Forsyth County GA Home Loan Applicants May See Credit Boost
For a few Forsyth County GA mortgage applicants, next week may see a one-time favorable change in how they are viewed by home loan lending institutions. It’s a technical change that could amount to a significant difference in the results they get when they apply for Forsyth County GA home loans.
The first evidence of what the Washington Post calls “a surprise boost” will be triggered on Saturday, which marks the July 1 beginning of a changeover in the information gathered by the three national credit bureaus. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have been working with a number of states to handle an awkward technical problem: many states have outmoded computer reporting systems that result in “troubling error rates” in official public records.
Translation: they’re frequently outdated, scrambled, missing identity information—just plain wrong.
The data in question—tax liens and monetary damages from civil court judgments—has too often been the basis for depressed credit scores for unfortunate home loan applicants. And because some governmental agencies can be excruciatingly slow to respond to requests for corrections, when time is a factor (as it often is) those mistakes can be decisive. For any Forsyth County GA home loan applicant whose own credit score has suffered, it’s not an abstract problem.
As part of an initiative by the credit bureaus to increase the accuracy of their scoring, beginning in July they will purge the dubious information from their files and stop collecting it altogether. FICO estimates that between 12 and 14 million U.S. consumers have tax liens or judgments in their current files: they can expect an abrupt jump in their scores. Consumers with no other negatives in their files could see their FICO scores instantly jump by 40 points or more. The result could be better home loan offer terms as well as lower interest rates.
Inevitably, there is a downside. Those with legitimate judgments and tax liens against them will also show elevated scores, which could be misleading to loan companies and landlords who rely on the numbers to make informed risk evaluations. The size of the problem is expected to be limited, though, since most people with judgments and liens have other negatives in their files.
In case you are uncertain whether your own credit score might be affected, that probably means it’s been a while since you checked…and that’s never a good thing! Keeping on top of your credit reputation is certain to pay off in the long run, especially when the time comes to begin looking for your next Forsyth County GA home—which is also when you’ll want to give me a call!
This Cumming GA Real Estate blog is hosted by Gayle Barton of BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HomeServices Georgia Properties.
I specialize in Real Estate sales in the following Forsyth County, North Fulton County and East Cobb cities: Cumming, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Milton, and Roswell. Other areas are serviced by request.
Gayle Barton South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | South Forsyth Real Estate
Cumming, GA Home Value Estimates Best Left to Humans
In the Terminator movies, a robot from the future (Arnold Schwarzenegger) hunts down the human heroine in order to change the future by altering the past. Although that’s actually the present. It’s complicated.
Although generally considered science fiction, the same thing is happening right now in the realm of Cumming, GA home appraisals! Now, before any Cumming, GA readers panic, there’s no immediate danger to the community. The authorities have the situation well in hand; in fact, the robot in question has already been hauled into court. There’s certainly nothing that could affect any individual Cumming, GA homeowner…that is, unless your own house is about to be entered into the Cumming, GA listings.
First, about the robot: this is not the Terminator (Arnold) himself. In real life, he is in no way the fictional robot character who was the antagonist/protagonist featured in the Terminator movies.
Neither is the robot that lurks in some online listings: the home appraisal robot. It, too, is nothing to fear, even though it has probably already visited your house without your knowledge. This robot comes from the Zillow website, and its name is “Zestimate.” It means no harm and is doing the best an automated home estimate robot could be expected to do. Any unintended consequences of what happens when it visits your house are, as the phrase indicates, unintentional.
About that court case: the online information company Zillow publishes a dollar figure that its robot calculates for most U.S. home addresses. It is featured as its “Zestimate” of a property’s market value. An Illinois realty lawyer has sued them because she claims that in her case that number is so low and off-kilter that it has materially hampered the sale of her condominium. State law has it that nobody can publish an appraisal without permission of the property’s owner. Zillow says that the $ number it calls its “Zestimate” is not an appraisal at all: instead, it’s an “estimated market value.” Who wins the court case is yet to be determined.
How this might affect your own Cumming, GA home is because prospective buyers might visit Zillow to see what the robot thinks your own property is worth, and be slightly misled. Zillow admits that, compared with actual sale prices, their Zestimate number has a median error rate of 5% (not bad)—but that it’s only within twenty percent 89.7% of the time. A 20% error would be terribly misleading; especially when it happens more than one out of ten times.
