Considering Selling Your Home?

by The KCM Crew

The First Question You Should Ask Your Listing Agent

What is the most important thing a seller should look for when hiring a real estate agent to sell their house? We are often asked this question. Is it the size of the company they are licensed with? Is it their marketing program? Their years experience in the business? Should you choose the agent who suggests the highest listing price?

There are many things that should be taken into consideration when hiring someone and giving them the responsibility for selling your home. In our opinion, the most important question you can ask a potential listing agent is a simple one:

Do you truly believe that now is a good time to buy a home?
Why should this matter when hiring someone to SELL your home? Buyers are nervous about purchasing right now. They want to know they are making an intelligent choice. We believe, especially in today’s market, you need to hire someone who realizes that this is one of the best times in American real estate history to buy. If an agent doesn’t believe that, how will they be able to convince a potential buyer to buy your home?

When interviewing a real estate professional, ask them to explain why purchasing a home makes sense today. They should be able to explain it simply and effectively. See how many of the following facts (which should be shared with every potential purchaser) the agent knows:

The Wall Street Journal last week stated:

“With home sales starting to improve, and with prices now possibly forming a bottom, real estate could well be the asset class that represents the best low-risk buying opportunity out there today.”

Donald Trump was just quoted saying:

“I’m pretty sure this is a great time to go out and buy a house. And if you do, in 10 years you’re going to look back and say, ‘You know, I‘m glad I listened to Donald Trump’.”

John Paulson, a multibillionaire hedge fund operator and the investment genius who made a killing betting against housing a few years ago, is now bullish on residential real estate market. He recently said:

“If you don’t own a home, buy one. If you own one home, buy another one. If you own two homes, buy a third. And, lend your relatives the money to buy a home.”

A recent Gallup Poll showed that 67% of American’s think that now is a ‘good time’ to buy a home. The Gallup Organization went on to say:

“Overall, there is good reason for most Americans to think now is a good time to buy a house. Interest rates remain near historic lows. Home prices are down sharply, providing many incredible buys.”

The iconic financial paper in this country, the country’s most famous real estate investor, the most successful prognosticator of the housing market and 2/3 of all Americans say now is the time to buy a home. Shouldn’t your agent agree?

Bottom Line
Selling is nothing more than the transference of conviction. How can agents transfer that conviction if they themselves are not convinced? Find a listing agent who truly believes that someone should buy your home – TODAY! This is the single most important thing you should look for in a potential listing agent.

If you are considering Relocating to Colorado Springs, Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs, considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs, or want more information on the Colorado Springs Real Estate Market, Contact your Colorado Springs Real Estate Expert, Mike MacGuire Today! Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs. Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs.

Real Estate: Today’s Golden Opportunity

by The KCM Crew

Everyone wants to comment on the current real estate market. They want to talk about how now is not the time to buy a home. Some even argue owning a house has never been a great investment. Most say it will be a long time before real estate again begins to appreciate. It all sounds so familiar to us. It was just a decade ago that many made the same arguments about gold as an investment.

Gold had dropped from over $400 an ounce to $250 an ounce (a 40% decline) from February 1996 to August 1999. People ran from gold as though it was a plague.

Lord William Rees-Mogg, the current Chairman of The Zurich Club, in 1997 said:

“No investment has been so thoroughly exploded as gold; most people think that there will no more be another gold boom than there will be another boom in tulip futures in The Netherlands.”

Two years later in 1999, Don Wolanchuk author of the Wolanchuk Report explained:

“Everybody hates gold. You can’t have a bottom until everybody is out. And everybody is out of the gold sector.”

Everyone knows what happened next. The proclamation of gold’s death was rather premature. Gold rose from $250 an ounce to over $1,500 an ounce in the next twelve years. We see the same situation with real estate today. We are not predicting that real estate will see the same levels of appreciation. I do believe however that the market will rebound strongly.

Those who continued to believe in gold as an investment were rewarded. Those who continue to believe in real estate as a sound investment will also be rewarded.

Here is what Adam Hamilton wrote in October 2000 in an essay titled Is Gold Dead?

The road for gold investors has been long and parched in the last five years. They have wandered through a seemingly endless desert, occasionally tempted by what proves to be an illusory mirage. Many have fallen beside the sun-cracked path, their white bones picked clean by buzzards and gleaming in the sun. Nevertheless, a brave contrarian core continues to march forward. They have studied history, currency, gold, investments, economics, and finance. They understand the timeless value of gold, the cyclical nature of the markets, and the vagaries of human psychology. They realize it is darkest before the dawn, and the journey most difficult right before the homestretch is reached. Gold is in an INCREDIBLE position, and it will have its day. Nothing goes up in price forever, and nothing goes down in price forever. Investments are cyclical. Gold is NOT dead, it is simply biding its time, waiting for its next earth-shattering mega-rally. The spoils that go to the few remaining gold investors when that day inevitably arrives will be fantastic. The stunning victory will quickly blot out the painful memories of the long struggle…

You could replace the word ‘gold’ with the words ‘real estate’ throughout this essay and it would apply today.

We originally ran this blog back in March. We believe it still applies. By the way, Gold closed yesterday at almost $1,600 an ounce.

If you are considering Relocating to Colorado Springs, Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs, considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs, or want more information on the Colorado Springs Real Estate Market, Contact your Colorado Springs Real Estate Expert, Mike MacGuire Today! Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs. Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs.

