The Cost of Waiting to Purchase a New Home

Waiting to buy may not be your best option. Here is why.

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What is the cost of waiting to purchase a home right now? Today I am going to look at this for both first-time and move-up buyers and what it equates to when it comes to your pocketbook.

If you are contemplating purchasing a home, you should know that it is a scarce inventory market. There aren't a lot of options available. For this reason, I wanted to arm you with some good information to make sure you understand how this can relate to your bank account at the end of the month and beyond.

Let’s say we’re working off a home price of $500,000. As of August 2018 in the greater Puget Sound area, the average interest rate is about 4.57% if you put down 20% on a 30-year loan. This means that your payment, if you bought a $500,000 home today, would be $2,554 per month.

From now to next year, CoreLogic is projecting that we will see a 5.3% increase in home values. I think that this is reasonable given that the average yearly appreciation of home values has been about 5% going all the way back to World War II.

With a 5.3% increase, that $500,000 home will be worth $526,500 in just a year.

The average yearly appreciation of home values has been about 5% going all the way back to World War II.

Freddie Mac is projecting that interest rates are going to be at 5.1% by the third quarter of 2019. That would increase your payment from just over $2,500 to $2,858.63. This is a $304 per month difference in the cost of purchasing the exact same home at different times.

I consider $304 to be a significant amount and it could really make a difference if you look at the annual amount of $3,652. You could either save that money or invest it and make an exponentially larger impact on your financial state years down the road by acting sooner rather than later. If you look at it over 30 years for how much you are paying extra, it is $109,000.

If you are a move-up buyer, meaning you own a home that is less expensive than the house that you want to move into, the gap actually grows. For example, if you have a 5% increase in your $300,000 existing house and you want to buy a $500,000 home, the increase is going to be much larger for the larger home. From there, the gap grows further.

I want to help you find your next best step. If you have any questions about this or are interested in buying or selling, please feel free to contact me. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Should You Sell Your Home Before Buying a New One?

What should you do if you have to buy and sell a home at the same time? Here’s what we recommend.

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If you’re in the market to sell a home and buy a new one, how should you go about balancing the two transactions? Here’s what I recommend:

I’m a huge advocate of acquiring wealth through real estate, and I think owning rental properties is a fantastic way to do this. If you're financially able to do so, I recommend that renting out your property instead of selling it. This way, you can have someone else pay your mortgage as you acquire another property that will build future wealth.

Obviously, this isn’t an option for everyone. The house may not be a good rental property, you may not be the best fit as a landlord, or you might not be able to afford two mortgages at once.

My first recommendation is to rent out your current home after you buy a new one.

If you're not planning on keeping your property as a rental, plan b is to sell it. But should you do it before or after buying your new home? This is another conversation that would be best for us to have in person, but here are some things to think about.

First, what is your risk tolerance level? Buying and then selling is ideal because you’ll have time to move in and prepare your old home property for the market. The reality is that, like I mentioned before, not everyone can afford two mortgages at once.

The conservative method is to sell your home first so you know how much you have to work with, and then go find the new home after that. We can help you find temporary housing or negotiate a rent back from the homebuyer.

However, every situation is different. If you have any questions about your situation or anything else relating to buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to reach out and give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

Prepare Your Home for the Market by Completing These 5 Actions

What should you do to prepare your home, and yourself, when selling? Today I have five must-do actions to successfully sell your home.


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What do you have to do to prepare your home to sell? Today I have a list of the five must-do actions.

1. Recognize that all real estate markets are local. While paying attention to national trends is helpful, it is even more important to understand your local market. Area conditions will have the greatest influence on your sale.

2. Declutter. Clean up the house to make it feel open and as spacious as possible.  We have a courtesy cargo trailer you are more than welcome to use free of charge. You can also get rid of belongings you no longer need by donating it or giving it away.

3. Stage your home. As statistics show, staging your home adds value to your listing. Doing so will make your property feel more organized, and will help buyers feel at home when they tour your listing. Staging is not only about design, but also about making the space feel open and comfortable. Our team works with a staging service, and we would be happy to connect you with them so that you can schedule a consultation. 

Staging is not only about design, but also about making the space feel open and comfortable.

4. Interview agents to sell your home. All agents are not created equal. At the Hauer Home Team, we represent the top 1% of agents in the entire country. We highly recommend you interview as many agents as you need to make sure you hire the professional who best fits your needs.

5. Pick the best price for your home. You have to sell your home twice: Once to the buyer and then to the appraiser. At the end of the day, though, you are not the one who picks the price, and neither is the agent. The marketplace determines what your home is worth. Picking a strategic price will allow you to net the most money from the sale of your property.

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.

Sellers: Don't List Before Doing These 3 Things

When selling your home, there are a few key things to do before starting the listing process.


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There are a few important things all sellers should do before listing their home. Today we’d like to list these steps so that you can be better prepared for your transaction.

1. Have a preliminary title search. It is always good to make sure there aren’t any liens or judgments against the property. The last thing you want when selling your home is to encounter an unpleasant surprise at or near closing.


2. Add earthquake straps on your hot water tank and install a carbon monoxide detector. Both of these are critical to ensuring your property is safe and meets legal requirements. In fact, Washington state law requires that each level of a home have at least one carbon monoxide detector. A detector is about $25 and can generally be plugged into any wall outlet.

It’s critical to ensure your property is safe and meets legal requirements before you list.

3. Take care of legal issues like distribution of sale proceeds. This can be a difficult aspect of the transaction to navigate, but my team and I would be happy to help guide you on this subject.

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

Buying and Selling at the Same Time Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

If you’ve been thinking of buying and selling simultaneously, I have a couple options for you to make it an easy transition.


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Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale.

People often ask, “How do I buy and sell at the same time?” The biggest concern a lot of us have is how exactly to make the move from an old house to a new one. Well, there are a couple of different options which may work for you.

You can buy a new house first before you sell. If you are comfortable doing this and have the financial ability to do so, this could be an option for you. Of course, be aware that there’s a risk you’ll end up with two mortgage payments for longer than you want.

You can also sell your current home first before finding a new house to move into. If you sell your house first you will know exactly how much money you have to buy your new home.

Sellers can live for free in their old home because of the market creating demand for their home.

There have been a number of occasions where we were able to negotiate what is called a ‘rent-back’ for our sellers. A rent-back is where the current homeowners get paid for their home, get cashed out on their equity, and then are able to continue living in the property for an additional 30 days or so past closing. Doing this buys them time to find a replacement property. Essentially, sellers can live for free in their old home because of market demand.

When it comes to making a home purchase, we’re often able to help clients find properties by knocking on doors in the neighborhood they’d like to move to. We can get really targeted and specific about the area in which you’d like to search. By sending out letters and door-knocking in that area we are able to procure options for you.

All of this being said, we would be happy to help you manage your transactions. When it comes to pricing your home effectively to get it sold, we're experts and can help give you some guidance in that to make sure that you're not carrying two mortgages longer than need be.

If you have any additional questions on this topic, please don’t hesitate to call or email. I look forward to speaking with you.