The fact is, this robot doesn’t come from the future like the Terminator. Its numbers are based solely on publicly recorded information, which may be outdated, incorrect, or, most likely, unable to factor in anything other than basic square footage and general comps. What the Zestimate cannot account for are things like how upgraded, or outdated, or depressingly dark, or delightfully light, or traffic-noise heavy, or majestically awe-inspiring the subject property actually is in comparison to the comps used to calculate the Zestimate. When human beings aren’t involved at all, the subject property itself is not actually compared. I think there is room for this kind of automated approach. It can be fun and interesting to look around a neighborhood to see how various individual properties fare, even if the numbers aren’t to be taken too seriously. As the name implies, it’s really just an estimate.
But when the time comes to actually sell your own Cumming, GA home or to start looking in earnest for a house you will be calling home for many years, that’s no time to rely on anything less than comparables and guidance researched by a living, breathing real estate professional. In other words, when the information needs to be right—call me!
This Cumming GA Real Estate blog is hosted by Gayle Barton of BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HomeServices Georgia Properties.
I specialize in Real Estate sales in the following Forsyth County, North Fulton County and East Cobb cities: Cumming, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Milton, and Roswell. Other areas are serviced by request.
Gayle Barton South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | South Forsyth Real Estate
Light and Bright Rule for Selling Your Cumming, GA Home
You could say that selling a home—in Cumming, GA or anywhere else in the nation—is in large part “a light show.” When you dissect marketing statistics that trace the path of the vast majority of buyers, it’s clear that the first sense that comes into play in the selling of a home is sight: either a first view of the online listing, a glimpse of a property with a “for sale” sign out front, or an image in an ad or printed handout. As the saying goes, the “eyes” have it.
Selling a Cumming, GA home really begins with the lighting and photography. Professional photographers know that whenever they aim their cameras at something they intend to capture, as important as the actual object itself is the quality of the light that illuminates it. They talk about the “shape” of the light and whether it’s “hard” (meaning shadows are prominent) or “soft” (shadows innocuous). It’s why the pros will time a listing’s emblematic “curb appeal” shot for the sun to be in the most flattering position. Inside, they may use as many as three or four hidden slave strobe lights to brighten larger rooms where the natural light is photographically uneven.
With few exceptions, light and bright is the rule of thumb for what succeeds best in selling a home. That guideline explains why most agree that the preferred wall colors are variations of “pale” this or “light” that. The perennial favorites are light beige, pale taupe, and pale gray-blue. The common denominator for room color recommendations is high to moderate reflectivity—in other words: light and bright! A recent published analysis of over 32,000 photos of sold homes seems to have been a largely unnecessary exercise: the leaders were (you guessed it) pale gray blue and light beige.
The same thinking leads to the good practice of preceding every showing and open house with a quick trip through the home, opening blinds and curtains and turning on lamps and overheads.
But there are exceptions, of course. Cumming, GA homes with media rooms can often benefit from dimmed lighting that accentuates media screens. Likewise, a rich, darkly paneled study can do the same. Both make an interesting contrast with the rest of the home (and a dramatic break in the whole presentation). When showing a client’s property, some agents lead the guests on a predetermined route through the property. The idea is to manage the progression of impressions to achieve maximum impact.
When you begin to contemplate selling your own Cumming, GA home, even if it’s not being planned for a while, I hope you will give me a call. I’ll come out so we can chat about some low-intensity preparations that will pave the way for a quick and easy eventual sale. There’s never any obligation—and there are often some early steps you can take that result in meaningful results!
To get a better idea of how we market our listings, check out our “Selling Strategy“.
This Cumming GA Real Estate blog is hosted by Gayle Barton of BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HomeServices Georgia Properties.
I specialize in Real Estate sales in the following Forsyth County, North Fulton County and East Cobb cities: Cumming, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Milton, and Roswell. Other areas are serviced by request.
Gayle Barton South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | South Forsyth Real Estate
Forsyth County GA Home Ownership: a Bedrock of the American Dream
You’d think that the whole notion of the American Dream is vague enough that it would be immune from challenge, and for the most part, that’s still true enough. Not so for its principal emblem, which most Forsyth County residents would agree is owning your own home. Being free to work hard to reach that goal—no matter who you are or how humble your origins—has long been the leading sign that the Dream is alive and kicking.
