We’re hiring! Here are our four core values we try to live by.
Today I’m excited to announce that we are hiring! Are you interested in joining this team? We are looking to grow and sign on more agents, and we need your help to do that. Maybe you’re interested, or maybe you know someone who might be. Either way, I would appreciate your help in passing this message along. To start, I think it is important to be upfront about our values to make sure that we match. There are four core values that we focus on:
Faith. By this, I mean faith in God, ourselves, and the people around us. I believe that faith is imperative for people to move forward confidently and improve.
Growth. I feel very strongly that if we aren't growing, we’re dying. This means we must ask ourselves how we can level up in all areas of our lives, and not just in our business. This includes being the best mothers and fathers that we can be to our children, being the best husbands and wives to our spouses, caring about our physical health, and more.
"It’s important that someone we hire matches these four values."
Humility. I believe that the real estate industry as a whole has way too much ego, and that ego doesn’t help anything. We must recognize that there are so many people we can learn from. If we truly want to grow, it requires us to humble ourselves and become a student, constantly learning and improving, knowing we don’t have it all figured out.
Relationships. I have learned so much about how important relationships are in recent years as I have gone through some health trials. My team truly believes in the importance of being team-focused. Throughout a transaction, the most important thing is your relationship with the client. God designed us to be not only in relationship with Him but also in relationship with one another. Iron sharpens iron.
Those are our four core values. If they align with you and your values, and you'd be interested in exploring what it might look like for us to partner together, reach out. My team and I can help you sell more homes, win back a lot of your time, plug into helpful systems, net more money, and ultimately have a more impactful and fulfilling life. We would love to connect and just start the conversation to see where it might lead. You can start by following this link to our website. We look forward to hearing from you!
How buyers and sellers can both benefit from using a 2-1 buydown.
Recently, interest rates have increased significantly. As a result, demand has fallen, and it’s becoming harder to sell your home. Fortunately, there’s a unique financing strategy that home sellers can use to get top dollar for their properties, and it’s called “2-1 buydown.”
Here’s how it works: Let’s say the interest rate today is 7%. By paying upfront for a 2-1 buydown, you can lower the interest rate for the first year of the loan by 2%. In the second year of the loan, the interest rate will be 1% lower, down to 6%. After that, the rate increases to the full 7%.
This is a fantastic way to lower your buyer’s monthly payment at the start of their loan and help them ease into their mortgage. One of the reasons this method is becoming so popular is that it commonly leads to win-win situations. Buyers get a much lower interest rate upfront, and sellers don’t have to lower the prices of their homes.
"By the time their buydown is over, the buyer can refinance."
Since interest rates are so much higher and demand has fallen, buyers have a lot more negotiating power. They see that many sellers are reducing the prices of their homes, and they may ask you to lower yours. However, a 2% decrease in your asking price will have a minimal impact on the buyer’s monthly payment. On the other hand, a 2% rate decrease for the first year will greatly reduce their monthly cost.
Another great perk of this strategy is that it leaves room for interest rates to come back down. Rates have increased recently, but it is unlikely that they will stay this high for long. By the time your buyer’s 2-1 buydown is over, rates may have fallen, and they can refinance to permanently lower their monthly payment.
If you have questions about how this strategy can help you secure a fantastic deal in this market, please call or email me. I am always willing to help!
Don’t let fear take over—waiting for a better rate may hurt even more.
Today I want to share some perspective regarding how insanely interest rates have jumped lately. I was recently talking with a great client and friend of mine, Bruce Barker, who put it so perfectly. He said, “Historically, the average interest rate has been 7.6%.”
To have an average, you need something to be lower, and you need something to be higher. We have had extremely low interest rates over the last few years, and now they’ve risen to 6.5%. That's been a significant jump, but they’re still below the historical average. It's possible that interest rates will go above the average of 7.6%. If you’re thinking about holding off until interest rates come down, I want to pause and reconsider. I hear many people say those things, but based on what I'm seeing in our economic outlook, I don’t believe rates will drop any time soon.
"Get into something now and build your equity."
If you can afford the mortgage payment on a property, lock it in. If the interest rate does come down at some point, you can always refinance. You shouldn’t gamble with your future and the house that you want for your family because you’re hoping interest rates come down. Real estate doubles every 10 years, so get into something now and take advantage of being able to build equity over time.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me by phone or email. I’m here to serve you.
Everything you should know about our current housing market.
Have all the changes in the real estate market been too overwhelming to keep up with? There’s a lot happening, so I can’t blame you! That’s why I’m here today, to make sense of it all for you. It can help you stay updated on our Pierce County market so you can make informed real estate decisions.
You can hear the full update by watching the video above, or you can skip to individual topics by using these timestamps:
0:00 — Introduction
0:30 — Median sales price
1:20 — Median percent of list price
1:54 — Days on market
2:04 — Pending sales and number of homes sold
4:00 — Determining what kind of market we’re in
4:40 — Inventory
5:35 — Interest rates and the Federal Reserve rates
6:00 — How to price a home and handle this market
6:45 — Wrapping up
The bottom line is that there are advantages in this market for both buyers and sellers. If you have any questions, I would love to be your real estate resource. Call or email me and my team anytime!
