***if
you know anyone who is thinking about buying a home, our next classes
are:
 
 
 
 
 
Monday,
January 28, 2013, from 5pm-8pm, at the Marshall Center, conference room at 1009
E. McLoughlin Blvd. (kitty corner from Clark
College)
 

Saturday,
February 2, 2013, from 9am-12pm at the Vancouver YMCA located at 11324 NE 51st
Circle (corner of SR-500 & 112th/Gher Road).
 
 
 
  
Remember....with reservation...we will throw in lunch,
or dinner!  :-) ...we also have other class dates/times...check out the
website


Please go to www.learningtobuyahome.com, or www.traciedemars.com for information on ALL upcoming
Free Community Home Buyer Classes.  I do keep all updated information, and
directions there... I would love to hear from you about when you might like to
see the classes.  These classes are for you, so please, I love your comments and
feedback!!  :-) ***


Happy
Football Sunday~

 

Ahh....playoffs!
  The sound of football fill my home, and as long as the 49'rs win, my husband
won't be cranky!  Yes, my husband is a huge 49'rs fan....and has been for years!
  In fact, my living rooms curtains are tan and dark red to support his team. 
Crazy?  Probably!  :-D 
As of
right now, my poor husband is getting crankier, and crankier....his team had
better pull it together! 
 

Before we
talk about the pros/cons of building a home, I want to take a moment to remind
you to bring in a buyers agent.....your OWN agent.  The builders agent works for
the builder/seller.  If you use the builders agent you are sharing your agent
with the seller....a Dual agent.  Having worked for a builder for 2 years, and
having worked as a buyers agent for 8 years now I can assure you that you will
always get a better deal when building when you have an agent who is working for
you...and only for you. 
 

So,
let's talk about the Pro's and Con's of building a new home....
 

Pro's....
 

• Choosing your lot


• Choosing your flooplan, and making changes based on your families
  lifestyle


• Choosing your colors and style for cabinets, counters flooring


• Excellent Builder warranties


• The home is built up to current energy codes


• Many builders have Green Building certification


• Tankless Water Heaters for (almost) endless hot water!! 


• No expensive home maintenance for awhile (you will have to maintain the home
  though)


• Brand new appliances, roof, windows, siding, etc

Con's....

• Can't lock in an interest rate until the home is about 30 days from
  completion.  So if interest rates are 3.25% now, and 3.5% when the home is
  almost complete, you will have the higher interest rate.


• With an established neighborhood you can drive around and get a 'feel' for
  the neighborhood and its personality.  With a new neighborhood you don't have
  that...it is a guess on how that neighborhood might end up.....  rentals?  older
  couples when you have young children?  Young couples when all you want is quiet?
   


• Building can take 4 months or longer depending on permit time, and
  construction time. 


• New homes usually have smaller lots, and will either have a lot of 2 story
  homes, or one story homes with no yard.  Either way there isn't as much privacy
  with a new home as with an older home.


• Builder reputation.  This can go either way.  There are builders that are
  building 'flash'...and inexpensively.  This is great if you want something to
  look pretty, and don't plan on being there long enough for the things that they
  built cheaply to start falling apart  There are other builders that are more
  expensive, but build solid.  You may not get as much 'flash', but you will get
  more substance.  Research the builder, and see what folks are saying....not just
  now, but see what they say 10 years from now.  Find an older development of the
  builders and drive through it....this may also give you an idea on not only how
  well the homes hold up, but what type of people live in their communities. 
  No...this is not being 'snobby'.  When someone buys a home they aren't just
  buying the home, but the neighborhood as well.  A good neighborhood goes a long
  way...


• It just isn't the builder you need to research, but the contractors they
  hire.  Who does their flooring?  Their cabinetry?  What are their reputations? 
  For example,on my home the home itself has held up well, but the flooring and
  especially the cabinetry has not.  Eleven years later our cabinets are falling
  apart...literally...falling off the walls, off the hinges, apart from
  itself....terrible! 

With land one of the biggest con's of building is finding your own land
and doing all the research on it to see if it is buildable, and that the well,
utilities, etc are all there, available, and put in.  This can add another 4-6 
months and more money for you.  If you want to have a home built on acreage, the
best thing to do is let the builder take the risk...not you!  Find a builder
with land in their inventory to be built on, and with your buyers agent write up
an offer just like you normally would.  They (the builder) takes care of the
land development, building, etc.  So much less stress and worry for you!  If the
builder you love doesn't have the land in inventory, see if they are willing to
do the package for you...this may take a bit more time, and the builder may
charge you for it, but again....it is about risk. 

