Blog Archives - Page 4 of 19 - Des Moines House Selling Specialists

The Market is Ready for Your Listing

Hello my friends!

I am going to get straight to the point. If you have been thinking about selling your home, call me.

Right now there are only 1,629 houses for sale. Total. 1,092 of those are new construction. That means that currently, on the entire central Iowa Multiple Listing Service (MLS), there are only 537 resale houses available on the market. On the ENTIRE MLS!

To help put that in perspective, there are currently 1,331 houses under contract. You read that correctly. There are almost two and a half times as many houses under contract right now than there are non-new construction houses on the market.

There are so many buyers out there. Interest rates are still low. Lots of people are still moving. If you have been thinking about selling. Call me. You want your house listed. You want to go in front of as large of an audience as possible. You want to be in a multiple offer situation. I can’t guarantee you will be. You have a darn good chance of it happening though.

Buyers, I don’t forget about you either. Call me. You still have access to incredibly cheap money. You still have houses hitting the market every single day. You just need help to make sure your offer is the one that gets accepted.

I am here for you.

The moral of the story is: if you are thinking about buying or selling, I want to help you make it the easiest, most fun, best experience possible.

As always, I love doing what I do. I love looking at the market, and I love building relationships with the people I get to help. Let me know how I can help you. Call me today. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I am good at what I do, and I want to help you.

~Ryan Lynch

Skill Makes the Impossible Possible

The longer I have been a realtor, the more I realize how valuable it is to find people who really know what they are doing to work with.

For example, I recently had a family referred to me who were moving to Des Moines from out of town. Both the husband and wife were starting new jobs here. That caused a difficulty. They wanted to buy a house, and a bank would need them to be in their new jobs for a few weeks before they would approve the mortgage.

So my clients needed to move here and start their job, while not being able to buy a house until close to a month after moving here. Did I mention they have children and pets?

Everyone was trying to figure this out. The bank, the couple, and me.

They were planning on renting a short term place for a month. That means they would have to transport their entire family to Des Moines and move into a new place, only to do the exact same thing all over again a month later. While starting new jobs. In the winter.

Luckily, they chose me to be their realtor, and I have a lot of experience both as a realtor and a real estate investor. This family had a house they wanted. So I came up with a plan to ask for a month of early occupancy, meaning they could move into the house when they made it to Des Moines and not fully purchase it for a month after that.

I talked the family into trying the offer, the bank into letting me make the deal I thought might work, and finally the seller into accepting everything. The best part is that they only had to move once. And because we did everything through the bank financing, their out of pocket expenses were dramatically lower than if they had to find a rental, and move twice. Plus it was simply way easier for them to move into their new home and be done.

My buyers were so happy at my out of the box idea. The bank thought there was no way to move forward with the original situation without a rental. The sellers were happy to get a good deal.

Because my buyers chose me, they were able to find a solution that made everyone happy, got them exactly what they wanted, and I made it all happen.

Working with people who know what they are doing is worth far more than the money they cost. Headaches saved, problems avoided, money not spent all come from working with someone who knows what they are doing.

~Ryan Lynch

Still Alive and Some Help!

Hello! I apologize for not writing for a while. All of you have kept me so busy it has been hard to find the time to sit down and write. Thank you so much for trusting me in one of the largest financial transactions in most people’s lives. My goal is to get you useful information at least once a month this year.

I wanted to pass the success on. I have a good friend who has just started a business over at Dryer Vent Wizard and this is a great service that not many people think of. Basically, they will come and clean the vent from your dryer to the exterior of your home, so that your dryer works more efficiently and your home does not catch on fire.

I had their certified techs come to my house and they were wonderful. They came when they said they would, explained everything to me, and I had total control of what they did and did not do. Then they went above and beyond and did more than I thought they were going to.

Like I said, this is a service you might never think of. However, your clothes/sheets/towels will be dryer faster, and you will be safer. I would highly recommend these techs to make your home safer and more efficient.

~Ryan Lynch

It Depends

I have had some interesting questions as of late about refinancing, selling, and rental property, so I thought I would give you some ideas. First and foremost, the best answer is one specific to your situation. So the best course of action is to just give me a call. I can ask a bunch of questions, and I will happily tell you what I really think about your exact query.

