Idyllwild Real Estate and Community News

The Idyllwild community never ceases to amaze me, I just came back from Idyllwild school where every Friday artist from the community teach art classes.  I woke up to an email asking for help to mix cement for the third graders to make stepping stones for the school garden. When I arrived and there were about 10 volunteers, parents, grandparents, community members and artists.  It is no wonder that our school ranks the highest in the district, we have a community that cares about our kids! When talking to prospective real estate buyers in Idyllwild I am always quick to point out what a great community we have in Idyllwild.  Once a year the school has a thank you luncheon for the parent volunteers and there are usually about 80 volunteers being recognized and we have just under 200 students in the school.  In other news, real estate is booming!  We have had 50 closings to date, about 20% higher than last years real estate sales at this time. Now is a great time to buy or sell real estate in Idyllwild.

11-11-2015  Well the weather is changing in Idyllwild, the leaves are falling and the nights are getting colder. Time for part time residents to turn off the water and drain the pipes to avoid freezing and potentially expensive repairs!

As always the Idyllwild community is just that, a community of people who get things done, the Idyllwild Halloween parade and carnival last week is another example of what a great place to live Idyllwild California is!  It is no surprise that people bring their kids up from other communities to participate.  Next will be the community tree lighting right after Thanksgiving.

Idyllwild has had a great year for home sales this year with 188 closings so far this year, I expect that 2016 will be another strong year if you are considering putting your Idyllwild home for sale now is the time to contact me and get the ball rolling. There are only 88 Idyllwild homes for sale as of right now, it is a great time to sell your home in Idyllwild!

Jan. 15, 2016

Rent to own?

Idyllwild California Rent-to-Own Solutions Can Make Possible the Impossible 

Idyllwild Rent-to-Own Agreements Defuse Common Landmines Rent-to-Own Succeeds when All Possibilities are Covered 

 

The term “rent-to-own” sounds like a contradiction for good reason. It’s often called upon to reconcile a buyer-seller situation that does not fit a standard mold. A Idyllwild rent-to-own agreement can allow potential buyers to move into an Idyllwild house before their finances are up to snuff (or at least that’s the call most lenders would make). It’s can be a useful contradiction for both parties, because the would-be buyer can get the immediate benefit of living in their choice of home knowing that some portion of the rent paid has the potential of building residential equity, while the seller will either eventually have successfully sold the property or have benefitted from some cash flow should the sale fail to materialize.

If this rent-to-own scenario sounds like a win-win, that’s because it is...that is, unless it isn’t. The reason that rent-to-own is not more popular with Idyllwild home buyers and sellers is because of some frequently encountered landmines—but a well thought-out arrangement can tackle most of the major ones. When both parties (and their legal counsel) anticipate the most likely future circumstances, among them will be:

  • Purchase price. This will be an amount that is agreeable to both parties…one that ideally will also seem fair at the future time when the deed changes hands.
  • Option consideration. To compensate the current owner for the loss of ability to sell the property to anyone else during the term of the rent-to-own agreement, a non-refundable amount (usually somewhere between 2%-7%) can be negotiated. If a portion of this consideration can be applied toward the ultimate purchase, it may increase the incentive for the rent-to-own tenant/buyer to complete the sale.
  • Rent. It’s “rent-to-own” because a monthly rental is negotiated—usually at a higher-than-market rate with a portion of the excess to be applied toward the purchase price. 
  • Term. The length of the agreement—the amount of time the renter/buyer has to complete the purchase—is a key provision. A common reason that a rent-to-own agreement is desired at all is because the buyer needs time to qualify for a traditional home loan, so negotiating a sufficient length of time to accomplish that can be critical.
  • Ongoing maintenance. Spelling out precisely which party is responsible for which classifications of maintenance will prevent a common problem from cropping up. Especially in a situation where the tenant will not be completing the sale, the landlord will be keen to protect the property’s integrity.
  • And taxes, homeowners’ association fees, insurance—any and all details that need to be addressed so that both parties are aware of their responsibilities. Failure to anticipate any one of them can end in a dispute…and that benefits no one!

