Central Ohio Real Estate Podcast with Susanne Casey

We have some exciting news: Three of the last four offers that we wrote for our buyers last week were accepted. 

In this market where we have virtually no inventory and buyers are competing for homes, that is huge. 

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We will craft a strategy to make you a winner in the spring market.

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It’s not by accident—we make winners here, and we do it by partnering with our clients and preparing them for the competition for the good homes that are out there  

We are offering an opportunity for you to meet with us. We will craft a strategy to make you a winner in the spring market. 

Just give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Today I’m bringing you a short, easy-to-understand market update.

Overall in 2017, we saw a 9% increase in prices in Central Ohio. This is an average figure, so some areas are a little bit higher or lower, but you can expect to have an increased equity of 9%. On a $200,000 home, that’s about $18,000, which is huge.

The current days on market is 35 days.

Additionally, if you put your home on the market today, you can expect it to sell in about 35 days.

Hopefully this will help you plan your real estate goals a little better and give you a good reflection of what the market is doing.

If you have any questions or would like to hear specific figures on your own home, feel free to reach out to us. We would be happy to help you.

Today I’m joined by a special guest, Noah Brader from Concord Mortgage, who’s going to tell us about a great new program for first-time homebuyers called Grant for Grads.

This program is for first-time buyers who have obtained an associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degree from the last four years. Those who meet these requirements are eligible for down payment assistance up to 5% on their home purchase.

For example, if a qualified first-time buyer takes advantage of this program for the purchase of a $200,000 home, they could receive up to $10,000 in assistance.

However, there are income limits and you do need to have a credit score above 640. 

The great thing about this grant, as opposed to other first-time buyer programs, is that assistance funds are forgivable after five years. In other words, if you own the house for five years, you won’t need to repay the grant funds. 

The loan process may take a little longer than normal, but this program is definitely worth it.

It’s important to keep in mind that this loan will add about 10 days to the normal process of closing, but it is certainly worth it. 

If you’re interested in this program or have any questions about it, feel free to give Noah a call at (614) 212-6921 or email him at [email protected].

As always, if you have any other questions for me, feel free to reach out. Give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

When getting homeowners insurance for your new home, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

According to Megan Brooks of Liberty Mutual Insurance, you first need to make sure you’re getting a fair quote. Megan refers to these opportunities as “watershed moments” because they represent a good time to shop around. You can get a quote from whoever your rental or auto insurance provider is, but don’t be afraid to get a second opinion somewhere else just to make sure they’re competitive. You can always ask your Realtor for a referral.

Second, consider the replacement value of your new home. You might think you’re getting a really great deal, but the goal of any homeowners insurance policy is to make sure you’re replacing the home in full in case a disaster happens.

The goal of any homeowners insurance policy is to make sure you’re replacing the home in full.

The sooner you can start looking for homeowners insurance, the better—especially for the lender’s sake. This way, if there are any items the homeowners insurance agent needs, they can be provided quickly. A proposal only takes a few minutes if you have all the necessary information, and if they need anything supplemental, they can always request it online from another agent.

What kind of information does the agent need? Generally, they’ll want to know the home’s square footage, what kind of flooring and fixtures it has, whether the basement is finished or not, and other information that typically goes into the home inspection. If you’re there for the home inspection, you’ll get a good idea of what this entails.

Lastly, there are many benefits to bundling together your home insurance and your auto insurance. Bundles aren’t limited to auto insurance, either. You can also include life insurance and, soon enough, pet insurance.

If you have any more questions about homeowners insurance or you’re curious about any other real estate topics, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Also if you would like to speak with Megan directly please fell free to call or text her at 614-372-9858 or email her at [email protected] We would be happy to help you.

Recently I’ve been seeing properties go into contract within a number of hours.

My peers and their vendors—meaning professionals like stagers, photographers, and home inspectors—are all over social media bragging about just how quickly their listings are moving.

My philosophy is that it’s impossible to best serve your seller by advising them to take a contract in just a few hours of listing.

The process to get to a closing typically takes about 30 days, even with cash buyers.

My belief is that if someone wants to buy a house on a Friday, they’ll still want to buy that Monday. While there are exceptions, I don’t normally take an offer within a number of hours for this reason.

I believe in serving my sellers to the highest level.

I believe in serving my sellers to the highest level. To do this, I’ve got a specific marketing plan that is proven to deliver results.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

I’ve been getting the question, “Are we in another real estate bubble?” a lot lately. The short answer is no, but here’s why.

The demand for housing in the current market, as opposed to the one 12 years ago, is much different. 12 years ago, the demand was created by the secondary mortgage market, which gave anyone and everyone a mortgage, even if they didn’t have a job or any way to pay it back.

