The Tom and Joanne Team Blog
How You Know That You Found The Home Of Your Dreams
The steps of buying a home does come with some necessary paperwork and qualification, less exciting details but the actual home searching part can be quite fun. So how do you know when you visit a house and know it is “the one?” You may feel it, but here are some things to consider before you submit that offer.
Must-Have Checklist
When you set out to do your home searching, make sure you make a list of must-haves before you begin. Don’t confuse this criteria with your want list. This will help you narrow down the homes that are worth taking a closer look at. From that point you may even want to rank the finalists for which you like best.
The Location
A property’s location is one of the most important things to consider as it is one thing you can never change. Decide if you want more of a quieter suburban setting or an urban in-town neighborhood where you can walk to places. Whichever setting suits your lifestyle is most important.
The Function
It is important to know if the home caters to your needs. Does it have enough bedrooms? Can you entertain like you want to in the living room and/or kitchen? Does the home need renovating in order to be a better fit for you? Ask yourself these questions as you evaluate.
Comfort
Here is where you can rely more on just a feeling. When you enter the home, does it make you feel relaxed like you are “at home?” Or can you at least see yourself very easily living there? If you already feel comfortable in it, that is a good sign that it can be a good fit.
The Flexibility
Figure out what you can do with the home to make it more suitable for you. Maybe it is redecorating or adding a room or outdoor space like a deck. Do some basic calculations to see if any of those projects would be financially worth it or if they would put you beyond your budget to make the home just right. If not, it may just be the perfect home for you!
Pending Home Sales Are Increasing
According to a recent release from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) pending home sales have been increasing for the second month in a row. Although the number of transactions is fewer than last year at this time, contract signings have been up by 8.1% in January.
“Buyers responded to better affordability from falling mortgage rates in December and January,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.
NAR expects that the economy will hold strong and add jobs this year and in 2024 with 30 year fixed mortgages going to just over 6% this year and to the mid 5’s next year. Yun feels that this year we will still experience lower year-over-year sales before rebounding next year.
“Home sales activity looks to be bottoming out in the first quarter of this year, before incremental improvements will occur,” Yun said. “But an annual gain in home sales will not occur until 2024. Meanwhile, home prices will be steady in most parts of the country with a minor change in the national median home price.”
NAR also expects that home prices will be stable compared to last year in most areas. They estimate that we will experience bigger price increases once we enter 2024.
Regional Breakdown
The Northeast number of pending home sales increased by 6.0% this January from the month before while the Midwest increased by 7.9% for the same time period.
The South went up by 8.3% with the West surging the most by 10.1% in January from the month before. “An extra bump occurred in the West region because of lower home prices, while gains in the South were due to stronger job growth in that region,” Yun added.
Collectively these signs show good strength and positivity in the marketplace.
10 Popular Home Designs For 2023
Home design trends are always changing. With more people working from home and spending more time there, home is somewhere we value even more so these days. Design trends as a result are looking to work in more creativity with color, texture, patterns and optimism. Here are 10 of the popular home design trends that everyone is excited about for this year.
Kitchen Design Trends
Natural Materials
Natural materials are almost always popular but lately they have become even more so. In kitchens specifically, we are seeing more quartzite and other natural counters complemented by marble tile and wood cabinets.
Wood Cabinets
Wood cabinetry is a more popular choice these days. White oak is among one of the top picks with walnut also being popular.
Creative Island Seating
Casual seating is an appealing feature for a kitchen island. For larger kitchens this can be a secondary place to informally dine and for smaller kitchens this can be a great solution for both a combined eating and prep area. Trends include things like an extension of the island for dining either with a different counter material or even a lowered height for differentiation.
Commercial Faucets
A popular look is to go with a commercial style faucet that can better handle your regular cooking tasks. Many brands nowadays are offering lines that are a mix of industrial and modern design.
Bathrooms Design Trends
Thresholdless Shower
Maybe one of the most sleek looks is to have your bathroom tile floor run directly into the shower without any curb or threshold to separate the two. This extends your non-slip surface into the main part of the bathroom and can make a smaller bath look larger!
Blue and White
Similar to blue accents in current kitchen design trends, this has also been a popular choice in bathroom design. The idea is it can inject some life into all white palettes without appearing too bold or drastic.
Bathing
In the interest of creating a spa-like bath, homeowners are looking to have a relaxing experience. To accomplish this, features like multiple shower heads or handhelds that offer various spray settings or massage can be a great solution. Handhelds can also make both shower and pet cleaning much simpler!
Living Area Design Trends
Layers of Textures
A popular trend in design is to have layered textures. This can be done with decor, wallpaper, materials and accessories. Popular looks include combining wood, stone, metal, concrete and fabrics to offer visual and tactile interest.
