Category Archives: Highlands, NC Real Estate

Something Worth Keeping in Mind: Listings Don’t Wilt!

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It’s probably inevitable (and may have something to do with the way our brains are wired) that when most people start looking for a home in the area, they’re automatically drawn to the new Highlands listings first. Let’s face it: all things being equal, who wouldn’t choose a new car over a used one? That’s not to say experience hasn’t taught us that ‘new’ isn’t always the best choice. Last year, NBC’s ‘new’ live version of “The Sound of Music” is one example where the new model couldn’t hold a candle to the original (even if we had seen that one a half dozen times).

Yet the impulse to look for the latest, freshest product is as automatic as going to the fresh vegetables instead of the ‘day old’ bin at the supermarket. When you’re in the hunt for a Highlands home it’s just as likely that you will opt to check out the new Highlands listings before those that have been on the market for weeks or months.

Now, there is really no reason why that isn’t a perfectly reasonable way to proceed. There is always the possibility, for instance, that a new Highlands listing has just come on the market, that it’s the most fantastically great property out there, and that by jumping on it immediately, you will steal a march on the other listing watchers—get the first showing, make the first offer, and wind up in the house of your dreams (it happens!).

If you have an energetic Highlands agent (hint: like yours truly), you may be contacted as soon as a new listing in Highlands appears that meets your requirements. Or you may have set up an internet contact alert to produce a similar heads-up automatically. These are all good ideas, as any worm-gorged early bird will agree.

But the point is, the brand new listings are not the only game in town. Even if you have already combed through the Highlands listings so often that some of them have details you can recite from memory (oh, that’s the one with the “charming entry hall cathedral ceiling”), it’s worthwhile to occasionally revisit all the listings that fit your basic criteria. Among other reasons, Highlands listings that have been on the market for a while can undergo asking price reductions. Some which you haven’t paid attention to in the past can suddenly appear when they drop into your search price range. Others which had been listed as under contract may reappear when a buyer was unable to close the deal…In short, although it’s perfectly valid to review the real estate listings with the new Highlands listings at the head of the pack, thinking of them as intrinsically superior isn’t necessarily the case. Listings aren’t lettuce. In fact, there should be a bumper sticker:

Listings don’t wilt.

An alert and energetic real estate agent is an immensely valuable partner to have when you are on the prowl for a house of your dreams. So…call me!

Highlands Mortgage Interest Rates Fall Amid Economic Turmoil

By the end of last week, with world financial markets quavering and Wall Street chalking up the worst start for any year ever, you’d think that Highlands’s real estate outlook would be as worrisome as the rest of the economy’s.

Not necessarily.

For sure, there was enough to worry about. If world trade levels continue to unravel, it’s hard to see how the U.S. economy doesn’t head south—and that’s usually bad news for anyone trying to sell anything. For Highlands home owners planning to add their properties to this spring’s listings, seeing the stock market inaugurate the year with a full-blown correction would normally be unnerving.

Yet there were two outside factors that worked to counteract such a reaction—and at least one of them had not been widely anticipated.

The first factor is the textbook connection between financial assets (Wall Street’s stock in trade) and real goods (Highlands real estate is, if anything, the definition of ‘real’). It’s an inverse correlation. Not always, but often, the more insecure “securities” become, the more money tilts toward real assets: precious metals, commodities, real estate, agricultural land and oil. If for no other reason than the unanimous hand-wringing of the economic commentators, that should make holdings in property a more desirable place to park assets. At least in theory.

The second factor was the widely unforeseen one. By last Friday, Mortgage News Daily’s Matthew Graham was writing about how investors were fleeing riskier assets “seeking safer haven” in the bonds that back mortgages. The result was one that affected Highlands mortgage interest rates—one of the key drivers of affordability for Highlands home buyers. “Mortgage rates surged lower,” Graham noted, “at the quickest pace of the year.”

