Top 9 Showing Offenses for Floresville Houses for Sale

Real estate articles that are really just lists are now being called “listicles”—and there are certainly plenty of them around. The other day one appeared that just had to be read: Bankrate’s “7 things that could turn off homebuyers.”

The actual listicle may not have been the product of much real research into houses for sale, but it was amusing. In the best social media tradition, I’d like to add a few thoughts in order to come up with a modified/improved “7 things” (for starters, there are 9):

9 Things Bound to Offend Floresville Homebuyers

1.     Monkeys.

2.     All right, that first requires an explanation. It headed up the Bankrate list, with a picture of a rhesus macaque clinging to a balcony railing. I’d have to agree that monkeys freewheeling around a Floresville house for sale might drive some potential buyers away. Make number 2: uncaged rabbits.

3.     Animal trophies. Better to pack them up. Dead animals can offend some non-Ernest Hemmingway fans.

4.     Flags. I think an American flag is okay, but Confederate flags just get people thinking about controversy instead of the house.  

5.     Sports teams memorabilia. This one is questionable, especially in a nicely understated den or TV room. Trash-talking posters, not so much.

6.     Nudity. The Bankrate article was describing artwork—the point being that for some homebuyers, even tasteful artwork produces a degree of shock value. Universally showable homes strive to avoid shock value.

7.     Locked rooms. Bankrate called this phenomenon ‘Mystery rooms’—but the effect is always the same: curiosity that’s not helpful. If the idea is to help potential Floresville buyers to picture themselves as owners, a locked door works against the goal.

8.     Odors (bad or exotic ones, that is). Our sense of smell is a powerful memory trigger, and if the lingering aroma of a cigar or onions predominates, it could easily make buyers associate the property with something in their past. Whether the “something” is good or bad is anyone’s guess.

9.     Owners. Even if the potential buyers turn out to be exactly your kind of people, that too is a distraction from the business at hand. It’s hard enough for buyers to visit a series of properties and remember which place had which features—so it’s a relief for them not to have to go through the social niceties of meeting new people—owners included.

This should be a fairly non-controversial listicle. Once we’ve all agreed that the monkey should step out for a cola with its owners while the showing is in progress, the rest will be easy to accept. For other proven ways to speed your own Floresville house for sale into the ‘sold’ category, give me a call anytime!

Emily Terrell

Terrell Macy Group

eXp Realty, LLC

REALTOR®

Cell Phone: (214) 931-9758

Office: (210) 960-4677

E-mail: Emily.Terrell@exprealty.com

www.TerrellMacyGroup.com

Realtor Licensed in the State of Texas, #0659142

Texas Law requires all real estate licensees to give the following information about brokerage services: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vx74mjnt1fpanm/Information_About_Brokerage_Services_BuyerTenant__11215_ts82551.pdf?dl=0

Long-Dormant San Antonio Mortgage Rates Now “Poised”

 Most of us favor a high degree of predictability when it comes to things like the interest rates on mortgages. In that realm, “poised” is a bad word. When anything is poised, it means it’s about to do something different: change. For those who like predictability, change is unwelcome.

But this week should provide both good and bad news when it comes to change and San Antonio mortgage rates. For once, a change in the immediate future is pretty nearly a sure thing. Although rates are poised, they’re poised for a comfortingly predictable change.

What happens after that is a different story.

Up until very recently, the mortgage interest rates offered to San Antonio home buyers has been an island of calm in a sea of…well, less calm, if the year’s turbulent election cycle is any example. Predictability has been in short supply—except when it comes to mortgage rates.

For a decade, San Antonio mortgage interest rates have been tucked safely within a snooze-worthy range—right there at the bottom of the charts. No matter how often the experts predicted that a rate rise was imminent, they were proven wrong again and again. Only one time did it happen. The flat line down there at the bottom of the rate charts stayed remarkably flat.

But this week, mortgage rates are poised!

The triggering mechanism for a rate boost is, as always, the Federal Reserve. When it votes to raise its Fed Funds rate, banks pay more for cash; and charge more for access to the money they lend. This isn’t a one-to-one cause and effect, but it’s generally the case. Only once in the past decade did they nudge rates even a quarter of a percent. But even in that instance, for reasons still somewhat mystifying, mortgage rates went down instead of up (before returning to the flatlands).

