Category: Real Estate

How to Get Rid of Pet Smells Fast | Realtor Magazine

Beloved household animals can leave behind smells that could turn off potential buyers when a home is for sale. Homeowners—who may have become “nose blind” to the smells—may want to take a few steps to remove any lingering smells prior to their first showing. Here are a few tips from HouseLogic.com, a home improvement resource:

The Power of Pets in Real Estate

Start scrubbing.

Scrub the bare floors and walls where pets have left their mark with vinegar, wood floor cleaner, or an odor-neutralizing product (available at pet supply stores), HouseLogic recommends. They also suggest a 1:9 bleach-to-water solution on surfaces like cement floors or walls.

Wash drapes and upholstery.

The odors can seep into fabrics. Wash or dry-clean all the fabric window coverings, and steam-clean any upholstered furniture to try to remove any smells. Remove or replace pet bedding, too.

Clean carpets.

Shampoo carpets and rugs, or hire professionals to do it. If the smell still lingers, you may need to consider removing the carpets and padding completely. If you do, scrub the subfloor with vinegar or an odor-removing product before installing any new carpeting or padding so that the smell doesn’t return.

Let fresh air in.

As you clean, open all the windows in the home to let fresh air circulate.

Paint or seal.

“When heavy-duty cleaners haven’t eradicated smells in drywall, plaster, or woodwork, add a fresh coat of paint or stain, or replace the drywall or wood altogether,” HouseLogic.com suggests. It may help smells from reemerging.

Put down some pet rules.

While a house is on the market, you may want to put some limits on where a pet is able to go in the home to prevent smells from returning and limit clean ups. Crate a dog while you’re out and, if possible, limit pets to a certain floor or room. Replace kitty litter daily—not just scooping up clumps, but actually replacing it.

FHA Tightens Up on Lending: Thousands of Mortgages to Be Impacted | Realtor Magazine

The Federal Housing Administration has announced tighter lending standards, which could put up to 50,000 mortgages in jeopardy annually. The FHA insures mortgages for first-time home buyers and often borrowers with low credit scores and high loan payments relative to their incomes. The clampdown is on lending rules that the FHA believes are allowing too many risky loans to be approved.

The FHA says it will begin to flag more loans as “high risk.” Loans will go through a rigorous manual underwriting process, the agency says. The FHA claims it wants to ensure that it isn’t issuing loans to borrowers who can’t repay and better protect itself against an uptick in defaults that could ultimately deplete its reserves.

About 40,000 to 50,000 loans a year will likely be affected by the tighter underwriting standards, or about 4 percent to 5 percent of the FHA-insured mortgages originated annually, Keith Becker, the FHA’s chief risk officer, told The Wall Street Journal.

“We have continued to endorse loans with more and more credit risk,” Becker told WSJ. “We felt that it was appropriate to take some steps to mitigate the risks we’re seeing.”

In 2016, the FHA loosened up its underwriting standards, such as removing a prior rule that required manual underwriting for mortgages with credit scores below 620 and debt-to-income ratios above 43 percent.

“Since that happened, we have observed a steady increase in the endorsement of higher-risk loans,” Becker says. In a November report to Congress, the FHA revealed threats to its program that could drain its resources, including a sharp increase in borrowers with high debt-to-income ratios and a drop in average borrower credit scores.

In the previous fiscal year, the average credit score for borrowers of FHA-insured mortgages dropped to 670, the lowest in a decade. Nearly a quarter of FHA-insured mortgages were issued to borrowers with a debt-to-income ratio higher than 50 percent.

Where Home Sellers Are Seeing Some of the Highest Profits | Realtor Magazine

Homeowners are getting richer. In the fourth quarter of 2018, about one-quarter of all properties with a mortgage were considered “equity rich,” meaning the amount owed on the property was 50 percent or less of the home’s estimated market value, according to research from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate research firm.

 

© Prapass Pulsub/Moment/Getty Images

 

Some home sellers are deciding it’s a good time to cash in on their gains. Sellers in San Francisco saw the highest gains at sale in January, selling for an average of $325,000 more than that they originally paid, according to ATTOM’s research. That amounts to a 73 percent return, on average, on the typical homeowner’s original purchase price in that area.

Homeowners in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Calif., market saw the next highest gain at sale—$218,000 higher than the original purchase price, or an average 56.6 percent return. In San Diego-Carlsbad, Calif., homeowners saw an average gain of $164,000 above what they originally paid (a 43.6 percent return), while owners in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash., saw $160,000 in gains (a 62.7 percent return).

 

© ATTOM

 

 

5 Tips for Decorating the Living Room | Realtor Magazine

A living room is to be a comfortable, welcoming place in the home. But there’s an art to decorating it, according to a new article at Houzz, a home remodeling website. Houzz offers up some of the following designer tips on how to decorate a living room to make the space more inviting and stylish:

jackietrains – Morguefile

 

1. Mix light and dark colors.

An all-white living room can feel too “clean” and unapproachable, while a dark living room can feel like a cave, the article notes. But a combo of mixing darker and lighter colors—such as white with black–can bring depth and balance to a space.

