to see how this list compares to other national websites stats!

Christie Cannon  REALTOR

The Christie Cannon Team

Keller Williams Frisco TX

469.951.9588: Mobile

972.215.7747: Office

Voted as one of the BEST Realtors in D Magazine for 2010-2016

Voted as a Five Star Professional 2012-2016 Texas Monthly Magazine

Named among America's Best Real Estate Agents by Real Trends Magazine

Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist

Global Property Specialist

#1 Keller Williams Agent 2011-2016

Top 50 Agents in the Nation / KW

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently released the results of theirExisting Home Sales Report. Despite the fact that properties are selling faster than they have at any other time since July of 2013, existing home sales declined 3.3% from March.

NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun explained the main reason for the slow:

"April's setback is the result of lagging supply relative to demand and the upward pressure it's putting on prices.”

One major news organization actually used this headline about the decline:

Existing home sales fall 3.3%

They certainly haven’t cratered! April marked the second month in a row that the annual sales pace remained above the five million mark (5.04 million). Year-over-year sales have increased for seven consecutive months and are still 6.1% above a year ago.

Every month, SentriLock, LLC provides NAR Research with data on the number of homes shown to potential buyers. This data is referred to as ‘Foot Traffic’ and is a great predictor of future sales and buyer demand. In April, buyer demand remained at the same level experienced in March.

Why did sales go down?

Buyers who are ready and willing to make a purchase are entering a market where their dream house may not have been listed yet. They can’t find it! Or if they find it, it happens to catch the eye of other buyers and an ‘auction like environment’ begins.

"Housing inventory declined from last year and supply in many markets is very tight, which in turn is leading to bidding wars, faster price growth and properties selling at a quicker pace," says Yun. "To put it in perspective, roughly 40 percent of properties sold last month went at or above asking price, the highest since NAR began tracking this monthly data in December 2012." (emphasis added)

The median home price of existing homes sold in April was $219,400, which is 8.9% higher than last year, and marks the 38th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains.

Bottom Line

So how do you make sense of everything that’s going on in the housing market when there are so many conflicting headlines on the same report?

John Burns, real estate expert and CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting gives this advice:

“The bottom line is this: don't make decisions based on newspaper articles. Read the actual press release, including the methodology, and make sure the results jive with other data points and qualitative feedback you receive.”

If you are one of the many homeowners out there realizing that now may be the time to list your home for sale, or one of the many renters debating a purchase, sitting with a local real estate professional who takes the time to find out what’s really going on in the market, should be your first step!

Highlights:

• Inventory Levels remain less than a six month supply - indicated an unbalanced / seller's market
• For the last 38 straight months the market has seen gain in home prices
• The average time on market is the lowest since June 2013