Is this really a bad real estate market? (video)

Jim Gillespie, CEO of my brokerage, offers solid advice on whether or not to buy a home in this nationally televised interview.  This is worth 6 minutes of your attention.

Good advice for home buyers (video)

I can't agree more with the advice in this video--especially in our area. If you're thinking of buying a home, pay attention!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

When to make the offer?

Here's the way we do it at Coldwell Banker Bain. I hope you'll let me do it for you.

Timing the market?

Should you wait to buy, or is now the time?

Best time to buy might be yesterday

The latest statistics from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service indicate the bottom might have been reached. Interest rates will almost certainly not be as low as they were just a few weeks ago and in all probability will begin rising.

This means that the longer a buyer will wait, the more it will cost to buy. Simple economics.

Americans still eager to buy!

Our friend Jim Tolas of Landover Mortgage passed this along. Thanks, Jim!

Nearly 25 percent of adults say they plan to purchase a home in the next five years and half of those (53.5 percent) will be first-time home buyers, according to a survey commissioned by Move Inc., operator of Realtor.com.

More than 18 percent cite the $8,000 tax credit as a motivating factor. Potential home buyers with higher incomes are more interested in the tax credit than those in lower income brackets, with 43.4 percent of potential first-time buyers who earn $50,000 or more saying they plan to use the tax credit.

When presented with a list of amenities, home owners wanted it all–with more space leading the list (about 10 percent chose that option). Other amenities that were high on many shoppers’ lists included energy saving features (6.8 percent), bigger or nicer yard (6.1 percent), a better location (4.2 percent), or updated amenities (3.4 percent).

The Move survey also found that 18 percent plan to take advantage of the Obama administrations program to prevent foreclosures.

Real Estate Myth 15

This is a continuation of a series of posts inspired by a conversation with an acquaintance who revealed a good deal of ignorance about the real estate profession. Because I think an educated market benefits everyone, I intend to debunk as many myths as possible. I hope you find this information useful. Please feel free to comment!

Myth #15 - I heard that the government will force interest rates to 4%. I'll wait for rates to drop.

Fact - The Fed rate is different from the mortgage rate. Lenders CANNOT lend money for less than they pay to borrow! If they did, they would lose money and go out of business (sound familiar?).

If a lender charged a borrower 4% for a mortgage, the lender would have to borrow at a lower rate (3%). The chances of a bank borrowing your mortgage for 3% are, to put it mildly, slim to none. At today's historically low rates, banks are already borrowing at historically low rates, for them just over 4.5%.

You will never see lower rates than you'll see today (remember when mortgage rates were 16%)? If you're waiting for a lower rate, you're trapped in a myth. The chances of mortgage rates increasing (and fairly soon) are much, much greater than of rates decreasing.

Waiting for rates to drop before you buy is like waiting for your age to reverse. Ain't gonna happen.

There has NEVER been a better time to buy than NOW! Don't wait for interest rates to drop (they will never drop to 4%). Don't wait for the value of homes to start to increase again. NOW is the time. If you wait even three months, you'll lose the $350+ a month you'd save by locking in on today's rates.

Evaluate risks before buying

Good advice from our friend Scott Skinner in Tempe, AZ.

Here are three considerations when evaluating risk before deciding whether or not your next real estate buying opportunity really is as good as it looks.

1) Comfort level - too much stress, fear , and unhappiness, are lingering effects of taking a risk larger than you may want to handle

2) Can you afford a loss - if there is one thing this difficult period in real estate has taught us, is that real estate is not guaranteed to go up forever, ask yourself if you can afford to hold your real estate years and years past what you had hoped.

3) Opportunity cost - deciding not to buy that "good deal" may be the best investment you ever make. Experts will tell you that there are always other buying opportunities. If you have the money in your pocket and the ability to make a decision when it presents itself you may find that opportunity that you could not have take advantage of if you had purchased that deal on which you passed.

Yes, There are a lot of great deals. and yes, we all take risks in life, personally and professionally.

The purchase and finance of a home is a risk that most people take. Historically, it has been very rewarding.

However, be prudent, make sure you do your research, double check your finances, and evaluate your risks.

Thanks, Scott!

Why use a Realtor if you search for homes on the Net?

With just a few keystrokes, you can find myriad resources on the Internet to help you in your search for a new home. Besides property listings, you can find out about specific communities, schools and mortgage options. Take a look, for instance, at Prudential Real Estate which has made three great resources – Environmental Profile, Property Profile and Value Range Estimate – available to anyone. You can get detailed real estate information just by keying in a U.S. property address.

With this wealth of information at your disposal, do you really need a real estate professional to represent you?

Absolutely (but you would expect me to write that, wouldn't you?). But think of it this way: when you go to an unfamiliar place, you could do a self-guided tour. However, your tour is much more rewarding and enriching when you have someone who is familiar with the location to guide you along, because he or she has inside knowledge on the history, culture and stories that you may not have otherwise received.

The same can be said about sales professionals. Their should do much more than simply to drive you around from property to property. They can be a great resource, especially to homebuyers relocating from other communities. Your real estate professional knows the local area, including home values, taxes, utility costs, and school data, and may even be knowledgeable about resources pertaining to your special interests or needs. For instance, should you require help relocating an aging parent with you, your real estate professional may be able to direct you to local services or organizations for the elderly.

A sales professional can familiarize you with the processes involved in buying a home, alert you to potential risks, help you determine how much house you can afford, explain alternative financing strategies, as well as provide tremendous moral support.

