Eric Mitchell Real Estate

When A House Doesn't Sell So what happened? The house has been sitting on the market for 180 days, had a few showings, feedback wasn't bad, you even lowered the price by $20,000...what happened? It's a frustrating situation for sellers and their agents. It happens all the time.  "Oh, it's just the market. A buyer will come along eventually". Is it just the market? What about those homes that sold in a week just around the corner? The market was fine for that home. "It's over-priced. We need to cut the price by $10,000 to get to the next buying level". Could be. But if you've done the research and found the right comparable home sales and you know the price is right...what then? Marketing is the key ingredient to selling a house when it's priced right. A good marketing strategy can even overcome a house being a little over-priced by attracting a larger buying pool. Many agents look at marketing as putting a home in MLS, puttin...

Should You Borrow the Maximum a Lender Will Approve? When you apply for a mortgage, a lender will decide how much money it’s willing to give you to put toward the purchase of a house. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you should take out a loan for the full amount. In some cases, borrowing the maximum a lender will allow could leave you overwhelmed by debt. How Lenders Decide How Much You Can Borrow Lenders base their mortgage decisions on several factors, including credit score and length of credit history, but the most important factor is a borrower’s debt-to-income ratio. This is the sum of all debts, including a mortgage, credit card minimum payments, and vehicle, student, and personal loans. Most lenders want borrowers to devote no more than 28 percent of their gross income to a mortgage, property taxes, and homeowners and private mortgage insurance. They also want total debt payments to be no more than 36 percent of gross income. If your debt-to-income ratio is highe...

Is Home Flipping for You? While you may think that home flipping went the way of the dinosaurs after the real estate bust, flips actually rose 3.1 percent from 2015 to 2016, with gross profits averaging $62,624, according to research from ATTOM Data Solutions. Home flipping enjoyed a boost last year thanks to low inventory in many areas of the country and an infusion of foreign and domestic capital, says ATTOM, who reported that roughly 6 percent of condo and single-family home sales in 2016 were flips - the highest share in three years. Hot markets in California - like San Jose, San Diego, and San Francisco - along with cities such as Baltimore, Md., Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y. and Seattle, Wash. earned more than $100,000 in profits. The most flipping took place Florida and Tennessee, where it comprised 11.7 percent of all sales in Memphis, Tenn. Are you ready to get into the flipping game? Consider these pros and cons from The Balance: Pro:  Home flipping can be...

Figuring Out How Much Monthly Mortgage You Can Afford When applying for a home loan, it’s important to keep in mind how much monthly mortgage you can afford. Through the approval process, lenders will factor in your credit score, income and other financial data to determine the maximum loan amount you’re eligible for, and you may qualify for more than you can afford. Consider how much you should borrow to keep your monthly expenses and family budget manageable. To start that calculation, find an online mortgage calculator. It should show you the total costs of owning a home beyond the principal and interest of a mortgage. Other expenses can include private mortgage insurance, home insurance, property taxes and HOA fees. Once you have that total number, you can determine if it fits within your monthly budget. If not, then you may have to find a lower-priced house to buy. 28 percent, a good start The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending  Act  requires mortg...

How to Sell Your House on a Tight Deadline Selling a house could be somewhat stressful under normal circumstances, but if you’re facing a tight deadline, your stress level could go through the roof. For example, if you or your spouse needs to start a new job on a specific date, you’ll need to list your house, find a buyer, pack, close, and move out in time to get settled into your new home. If you need to sell your home fast, it’s critical to work closely with a real estate agent who has experience selling a bunch of comparable homes in the same area, and who knows how to do so quickly. Setting the Right Price To quickly attract a buyer, your house needs to be priced just right. If you list it too high, buyers may not bother to schedule a viewing. If you price it too low just to sell it fast, you may leave money on the table. Because your real estate agent will understand the local market and how your home compares to others in the area, the professional can help you set an a...

Boomers Share 5 Lessons on Retirement The unanimous advice from Baby Boomers when it comes to retirement? Expect the unexpected. A survey of 1,200 investors conducted by Capital Group, revealed the many facets of retirement, including what causes sticker shock, the factors that affect why people end up retiring earlier or later than they had planned, and what keeps Boomers up at night when it comes to financial security in retirement. Here are five of the biggest lessons Boomer investors have learned when it comes to saving for a secure retirement: Be in it for the long-term —   Don’t expect much from quick hits. Nine in 10 (92 percent) retired Boomer investors stress the importance of getting and staying invested in the market. When markets fluctuate, stay put; only three in 10 (32 percent) say they would adapt their strategies based on market conditions. Know your fees —  Being able to easily understand fees is crucial to your peace of mind and financial se...