Outdoor Connection
Most homeowners want to have some connection with the outdoors. A popular feature is to have sliding glass doors to the outside or large windows that maximize views. For other, more attainable ideas for everyone, the implementation of wallpaper prints that recall nature along with natural materials and colors can be a great solution.
Built-ins
Built-in cabinets that are custom built provide homeowners with storage while having a finished look. This is why they’re one of the top design features professionals recommend when designing a living room.
Seven Habits of Successful Homebuyers
The real estate market today is always changing. The process of buying a home over the past few years is not like how it is today. While housing stock is a little better than it was, home loan rates are higher now which makes for a different set of challenges. Today’s homebuyer finds success when adopting a particular mindset. Here are some tips that can be helpful.
Persistence
The real estate market may be shifting and cooling off a bit but there still are pockets of neighborhoods or properties that are still hot. That means there are still some bidding wars happening. Buyers who stay persistent will find themselves being the winning bidder.
Emotional strength
Buying a new home can be a very exciting time as you tour properties and picture yourself in them. However, especially where you can still find yourself in a competitive bid situation, it is best to keep your emotions in check in case you are not the winning party. Prepare yourself to get back on the horse and move onto the next property if so.
Keeping an open mind
Usually when buyers shop for a home they limit themselves to a smaller area. However, these days work options are becoming more flexible which allows one to be able to live in other areas. This may have you being flexible on looking at other locations that may be a better buy for your money with more housing stock to pick from. This can really help!
Ask questions
Don’t forget that the purchase of a home is usually one of the biggest ones that you will make in your life. So, make sure you ask as many questions as you can think of when touring homes and learning about areas.
Look past appearances
Most buyers will want to find a home that is move-in ready and turnkey. However, not all properties are perfect and in the interest of opening up options, you may want to consider a home that may need some cosmetic updates. These can be completed down the road as you make the home uniquely yours.
Establish wants and needs
In the end there is no perfect home. While you may find something that is absolutely perfect, chances are there is still going to be something that it may not have that you originally had set out for. To help open up your options, consider what you want versus what you absolutely need. Needs should be the really important core things that you cannot part with like bedroom count, while wants can be something that you can add later like an updated kitchen.
Stay flexible
There is also a big benefit by staying flexible. That means being able to tour homes when they are new to the market and also remaining open to contract term negotiations. Maybe you could be open to a seller’s preferred closing time frame or the like.
Have Home Prices Reached Their Low?
If you are a homeowner currently or if you’re looking to purchase a home soon, the recent headlines about home prices may have you asking more questions than getting answers. Everyone is talking about home values cooling and decreasing and that’s causing concern about a repeat of what happened to prices during the last crash back in 2008.
One of the biggest questions people wonder today is just how much will home prices decline? However, what not everyone may realize is expert forecasters aren’t predicting a free fall in prices. If you refer to recent data, there’s an argument to be made that we may be past the most significant portion of month-over-month price depreciation. The numbers weren’t actually significant declines on the national level. Instead of asking how far will they drop, the question really is if home values have already hit bottom?
Recent data reporting provides a snapshot of home pricing from Case-Shiller, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Black Knight, and CoreLogic. The reporting collectively indicates that on a national scale property values have changed month-over-month since January 2022. (November and December numbers have yet to come out.)
The most interesting trend is that if we look at the last four months that were published from July to October of 2022 we can see that all reports show the biggest dip in home depreciation occurred during the month of August. This certainly does not solidify that home prices have reached their low, but it does indicate that homes are not on a free fall which could mean that the worst may be behind us.
If you have questions about what’s happening with home prices in your local market, reach out to me to further discuss. Each market performs differently and some may have seen prices more inflated than others. I am happy to review how the local market is currently trending with you.
Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty – Agent Spotlight: The Tom and Joanne Team
We are thrilled to have been featured by Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty in their recent agent spotlight.
Read the full article here and learn more about our team!
Join Our Charity Furniture Drive – Saturday March 16th
The Tom & Joanne Team, of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, is partnering with Home Team Moving Company to coordinate a charity furniture drive to benefit Household Goods, Inc. Join us in supporting our local community by signing up for a donation pick up at your home in Concord. Based in Acton, Household Goods, Inc. provides a full range of donated furniture and household items, free of charge, to help people in need make a home. Donation receipts will be provided at the time of pick up. Click here for more details and information.
Pricing my Home in Concord, MA to sell in 2018
For the followers of our website we are trying to share both our written blog and our video blogs that we are promoting on our Facebook page. If you would like to see more of our blogs you can visit: https://www.facebook.com/pg/theTomandJoanneTeam
Both Joanne and I live in Concord and we want to share with our readers our thoughts on pricing your home in spring 2018.
