WEEKLY PERSPECTIVE 10-17

Happy Friday everyone! Just finishing up out work week here at Berkshire Hathaway in Montecito. Last week we touched on days on market in Santa Barbara and now we want to talk about Montecito. There has been a lot of talk about the slow down of the upper end. In fact the average time to sell a home in Montecito has increased 60% over last year, to 134 days which is over 4 months on the market.

And that's a long time to sell your home, but if you are shopping in the ultra-high end, say over 10 million dollars there is a decrease in inventory right now. It is about a 36% change from 11 homes active last year and only 4 this year. Although these are both big changes we see this as a stabilization of the market and now is pretty much an opportunity to stand out from the pack. So, you need proper preparation, you need to price your home accurately, you need to stage your home, and you need to work with an agent (or agents!) that understands the value of strong marketing.

So if you are thinking of buying or selling contact us today, call or email us and we would love to give you a consultation.

Have a great weekend!

A Checklist for First-Time Homebuyers

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Here are four things you'll need (and two things you won't) when you're ready to switch from renting to owning. Sure, owning a home is the American dream. It's also the largest investment most of us will ever make, so go into it knowing what is and isn't required.

Here's what you'll need:

• Enough money to make monthly mortgage payments. Duh! If a mortgage payment will bust your budget, you can't get rid of your landlord yet. Use a mortgage calculator to estimate your monthly payment.
• Enough income to pay property taxes and homeowner's insurance. The mortgage isn't the only cost you'll have each month. You also have to pay taxes and insurance. If you can't make those payments, say bye-bye to the house.
• The ability to maintain the property. You must keep a home in good repair or it will lose value and you'll lose money. You can do the work yourself or hire it out. Either way, you can’t ignore peeling paint and windows that won’t close, like you did when you were a tenant.
• A decent credit record. If you have lots of late payments, have declared bankruptcy or left old debts unpaid, it's harder to get a mortgage. And if you do get one, your bad credit record will make you pay a much higher interest rate.

Here's what you won't need:

• A big down payment. It's best to make a big down payment so you can skip paying private mortgage insurance (PMI) and lower your monthly payments, but it is possible to buy a house for almost nothing down.
• Experience. In most major cities, real estate companies hold home-buyer education classes for first-timers. Go, even if you have no immediate plans to buy. The information you get can lead you to other sources of help.

Photo by ©iStockphoto.com/theboone

For more information regarding first-time homebuyers visit HGTV.