Home Buyers
Realtors in the city of Canby have put together a city-wide open house on Sunday, October 4 from 1-4 pm. With interest rates hovering around 5% and the first-time home buyer’s credit about to expire, there has never been a better time to buy a home. Future home buyers will be able to view tens of open houses for sale in every price range in and around the Canby area.
The tours are self-guided and can begin at any home. For a list of RE/MAX equity group participating listings, click here. For a driving tour of the RE/MAX equity group participating listings, including turn-by-turn directions, click here.
With the launch today of RE/MAX equity group’s mobile website, www.equitygroup.com, local real estate search is now available to any consumer with a web-enabled mobile device.
The mobile version of RE/MAX equity group’s website is built specifically for cell phone and other mobile browsers. The mobile web site allows consumers to search all real estate listings from the Internet Data Exchange (IDX) feeds of the Realtor Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) and the Willamette Valley Multiple Listing Service (WVMLS), in addition to RE/MAX equity group’s Realtors and open houses.
Consumers can view listing details as well as photos directly from their web-enabled cell phone, making it easy to find listings when driving through a neighborhood or find open houses in an area they are searching.
“Consumers are more and more using their cell phones as pocket computers,” says RE/MAX equity group President Jim Homolka. “They expect to be able to access the same information on their web-enabled cell phones as they can on their desktops. Now, they can look up details on a home they are driving by. And it’s simple to use. If you can look up sports scores, you can look at houses now too.”
Because the site is not an application, it is not limited to specific devices nor does it require any downloads. If consumers have access to the web using their mobile device, they can use this site to get the information they need, when they need it.
For consumers without web access on their cell phones, RE/MAX equity group offers the Mobile Audio Home Finder program. Mobile Audio Home Finder enables consumers to call a single phone number from their mobile phones and hear listing details on any property in the IDX feeds of RMLS or WVMLS. In Portland, the Mobile Audio Home Finder number is 503-270-4666 (HOME). In Vancouver, it is 360-258-2355 (CELL), and in Salem it is 503-371-5200. Details are available in both English and Spanish and can be sent to the consumers’ phones as a text message.
“Technology is changing the way consumers want to access and receive information and we are committed to meeting the needs of today’s consumers to have real estate information available on the go in whatever format fits their lifestyles,” said Homolka.
RE/MAX equity group’s branded “Audio Home Finder,” powered by VoicePad’s Mobile IDX Audio Search technology, allows home buyers immediate access from any telephone to all the broker shared listings from the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) in Portland and Vancouver and from the Willamette Valley Multiple Listing Service (WVMLS) in the Salem area.
RE/MAX equity group “For Sale Signs” will now include a local number for home shoppers to call for immediate and detailed information, in both English or Spanish, on homes listed in the local multiple listing service, 24 hours a day – seven days a week. In the Portland Metro area, the phone number is 503-270-HOME (4663). In
“Buyers can easily receive instant information about the home they are interested in by calling our system and simply entering the house address, on our listings or other listings in the local MLS,” said Jim Homolka, President of RE/MAX equity group. “Home shoppers who call the RE/MAX equity group Audio Home Finder can also receive the estimated mortgage payment and opt to receive a text message with the home’s features sent directly to their cell phone.”
In addition, the Audio Tours for RE/MAX equity group listings will also be available, in both English and Spanish, on the company’s website at www.equitygroup.com. This provides greater accessibility to listing information on the site.
RE/MAX equity group agents can also register the buyers they’re working with on the new RE/MAX equity group Audio Home Finder. It enables a home shopper who’s out and about and finds a home of interest to instantly get more information on a specific property and alert their agent at the same time. They will also receive an email with the details on the homes they were interested in.
“Consumers are the real winners with this service,” said Homolka. “They get the information they want, when they want it, without scrambling for paper to write an address down, collect flyers, or having to research houses they saw later. They will have it all on their phone.”
In July of 2002 if new listings were to cease, it would take 4.7 months to sell all the houses at the then rate of sales. In July 2007, it would take 30 DAYS LONGER THAN THAT! Yup, it would take 5.7 months to sell all of our listings at the current rate of sales. TERRIBLE! We have almost 1/3 more homes to sell than we did five years ago!
Look at closed sales for the year to date for July 2002 at 2,337 vs. 2,624 for July of this year! THAT IS A 12% INCREASE IN SALES! THAT IS TERRIBLE! Wait A minute…a sales increase is actually a good thing.