A Idyllwild rent-to-own agreement can be a terrific way to realize a sale that would otherwise not be possible. The key is to anticipate not just the hoped-for, smooth-sailing outcome, but all of the obstacles that might crop up along the way. Rent-to-own is just one of the possibilities that an experienced real estate professional will help you to consider. 

Be sure to give me a call when your sights are set on buying or selling a Idyllwild home!   

 

From the team at Forest Realty in Idyllwild California at your service!

Jan. 13, 2016

Moving Day

For Idyllwild Ca Moving Days, 5 Practical Planning Tips 

A ‘Moving’ Experience—Idyllwild Sellers Can Save Stress (and $)!  

Moving Day Advice Can Save Idyllwild Sellers a Trunkful!

 

When a Idyllwild home seller tallies the total financial impact of selling the old and then buying the new home, in addition to the closing and brokerage costs, the expense of the move has to be reckoned, too. It may seem like an afterthought, but especially for larger homes and families, it’s a cost significant enough that it bears some economy-minded preparations.

Although doing the lion’s share yourself is the surest way to bring that price tag down, it will also add a load to an occasion that’s already stressful enough. “Moving day” can prod your already surging emotional stress meter further into the red if you are trying to do everything yourself (or relying on friends to carry more of the load than is healthy for the relationships). Since this is such a common hurdle, a good deal of wisdom has developed that can keep potential town moving day misery to a minimum. Here’s a collection of useful tips:

  1. 1) Gather ye boxes while ye may…far ahead of time. Yes, you can certainly buy them—and probably should for special types like wardrobes and glassware—but since you know you’ll be moving once the Idyllwild house has been sold and the new place is ready to move into, make a point of holding onto all the clean cartons you come across leading up to the big day. Once you’re sure you have gathered enough, pinch yourself (and get back to gathering more). Somehow you always need many more than you imagine possible!
  2. 2) Cut cut cut. Long before you approach moving day, get serious about all the stuff you don’t need any more and yard sale (it’s a verb) it, Salvation Army it (ditto), give it away, or just toss it out. If you are going to use professional movers, cutting down the size of the move will be worth its weight in…well—let’s just say it will be worth it!
  3. 3) Dismantle ahead of time. When the movers arrive, a great chunk of their time (and thus, their bill) can be spent taking things apart for safe transport. You can do this ahead of time with a pen and some masking tape, a wrench, pair of pliers, and some Ziploc bags. The bags are for the nuts, bolts, screws, and other fasteners. The masking tape and pen are to label the bags and tape them to larger pieces—you’ll thank yourself at the other end, when it’s time to reassemble everything.
  4. 4) Collect all receipts. Whether you pay movers or rent a van or trailer yourself, remember that moving expenses may be tax deductible. If you get a new job that’s more than 50 miles from your previous home within a year, it probably qualifies.
  5. 5) Time your move. The major stampede for movers happens during the high volume times of year (spring and summer) and especially at the end of the month. Planning to move any other time (like right about now, for instance) will make it that much more likely one of our local movers will be able to give you a deal. And get a firm price guarantee whenever you can; estimates based on hourly rates can take a lot longer than expected!

Picking up stakes and leaving a long-time Idyllwild home (or moving to your new Idyllwild home) is a major life experience you’ll want to remember as the delightful opening of new doors instead of a harrowing misadventure. A little planning ahead of time helps that happen. Part of what I offer my clients is the experience of having shared many ‘moving’ experiences. Call me when one is on your horizon!

 

From the team at Forest Realty in Idyllwild Ca at your service!