Ever since the Federal Reserve’s decision to tiptoe into the first interest rate increase in many years, nearly everyone had predicted a slow rise in Highlands mortgage interest rates—one likely to continue throughout the rest of 2016. Instead, by the end of the week, commentators were reporting mortgage rates approaching 7-month lows! It really was a head-spinner: 7 months ago was long before the Fed raised that supposedly crucial Fed Funds rate. And now the commentators were casting doubt on when the next rate hike would take place…if at all…

Lest we fall into the trap of thinking we can predict what lies ahead, one distant mortgage branch manager, after being quoted as saying that the year has been “great for rates” so far, admitted “Things could change quickly in markets like this.” That’s for certain—but for the moment, Highlands mortgage interest rates are one strong factor that makes buying or selling a more doable prospect than would have seemed to be the case just a month ago— as well as a great reason to stop putting off that call to my office!

More First-Timers May Enter the Highlands Housing Market

1-14-16-firsttimehomebuyerYou don’t need real estate statistics or government bureau reports to sense that first-time home ownership rates have been in the dumps for a while. Highlands housing figures have too few transactions month-by-month to draw many conclusions about sustained trends in home ownership here—yet it’s evident that for young adults everywhere, the glacial recovery in the economy combined with factors like student debt have made it particularly difficult for most of them to move from renting to owning a Highlands home.

Despite the new year’s opening burst of worrisome economic headlines, nationally, when it comes to house ownership trends, there seem to be spots of good news. One with that focus came out of Fannie Mae at year’s end, courtesy of their Housing Insights publication. It wasn’t exactly a barn-burner. The excitement level, on a scale of 1 to 10, would have weighed in at maybe a 2. But for young adults who find their personal financial outlook is a square peg when it comes to the round hole of buying a first Highlands home, any improvement in the outlook would be progress.

That this particular improvement was less than breathtakingly good news was signaled by the headline. It came in the form of a question: “Could the Long Decline in Young-Adult Homeownership Be Nearing an End?” Fannie asked (possibly hoping the readers would supply more information). The reason for the indecision was clarified in the article’s Summary, which stated that the researchers had prepared several projection scenarios for young-adult housing ownership. These showed that ‘strong underlying population growth trends’ demonstrate how even small improvements in those trends “could generate increases in young owner-occupants in coming years.”

In other words, if there are more young adults, there might be more young adult homeowners. Not stated was how long it took the Sherlocks on the research staff to come up with that finding.

In case this sounds silly, it’s actually not quite that bad. During the worst years of the housing bust, the number of young homeowners decreased despite the fact that their proportion of the population grew…so the projection might indicate an end to that negative momentum. That decline has in fact slowed gradually…but in the three projections made by the Census Bureau, one shows continued decline, the next a slight increase, and the third, a robust increase (twice that registered during the housing boom). For the big question: which of the three is most likely to occur, the answer is (wait for it):

“It’s difficult to predict…but stability or modest improvement in homeownership is certainly plausible.”

That might have raised the excitement level to about 3—especially here, where the Highlands housing picture does in fact include properties that are great fits for first time homeowners. With home loan interest rates still enabling extremely doable monthly mortgage payment numbers, even some of those young adults who think their financial square pegs can’t fit the homeownership round hole might learn otherwise. The way to find out? Call me!

Highlands Townhome, Condo Offerings Attract Downsizers

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When a Highlands couple begins thinking over the pros and cons of downsizing their family’s home base, one increasingly attractive possibility is a move into a Highlands condominium or townhome (yes, they’re different—more on that later).

Several factors combine to make that choice worth looking into. One is demographic: Highlands homeowners approaching retirement age typically discover that much of the effort and expense of operating a larger home plant is being wasted once children are no longer at home. Given the choice between mowing the lawn and golfing, or vacuuming a largely unused game room or visiting the mall, eventually the decision gets clearer. Because downsizing can mean significant savings in time and money, checking out the current Highlands condo/townhome choices can make a lot more sense than it ever did before.

