2012-13 was all about recovery and stability, but 2014 will be about GROWTH in real estate!

There are many great Montgomery County area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

My prediction for 2014 is that 2014 is going to be the year of growth in real estate! This video tells it all, listen for some great information!!

First, let’s take a look at the economy. In the video I show you a map of the United States showing each state and their state of growth. And we can see that 46 out of 50 states are some shade of green. The darker the shade of green, the better your state is doing. We aren't the darkest shade here in PA but we are the second darkest color, with a growth between .6 and 1%. What we are seeing across the country is the economy is starting to come back.  Watch the video understand how they arrive at these growth rates.  So, why is this so important to the housing market? As employment goes up there’ll be more buyers coming to the market.

This brings me to what I believe will be the most significant market trend we will see in 2014: the repeat home buyer. As prices continue to escalate, more and more people are entering into positive equity. I believe very strongly this is going to be a major part of the market driving us forward in 2014. Check out the video to see why!

Next, let’s take a quick look at interest rates and their effect on the real estate market home values. In the video, check out the graph showing the interest rates levels in 2013 and the inventory status. As you can see, rates went up from 3.3% to almost 4.5%, with the 30 year fixed rate currently at 4.32%. Most economists are predicting that the interest rate will go up another percentage point to 5.3% by this time next year.  

So waiting to buy a home makes no sense. If prices are going up and interest rates are going up, buyers will spend more a year from now than they are now. So now is the time to buy your dream home! 

Check out the the video showing a graph listing the last 4 times in the past 30 years when interest rates went up so did home prices. So don't worry get your home on the market this year to maximize your equity.

 Lastly, I want to move from the general market news to some specific advice for those of you who know someone, or possibly are thinking of selling your own home in the coming year. Hiring a professional real estate agent can take away most of the challenges of selling. A great agent is always worth more than the commission they charge - just like a great doctor or great accountant.

Check our the video explaining if you want to hire an Expert Advisor to sell our home today, make sure they:

1. Understand your timetable and your family situation,

2. Remove all challenges,

3. Help you with your next move, and

4. Get the home sold in 26 days or less Guaranteed!!

Check out www.PreHouseInspection.com for more details.

So get it right the first time with some Sassy pre-marketing of the home to create demand so that there are buyers waiting outside of your door. If you want to know what your home is worth, fill out the form at www.CardanoHomeValue.com and request an analysis of your home’s approximate value to be emailed directly to your inbox! 

And remember, there’s is no obligation after doing so! Also, most every month we hold our Home Seller Seminars where graduates learn my secret Home Selling Strategies and sell their homes in 26 days or less for Top Dollar. Just go to www.HomeSharkSeminar.com to sign up for our next seminar on February 20th or pick a date for one in the future. Thanks for listening and see you in 2 weeks when we talk about how to make sure you do not pay more than you should in real estate commissions when selling your home. 

How to take out the home selling shark with the biggest bite!

Welcome back to my blog all you raving Cardano fans!

I'm here to share one of my many strategies to help you get your home sold in 26 days or less for up to 18% more than if you did it yourself or with any other agent!

Most of my raving fans already know about our home selling shark seminars that we do every month. But for those not in the know, today I want to share just one of the five Home Selling sharks that can eat away at your equity, bite by bite and cause you to lose thousands of dollars.

For example, when you're fighting these home selling sharks, it's important to start with the shark that has the biggest bite, and that would be the staging shark.

As you watch this video you will learn why the staging shark is the first shark you need to deal with and how many times faster you will sell your home if you have properly staged home.

So sit back and enjoy the video and remember: Our next Home Selling Sharks Seminar is just a few weeks away on Thursday Feb 20th at the Abington free library!  Come and bring a friend or family member who is going to be selling their home in the next year or two!  They will be thanking you for many years to come !

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!

Secret Home Selling Strategy Gift This Holiday Season

As 2014 draws near, we reflect back on all of our accomplishments and learn from all the decisions we made. We here at Cardano Realtors serviced just over 100 families and helped them protect their real estate asset. This year we are on track to service 200 families with the help of our clients, who introduced us to people they care about.