Even so, lately it’s been getting hard to ignore some media discussions that seem to challenge homeownership’s legitimacy as a pillar of that whole American Dream notion. Simply put, the suggestion is that the financial benefits to be had from owning your own home are no longer valid—or at least, that they are growing less valid.
There’s no arguing that there are many situations where renting makes more financial sense than does buying. Most of them are related to the expected duration of residence. As The New York Times observes, “Buying tends to be better the longer you stay” if only because the upfront costs are spread out over many years. In one of its Upshot commentaries, the Times presents a calculator which adds up “Initial,” “Recurring,” and “Opportunity Costs” for various rent and buy situations in order to show at what monthly rental dollar amount “renting is better.”
Sorry, Times. Your calculator may accurately display the tradeoffs in dollar costs—but it overlooks one factor that can ultimately prove to be the most significant. It’s the real-life factor that is built in whenever Forsyth County families decide to graduate from renting to buying. It begins to take form with the first dollar saved for a starter home down payment and continues until the last mortgage check clears the bank.
You can call it “enforced savings”—but whatever its name, in addition to the emotional benefits of owning your home, a measurable infusion of financial independence is the usual outcome. For example, when the Federal Reserve last reported “Changes in U.S. Family Finances” during the years from 2010-2013, it found that although median incomes fell 5%, “the median net worth of homeowners increased 4%, whereas that of renters or other non-homeowners did not change.”
If the American Dream is one of self-reliance and independence, then owning your Forsyth County home isn’t likely to disappear as its leading goal anytime soon. It’s one of the greatest parts of my job to help clients turn that distant dream into today’s reality. It’s a process that starts with a simple call to my office!
This Cumming GA Real Estate blog is hosted by Gayle Barton of BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HomeServices Georgia Properties.
I specialize in Real Estate sales in the following Forsyth County, North Fulton County and East Cobb cities: Cumming, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Milton, and Roswell. Other areas are serviced by request.
Gayle Barton South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | South Forsyth Real Estate
The Art of Pricing Your Cumming, GA House to Sell FAST
The science of pricing a house to sell fast in the Cumming, GA real estate market isn’t really a science… It’s an ART!!
The thing about science that makes it reliable is that its findings can be confirmed experimentally. If Galileo drops a feather and a lead weight from the Tower of Pisa to prove something about gravity, anyone else can trot right up there and repeat the experiment. If the results are always the same, we’re in the realm of science.
Pricing Cumming, GA houses may not be pure art, but it’s a cinch it’s not science, either. You can’t repeat a pricing experiment because no two Cumming, GA houses are exactly alike (even the same models in a development are situated differently). And even if you sold the same house two times, the pool of possible buyers is changing all the time; the competitive landscape as represented in the moment’s Cumming, GA listings, likewise; even the news of the day can affect the sales climate.
Further muddying the waters is the emotional component most of us feel for the places we call home. Even after the most dispassionate Cumming, GA homeowner has shed any such baggage, there remain two distinct ways to value a home. There is the value it can be sold for, and there is what it is worth to your own family. Hopefully, they aren’t terribly different; but in any case, it’s the former that’s important when it comes to selling.
Once we accept that no pricing strategy can be confirmed experimentally, the best procedure is to follow some general guidelines that have wide acceptance. I advise my clients to approach the pricing of their Cumming, GA house in several ways—
• Canvass the market the same way your future buyers will. See what comparable properties have sold for recently and the asking prices currently listed. Determine where yours belongs. This is one place where my research will be a major help.
• Once you’re satisfied that you know the range where your property fits, look for “holes” in that range. Many times there will be a noticeable gap in asking prices within your range—and one good strategy is to become the lone listing that fills it.
• Once you’ve arrived at a price that seems right, another strategy is to lower it to the next “99” number. If pricing your house led you to a $405,000 asking price, consider notching it down to $399,999. Everybody knows what you’re doing, but it’s such common practice that people don’t regard it as a ruse. It is worth doing because human beings can’t help but react to that second price as if it’s significantly lower!