The differences between condos and townhomes vary, although townhomes are usually considered to be the more similar to a single family home—with the notable exception that they are designed in a group, with walls shared. Most townhomes have two or more stories, but unlike condos, do not have units above or below.

In most townhome situations, the owner owns the land the townhome is built upon, as well as the land in front and behind. Because most condominiums have neighboring units above and below—and sometimes on either side, like apartment complexes—land ownership is not part of the package.

In both types of arrangements, maintenance obligations are shared, with monthly fees apportioned at set rates, and associations in charge of oversight. Fees usually include garbage pickup, lawn and garden upkeep, exterior insurance, roof and siding maintenance, etc. Owners are responsible for insuring the inside of their unit, including belongings. Because so many upkeep expenses are shared, the economies of scale tend to make condo and townhome maintenance expenditures less costly than single family homeowners experience—and being suddenly freed from the feeling of sole responsibility can come as a major relief! For the eco-conscious, a certain amount of self back-patting might be in order—even though some of today’s Highlands townhomes are actually as spacious as many single family dwellings.

The move from single family home to a Highlands townhome or condo can make for a truly dramatic adjustment in lifestyle—or simply be a reflection of a change already under way. If such a move could be in your future, this winter finds a number of possibilities for you to explore. Give me a phone call if you’d like to take a look!

Ultimate Rainy Day Home Décor Inspiration Generator

1-10-16-homedecorEven if you don’t pride yourself on your artistic flair, you probably have developed fairly firm ideas about what makes some Highlands homes come across better than others. Without even consciously thinking about it, you know as soon as you walk through a front door whether that immediate impression is strongly positive, just so-so, or sub-so-so­.

A Highlands home’s agreeable first impression can usually be laid to a combination of pleasing architecture, diligent maintenance, and appealing décor. Not every home in Highlands has all that going for it, but there can also be a saving note: sometimes the most important impression comes from just a few minor touches­­­­­—clever accents that just seem perfect.

Now that we’re wading deeper into the months when Highlands’s bad weather days are stacking up, we are more likely to find ourselves with some spare time—the commodity that was so hard to find when the sun was shining. That makes it an ideal time to browse through the web (or home decorating magazines, if any of those are around) to fire your creative decorating juices. There are websites galore that feature photos displaying imaginative design touches that other homeowners have come up with. Today, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel­—when it’s being reinvented by thousands of others

All by itself, Pinterest is a single source of boundless do-it-yourself design ideas. The virtual pin board site is the source of billions of images its users are proud enough to want to share with the world (and a surprisingly large percentage live up to that appraisal!). Since there are more than 100 million active users every month, the images and ideas are constantly changing. If you’re open to new ideas, this is boundlessly rich territory.

If you enter ‘decorating’ in the search bar at the top of the Pinterest screen, you’ll summon up dozens of tabs (they look like color swatches) that lead to all sorts of classifications. There are Apartment, Home, Bedroom, Cabin, DIY, Room, Fall, Rustic, Kitchen, Bathroom, Wall, Ideas, House, Vintage, Country, Table, Dorm, Cookies (this leads to dessert-type cookies­­­­—so here ‘decorating’ means ideas for icing them), On A Budget, Farmhouse, Cottage, Bohemian (a suitable alternate title for that one might be ‘clutter’ or ‘gypsy wagon’)­­ Beach, Nautical, Modern…you get the idea: just about everything.

Alternatively, once you are in the greater ‘decorating’ section, you can also just key in a more specific description of the area you’re exploring. For instance, if you put in ‘spring,’ you’ll see hundreds (perhaps thousands­­­­­­­—the pages just keep expanding) of colorful ideas for springtime everything: bunnies, door hangings (a great idea showed an umbrella hanging from a front door knocker with a terrifically colorful springtime floral display bursting up out of the inside of the umbrella)… Then, once you click on any image, you are taken to the creator’s page…and that’s likely to show hundreds of other ideas. A lot of them turn out to be commercial sites­, but those have often cooked up some of the most creative ideas.