Jan. 11, 2016

First time buyers

Young Adults Might Reverse a Idyllwild Housing Trend

More First-Timers May Enter the Idyllwild Housing Market

Faint Green Light for First-Time Housing Market Entrants

 

You don’t need real estate statistics or government bureau reports to sense that first-time home ownership rates have been in the dumps for a while. Idyllwild housing figures have too few transactions month-by-month to draw many conclusions about sustained trends in home ownership here—yet it’s evident that for young adults everywhere, the glacial recovery in the economy combined with factors like student debt have made it particularly difficult for most of them to move from renting to owning an Idyllwild California home.

  Despite the new year’s opening burst of worrisome economic headlines, nationally, when it comes to house ownership trends, there seem to be spots of good news. One with that focus came out of Fannie Mae at year’s end, courtesy of their Housing Insights publication. It wasn’t exactly a barn-burner. The excitement level, on a scale of 1 to 10, would have weighed in at maybe a 2. But for young adults who find their personal financial outlook is a square peg when it comes to the round hole of buying a first Idyllwild home, any improvement in the outlook would be progress.

 That this particular improvement was less than breathtakingly good news was signaled by the headline. It came in the form of a question: “Could the Long Decline in Young-Adult Homeownership Be Nearing an End?” Fannie asked (possibly hoping the readers would supply more information). The reason for the indecision was clarified in the article’s Summary, which stated that the researchers had prepared several projection scenarios for young-adult housing ownership. These showed that ‘strong underlying population growth trends’ demonstrate how even small improvements in those trends “could generate increases in young owner-occupants in coming years.”

In other words, if there are more young adults, there might be more young adult homeowners. Not stated was how long it took the Sherlocks on the research staff to come up with that finding. 

In case this sounds silly, it’s actually not quite that bad. During the worst years of the housing bust, the number of young homeowners decreased despite the fact that their proportion of the population grew…so the projection might indicate an end to that negative momentum. That decline has in fact slowed gradually…but in the three projections made by the Census Bureau, one shows continued decline, the next a slight increase, and the third, a robust increase (twice that registered during the housing boom). For the big question: which of the three is most likely to occur, the answer is (wait for it): 

It’s difficult to predictbut stability or modest improvement in homeownership is certainly plausible.”

 

That might have raised the excitement level to about 3—especially here, where the local Idyllwild housing picture does in fact include properties that are great fits for first time homeowners. With home loan interest rates still enabling extremely doable monthly mortgage payment numbers, even some of those young adults who think their financial square pegs can’t fit the homeownership round hole might learn otherwise. The way to find out? Call me!

Gary Agner and the team from Forest Realty in Idyllwild Ca

Jan. 8, 2016

Home Decor Inspiration

A Free Source for Thousands of Idyllwild Home Décor Ideas

Great Ideas for Adding Appeal to a Idyllwild Home

Ultimate Rainy Day Home Décor Inspiration Generator  

 

Even if you don’t pride yourself on your artistic flair, you probably have developed fairly firm ideas about what makes some Idyllwild homes come across better than others. Without even consciously thinking about it, you know as soon as you walk through a front door whether that immediate impression is strongly positive, just so-so, or sub-so-so. 

A Idyllwild home’s agreeable first impression can usually be laid to a combination of pleasing architecture, diligent maintenance, and appealing décor. Not every home in Idyllwild has all that going for it, but there can also be a saving note: sometimes the most important impression comes from just a few minor touches—clever accents that just seem perfect.

Now that we’re wading deeper into the months when Idyllwild’s bad weather days are stacking up, we are more likely to find ourselves with some spare time—the commodity that was so hard to find when the sun was shining. That makes it an ideal time to browse through the web (or home decorating magazines, if any of those are around) to fire your creative decorating juices. There are websites galore that feature photos displaying imaginative design touches that other homeowners have come up with. Today, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel—when it’s being reinvented by thousands of others

All by itself, Pinterest is a single source of boundless do-it-yourself design ideas. The virtual pin board site is the source of billions of images its users are proud enough to want to share with the world (and a surprisingly large percentage live up to that appraisal!). Since there are more than 100 million active users every month, the images and ideas are constantly changing. If you’re open to new ideas, this is boundlessly rich territory.

