What Does the Fed’s Recent Announcement Mean for You?

Now that the Fed has announced they’ll start reducing their balance sheet, you should consider buying or selling sooner rather than later.

Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search 

Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

As you may have heard already, the Federal Reserve had a meeting on September 20th. At that meeting, they announced that they are going to start reducing their balance sheet. This means they’ll start reducing their massive holdings of the mortgage-backed securities they bought during the height of the economic crisis. What does this mean for buyers and sellers? The first thing to keep in mind is this isn’t an immediate situation. This program is getting ready to start, but the Fed owns $3.5 trillion in these securities, and they’ll only be selling back $10 billion a month initially.

“

Whether you’re a buyer or seller, it’s a good idea to think about how this might affect your situation.

”

If you’re planning on buying a house and getting a mortgage loan to do so, the monthly amount you’ll be paying on that mortgage will be affected in a huge way by how much the interest rate is. Over time, the Fed reducing their balance sheet will increase borrowing costs for consumers, which in this case means interest rates. Essentially, if you wait as long as six months to a year from now to buy, it will either cost you more to buy or you’ll be able to afford less house. If you’re considering selling your house a year or two down the road, you want to think hard about doing it sooner rather than later because of the effect this decision is having on buyers. If you wait, they won’t be able to afford as much house or they’ll have to purchase at a lower price. This is especially true if your house is in the upper price ranges of your area or it’s considered a move-up house for buyers. Whether you’re a buyer or seller, it’s a good idea to think about how this might affect your situation. If you have any other questions about this subject or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in our area, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.

How Title Insurance Keeps You Protected From Unforeseen Problems

What is title insurance and why is it so important? Today, I’ll be explaining why title insurance is essential for homeowners.

Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search 

Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

What is title insurance and is it something that you need when you purchase a property? Title to a property describes the rights the owner has with regard to that property. In a nutshell, title insurance provides protection for the owner of a property in a case when an issue arises regarding their ownership and the rights provided by title. This policy can help to cover homeowners in a number of circumstances. For example, what happens if someone receives a contract to sell their property only to discover during the contract period that there is a lien they didn’t place on the property dated before they even bought the home? Having purchased a title insurance policy when closing on the home in many cases will allow the seller to move forward with the sale without jeopardizing their contract. The title insurance company signed off on the title at the time of purchase and will stand in for the seller to insure it’s marketability. There are many other situations where title insurance can provide coverage as well. Another example is a situation wherein a buyer had a survey done to determine the property’s boundary lines prior to closing. After the fact, the boundary lines come into question or an encroachment is discovered from a neighboring lot. Having the combination of a survey and title insurance will provide protection against these issues negatively affecting your interest.

“

IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE PROTECTED FROM THE UNEXPECTED.

”

Situations like the ones above (and many others) bring the ownership interest the buyer has in the property into question. Title insurance is there to help guarantee that the ownership and rights a buyer receives when buying their property are protected. Ultimately, no one expects to need this kind of insurance. Nevertheless, it is important to be protected from the unexpected. I receive a number of requests each year from title companies asking for the seller’s title insurance policy due to something unexpected being found during the title search. In most cases, once the seller provides the policy the sale continues forward without issue because the insurance policy stands in for the seller. If no policy was in place the sale could be delayed, cancelled and the seller could be stuck with a sticky situation and no safety net in place. Consider if you were to drive without auto insurance. People don’t get in their car anticipating a crash—but things sometimes happen. This is also the case with title insurance. You may never use it, but you don’t want to be without it when you need it. If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

The True Benefit of Working With a Team

When it comes to a real estate transaction, you’ve got one shot to do things right. Why work with just one agent when you could have a team of people all working to make your transaction go smoothly?

Looking to buy in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Perform a full home search 

Looking to sell in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Today I want to talk about the difference hiring a team of agents can make for your transaction. Obviously, you want the process of selling your home to go as smoothly as possible. For this to be achieved, you’ll need to have good, strong communication with whoever you’re working with. When you work with a team, you’ve got the benefit of having a number of people taking care of the many steps of the real estate process, instead of just one agent trying to take on all the work him or herself. Having multiple people dividing up the work of completing pricing analysis, staging, taking photos, marketing your home, negotiating contracts, hosting showings, scheduling inspections, processing hundreds of pages of paperwork and more, will really help things move more smoothly. A single person only has a finite amount of energy they can expend and direct into the important tasks of the real estate process. One person dividing their time and energy is much less effective than having a team of individuals all focusing on different parts of the process. When you work with a team, you are working with people who are specialized in different areas. On my team, for example, we separate out our listing specialists and buying specialists. The job of a listing specialist and that of a buying specialist are very different. A listing specialist needs to spend their time working on pricing, marketing, and creating exposure for sellers. A buyer’s agent needs to have time available to spend on the road with their clients, making sure they have the right perspective to make a good decision.

“

HAVING SPECIALISTS DIVIDE THE WORKLOAD THROUGHOUT YOUR TRANSACTION WILL HELP THINGS MOVE MORE SMOOTHLY.

”

One person trying to do both of these jobs and more would cause every area of their work to suffer. Teams like ours also have staff working on the process to make things go more smoothly for clients. On our team, we have a marketing coordinator whose only job is to make sure that all of the marketing details are taken care of in a timely, efficient manner. Real estate transactions are all about timing. For this reason, our team uses a transaction coordinator to help finalize all of the details of the sale. Utilizing a team of staff members and agents is hugely beneficial in helping the transaction to move forward smoothly. When it comes to a real estate transaction, you get one shot to do it right. Would you rather have one person working on your behalf, or would you rather work with a team of specialists?
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.