This week, the Fed is poised to raise rates—but this time it’s all but certain actually to happen. The certainty among analysts made comforting reading for those who relish predictability. MarketWatch headlined “Fed to hike interest rates.”  Forbes didn’t even wait, headlining on Sunday, “Week Ahead on Wall Street: Fed Hikes Rates” as if it were a done deal.

But if a Fed Funds rate hike announcement on Wednesday is knowable, what happens down the road is anything but. As USA Today put it, “The Federal Reserve is virtually certain to raise interest rates this week for the first time this year, but the course of future hikes has suddenly become cloudier.” Bloomberg said, “the pace of monetary tightening is uncertain.”

In other words, the previous certainty that future interest hikes would be slow and deliberate was suddenly in question. Future moves might be more abrupt than anyone thought...or not. For those who favor predictability, after this week, an unsettled future awaits.

One fact that doesn’t depend on what happens down the line is that San Antonio mortgage rates remain unusually favorable. These are likely to be looked back upon as halcyon days for home buyers and the sellers whose listings showed unusually affordable monthly payment numbers. At least for now, it’s predictably a most opportune time to give me a call!

Emily Terrell

Terrell Macy Group

eXp Realty, LLC

REALTOR®

Cell Phone: (214) 931-9758

Office: (210) 960-4677

E-mail: Emily.Terrell@exprealty.com

www.TerrellMacyGroup.com

Realtor Licensed in the State of Texas, #0659142

Texas Law requires all real estate licensees to give the following information about brokerage services: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vx74mjnt1fpanm/Information_About_Brokerage_Services_BuyerTenant__11215_ts82551.pdf?dl=0

Floresville Real Estate-Watchers Mark the End of an Era

 If you listen to the Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poors-Dow Jones, the nation’s housing market has reached an important milestone—one likely to be appreciated by real estate holders—Floresville homeowners and investors included.

The gentleman in the spotlight is David Blitzer, who is the head man when it comes to the S&P Case-Shiller Index, the most widely-respected measure of housing activity.

Mr. Blitzer’s comments were aimed at the latest report, released last Tuesday. It covered three-month price averages for the quarter ending in September. They notched a 5.5% higher average residential price over the previous year.

Now at this point, Floresville real estate observers might wonder what is so newsworthy about yet another appreciation in residential real estate prices? After all, (yawn)—we’ve enjoyed years of Floresville real estate price rises. There may have been momentary pauses and even a dip or two, but all have proved to be momentary hitches. 

So, what’s the big deal?

A couple of things. First, according to MarketWatch, although the reported climb at the end of the quarter was at the upper end of what had been expected, it still put prices “at an all-time high.” It’s hard to argue that all-time highs aren’t significant. But as stock market chart followers know, they can also mark the point at which prices can bounce off a “ceiling.”

That brings up the remarks by Chairman Blitzer, who sees the report’s significance, not in terms of a market top having been hit, but more as a mark that may be remembered as “the start of a new advance.” Quoted in the realestateinvestingtoday website, he cast Tuesday’s report in its likely historical significance. “The new peak set by the S&P Case-Shiller National Index will be seen as marking a shift from the housing recovery.”

In other words, we’ve probably just passed the end marker for the entire epic of the real estate housing crash. The Wall Street Journal saw it that way, observing that the prices “brought to a close the worst period for the housing market since the Great Depression.” Their accompanying illustration was a stark V-shaped line chart with the title, “Back From the Abyss.” Adding to the probability that the V is behind us was the NAR report of Pending Home Sales. They “squeaked out” a 1.8% rise over the previous year. Since the PHS is a forward-looking indicator, it bodes well for how November will eventually be reported as well.

National momentum like what we are seeing is always a positive for Floresville real estate activity. Especially now that mortgage interest rates are beginning to climb, for anyone who has been waiting for a positive sign or two, it certainly does look like an opportune time to give me a call. So…why not give me that call?

