Dallas Real Estate Blog

CNNmoney.com just released an article stating it is the best time to buy a home in more than 4 years. With the high amount of foreclosures and surplus of houses on the market, the value of homes is dropping rapidly leaving many homes undervalued. Just a few days ago my husband showed me another article about the Dallas market and how undervalued the homes are. Dallas is the most undervalued area of all the large cities with homes priced 30% below the true value.

It is true. You can get a great deal right now. As we more into heavier traffic time for the spring and summer, we will see more people needing/wanting to move. Because no one wants their home to be on the market for too long, many homes may be put on the market a little low or the price dropped quickly after being on a month. Buyers will likely see the good homes go fast. The homes staying on for a long time are the homes no one wants. But there will be plenty of activity this summer with new homes being listed daily.

It is a new year, and I am excited to see what happens with the Dallas real estate market in 2006.  Amazingly, 2007 ended up being a relatively stable market for Dallas and Collin Counties. The market has slowed down, but housing prices are up. And with the drop in the interest rates, there is sure to be an increase in buyers. Luckily, for most sellers, the builders have slowed down giving resale homes a little bit of a boost. We don’t have the over-supply of houses one might think. In December, we maintained a balanced supply of homes and steadily declining rates.

“We are expecting a very good year with the real estate market getting back to its traditional cycle of heavy activity in the spring and summer,” says Jacob Narisi, 2008 CCAR President. “I strongly suggest that if anybody wants to sell or buy a home now is the time to start looking, spring is almost here.”

Did you know if you are behind on your mortgage, have little or no equity, and have a pretty good reason for these late payments, you can get your lender to cover the commissions and closing costs to sell your home?

It is called a short sale, and with an experienced Realtor, many can avoid foreclosure and get out from underneath their high mortgage payments. Many people are unaware of this, and I think it is very important to inform people of this option.

When you are upside down on your house and having problems paying your mortgage, you have options. First contact a Realtor who has experience or knowledge of the short sale process. You can not do this on your own, and your lender will not just offer it to you.

Then, you will have to fill out some paperwork and put together some documents for your Realtor to send to the lender for approved of the short sale. Your Realtor can make sure all this goes smoothly and talk to your lender for you.

Once it is listed, you will have up to 120 days to sell the property without the lender foreclosing. When it sells, you can walk away with only a little hit on your credit and can buy again in no time.

Besides escaping foreclosure, homeowners save by the lender paying up to 8% of fees and closing cost, and the lender often accepts offers below market value which allows the home to sell faster. Instead of competing in with all the other homes, your home is priced lower creating less competition.

This is a win-win situation for all involved. The seller walks away free and clear. The lenders do not have to worry about the legal and financial problems of foreclosing. And the buyer gets a get deal.

In a market with so many houses, real estate agents need to do much more to get their listings noticed. Most of the marketing required, like websites or publications, cost money. If your agent is holding open houses and truly marketing your listing, it makes a huge difference in how much viewing traffic you get. With the time and cost of marketing, 3% to the seller’s agent might be reasonable.

Over the past few years, though, many agents were just posting listings on MLS and not doing much else. Because of this, I started to hear many sellers complain about the large commissions they paid to their agent for just a few hours of work and putting a sign in the yard.

Many decided to start listing their own homes to save money or using “discount” brokers that charge a reduced fee for listing. The term “discount” broker always bothered me. If the listing goes to the same MLS and the client gets a sign in the yard, how is this any different than using a “real” broker?

The difference should be the amount of service the client receives from their agent. A good, educated Realtor is worth their weight in gold and can make buying and selling a home much more enjoyable than fighting through the process alone. What the client needs to know is they can always negotiate with their agent to find a commission or fee that fits the clients needs. Just because you want to spend less money to list your house should not mean you can’t use great Realtor.

With all the talk about the collapsing real estate marketing and mortgage troubles, many people might be scared about buying or selling, but if you look at the data about the Dallas market, there is no reason to be scared. The truth is real estate was artificially inflated by investors, and now we are just getting back to normal.

When I first got my real estate license, I was working in Austin. Real estate was good and consistent. The housing prices slowly increased each year, and the city was growing. But even though everything was good, there was still a surplus of houses. It is the same 9 months of homes on the mark that we have now. So why do we think it is getting so bad? Are people going to stop needing places to live? Are we all going to move into apartments because we can’t get a loan?

With Dallas still growing and with such a low unemployment rate, everything is actually looking good for our city. I think we can all agree we got a little out of control with credit. Many of us bought homes a little out of our price range and have too many credit cards that made us feel financial secure. Now, we are tightening our purse straps and taking a good hard look at our spending habits. Investors are doing this, too. It is a long needed reality check. It is better to have a small down turn in the market now than a huge slide later.

So, lenders have taken a few steps back. At the turn of the millennium, FHA loans were the best to get a low rate and down payment, but they had guidelines to follow. The FHA guidelines have not changes much. The private loans are what loosened making it possible to get a house you did not need. Today, FHA loans are a great option again. You have to prove your income and pay your bills, and you can get a great loan for a home up to $205,000 with little or nothing down.

Whether you are thinking about buying or selling right now, there are a few things to consider. If selling, a clean and nicely staged home still goes fast. There are still people buying or relocating to the area. It is extremely helpful to have help getting your home listed for the right priced, advertised properly, and set up to appeal to the largest market.

If buying, you have more to choice from than a few years ago, and there are many great deals. Just make sure when you are looking that you keep in mind you true financial ability. Don’t let a good deal get you into a higher payment or loan amount than you wanted. You don’t want to be “house broke”.

Just because you had to cheat to win, doesn’t mean you didn’t win.  —Lil’ Bush

Hi, and welcome to our new Dallas Real Estate blog. We should be online soon.