Drive in Movie, August, 2020
Enjoy the movie from the comfort of your car in Mandeville.
Drive-In Movie
Daisy Dukes
1200 W. Causeway Approach, Suite 13
Mandeville, LA 70471
March 6, 2021
7:30 pm
This event is free.
Pete ‘n’ Keely, A Musical, August, 2020
Come see this musical live in Slidell.
Pete ‘n’ Keely
Café Luke
153 Robert St.
Slidell, LA 70458
August 1-2, 8-9, 15-16, 2020
Doors 6:30 for Dinner + Show, 7:30 for Dessert Only + Show
$49 Dinner & Show, $35 Dessert Only & Show
Columbia Street Block Party, Postponed
This event will begin again after the state moves out of phase 2.
Columbia Street Block Party
200-500 Block of Columbia Street, Downtown Covington
Covington, LA 70433
Postponed
Free Event.
The Housing Market’s Historic Rebound
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has been tracking pending home sales for almost 20 years now. In fact, May 2020 marked the highest month-over-month gain for pending home sales with an increase of 44.3%.
For the real estate market, pending home sales is an important gauge in the housing market’s vitality. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHS) is defined by the National Association of Realtors as, “A leading indicator of housing activity, measures housing contract activity, and is based on signed real estate contracts for existing single-family homes, condos, and co-ops. Because a home goes under contract a month or two before it is sold, the Pending Home Sales Index generally leads Existing-Home Sales by a month or two.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown of the U.S. economy caused a two-month decline in the PHS. In May, however, there was a huge jump in pending home sales. The housing market is recovering with buyers currently purchasing homes.
“This has been a spectacular recovery for contract signings and goes to show the resiliency of American consumers and their evergreen desire for homeownership…This bounce-back also speaks to how the housing sector could lead the way for a broader economic recovery,” said Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at NAR.
Yun goes on to explain that more listings are coming on the market helping with inventory choices but inventory is still low. Home construction still needs to catch up from “the persistent underproduction of homes over the past decade.”
Builders are taking notice and we are seeing a good increase in the production of new homes. As the graph shows, there has been a huge decrease in year-over-year in the supply of homes for sale. The bottom line is the inventory is not keeping up with the demand from potential homebuyers.
Click Here For the Source of the Information.
Selling a Home for the Second Time: Here Are 5 Tips to Follow
Being a successful Realtor, you have repeat customers throughout your career. A buyer from the past might come back and want to list their home for sale or a listing from the past might come back on the market to resell. There are many tactics and things to consider when listing a home that was already part of your inventory in the past. These five tips will help with those listings that come back on the market.
The first tip to remember is that you know the great features the property has to offer. This pre-existing knowledge of the home gives you confidence in reselling. This is something you have over the current owners and potential buyers. With this knowledge comes the downside of knowing the negative aspects. This can be a positive as it gives you the opportunity to anticipate any hang-ups that might occur.
Second, get familiar with anything that has changed in the home. More than likely the owners that purchased the home from you have made some changes. There could be some little changes or a full-blown renovation. A positive in your corner would be if the owners invested in changing things that you wanted to be changed the last time you listed the home on the market. A good Realtor will still want to make sure the home is market-ready and suggest any “impactful tweaks” that could spruce it up before it goes back on the market.
Thirdly, bring in a fresh set of eyes when getting the home ready to list. If you are selling a home you have sold in the past, you might want to take a different approach when showing the listing again. More than likely the styles have changed since the first time you sold the home. A different designer or decorator will come in with a fresh set of eyes and ideas.
The fourth tip is to start with new marketing materials. Unless the home comes back on the market six months or less from when you sold it more than likely there are changes that have been made to the home. Take the time to create new marketing collateral. A fresh new start might just be the ticket to sell the home.
The last tip is to always think twice. This applies to those “problem properties” that you have listed in the past over and over again. There are some great questions to ask when considering relisting these unique properties. Do they receive frequent offers on the home? Or do they report frustrations with the floor plan? Is it just the price? Compare the reasons it has come back on the market and analyze if it is better just to pass on the listing.
Click Here For the Source of the Information.
The Size of a Down Payment Is Just As Important as Your Credit Score When It Comes to Applying for a Mortgage
One of the biggest parts of purchasing a home is the financing. Shopping around for the lowest interest rates will allow you to spend more on a house and keep your monthly payments lower. Experts recommend to make sure your credit is good and you have saved a good amount for a down payment.
Traditionally it is recommended that a potential homeowner should be able to put 20% of the purchase price down at closing. Nowadays this is not necessarily the case. Depending on where you live and what kind of mortgage you are obtaining you might not have to put 20% down.
For a conventional mortgage, you need to put at least 20% down to avoid private mortgage insurance (PMI). Private mortgage insurance is an extra charge that is added to your monthly mortgage to protect the lender in case you default on your loan. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) explains that PMI is put in place to protect the lender only, a buyer who puts less than 20% down is more of a liability for a lender.
PMI does not go toward paying off the mortgage so a buyer will be paying more each month and not getting any closer to the end goal. This is one of the main factors of why a down payment can affect your mortgage just as much as your credit score.
“In essence, a bigger down payment may allow you to buy a higher-priced home,” Movement Mortgage loan officer Heidi Gage said.
Lenders have a system in place to decide who gets a mortgage and who does not. According to Heidi Gage, there are the “four Cs” lenders should consider when looking at prospective mortgage applicants, 1) credit history and score; 2) collateral (type of property being secured); 3) cash (your down payment) and 4) capacity (how much debt you have versus income every month).
″Underwriters review the loan based on the above criteria, as well as layered risk factors,” explains Gage.
Basically, if your debts are high and your income is stretched too thin you would need a big down payment in order to be approved for a mortgage. Gage says that someone with a “risky debt-to-income ratio” can be approved with a lot of cash for a down payment and excellent credit history.
Have no fear if you cannot put down 20%, there are some flexible mortgage options that allow as little as a 3% down payment. Examples of these options are VA loans, USDA loans, FHA loans, Fannie Mae loans and Freddie Mac loans. First time home buyers also have special programs that allow lower down payments. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) the average first-time homebuyer in 2019 put down as little as 6% down on the purchase of their home.
“The closer a borrower comes to 20% down, the lower their monthly payments will be,” says Gage.
Click Here For the Source of the Information.
Catch Up on Houzz!