If you enter ‘decorating’ in the search bar at the top of the Pinterest screen, you’ll summon up dozens of tabs (they look like color swatches) that lead to all sorts of classifications. There are Apartment, Home, Bedroom, Cabin, DIY, Room, Fall, Rustic, Kitchen, Bathroom, Wall, Ideas, House, Vintage, Country, Table, Dorm, Cookies (this leads to dessert-type cookies—so here ‘decorating’ means ideas for icing them), On A Budget, Farmhouse, Cottage, Bohemian (a suitable alternate title for that one might be ‘clutter’ or ‘gypsy wagon’) Beach, Nautical, Modern…you get the idea: just about everything. 

Alternatively, once you are in the greater ‘decorating’ section, you can also just key in a more specific description of the area you’re exploring. For instance, if you put in ‘spring,’ you’ll see hundreds (perhaps thousands—the pages just keep expanding) of colorful ideas for springtime everything: bunnies, door hangings (a great idea showed an umbrella hanging from a front door knocker with a terrifically colorful springtime floral display bursting up out of the inside of the umbrella)… Then, once you click on any image, you are taken to the creator’s page…and that’s likely to show hundreds of other ideas. A lot of them turn out to be commercial sites, but those have often cooked up some of the most creative ideas.

In case you’ve never visited Pinterest, I’d like to apologize in advance to the amount of time it’s likely to devour. Still, when the weather turns foul, and you’re looking for ways to enhance your Idyllwild home, that’s probably a reasonable price to pay. I have a number of other resources if you are thinking of maximizing your property’s appeal for sale (or for you!). Give me a call anytime!   

 

Brought to you by Gary Agner and the team at Forest Realty i Idyllwild California!

Jan. 6, 2016

Idyllwild Mortgage news

Idyllwild Mortgage Holders Consider Wisdom of Early Payoffs 

On Whether Early Idyllwild Mortgage Payments Make Sense 

Extra Payments for Idyllwild Mortgages Questioned

 

It’s usually around this time of year when the one in charge of keeping track of your Idyllwild household’s finances either sits down to do some budget arithmetic, or (at a minimum) goes hunting for a new shoe box to hold the coming year’s tax receipts.

Both activities are simply exercises in ascertaining what is being spent (philosophers might recognize this as a Search for Enlightenment) – rather than actually doing anything about it. For those Idyllwild mortgage holders more inclined to be actively engaged in improving their budgetary bottom lines, the credit.com website recently presented a question not often heard: are there any drawbacks to prepaying your mortgage? 

Normally, the idea of making extra mortgage payments is presented as an unalloyed great idea. What’s not to like? You pay off your mortgage sooner than would otherwise be the case, which has to put any Idyllwild family’s budget in better shape. Because, from the moment you make an extra payment, the balance of your mortgage is less than would otherwise be the case, each succeeding payment’s interest amount is that much smaller. Obviously, at the end of the mortgage’s term, the total amount of interest paid will have been reduced. Budgetary magic? Maybe not…but a reasonably prudent idea? You’d think so.

The point of the article is another view of that common sense idea. Paying down your mortgage more quickly “may not be the best overall strategy for your finances,” according to the article’s author, Karin Mueller. She was addressing a consumer who reported paying $6,000 extra toward his mortgage principal, but hadn’t felt fairly compensated by the amount the resulting payments showed.

The reason, according to the article, was that the reduction in the amount of principal owed was so small compared with the amount of the loan that the pennies saved in interest is fairly inconsequential. This might be valid—but in addition to those interest ‘pennies’ saved, the real savings come at the end of the loan’s term, when you are able to retire it months earlier than originally scheduled. And those ‘pennies’ do turn into dollars when you add them all up.

It is here that readers might note that there is a link in tiny type at the top of the credit.com page that says ‘Advertiser Disclosure.’ When you click it, you learn that credit.com is being compensated by some of the financial products discussed. It’s fair to surmise that some mortgage issuers might have decided it is against their interest to encourage Idyllwild mortgage holders to make extra payments. Despite the further explanation that “this relationship does not result in any preferential editorial treatment,” you wouldn’t be blamed for any slight suspicions that might be raised in that regard. 