2. Contrast neutrals.

Decorate a living room using several contrasting neutrals to make it feel more luxurious. For example, white walls can mix with caramel leather, brass hardware, gray sofa, and blue-gray cabinets. The contrasts can highlight the different finishes and undertones.

3. Add in texture.

To make a living room feel more cozy, add some various textures to the space, such as a plush throw near harder textures, like metals and stone. Pillows can be one way to easy way to add texture. But also look to include leather, cotton, wool, metal, stone, glass, plants, and other textures, the article notes.

For more home staging and design tips, visit the Styled, Staged & Sold blog.

4. Bring in some color.

Adding shots of color can make a living room feel more relaxed and inviting. For example, the article notes that blue tends to be a universal color that most people like and that easily contrasts with warm elements, like leather and wood. It also can sometimes work as a neutral up against other accent colors.

5. Watch your distance.

Even in the largest of living rooms, be mindful of how spread out the furnishings are from one another. Make the space feel like a place for intimate conversations and cozy gatherings. Houzz designers say a good distance between seating areas is about 8 feet. “If you have several sofas or a sofa and side chairs, the seating area should have a diameter of 8 feet, or 4 feet out from the center,” the article notes. The article also notes that fewer and smaller seating pieces closer together tend to work better than one supersized piece, like a 12-seat sectional sofa.

Mortgage Apps Soar to Record High for Third Week | Realtor Magazine

Mortgage applications set a record for the third consecutive week as lower rates drew out more refinancers and home buyers, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted application index.

Total mortgage application volume rose 1.6 percent last week compared to the previous week, and applications are now 1.8 percent higher than a year ago, according to the MBA. Many of those gains have come from refinancers, but more purchase applications are also appearing. Purchase applications are 1 percent higher than a year ago.

Rates are lower than a year ago. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 4.55 percent last week compared to 4.64 percent the previous week. That is the lowest rate since February 2018, the MBA reports.

The wealthy are largely being lured to the housing market. The average loan size also set a record for the third straight week, reaching $327,500, the MBA reports. The median price of a home sold in January was $247,500, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

“Entry-level housing supply remains weak and is likely hindering some would-be first-time buyers from finding a home,” said Joel Kan, the MBA’s associate vice president to economic and industry forecasting. “This, along with faster growth in the higher price tiers, is why the average loan application size has risen to a new high for three straight weeks.”

Mortgage Rates Have Dropped ‘Dramatically’ Since Start of the Year | Realtor Magazine

© National Association of REALTORS®

Mortgage rates edged lower to kick off the start of the spring homebuying season this week. Borrowing costs are now lower than what they were a year ago.

“Mortgage rates have dipped quite dramatically since the start of the year and house prices continue to moderate, which should help on the home buyer affordability front,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The combination of improving affordability and more inventory than the last few spring selling seasons should lead to improved home sales demand.”

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending March 21:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages:averaged 4.28 percent, with an average 0.4 point, falling from last week’s 4.31 percent average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 4.45 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.71 percent, with an average 0.4 point, dropping from last week’s 3.76 percent average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 3.91 percent.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 3.84 percent, with an average 0.3 point, unchanged from last week. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.68 percent.

10 Features That Can Help a Home Sell Faster | Realtor Magazine

Homeowners are spending more to spruce up their homes. They spent an average of $12,361 in discretionary funds on remodeling in 2017—the highest since 2006, according to the latest report by the Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

But which household projects can actually better their chances of selling their home one day?

“Any time a buyer can walk into a house and see it already has the features they want, that’s a huge bonus for the seller,” Anna Maria Mannarino, who runs a design firm in Holmdel, N.J., told realtor.com®. “If buyers feel they need to add key features or designs, they’re going to calculate how much it will cost and then lower their bid.”

Realtor.com®’s research team pinpointed home features that can help sell a home in the fastest time for the best price. They analyzed more than 1 million single-family listings on realtor.com® in February and identified the home features found in homes most often with the highest list prices and that went under contract most quickly.

The 10 most profitable home features for sellers banking on quick sales, according to realtor.com®, are:

1. Chef’s kitchen/gourmet kitchen
2. Theater room
3. Home gym
4. Three-car garage
5. Solar panels
6. Quartz counters
7. Exterior lighting
8. Tennis court
9. Home office
10. In-ground pool

Fed Says It’s Done Raising Rates for This Year | Realtor Magazine

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday after its March meeting that it will leave its short-term interest rates unchanged and also signaled that it likely will not raise rates for the remainder of the year. This marks a sudden change to what had been five consecutive quarters of rate increases. Not only that, the Fed also did not rule out the possibility of a future rate cut.

