Borrowers were faced with rising mortgage rates again this week, after a slight pause from increases the week before.

“Despite volatility in the stock market, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage inched forward just 1 basis point to 4.86 percent this week,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “We expect rates to continue to rise, which will put downward pressure on home buying activity. While higher borrowing costs will keep some people out of the market, buyers with more flexibility could take advantage of the decreased competition.”

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Oct. 25, 2018:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 4.86 percent, with an average 0.5 point, rising slightly from last week’s 4.85 percent average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 3.94 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 4.29 percent, with an average 0.4 point, rising from last week’s 4.26 percent average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 3.25 percent.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 4.14 percent, with an average 0.3 point, climbing from last week’s 4.10 percent average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.21 percent.

Do your clients keep renting in the same vacation destination again and again? Have they been hinting at someday buying a seasonal second home? Hippo, a home insurance company, compiled these five signs that buyers are ready to take the plunge.

1. Their finances are in order. If your clients are serious about buying a second home, then they also have to be serious about the costs involved, such as utility bills, maintenance fees, insurance premiums, and possible homeowners association dues. If they plan to rent out the property to other vacationers, help them calculate their potential return on investment. Find out if the idea fits in with their long-term financial goals. Here are some of the questions you can pose to help clients figure out if they’re prepared:

• Do you have emergency savings (at least three to six months’ worth of take-home pay)?
• Can you make a 20 percent down payment?
• If you have children, have you already put aside enough money for a college fund?
• Can you still put away enough money for retirement?
• Have you paid off your existing home?

2. They’re hungry for research. If clients are asking in-depth questions about the area and specific properties, there’s a good chance they’re preparing to buy a vacation home. Encourage them to visit during different parts of the year if they’re planning to spend a lot of time there. Introduce them to amenities in the area, such as grocery stores, restaurants, areas of recreation, and even clinics and dentists’ offices.

3. They want details on the market. More pointed, nuanced questions denote serious consideration. You can anticipate their needs by sending market updates regularly and even putting these clients on a listing drip campaign. Help them get comfortable with the idea of owning a vacation home by analyzing sales price changes and buyer demand in the vacation market in question.

4. They have a plan. Find out how your clients plan to use a property. If they want to rent out the place, then they’ll need help finding a property manager (perhaps you?), cleaning service, insurance provider, maintenance people, and other resources. Or, if they plan to manage it themselves, they’ll need to know how to list the rental and accept payment.

5. They are prepared to pay the taxes involved. Income from rental properties must be included on state and federal tax returns. Your client may also be expected to collect lodging taxes. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for example, vacationers pay a 12 percent lodging tax.

The living room tends to be a major area for social activity in the home, and how you arrange the furniture can either encourage or hamper that.

“Every piece of furniture you own might not have a perfect spot in your house, but it does have a best spot,” Myquillyn Smith, author of The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful, told realtor.com®. Smith sees several common furniture placement mistakes that homeowners make when arranging their living rooms. Here are a few don’ts to share with clients who are getting ready to sell:

1. Neglecting your focal wall.

The focal wall is the first thing a person sees when they enter the room, often featuring a fireplace, a picture window, or even a mounted TV. “The goal is to set up your room so that the majority of the seating is facing or angled toward the focal wall,” Smith says.

2. Cramming in too much furniture.

Most agents recognize how easy it is to make a space feel smaller by trying to squeeze in too much furniture or items that are too big for the space, but homeowners might need a reminder. Smith suggests focusing the room around a couch. “The sofa is usually the biggest, most important piece in the room,” Smith says. “So it gets priority.” Place the sofa in the space first and then reintroduce smaller pieces one by one to see if they work with the sofa. If not, move them out.

3. Pushing the couch up against a wall.

Smith says one of the most common mistakes she sees is homeowners who push their sofa or other seating up against the wall. “About the only time a sofa looks right when it’s placed against the wall is when it’s a corner section and it’s in a corner,” Smith says. She suggests pulling the sofa out from the wall at least 12 inches to create white space and to help make the room feel larger.

Getting a home ready to sell can be a pain. To ease this load for homeowners, some brokerages are offering competing programs that help get a listing ready. Compass and Redfin recently announced their own staging and renovation concierge services geared toward owners looking to sell whose homes might need a little prepping first.

The newly launched Compass Concierge has real estate professionals from Compass who guide sellers through home improvements that could be beneficial to do before they sell. Compass will cover the cost of services like deep cleaning, painting, staging, decluttering, landscaping, and other “cosmetic renovations.” The program is offered to sellers at no additional fee up front.

Homeowners who meet with the Compass agent can then choose which services they’d like to make in their home before the home is listed. The program is currently offered in all 22 markets in which Compass operates, and there is no minimum listing price for properties eligible.

“This is another example of a great idea that came from one of our agents that we are excited to bring to life,” says Robert Reffkin, founder and CEO of Compass. “It’s an opportunity for Compass to use our capital to help our agents better serve their clients.”

In 2017, Redfin launched a similar program called Redfin Concierge. It offers a service that coordinates, supervises, and pays the costs of deep cleaning, painting, staging, and landscaping on listings that are worth at least $500,000. The program, which is available to sellers who pay an extra listing fee for the service, is only available currently in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

“Redfin Concierge Service reaches a new audience of home sellers who want to get their home in top shape for selling, but want their agent to handle everything,” Karen Krupsaw, Redfin senior vice president of real estate operations, said in a statement last year about the program.