In case you’ve never visited Pinterest, I’d like to apologize in advance to the amount of time it’s likely to devour. Still, when the weather turns foul, and you’re looking for ways to enhance your Highlands home, that’s probably a reasonable price to pay. I have a number of other resources if you are thinking of maximizing your property’s appeal for sale (or for you!). Give me a call anytime!

Highlands Foreclosure Listings are Bargains Worth Investigating

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It is entirely possible to think of a residence that’s been the subject of a Highlands foreclosure as the real estate equivalent of a cute, cuddly orphaned kitten or puppy—one that deserves to be adopted by a loving family. You can think of the bank as the temporary animal shelter. With a little tender care, the adopted foreclosure can resume its place in the neighborhood, and all is well…

Or, a Highlands foreclosure can be the real estate equivalent of a snarling mutt that turns out to be a menace to anyone who comes near it…with the possible exception of a wild animal trainer (the real estate equivalent would be a remodeling contractor—one with lots of time on his hands).

For anyone who might consider checking out the Highlands foreclosure listings in 2016, the paramount skill will be the ability to make sure any property they pursue is one of that first kind of ‘orphans.’ That’s because of the fact that the kind of quality protections that are taken for granted in a regular residential real estate transaction are not in force.

Since banks are under no obligation to disclose information about a Highlands foreclosure’s flaws, it is always a true ‘buyer beware’ situation. No matter what the time pressure might be, it’s imperative to make a physical investigation of any foreclosure offering as early as possible. The more thorough the inspection, the more confidence you will have that any budget forecast accounts for all the expenditures you are likely to encounter in the course of turning a foreclosed property into a move-in ready residence.

The good news is that despite the reality that the Highlands market has tightened up a good deal since the days of the real estate meltdown, foreclosure opportunities in Highlands are still coming onto the market. Since would-be bargain hunters are no longer intimidated by the fear of falling housing values, timing becomes important. With sharp-eyed competitors regularly on the lookout for promising foreclosure listings, it’s important to be alerted to new opportunities as soon as possible. In this regard, there is also another ‘buyer beware’ situation—this one having to do with some of the online dedicated “foreclosure” websites. Avoid any that wind up providing outdated and/or endlessly repeated ‘bargains’—for fees billed in advance. If you decide to try them out, see if they offer a free trial. You will quickly find out if you are being directed toward wild goose chases instead of what’s been advertised.

A better way to start is to give me a call. If you wish, I will be happy to include Highlands foreclosure listings along with other new entries as they come onto the market—as well as to offer the kind of prudent advice and guidance that helps turn ‘orphans’ into family-friendly residences. Highlands foreclosures may not be for everybody—but the rewards for those who are able to take advantage of them can be substantial!

Highlands Real Estate Deserves New Year’s Resolutions, Too!

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It’s hard to even think about New Year’s without the word ‘resolutions’ popping into your head—not to mention that it’s nearly impossible to go to any kind of Highlands New Year’s Eve get-together without the topic coming up. In the realms of diet and exercise, New Year’s resolutions are highly relevant, and the pledges made on their account are the most likely to be followed religiously (at least until the Super Bowl parties put an end to them).

You might think that the field of real estate (even Highlands real estate) would be unlikely to inspire any resolute oaths for the coming year, but that proves to be an incorrect assumption. A quick survey of real estate new year’s resolutions yields any number of lists of recommended pledges. There are 6 of them at the Bankrate mortgage site; another 5 at AOL; and a whopping 10 at both the Realtor® and Houselogic websites!

