Real Estate Deals and Staging Advice

This information was published in The National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.  The data is compiled from surveys given to 120,038 home buyers who purchased a home between July 2008 and June 2009.  Here is some data about Home Buyers I found very interesting:

• 47% of recent home buyers were first-time buyers.
• The typical first-time home buyer was 30 years old, while the typical repeat buyer was 48 years old.
• 21% of recent home buyers were single females and 10% single males.
• New home purchases were at the lowest level in eight years - down to 18%.
• The typical home purchased was 1800 square feet and was built in 1991.
• 77% of home buyers purchased a detached single family home.
• The median price of home purchased was $210,000 in the Northeast, $158,000 in the Midwest, $175,000 in the South and $240,000 in the West
• For more than 1/3 of home buyers, the first step in the home-buying process was looking online for properties.
• 9 out of 10 home buyers used the internet to search for homes.
• The typical home buyer searched for 12 weeks and viewed 12 homes.
• 10% of buyers purchased a home in foreclosure, up from 3% in 2008.
• 92% of home buyers financed their home purchase.
• The percentage of first time buyers who financed 100% of the purchase price with a mortgage dropped to 15% from 23% last year.
• 1 in 10 first-time home buyers reported the mortgage application and approval process was much more difficult than expected and 1/5 reported it was somewhat more difficult than expected.
• 44% of buyers found their agent through a referral from a friend or family member. If you know anyone thinking about buying or selling or investing in real estate please give me a call so I can help them.  Your referrals are how I grow my business! 

The full report is available in my office if you’d like to read it!  I’ll post more about Sellers soon.  Hope you found this information useful! 

Catherine Jeffrey, Realtor  830-456-4584     www.fredericksburgtxhomes.com

If your old refrigerator eats money or your washing machine loses more energy than socks, you could be wasting hundreds of dollars in energy each year and should take advantage of the third-annual Texas ENERGY STAR Sales Tax Holiday. Texans who want to purchase a new air conditioner, refrigerator, dishwasher or certain other appliances can get big savings on energy efficient products over Memorial Day weekend. During the annual three-day tax holiday, which runs May 29 – 31 this year, Texas shoppers do not have to pay state and local sales tax on certain energy efficient products.

The tax holiday begins on Saturday, May 29, at 12:01 a.m. and ends on Monday, May 31 (Memorial Day) at 11:59 p.m. Texas shoppers get a break from sales taxes when they purchase household equipment bearing an ENERGY STAR label. Shoppers can expect to save about $3 million overall in state and local sales taxes during the event.

The ENERGY STAR Sales Tax Holiday applies only to the following appliances and household equipment, as listed in the state tax code:

• Air conditioners priced at $6,000 or less
• Refrigerators priced at $2,000 or less
• Ceiling fans
• Incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs
• Clothes washers
• Dishwashers
• Dehumidifiers
• Programmable thermostats*

* ENERGY STAR specification of programmable thermostats was suspended on December 31, 2009; however, any existing stock of ENERGY STAR labeled programmable thermostats offered for sale by retailers is still eligible for the exemption.

More information and frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the tax holiday are available at www.texaspowerfulsmart.org. For exemption information on associated fees, please see Delivery and Installation Charge FAQs.

ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy for products that meet strict energy efficiency guidelines. Qualifying products display the ENERGY STAR logo on the appliance, the packaging or the Energy Guide label. Clothes dryers are not included in the sales tax holiday because they use similar amounts of energy; therefore, the program does not label clothes dryers. For details on products, visit www.energystar.gov.

If your old refrigerator eats money or your washing machine loses more energy than socks, you could be wasting hundreds of dollars in energy each year and should take advantage of the third-annual Texas ENERGY STAR Sales Tax Holiday. Texans who want to purchase a new air conditioner, refrigerator, dishwasher or certain other appliances can get big savings on energy efficient products over Memorial Day weekend. During the annual three-day tax holiday, which runs May 29 – 31 this year, Texas shoppers do not have to pay state and local sales tax on certain energy efficient products.

Our personal home went on the market and was under contract in just two weeks!  We had our eye on another home here in Fredericksburg and put our offer in and it was accepted.  How do we stay protected in case our buyers can’t get financing or back out of our contract?  Here are some things to consider when juggling the purchase of one property and the sale of another property.

 1.) Put a contingency for sale of other property on the offer for the new home.  That means if something goes wrong on the sale of the old home, You will no longer be bound to the contract on the new home and the money put in escrow should be refunded.

2.) Plan to buy and sell on the same day (we will be using funds from the sale of our old house to purchase the new home).

3.) Be sure to get a lease back to give you time to move to your new home after closing. (In our case, the seller’s of our new home need a week to move out after closing so, the buyer’sof our old home are giving us up to two weeks to move out of our home after we close and receive funds) 

5.) Pre-approval for financing is important for everyone purchasing property.  Don’t waste your time putting in an offer on another home if the buyer’s of your home are still working on financing.

 At this time, we have made it through the option period and inspection on the home we are selling.  We are scheduling inspections (septic, termite, house) for the new home we are under contract to buy and have 9 days left on our option period.  We have submitted our w2’s to our lender and received pre-approval for a loan.  We have looked at three different types of loans including conventional with 10% down, conventional with 5% down and FHA.  We have decided to go FHA and put down 3.5%.  We have asked the sellers to contribute a large majority of our closing costs to keep the cash out of pocket low.  We are working on getting our 3-6 months of income into savings (as Dave Ramsey tells us we should.)

 I’ll keep you posted!

This weekend is national open house weekend and I will be holding two homes open on Saturday April 10th.  Hope you come by to say hi!

10:00AM-11:00AM  609 N. Adams St. $130,000 Reduced to $120,000. 

http://vt.realbiz360.com/Listing-306811.html

11:30AM-12:30AM  406 E. Centre St.  $259,000

To see all the homes listed in the Fredericksburg area on the MLS, visit my website at www.fredericksburgtxhomes.com

See you Saturday!  Catherine Jeffrey, LREA Keller Williams Realty