• Consider how buyer’s actually search. (Ask me and I’ll illuminate this option!)
Pricing your Cumming, GA house properly is just one of the many steps that go into a successful sales campaign. Give me a call to chat about your own situation and goals: there’s never a charge nor any obligation for sharing the latest market information!
This Cumming GA Real Estate blog is hosted by Gayle Barton of BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HomeServices Georgia Properties.
I specialize in Real Estate sales in the following Forsyth County, North Fulton County and East Cobb cities: Cumming, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Milton, and Roswell. Other areas are serviced by request.
Gayle Barton South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | South Forsyth Real Estate
Why Selling Your Cumming, GA Home FSBO May Reduce Your Profit
There is no denying that the words “FIRE SALE!” and “CHEAP!” and “PRICES SLASHED!” and “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS!” have long been used to spur sales. Bargain hunters of all stripes are being asked to take a second look wherever those attention-snagging phrases are promoted. When it comes to selling Cumming, GA homes, a For Sale by Owner sign out front can seem to be a promise of an out-of-the-ordinary value being offered—a marketing tactic meant to rope in deal-hungry prospective buyers.
But there’s a downside that anyone contemplating selling their Cumming, GA home would do well to consider. Those FSBO signs may carry some unwanted baggage.
The fact is, discounting is most effective when the item being pitched is a premium product. If a Tesla dealer decides to advertise a 24-Hour Everything Must Go Blowout sale, it will get a lot more double-takes than would the same pitch at a Nissan Versa showroom. Discount Sales and markdowns can help marketing volume, but they don’t do much to bolster a product’s reputation. When it comes to selling Cumming, GA homes, that unintended side effect can be counterproductive.
When a homeowner decides to plant one of those “FOR SALE BY OWNER” signs in the front yard, even though the quality of the Cumming, GA home being offered might be the same as it would be if represented by a licensed Cumming, GA real estate agent, there is a cut-rate subtext. Since approximately 88% of homes are sold with the help of a professional, there can’t help but be an unspoken question about what the seller hopes to accomplish by going it alone.
What’s to be gained by doing all the extra work?
There is only one likely answer: saving money! It may not be spelled out, but most buyers expect that they will benefit: it’s the familiar “SALE!” incentive. But there can’t help being another message that comes along for the ride: “something about this property might need a little extra help…”
Fair or not—and accurate or not—when anything goes on sale, the best any shopper hopes for is that the product being offered is equal in quality to one that’s not on sale. It’s never believable that the quality could be superior; that wouldn’t make sense. Not surprisingly, in 2015 the national average price paid for a FSBO home was 23% lower than what a typical professionally assisted home sale brought. It’s hard to avoid concluding that the subtle cues and subtext messages that go with those FSBO signs must not be so subtle, after all.
When my professionally-designed “For Sale” sign goes up in front of a Cumming, GA client’s home, its subtext is unmistakable: “here is a quality offering.” The Berkshire Hathaway brand, as well as my local standing at a real estate professional, both bring a high level of credibility.
If you plan sell your Cumming, GA home this year, I hope you’ll decide to have one of my signs out front!
This Cumming GA Real Estate blog is hosted by Gayle Barton of BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HomeServices Georgia Properties.
I specialize in Real Estate sales in the following Forsyth County, North Fulton County and East Cobb cities: Cumming, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Milton, and Roswell. Other areas are serviced by request.
Gayle Barton South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | South Forsyth Real Estate
Northern Oaks Homes For Sale Cumming GA Real Estate 30041
Real Estate Listings and Homes For Sale in Northern Oaks Cumming GA Real Estate 30041 South Forsyth County
Neighborhood Listings – Homes For Sale in Northern Oaks Cumming GA Real Estate 30041 South Forsyth County – South Forsyth High School
Gayle Barton – South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
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Gayle Barton Forsyth County Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate | Mountain Crest Homes For Sale
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | Forsyth County Real Estate
Credit Scores Remain Central to Cumming, GA Real Estate Deals
If you’re a typical Cumming, GA consumer, like most Georgia residents, it wasn’t too long ago that you were being constantly bombarded by offers to let you in on a secret: your credit score. The “free credit score” ads got a lot of responses, but lately, they’ve grown scarcer. I think I know why.