Whether or not you feel duty-bound to put any of these pledges into your own personal action queue on January 1 is up to you­­—but these are among those that are repeated most often:

  • Get Your Financial House in Order. This is actually a good one, for a couple of reasons. First, no matter what you do in 2016, any and all transactions that have a monetary dimension can’t help but go smoother when they fit into a well-ordered financial picture. Second, once you’ve followed it, there’s very little involved in following through. This resolution doesn’t need to have anything to do with Highlands real estate to be a good idea, either.
  • Sellers: Resolve to Think of Your Home as a Product. This is cheating: it’s nothing like a real New Year’s resolution—but a darned good idea, anyway. The downside is that it’s only applicable if you are going to sell you area home in 2016. It’s probably not a joyful idea to think of your home as a product when its single purpose is to shelter your family.
  • Protect Yourself with Insurance. This one was prominent in a National Association of Realtors list, and although it was aimed at new home buyers, it has wider utility. When you take care to confirm that you’re neither over- nor under-insuring the key areas that require protection, peace of mind is a guaranteed byproduct. This New Year’s resolution also needs very little additional effort throughout the coming year­—so it ranks near the top of the RLK Scale (Resolutions Likely to be Kept).
  • Buyers: Resolve to Start Feeling Out the Market. This one might is a smart resolution for anyone planning to buy a Highlands home any time in the coming year. Getting a bead on the market ahead of time can help you recognize sooner rather than later when you come across the right Highlands home for sale.
  • Buyers and Sellers: Resolve to Engage a Real Estate Agent Now. This is one Highlands real estate new year’s resolution I can heartily endorse for both buyers and sellers (it appears on almost all the lists). A truly grand resolution!

Real Estate Predictions for 2016 All Fall into Line

12-30-15-predictionsGiven that the experts have often been as wrong as they were right about predicting at least one real estate trend for 2015 (mortgage interest rates), it’s fair to ask why it’s worthwhile to consult them regarding the coming year. Fair enough. The answer is twofold.

First off, for anyone who will be buying or selling a Highlands home in the coming year, much could ride on the wider market factors that influence buyer and seller attitudes.

The other part of the answer is because it’s fun. Trying to take a peek into the future gathers a crowd every time: just tune into any cable TV news or feature show and start counting the experts prognosticating. Besides, it’s even more fun, later, to ridicule the experts who were way off.

But putting together a roundup of real estate predictions for 2016 involves some hard virtual pick-and-shovel work. To begin with, you have to eliminate all the real estate predictions for 2016 that emerged more than a month ago. A month may not seem like such a long time, but in the real estate prediction business, it can turn into too long (especially if what you predicted for 2016 is already heading in the wrong direction). At this juncture, that hasn’t befallen any of these prominent national real estate prediction sources Highlands readers can note:

  • Realtor Magazine – ‘Normal’ is coming. Healthy growth in home sales and prices at a more normal pace
  • CoreLogic — Interest rates will gradually move higher but dollar volume of single-family mortgage originations will fall approximately 10% [reason given: refis will fall]
  • Housingwire — Moderate growth in housing prices and sales (3.5%-4.5%); easier credit; more first-time home buyers
  • BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research—Further expansion in U.S. housing. The “good news for anyone planning to sell a home in 2016” is that existing home sales could increase by as much as 5%; good news for buyers: a slowdown in home-price appreciation
  • Trulia — “general consensus at the national level…another good year” with hot markets in the West and Northeast cooling down; markets in the South and Midwest “could experience an uptick” in home sales

The researchers and prognosticators behind these projections seem to be in lock-step, at least as we launch into the new year. Whether or not you will be entering the Highlands real estate any time soon, it’s certainly good news that the serious folks who forecast future trends agree that conditions look to be settled, stable and hospitable in the coming year.

There is one thing I know you can count on: I’ll be standing by throughout 2016, ready to assist with all your Highlands real estate needs!

In Highlands Real Estate, “Property Values” Needs More Detail

12-23-15-propvalueEvery Highlands homeowner knows that the state of Highlands property values is important. But regardless of how important property values are, it’s also true that the term itself is hard to pin down. It’s more elusive than most of us assume—it literally means different things to different people.