Emily Terrell

Terrell Macy Group

eXp Realty, LLC

REALTOR®

Cell Phone: (214) 931-9758

Office: (210) 960-4677

E-mail: Emily.Terrell@exprealty.com

Address: 9600 Great Hills Trl, STE 150W

               Austin, TX 78759

www.TerrellMacyGroup.com

Realtor Licensed in the State of Texas, #0659142

Texas Law requires all real estate licensees to give the following information about brokerage services: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vx74mjnt1fpanm/Information_About_Brokerage_Services_BuyerTenant__11215_ts82551.pdf?dl=0

Time Becomes the True Affluence for Floresville Retirement

 You don’t have to be beyond your 40s to begin plotting a direction for your retirement years. Most younger Floresville residents know this full well but (truth be told) do precious little about it. For most of us, we’re all so busy tending to career and daily living concerns that most of the time it seems like self-indulgent wool-gathering to go daydreaming about retirement plans. Besides—who has extra cash to be doing more than the bare minimum about financing retirement? It’s so far off in the future…

That may be the 21^st-century reality for most Floresville adults who aren’t close to retirement age, but in fact, some of the real estate decisions we make early on can set the stage for satisfaction in later years. That’s one of the takeaways from the brains at Age Wave, a think tank who consult on all things retirement-related. They recently co-authored (with Merrill Lynch) a study on the subject of satisfaction among the retired. It turns out that money is not the major determinant of happiness in retirement that everyone assumes.

Floresville elders will probably already be interested, but youngsters: listen up! As the country and western lyrics tell us, You can’t get to where you’re going/If you ain’t got a map! The key findings spell out some things most of us would assume—but some we wouldn’t.

·       Pre-retirement, most working Americans take fewer vacation days than in other nations (and 83% of us do at least some work even when we’re on vacation!)

·       Working folks feel stressed during leisure time because it’s so fragmented

·       When retirement comes, it can take years before they can adjust

·        Once retirees adjust to their new schedule of free time, gradually they come to value experiences over things

·       Another change is to elevate the import of social connections and bonds with family and friends (that we could guess!)

The researchers at Age Wave came up with a catchy key phrase that helps summarize where their findings lead: it’s “Time Affluence.” Sure—the security of financial independence is valuable in retirement, but it doesn’t seem to be the single all-important element that investment house commercials would lead us to believe. It’s easy to find fun, inexpensive leisure activities according to 86% of retirees—and 95% prefer experiences of all kinds over “buying more things.” A huge majority say they are happier after retirement than before.

For Floresville real estate planning purposes, the ultimate takeaway boils down to the familiar real estate watchwords: location, location, location! Planning to settle in a residence that’s close to friends and family might just be a key element in bringing satisfaction in later years. It follows that planning for a home base that fills the bill can begin long before “time affluence” becomes a daily reality. For that and all Floresville real estate strategic planning, I’m here to offer my professional, no-obligation advice and guidance.   

Emily Terrell

Terrell Macy Group

eXp Realty, LLC

REALTOR®

Cell Phone: (214) 931-9758

Office: (210) 960-4677

E-mail: Emily.Terrell@exprealty.com

www.TerrellMacyGroup.com

Realtor Licensed in the State of Texas, #0659142

Texas Law requires all real estate licensees to give the following information about brokerage services: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vx74mjnt1fpanm/Information_About_Brokerage_Services_BuyerTenant__11215_ts82551.pdf?dl=0

Housing Rental Scams Abound During D.C. Transition

The idea of “fake news” and how to tell it from the real thing has gotten scads of attention lately, so Schertz web users are entitled to be more skeptical than usual of news items. Last week, there was one of those “come hither” headlines you run across on the web—but with a byline from The Washington Post, it looked like it would contain actual news.

Sure enough, this one was for real: “How to Spot a Housing Rental Scam.” Housing rental scams aren’t totally unknown in Texas—so dispatches about how to spot any new kind of Schertz housing rental funny business figured to be worth checking into. It turns out that the article originated in the Washington Post for a good reason: it centered on a surge in housing rental rip-offs being attempted right now in the nation’s capital.

It seems that every change in Administration causes a real estate upheaval in D.C. Literally thousands of out-of-towners have been looking for short-term living quarters during the changing of the political guard. Many plan on having more time to find permanent living arrangements once they’ve adjusted to their new situations—so a quick temporary fix is called for. It isn’t just the headline cabinet heads and their assistants who may suddenly be looking for digs near Pennsylvania Avenue, Capitol Hill, or Foggy Bottom: lots of temps on short-term contracts are piling into town, too.

Since they aren’t familiar with rental stock and prices in the area (a situation familiar to some Schertz newcomers), they become prime targets for scamsters lying in wait. The hoped-for payoff is a nice fat security-plus-rental deposit meant to secure one of the coveted furnished apartments in the right area.

The downside for the would-be renter is that the hokum artists have no connection with the actual apartment being offered. They advertise with pictures and detailed descriptions (the pictures can be from real D.C. apartments at different addresses). For out-of-towners in a hurry and too occupied with affairs of state to sweat the details, the result can be a crater in their checkbook and no place to put their belongings once they arrive in Washington.

