Blog Archives - Page 7 of 20 - Des Moines House Selling Specialists

Help Sell (and Buy) Houses

I have had something happen occasionally throughout my time selling houses that I thought was important enough to point out. People tend to think of me as a house seller. I am. I am also a house buyer. A few times throughout the years I have had people (usually when looking to buy new construction) use me to sell their home, and then use the builder’s realtor to help them buy their new construction home. Almost every time, they have said they wished they had used me to help them buy.

First off, I cost nothing when you buy a home. Sellers pay both sides for a realtor. That means that people paid both sides to have me help them sell a home, and then didn’t use me when it would have cost them zero dollars.

Second, and most importantly, a builder’s realtor typically cares more about the builder than the buyer. Normally I don’t have any issue with a realtor helping both the buyer and seller in a transaction. In many cases I think it is much simpler to have one person who understands what both sides want, and can help them both come out winners. The issue is with builder’s realtors, there can be an imbalance. This is not true all of the time. It has just been true in several transactions that I have been told about. Think about it this way: if you got most of your income from one side of the transaction, versus a one time deal, which side are you going to favor? My experience has been that you want your own representation when buying new construction that is independent of the builder you are buying from.

Now, onto the market:

The market is already ahead of 2019, which is saying a lot. At the end of January, 2020 we had 989 houses under contract, versus 859 at the end of January, 2019. That is 15% higher than last year. On the flip side of this, the median list price was down $20,000 from last year. This can be seen in buyers being much more picky right now and much tougher negotiators.

Buyers are in an interesting position right now. Interest rates are basically giving money away at this point. There is more and more inventory for them to choose from. AND prices are still up in general. If you are looking to move, it would be hard to find a cheaper environment for purchasing homes with credit. Really there is nothing that is indicating that a market fall is coming in 2020. To me, that means take advantage of cheap money if you are looking to buy.

If you are looking to sell, the market keeps pushing your price up, which is helpful. I would recommend getting on the market sooner rather than later, as the Spring Market will be here before we know it. That is true especially if we keep this sunny, snow-free weather.

I love doing what I do. I love looking at the market, and I love building relationships with the people that 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

Would $7,500 Help You Buy a Home?

I love to help people and this is a great way to get assistance with buying your first home. Here is more information:

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines (FHLB) is giving grants to home buyers of up to $7,500 towards the purchase of their first home. Throughout 2020 they will be giving grants up to $8,000,000 to many homeowners.

You have to be earning 80% or less of the median income for the area where you are purchasing your first home. This limit is adjusted based off the household size (do you have a spouse, children, etc). You can buy single family residential homes, condos, townhomes, and manufactured homes with this assistance. This money can be used for closing costs, down payments, or even to make repairs on the home.

Finally this money is subject to a five year deed restriction. Meaning that if you live in the home for at least five years, you never have to repay the money. In that first five years it is a sliding scale. That means that if you sell in year one, you would owe more of the money back than if you sell in year four.

I am making this math up: say you sell in year one, so you have to pay 80% back, on a $7,500 grant that means that you would have to pay back $6,000 and $1,500 is forgiven. Year two it would be 60% or pay back $4,500 and $3,000 is forgiven. Year three it would be 40% or pay back $3,000 and $4,500 is forgiven. And so on until year six when you will never have to pay the money back. Also, if you sell the home at a loss, sell to another low to moderate income buyer, or lose your house through foreclosure you can get the balance forgiven by following FHLB’s process.

This could be a great way to start building equity instead of just paying someone else’e mortgage (rent). With how low interest rates are right now you could put yourself into an incredible position for building future equity.

If you want to see my opinion on why you should look at a 15 year mortgage, see my post on What Type of Mortgage do You Have?

If you are interested in this program you can go to the Homestart Homepage right here.

~Ryan Lynch

Thank you!

Good morning my friends. It is New Years Eve, 2019 and I just wanted to write to say how grateful I am for you. If you read my posts, talk to me on the phone, let me help you in real estate, just let me help you, or simply know that I exist, I am so grateful for you.

Thank you for a fabulous 2019 and I can’t wait to experience 2020 with you. Thank you!!!

