Showing posts with label real estate and pa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label real estate and pa. Show all posts
Hot off the Press: January Real Estate Update
Hi, ladies and gentlemen, this is Diane Cardano with part 1 of my “Hot off the Press” Real Estate Market Report for January 2014. As you know, every single month I break down the news in a way that is easy to understand and keep you “in the know” when it comes to the latest trends in Real Estate.
First of all, it is now 2014 and I think we’re going to have a fabulous year. As a matter of fact, I think we’re going to have a better year than most people are even projecting. Frank Nothaft, the chief economist at Freddie Mac put it this way, “We expect single‐family home sales and housing starts to be at the highest level since 2007”.
We know 2013 was pretty good in Real Estate, But I believe 2014 is going to blow those numbers away.
Let’s talk about Prices. Prices are important; where are they going? What’s happening?
Well, ladies and gentlemen, the new FHFA report just came out for the end of 2013; I broke it up for you regionally. You can see that though prices are going up in the country and they’re going up rather significantly, they’re not going up at the same levels in every single place in the country. In fact the Middle Atlantic, where we are, is moving at the slowest rate in the country. That is actually a good thing because it means our market has stabilized more quickly and has placed us in a pricing model that effectively makes it both a good time to buy and sell.
That means if you were waiting to move into a bigger home or downsize to a smaller one, you will be able to find many people looking to buy your home and many people looking to sell you the home of your dreams. And if you are a first time buyer, you have competitive interest rates and a competitive marketplace to shop in. We’re in a very solid place as far as prices are concerned. But we are also in an amazingly good place as far as sales are concerned; we’re coming back to a much more normalized market. In fact, that is the word we have been waiting to use for a long time. NORMAL.
Now let’s go back to the FHFA and look at it in a different way. Instead of breaking it down by region let’s break down prices by state. The dark green means things are going really, really well, and what we can see here very easily is that in the vast majority of the country things are going well. Normal appreciation is about 3.6 percent historically, so the dark green numbers are all the states that have appreciation over historic numbers.
But, you may ask, “Isn’t it better to have the 12% price growth we saw last year? Isn’t growth of only 4% a bad thing?”
Actually no, it is not. As Dr. Stan Humphries, the Chief Economist at Zillow said, “the conditions that led to the robust appreciation experienced in 2013, including historically low mortgage interest rates, high affordability, low inventory, and high demand, are waning. In their place we’re beginning to see more inventory and rising mortgage rates, which will lead to further normalization in the market going forward.”
We’re coming off that flying up, crashing down, and flying up again. We’re getting off that crazy seesaw ride and moving to a more normalized market. Trust me folks, that is better for everyone.
What does Normal look like?
If we take a look at NARS’ last existing home sales report, we can see that inventory is getting back to normal numbers. We’re in that number of five to six months, which means that in five to six months we'll get a normalized market. Under five months, there are not enough houses for sale, and prices go up dramatically like what happened in January, February, and March. More than six months means there’s too many houses for sale, which occurred back a couple of years ago when prices started to drop pretty dramatically.
And part of the reason we had tremendous acceleration at the beginning of the year, we were way short in inventory. People were fighting over the houses that were for sale. But as the year went on, we got more and more inventory compared to the year before. And for the last two months we’ve actually had more inventory in September and October of 2013 than we did in September and October of 2012, so things are becoming more normalized. When and demand becomes more normalized, prices level out; and the appreciation is 3.6 percent.
Next I want to discuss a major piece of news that is facing so many people today, the rising Rental crisis.
Many people used to think that renting is less expensive than purchasing. That is simply not true. In fact according to Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the Housing & Urban Development Agency, “We are in the midst of the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has known."
This image shows the Increase in the cost of renting by showing you the Median asking Rent from 1988 to the end of 2012. Just look at that trend.
At the same time, Christopher Herbert, Research Director at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, revealed that cost of renting is about to increase significantly, saying, “Well, I think it’s a basic question of supply and demand. When you have that many more renters coming into the market looking for housing, and the supply of housing isn’t responding as quickly as it might, that’s going to push rents up, even if incomes are low.”
The opinion of the 100+ experts who participate in the Home Price Expectation Survey is that home values will increase by approximately 4% over the next twelve months and by over 25% over the next five years. If we break the predictions down by classification you can see that even the ultra-conservative thinking of market Bears see nearly 17 percent appreciation by 2018. That is an incredible return on your investment dollars, as opposed to helping your landlord feather his nest with your hard earned cash.
The Bottom line is that the housing market in our area is doing exceptionally well and with our team of expert advisors on your side. NOW is the time to enter the market whether you are buying or selling. We will help you face the market armed with knowledge and backed by a team dedicated to making your experience stress free and efficient. Most importantly, you will have the best negotiator in the field… me. The pit bull, at your side, making sure you get the best deal possible.