Another benefit is having a strong advocate during the negotiating process. Sales professionals can help you objectively evaluate an offer, then work to negotiate a favorable contract. During the process, he or she will review the contract and obligations before you sign, explain how contingencies and release clauses work, and so on.

And something easy to overlook is our familiarity with the complexity and risks inherent in the process. In the years I have been practicing I have been continually amazed at how quickly a seemingly simple transaction can grow legally complex and risky. When complex questions arise, a sales professional can help you quickly locate an attorney or other licensed professionals whose services you may require, such as home inspectors, engineers, surveyors and lenders.

As your single point of contact, a sales professional can manage the entire transaction, including coordinating inspections, keeping in touch with the other real estate professionals, managing the documentation for the loan process, monitoring deadlines associated with contingencies, providing applicable paperwork, estimating closing costs, and helping prepare for a smooth and uneventful closing.

If you’re about to begin the process of buying or selling a home, consider involving a real estate professional. When the stakes are high, it’s comforting to have a specialist by your side.

The right time to buy?

RightTimetoBuy.org is a free resource to educate, encourage and empower people who are thinking about buying a home. They don’t sell any financial or real estate products or services, all information is free, and they don’t accept payment from anyone to be mentioned on their site. They accept information from a variety of credible sources.

I think you'll find a visit worth your time.

A picket fence = The American Dream?

I have to post this. Sales professionals are taught to "sell the sizzle," not the steak. It appears now that real estate professionals are being encouraged to sell the picket fence--never mind the yard and home it surrounds!

RISMEDIA, Feb. 25, 2008-(MCT)-The image of a home surrounded by a white picket fence always has stayed with Lynne Gibbs of Clovis, Calif.”To me, it represented the all-American dream,” says Gibbs, 63, a retired paralegal. “It was why I wanted one. When I was growing up, the white picket fence meant harmony with your house, your family, your spouse. Everybody wanted the house with a picket fence.”

The dream became a reality for Gibbs when she bought the last lot at the end of the street in a new subdivision. Before she and her husband moved in 2005, she went to Lowe’s and bought some vinyl white picket fencing. She hired a handyman and his assistant to install the fencing.

“Being on a corner lot, first of all, it would look nice, but more importantly, keep people from walking across the lawn,” she says.

For many, the American dream includes owning a home with a white picket fence. The classic image still can be found in many places, from older neighborhoods to new subdivisions. But the fencing materials and looks that many are using today don’t always look like the classic style you may have grown up seeing.

In older neighborhoods, finding at least one home on the block with a white picket fence isn’t hard.

One of those homes in the Fresno, Calif., area belongs to Wayne Huber. When he and his wife, Laurell, bought their Colonial Revival home 37 years ago, the wood picket fence surrounding the front yard already was there. Through the years, he has labored tirelessly to keep it up. He’s rebuilt the fence twice already with new redwood pickets.

“When I was rebuilding it, (the house) looked so funny” standing by itself, says Huber, the performing arts division chairman at Fresno Pacific University. The house is tiny, at about 1,000 square feet. Without the fence, the home looked even smaller, he says. Every other year or so, he repaints the fence.

Despite all the work the wooden fence requires, he has no plans to remove it permanently.

“It just goes with the house,” he says.

Nor will he replace it with some of the newer white picket fences, most of which are made out of vinyl.

“I want to, but I wouldn’t do it,” he says. “You know the difference,” even if the wood and vinyl ones look similar from a distance.

The new vinyl products usually include metal support beams in the bottom rails of the fence, says Jorge Lopez, owner of Dry Creek Fence Co. in Clovis. No painting is necessary, and maintenance is minimal. If the pickets get dirty, you can hose or wash them down.

“People who call me, they don’t even want wood anymore,” he says.

The pickets come in several styles, including dog-eared, where the two top corners are cut diagonally; and Gothic, where the top narrows to almost a point.

Picket fences often are 4 feet to 5 feet tall. They can be of equal lengths or form an arch or scalloped pattern.

The cost of vinyl picket fences depends on how much you need and the design you want, Lopez says. Generally, the cost will start at $28 to $30 a foot. Gibbs estimates she paid about $2,500 for her fence, including labor and materials.

For wood pickets, whether you want to build your own fence or replace individual pieces, they start at $2.95 for a cedar picket and $3.25 for a redwood one at White Pine Lumber in Fresno.

Americana aside, people like white picket fences for a couple of practical reasons. One reason is to keep their small dogs gated, Lopez says.

Pets were one of the reasons Ruben Gonzalez of Fresno decided to add a vinyl white picket fence to the front his newly constructed home about two months ago.

“We wanted a white picket fence (where) the stakes are close enough that she can’t get out of the yard,” says Gonzalez, an 83-year-old retired real estate broker, about Sofie, his Pomeranian.

Many of the newer vinyl picket fences have 2-inch to 2-½-inch gaps, Lopez says, adding that traditional wood ones are usually slightly wider at 3 inches.

So far, Gonzalez has been happy with his fence-which cost $4,450 after all expenses- and it’s low-maintenance. “I just have to wash it off,” he says. “It doesn’t require any painting.”

Another reason people have white picket fences, whether wood or vinyl, is because of their decorative appeal.

When Carolyn Tanaka of Fresno bought her home almost 35 years ago, it came with a white wood picket fence. She has thought about replacing it with vinyl but hasn’t done so yet.

“It’s very attractive,” says Tanaka, 72, a retired nurse. “My house is one of the nicest ones in the neighborhood because of the fence.”

© 2008, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.).
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services