Mortgage Rates Dip to 10-Week Low

Mortgage Rates Dip to 10-Week Low

Borrowing costs moved lower for home buyers and refinancers this week. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to its lowest average in nearly three months.

“Investors flocked to the safety of government bonds causing the 10-year Treasury yield to continue its descent following the FOMC’s decision to leave rates unchanged,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage responded by dropping 6 basis points before landing at 3.42 percent — a ten-week low. The course of the economy is uncertain, yet consumers continue to be a bright spot. The September consumer confidence index is up 3 percent to 104.1, exceeding forecasts and reaching a new cycle high.”

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Sept. 29:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.42 percent, with an average 0.5 point, falling from last week’s 3.48 percent average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 3.85 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: average 2.72 percent, with an average 0.5, falling from last week’s 2.76 percent average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 3.07 percent.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.81 percent, with an average 0.4 point, rising from last week’s 2.80 percent average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 2.91 percent.

Source: Freddie Mac

Your Buyer Isn’t Really Serious If They …

Your Buyer Isn’t Really Serious If They …

Some buyers may gush over a home, but then an offer is never made. How do you know when a buyer is really serious about wanting to buy a house or just in a perpetual looking phase of a house hunt?

Real estate professionals chimed in at a recent article at realtor.com® on how to tell a difference between a serious a buyer and one who is not. Here are a few signs.

The buyer just started looking.

Usually, home buyers take three months to find a home to purchase. “Many buyers look at a number of houses before they decide what they want,” says Daniel Bortz, a real estate professional in Maryland, Va., and Washington, D.C. “And if they’re at the early stages in their search, you’re less likely to receive an offer.”

The buyer is at an open house.

A buyer isn’t likely to make an offer at an open house, according to real estate professionals. Only half of buyers even visit open houses, according to a survey by the National Association of REALTORS®. More serious home buyers tend to request a private showing of the home.

The buyer doesn’t have a pre-approval from a lender.

“You need to include a pre-approval letter from your lender when you submit an offer on a property,” says Bortz. “Without one, there’s no indication to the seller that you can actually afford to purchase the home.”

The buyer rushes through the home.

“Rushing through an open house is a definite sign of lack of interest,” says Abigail Harris, a sales associate with Coldwell Banker residential brokerage in the Boston area. But don’t take their lack of questions as necessarily a bad sign. “Many buyers feel that they have all the answers and don’t need to ask questions,” Harris says.

The buyer can’t stop nitpicking.

The buyer seems obsessed with finding faults and problems with the home. “That’s a definite showing of disinterest,” says Harris. Indeed, “if she has a home inspection contingency and wants you to fix every single little thing that the inspector spots, such as a loose door knob, she might be looking for you to just give in and say, ‘No, I’m not fixing anything,’ so that she can back out of the deal,” Bortz adds.

Source: “8 Signs a Home Buyer Isn’t Serious,” realtor.com®/Century 21 (Sept. 27, 2016)

Appraiser Shortage Sparks Sales Delays

Appraiser Shortage Sparks Sales Delays

The number of appraisers is rapidly shrinking, which is causing delays in closings and possibly even costing your buyers and sellers money on their way to settlement, CNBC reports.

Since 2007, the percentage of appraisers has fallen by 22 percent, according to the Appraisal Institute. Further, more than 60 percent of appraisers are over the age of 50, sparking concern that not enough new recruits are joining the ranks to replace those who retire. And it’s having a real, measurable impact on transactions. The percentage of appraisal-related issues delaying closings surged by 50 percent from April to September of this year, according to a tracking survey from Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance.

“The appraisal shortage is massive. You’re seeing significant delays, you’re seeing cost increases, you’re seeing rate [locks] expire,” Brian Coester, CEO of CoesterVMS, a national appraisal management company based in Rockville, Md., told CNBC.

Some in the industry lay the blame for the the decline in working appraisers on regulations enacted in 2008 by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA, as the agencies sought to safeguard banks and borrowers.

CNBC notes they changed the rules so that appraiser apprentices must be supervised onsite by a licensed appraiser for full inspections. As a result, many companies no longer see a need to pay apprentices. Apprentices must accumulate 2,500 hours of appraisal experience within two years as an apprentice in order to become an appraiser. Without willing trainees, Coester says appraisers are struggling to keep up.

Source: “‘Massive’ Shortage of Appraisers Causing Home Sales Delays,” CNBC (Sept. 27, 2016)

New-Home Sales Hit Snag After 9-Year High

New-Home Sales Hit Snag After 9-Year High

New single-family home sales posted the largest drop in nearly a year in August, but builders say they’re not alarmed.