Well, that’s it for our Market Report #1 for January. Remember to check back regularly to stay current and ahead of your competition. To really get an advantage, don’t forget our monthly Seller seminars! The next one is coming up on Thursday January 16th at the Abington Free Library on Old York Road in Abington PA IT starts at 6:30pm sharp, reserve your seat today. Go to www.HomeSellingSharks.comand register today!
How to Create a Fake Staged Room
Imagine when selling your home, on the very first day on the market, you have buyers lined up outside your door. Better yet, these buyers all have their checkbooks and are willing to pay you list price or more. You may be asking, how can this happen for me when I sell my home?
Watch this video to understand how you can prepare, right now, if you are planning to sell your home in Spring 2014. That is of course, if you want to CRUSH your competition.
The strategy I use to have buyers lined up outside my client's door is called creating a "Fake Staged Room". In the video, I talk about how we get great interior pictures of the home way before you are going on the market. Combine this with the great exterior pictures you have, from when your home looked its best on the outside (see Blog from October 1st) and you are ready to market your home to potential buyers BEFORE your home goes on the market.
I call it my Coming Soon Listing program. My video will show you how the interior can be “faked” for professional pictures. For example, you move your kitchen “stuff” into a different room of the house while your Real Estate Expert takes beautiful pictures of your now cleaned and “clutter-free” kitchen. Then, repeat this process in each room so every picture looks clean and ready for potential buyers to imagine themselves moving in right away!
Once we upload these pictures to YOUR home’s website, you have wonderful pictures inside and out! This, in turn, creates DEMAND for your home! That makes thousands of dollars of difference in YOUR pocket.
To find out how you can get your FREE Home Seller Tool Kit, outlining my 8 Secret Strategies to selling your home Fast for Top Dollar, just go to www.HomeSellerToolKit.com
Free $10,000 Home Selling Secret Strategy
As all Home owners know, there are many things we do to plan and prepare for the change of season. We treat our lawns, store or move our outdoor furniture, change filters and clean our heater. Well the same thing applies to those considering selling their home in the winter through early spring.
Strategy number 3 of my 8 secret strategies is
the Photo and Video showcase! This is the strategy most effected by the time of
the year you choose to put your home on the market. The great news is
that if you act quickly and take photos now, you will be able to differentiate
yourself from the competition when your home hits the market. So many of
my clients, over the years, have told me how grateful they are that they
attended my Seller’s seminars and took advantage of our free no obligation photo
shoot!
When you finally open your doors on the first day, you will have buyers lined up outside competing with one another to pay you list price and more for your home!
Now, as we promised: We are making Diane’s
exclusive Home Seller Tool Kit available to all of our blog followers!
Simply go to www.HomeSellerToolKit.com!
To get your free Home Seller Tool Kit, just go
to 2155768666.com
Real Estate Market Update: Mortgage Interest Rates and Home Sale Statistics
Today I am going to share with you a Real Estate Market Update for August 2013. We have a lot of things happening in the real estate industry. If you own a home or plan to own a home, please listen to this short video filled with graphs and statistics concerning the future mortgage interest rates, trends happening right now with house prices, and what you should expect to happen over the next couple months.
As you can imagine, being an expert in this New World of Real Estate, I want to make sure everyone understands what’s happening in the real estate market right now before you make a decision to buy or sell a home.
Let’s get started with what is happening with sales right now. The market is very strong. In January we were at 4.2 months of inventory, now we are at 5 months of inventory. As prices rise people with negative equity now can sell, hence more homes are coming on the market. Looking at the pending homes graph, pending sales are skyrocketing.
More important than that is the latest projections from NAR over the next 6 quarters, sales are projected to continue on almost a straight line up. Here are Cardano Realtors our goal is to educate people to making the right decisions.
Watch the video to view various graphs that tell the story of what is occurring in the real estate industry.
Median days on the market graph. The graph shows that the days on the market is decreasing. So if your home not sold in the last 60 days on the market, bottom line, it is not priced right.
Case Shiller Report: Home Prices Over the Last 12 Months. This graph shows that yes prices are up from last year. However, in almost every city, they are down pretty dramatically from where the peak was in 2006. In 2006, home prices swung too high. Prices are now recovering, to where they should be and nowhere near where they were in 2006.
Mortgage Rates: Where are the mortgage rates headed? No one expected interest rates to go up this past month, they went up almost 1 percent. This took everyone by surprise. Interesting enough, 4 major institutions projected the beginning of June this year that the interest rates in 3rd quarter 2014 would be 4.6 to 4.8%. . We hit those rates last month. No one saw that spike coming.
Rates from January 2012 to Today. Rates were dropping for a good portion all the way to the beginning of this year, then they went up a little bit and came back down again. Then over the last 6 weeks they just skyrocketed.
