An Update on Where Our Real Estate Market Is in 2019

How did the 2018 housing market compare to 2017? Let’s find out.

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Now that we’re in the new year, it’s time to compare our year-end numbers for 2018 with those from 2017. Let’s see what changed.

3,935 homes were sold in 2017, while 3,407 were sold in 2018—a decrease of 13.5%. This is most likely because there wasn’t as much inventory. The amount was getting lower and lower, but we’re finally seeing it begin to correct itself. 

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Decreased inventory meant an increase in price.

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The decreased inventory meant an increase in price; the median sales price in 2017 was $315,000, which increased to $340,000 by the end of 2018. This is an 8% increase year over year. The sale-to-list price ratio was 100% for both years, meaning that all homes met their selling goals.

The median size of homes (at $340,000) is still three bedrooms, two-and-a-quarter bathrooms, and 1,900 square feet. The average number of days a home spent on the market was 21 days in 2017 and 23 days in 2018.

Overall, we’ve seen some great growth in our market as people move into the Pierce County area. If you have any questions, need more information, or would like to know more about your hyperlocal market, reach out to us. We look forward to helping you soon.

A Few Tips to Help You Grow You Credit Score in 2019

If you want to grow your credit score in 2019, follow these tips.

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How can you grow your credit score in 2019? Here are a few tips that will help.

First, shoot for perfection! In terms of a perfect credit score, the magic number is 850. Not everyone is able to achieve this mark (the ratio is roughly one out of every 200), but it’s still a good goal to have.

If you want to be more realistic, you can shoot for a score of 750 or higher. Meeting this benchmark opens up many possibilities for you as well. For one thing, you’ll get a better interest rate, so you’ll save a lot of money over the life of your loan.

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35% of your credit score is determined by how timely your payments are.

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Next, set up automatic payments for yourself. Approximately 35% of your credit score is determined by how timely your payments are, and a great way to ensure that your payments are consistently on time is to automate them.

Also, keep an eye on your credit limit. Maintaining a good credit score is a bit of a balancing act. For example, if you have a credit limit of $5,000, spending up to that limit will reflect poorly on your credit score. You should try to only spend 10% to 20% of your credit limit—that’s the sweet spot. Don’t spend 0%, either—a 0% balance can make credit rating agencies suspicious that you’re not using your credit responsibly.

If you’d like more tips about improving your credit score or you have any other real estate-related questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you.

4 Reasons to Buy a Home During the Holidays

 Why wait until spring? There are four reasons why the holidays are a great time to buy a home.

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Instead of waiting until after the holidays to buy a home, why not do it now? There are four surprisingly smart reasons why the holiday season is a great time to buy, and today we’ll be going over each one:

1. Less competition. Traditionally, we see the most homebuyers during the spring and summer seasons. These aren’t great times for you to jump in as a buyer; you’ll find yourself competing in bidding wars with many others who are looking to buy. Finding a home during the holidays means you won’t have to deal with all the competition that comes after the new year.


2. Sellers are more motivated. Whether they’ve listed early in the fall and are frustrated that their home hasn’t sold or they’re needing to sell their home to relocate, sellers are more eager to find buyers. As a result, we find that sellers are more motivated now compared to those in spring and summer.

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Traditionally, we see the most homebuyers during the spring and summer seasons.

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3. You can get a better idea of the home. It’s during this season that you’re more likely to see a home at its worst, which is one reason why sellers wait to list. You’ll be able to see how bad the falling leaves are and get a better idea of what you’ll be dealing with in yard maintenance. In spring and summer, you may be fooled by manicured lawns and blooming flowers. During the holidays, you get the whole picture.


4. You will have more access to professional services. It’s easier to find home inspectors, mortgage lenders, and related service providers during the holiday season. Since there’s not as much real estate activity taking place this time of year, you have the luxury of better access to these professionals.

We hope you have a happy holiday season, and if you have any questions or would like some more information, feel free to reach out to us. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Tax Benefits of Owning Real Estate

 If you are still renting, now may be the time to switch to homeownership and start enjoying certain tax benefits.

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Owning a home offers a number of practical benefits, but did you know that it also offers some incredible tax advantages?

There’s a good reason that homeowners have an average net worth that’s 47 times more than the typical renter’s. So if you don’t already own a home, now may be the time to start your search.

When you rent a property, you may already be paying at or above the amount you’d pay each month if you owned a home. Why not make the switch to homeownership and start enjoying tax benefits? There are far more benefits to paying your own mortgage than there are to paying someone else’s.

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There are far more benefits to paying your own mortgage than there are to paying someone else’s.

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Imagine you took out a 30-year mortgage, which is typical for most homeowners. Though your first year of payments will go almost exclusively toward paying off the interest, the portion of payments applied toward interest become a tax write-off. Not only that, but, unlike rental payments, mortgage payments are fixed.

And as you make these mortgage payments over the years, less and less will be applied toward interest and more and more will go toward principal. You can see a graph illustrating the breakdown of these payments over time in the video above.

The bottom line is this: There are many tax advantages associated with homeownership. To make sure you’re taking full advantage of them, though, I highly recommend meeting with your CPA within your first year of homeownership.

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.

How Real Estate Commissions Work On the Hauer Team

In real estate, commissions have been a somewhat questionable topic to discuss, but it’s important you understand how they actually work.

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There is no such thing as a set commission in real estate. By law, commission rates have to be negotiable; the real estate community as a whole can’t just decide what you’ll pay.

And when it comes to real estate, it’s important to know that you get what you pay for. If a firm says they’ll do a 1% commission, it will still be a 4% commission because you’re still paying the buyer’s agent when they bring the buyer a 3% commision. If they’re being deceitful in how they market themselves in the first place, how do you think the rest of the transaction will go?

The Hauer Home Team’s philosophy when it comes to commissions is if you’re aren’t getting value from what we bring to the table, then we don’t see the point of charging you money for it; it’s as simple as that.

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The Hauer Home Team’s philosophy about commissions is if you’re aren’t getting value from what we bring to the table, then we don’t see the point of charging you money for it.

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We have what we refer to as our variable commission schedule—it’s entirely dependant on the value that we bring to you. For example, if you have a friend or family member who is interested in purchasing your house, that’s totally unrelated to the elaborate marketing efforts that we normally put forth to get your home on the market, and in that situation, we’ll charge you a big, fat 0% commission for the transaction.

That’s part of the benefit of working with a team of our volume: The average agent sells eight homes a year, while we sell over 100 homes in that time frame. Because of how much business we consistently pull in, we can take the loss of money we spend on marketing when you don’t end up needing it.

Additionally, if you find the buyer for your house on your own, we can help you facilitate the sale for a 1% commission. That way, you know that everything has been done properly in the transaction, and you’ll still pay much less than if we had found the buyer for you. If we find your buyer for you, we charge the typical 5% commision, and if an outside agent ends up bringing the buyer, then it’s a 6% commission. However it happens, we’ll take good care of you.

If you have any questions regarding commission or how we can help you sell your home, please reach out to us. We can discuss in detail exactly how we can help you make the most money possible from your transaction.