~Ryan Lynch

Borrowing Brains to Buy (and Sell) Houses

I had something happen yesterday that just reminded me of the importance of working with people that know what they are doing. I had a client that wanted to buy a house and was dealing with multiple roadblocks.

At first I didn’t push and let them handle it, because that is what they seemed to want. After they started to get frustrated I just started asking more and more questions. It turns out that they were just dealing with an inexperienced person, and with some information I fixed their problem within an hour, and now they have the house they want under contract.

The reason I point this out is that I have a lot of experience that the average realtor does not. Helping so many people, helping investors, and being an investor myself have taught me a lot of things. The number one thing, is that if there is a will, there is a way. I have had many clients come to me saying that a lender/contractor/whoever told them something wasn’t possible, that I could show them how to do that day.

Borrow my brains, I love to share!!!

~Ryan Lynch

Lock it In

I have had this conversation with several of my clients recently, so I thought that this would be a good thing to share with everyone. The question is usually something to the effect of: I really like this property, could I get it inspected before I make an offer?

The simple answer is yes. You can pay an inspector to come to the property and write you a report. You have to ok it with the sellers. As long as they are ok with an up to two hour showing, it will work.

The better answer is that you should put the property under contract before you do that. The reason that most people want to do the inspection is because they like the house and they want to make sure that there is nothing that they can’t see that would stop them from buying the house. That is already built in to any contract that I would write for you. Once you put a property under contract you have (typically) two weeks to do as many inspections as you want and then ask the sellers to remedy any issues that come up, or change the purchase price, or countless other options of negotiation.

The reason that I say to put it under contract is because then you have a legal document saying that you have the right to purchase that property, and that you are above all others in that right. If you simply do an inspection before you have a property under contract, then the property can be put under contract by anyone. So while you are getting your report, you could be losing the house. And you just paid for a report that no longer matters to you.

If you have the property under contract, and the inspection comes up with something that you don’t want to deal with, and that the seller wont do, you get out of the contract. And then the few hundred dollars that you spent on that inspection saved you from thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars of repair. Money very well spent.

My simple advice is that if you like a property, make the offer. That way if you continue to want it, you already have it. If you find something that makes you not want it, and the seller wont fix it, then you can cancel the contract.

~Ryan Lynch

Long Term Thinking

It matters to me that you are happy. I am in this for the long haul and I think that makes me do things that most realtors would not do.

For example, yesterday I was out with clients looking at houses. We were at a house where they started talking about all of the things that they would need to do in order to like the house. They would want to remodel the kitchen and all of the bathrooms. They would want to move walls. They would want to cut down trees. Finally, I looked at them and asked “Why are you even considering this house if you want to change most everything about it?”

For me, getting the sale does not matter. It matters that I help you get what you want. Frankly, in many instances it is helping you figure out what you want.

I am not going to push you to buy now. I am going to be there to answer questions for you and point out things you might not notice. After you buy, I am going to check in periodically to see if there is anything I can do to help. Six months, six years, or twenty-six years later I am still going to be checking in when you are ready to move to the next house. How is that for long term thinking?

Market Report:

I have been saying that we are at the top of the market for a while. I have also been saying I don’t know how long we will be there. No one does. Here are three pieces of information that make me think we are seeing a true shift in the market:

September saw the most open houses being held for 2019 so far. In 2019 there have only been four weekends with more than 1,000 open houses being held. Two of those were in September.
We have stayed above 4,000 active units of inventory on the MLS for almost two months now.
Every month since June, 2019 has seen more price reductions than the previous month.

All three of these data points are saying that there is a shift in buyer’s patterns.

To give a more full picture, we are still near record breaking levels of sales for 2019. The levels of pending transactions (houses under contract) has stayed steady as well. This combined with the previous information tells me that more and more people are putting their houses on the market (more sellers). Even with ridiculously low mortgage rates, buyers are not keeping up with sellers.

That means that if you are a buyer you are feeling good. You have cheap money and lots to choose from. If you are a seller, you need to be aware of what is going on around you and hit the ground running.

~Ryan Lynch

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Help Sell (and Buy) Houses

Would $7,500 Help You Buy a Home?

Thank you!

Borrowing Brains to Buy (and Sell) Houses

Lock it In

Long Term Thinking

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