With the low inventory and the very competitve resale market possibly a new home is an option for you? I can help you build your dream home.
Yes, you need an agent to represent you on new build homes, here is why
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Selling Season has Arrived, Don’t Let Myths Steer Your Home Sale.

How Does Inflation Affect Home Prices?

So, how does all of this affect the real estate market?

The Inventory Issue
Interest rates have been kept low for so long it’s created a bubble for everything and not just the housing market. There’s also inflationary pressure on the housing market because of limited inventory. Limited inventory stems from a myriad of problems in the industry.

First, many homeowners aren’t putting their houses on the market. This is due to factors like lockdowns, but also the fear they won’t be able to find a new home to buy.

There are construction delays due to supply chain bottlenecks as well.

Low inventory means buyers are often having to put in bids well above asking to get properties, creating a frustrating situation, to say the least.

Other Inflationary Effects On Real Estate
There are a few other ways inflation can influence how much you pay for a home.

First, inflation is a reference to a rise in the price of everyday goods. Those everyday goods are used to build homes. If the price of things like lumber and appliances go up, then the builder will pass those additional costs onto the buyer in the form of higher prices.

In some cases, however, inflation can have oppositional effects on real estate. If inflation rises, then theoretically, money should become more expensive to borrow. People borrow less of it, so there are fewer home purchases and that can lead to lower prices.

Real Estate Can Protect You Against Inflation
While real estate can be negatively affected by inflation in the form of higher prices, it can also protect you from its effects.

As home prices go up over time, you’re lowering the loan-to-value of your debt. You’re simultaneously increasing your equity, but your fixed-rate mortgage payments will stay the same.

If you’re a real estate investor earning income from rental properties, then you’re likely going to be able to charge higher rent when inflation is up. You can adjust the rent while the mortgage stays the same.

The relationship between housing and inflation can go in both directions. If you’re a buyer right now, inflation isn’t good news, but if you own a home, it can be one of the best ways to protect yourself against rising prices.

How do you calculate the true cost of buying your home?

How well this actually works out depends on one thing. It’s the difference between the interest rate on the mortgage and the inflation rate you experience. If inflation runs hot, you’ll make out big time.
Whenever the rate of inflation is greater than the interest rate on mortgages. It’s not a sure thing, but it’s looking like a pretty good bet.

Does this mean home prices in Texas aren’t high?
No. It only means that daring homebuyers may not be quite as crazy as many seem to think.

Last year, for instance, aside from experiencing a pandemic, the U.S declared 58 disasters which caused billions of dollars in damage, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Especially during the aftermath of hurricanes, we learn just how many Americans lack hazard insurance. Those who did have it faced the challenge of trying to figure out how to tally up their losses. It’s not easy to recall everything one owns, especially when confronting devastation. Then, there are the other losses a homeowner might face, such as those from theft and fire.

Being prepared will help to avoid delays in receiving an insurance payout should you someday face a disaster.

Dig Out your Homeowner Insurance Policy
If you’re like many of us, it’s still in the sealed envelope in which it arrived in the mail, shoved into a box or bin of “important papers.”

Get to know exactly what coverage you have and how to submit a claim should the unthinkable happen.

Then, create an inventory of your belongings. Many people choose an old-fashioned checklist (such as the one offered by NYCM Insurance or at Allstate.com), while others use video (narrated with the necessary information), or photographs labeled with the information that insurers require when considering a claim.

Information required by insurers:

• Each item’s description and the quantity (ex: 2 sterling silver candlesticks)
• Name of the manufacturer (ex: Tiffany & Co.)
• Make/model/serial number
• The date (or estimated date) of purchase
• Where the item was purchased
• The appraised value of each item (or an estimate)
• If you can’t find the written appraisal for any item, jot down the name and contact information of the appraisal company and the date the items were appraised.

Keep your Inventory Safe
It’s important to find a safe spot, off-site, to store your inventory. You may choose to store it in the cloud with a backup service or save money by backing up the information to a USB drive and then placing it in a safe deposit box.