I am going to wrap up this year-ending Blog with a fantastic video from one of my seminars where I talk about the Secret Formula for Selling your home in 26 days or less. The main message from this video is that in order to sell your home fast and for Top Dollar, you need to have thousands of eyeballs viewing your property online in order to get one person into the house for an appointment. If you don't have premier marketing of your home online, you will not have the foot traffic necessary to build that excitement for your home that will compel buyers to write an offer the first weekend on the market. Then your home will sit on the market, each day the value decreasing, as the longer your home is on the market the lower the offer price will ultimately be. 

Whether you are months or years away from putting your home on the market, this video explains the fundamental action step that must be in place to get your home sold fast, for up to 18% more and have a stress-free experience. That is what it is all about!! So listen to the last 3 minutes of this video for the Secret Formula to getting your home sold fast!

Thank you all again for your support, friendship and introductions all year long. 2014 is going to be an amazing year! Focus on just one thing you would like to accomplish this year and Crush It!! Singular focus is the motto for 2014.

Want to start off the year on the right note, attend our first Home Seller seminar of the year, on January 16th at the Abington Library. Just go to http://www.HomeSharkSeminar.com to sign up and for more information. If you would like me to host a seminar for your organization, just give us a call. We book up a month in advance so please make sure you get us on your schedule to talk to your organization on how to keep their equity in their home. Find out what you can do while they are living in their home to build up equity when it is time to sell one of your largest assets, your home!!

So from our family to yours, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Save Thousands of Dollars Buying & Selling a Home Right Now

Hi, ladies and gentlemen, this is Diane Cardano here with the “Hot Off the Press” Real Estate Market Report through Dec 9th 2013.

Over the last couple of months I've been explaining the impact of interest rates and inventory levels on your purchasing power, and I have been bringing you the most current research to explain the latest trends in the housing market.

Today, I am going to take a bit of a break from all of the numbers and instead, address a common misconception about the seasonality of the Housing market.

It’s the end of the year and that means the winter is upon us.  Many of you may feel that now is not the time to be either buying or selling your home. 

Here are the Top 5 Reasons to Buy a Home Now, and the Top 5 Reasons to Sell a Home Now
Based on prices, mortgage rates and soaring rents, there may have never been a better time in real estate history to purchase a home than right now. Here are five major reasons purchasers should consider buying:

5 Reasons to Buy a Home Now Instead of waiting.

1)  Supply Is Shrinking
With inventory declining in many regions, finding a home of your dreams may become more difficult going forward. There are buyers in more and more markets surprised that there is no longer a large assortment of houses to choose from. The best homes in the best locations sell first. Don’t miss the opportunity to get that ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ buy.

2)  Price Increases Are on the Horizon
The Home Price Expectation Survey polls released their report recently which projects appreciation in home values over the next five years to be between12.3% and 32.8% .
The bottom in home prices has come and gone. Home values will continue to appreciate for years. Waiting no longer makes sense.

3)  Owning a Home Helps Create Family Wealth
Whether you rent or you own the home you are leaving in, you are paying a mortgage. Either you are paying your mortgage or your landlord’s mortgage. The Fed, in a recent study that I reported on last month, revealed that the net worth of the average homeowner is 30 times greater than that of a renter.

4)  Interest Rates Are Projected to Rise
The Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Realtors, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have all projected that the 30-year mortgage interest rate will be over 5% by the end of 2014. That is an increase of almost one full point over current rates. An increase in rates will impact YOUR monthly mortgage payment.

5)  Buy Low, Sell High
We would all agree that, when investing, we want to buy at the lowest price possible and hope to sell at the highest price. Housing can create family wealth as long as we follow this simple principle. Today, real estate is selling ‘low’ compared to where it will be next year. It’s time to buy.

5 Reasons to Sell Now Instead of waiting.

Many sellers feel that the spring is the best time to place their home on the market as buyer demand increases at that time of year. However, the fall and winter have their own advantages. Here are five reasons to sell now.

1)  Only Serious Buyers Are Out
At this time of year, only those purchasers who are serious about buying a home will be in the marketplace. You and your family will not be bothered and inconvenienced by mere 'lookers'. The lookers are at the mall or online doing their holiday shopping.