It used to be that thrift-minded people shied away from plastic because it made overspending too easy. Today, ubiquitous credit card bonus points and associated discounts and freebies make the opposite true. After all, taking a vacation without using at least some of your credit card airline “miles” or hotel “points” seems more careless than thrifty.
And the fact is, you don’t have to use the credit part of credit card purchases: if you’re careful, you can pay off the balances before interest starts to accrue. And there’s a major additional benefit to conscientious attention to of all your credit accounts— that is, the credit score dimension.
For many years, credit scores seemed a sort of hush-hush affair. That was before initiatives by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) changed the rules of the game, making it mandatory to allow free access to your credit scores. Even so, it was still a bit of a hassle to get to see them—and the “free” access was limited to once a year.
But that’s been changing. Today, many credit card accounts include free access to the FICO credit scores associated with them. If you use the card issuers’ online account systems, you’re usually just a mouse click away from your most recent score. Apparently, the banks behind the cards know it’s a good way to make online bill paying more attractive than snail mail—which is a profit saver for them. At last count, by April of last year more than 150 million accounts included the instant credit score feature.
What that means to Cumming, GA real estate transactions is a solid positive. When Cumming, GA consumers can keep a steady watch on their credit scores, they are much more likely to notice FICO mistakes or any of their own inadvertent slip-ups. The scores affect the interest rates associated with their credit card accounts—but they also heavily influence the offers they can expect from the mortgage underwriters.
I recommend prequalifying for a home loan: it’s one of the best ways to make your offer the winner in a multiple offer scenario. For other ideas that can give you a head start when it comes to buying or selling Cumming, GA real estate, just give me a call!
This Cumming GA Real Estate blog is hosted by Gayle Barton of BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HomeServices Georgia Properties.
I specialize in Real Estate sales in the following Forsyth County, North Fulton County and East Cobb cities: Cumming, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Milton, and Roswell. Other areas are serviced by request.
Gayle Barton South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | South Forsyth Real Estate
Forsyth County GA Home Loan Rates React to Fed Announcement
Last week, local home loan observers were hardly surprised by the news that the Fed’s key borrowing rate—the one that’s most important where Forsyth County GA home loan interest rates are concerned—was left as-is….at least for the moment.
What that indicated to most educated guessers was that the previous three months’ worth of relatively weak economic news was probably behind the decision not to raise rates. The economic news may not have been all that weak, but it was shaky enough to provide more good news when it comes to Forsyth County GA home loans—still remarkably (and happily) hugging the bottom of the 4% range.
The reason it’s fair to call the expert observers of Fed decisions “educated guessers” is because of the noncommittal language that usually comes out of Federal Open Market Committee announcements.
For Forsyth County GA homeowners or soon-to-be homeowners, the direction that local home loan interest rates are likely to be headed is an important element in planning if and when to buy or sell a home. A half-percent rise or fall in the Fed funds rate can trigger similar movements in mortgage rates. Over the course of retiring a typical $250,000 home loan, that amounts to a $25,000+ difference—for some, reason enough to make a real estate move sooner rather than later. If only you could anticipate where rates are headed…
In that respect, this time, the Fed’s announcement was actually a tad more expressive than usual. It described the economy’s first quarter’s slowdown as “likely to be transitory.” In other words, they don’t believe it was meaningful—so, in other words, fuhgeddaboutit! Job gains were “solid;” business financing had “firmed.” Likely prospect (per the expert guessers) was for two more quarter-percent raises in 2017—with the first most likely to happen next month.
Whether the Forsyth County GA home loan outlook will trace that precise trajectory is anything but certain, of course. There’s a reason the Fed announcements are deliberately evasive. But one thing is for sure: Forsyth County GA home loans are still being locked in at historically desirable rates. And that alone is an excellent reason to give me a call!
This Cumming GA Real Estate blog is hosted by Gayle Barton of BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HomeServices Georgia Properties.
I specialize in Real Estate sales in the following Forsyth County, North Fulton County and East Cobb cities: Cumming, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Milton, and Roswell. Other areas are serviced by request.
Gayle Barton South Forsyth Real Estate | Cumming GA Real Estate
Gayle Barton Cumming GA Real Estate | South Forsyth Real Estate
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