In July of 2002 the average market time was 61 days. The average market time this past July was 52 days! THAT IS TERRIBLE!
Appreciation must be TERRIBLE! In the market we are in, prices are dropping like a rock! For example, our office does a lot of business in Hillsboro/Forest Grove, and the annual appreciation rate year to date in 2002 was 5.7%. This year, for the same time period, it dropped clear down to 10.8%. Isn’t that UP almost double? In
We are in a state of emergency in this country regarding foreclosures. They are at an all time high. Well, they are at an all time high in
I don’t pretend to ignore the fact that the real estate market is much different today than it was a couple of years ago. Financing is more difficult. The real estate market is and always will be very cyclical in nature.
The problems in the early 1980’s were much different. High interest rates (12% to 18%) were prevalent. Unemployment was high. Today we have good employment, a bustling economy and low interest rates.
While we face a different set of problems today, they are not yet, and probably won’t become overwhelming…unless you let them, and that would be TERRIBLE!
“A recent survey of hundreds of residential builders throughout the U.S. shows that a majority of them found buyers willing to pay up to 25 percent more for a green-built home. Are you one of them?
A green home is one built for conservation-minded use, with sustainable materials, designs and technology. It uses less energy and natural resources and creates less waste. It’s healthier and more comfortable for people who live in them than a traditional home.
If you don’t want to move, or spend the money for a green home, you can change your existing home toward being green by using basic weatherizing and energy-saving tools like: programmable thermostats, correcting air leaks from the outdoors, insulation, fluorescent light bulbs, maintenance to your HVAC.
The Northwest has the highest certification for green buildings in the U.S., rated by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), created in 1993. U.S. Green Building Council is an excellent resource for many of the steps that can be taken to help with global warming and the environment by “greening” up your home.
Owning a home is an important part of the American dream and an important part of our way of life. Core American values of individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are embodied in homeownership. During National Homeownership Month, we raise awareness of homeownership and encourage more Americans to consider the benefits of owning their own home.
Some benefits of home ownership include:
- Home owners provide stability. Owners typically stay in their home 12 years whereas renters stay no more than three years. (U.S. Census American Housing Surveys)
- Home owners create positive environments for families. Children of home owners are 59% more likely to become homeowners. Their children are also 25% more likely to graduate from high school and 116% more likely to graduate from college. ( Boehm & Schlottmann, University of Tennessee)
- Home ownership improves neighborhoods. Owners are 28% more likely to improve their home and 10% more likely to participate in solving local problems. (George Galster, Land Economics and DiPasquale & Glaeser, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies)
- Home owners are more involved in civic affairs, including voting in the last election and knowing their elected officials. (DiPasquale & Glaeser, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies)
- Home ownership builds wealth. The median net worth of most modest-income owners is almost $60,000 compared to less than $10,000 for renters in the same income group. (The Federal Reserve Board Survey of Consumer Finance)
- Home ownership provides tax benefits. The typical home owner that pays a $1,000 house payment should realize tax savings that equal about $120 a month.
Even knowing all the benefits of home ownership, all the media coverage of housing bubbles may have you believing that buying a home is too much of a gamble right now. The truth is mortgage rates are going to rise and real estate has historically been a solid investment so you need to determine if home ownership is the right option for you now.
Some questions to help you make that determination include:
How much debt do you have? Before you can take on a huge financial responsibility that a home is — you need to pay down, or off, debts you have. Consider consolidating loans and getting rid of credit cards. Perhaps most importantly, you need to make sure that as you reduce debt, you increase your credit score.
Where will you be living in two to five years? If you are planning on being in an area for a short amount of time (less than 2 years), then renting may be a more financially feasible option for you. Buying (and selling) a home comes with fees and costs associated with closing the deal. Your house may not build enough equity in just 2 years for you to justify paying those fees twice. And if your home does appreciate in value quickly, if you live in the residence for under two years, you will probably not be eligible for a capital gains tax exemption.
What is the market like in your area? In our area (Portland-Vancouver, the Willamette Valley), prices are continuing to rise or experience sligh declines. Inventory is also rising making the market more balanced between sellers and buyers. The areas’ unemployment rates have improved and still have lower prices than other West Coast cities drawing in buyers from outside the area. The market may slow from its historic highs of the last few years but we are not expecting to see in our area the bursting of the housing bubble that is being talked about in national media.