One of the odd things about the English language (or any language, I imagine) is how it can convey an impression of being more specific than is actually the case. For example, if you say, “This year there’s been more rain than usual” everyone thinks they know what you mean—which is probably not that since January 1, 2015 until today rainfall has totaled more than the annual average. What you mean is that since the end of summer (or perhaps since October) it’s been rainy. The difference in that example isn’t all that important. But when it comes to Highlands “property values,” delving into what is meant is more worthwhile.

The term means subtly different things to different people (or even to the same person, depending on their intentions). To most homeowners, for instance, if you say that Highlands property values have been on the rise, their first interpretation is likely to be that their home can now be sold for more than before—in other words, they equate ‘property values’ with ‘market values.’ They don’t mean that it has now become a better place for their family to live in: that would be its ‘use value’ or ‘utility value’—a different thing altogether.

On the other hand, to a lender, a home’s ‘property value’ usually means its current market value. To an investor, ‘property value’ could well mean its ‘future value’ or its ‘liquidation value’…which could be different numbers depending on whether the speaker is imagining a forced liquidation or an orderly liquidation. The upshot is that “property values” is one of those precise-sounding terms that’s a lot more slippery than it seems.

Especially when it comes to major transactions like the purchase and sale of Highlands real estate, it’s a good idea to be as precise as possible. In that regard, more useful are terms like “asking price” or “selling price.” They describe actual numerical values in a particular currency at a specific time. Although it’s certainly not bad news if we hear that Highlands property values are likely to keep rising in the new year, that needs a lot more detail to be very meaningful (give me some neighborhood comps, thank you very much). And since we’re on the subject: anytime you are ready to investigate the current state of our local real estate market, I hope you’ll decide to give me a call!

Holiday Magic Spreads through Highlands Homes

12-23-15-holidaysLast week, those of us who were out and about during the increasingly short daylight hours could take in what looked like the regular number of Highlands homes decked out with the familiar holiday paraphernalia. When the weather cooperates, it can’t help but bring a smile to your face to spot the reindeer, Santas, menorahs, giant candles, elves—all the elements that help bring home the familiar feelings the season seldom fails to muster.

I bet it’s just that—the sheer familiarity—that explains a large part of why the words “Holiday Magic” are no exaggeration. Sooner or later we feel it. It grabs us. The holidays are back!

This usually starts (for me at least) with a valiant attempt to reject reality. Sometime between Hallowe’en and Thanksgiving, with the first department store ad or the first notes of a carol playing somewhere in the distance, we think “OH NO! – NOT ALREADY!!!” This is the part when the ‘magic’ part of the holidays is nowhere in prospect. The whole concept is at its most materialistic (the ‘material’ being that we haven’t started serious gift shopping, are too busy to even think about it, can’t recall whether the roasting pan was wrecked when last year’s gravy got burnt, etc. etc. etc.).

Immediately thereafter, in a truly magical disappearing-of-time act, it’s suddenly a couple of weeks before the big day, when all the preparations had better have been set into motion. It’s already holiday running-around time. This is when we are out and about, and can take in all the Highlands homes belonging to Highlands homeowners who have the organizational skills that allowed them to erect the reindeer, Santas, giant candles, elves, menorahs, etc. It’s also the time of year when we may begin to experience some true holiday magic…especially if our running-around to get ready happens at night, when the holiday lights are ablaze…

For some of us, there is something about those area homes decked out in lights, and the ornaments, and the music, eggnog, cookies…or even the fruitcake or the stollen or the latkes. It’s the familiarity of the way all the trappings combine to bring back memories: images of our kids’ holidays, or our parents, or dearest friends…and finally, of our own childhood.

In spite of all the running around, sooner or later, this most special, set-aside top of the year puts us in mind of how very much we treasure the ones who are dearest to us. If we’re lucky enough to have them gathered close, it’s pretty wonderful. If this year, that can’t happen—the memories will have to provide the magic. Sooner or later they usually do.

Whether these holidays bring you Christmas or Hanukkah gatherings (or both!), here’s wishing you and yours the happiest, most joyful of celebrations—the kind that create future holiday magic!