Georgetown, Texas Real Estate Blog Your Host: Edward Lui

What’s today’s mortgage rate? That, my friend, is the million dollar question.

Ok, so I’m buying a house: the “cat is officially out of the bag.” I tried to keep it low-key because i wanted to surprise my in-laws. I wanted to wait for them to visit me and find renters in my current home! I would have LOVED to see that! So, I’ll write about this homebuying experience later.

For now…what’s today’s mortgage rate?

I locked my loan for 6.375% because I was told that rates went up today on the 30 year fixed. However, later this evening I was told by another lender that rates went down! So what gives? Like any resourceful, diligent young real estate agent I decided to Google this. I Googled “daily mortgage rate history” and “mortgage rates” to get to the bottom of this.

I found three articles:

This one says that rates are unchanged - http://www.reuters.com/article/gc03/idUSN1043138120080710

This one says that rates are higher - http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/10/real_estate/mortgage_rates/?postversion=2008071013

This one says that rates are lower - http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/bankrate-mortgage-rates-fall-weeks-row/

Can you figure this out? First one to give me an answer gets Starbucks on me…

What sells for $100/SF and higher in Georgetown Village?

Time is just FLYING by this year and I wanted to write about a series of case studies on my own neighborhood, Georgetown Village. One of the most common questions I get asked is, “How much $/SF are the homes going for in Georgetown Village?” This is simply too difficult to answer because the median $/SF would not accurately reflect the value of your own home. For example, since Jan 2007, homes in Georgetown Village have sold from as low as $78/SF to as high as $112/SF! For a home that’s 2000 SF, that is a range of $156,000 to $224,000! The best way to assess an accurate value of your home is not to use a sloppy average, but to call on your friendly neighborhood real estate man (that’s me) and to look at the top 3 or 4 recently sold homes that best match yours.

I was curious to know which homes sold for a premium ($100/SF and higher) and there were 16 that sold since Jan 07 that fit the bill:

Half of these homes are New Construction homes (surprise, surprise). New homes in Georgetown, Texas will naturally have a higher premium stuck to them.

The first and second home on the first row is built by Cobblestone Homes and they are no longer building in this neighborhood. The third home is built by Bowen Homes. Once they finish building on their existing lots, they won’t likely be building in the new sections. The second home on the second row with the turret is built by Rothenburg Homes. They are a smaller builder that has built only 1 other home in Georgetown Village. All of the rest are built by Perry Homes and they have plans to continue building in the newer sections.

Here are the resale homes:

It’s interesting that 5 out of the 8 resales are located on Village Park Drive. What makes this street so appealing?

1. They are within excellent walking distance to the Village Elementary School. You don’t have to cross a single street!

2. All of the homes are 4 sided brick with rear entry garages. Less maintenance and nice curb appeal!

3. All of the homes face a massive park that is kept by the city. All play and no work!

4. Because they have a no-maintenance park to play in, their own yards are quite small…

5. All of the homeowners hire a landscaping company so that their own yards are also maintenance-free. Are these homeowners lazy or what?:)

This street has a lot of appeal to a family that wants a low-maintenance lifestyle, but wants something bigger than an apartment or townhome. The third home on the second row is located on Chestnut Court, which is another desirable, private street located towards the back of the neighborhood. It backs to a “greenbelt.”

All of these homes are built by David Weekley (they pulled out several years ago) with the exception of the last one in the second row which is a Lennar. You won’t see many Lennar’s go for a premium in this neighborhood…it must have been those Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors!

Bottom Line: You can’t make a resale into a brand new home, but you can make it look like one! Make sure you have your home professionally staged and you spend the $1 in repairs to get the $10 in return. Simple things like cleaning your windows, fresh paint and new carpet will help you compete against new homes and command a higher premium.

What can we learn from the resales? Well, it might be a little difficult to create a park in front of your home when there is none, or grow a greenbelt behind your home overnight. I recommend turning your bland backyard into a park-like setting and work on your landscaping. This will also help your home command a higher premium and compete against those that may be adjacent to a park or greenbelt. It will certainly help you stand out against the other homes with bland backyards.

If you’re interested in knowing how much your home is worth in Georgetown Village give me a call! I employ cutting-edge marketing techniques and will put my experience to work for you to sell your home fast and for top dollar!

FREAK - Frequent Real Estate Asked Kuestions

“Back in the day” when we were just starting the accumulation of toys for our children we used to go after some real bargains on Craigslist. Sometimes we would get a toy for such a great deal that when the kids got tired of playing with it, we would sell it on Craigslist again…for a profit!

Well, unfortunately, selling a home in Georgetown, Texas is not the same as selling a toy. I just received this letter today from a lady in my neighborhood:

___________________

Hi Edward.

I believe we may have met once or twice in the village and it seems you do quite a bit of work out here.

I own a home in Georgetown Village and have just accepted an offer for a job with my company out of state. Because I’m only planning to be gone for about 2 years I am considering whether to try to rent my home rather than sell. My husband and I built this home and really like the floorplan, etc. so I’d like to hold on to it if it makes sense financially since we anticipate being back in this area in the future.

To help me make the decision of whether to rent or possibly sell I’d like to get an idea of what rentals in the village go for and how cumbersome the rental process really is - from observing the activity it seems many homes have been up for rent and appear to have people in them now. Is this something you can help me with?

Thanks,
Sarah

_________________

Wow, that’s a great question Sarah and you’re certainly not the first to ask it. That’s why I’m posting this in my new Frequent Real Estate Asked Kuestions Category. Ok, I know that’s not grammatically correct and there is maybe just one spelling error, big deal. How else could I make the acronym spell FREAK?

The thing with selling a home is…it’s EXPENSIVE! The costs you have to pay as a seller, although negotiable, are typically around 8% of your sales price! And if you plan on buying a home here in 2 years Sarah, you’ll also have to pay title fees and lender fees…adding up to an additional 2% (minimum) of fees. That means, if you decide to sell a $200,000 home and then buy it again in two years (assuming zero appreciation), you’ve already spent $20,000 just to make the two transactions happen! Good thing selling toys on Craigslist doesn’t cost this much!

Even if that $200,000 home sat vacant for 1 year and the mortgage was $1500/month, you would only be out $18,000! By the way Sarah, rents in the Village average $1200/mo. - $1600/mo.

If you make this decision for purely financial reasons, then it just seems as though keeping a home that you already love is the way to go. Two years goes by quickly. However, like Master Card says, “There are some things that money just can’t buy.” For $20,000, how would you like to:

1. Not having to ever worry about making two payments.
2. Be able to pull out the equity in your home (tax free) for investments or other uses.
3. Get out of the property management and/or landlord business
4. Have the option of buying another home/neighborhood when you come back to Georgetown, Texas
5. Having the freedom to stay longer and maybe never come back to Georgetown, Texas
6. Have the best real estate agent in Georgetown, Texas help you buy and sell a home!

Wow, I really like #6! Sarah, I hope that helps. Feel free to comment on this blog or call me anytime.