As we talked about last week, it is about the same cost to build a new
home, in a development, now as it is to build a new one.  However, if you want
acreage, it is still cheaper to buy an already built home on acreage than it is
to buy.  There are advantages to having a home built though that could offset
the cost.  Look at your pros/cons, sit down with your buyers agent and talk it
out.  As always, a buyers agent works for you, and wants to help you find the
home that is right for YOU!  :-)
  
   
   Please call, email, text, or even facebook me (at Tracie DeMars Real Estate) anytime with any questions, or
if there is anything I can do to assist you with your home buying adventure! As
your buyers agent, I am, as always, here to help!! :-D


Thank you
again for your business and for your referrals!
 
...as always...if you
have already purchased a home, or no longer would like to receive these emails
from me, please let me know and I will be happy to remove you from receiving any
more.

Thank you again for attending the home buyer
education classes, and I hope that you will continue to refer the classes out to
your friends, family, and co-workers. Upcoming class dates and times are located
at www.freehomebuyerclasses.com. Just click on the link on the left hand
side. Or you can go to www.learningtobuyahome.com and click the links.


We appreciate your
referrals and word of mouth! Also, if you have somewhere that we can place the
flyers at, please let me know....
:-D
 




Next Week:   Credit....explained --this will be next
week and our resident loan guru, Chris Berg with Pinnacle Home Mortgage will
help us with this.  (coming up -  Inspections...explained & Mortgage
Insurance....explained)
Last Week:
Building....part one...


Remember
that you can always go to 'Tracie DeMars Real
Estate' on
Facebook for all of my weekly blogs and upcoming
class dates/times/locations. I
post the weekly blogs on there as
well.





Have a great day, and I will talk to you soon,
;-D
Tracie DeMars
Buyer's Agent
Re/Max - Van Mall
360/ 903-3504 cell
360/ 882-3600
fax
www.traciedemars.com

find me on
LinkedIn
traciedemars@aol.com


“Interested
in free and non promotional home buyer classes? Go to www.freehomebuyerclasses.com or www.learningtobuyahome.com for
local upcoming classes, or facebook: Tracie
DeMars Real Estate.”
 
*****Remember that if you are interested I
can, and will be happy to, set you up on an email that will automatically email
you with new home listings in your area and price range as they come up on the
market. This email will include all bank owned homes and anything with price
changes. Just send me what you are hoping to find, your top 3 things in a home,
and what is the best email to send it to. This is with no obligation, and is a
good way to 'window shop'.
:-)

***if you know anyone who is thinking
about buying a home, our next classes are:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Saturday,
January 19, 2013, from 1pm-4pm at the Vancouver YMCA located at 11324 NE 51st
Circle (corner of SR-500 & 112th/Gher Road).
 

Monday,
January 28, 2013, from 5pm-8pm, at the Marshall Center, conference room at 1009
E. McLoughlin Blvd. (kitty corner from Clark
College)










Remember....with reservation...we will throw in lunch,
or dinner! :-) ...we also have other class dates/times...check out the
website


Please go to www.learningtobuyahome.com, or www.traciedemars.com for information on ALL upcoming
Free Community Home Buyer Classes. I do keep all updated information, and
directions there... I would love to hear from you about when you might like to
see the classes. These classes are for you, so please, I love your comments and
feedback!! :-) ***



Happy
Sunday oops...er...Monday~
 

Yes,
again, I am a day late this week. I spent this weekend trying to get all my 2012
receipts in order, and entered into the spreadsheet....I am about halfway
through. Ugh! So many.... :-) This is what I get for procrastinating, but I want
to point out that it isn't March yet so I am technically AHEAD of the game!
LOL
 

I
know that I was hoping to talk about credit this week, but Chris had a family
emergency, so he will get that to me as soon as he can, until then... I have a
lot of questions this week about building....whether or on a lot in a
development, or with a builder on acreage. Building is fun since you do get to
choose so much...the color/siding of the home, the flooring, the counters, the
cabinets, the fixtures, the floorplan, etc., but there is definitely some
drawbacks to it as well. So....let's look at a couple of things...
 

There
are 3 values to the home:
 

Taxable
Value.... this is value that the county uses to assess the amount of
taxes owed on the home. This is the lowest of the three values, and is usually
about a year or so behind the actual market value of the home since the county
looks at old records.
 

Building
Value... this is the approximate cost it would take to rebuild the home
in case of destruction....such as fire. This cost is driven by cost of
materials, gas, economy, wage costs, etc. For a builder they base building value
on these items, construction loan rates, and availability, and cost of land to
build on.
 

Market
Value... this is the value of the home on the open market if the seller
were to put it up for sale. This value is driven by the economy, interest rates,
supply/inventory of homes on the market, how many buyers are purchasing homes,
etc. In an 'average' market this is the highest value of a home.
 

