Realtor Sandra Seymour Blog

  What’s the Difference Between a Home Inspection and an Appraisal? If you’re planning to buy a home , an inspection is an important step in the process. It assesses the condition of the home before you finalize the transaction. It’s also a different step in the process from an appraisal, which is a professional evaluation of the market value of the home you’d like to buy. In most cases, an appraisal is ordered by the lender to confirm or verify the value of the home prior to lending a buyer money for the purchase. Here’s the breakdown of each one and why they’re both important when buying a home. Home Inspection Here’s the key difference between an inspection and an appraisal. Bankrate says : “In short, while an appraisal helps you understand a home’s value, inspections help you understand a home’s condition .” The home inspection is a way to determine the current state, safety, and condition of the home before you finalize the sale. If anything is questionable in the inspectio...

  Balancing Your Wants and Needs as a Homebuyer This Spring Though there are more homes for sale now than there were at this time last year, there’s still an undersupply with fewer houses available than in more normal, pre-pandemic years. The Monthly Housing Market Trends Report from realtor.com puts it this way:  “While the number of homes for sale is increasing, it is still 43.2% lower than it was before the pandemic in 2017 to 2019. This means that there are still fewer homes available to buy on a typical day than there were a few years ago.” The current housing shortage has an impact on how you search for a home this spring . With limited options on the market, buyers who consider what’s a necessity versus what’s a nice-to-have will be more successful in their home search. The first step? Get pre-approved for a mortgage . Pre-approval helps you better understand what you can borrow for your home loan, and that plays an important role in how you’ll put your list toget...

  Why Buying a Home Is a Sound Decision If you’re thinking about buying a home, you want to know the decision will be a good one. And for many, that means thinking about what home prices are projected to do in the coming years and how that could impact your investment. This year, we aren’t seeing home prices fall dramatically. As the year goes on, however, some markets may go up in value while others may lose value. That’s why it’s helpful to keep the long-term view in mind. Experts project a return to a steadier rate of price appreciation in the years that follow. Home Price Appreciation in the Years Ahead Over 100 economists, investment strategists, and housing market analysts were polled by Pulsenomics in their latest quarterly Home Price Expectation Survey (HPES). The report indicates what they believe will happen with home prices over the next five years. As the graph below shows, after mild depreciation this year, these experts forecast home prices will return to more n...

  Balancing Your Wants and Needs as a Homebuyer This Spring Though there are more homes for sale now than there were at this time last year, there’s still an undersupply with fewer houses available than in more normal, pre-pandemic years. The Monthly Housing Market Trends Report from realtor.com puts it this way:  “While the number of homes for sale is increasing, it is still 43.2% lower than it was before the pandemic in 2017 to 2019. This means that there are still fewer homes available to buy on a typical day than there were a few years ago.” The current housing shortage has an impact on how you search for a home this spring . With limited options on the market, buyers who consider what’s a necessity versus what’s a nice-to-have will be more successful in their home search. The first step? Get pre-approved for a mortgage . Pre-approval helps you better understand what you can borrow for your home loan, and that plays an important role in how you’ll put your list toget...

  Is It Really Better To Rent Than To Own a Home Right Now? You may have seen reports in the news recently saying it’s better to rent right now than it is to  own your home . But before you let that impact your decisions, you should understand what these claims are based on. A lot of the time, these reports are assuming things that aren’t realistic for the average household. For example, the  methodology  behind one of those reports says that renting is the smarter financial option because of the opportunity to invest money elsewhere. It assumes renters take the money they’d spend on costs tied to buying a home and put it in an investment portfolio. But here’s the thing –  most people who rent aren’t making those investments . Ken Johnson, Co-Author of the  BH&J National Price-to-Rent Index , explains: “One of the difficulties with the rent and reinvest model is many people . . . simply rent and spend the difference. . . .  That’s wealth destroying...

  What You Should Know About Rising Mortgage Rates After steadily falling over the winter, mortgage rates have started to rise in recent weeks. This is concerning to some potential  homebuyers  as the combination of higher mortgage rates and higher  prices  have made homes less affordable. So, if you’re planning to purchase a home this year, you too may be wondering if now’s the right time to buy or if you should hold off on your search until rates come back down. The recent uptick in rates has been driven by what’s happening with inflation. Joel Kan, Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist at the  Mortgage Bankers Association  (MBA),  explains : “Mortgage rates increased across the board last week, pushed higher by market expectations that  inflation will persist, thus requiring the Federal Reserve to keep monetary policy restrictive for a longer time.” The most recent weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate  reported  by...

  Where Will You Go After You Sell Your House? [INFOGRAPHIC] Some Highlights If you’re thinking of  selling  your house, be sure to explore all the options you have for your next home. Both  newly built homes  and existing homes offer plenty of unique benefits. If you have questions about the  options  in our area, let’s discuss what’s  available  and what’s right for you.