Buying

6 Best Months to Sell

Which are the six best months to sell your house?? Most people would venture to say June-July-August and then say ‘Definitely not December or January”.  Looking back over available inventory and sales activity during the past year, here are the months I found to have the most sales activity per individual listing.

  1. April
  2. March
  3. May
  4. June
  5. February
  6. January

I used sales per listing as my yard stick because if you have a lot of competition for a given property, then multiple offers are likely and prices are going to get bid up.  It’s ECON 101 – basic supply and demand.  Tax Day or April 15th is about the peak, with the peak 🗻 season covering the first six months of the year.

And just in case you’re curious, here’s how the rest of the year shakes out:

  1. July
  2. August
  3. September
  4. October
  5. December
  6. November

So, if you’ve got a house 🏠 on the market currently, you’re wading through the time of year when the number of buyers underwhelm listings.  Soon, very soon, the tide will turn.  If you’re wanting to sell your house, then come January 1, you might want to get your house on the market.  If you’re not quite sure what to do to get it ready or what to price it at… easy, peazy – give us a call.  No strings attached!   We are here to help!

Trying to Avoid a Jumbo Loan??

I was talking to a client this past month and they mentioned they wanted to stay clear of a JUMBO loan.  We discussed some strategies that I have seen over my years in the business that have proven helpful to some in these situations.

  • Consider borrowing from your 401K. Most 401Ks allow one to borrow from the plan.  Typically, there are no upfront cost and you’d be repaying yourself.  It usually takes about 21 days to get the $$$ in your hands.  All you usually need to qualify is a copy of your purchase agreement and a preliminary settlement statement (from the closing agent) on the new house and you’re good to go
  • Do a Conventional/Conforming 1st mortgage and couple it with a simultaneous second mortgage or HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) to fill the gap. Then once your current house sells or you get your bonus or whatever, you can pay off the second / HELOC.  Typical costs of a HELOC are minimal, the rate is good, and repayment is often interest only.  Interest is usually deductible.  Not all mortgage lenders will have these products, though you can oftentimes coordinate with a bank or credit union to do that piece of the transaction
  • Plan on doing a Conventional/Conforming 1st mortgage on your purchase.  Take out a HELOC on your current residence now. This approach does not affect your current 1st mortgage.  Again, the upfront cost is minimal, interest rate is good, and repayment is often interest  Interest may not be deductible but you should only have this for a few months anyway.  Going this route gives you your equity in cash to work with as you go into the new transaction.  It is important to know that this MUST be completed prior to your house being listed or put on the market. It’s about impossible to find a lender who will make that loan once you’ve listed it or the terms will be far inferior.  Turnaround time on this is probably 1-3 weeks.  Different lenders work these differently and with various timelines.
  • Some combination of the above.

Hopefully this gave you some food for thought on how to avoid that Jumbo Loan. When you are ready, give me a call or text at (317) 625-0655. I’d be happy to jump on a call to work through these strategies and determine what is best for your situation.   Until then, make it a great day! – Bob

Home Inspection 🕵️— to attend or not?

For most home buyers, having an inspection performed by a licensed inspector is a “no brainer”.  This is especially true if you don’t have a BIG comfort zone when it comes to home construction!  The cost generally runs somewhere around $450.  Now, that may seem like $450 extra you don’t have as you’re getting ready to come up with your down payment and closing costs, not to mention moving expenses and getting your new home set up.  But, if the inspection points up a major defect you’re not aware of, I guess I’d rather know that in advance rather than 3-6 months down the road.  So, I find most buyers benefit from having an inspection done, and it’s well worth the money.

Once that’s been decided, the next question is should the buyer attend the home inspection or skip it?  Like everything else in life, there are pros and cons.  Here are my thoughts on the topic:

PROS

  • Basically you’ll learn a lot about your future home.
  • You’ll learn where the electrical panel and main shut off valves are.
  • You’ll learn some things about how to maintain parts of your home that maybe you wouldn’t otherwise have been aware of.
  • You’ll get the inspector’s perspective on the significance of blemishes ( of which there will likely be many- dozens even, on average).

CONS

  • The process will take a half day of your time, on a work day.
  • It’s boring.  It’s a lot of standing around checking emails and Facebook while the inspector crawls through the attic and crawl space, test electrical outlets and water faucets.
  • It causes you to focus strictly on what’s wrong with the house.  Because of this, some lose sight of why they wanted to buy the house in the first place.  And with all the focus on what’s wrong it’s easy to lose perspective about the blemishes.  After all, we all accept blemishes in our homes, and when we go to sell there will be a list of blemishes the next inspector will find.  Heck, many of the ones on your inspection report will still be there when you go to sell.
  • And besides, within 24 hours you’re going to get a comprehensive report complete with colored photos detailing everything the inspector finds.

In the end, it’s entirely up to you.  There’s no harm or foul either way.  And it’s not a life or death question.  Personally, I find a good compromise is to attend the last half hour of the inspection.  This is what our friends at US Inspect recommend for experienced home buyers.  It allows you to take a look and hear what the inspector has to say about the house in general and about key issues.  That may make it easier for us to talk about the findings and to come up with a strategy to deal with those key issues.

For answers to all your real estate questions, give Indy’s Choice a call at (317)  625-0655.

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