About
6 years ago we had low supply of homes, and a high demand for them and it drove
up the prices of homes. We also had some other external factors that gave us a
'bubble'. People were avoiding mortgage insurance by dong 80/20 loans that were
NOT in their best interest. People were taking out loans based on equity to pay
off things, or doing things with, that was in essence, 'borrowing' from a
non-existent number. Your home is NOT a piggy bank. Equity is only a
number....not actual cash in the bank....it is more like, 'easy come, easy go'.
We all know what happened then when the economy got in over its head.....People
then started going into foreclosures and short seling their homes.
 

When
the market 'popped', home prices fell to about taxable values, and it was
cheaper to buy a home already built rather than to have one built. The county
put a hold on land purchases for building...and most builders couldn't afford to
buy that land to have it developed anyway since no one was building anyway.

 

The
market bottomed out in 2011, as prices 'bumped' along all year, and started
going up in 2012. Currently, it costs about as much to have a home built in a
development as it does to buy a comparable one currently standing...and there
isn't a whole lot of homes on the market, so building has become popular again.
It is kind of a trade off though....newer, bigger home on a smaller lot vs an
older, smaller home with a bigger lot in an established neighborhood.
 

Interest
rates are now very low, and while prices are higher than what they were last
year, interest rates are lower than they were last year. The difference is that
we have less home inventory, and more of a buyer demand for homes. What is
helping us currently is that the inventory of bank owned homes has a couple of
years and that is helping to keep prices more level. This is helping a lot of
people... It is also helping the builders. Homes are selling above tax value
again and home values are comparable again to building values so building is
attractive again. Builders are having a hard time finding land though, and
development costs have gone up.
 

This
is different than building on land/acreage. When you are attempting to build a
home on acreage you have four routes. You can buy a home already built on
acreage which is the cheapest route with acreage. You can purchase a home to be
built with the builder on land they already have, and this is the second best
way to do it since the builder already has incurred the costs of the land and
development. The third route is to contract with a builder to have them purchase
some land, and them build a home on it. Most builders do have a charge for this
as they are taking all the risk of buying the land, developing it, and then
building it. You will need to know your numbers as unforeseen costs in buying
and developing the land can limit how much house you have built....size and
finishes. The fourth way is to buy the land yourself, and then contract with a
builder to have a home built. What is the difference between option 3 and 4?
Risk.... In option 3, the builder takes all the risk...the construction loan,
the costs, and the turning the construction loan over to a home loan. In option
4, you take on some of the risk....or rather your bank does. Not many banks will
loan on bare land anymore....and not with FHA loans or interest rates.
Remember....banks don't like risk. It is less risky for the bank to loan to a
builder which is a company, than it is to loan to you...a single person/couple.

 

I
hope this all helps! Next week we will go over the Pros/Cons of building a home
since I have run out of space here. Have a good week!
 

 









 
Please call, email, text, or even facebook
me (at Tracie DeMars
Real Estate) anytime with any questions, or if there is anything I can do to
assist you with your home buying adventure! As your buyers agent, I am, as
always, here to help!! :-D


Thank
you again for your business and for your referrals!
 
...as
always...if you have already purchased a home, or no longer would like to
receive these emails from me, please let me know and I will be happy to remove
you from receiving any more.

Thank you again for attending
the home buyer education classes, and I hope that you will continue to refer the
classes out to your friends, family, and co-workers. Upcoming class dates and
times are located at www.freehomebuyerclasses.com. Just click on the link on
the left hand side. Or you can go to www.learningtobuyahome.com and click the
links.


We
appreciate your referrals and word of mouth! Also, if you have somewhere that we
can place the flyers at, please let me know....
:-D
 




Next Week: Credit....explained (coming up -
Inspections...explained & Mortgage
Insurance....explained)
Last Week: Tax Benefits of owning a
home


Remember that you can always go to 'Tracie
DeMars Real Estate' on
Facebook for all of my weekly blogs
and upcoming class dates/times/locations.
I post the weekly blogs on there as
well.





Have a great day, and I will talk to you soon,
;-D
Tracie DeMars
Buyer's Agent
Re/Max - Van Mall
360/ 903-3504 cell
360/ 882-3600
fax
www.traciedemars.com
find me on LinkedIn
traciedemars@aol.com

“Interested
in free and non promotional home buyer classes? Go to www.freehomebuyerclasses.com or
www.learningtobuyahome.com for
local upcoming classes, or facebook: Tracie DeMars Real
Estate.”
 
*****Remember that
if you are interested I can, and will be happy to, set you up on an email that
will automatically email you with new home listings in your area and price range
as they come up on the market. This email will include all bank owned homes and
anything with price changes. Just send me what you are hoping to find, your top
3 things in a home, and what is the best email to send it to. This is with no
obligation, and is a good way to 'window shop'.
:-)