by aaron@inhabitdenver.com | Jun 16, 2015 | Market Information
Real Estate News Five Essential Things You Need To Know About the 2015 Summer Home Buying Market This year has kicked off with an array of experts trumpeting the Denver housing market’s strength and resilience. Inventory is at record lows, home prices continue to rise, and foreclosure activity has ebbed to lows not seen since before the 2007 downturn. Spring and summer is the time for selling houses. The months of April, May, June, and July typically account for more than 40 percent of all housing transactions annually, thanks in large part to good weather. 1. Inventory shortages: “The story of the day is on the inventory front,” stresses Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It’s a sentiment echoed by many. The number of available homes in metro Denver has plunged to a record low, thanks to both an abnormally small supply of existing homes for sale and a dearth of new construction not keeping pace with the current demand. 2. Increased Competition: In addition to a dwindling supply of available homes, the number of buyers has surged. And not just traditional buyers – investors have comprised a sizeable chunk of the buyer pool since the downturn and continue to do so. Real estate investors are responsible for about 25 percent of the existing home sales each month. You, the prospective buyer, need to be prepared to move fast if you find a property you’d like to buy. “Buyers need to be patient because many will be outbid by others and might have to bid on multiple homes,” cautions Jed Kolko, chief economist of...
by aaron@inhabitdenver.com | May 27, 2015 | Market Information
In my previous post I addressed how to take advantage of the market by selling your existing house and negotiating the best terms possible and getting enough time to stay in your house after closing until you find and purchase your replacement home, only having to move once, out of your existing home and into a new home. In Part 2 of this article I will be discussing how to purchase a new home and get a acquire a rental at the same time… Many of us have thought about having rental properties, but getting to that point seems daunting. Why not make your current house a rental property? Most “starter” homes make great rental properties. Why? The answer is that you probably didn’t spend a ton of money on it ( less than 300K) and for a 3 bed/2 ba home in the current Denver rental market you could get about $2000 – $2300 a month, possibly more depending on the location. Lenders will allow you to claim the rental income from your current home before you even rent it out with some stipulations. If you can qualify without that ie. you can carry 2 mortgages then don’t worry about this but here is a creative approach to making this happen if you can’t. Lenders will allow you to claim the rental income on your current place if you have 30% equity based on an appraisal and they will allow 75% of your the rental income to be counted as additional income to offset the debt of the mortgage. For example. You paid $250,000 for your house, with...
by aaron@inhabitdenver.com | May 27, 2015 | Blog, Market Information
So Denver’s Market is hot… Sellers are getting more than full price and great terms in bidding wars… That’s great for everybody that happens to need to sell who is relocating out of state to another area where real estate is much less expensive. They are selling high and and buying low by doing that right? But what about the rest of us? What if you don’t want to move to another state? Maybe you want to move up and buy a little bigger house or in a different neighborhood? Do you want a rental? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes” then read on. Scenario 1: You want to sell but don’t want to have to rent while you are looking for your next house to buy? This is probably the Number 1 reason why people don’t sell. This is a reasonable and common fear. The good news is there is a way around this. Two solutions are “Seller Contingencies” and Seller Rent Backs or Post Closing Occupancy. Here’s how it works. Because the Denver market is such an extreme sellers market, sellers have the upper hand in negotiating with buyers. If you have a well maintained house and you price it when comparable sales show it should be priced at you will most likely have at least 5 or 6 offers to choose from.While price is an important part of the offer we also need to look at how qualified the buyer is, their down payment amount and possibly most importantly their terms. By terms I mean what are their dates and deadlines for...
