Jul
31
Austin Mortgage Rates
Posted by garreth under Uncategorized
Austin loan guy John Schutze shares his weekend mortgage rate update:
œMortgage rates remain mostly unchanged this week.
After falling a bit Monday and Tuesday, rates lost ground as we end the week. As we mentioned last week, the Fed began to sell up to $110B of Treasury Notes this week which can divert investor attention away from Mortgage Bonds.
The demand has been low so far with only 40% being sold to foreign buyers. Foreign purchasing of US based securities including Mortgage Bonds is a major factor keeping rates low.
It’s probably a good time to lock in these rates while we are near 5%!
John helps with loans at Bank of America and writes a blog about Austin mortgages. He’s a good resource to ask more about the TDHCA 90 day downpayment loan program which allows first time buyers to borrow the federal tax credit for use in their closings.
Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor ® in Austin, Texas. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.
Leave a Reply
Jul
31
Central Austin Homes For Sale : Brentwood
Posted by garreth under Uncategorized
Brentwood, Austin has some great new construction with easy access to Burnet Road’s entertainment, shopping and food. Here’s what differentiates the homes on the corner of Woodrow and 51st Street.
New construction in Brentwood typically means a condo or townhouse – shared living walls and tiny yards. These two new homes offer something a little different. They’re attached, but only in name – the homes are connected by a storage room. Each home has a storage unit accessible from the outside, so these two unique homes have no shared living walls.
5005 Woodrow Unit B
- 3 Beds, 2.5 Baths
- 1534 sqft on 2 stories
- Austin ISD
- MLS# 8120370
- $349,900
- Virtual Tour
The home has two master suites – one on each level and a third bedroom. The kitchen has a rich granite counter, high end stainless appliances, slate back-splash and enjoys the same bamboo floors as the rest of the lower story and stairs.
The home has a large privacy fenced yard with a full sprinkler system and a trellis covered patio to entertain outdoors.
The bathrooms are luxurious with a separate frameless shower in each, and a whirlpool garden tub in the upstairs master. Pedestal sinks and recessed lighting really show how high the ceilings are.
See more information on this stylish home which has just hit the market at the Austin MLS.
This home is in of the most walkable neighborhoods in Austin – 78 out of 100. You can easily walk to Pacha for coffee, The Flying Saucer for beer, and there are 5 eateries within 300 yards. Central Market is 4 minutes away when you want to stock up!
For more information on this home or any other home in Austin, please contact Garreth Wilcock : 512 694 8873
Leave a Reply
Jul
19
Austin Mortgage Rates
Posted by garreth under Uncategorized
Austin loan officer John Schutze shares his weekend mortgage rate update:
œMortgage rates end the week with little change.
Mortgage rates are under pressure to increase. These two primary factors are the cause:
First, the hot stock market (sparked by higher than expected earnings from several major companies and banks) is drawing money away from mortgage bonds.
Plus as we mentioned last week, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for June was released on Wednesday. It showed prices rose 0.7% in June which was a little more than most economists™ prediction of 0.6%.
This didn’t have a huge effect in the short term but Walls Street and the Fed will keep a close watch. If the July and August CPI numbers remain at this level, inflation concerns will likely cause rates to rise.
John identifies loan programs for Austin home buyers and blogs about Austin mortgages. He’s an expert on theTDHCA 90 day downpayment loan program which allows first time buyers to borrow the federal tax credit for use in their closings.
Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor ® in Austin, Texas. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.
Leave a Reply
Jul
14
Six Reasons to Sell Your Home FSBO in Austin
Posted by garreth under Uncategorized
Selling your home as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) in Austin may seem an attractive option. The idea of paying a real estate agent to sell your home might not appeal, and you may feel that you might net more from the sale if you market it yourself. Here are six reasons to go it alone as an FSBO.
1. You have access to Austin MLS data or recent sales data and you are confident about pricing your home correctly. Pricing is perhaps the most critical aspect of getting a home sold.
Texas is a non-disclosure state so there is no public access to sales data. Pricing your home based on information from Zillow allows for a huge margin of error in Texas, as admitted on their site as shown below. A 20% margin of error doesn’t sound good to me!
2. You’re a professional negotiator. When you put a FSBO sign up in your yard you’ll find out that you get all sorts of strange offers and requests. I know. I’ve done it in the past. Twice.
Some of the people that call up are simply looking for a good deal – they assume that the seller may not know their home’s market value, that the seller is in distress, and that they have negotiating power through their knowledge.
3. You have home marketing expertise. If you know the kind of buyer who is looking for a home like yours and know how to reach them, then you may have a good advantage as a FSBO seller.
The three biggest guns in the Realtors’ arsenal are the MLS, internet marketing and Realtor to Realtor marketing. FSBO sellers can use cheap MLS listing services to put their homes in front of consumers and Realtors. There’s more to marketing a home than putting it in the MLS, putting a sign in the yard and waiting for a call though.
If you’re confident that you can market your home well, then trying the FSBO route may work.
4. You have experience of the contractual paperwork used to sell a home in Austin, Texas. If you’ve sold several homes in the past, you may be used to the paperwork and the process. If you understand option periods, earnest money and the negotiation points in a contract, you may feel confident that you can take care of it all.
The challenge with this is that the laws for homebuying and the contracts used do change. If you last sold a house 5 years ago, you might not know about the Austin Energy Audit ordnance for example.
And the standard TREC contracts may seem straightforward – you may be a real estate attorney and find them a breeze. The one thing I’ll say is that there are complexities with every transaction.