Rate Change Effect on Monthly Mortgage Payment. Well how does that impact someone buying a $200,000 house. The cost of waiting a year is just over $200 a month. Over 12 months $2,600 a year and over a 30 year mortgage almost $78,000. So if you are looking for a home, it may be a good time to capture these low rates before they go up again. Home Sellers it is a great time to sell this fall, you have a captive audience and if you are priced right you will find your home selling in less than 60 days. Our average here at Cardano Realtors is 26 days. We find our homes sell for half the time as the average and people who go to our seminars sell 3 times faster than home sellers who did not go to a seminar.
Distressed Sales Graph. Let’s talk about Distressed sales, good for us they are at 18%, the lowest they have been in years. We are eating through that inventory right now. We are getting back to more normalized numbers, it is still high but nowhere near where it was a couple years ago.
Home Prices Appreciation Since June 2012. This graph from S&P Cash Shiller shows home prices going up every month sign June of last year. Let’s see what happens over the next couple months. If the amount of appreciate slows down that might be something we want to keep our eye on.
Price increases in 20 Metropolitan Areas. Philadelphia is not on this graph, however, I have been told we are around 5%. One thing I know about our area, our prices never get too too high or get too too low, we do not get the large fluctuation in prices as California, Arizona, etc.
That is this month's report, this is Diane Cardano from Cardano Real Estate Experts. We will see you next month with more statistics about the current real estate market.
Secret Formula to Secure a Buyer for Your Home in 26 Days or Less in Today's Market
Secret Formula
to Secure a Buyer For Your Home In 26 Days or Less In Today’s Market
In
this video, I share with you a TOP SECRET Formula on how to sell your home in
26 Days or less.
First
as a Home Seller, you need to understand why it is so important Stage your home
months to a year before it goes on the market. Some Sellers are just not
coachable enough and do not want to do anything to prepare their home for sale.
Others do some work to the home but do not know the real reason why they are doing
anything to prepare their home for sale.
Understanding
the reason why you should STAGE your home for sale will give you the energy
needed to make your home shine for the prospective buyers. The most important reason
why you should Staging your home for sale is………..
To Create Demand
For Your Property!!!
You
need to entice the buyer to look at your home online. The pictures online need
to shine to get the buyers to want more!! If they want more, they request more
information about the home or to request a physical viewing of the home. The
idea is that your pre-market your home months in advance online to get as many
buyers looking at your home BEFORE it goes on the market. Then, when the
property is ready for showing, buyers will be waiting outside the door. There
will be so much excitement that your home will sell quickly, for Top Dollar!!
Therefore,
the Secret Formula to selling your home is: (See Video)
Eyeballs
+ Foot Traffic = Sale in 26 Days
Eyeballs: The first
showing for any home is online, therefore home sellers need to make sure they
have the best pictures online. If buyers do not like the home from the website,
they will never request more information. If your home is on the market and you
are not getting any showings, you need to not only look at the price you are
offering for your home, but what are you showing the buyers online.
Buyers
will search for a home using an area of interest and a price range. If your
home comes up in that search, you get a hit!! They browse through the homes
that come up from the search and if the outside picture of your home intrigues
the buyer, they will click on it…. ANOTHER HIT!! Then,if they like what they see on the
outside they will view the inside pictures!!
Most
IMPORTANTLY, if they like what they see inside and outside, they will raise
their hand and request more information and a physical showing of the property.
Sometimes it takes 5,000 initial hits just to get 1 showing!!
Foot Traffic. The goal is
get as many eyeballs looking at your home online, to get lots of foot traffic
into the home. Once you have actual showings on your home, then you can get
feedback from the buyer. Feedback tells you what to do next. What are they
saying about the home?
Here are some examples of how to interpret feedback from buyers about your home on the market:
Too
Small:
They feel at that price and with the features that your home has, they can get
more for their money.
Bedrooms or a specific room is too small,
means at that price they feel they can find a home where the rooms are bigger,
or they can afford more… so the home is overpriced.
Home is on a busy street…the home is
overpriced. They can find a home on a quieter street and they can afford more.
Don’t like sloping of the backyard, or don’t like how the home is on a hill
and has such a steep driveway…the home is overpriced. They can buy other homes
in the same price range that do not have these issues.
Asbestos siding…… they can buy a home
with vinyl siding at the same price.
Abnormal Lot Shape…Unusually shaped
back yard…not a rectangular…At that price, they want a home with a better yard.
Power Lines In Area …they can buy a
home without power lines at the same price.
Home is dated, needs too much work….
They expect the home to be more updated at that price.