The article does rightly point out that, no matter what, you should always reserve some cash in the family bank account for emergencies—using that to make extra mortgage payments might not be such a good idea. Still, all in all, perhaps paying down your mortgage as soon as it’s financially comfortable to do so IS a good idea (just like we always thought it was)!

The family budget may show your Idyllwild mortgage payment as a minus in the cash flow category, but of course some of that money isn’t really gone—it goes toward building equity: the real estate portion of your net worth. Give me a call whenever you need help in that department!    

 

Form Gary Agner and the team at Forest Realty in Idyllwild California at your service!

Posted in Real Estate News
Jan. 5, 2016

Real Estate and Idyllwild New Years

 

New Year’s Frame of Mind (and Idyllwild Real Estate)

In the Grip of the New Year’s Frame of Mind 

Idyllwild CA Real Estate Investments Forgotten in Savings Survey

 

Along with all of last week’s New Year’s Day festivities came what you could call the New Year’s Frame of Mind: the familiar, this-time-of-year special consciousness of the passage of time. For most Idyllwild residents, all the other seasons come and go with everyone too busy tending to everyday affairs to pay much attention to the big picture: the progress (or lack of it) toward the major goals most everybody hopes to achieve.

It’s that New Year’s Frame of Mind that’s behind the impulse to make New Year’s resolutions. After all, there’s no such thing as ‘Fourth of July resolutions,’ or ‘Labor Day resolutions,’ even though a quick check of the calendar confirms they come once every year, too. Nope; it is the moment when the crystal globe slides down to the Times Square throng and old Father Time greets Baby 2016 that’s most likely to trigger thoughts of how preposterous it is that another whole year has gone by. 

Whether or not that feels terrific is partly due to how well we’ve advanced in our individual Grand Scheme of Things…be it a self-improvement incentive (that’s why they run all those ‘learn a foreign language’ commercials in December) or long-term career growth.

For most Idyllwild residents, progress toward financial security is one of the larger issues that the New Year’s Frame of Mind can trigger. Right on cue, many of last week’s end-of-year broadcasts included a sobering study about the average American’s savings picture…actually, ‘sobering’ is too mild a word. As one credit guru put it, the statistics were ‘dizzying.’ 

The survey was credited to an outfit called GOBankingRates. They had released it months ago, but it drew considerably more attention as the calendar neared January 1 (getting the New Year’s Frame of Mind treatment). Their pronouncement wasn’t so much ‘dizzying’ as it was frightening: the lead finding was that 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings

Reassuring information was readily available, though, for anyone who did more than a quick scan of the survey. It turns out that they had asked about savings accounts only—so the headline-grabbing number left out retirement accounts and the like. As it relates to Idyllwild real estate investors (if you own a Idyllwild home, you are certainly an Idyllwild real estate investor), they also hadn’t included real estate equity in the ‘savings’ total. That certainly makes their scare headline less than dizzying. As the first commenter on their own website noted, ‘why keep money in a 1% savings account?’ 

But GOBankingRates wasn’t exclusively a source for misleadingly bad news. As compensation, they also supplied surveys of the 10 Best Tax Havens in the World (Luxembourg is #1) and 2016’s Top Resolution (it is “enjoying life to the fullest”).   

Here’s hoping that Idyllwild’s 2016 proves to be a remarkably healthy, happy, and prosperous one for you and your family. And if ‘enjoying life to the fullest’ this year involves buying or selling a Idyllwild California home, I hope you’ll give me a call!  

 

 

From the team at Forest Realty in Idyllwild California at your service!

Jan. 4, 2016

Idyllwild Mortgage Insurance Questions Answered

 

In Idyllwild, Mortgage Insurance Solves Lender-Buyer Dilemma

Idyllwild California Borrowers and Mortgage Insurance: a Device to Solve Lending Logjams 

Is Mortgage Insurance is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing For Idyllwild CA Home Buyers?