The Fed’s key benchmark rate is now in the range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent. The Fed’s rate is not directly tied to mortgage rates but often influences them. Many Fed officials at Wednesday’s meeting hinted that a single rate increase is likely for 2020 and not likely in 2021.

The economy “is in a good place,” but Fed Chairman Jerome H. Powell acknowledged that it is slowing compared to a year ago and will likely continue to slow into 2020. Powell, however, showed little concern about inflation.

Yields on the 10-year Treasury note, which often are more closely tied to long-term fixed mortgage rates, dropped significantly following the Fed’s statement. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 2.52 percent—the lowest level since January 2018.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the Fed announced it would likely reduce the monthly holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds from up to $30 billion to $15 billion beginning in May. That could ultimately have an impact on mortgage rates, says Mike Fratantoni, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s chief economist.

“The bigger news from this meeting was the clear signal that the Fed will stop allowing their balance sheet to shrink, and will begin to slow it to grow again starting this fall,” says Fratantoni. “Fed officials have noted that they would like to return the balance sheet to primarily Treasury assets, meaning that MBS will continue to roll off, with the proceeds being invested in Treasury securities … The Fed also noted the potential to sell ‘residual holdings’ of MBS at some point, but that they would give plenty of notice before doing so. Over time, these changes could put some upward pressure on mortgage-Treasury spreads—and ultimately—mortgage rates.”

Getting a Mortgage Becomes Easier for the Self-Employed | Realtor Magazine

Americans who are self-employed and freelance or contract workers have long had to struggle to qualify for a mortgage compared with those with W-2 forms or pay stubs that lenders can use to verify their incomes. For the self-employed, the mortgage process can be time-consuming and cumbersome. Lenders often require extra paperwork, such as full documentation of tax returns from the last couple of years (not just the electronic copy submitted to the IRS). Even after that, the person may still lack an income steady enough to qualify or face extra fees once they are approved.

 

Andrew Neel – Unsplash

 

However, mortgage financing giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have recently made changes to an automated system that could help more self-employed individuals qualify for a mortgage.The new technology automates underwriting for loan applicants who are self-employed or have side income.

“Applications that previously would have taken days to analyze and verify may now take just minutes, thanks to the use of optical character recognition technology that reads tax returns, identifies what qualifies as eligible income, and integrates it into both companies’ electronic underwriting systems,” reports Kenneth Harney, a syndicated real estate columnist for The Washington Post.

This frees lenders from having to comb through tax documents and allows them to find the information they need in minutes. The new system now takes three to five days to process, which slashes hundreds of dollars in costs and trims the risk for the lender, Andy Higginbotham, a Freddie Mac senior vice president, told The Washington Post.

There were about 15 million self-employed individuals in 2015—which equates to about one of every 10 people in the workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Adding automation to the mortgage approval process could give potential home buyers greater confidence as they shop for a home, says Josh Moffitt, president of Silverton Mortgage in Atlanta. It also could help with meeting contingency-clause financing deadlines in contracts.

Still, the programs are new, so not all lenders may offer this automated income verification to self-employed applicants yet. But housing experts say it may be valuable to self-employed individuals to find those that do.

How Will the Housing Market Fare This Spring? | Realtor Magazine

Real estate pros often anxiously await for the spring selling season, a time known for an uptick in home sales. But will spring be as hot for the housing market this year as it has been in the past?

 

© Perry Mastrovito/Image Source/Getty Images

 

Since the end of last year, home sales have slowed (a decline of 10 percent in December compared to a year prior), and properties have been sitting on the market for longer (46 days compared to 30 days a year ago).

Nevertheless, Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of REALTORS®, says that “multiple data show definitively improving conditions” heading into the spring selling and buying season.

Consumer sentiment about home buying is turning more upbeat, and there have been greater reports of foot traffic at open houses, according to recent NAR surveys. The number of openings of lock boxes—which real estate pros use to access a key prior to unlocking a home for a showing—is “measurably higher” in January and February compared to the second half of 2018, according to NAR SentriLock data.

Further, the number of consumers applying for a mortgage to purchase a home is on the rise. “After the weak conditions of late last year, mortgage applications have picked up notably in 2019 with more consumers evidently searching for a home compared to one year ago,” Yun writes in his latest real estate column at Forbes.com. Also, contract signings to purchase a home rose 4.6 percent in January—another healthy sign about the market Yun points to.

With mortgage rates staying low, Yun expects more home buyers and sellers this spring. So far this year, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has fallen to under a 4.5 percent average. That means a typical home buyer could save nearly $100 per month due to the drop. In addition, wages are up 3.4 percent year-over-year on average, the hightest rate in a decade, .

“The slump is over” in the housing market, Yun notes. “Better times are ahead for home buyers.”