There’s a Difference Between a House and A Home – What Are You Buying?

You don’t have to look far to find opposing views on whether or not this is the “best” time to buy a house. Some folks say that with rates as low as they are and inventory high, it’s a great time to buy.  Others say that even if rates rise, prices will drop to offset them so that will have little impact.  Still others say that we haven’t seen the bottom of the market yet and that a large number of foreclosures are still to come, which could have the effect of depressing prices even further if they hit the market en masse.

Here’s the thing…are you looking for a house or a home?

If all you need is a roof over your head, there are plenty (and I mean plenty) of rental options out there. Lots of home sellers that grew frustrated with the slow market have decided to rent their homes instead of waiting for a buyer.

But a home…well that’s a different story.

A home is where you mark the kids’ growth on the door jambs.  A home is where you reminisce about that terrible paint color the living room used to be.  A home is where you put your personal stamp on each and every room and then stand back and allow yourself that moment of pride in what is truly yours.

When my husband and I were first married, we lived in an apartment.  White walls, white tile, white baseboards, cheap cabinets, beige carpet.  No matter what we did, how we tried to decorate it on our limited budget, it looked like an apartment.  Not to mention that we had to park in the lot and schlep our groceries up the stairs.  Or that we could hear the neighbors through the walls if they raised their voices just a little or turned the stereo up past 2 on the volume control.  It was just an apartment.

Later in our married life, we had the chance to rent a house.  It had a yard, but we weren’t allowed to add a gate for easier access.  It had pink carpet that we couldn’t change.  It had hideous floral wallpaper that I just had to live with.  It was a house, but it still wasn’t our home.

When we were first able to buy a home of our own, it was in the 1980s. Rates were outrageously high, but we either didn’t know or didn’t care.  All we knew was that we wanted a home of our own to raise our daughter in.  A place where we could choose to paint a wall at whim – or even just knock the darn thing down if we wanted to.  It had nothing to do with a return on our investment, it had nothing to do with resale value, it had nothing to do with a long term plan.  It was nothing more than the desire to give our family the same thing we had grown up with.  A real home.

Over the years, we’ve owned a couple more places. Each time we moved, we left a piece of ourselves behind.  Whether in a garden that we toiled in or in a basketball goal cemented next to a driveway, there were traces of the fact that we lived and loved and laughed and played within the walls of those properties.  Our current home (dubbed the money pit when we started renovations years ago) has a collection of memories that bond the family together, even the older children who have since moved out and onto their own.  Each year, the Christmas tree gets placed in the same spot, the Easter eggs get hidden in the same irises in the garden, the grill gets pulled out to the same spot for summer BBQs and the orange tree in the back corner of the yard provides sweet fruit.  We look back and laugh and remember all of the good times we’ve had here and look forward to the memories yet to be made.

So, are you looking for a house or a home?

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For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

The Countdown is On

With less than 60 days left before the tax credit expires, first time home buyers who want to take advantage of the credit are quickly running out of time to find a home and get it under contract before the April 30th deadline.

Yeah, I know…we’ve said this before. But the difference is that this time we haven’t heard even a peep about the possibility of an extension.  It looks like this is really the end of Uncle Sam handing out rewards for home purchases and those buyers who are sitting back and taking their time in finding a home may end up leaving $8,000 on the table that could have been in their pockets.

Take into account low rates, a large selection of West Bank homes for sale and the tax credit and I can’t remember a time that it’s been more advantageous to be a home buyer.

Of course, you should still decide whether you are really ready to be a home owner before making a such a large purchase. If you are, and you want to take advantage of the tax credit, then you truly don’t have any time to waste.

Need a little help getting started with that home search? Tell us what you are looking for and we’ll get a free list of homes that match your wants, needs and budget to you right away.

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For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

Good Photos Aren’t Optional When Selling Your Home

The speed with which consumers have embraced online shopping amazes me.  In just a few short years, the buying habits of most people have changed from window shopping at the mall to browsing across the internet, comparing quality and prices from the comfort of home.  This same change applies to the real estate industry as well.

With almost any information about homes for sale available online, buyers are able to narrow down their list of most interesting homes without spending an entire day driving from house to house…and most of them are doing this based on the photos of those properties.

The New Orleans MLS (Multiple Listing Service) allows an agent to upload up to 12 photos of each listing.  Is every home a candidate for 12 photos? Probably not.  Tenant occupied properties are notoriously hard to get good photos of – no matter how hard we try.  Homes that have been flooded and gutted usually don’t warrant more than a couple of exterior pictures and maybe one or two interior photos.

However, too many agents are still just using a couple of shots of the front of what might be some great homes and calling it advertisement or marketing.

The result? Houses that are passed over by buyers that assume there is something wrong with them.

I did a quick search of the active listings on the West Bank and of the 1,268 single family homes for sale here is what I found:

• 17% had only 1 photo
• 13% had between 2-5 photos
• 45% had between 6-10 photos
• 25% had the maximum number of photos allowed

These numbers don’t even get into the quality of photos being used.  Here’s what the buyers will see in that 17% that have only 1 picture to draw them in with:

• Photos taken from across the street that give a great view of the trees, but not much of the house
• People peeking out of the front doors (are they included in the sale?)
• Blurry and out of focus pictures (should I check my glasses?)
• Thumbnail photos that are so tiny there is no way a person could decide if it’s a house they might be interested in…combined with a description like “Must see to appreciate”
• Driveways and front yards so full of cars that it looks more like an auto lot than a home
• Pictures filled with garbage cans, overgrown grass and the shadows of the agent taking the photo
• Photos that are so crooked buyers are waiting for the house to slide right off of the screen

So what is my point? Sellers should be reviewing the marketing efforts of their agents.  Ask to see the photos they are using – if you don’t like them, demand additional or replacement photos.  Ask to see the MLS printout that buyers will get.  Don’t be afraid to ask that the descriptions be detailed and accurate…good spelling and grammar are bonuses as well, but that’s a topic for another day.

