This is the time of year that has home buyers and home sellers alike are excited: The Spring Home Buying Season! It’s time to review some smart home buying tips.
For buyers, it’s a great time to purchase a home because the school year is coming to an end and residents have all summer to move before it’s back in session. For sellers, it’s a great chance to reach a lot of home buyers as they navigate the market searching for their dream home.
In preparation for the spring home buying season, we wanted to share with you some tips on how you can shop smart as a home buyer. Enjoy!
4 Home Buying Tips for the Spring Market
Don’t just rely on the Internet for your home searches. While you can certainly find a treasure trove of information on the Internet, it’s not the only way to find your dream home. In addition to searching real estate websites, you might consider also getting out and canvassing homes for sale the old fashioned way. After all, Internet pictures and listing information only tell part of the story. For full context, you need to view the home in person. And don’t hesitate, either! This year’s spring home buying market is expected to be particularly competitive and so you want to make sure you get to that home before other buyers do.
Learn about current market values in trend. Obviously, every market is going to be slightly different and so it behooves you to lean about your local housing markets specific trends. Let’s consider the recent Case-Shiller 2014 home price index, which shows you how much of a difference there can be among major markets. In that report, San Francisco saw the largest annual regional gain at 9.3 percent. Meanwhile, other major markets like New York, Chicago and Washington DC saw less than 2 percent. A qualified and experienced agent can talk with you about current trends and how they impact you. See our article about supply of homes and the affect on price
Expert forecast 4% appreciation rate in home prices and 5% interest rates.
The graph shows the combined effect on home buyers who wait.
Lock in low mortgage rates now. Those near-historic lows won’t be around forever. Thus, make sure you get a good mortgage rate now. By doing so, you ensure that your monthly mortgage will be reasonable for you. And in some cases, you may qualify for a larger or more expensive home thanks to low mortgage rates. Here’s another reason to get a mortgage now: In January, the Federal Housing Authority (which backs loans for borrowers who make low down payments), lowered the annual insurance premium it requires from 1.35 percent of a home loan to just 0.85 percent. All told, the Housing Department estimates that will save FHA homeowners roughly $900 a year.
Keep “Sweeten-the-Deals” Strategies in Your Back Pocket. As previously mentioned, this is going to be a competitive spring home buying season. In other words, you may face a bidding war. So to prepare, consider ways that you can sway the seller in your favor. You might consider foregoing certain contingency clauses. Contingencies are stipulations that allow buyers to get out of contracts. These include appraisals, home inspections and financing contingencies. By removing such contingencies, you’re likely to impress the home seller enough to want to accept your offer.
We at Finding Homes for You have already having our buyers competing with other buyers over homes.
Call us at 636-532-4200 to learn how we’ve been able to beat other buyers in multiple contract offer situations.
We Are Your #1 Resource for Home Buying Tips
We hope you found the above information helpful as a prospective home buyer. Please make sure to check back here soon for even more tips that will help you as you navigate the market!
Save Time and Money by Using an Exclusive Buyer Agent to Help You with Your Home Buying
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The secret to efficiently buying a home in the least amount of time is learning how to weed out the bad ones. We can help you in this area.
You can be sure that every Seller has an Agent and a strategy in place for their goal. You the Buyer, deserve the same. It’s fun to look at homes online, go to open houses, etc. However,when push comes to shove and it’s time when your money is going to be on the table, you’ll want someone on your side. Call Finding Homes for You today at 636-532-4200. We’ve been helping Buyers navigate through the home buying labyrinth for more than a decade. What We Do and Our Qualifications
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