Tips from the Experts

• The Insurance Information Institute recommends that you include possessions that are stored somewhere else (like a storage facility) in your inventory.
• Keep all receipts and copies of appraisals with your inventory.
• Keep a count of each item, such as “5 long-sleeve shirts, 7 pairs of sneakers…”
• Break your inventory-taking into chunks. If you try to do too much of it at once, you may become overwhelmed and drop the project.

Finally, run the inventory by your insurance agent to ensure that you have enough coverage. The time to get clear on your insurance coverage is before a disaster strikes.

Why wait until just before your home goes on the market to prepare it? There are plenty of things you can do right now that will cut down on the time and effort you’ll need to spend in the spring.

Have your Home Inspected
One of the most common reasons a home sale falls apart or is delayed is because of problems that the buyer learns about after the home inspection. Typically, price negotiations will reopen, but if the problems are beyond the buyer’s budget, they may just walk away from the deal.

If you have your home inspected now, you will not only avoid unpleasant surprises in the middle of the transaction, but you’ll have the rest of winter to get any repair projects out of the way. Chip away at these projects steadily and by spring your home could be in good shape.

The pre-listing home inspection isn’t a must, but if you’re concerned about any problems the home might be hiding, it’s best to bring them to light now.

Get a Head Start on Curb Appeal
Most landscaping tasks will have to wait until spring, but if you have inside space and a sunny window, you can get a head start by growing your own flowers from seed. Just wait until after the last frost to plant them outside.

You can also consider touching-up any chipped paint on doors and trim, creating an outdoor seating area, or updating your front door hardware. Replacing a ratty mailbox, installing new house numbers, and purchasing a new front porch doormat are other great ways to spruce up your curb appeal over the winter months.

Invest in Buyers’ Favorite Features
You know those weekends when it’s just too cold and miserable to leave the house? What better way to pass those gloomy days, than by adding some nice touches to the interior and exterior of your home.

The National Association of Home Builders surveyed prospective home buyers and learned that the top two desired features in a home are a laundry room and exterior lighting. A whopping 87% of home buyers will appreciate an investment you make in either of these areas.

How to get started? For your laundry room (or nook or closet), take this opportunity to add function. Consider adding a shelf, storage cabinet, or a wall-mounted drying rack.

As your luck would have it, wireless lighting has come a long way thanks to advancements in power and power storage technologies. Does your home have a path that could some extra visibility? A side yard that could use a motion sensor light? Shine some light on those darker areas to delight prospective buyers.

House prep may be less appealing than bingeing your favorite TV shows all winter, but doing some legwork now will help to ensure that your home will be the star of the spring real estate market.

Does your home need some TLC before you sell? Let me help! I am happy to come walk through and preview your home with you. We can review what items might be good to take care of ahead of time.

I would also like to share with a program that might help that will allow you to do the work up front and pay for it out of your proceeds at the closing table.

Read more here.

Additionally, my services to you as a seller include but are not limited to: professional staging services, property marketing and more.

I also have strong local connections and may already have a buyer for your home! Let’s visit!

Another surprising bathroom germ culprit: faucet handles. Yes, even diligent hand-washers are at risk, as the faucet’s handles are more infested with germs (especially e. coli) than the toilet. Leave a tub of disinfecting wipes near bathroom sinks and urge family members to wipe down the faucet and handles after they use them.

The Office
Your keyboard is full of cooties. Well, not exactly, but you may never look at a keyboard the same way when you learn that it’s dirtier than your bathroom. A study by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found bacilli, staphylococci, streptococci, and micrococci, among other germs, on keyboards in the home.

Researchers recommend disinfecting the keyboard (and other electronics) at least once a week with an alcohol wipe or solution with 60-80% concentration. Alcohol evaporates quickly, avoiding potential electronic damage from excess moisture.

Living Room
Clean that clicker! We’re willing to bet that not many people sanitize the TV remote, but they should. It’s the second germiest electronic in the average household (laptops being the first), which makes sense when you think about how many hands touch it on a regular basis. Use disinfecting wipes to sanitize your remote at least once a week. You’ll find a list of disinfectants on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website.