This might seem like a brazen move, but for accomplished crooks, knowing exactly how to vanish after receiving a mailed-in money order or bank account information is a basic skill.

What’s the solution for someone seeking to reserve a housing rental in Schertz when circumstances make it impossible to visit in advance? Zillow says that a request for payment via Western Union, Moneygram or prepaid credit card is one definite red flag. Others are a failure to disclose the street address—or a price that seems too good to be true (although the current batch of Washington crooks may be onto that, setting prices just below market). The ultimate answer—which applies to Schertz housing rentals as well, is to ask a lot of questions (anathema to most scam artists). Better yet, if you have a trusted friend in the area, asking him or her to take a look at the property in advance should uncover any funny business.

We aren’t hosting momentous government changes at the moment, but for Schertz real estate matters of all stripes, knowing that you are dealing with a trusted and experienced real estate professional is the surest way to rest assured no funny business is at hand. A call to my office is all it takes! 

Emily Terrell

Terrell Macy Group

eXp Realty, LLC

REALTOR®

Cell Phone: (214) 931-9758

Office: (210) 960-4677

E-mail: Emily.Terrell@exprealty.com

Address: 9600 Great Hills Trl, STE 150W

               Austin, TX 78759

www.TerrellMacyGroup.com

Realtor Licensed in the State of Texas, #0659142

Texas Law requires all real estate licensees to give the following information about brokerage services: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vx74mjnt1fpanm/Information_About_Brokerage_Services_BuyerTenant__11215_ts82551.pdf?dl=0

Is it Ladies’ Day for San Antonio First-Time Home Buyers?

Some breakthrough good news has come to light. It deals with first-time home buyers.

Across the U.S., first-time home buyers have been staging a disappearing act for a worrisome long time. The causes were pretty universal across much of the country: a sluggish economic recovery and tight labor market contributed to the national phenomenon. Rises in San Antonio residential prices haven’t helped those seeking to become new homeowners locally.

For San Antonio homeowners who follow such things, the phenomenon was slowly becoming a worrisome fact—one that didn’t look like it was going away anytime soon. When you own a home, its value as collateral and at sale depends on a healthy real estate market—one that supports sustainable activity.

That means that new buyers should appear in numbers at least equal to those who seek to sell and move on. If fewer and fewer new buyers appear…well, that can’t be good over the long haul. The fact that the percentage of first-time home buyers had been dwindling for three straight years was the statistical equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard.

The new edition of the National Association of Realtors’ 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers is the annual compilation of activity across the nation. The Profile has been a yearly fixture since 1981, making it the longest-running continuous series of measurements of who is buying and selling residences in the United States. If you are taking a reading of the market, it’s one of the most valuable gauges out there. But even before the recent reports of returning economic optimism, it’s now clear that a reversal had been underway for a while. This latest Profile marks a turnaround in first-timer activity: they’re back.

San Antonio real estate watchers were already well aware of the continuing gradual rise in U.S. home prices, but the new information shows a bounce back toward a more normal market makeup. A second move in that direction also surfaced: the proportion of single female buyers, which also had been on the decline, showed a return toward normal. According to this year’s report, their numbers increased to about 17% of total purchases (not including investment and vacation home purchases). That is slightly more than twice the number of single male buyers—which is close to what is normally expected.

For first-time home buyers as well as others in all categories, the majority given for choosing homeownership was a traditional one: the appeal of owning a place of their own. Also frequently cited was “renter fatigue”—a phenomenon that surfaces whenever homeowners are seeing their equity on the rise.

This all comes as cheering news as we head toward the new year. If 2017 looks to be a year when your own San Antonio real estate plans come into focus, I hope you’ll consider giving me a call to discuss how I can help turn those plans into reality!

Emily Terrell

Terrell Macy Group

eXp Realty, LLC

REALTOR®

Cell Phone: (214) 931-9758

Office: (210) 960-4677

E-mail: Emily.Terrell@exprealty.com

Address: 9600 Great Hills Trl, STE 150W

               Austin, TX 78759

www.TerrellMacyGroup.com

Realtor Licensed in the State of Texas, #0659142

Texas Law requires all real estate licensees to give the following information about brokerage services: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vx74mjnt1fpanm/Information_About_Brokerage_Services_BuyerTenant__11215_ts82551.pdf?dl=0