How to Save Big on Mortgage Costs While a myriad of expenses go into buying and owning a home, the biggest nut for most is the mortgage payment. Here are five great tips from Bankrate for reducing mortgage costs—both before and after you purchase a home. First, get pre-approved for your mortgage, not just pre-qualified. Preapproval involves the lender doing their due diligence by pulling your credit report, verifying your income and taking other steps to determine your maximum loan amount. For a preapproval, the lender also commits to making the loan if you buy the home within a set amount of time. The lender doesn’t review your information for a prequalification and, therefore, there’s no guarantee the loan will be approved. If you’re looking to buy a newly built home, ask about builder incentives, such as discounted upgrades or reduced closing costs when you use an affiliated lender. According to Bankrate, instead of cutting the price of a new home, the homebuilder will som...

Raising Caring Kids Most parents start by encouraging children to share—and that’s a good start, agrees Harvard psychologist Richard Weissbourd. Weissbourd’s recent study, however, found that 80 percent of children believe their parents care more about their grades than whether they care about others. If we want children to grow up caring and respectful, says Weissbourd, we need to raise them that way. He and his staff provide five strategies for raising kinder, more ethical children: 1. Make Kindness a Priority –  Children need to balance their needs with the needs of others. Parents should encourage them to honor their commitments, try to work out disagreements, and address others respectively even when they are angry or tired. 2. Provide Opportunities to Practice –  Pitching in around the house, helping a friend with homework, or sharing a favorite toy with a sibling are good ways to make caring second nature. You don’t need to reward them for doing routine cho...

Closing Cost Primer: Know Your Terms Buying a home is undoubtedly one of the most expensive ventures of your lifetime. But it’s important to understand that much more goes into budgeting for a new home than the price of the house itself—like closing costs. Closing costs are fees charged by the lender at the closing of your real estate transaction, and usually amount to thousands of dollars. Your real estate agent can explain and estimate what all of your particular closing costs will be, as they vary by state, but here is a handy list of terms and definitions from Bankrate.com to help bring you up to speed. Real estate lingo can be confusing, so becoming familiar with these terms in advance will help demystify the closing process. Origination, broker, lender or originator:  A fee charged to create a home loan. It's often a set percentage of the mortgage amount. Discount points:  A fee in the form of mortgage interest paid upfront. In exchange for this fee, the le...

5 Painless Ways to Save Money Everyone wants to save money—to put funds aside in case of emergency, put a down payment on a house, or take a fun vacation. But for many people, saving isn’t easy. One sensible way, say financial advisors, is simply to pay yourself first; put 10 percent of every paycheck in a savings account before you do anything else. Proponents say you’ll hardly miss the money you skimmed off the top—and the joy of watching your savings mount up will be more than worth the sacrifice. The penny-pinchers at PennyHoarder.com suggest five more (relatively) painless ways to build up your savings: Get a piggy bank.  Empty your pocket change into a piggy bank every night and count it whenever it’s full. You’ll be amazed at how much you save. Join an online focus group.  Taking polls and answering surveys can pay off in bankable funds. Check out sites like MyPoints, Opinion Outpost and Inbox Dollars, which may pay you more than $700 a year for taking s...

How to Save for Retirement If You're Self-Employed Working for yourself comes with a lot of responsibilities—and funding a retirement plan should be one of them. After all, if you don’t think ahead to your retirement, who will? Payroll deductions and 401(k) retirement plans set up by employers make it easy for workers at 9-to-5 jobs to contribute to retirement plans. But for the self-employed, it can be more of a challenge simply because there’s no one to do it for you. Here are some ways to take the process of funding a retirement plan into your own hands: Traditional or Roth IRAs If you’re just starting out or saving less than $55,000 a year, a traditional or Roth IRA is a good option. If you’re leaving a job to start a business, you can roll your old 401(k) into an IRA. As of 2018, the annual IRA contribution limit is $5,500, plus $1,000 catch-up contribution if you’re 50 or older. The Roth IRA has income limits for eligibility, meaning that those who earn too ...

How Yards Affect Home Values After deciding on a neighborhood, finding the perfect home can come down to price. One home could be priced five or six figures higher or lower than another home on the same block. What gives? Big factors such as neighborhood comps, crime and the quality of nearby schools affect prices, but they should affect all homes in an area equally. Some factors are less obvious but can affect a home’s price in a big way. For example, yards that can have a big influence on a home’s value for a number of reasons, according to an analysis by  HouseCanary , a data analytics real estate business. Here are some: View Angle The bigger the view angle is from a backyard to scenery or nature, the better. This was the most popular hidden factor influencing home values in the analysis, affecting 95 percent of counties studied. No scenic view would be the worst angle, while 180 degrees is a scenic view from every angle. Backyard view angles were most prize...