Thank you for your support in 2021! I am now an International President’s agent – top 7% worldwide of all Coldwell Banker Realty agents. I could not have done this without you!!

Everyone is Asking…..What to Expect in the 2022 Market?

Do Solar Panels Increase Home Value?

Solar Adoption is Growing
Two years ago, the U.S. had hit 2 million solar installations and the researchers at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables expected “…solar installations to double by 2023.” In fact, Pew Research found that 46% of U.S. homeowners are considering residential solar panels.

High demand can lead to a faster sale and/or a higher sales price, but there are still a few other factors that will impact the value of your home on paper.

Location Considerations
According to a 2019 Zillow Economic Research report, “During the past year, homes with solar-energy systems sold for 4.1% more on average than comparable homes without solar power. For the median-valued home, that translates to an additional $9,274,”

The report finds, however, that the increase in home value varies, sometimes substantially, by region. If solar panels are popular in your area, they may provide a bigger boost to your home value than in less popular areas.

Owned or Leased?
When you sell your home to a buyer who will need financing to purchase it, the appraiser has the final say in what the home is worth. Whether the solar array on your roof increases the appraised value will depend largely on whether or not you own the system.

The most common solar panel ownership scenarios, according to the appraiser guidelines at fanniemae.com, include:

• The panels are owned. Owned panels may be included in the appraised value of the property.
• The panels are leased or covered by a Power Purchase Agreement. Leased panels may not be included in the appraised value of the property.
• The panels are financed as personal property. If the solar panels are financed as personal property (and therefore serve as collateral for the loan), they will do nothing to increase the value of the home.
• The panels are financed as fixture to real estate. Panels that are considered fixtures (permanently affixed to the property) can be used in the appraisal but only if they can’t be repossessed should the seller default on the terms of the financing agreement.

If you decide to purchase solar panels, you will likely be able to someday recoup the money you spent on them. If you’re located in an area where solar power is popular, your system may just help you to sell the home quicker. If you’d like more information on our local market conditions, reach out to me anytime.

Turns out, it was Benjamin Franklin, in 1784, when he proposed it in a satirical essay. According to scholars at The Franklin Institute “He merely suggested Parisians change their sleep schedules to save money on candles and lamp oil.”

Regardless of the tongue-in-cheek nature of the suggestion, the idea of “daylight-saving” was kicked around for more than a century until New Zealander George Hudson took it and ran with it.

Fitting more daylight into our days is typically welcome, but the sudden switch to darkness when we “fall back” in autumn causes trouble for some folks. Fortunately, there are some simple tricks to help us get through it.

Let Lighting Do the Heavy Lifting
Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD for short, “…is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons,” according to the professionals at MayoClinic.org. “Symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months…”

One of the treatments for SAD is a bright, light-emitting box. But you don’t have to suffer from seasonal affective disorder to benefit from increased lighting in your home this winter.

Open heavy drapes when you’re home during the daytime. Ensure windows and screens are clean to allow maximum levels of natural light to flood the home. You can also add more lamps and other lighting to the home to banish the darkness and gloom. For an added punch, increase the number of mirrors on the walls. They’ll help reflect existing light.

Bring the Outdoors in
The houseplant trend has been going on for years, and the pandemic put it on steroids. If you haven’t already joined the plant party, this winter might be a great time to give it a try.

“Indoor plants have drawn the attention of the scientific community because of their various benefits,” according to Min-sun Lee, Juyoung Lee, Bum-Jin Park, and Yoshifumi Miyazaki, authors of a study published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology.

These benefits include:

• Stress reduction
• Improved mood
• Enhancement of cognitive health

Interaction with your plants is key to receiving these benefits, so go plant shopping, then vow to transplant, water, and generally hover over your leaf babies all winter. For an added boost in mood, add some colorful, flowering plants to your shopping cart as well.