2)  There Is Far Less Competition
Housing supply always shrinks dramatically at this time of year. The choices for buyers will be limited. Don't wait until the spring when all the other potential sellers in your market will put their homes up for sale.

3)  The Process Will Be Quicker
One of the biggest challenges of the 2013 housing market has been the length of time it takes from contract to closing. Banks have been inundated with both purchase and refinancing loan requests. Both of these will slow in the winter cutting timelines and the frustration these delays cause both buyers and sellers.

4)  There Will Never Be a Better Time to Move-Up
If you are moving up to a larger, more expensive home, consider doing it now. Prices are projected to appreciate by over 25% from now to 2018. If you are moving to a higher priced home, it will wind-up costing you more in raw dollars (both in down payment and mortgage payment) if you wait. You can also lock-in your 30 year housing expense with historically low interest rates right now. There is no guarantee rates will remain at these levels in years to come.

5)  It's Time to Move On with Your Life
Look at the reason you decided to sell in the first place and decide whether it is worth waiting. Is money more important than being with family? Is money more important than your health? Is money more important than having the freedom to go on with your life the way you think you should?
You already know the answers to the questions we just asked. You have the power to take back control of the situation by pricing your home to guarantee it sells. The time has come for you and your family to move on and start living the life you desire. That is what is truly important.
Don’t Forget! My Home Selling Sharks Seminars for 2014 are starting again in January! We’ll be at the Abington Library at 6:30 on the 16th of January! You can register here! Hope to see you there!

Great Time to Buy a Home This Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone and welcome to a very special video blog. We wanted to not only share with you some of our hot off the presses real estate updates, we here at Cardano Realtors wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving with a special clip at the end of your update.

First, the news.

As you can see from this graph, recent mortgage rates have been moving downwards. This is great news for all potential buyers and sellers. The decline in rates really happened back in the middle of September with the Federal government’s announcement to not taper bond purchases.

From there, we have seen a rather consistent decrease in these rates since then. What does this mean? This recent downturn has something to do with the time of the year. Late Fall and Winter aren’t usually the best time of the year to sell a home, but that isn’t always true. Currently, it’s still a great market for buyers and sellers.  While inventory has increased some, it’s not just a buyers’ market. If your home is in great condition, and well maintained, you can still sell your home for top dollar, guaranteed!

Now, Thanksgiving is a special time here at Cardano Realtors. It is a time for family and friends to gather and share a special meal together. And here, we have a very special tradition. Giving our past clients and friends a pumpkin or apple pie to celebrate the holidays. We want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving, and please check out our video that is about this wonderful tradition!

You Really Need An Expert Advisor to Help You Realize Your Home Buying and Selling Dreams!

Hi ladies and gentlemen, this is Diane Cardano from Cardano Real Estate Experts here with the Latest Cardano Real Estate Expert Market Report.  It has been an incredible year in Real Estate and I have been right here, month after month, breaking down all the information and making it easy for you to understand.  So many of you have been giving me such positive feedback on these blogs and I want to thank you for that!  I am very happy you are enjoying them and finding the information and my advice so helpful.

Before I get to the news I wanted to take a second to address a request made by a few of my video blog viewers. They wanted to know why they should hire a real estate expert versus just a traditional sales person.

Imagine hiring a real estate expert, a real estate professional.
Imagine what they can do to protect your real estate asset.
Imagine what that looks and feels like.

#1- They help with all disclosures and paperwork necessary in today’s heavily regulated environment. There's more paperwork to fill out when you sell a house now than any time in history. We have a team, executing market tested, proven repeatable systems which ensure every document is processed accurately and filed well ahead of deadlines.

#2-  An expert Realtor is well educated in and experienced with the entire sales process. There are over 115 variables that must be managed in the home-selling process so this is very important as one mistake from an agent who is not an expert can cost you thousands.

#3-  They act as a ‘buffer’ in negotiations with all parties throughout the entire transaction. The vast majority of people don't want to get involved in negotiations and most don’t even know how to start. Most people want somebody in the middle of it. They want someone helping them talk to the appraiser or the inspectors. They want someone helping them and maybe even talk to the bank.  But most importantly they want someone to stand up for them and negotiate for them. 