 

PMI is a set of initials that can be a bit perplexing—particularly for new Idyllwild homeowners who are about to write their first mortgage payment check. They may notice it as a line item that adds a bit more to the payment than they had remembered...and then have that forehead-slapping moment when they remember: it’s that insurance

PMI is a good thing and it’s a bad thing. For many homeowners in Idyllwild, mortgage insurance, (or ‘Private Mortgage Insurance’) may be an irritating extra monthly charge—but since without it they may not have been able to buy their new Idyllwild home in the first place, it can also be indispensable. 

Some call it lenders mortgage insurance (‘LMI’), which would be perfectly fair, since it’s really insurance for the benefit of the lender rather than the homeowner. LMI or PMI or whatever you call it can come in handy—particularly when a low down payment is part of a negotiated mortgage loan. If for any reason the borrower ceases to repay the home loan, it insures that the lender will not have to bear the loss. 

In most instances, such mortgage insurance payments continue until a certain amount of the lender’s risk is judged to have been removed. Typically, in the past, since a 20% down payment was standard, mortgage lenders considered loans of 80% of the value of the home to constitute the normal, run-of-the-mill degree of risk. This was important because banks and mortgage companies really don’t like the whole idea of risk. They would hate to play roulette or blackjack (unless they were the House). 

So whenever a borrower decides to furnish less than the standard 20% for a home’s down payment, that means that they have less at risk in the deal—and experience shows that the likelihood of a default increases as a result. Yikes! Banks smell risk! But if both parties really want to make a sale happen even though the buyer insists on a 10% down payment, the problem becomes how to make it possible… 

Voila! Mortgage insurance is born!

There are other ways to solve the same logjam. For instance, a ‘piggyback’ mortgage can be arranged: the buyer takes a standard 80% loan-to-value mortgage, and simultaneously agrees to a ‘second’ mortgage for the missing 10%. The borrower makes regular payments for both—usually retiring the second as quickly as possible. Another method: find a less expensive home! 

Helping line up smart real estate solutions—including advice on the ins and outs of financing Idyllwild real estate transactions—are all part of the service I offer all my buying and selling clients. Which is why they call me up with their questions and ideas. You should, too!   

 

Gary Agner and the team at Forest Realty in Idyllwild Ca at your service! 

Jan. 2, 2016

Idyllwild Real Estate Predictions

2016 Real Estate Prediction Roundup Buoys Idyllwild Real Estate Observers 

Real Estate Predictions for 2016 Appear to be in Lock-Step 

Real Estate Predictions for 2016 All Fall into Line

 

Given that the experts have often been as wrong as they were right about predicting at least one real estate trend for 2015 (mortgage interest rates), it’s fair to ask why it’s worthwhile to consult them regarding the coming year. Fair enough. The answer is twofold. 

First off, for anyone who will be buying or selling a Idyllwild home in the coming year, much could ride on the wider market factors that influence buyer and seller attitudes. 

The other part of the answer is because it’s fun. Trying to take a peek into the future gathers a crowd every time: just tune into any cable TV news or feature show and start counting the experts prognosticating. Besides, it’s even more fun, later, to ridicule the experts who were way off.

But putting together a roundup of real estate predictions for 2016 involves some hard virtual pick-and-shovel work. To begin with, you have to eliminate all the real estate predictions for 2016 that emerged more than a month ago. A month may not seem like such a long time, but in the real estate prediction business, it can turn into too long (especially if what you predicted for 2016 is already heading in the wrong direction). At this juncture, that hasn’t befallen any of these prominent national real estate prediction sources Idyllwild readers can note:

  • Realtor Magazine – ‘Normal’ is coming. Healthy growth in home sales and prices at a more normal pace
  • CoreLogic — Interest rates will gradually move higher but dollar volume of single-family mortgage originations will fall approximately 10% [reason given: refis will fall]
  • Housingwire — Moderate growth in housing prices and sales (3.5%-4.5%); easier credit; more first-time home buyers 
  • BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research—Further expansion in U.S. housing. The “good news for anyone planning to sell a home in 2016” is that existing home sales could increase by as much as 5%; good news for buyers: a slowdown in home-price appreciation
  • Trulia — “general consensus at the national level…another good year” with hot markets in the West and Northeast cooling down; markets in the South and Midwest “could experience an uptick” in home sales

The researchers and prognosticators behind these projections seem to be in lock-step, at least as we launch into the new year. Whether or not you will be entering the Idyllwild real estate any time soon, it’s certainly good news that the serious folks who forecast future trends agree that conditions look to be settled, stable and hospitable in the coming year. 

There is one thing I know you can count on: I’ll be standing by throughout 2016, ready to assist with all your Idyllwild California real estate needs!   

 

Gary Agner, Forest Realty in Idyllwild California at your service!

Jan. 1, 2016

Idyllwild Real Estate New Year's Resolutions

Idyllwild Real Estate Deserves New Year’s Resolutions, Too!  

New Year’s Resolutions with a Idyllwild Ca Real Estate Flavor

Idyllwild Real Estate Enters the New Year with Resolutions Aplenty!

 

It’s hard to even think about New Year’s without the word ‘resolutions’ popping into your head—not to mention that it’s nearly impossible to go to any kind of Idyllwild Ca New Year’s Eve get-together without the topic coming up. In the realms of diet and exercise, New Year’s resolutions are highly relevant, and the pledges made on their account are the most likely to be followed religiously (at least until the Super Bowl parties put an end to them). 

You might think that the field of real estate (even Idyllwild real estate) would be unlikely to inspire any resolute oaths for the coming year, but that proves to be an incorrect assumption. A quick survey of real estate new year’s resolutions yields any number of lists of recommended pledges. There are 6 of them at the Bankrate mortgage site; another 5 at AOL; and a whopping 10 at both the Realtor® and Houselogic websites! 

Whether or not you feel duty-bound to put any of these pledges into your own personal action queue on January 1 is up to you—but these are among those that are repeated most often: 

 

  • Get Your Financial House in Order. This is actually a good one, for a couple of reasons. First, no matter what you do in 2016, any and all transactions that have a monetary dimension can’t help but go smoother when they fit into a well-ordered financial picture. Second, once you’ve followed it, there’s very little involved in following through. This resolution doesn’t need to have anything to do with Idyllwild real estate to be a good idea, either. 
  • Sellers: Resolve to Think of Your Home as a Product. This is cheating: it’s nothing like a real New Year’s resolution—but a darned good idea, anyway. The downside is that it’s only applicable if you are going to sell you area home in 2016. It’s probably not a joyful idea to think of your home as a product when its single purpose is to shelter your family. 
  • Protect Yourself with Insurance. This one was prominent in a National Association of Realtors list, and although it was aimed at new home buyers, it has wider utility. When you take care to confirm that you’re neither over- nor under-insuring the key areas that require protection, peace of mind is a guaranteed byproduct. This New Year’s resolution also needs very little additional effort throughout the coming year—so it ranks near the top of the RLK Scale (Resolutions Likely to be Kept).
  • Buyers: Resolve to Start Feeling Out the Market. This one might is a smart resolution for anyone planning to buy a Idyllwild home any time in the coming year. Getting a bead on the market ahead of time can help you recognize sooner rather than later when you come across the right Idyllwild home for sale. 
  • Buyers and Sellers: Resolve to Engage a Real Estate Agent Now. This is one Idyllwild real estate new year’s resolution I can heartily endorse for both buyers and sellers (it appears on almost all the lists). A truly grand resolution!
  • Happy New Year’s from Gary Agner at Forest Realty in Idyllwild California!
Dec. 30, 2015

Real Estate Commissions

 

You hear many people speak about how real estate agents are overpaid or don't do anything.  Although just like in any industry, there are good and bad.  Most real estate agents earn their money and work hard for it.  Many people feel that they will “save the commission” by attempting to sell their home on their own.  Although in some instances that can happen, more times than not the home either doesn’t sell or has some level of disastrous results.  Why?  Because the commission is already built into the value of your home.  If you try to remove it, it will usually bite you.

