The Accunet Mortgage Show (5/12/19 Episode)
On the Mother’s Day 2019 episode of the Accunet Mortgage and Realty Show, Brian and David Wickert go over April home sales, and get you ready for the summer housing market.
This week on the Accunet Radio Show:
Brian and David walk you through everything you need to know before the summer 2019 housing market gets into full swing. From tips for selling your home to giving “wiggle room” on an appraisal, Brian and David put out another must-listen episode for buyers and sellers alike.
This week’s highlights
- For once, home listings are up year-over-year! According to the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors, single-family home listings were up 4.2% over April 2018. Listings are still down 7.5% YOY, but the improvement is coming just in time for summer, when most people are looking to move.
- Even if you present the higher offer, it’s possible to get beaten out in a sale. This week, a client was beaten out by someone with no appraisal or home inspection contingency, despite the risk involved.
- The market is hot right now — but that doesn’t mean you should slack on preparing your home for the market! Check out our tips on how to get your home ready for sale, and optimize your listing for top-dollar results.
Find a place to call home — without the headache!
April home sales
If you’ve been keeping up with the Accunet Mortgage and Realty Show, you know the housing market in the 5-county Milwaukee metro area is in a seller’s market — the supply just isn’t meeting the demand. But, for the first time in months, home listings and sales are actually looking up!
- Single-Family home listings: Up 4.2% from April 2018
- Single-Family home listings: Up 4.2% year-to-date
- Closed single-family homes: Down 8% (but compared to March, where closings were down by 17.5%, this is still a win.)
- Median sales price: $240,000 (up 11% from April 2018, and up $13,000 from March 2019)
- Condo listings: Down 11% from April 2018
- Condo listings: Down 12.3% year-to-date
- Condo sales: Down 11% from April 2018
- New condo listings: Broke even
How tight is supply and demand right now?
Well, that depends on what price range you’re looking at. An easy well to tell what kind of market you’re experiencing within your price range is defining how many “month’s supply” of homes are available:
- 3 months’ supply or less: Seller’s market
- 4-6 months’ supply: Balanced market
- Over 6 months’ supply: Buyer’s market
| Home price | Month’s supply | Market type | Condo price | Market type |
| $70,000 – $349,999 | Less than 2 | Seller’s market | $30,000 – $274,999 | Seller’s |
| $350,000 – $449,999 | 3.5 | Low-end of balanced | $275,000 – $349,999 | Balanced |
| $450,000 – $749,999 | 5 | Balanced | $350,000 – $449,999 | Buyer’s |
| $850,000< | 8.5 | Buyer’s | $450,000 – $749,000 | Balanced |
Now, keep in mind that when you request this information, it includes all active listings — even those with an accepted offer. So, really, the market is even tighter than we have the data to see.
How to get your home ready for sale
- Be ready to prep the outside of your home! Trim the bushes; rake up the leaves; plant some annual flowers, if you haven’t already.
- Clean the cobwebs away from your entryway.
- Clean all windows.
- Make sure your front door opens and closes smoothly, and repaint it if necessary.
- Look into hiring an accredited stager to set the stage. Or even just watch some staging videos on YouTube.
- Take down personal photographs and replace them with neutral images.
- Repaint any wildly-colored walls
- Get a home inspection, and fix the problems before they become problems! Especially if you’ve lived in the home for 5+ years.
- Get your home professionally photographed.
- Price it correctly — look at the competition and think about how you can beat them.
Writing offers contingent on home sale
This is a common situation — you want to buy a new home, but you need to sell your old home first. This leads a lot of people to put a contingency in their offer stating that, before the sale is finalized, the old house needs to sell first. This drives away a lot of potential sellers. So, what’re your option?
Option #1: Sell your house first, and either move into an apartment or a relative’s home while you wait to close on the new property.
Option #2: Get a bridge loan, which helps carry you from the sale of your house to the purchase of your new one.
Now, a lot of people are afraid of the fees associated with bridge loans, and for good reasons. Any time a bank assumes risk, they tack on extra rates and fees. But at Accunet, we work closely with a bank where, if the loan amount is less than $249,999, the fees are nominal comparatively: $250 to the bank, an optional appraisal, a report and a title. Altogether, less than $400 to get you into your new home quickly and painlessly.
It’s okay to carry the cost — sometimes, you need the money. That’s when Accunet can help.
What does it mean to give the seller “wiggle room” on the appraisal?
In every offer, there’s an appraisal contingency. It says (basically), “If the house appraises for one penny less than the accepted offer price, we, as the buyer, can cancel the contract.” This can be a pretty big stressor for sellers and can even deter a sale. What most people don’t know is that you can modify the appraisal contingency to give the seller some breathing room.
Example: Let’s say you offer $240,000 for a $230,000 home. Then you say, “Okay, I’m going to have my real estate agent modify the language in the appraisal contingency, so it reads, ‘If the house appraises for less than $230,000, we reserve the right to cancel the contract.’” This gives the seller $10,000 worth of breathing room, and can be the cherry on top of a flawless home sale.[elementor-template id=”10109″]
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