The first was a friend who had a fifteen year mortgage already, and she had talked with her financial planner about getting a new fifteen year mortgage, because with todays rates, she could reduce her monthly payment by a couple of hundred dollars a month. The most important factor to me was did she need the extra couple hundred dollars a month. The reason for that is, if the answer is yes, then it makes a lot of sense to do it.

In her instance, the answer was no. Because of that I told her it was in her best interest to keep the mortgage she has. Here is why. To make the numbers easy, let’s say her mortgage is $1,200 month. So if her new mortgage was $1,000 a month, that saves her $200 a month, or $2,400 a year.

However, her current mortgage only had eleven years left. That means, over those eleven years, she would be saving $26,400. ($2,400 a year times eleven years.) She would then be paying $1,000 a month for an extra four years. That means $12,000 a year, and $48,000 over four years. In order to save that $26,400, she would be paying an extra $48,000 for it. It would cost her $21,600 to save $200 a month.

Again, this might make a lot of sense if money is tight right now, and then refinancing becomes the best choice. If all you are thinking about is your monthly payment, though, you might make a poor decision long term.

Please give me a call or shoot me an email any time. I am very happy to help, and I will give you my best advice for your situation. I have tried to talk a couple of people out of selling their houses with me this year, because they wanted rental property, and they already owned real estate. I am going to think about you, and what is best for you.

~Ryan Lynch

About That Assessment

Within the past couple of weeks, quite a few of us have received our tax assessment. If you are looking to dispute the new value, here is some helpful information on just how to do that.

Here is what you need to have in order to dispute your assessment:

https://paab.iowa.gov/taxpayers/appealing-your-assessment/appeal-grounds?fbclid=IwAR0KP-HptBglhfPH4GePBKOCM5fHpC3sHnoInxN98O8BHsgS2uXOMd3ONac

Here is information specific to Polk County for disputing your assessment:

https://www.polkcountyiowa.gov/county-assessor/assessor-news/important-note-due-to-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR39iH-z0X48O3duAAzFjnTuojxMlvxBcTTzyfHaBv7hHPbuMDR80ltTqgY

Here is information specific to Dallas County for disputing your assessment:

https://www.dallascountyiowa.gov/government/county-government/assessor/frequently-asked-frequently-requested?fbclid=IwAR1OhZubuYuhca4Zv_9OeYyzVGLpeySgqVWQf2-Nvf5VFmjmB4Z-RNSyPio

For both Polk and Dallas County, you have until April 30th to file. If you just don’t want to deal with the taxes, and you want to sell, I am happy to help with that as well. In almost all instances, I think you will be surprised at what you can sell your house for right now.

~Ryan Lynch

It is Not Low Inventory

I have been discussing the same misunderstanding about the market a lot lately. I thought if the people I am talking to are thinking about it, what about the people I don’t get to speak with.

The confusion is about low inventory on the Des Moines Multiple Listing Service. In fact, last year the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors sold almost 2,500 more houses than they did the year before. (To give a frame of reference, we sold a little over 16,500 in 2020.)

Currently there are 1,825 houses for sale. This is record low inventory. However, we currently have 2,745 houses under contract. In the last 30 days alone, 1,418 houses have gone under contract. Think about that. In the last 30 days, almost as many homes have gone under contract as there are currently houses for sale total.

However, we are selling more houses than we ever have. Last year we increased our year over year sales by more than fifteen percent. There are a ton of houses out there. They are simply flying off the shelves.

So what does this mean to you?

If you are a buyer, you have so many houses to look at. And your mortgage is insanely cheap. You need to be on top of what you want and getting out to look as quickly as you can though. Because the three houses you liked last week are gone this one.

If you are a seller, your house most likely will sell for more than you would expect. Of course, condition and competition will always affect your sale. It is a great time to sell right now though.

~Ryan Lynch

The Market is Ready for Your Listing

Skill Makes the Impossible Possible

Still Alive and Some Help!

It Depends

About That Assessment

It is Not Low Inventory

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