Ultimately, the perfect home is
for everyone. The perfect home is defined as on a rectangular lot, on a quiet
street, beautifully landscaped, fenced yard facing the woods, cul-de-sac location,
vinyl siding, totally updated inside and out. This is what the buyer will
always be comparing your home too. They will settle on some issues, but the
buyer who can afford a home at a certain price range will not settle for less.
So getting eyeballs weeks or
months before your home is going on the market is so important. It allows you
to get feedback before your put your home on the MLS. Once your home is on the
MLS, you will never get a chance to make a first impression.
To find out more about how to
pre-market your home and get thousands of showings BEFORE your home goes on the
market go to www.FreeRoomByRoom.com
and sign up for your Free Room by Room review of your home. Each Room by Room
review is 30 minutes long and gives you a complete list of things you need to
do before your home goes on the market.
Also, sign up for our next Home
Seller Seminar where you can learn secret tips from an Expert Advisor.
Why You and Your Loved Ones Should Watch Out for Sharks This Summer
Watch on your mobile device >>
What if you could know what you don’t know about selling a home? What if you could learn how to make ten percent more money when selling your home? With summer approaching we would like to remind you and your loved ones to watch out for sharks!
Home
selling sharks can take many forms and like real sharks they can chew you
up. Not knowing how to properly stage or
price your home can leave you vulnerable to lose thousands of dollars to the
home-selling sharks. It can also make
your home stay on the market for longer than it should which will lower the
sale price.
If
you or one of your friends, family members, or neighbors want to learn how to
avoid all of the headaches that come from home selling sharks; then come to one
of Cardano Experts home shark seminars on June 18th & June 20th. Expert real estate consultant Diane Cardano
Casacio will be speaking on how you can save thousands of dollars and sell your
home fast in 26 days or less.
For more information about Cardano Real Estate Expert’s home shark seminar watch the video and register to attend at HOMESHARKSEMINAR.COM
A Little Painting Goes a Long, Long Way When Selling Your Home
Watch on your mobile device >>
You may not realize this but the simple act of repainting the walls in your home can do wonders for the success of selling your home. And when you add up just how little it costs versus how much the payback is – it’s a no brainer!
Use Neutral, Flexible Colors That Appeal to the Masses
So what are some of the things to keep in mind when you are sprucing up your place before listing it for sale? Simple. DO NOT PAINT YOUR WALLS WHITE!!
Use a Beige based color throughout. Try to put yourself in buyers’ shoes and allow them as much flexibility with their imagination to envision their own stuff in the house. How do you do that? Easy. Cover the walls with a nice, neutral color and you can’t go wrong. That’s what our resident painter does and by the time he and his team are done, the homes he paints for us just before listing come out looking brand new and completely transformed!
The benefit of using a neutral color is so that the home can appeal to buyers of many different styles and tastes. Light or medium beige will usually work with anything from Victorian décor to post-modern styles or even 80s retro. The point is to make it possible for buyers to see that relatively “blank canvas” and know that they can easily change it to suit their own tastes.
TIP ABOUT PAINTING: Paint All Trim WHITE!!! Get rid of the dark trim and everywhere in the house!!!!
Don’t Skimp Out on Quality – It Shows and It Blows
Another tip he offers is to use a quality paint brand along with a good primer so you can cover up any stubborn scuffmarks that might put off a buyer. Of course, before doing any of the painting be sure to apply some patching spackling material to smooth out any rough surfaces and patch up nail holes, dings or scratches. Sanding surfaces prior to painting is also a good idea for a finished, polished look.
~
No matter what market you’re selling in, whether in a seller-centric one or a buyer controlled real estate environment, a clean and fresh home will attract buyers and despite the expense of a few dollars it will work in your favor. Watch the video for more about painting before you list from one of Diane’s Home Selling Seminars.
As you can imagine, buying or selling a home can be a stressful process if you do not have the right team working for you. The Real Estate Market is picking up. We just sold 3 homes last weekend over the listed price, due to our pre-Marketing Strategy, “Coming Soon Listings”, our state-of-the-art Marketing and aggressive Negotiating skills. Who would you rather trust your #1 asset in your Financial Portfolio, an AFA(Average Frustrated Agent) or an Expert Advisor, like Diane & Her Team. To find out more information how you can get a team of real estate experts working for you visit calldianenow.com or give us a call at 215.576.8666. As you can imagine, buying or selling a home can be a stressful process if you do not have the right team working for you. The Real Estate Market is picking up. We just sold 3 homes last weekend over the listed price, due to our pre-Marketing Strategy, “Coming Soon Listings”, our state-of-the-art Marketing and aggressive Negotiating skills. Who would you rather trust your #1 asset in your Financial Portfolio, an AFA(Average Frustrated Agent) or an Expert Advisor, like Diane & Her Team. To find out more information how you can get a team of real estate experts working for you visit calldianenow.com or give us a call at 215.576.8666
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