Why You Cant Save The Commission

The most common reason someone would want to sell their home without a real estate agent is to “save the commission”.  There are some challenges with that idea.  Keep in mind, 89% of all residential real estate transactions use a licensed agent.  There is only one commission.  When a FSBO lists their home they are attempting to “save” that commission.  Any home buyer, who chooses to NOT use an agent and look on their own is also looking to “save the commission”.  So what you end up with are two cheap people, both attempting to beat the system and save themselves money.  There is only one commission to be saved and both “cheap” people are fighting for it!  You can see how this setup can cause problems in a transaction that is based upon mutually agreeing on multiple aspects of the home sale.

Commission is Baked Into Fair Market Price

NAR – The National Association of REALTORS puts out a set of real estate statistics every year.  Those statistics show that 89% of sellers were assisted by a real estate agent when selling their home.  So with 89% of all residential real estate transactions including a commission, and fair market value is based off what is available for the same price, real estate commissions are baked into the price.  When an licensed appraiser does an appraisal, they look at recent sales of similar homes.   Those similar homes are called comps.  The appraiser will make adjustments to the sold price of a home in an effort to bring it as close to the subject property as possible.   For instance, if one of the comps had 2 1/2 baths but the subject only has 2 baths, they will adjust the sales price of the subject DOWN to bring it in line with what the subject is.  Keep in mind, almost every one of these “comps” have commission built in.  So when they are valuing your home, they are factoring in the value of that home being sold with the commission built in.  You may want to ask an appraiser, if a home that they use as a comp is sold without the benefit of a real estate agent, do you adjust the price accordingly? Keep in mind when you get a value of your home — the real estate commission is already built into that price.  That is why the typical home sale without an agent sold for $210,000 compared to $249,000 for agent-assisted home sales.  You cant save that commission, you can not pay it to the agent, but in most instances it will come out of the sales price of your home.

The Perils of A Real Estate Transaction

Anytime you are dealing with large amounts of money such as a real estate transaction, nice people can become not so nice very quickly.  People act differently when the largest investment of their lives is on the line.   When their children’s financial future hangs in the balance.  One of the most overlooked aspects of using a real estate agent is they keep the greed in line.  Meaning real estate agents explain to their sellers “you cant do that”.  When the home seller wants to not disclose a certain defect in the home or leverage some other aspect of the deal, its usually the real estate agent telling them they cant do that. So much for people saying that agents are the greedy ones!

Leverage Experience

Every real estate transaction brings new experience.  Things that you never would have thought of come up.  If a particular non-licensed home seller has sold 2 or 3 homes in their lives, they feel like the expert.  Most successful real estate agents have sold more homes last month than most people sell in their lives.  When an issue comes up, they have a quick answer because they have seen it before.  When home sellers think back on the real estate transaction, they probably dont remember that asinine question they asked, because of the quick response their agent provided.  What would have been the repercussions of moving forward with that? There is a lot of value in knowing that the path you are on (for your transaction) is one based upon experience.

You CAN Sell Without An Agent

You can get through a real estate transaction without an agent.  You can drive a car without full coverage insurance.  You can pull your own teeth.  A wise man once told me “everything is OK until everything is NOT OK”.  The value of an agent comes out when things get hairy in a transaction.  There is also value in making sure that things simply dont get hairy in the transaction.  Most real estate agents will tell you, very few transactions go smoothly.  Some do, but most have some type of challenge that needs to be overcome.

Use an agent.  Your homes value already has their commission built into the value of your home.  Its not worth the effort and potential disastrous results of not using an agent.

I am just a phone call, text or email away!

Gary Agner, Forest Realty of Idyllwild California