June 2017 Massachusetts Association of Realtors Housing Report
We are featuring an excellent video produced by the Massachusetts associations of Realtors and it shows that prices are up. We crossed the Median sales price of $400,000 for the first time ever, and homes for sale are way down. If you are thinking of selling now is a great time.
Tips for selling your home by Tom Matthews
We wanted to share one of Tom’s recent Facebook live videos on preparing your home for sale.
As a Real Estate Buyer, should I waive my right to a Home Inspection?
If you are actively in the real estate market to buy a home in the Greater Boston market place, then you have heard this question or even asked it yourself. As a Real Estate Buyer, should I waive my right to a Home Inspection? The answer is that it depends and today we are going to discuss who is a candidate to waive their right to a home inspection. This strategy is often suggested by Realtors to help their clients make their offers more competitive as it eliminates a contingency in the offer. Tom has a phrase that he often says, that you can’t fix something if you don’t own it, but this comes with the caveat that you have the money to do the repairs.
Before we get into this story, we want to explain why waiving the right to an inspection is so appealing to a home seller? The reason is because it has become customary in our market place that once an offer is submitted buyer and seller negotiate and come to an acceptable sales price. However, over the past 14 years buyers and their agents have used the inspection as a tool to renegotiate the transaction and the sellers and their agents are aware of this strategy. Often sellers are guarded during their negotiation because they fear the home inspection. Because this culture exists the waiving of the right to a home inspection has become a powerful tool for buyers to help their offer stand out in this multiple bid environment.
We too often see buyers who are waiving their right to inspect in a situation where they are doing 3-5% down and they are wanting to compete with higher down payment buyers. It is our opinion that the higher down payment buyers have earned the right to waive contingencies and this strategy should not be used by all buyers. Buyers with lower down payments need to be more conservative in our opinions because they don’t have the safety net required to handle the issues that can arise. Once you sign the deed and note the property is yours, and if you find out 6 months after you a buy a home that there is mold in the attic, that the electrical box has water, or that the boiler is at the end of it’s life you have a serious issue.
If you see the photo below from a home we sold a couple of years ago, it shows a home with an old kitchen that clearly needs updating. It is too often that in homes like this one, where buyers can see that the property needs updating, that they want to compete so they waive their right to inspection. What then happens is the scenario above where six months into the cosmetic renovations there is a safety issue that arises and that puts a hardship on the new home owners.
At this point, if you have purchased a home with a low down payment and are doing work yourself then you are forced to make the safety upgrade with credit or asking family for a loan.
At the Tom and Joanne Team, we feel that the only candidates who should consider waiving the right to the home inspection are those who after their 20% down payment have another 10-20% of capital in the bank. These candidates can absorb the impact of the “what if” that almost always comes up when buying a home.
When Tom bought his home in Concord he had to waive his right to inspect because he and his family were competing against two builders. As a Realtor, who has been through hundreds of home inspections, he has the trained eye to know what to look for and he even says there were things he missed. His cautionary tale is that the first day he moved his pregnant wife went to take a shower and there was no hot water! They have to replace the hot water tank at the tune of $1,200 dollars the first day of owning their new home. They represent the buyer profile listed above so they could handle this expense, and it is this first hand experience that has guided the Tom and Joanne team to properly advise their clients in making decisions during the offer process.
What if Tom had only put 3% down and had used all his cash for closing costs and moving costs. This unexpected cost would have had to go on a credit card or a call to family to ask for help.
So the question is often asked to us by buyers with lower down payments, how can we compete without waiving our inspection clause? That is a great question and the answer is that it is very easy to compete if you write an offer that addresses some obvious issues.
We sold Kate and Kevin a home a few years ago and it was clear from our home tour that the roof and boiler were fully depreciated. We suggested to Kate and Kevin to definitely have a home inspection, but that they should write into the offer that they acknowledge that the roof and boiler are fully depreciated and they are not going to part of their due diligence in their home inspection. When we were at the home inspection the seller’s agent told us that writing this clause into our offer was one of the key items that made our offer stand out.
The other strategy is to increase the aggregate amount of repairs that you are willing to take on as a result of the home inspection findings. A lot of agents and buyers feel that you have no discretion with this clause and that is incorrect. You can increase your threshold from the common practice of $0-$1,000 to $5,000 to $10,000 dollars. This gives you the protection that should there be a major repair needed you have the right to withdraw, but it also gives the seller the peace of mind that you are not going to nickel and dime them over a leaky faucet.
If you are in the market to buy a home and are looking for an advocate to interview please contact the Tom and Joanne Team.
info@TomandJoanneteam.com