Marketing and showcasing your home in it’s best light is what your agent is being paid for. Be sure you are getting your money’s worth, because that shouldn’t be optional either.

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For information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

What Are You Giving Up for Lent?

In a city with such strong Catholic traditions, it’s impossible to not hear that question today (Ash Wednesday). I have friends that are giving up chocolate, sugar, carbs, cussing…and one jokester who decided to give up cooking and cleaning

In keeping with the spirit of the season between Mardi Gras and Easter, here are a few suggestions for what home buyers and sellers on the West Bank of New Orleans might want to give up this year:

Home Seller Suggestions

Give up making your home hard to show.  We’ve talked about this before, but when you are selling your home  it is critical to make it easy for agents to get their buyers in.  Have a plan for what to do with your pets during showings, for keeping the house neat and tidy for those last minute appointments and allow a lockbox to be installed for ease of access.

Give up overpricing. Take a fresh look at the comparable sales in your neighborhood and make adjustments as needed.  I know you love your house…..but buyers are looking at the numbers and if you don’t fit within them, their response will be “Next!”

Give up thinking that you shouldn’t help with buyer closing costs.  A large percentage of the homes sold on the West Bank last year included seller contributions towards closing costs.  It is no longer an anomaly to receive a request for assistance in an offer, and if you are not willing to keep your eye on the bottom line, you may be spending a much longer time on the market.

Home Buyer Suggestions

Give up working with several different real estate agents.  Choose one professional to assist you in finding the right home.  It’s no secret that we all have access to the MLS and the listings that meet your needs.  Truthfully, if most agents find out that you are working with others, you may find yourself without an agent at all.

Give up making extremely low offers.  While the market has changed in the last few years, most home sellers are not desperate and some of them are insulted by offers that are pennies on the dollar.  The exception to this rule is dealing with bank owned properties, because banks don’t get insulted….but they do compare multiple offers and accept or counter the highest and best.  If you are just fishing for a bargain, you might be losing out on some terrific deals because you felt you had to offer far below what might be a realistic asking price.  Ask your agent for comparable sale information before you decide on an offer price.

Give up asking for the sun, the moon and the stars after a home inspection.  No house is perfect.  Louisiana purchase agreements even state that offers are made based on the apparent condition of a property.  A home inspection is to allow you to uncover hidden problems with a home, not to provide a basis for beating up a seller who may just tell you to take a hike.

More home buying tips

More home selling tips

    

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For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

What’s Your Competition When Selling Your New Orleans West Bank Home?

The first thing that we advise a potential home buyer to do before beginning their home search is to determine how much they are qualified for and what price range makes them the most comfortable with their monthly mortgage payment.  Once they have done that, we start narrowing the search based on location, condition and amenities. 

While the old real estate mantra is location, location, location, the primary driver in most home purchases is price, price, price.

Here’s a quick look at the 2009 home sales on the West Bank, broken down by price range:

There are some interesting statistics here when you review 2009 sales, because we are seeing not just a reduction in the overall number of homes sold in the area, but also a shift by buyers into lower price ranges.  Some of this shift may be due to the first time home buyer tax credits that were offered in 2009 and then extended into 2010.  Generally, first time home buyers purchase at or below the average sale price in an area.  In 2009, the West Bank average was a little over $156,000 and homes in the $120,000-$160,000 range made up almost 30% of the annual sales.

The real issue now is inventory.  If you are considering selling your West Bank home in 2010, you may be in for some stiff competition depending on where your home is located and what condition it is in.

Some of these number are just downright disheartening, especially in the over $250,000 range where the number of homes currently for sale exceeds the total number sold in 2009 in that same range. 

What else does this chart tell us?

Buyers have a LOT to choose from in our current market.   If I was in the market for a home priced around $180,000, I would look at homes that were a little above my price range (assuming that the seller is willing to negotiate) and those that cost less than my budget (assuming there might be a bargain to be had). 

With that criteria, there are over 175 homes currently for sale that could potentially be on my list.  Of course, this is before narrowing down to the neighborhoods I like the best, the number of bedrooms I need and the condition of some of the homes.  But, that’s still a big old number and looks like an awful lot of supply when compared to the current demand.

What’s a home seller to do?

Be realistic. Knowing that you are up against a lot of competition means that you must be priced competitively from the moment your house goes on the market.  Do your research and take advantage of all of the information that your agent can provide to help you pin point the right price for your home.

Be flexible.  With the anticipated reduction in the amount of seller assistance allowed by FHA, I expect to see more buyers asking for the maximum amount between now and this summer.  Offset that with the move up tax credit available for homes under contract by April 30th, and you may have a little more wiggle room in your negotiations.  (NOTE: This is not financial advice – check with your tax preparer to determine if you qualify for the move up credit)

 

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For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team.   It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

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