The housing market is much different than it was 12 years ago.

These days, lending guidelines are a lot more strict. The demand for housing this time around is due to real demand from qualified buyers in the market. The biggest issue in this market is that there simply isn’t enough new inventory. This is making things challenging, especially for buyers.

If we see an increased supply of homes and more sellers decide they want to move, we might see an adjustment in the market. However, I don’t predict that happening in central Ohio for at least a few years, if at all. We’re adding a ton of new jobs and there are plenty of people here that are hungry for housing. It will be interesting to see what happens.

If you have any questions for me about the market or you’re interested in buying or selling a home, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you soon.

I’m excited to be joined today by one of our preferred title reps, Carol Wise with First American Title. She’s here to talk a little bit about title fraud and how scammers have recently been able to successfully rip people off via email.

At least as far as Carol and First American Title are concerned, they will always send any personal documentation through a secure email. The con artists out there now are posing as a title rep sending a secure email, but they are actually phishing for your account info.

Ask questions and pay attention.

The key to avoiding a problem is to ask questions and pay attention. Never assume you’re receiving the right info until you confirm it with either your lender or your title rep on the phone or in person.

If you have any questions for Carol, you can reach her at [email protected] or give her a call at (614) 554-2232. If you have any other questions for me, you can always give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

On June 14th, the Federal Reserve increased its federal funds interest rate by 0.25%. They’re also widely expected to raise rates once or twice more over the course of 2017. What does this mean for the real estate market?

While any action by the Fed always garners a lot of attention, I believe these increases will not have any significant impact on our market.

These increases will not have any significant impact on our market.

First of all, mortgage rates have actually trended lower in the wake of the Fed’s recent announcement. The 30-year mortgage rate recently hit 3.9%, the lowest level in 2017. In fact, it’s a common pattern for the mortgage rate and the Fed rate to move in opposite directions, and the same thing has happened the last two times the Fed raised rates.

Second, the economy continues to do well. The Fed decided to increase its rate because unemployment and inflation are low, household spending is picking up, and we’ve seen steady growth for the past nine years. This is good news for the real estate market. As expected, we continue to see strong demand and a corresponding increase in home prices.

Third, while the Fed’s rate increase is normally meant to cool off the economy, it might actually stimulate it in this case. Because interest rates were so low for such a long period of time, experts believe the recent increases might ease pressure on the financial system and encourage lending.

Case in point: since the Fed started raising its rate in December 2016, total mortgages are up 2.5% year over year.

In conclusion, while any move by the Fed is likely to lead to a lot of hand-wringing, I believe the real estate market will not be affected and will continue on its own healthy course. Nonetheless, it’s clear that right now is a uniquely good moment for everyone in the real estate market. Today’s low mortgage rates are good for homebuyers because they make homes more affordable.

If you have any questions about our market or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, give me a call at 614-568-9607 or send me an email at [email protected]. I’d love to help.

Today we’re wrapping things up with the second portion of our talk on getting a discount on your property taxes. You can see the first portion here.  

The homestead exemption is a statewide program that lets qualified senior citizens and permanently disabled homeowners reduce some of their property tax burdens by shielding some of the market value of their home from taxation. The exemption, which is a credit on property tax bills, allows qualifying homeowners to exempt $25,000 from the market value of their home from all local property taxes.

The homestead exemption allows certain homeowners to shield $25,000 in home value from property taxability.

Starting in the 2014 tax year, the state of Ohio added an additional classification of recipient: disabled veterans. This allows for an increased reduction of $50,000 on property taxes.

There are some guidelines and income limits that apply to this exemption, so if you’re unsure if you’re eligible for this discount, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to verify your information and that you’re receiving all the benefits you can as an Ohio resident.

If you have any other questions about our market or you’re looking to buy or sell a home, give me a call. I’d be glad to help.

I've received a lot of questions lately about property taxes, so today, I wanted to let you in on some tips for getting a discount on them.

The owner-occupied tax reduction was created as a benefit for Ohio homeowners who use a house as their primary residence. To qualify for the 2.5% reduction, there are three requirements:
 

1. The homeowner must own and occupy the residence as their primary residence as of January 1st of that tax year. This will be the address used to determine where you're registered to vote and where to declare residency for income taxes.

Do you qualify for this 2.5% tax reduction?

2. You can't already claim it on another property.
 

3. If you don't qualify, you must complete a residential rental registration form or rental registration exemption form with the county you live in.

If you don't know if you receive or are eligible for this discount, I'm happy to help you verify and take action to make sure you get the benefits you need. Just give me a call or send me an email soon, I look forward to hearing from you!