5. You already know someone who wants to buy your home. In this case, marketing isn’t required and you could get help with transaction management, pricing and negotiating.
According to the 2008 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 45% of FSBO sellers already knew the buyer for their home when they decided to sell (eleven times more than new the buyer in an agent assisted sale).
6. You like getting calls from real estate agents. Real estate schools across the country teach new agents to call FSBO sellers as they need help.
A Realtor ® looking for new clients may call people who are trying to sell their homes by themselves spurred on by the statistics that show over 80% of FSBO sellers end up getting an agent to help them sell their home. FSBOs should expect that they will get called up by multiple agents wanting to be the one who ultimately helps them if they fail.
A FSBO sale isn’t for everyone. It does work for some people. In our region, 12% of sellers did so without a real estate agent in 2008.
Garreth Wilcock is an Austin Realtor ® and Certified Negotiation Expert. He helps home sellers in Austin decide if FSBO or agent assisted listing best suits their needs.
Leave a Reply
Jul
10
Austin Mortgage Rates : Weekend Update
Posted by garreth under Uncategorized
Austin loan officer John Schutze shares his weekend mortgage rate update:
œMortgage rates hold steady after a light economic calendar this week.
Next week will be much more interesting as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for June is released on Wednesday. The CPI is a measure of the price change of goods and services in the US.
Economists and the Fed see this report as a gauge on inflation. It’s expected to show prices increased 0.6% in June. If the report is higher than 0.6% then we could see rates bounce higher. Alternatively, if the report is lower rates will likely stay the same or drop slightly. We will let you know in next Friday’s update!
John connects home buyers with loans at Bank of America and writes a blog about Austin mortgages. He’s a good resource to ask more about the TDHCA 90 day downpayment loan program which allows first time buyers to borrow the federal tax credit for use in their closings.
Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor ® in Austin, Texas. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website.
Leave a Reply
Jul
10
How to Borrow Your Downpayment to Buy a Home in Austin Before December
Posted by garreth under Uncategorized
The $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit can be used as part of your downpayment and closing costs if you buy a home in Austin before November 30th 2009. I’m tired of lenders telling people that it can’t be done. It can, but not all lenders are approved for the program or know about it.
I met a client for a cup of tea yesterday evening and a lender had told her that she would have to come back after saving up a downpayment. I referred her to a lender who can help. Here are the basics:
Am I eligible to borrow my downpayment? If you live in Texas, are a first time home buyer, and earn less than $75000 if filing separately or $150000 if married filing jointly, and you use a participating lender to buy a home before the end of November this year, then you may be eligible. Drop me an email if you would like some lender recommendations.
How do I get the money from my tax credit to purchase a home? You may have read about the Federal tax credit being available after you purchase the home. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) has introduced two programs which allow you to borrow money from them and repay it with your tax credit:
- 90 day Downpayment Assistance Program. This is essentially a bridge loan to allow you to borrow $7000 of your anticipated federal tax credit to use as closing costs and downpayment.
- Mortgage Advantage Program (MAP). This allows people in the Texas Mortgage Credit (MCC) program to borrow up to $6000 for 120 days. It has more education requirements – read how the MCC can save you $2000 per year over the life of your loan in a previous article.
Read more about the guidelines for the two new TDCHA programs at their website.
Can I get my $8000 tax credit before I buy the home? You can get access to the funds for the closing of your home – when you purchase it. So the $6000 or $7000 is used for allowable closing expenses and downpayments. There are still out of pocket expenses that you pay up front. For example, the earnest money, contract option fee and inspections would have to be paid for. The program itself also carries a $250 fee to set up.
Will the 90 Day Downpayment Assistance Program take care of all my closing costs? It depends on your price point, and which loan program you are using – FHA, Conventional or VA. Let’s look at two quick examples:
Example 1: Purchase price $200,000. FHA loan with a minimum 3.5% downpayment ($7000). Closing costs 1.5% ($3000)
If your Austin Realtor negotiates for the seller to pay your closing costs, and you are eligible for the full $7000 assistance, then you would bring little to the closing table.
Example 2: Purchase price $150,000. FHA loan with a minimum 3.5% downpayment ($5250). Closing costs 1.5% ($2250)
If the seller pays no closing costs, and you are eligible for the full $7000 assistance, then you would bring around $500 to the closing table.
Can I still close in 30 days with these programs? Closing takes a little longer – your lender has to apply for the program money for you, so to be on the safe side, you may need a longer close – 35-45 days.
What does this mean for buyers and sellers? With the current stimulus deadlines of closing by November 30th, and first time homebuyers accounting for as high as 40% of all real estate transactions in some areas of Austin, I would say that November is going to be frantic – people wanting to move by Thanksgiving. Demand for homes in the under $200,000 range may stay high as people look to close before then.
To be on the safe side, I would allow at least 2 months before the end of November to write an offer on a home if you’re thinking of buying and getting the tax credit. It might be a good time to start looking for a home right now.
For first time homeowners, it’s an attractive time to move up to a larger home. There may be a strong demand for your current home from first time homebuyers, and interest rates are still low if you’re considering a bigger mortgage.
It’s entirely possible to buy your first home in Austin with little out of pocket expense. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more or be put in touch with a lender who knows how to do it.
Garreth Wilcock is a real estate agent in Austin, Tx. You can search Austin homes for sale at his website. Call or email for more information about buying a home with no downpayment and no closing costs.