Mortgage rates fall to record lows

By Les Christie @CNNMoney

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Mortgage rates sunk to record lows again this week.

The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.94%, matching the all-time low hit in early October, according to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey. Meanwhile, 15-year fixed-rate loans hit a new record low of 3.21%, surpassing the record set on October 6.

Five-year adjustable rate mortgages also plumbed new depths, hitting 2.86% for the week.

"We've been hanging around record lows for a few months now and we finally hit another one," said Keith Gumbinger of HSH Associates, a provider of mortgage data.

Low-interest mortgages will be available at least through mid-2012, according to Freddie Mac's chief economist, Frank Nothaft.

Where homes are affordable

The low rates can translate into big savings for home buyers. Five years ago, a home buyer would have been lucky to land a 5% rate on a 15-year loan. On a $200,000 mortgage, that would have meant the borrower would have paid $1,582 a month. Should a borrower land a 3.2% rate on a $200,000 loan now, the monthly mortgage payment would come to $1,400 -- a savings of $182 a month.

If you are considering Relocating to Colorado Springs, Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs, considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs, or want more information on the Colorado Springs Real Estate Market, Contact your Colorado Springs Real Estate Expert, Mike MacGuire Today! Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs. Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs Ranked as One of the Most Secure Large Cities!

Colorado Springs is one of the most secure large cities to live, according to a new study by the Farmer's Insurance Group.

The study rates cities based on a variety of factors: crime statistics, car accidents, extreme weather, risk of natural disasters, environmental hazards, housing depreciation, terrorist threats, foreclosures, air quality, life expectancy, job loss, and mortality rates from cancer.

Cities considered "large" were those with a metropolitan area of 500,000 or more. Colorado Springs was ranked 17th out of 114 cities.

Top 20 Most Secure Cities:

1. Pittsburgh, Penn.
2. Rochester, N.Y.
3. El Paso, Texas
4. Syracuse, N.Y.
5. Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, Md.
6. Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.
7. Wichita, Kan.
8. Omaha-Neb.-Council Bluffs, Iowa
9. Denver-Aurora, Colo.
10. Austin-Round Rock, Texas
11. Bridgeport-Stanford-Norwalk, Conn.
12. Albany-Schnectady-Troy, N.Y.
13. McAllen-Edinburgh-Mission, Texas
14. Nassau-Suffolk counties, N.Y.
15. Honolulu, Hawaii
16. Madison, Wis.
17. Colorado Springs, Colo.
18. Oklahoma City, Okla.
19. Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa
20. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minn.

If you are considering Relocating to Colorado Springs, Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs, considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs, or want more information on the Colorado Springs Real Estate Market, Contact your Colorado Springs Real Estate Expert, Mike MacGuire Today! Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs. Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs.

Where Are the Generation Y Home Buyers?

by The KCM Crew

Many buyers are delaying a decision to purchase a home because of the volatility of the real estate market. There is no larger category exhibiting this behavior than those of Generation Y. To define this segment of the population, we go to Wikipedia:

Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation (or Millennials), Generation Next, Net Generation, or Echo Boomers, describes the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when the Millennial generation starts and ends, and commentators have used birth dates ranging somewhere from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s.

Does this generation wish to own a home?
Yes. A recent survey completed by Trulia shows people between the ages of 18-34 still believe in the concept of home ownership. 65% of those surveyed said “their American Dream includes owning a home”.

Where are these adults living?
Recent research form John Burns Real Estate Consulting shows the number of adults living with their parents has dramatically increased over the past eight years. Below is a graph showing the numbers:



Bottom Line
Generation Y believes in homeownership. Yet, they are delaying the decision to purchase a home of their own. When they do decide to buy, they will impact the housing market in a big way.

If you are considering Relocating to Colorado Springs, Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs, considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs, or want more information on the Colorado Springs Real Estate Market, Contact your Colorado Springs Real Estate Expert, Mike MacGuire Today! Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs. Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs.

Real Estate as a Hedge against Inflation

by The KCM Crew

We haven’t heard a lot about inflation recently. However, prices have started to creep upward over the last year. As examples, here are a few categories that increased from November 2010 to November 2011:

-Food at home – up 6.2%
-Housing fuels and utilities – up 3.5%
-Transportation – up 9.2%

Today, we want to address the issue of inflation and the advantages of owning real estate. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) took an historic look at the impact of inflation. Here are some inflation numbers over the past 30 years:

We can see that real estate has fared very well. The most important number is the $0 increase in mortgage amount. The study assumed that the homeowner took a 30 year fixed rate mortgage thereby locking in the housing expense for the thirty years.

NAR then looked at inflation moving forward over the next thirty years. Obviously, if it remained the same as the last thirty years the percentage increase would be the same. They looked at a low inflation scenario and a high inflation scenario. The graph below shows the findings:
Bottom Line
We can lock in the housing costs of our primary residences and vacation homes at all time lows if we purchase today. Either would be a great hedge against future inflation.

If you are considering Relocating to Colorado Springs, Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs, considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs, or want more information on the Colorado Springs Real Estate Market, Contact your Colorado Springs Real Estate Expert, Mike MacGuire Today! Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Selling a Home in Colorado Springs. Click Here to Check out my informational video if you are considering Purchasing a Home for Sale in Colorado Springs.