Blog - Michael Inkman

Avoid These Common Mistakes When Pricing Your Home To Sell

May 21, 2013 by Michael Inkman Leave a Comment

Don't Make These Common Mistakes When Pricing Your Home For Sale It can be very difficult to determine what your property is worth in the current marketplace, because you are biased by what the property is worth to you. These emotions can get in the way of impartially evaluating a property and often cause sellers to overprice their home.

When pricing your property, you need to be objective and reasonable so you can come up with a selling price that will capture the interest of buyers.

Here are a few examples of common mistakes people make when pricing their house for sale.

Reading Too Much Into Online Comparable Properties

Avoid relying too much on online pricing information of sold houses. They can be a perfect place to start for getting a general idea of how much real estate is worth, but they are not always accurate.

Overestimating The Market

Don’t assume that you can sell your house for the same price at which you purchased it. Unless you bought your house a few weeks ago, the real estate market may have changed — sometimes significantly — and the purchase price will not reflect the appropriate pricing for today.

Overpricing To Pad For Future Negotiation

Don’t overprice your Dallas home in order to be able to negotiate to the price you want to settle on. Of course, you want to get an appropriate value from it, but many first-time buyers are on tight budgets and will rule out higher-priced houses. Your over-priced property may sit on the market longer and then the price will have to be reduced anyway.

Factoring In The Cost Of Your New Home

Don’t factor in the cost of your next house. Your listing price should not reflect how much money you’d need to purchase your next property. The price of the house should be the same whether you are wealthy or broke. Your financial situation is irrelevant to the potential buyer of the property.

These are just a few common mistakes you should avoid when determining the price of your home. Listed at the right price, you will get a fair amount from the sale of the house and the buyer will be getting a reasonable price too.

As always, your local real estate professional will have the best advice on getting your home ready for the market and selling for the best price. Call them today to find out the details!

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – May 20, 2013

May 20, 2013 by Michael Inkman Leave a Comment

What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week - May 20, 2013 Last week was jam-packed with economic news; here are some highlights with emphasis on housing and mortgage related news:

Monday: Retail sales for April increased to -0.1 percent from the March reading of -0.5 percent and also surpassed Wall Street’s downward forecast of -0.6 percent. Retail sales are important to economic recovery as sales of goods and services represent approximately 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

Tuesday: The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released its Small Business Optimism Index for April with encouraging results. April’s index rose by 2.6 points to 92.1. A reading of 90.7 indicates economic recovery. This index is based on a survey of 1873 NFIB member businesses.

Wednesday: The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for May matched investor expectations with a reading of 44. At three points above the March reading of 41, this report suggests that builders are slowly gaining confidence in national housing markets.

Thursday: The U.S. Commerce Department reported that Housing Starts fell by 16.5 percent in April to a seasonally-adjusted annual level of 853,000 from 1.02 million housing starts in March. This reading fell short of investors’ consensus of 965,000 housing starts, however, this decrease was caused by the volatile apartment construction sector.

Friday: Consumer sentiment for May surpassed investor expectations of +0.3 percent and came in at +0.6 percent. As consumer sentiment improves, it’s likely that more consumers will buy homes.

Rising Interest Rates Show Strengthening Economy

Mortgage rates rose last week according to Freddie Mac. The average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose from 3.42 percent to 3.51 percent with borrowers paying 0.70 in discount points and all of their closing costs.

15-year fixed rate mortgages rose from 2.61 percent last week to 2.69 percent this week with borrowers paying 0.70 in discount points and all of their closing costs.

This news is consistent with a strengthening economy, but is narrowing opportunities for home buyers seeking both affordable home prices and low mortgage rates.

Federal Open Market Committee Minutes To Be Released This Week

Looking ahead, economic news for this week includes the Existing Home Sales report for April with an expectation of 5.00 million homes sold on a seasonally-adjusted annual basis against the March tally of 4.93 million homes sold.

Also set for release on Wednesday are the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Minutes for the meeting held April 30 and May 1. The FOMC meetings typically include discussions of the Federal Reserve’s current policy on quantitative easing (QE) which consists of the Fed buying $85 billion per month in MBS and treasury bonds.

When the QE program ends, mortgage rates will likely increase as bond prices decline due to lesser demand.

Thursday brings the weekly Jobless Claims Report along with New Home Sales for April. The consensus for new homes sold is 430,000 as compared to the March reading of 417,000 new homes sold.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will release its Home Price Index for March on Thursday.

Scandal on Capital Hill

May 17, 2013 by Michael Inkman Leave a Comment

There was little economic data this morning to end the week. Headed into next week, Stocks and Bonds are trading near unchanged levels in quiet trading. Next week, the Bond markets close early on Friday for the unofficial kickoff to the summer in observance of Memorial Day, where all markets will be closed on May 27.

The ongoing scandal at the IRS continues today with Congressional hearings set to begin on Capital Hill. It is alleged that the IRS was targeting certain conservative groups for increased scrutiny when applying for tax-exempt status. There are two witnesses scheduled for today – Steven Miller acting IRS commissioner who has been forced to resign by President Obama, and J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

The ongoing Bond buying program by the U.S. Federal Reserve took a hit yesterday from one of its proponents. San Francisco Fed Bank President John Williams, usually considered dovish when it comes to monetary policy, said that due to the recent uptick in the labor markets, he feels that the easy money policies should start to taper down by late this year. Mr. Williams said that the $85B a month QEIII program should end by late this year, but he did say that he will have to see a sustained improvement in the job markets in order for the Fed to stop buying Bonds.

A dove, when it comes to monetary policy, promotes monetary policies that involves the maintenance of low interest rates. The term is derived from the docile and placid nature of the bird of the same name, and is the opposite of the term “hawk”.

Avoid These Common Mistakes When Pricing Your Home To Sell

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – May 20, 2013

Scandal on Capital Hill

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