home ownership

If you’re a seasoned homeowner – or even getting ready to make your first leap into home ownership – the odds are you’ve seen those ‘special offers’ in real estate listings. They are, after all, designed to catch your eye – with phrases like: “$20,000 in free upgrades!” or “We’ll pay up to $10,000 of your closings costs!”

That’s advertising at its best. It piques your interest and causes you to begin comparing that home you really fell in love with . . . one you didn’t like nearly as much. But hey – who wants to pass up a great deal, right?

The fact is, in real estate, nothing is as “free” as it seems. In many cases, when you add up the cost of all the strings that come attached to these ‘great deals’ – “free” can end up costing you a lot more than you can imagine.

Builder Incentives

Whether you’re in a buyer’s or a seller’s market, you’re going to find that upgrade incentives are often a builder’s stock-in-trade. But in order to get ‘freebies’ such as free upgrades or paid closing costs, buyers often have to agree to certain conditions. These can include a number of things – such as paying list price, making an immediate purchase, or even using their sales agent to sell your existing home.

But perhaps the most costly of these conditions can be to require you to use the builder’s “preferred lender.” As one local Las Vegas mortgage broker, Premier Mortgage Lending, explains in greater detail in a recent article, the vast differences in the fees and rates for mortgage loans can easily add up to thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs for a borrower. The bottom line is that when a builder takes away your options to shop for the best mortgage loan, the odds are that those paid closings costs they’re referring to will probably – in one way or another – actually be coming out of your own pocket. (Suddenly, ‘free’ isn’t sounding quite so “free” anymore, is it?)

Seller Concessions

When it comes to seller concessions, there’s only one way to say it: Unless the seller offers you a concession after the final purchase price has been agreed upon – you’re going to be paying for it, one way or another.

Think about it: It’s one thing if, for example, you agree to pay $200,000 for a home; then after the fact, the seller offers to pay 3% of your closing costs. But that’s almost never how it works. In a typical sale – you make an offer first, and in that offer you ask for a 3% concession towards your closing costs. And then the seller accepts your offer.

But wait – that means you could have just as easily purchased that home for 3% less. And as most buyers will usually finance the maximum loan amount for their purchase, that means you just earned the privilege of financing your own closing costs over the next 30 years. Ouch.

The examples described above are just two of many situations where builders and sellers lure buyers by making offers that sound “too good to be true.” But in most cases, it’s good to remember that’s exactly what they are. Knowing that they’re operating with a “back-door” to your wallet will make it easier for you to see through the smoke and mirrors and know exactly what you’re paying for when buying a home.

And we’d like to give you one more key piece of advice that every home buyer should be aware of: Working with your own real estate professional can help you avoid these pitfalls – as they are required by law to operate in the best interests of their client: You.

New Home Resource helps current and future homeowners with all of their Las Vegas real estate needs. Whether your preference is for a newly-built home from a local builder, or a resale property in just the right location, a New Home Resource Realtor® is here to find the perfect property for you. Please contact a New Home Resource Realtor® today at 702-365-1000 or at www.newhomeresource.com. Broker Joanna Piette, and agents Denise Moreno Thrasher, Jessica O’Brien, Evelyn ‘Beng’ Kern, Lance Partin and Kathy Paterniti are all here to help!

This year, Las Vegas has been reaping the results of the long-term recovery in the real estate market with many economic indicators headed in the right direction – Up. A drop in unemployment, more new homes starts, an increase in the sale of resale homes – overall, we’ve seen a consistent improvement each month across the board. And that’s a welcome change for home owners / sellers, buyers, and the real estate industry as a whole.

And the good news continues: New home builders are seeing more first-time buyers entering the market, and as the job market improves, Millennials are beginning to transition from renting to owning. Single-family home sales have hit a 9-year high nationwide – and here in Las Vegas, the median price of homes has increased by 10% compared to June 2014.

Granted, for several years, it seems there’s been nowhere for the market to go except up. Due to the uncertainty in the job and housing markets over the past seven years, 7.4 million home sales have been lost. And while many of those sales may never be recovered, the housing demand is now being driven by population growth, higher employment, and improved incomes. It’s all great news – with industry analysts predicting that the U.S. housing market should continue to improve into 2016.

Adding to this resounding recovery is the fact that more buyers are once again able to become owners. Those who were hit hard by the recession have spent the interim years rebuilding their credit and recovering financially. And many who experienced short sales or foreclosures have moved past the mandatory imposed waiting periods imposed before they could obtain a new government mortgage loan. (Although thanks to a special financing program from one local Las Vegas lender – Premier Mortgage Lending – buyers are also eligible to get non-traditional financing as early as one day after a foreclosure or short sale is completed. Visit AnotherChanceNevada.com for more information.)

When you combine all these excellent reports from all sectors of the U.S. economy – and add in that mortgage interest rates are still at long-time historic lows – more and more buyers are able to pick the home they love and receive that “Loan Approved” phone call we all hope for.

But to find out if you’re able to get that good news, you have to ask! Discover if you can get back into home ownership by contacting a real estate professional or mortgage lender today. Here at New Home Resource, we’re making it possible for Las Vegas residents to do it every single day. You could be among them.

New Home Resource helps current and future homeowners with all of their Las Vegas real estate needs. Whether your preference is for a newly-built home from a local builder, or a resale property in just the right location, a New Home Resource Realtor® is here to find the perfect property for you. Please contact a New Home Resource Realtor® today at 702-365-1000 or at www.newhomeresource.com. Broker Joanna Piette, and agents Denise Moreno Thrasher, Jessica O’Brien, Evelyn ‘Beng’ Kern, Lance Partin and Kathy Paterniti are all here to help!

The stats are really quite simple.

• On average, homebuyers with median income who purchase the typical home spend 15.3% of their income on their monthly house payment.
• In contrast, renters spend 29.9% of their monthly income on rent.

(Data source: Zillow, 12/9/14 article.)

Those are pretty impressive numbers, or make that ‘distressing’ if you’re renting. Given the economic turmoil of recent years, many people may be under the misconception that they’ll “never be able to own a home again.” But that’s not necessarily the case. Many mortgage brokers now have access to financing programs that give buyers that second chance they need (Premier Mortgage Lending is one, with a private lending division that specializes in “Another Chance” for Nevada homebuyers.)

And even though home ownership may not happen for everyone right now, it’s worth a phone call to find out the answer to the question: “If not now, when?” Your real estate agent and the right mortgage lender can give you advice on how to begin organizing your finances so that you’ll be able to qualify for a home sooner, rather than later.

Perhaps the hardest part is not knowing. So arm yourself with knowledge. While we are all thankful simply to have a roof over our heads – there’s nothing as emotionally uplifting or confidence-inspiring like walking into the door of your very own home. That place where you can hammer a nail in the wall. Paint the colors you want. And for some, simply not have to get ‘approval’ to have your own pet is reason enough.

Las Vegas – and America – is bouncing back. Don’t give up on your home ownership dream. Just make it happen.

New Home Resource helps current and future homeowners with their Las Vegas real estate needs. Please contact a New Home Resource Realtor® today at 702-365-1000 or at www.newhomeresource.com. Broker Joanna Piette, and agents Denise Moreno Thrasher, Jessica O’Brien, Evelyn ‘Beng’ Kern, Lance Partin and Kathy Paterniti are all here to help!