#4-  They help understand today’s real estate values when setting the price on a listing or on an offer to purchase. The days of using just Comps to understand a home’s value are long gone.  You need to consider hundreds of variables, aside from obvious ones like upgrades and renovations you have done to your home, there are economic indicators, rental housing vacancies, new single and multi-family construction, seasonal market changes, interest rates, and even regional and national unemployment rates just to name a few.

#5- They simply and effectively explain today’s real estate headlines and decipher what they mean to you.  Home buyers are more informed than ever with their Internet searches. We all know that there is plenty of information out there. However, there's a critical need to transform that information into analysis and advice that helps our client make the best home buying and selling decisions.

I hope that helps clarify the very real need to have an expert, helping you, your friends, family and neighbors with what is more than likely the largest single asset they own. You need to  choose your expert wisely. Just go to www.QuestionsToAskARealtor.com for a complete list. A bad hire can cost you thousands.

This brings me to the market research I want to share with you this month!

Greg McBride, Bankrate.com's Senior Financial Analyst, put it this way: "It seems like Americans' love affair with real estate has returned," and I couldn't agree with him more.

The existing home sales chart, going all the way back to January 2011,shows that the market is definitely back. It's flying back. Things are doing really, really, really well, the real estate market is back in a big way.

Take a look at the recent Survey Fannie Mae did which shows the top 5 reasons Americans are buying homes:

Number One, they want a better place to raise their children;

Number Two, a place that their family can feel safe;

Number Three, they want the ability to have more space, more elbow room;

Number Four, they want the freedom to renovate that space to their taste.  They may want to paint that room a lot of different bright colors in order to spark creativity, but a lease might tell you have to keep it beige. They may want to put a swing set out in the backyard, but a landlord tells them no because  that's an insurance risk and you can't do that.

Number Five, and perhaps the most important reason, is that they understand that owning is a better investment than renting.

As a matter of fact, a study just came out last week that showed that owning is still 35 percent cheaper than renting in the United States. Owning a home is 35 percent cheaper than renting a home in this country, and the study covered a hundred of the largest metro areas. And how many    were at the cheaper end? All 100. They weren't all 35 percent cheaper, but on average it's 35 percent cheaper, and every single one of the hundred largest metro areas it's cheaper to buy a home than rent a home. That's exciting.

I’ll tell you what is even more exciting, What we're getting back to is people realizing the investment ability of owning a home, and that this is a great time to buy.
Take a look at this chart, I go all the way back to January 2000 and come right up to the most current numbers.

See what is the return on investment if you invested in the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ, or if you invested in real estate. And we can see over that 13‐year period that real estate outshines any one of the other investments. It's still the case even though the stock market is taking off.

Some people will say, "Well, Diane, that's over 13 years. You know, what about from 2006 on?

Well, I don’t have time in this video to break down every single time period, but let's just take a look at the last year.

Everyone  is bragging how well the stock market did. And they're not wrong; the Dow's up 13.9 percent. The S&P is up 12.1 percent. And the NASDAQ that took a tremendous hit is roaring back; they're up 17.4 percent.

But look at home prices in this country are up 12.4 percent. We're not doing as well as every one of them, although a little bit better than the S&P,  but even in the last year where the stock market was skyrocketing, owning a home is a sound and profitable investment.

And friends, realize, when you buy a stock, if you're buying two hundred thousand dollars' worth of stock, you're paying two hundred thousand dollars. If you're buying a two hundred thousand dollar house, you're putting down ten, maybe $20,000. So the return on your actual cash investment skyrockets over any of these other investments.

I know many of you watching this will be selling and or buying a home in the upcoming year.  Or you know a close friend or family member who will be. 
I am here to tell you that it is an Amazing time to be on the market.  But like I explained at the start of this video, you really can’t do it right without the help of an Expert. 

There is still one more opportunity to attend one of my Home Seller Seminars, on November 21st at 6:30pm in the Abington Free Library!  Just go to www.homesellingsharks.com,  and sign up today!!

This is Diane Cardano, signing off!