Sales of newly built, single-family homes plunged 7.6 percent in August to an annual rate of 609,000 units, according to data released by the Commerce Department this week. Despite the drop, it is the second consecutive month that new-home sales have topped a 600,000 annual pace since the Great Recession, the National Association of Home Builders reports. In July, new-home sales had surged to a nine-year high.

“Given the huge jump in sales in July, the August reading remains robust,” says Ed Brady, NAHB’s chairman.  “Sales are up 21 percent from August last year and year-to-date they are running 13 percent higher, indicating that the housing recovery remains firmly on track.”

The inventory of new homes for sale in August was 235,000, a 4.6-month supply at the current sales pace. The median sales price was $284,000, the Commerce Department reports.

“A low supply of homes, a broadening of the market with additional sales growth in lower price points and rising household formation all point to a growing demand for housing as we move into 2017,” says NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.

Across the country, new-home sales dropped by the highest percentage in the Northeast, falling 34.3 percent in August month-over-month. The South saw a 12.3 percent drop, and the Midwest had a 2.4 percent decrease. The only region to see an increase in sales last month was in the West, where new-home sales rose 8 percent.

Source: National Association of Home Builders

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Essential Skills to Master the Market

Essential Skills to Master the Market

Starting Monday, Sept. 19, the Council of Residential Specialists will be celebrating the fourth annual CRS Week by offering five free webinars to agents, which offer both invaluable education and credit toward a CRS Designation. Pro tip: Even if you’re not sure you’ll be able to sit down for the live webinar, it still pays to register because that’s how you’ll get access to play back to webinar later.

In preparation for CRS Week, we gathered tips from each of the five presenters of next week’s free webinars. You can also find links to register for the webinars below.

Manage Your Schedule Wisely

Monica Neubauer, ABR, SRES, CRS, speaker, and agent with Benchmark Realty, LLC in Franklin, Tenn. not only wants to help webinar participants think more objectively about how they use their most important resource, she also wants to impress upon them that not all time-saving tools are equal.

“Use technology to save you time and improve your systems; don’t use technology that distracts you during working hours,” she says. She also says it helps to start each day with a plan and a shot of optimism: “Develop a morning routine that includes sometime positive, like affirmations or a thought of gratitude.”

Always Be Prepared

Just preparing a presentation won’t be enough to get potential sellers to list with you; you really have to know your stuff. Sean Moore, CRS and an agent with RE/MAX Boone Realty in Columbia, Mo., hopes to help participants gather the tools, knowledge, and techniques to wow sellers and get more listing leads. He says it’s tough to overemphasize being prepared and understanding the facts thoroughly. “Real estate is data, so knowing the numbers well when you sit down at the table during your listing interview shows the seller you took time to prepare for the appointment and that you mean business,” he says. “This way, you can and will set yourself apart from the competition.”

Find the Right Tools for Your Business

Matthew Rathbun, CRS, ABR, CIPS, trainer, and vice president of Coldwell Banker Elite in the Fredericksburg, Va. area, knows there’s a lot of technology solutions competing for your attention. He cautions real estate pros against following what the crowd says about which apps are best for real estate. “There will always be various opinions about what app you should use, but the reality is that you should use the one that resonates with you and is easiest for you to use,” he says, noting sometimes it just takes a bit of dedication to master the tools. “You can chase the best-of app lists all over the internet. If you’ve got an app that you like, push all the buttons and know it well. Then stick with it.”

Rathbun also warns real estate pros against abandoning in-person communication in client relations: “Never ever let the technology get in the way of the human factor. Mobile technology is very cool, but we’re in a people business. Know when to abandon the tech and focus on the face.”

How to Survive Home Inspections

If you want your transactions to run smoothly, one place to concentrate your educational efforts is in the home inspection realm. Rachel Oslund, a home inspector with Pillar to Post in Maryland, cautions that because some 80 percent of all real estate deals are conditional on a home inspection, it’s vital that you and your clients know how to find and hire an experienced professional who’ll do the job correctly.

“Not all licensing and certifications for home inspectors are created equal; you have to learn how to ask the right questions in the hiring process,” she says. She also notes that it’s important sellers understand that costs and credits rarely equal out to the same amounts: “For every $1,000 of perceived defect, the buyer will ask for a $3,000 to $5,000 credit in the asking price.”

Keep Your Client Pipeline Filled

Snagging and converting more online leads is a popular, if slippery, goal for many real estate pros. Mike Parker, a CRS Certified instructor in the northern Kentucky area, has a whole host of ideas for how to make your profile stand out on crowded lead-generation sites, including short, personalized videos and past sales data.

But above all, agents should seek to be helpful to potential clients, he says: “Fill your profile with information that buyers and sellers find valuable and useful. Provide information and links to things like schools, weather, local events, transportation, tips, local resources, and more.”

Sources—REALTOR® Magazine