Scott Your Broker

Have you heard others try to compare our current housing market to the one that led up to the "boom and bust" that we painstakingly experienced a decade ago? They look at price appreciation and conclude that we are on a similar path, speeding toward another housing crisis. Like Apples and Oranges However, there are several differences between the two markets. Last decade, while demand was being artificially created by extremely loose lending standards and practices, a tremendous amount of inventory was coming to the market to satisfy that demand. Below is a graph of the inventory of homes nationally available for sale leading up to the 2008 crash. A normal healthy market should have approximately 6 months supply of housing inventory. As we can see, that number jumped to over 11 months supply nationally leading up to the crisis. When the banks were called out for their questionable lending practices and ceased them demand tanked and there was a glut of inven...

Across the United States, there is a severe mismatch between the low number of houses for sale and the high demand for those houses. First time home buyers are out in force and are being met with a highly competitive summer real estate market. Demanding is literally soaring. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the inventory of homes for sale "has fallen year-over-year for 36 consecutive months," and now stands at a 4.1 month supply. A 6 month supply is necessary for a balanced market and this has not been seen since August of 2012. Here in the Vancouver, WA area, it is down to a shocking 1.7 month inventory of available homes for buyers. NAR 's Chief Economist Lawrence Yun had this say, "Inventory coming onto the market during this year's spring buying season - as evidenced again my last month's weak reading - was not even close to being enough to satisfy demand. That is why home prices keep outpacing incomes and listi...

Going Green Is Cool But So Is Saving Money! The environment may love you for going green but for me the biggest reason can also be to save money. These types of upgrades will impress your Left-leaning friends with your ecology and your Conservative friends will love your fiscal responsibility.  Solar Panels The upfront cost is big, but the long-term savings are huge. Solar panels will cost several thousands of dollars to install but on-going maintenance costs are very low, and a typical system will save you hundreds a year. There some tax benefits still available for going solar and you may even be able to sell your surplus back to your electricity provider. Wood Furnace Wood-burning furnaces are relatively inexpensive and even though the yearly savings aren't huge they do add up in the long run.  Bonus: The smell of wood burning. Insulation  There is a very good chance your insulation is not efficient and especially if you l...

Ignore These Priorities At Your Own Risk My wife and I just moved in the house we have always wanted to live in. While we were super excited about getting into our planned 'forever' home I dreaded the idea of moving. But as hard and ugly as moving is, a good plan can make life easier. But there are a few things that should be on high your move in plan. Change The Locks During the listing time period you have no idea who had access to keys. Just because the listing agent says they are handing over all the keys someone out there might still have a key to where you and your family now live. Do you really want to take that chance? This can be a simple DIY project or not real expensive to call a locksmith. Steam Clean The Carpets You want you and your family to be able to lay on the carpet of your new home and not worry about how clean it really is. Remember, this house was just on the market and many people you don't know just toured it. Take the time to steam...

Your Credit Is Bad But You Can Fix It So, you want to buy a house but your credit stinks? This is not the time to beat yourself up for screwing up your credit but it is the time to start fixing it. Most lenders will tell you that anything less than a “good” credit score will cause headaches in either qualifying for a loan or for securing a competitive interest rate. Follow these six easy do-it-yourself steps and your credit will improve. Let’s get started. 1.  Where The Heck Do You Stand? Before you begin do-it-yourself credit repair, you’ll want to get copies of your full credit reports from all three bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax). You can get your reports truly free, once a year, at www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228. You can also try free credit score tracking apps Credit Karma or Credit Sesame to help you. Credit scores range from 300 to 850. A score of between 700 and 740, depending on the sco...

Adding Accent To Your Home Recently, my wife and I purchased our first home together since we married this last year. It’s a modest ranch-style home built in 1975 but in a neighborhood we love. We wanted to add some touches to it that truly made it ours and would give it some flair. Before we moved in we raised the sunken living room floor, vaulted the ceiling in the main living areas and added a large exposed wood beam, we tore out a couple of walls to for a more modern, open feeling and we are adding an entertaining island off the kitchen to create a gathering place for us and guests. Along with this, we are adding accent walls to two of the main rooms to bring forth a more dramatic and eye-appealing look. An accent wall can totally transform a room, taking it from boring and drab to bold and exciting. Accent walls create a new focal point for your space, add liveliness and contrast, and are typically a very inexpensive DIY project. The Starter Accent Wall You can easil...

Higher Mortgage Rates Are Just One Side Effect It's not hard to realize how increasing inflation creates hurdles for many groups in our economy but there is no segment that it creates more havoc for than home buyers and sellers.  As measures appear in the economy to coerce the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, this blueprints a path of struggle for anyone trying to sell a home. While at first glance one might think rising home prices would give sellers a happy dance. But even though home prices rise so do mortgage rates. And with rising mortgage rates comes a reduced buying power of the home seeker. With less affordability comes less competition of qualified buyers. And the cost of your replacement home just got more expensive. Inflation rose the price of your home but also of the one you will seek after this sale. Even if you planned to downsize, that smaller replacement will be costlier in an inflationary time.  The inflation effect for the buyer group is a...