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Don’t Get Caught Off Guard by Closing Costs

March 18, 2022 By Claire Garlick Leave a Comment

Source: Keeping Current Matters

As a homebuyer, it’s important to plan and budget for the expenses you’ll encounter when you purchase a home. While most people understand the need to save for a down payment, a recent survey found 41% of homebuyers were surprised by their closing costs. Here’s some information to help you get started so you’re not caught off guard when it’s time to close on your home.

What Are Closing Costs?

One possible reason some people are surprised by closing costs may be because they don’t know what they are or what they cover. According to U.S. News and World Report:

Closing costs encompass a variety of expenses above your property’s purchase price. They include things like lender fees, title insurance, government processing fees, upfront tax payments and homeowners insurance.

In other words, your closing costs are a collection of fees and payments made to a variety of individuals and organizations who are involved with your transaction. According to Freddie Mac, while they can vary by location and situation, closing costs typically include:

  • Government recording costs
  • Appraisal fees
  • Credit report fees
  • Lender origination fees
  • Title services
  • Tax service fees
  • Survey fees
  • Attorney fees
  • Underwriting Fees

How Much Will You Need To Budget for Closing Costs?

Understanding what closing costs include is important, but knowing what you’ll need to budget to cover them is critical to achieving your homebuying goals. According to the Freddie Mac article mentioned above,the costs to close are typically between 2% and 5% of the total purchase price of your home. With that in mind, here’s how you can get an idea of what you’ll need to cover your closing costs.

Let’s say you find a home you want to purchase for the median price of $350,300. Based on the 2-5% Freddie Mac estimate, your closing fees could be between roughly $7,000 and $17,500.

Keep in mind, if you’re in the market for a home above or below this price range, your closing costs will be higher or lower.

What’s the Best Way To Make Sure You’re Prepared at Closing Time?

Freddie Mac provides great advice for homebuyers, saying:

As you start your homebuying journey, take the time to get a sense of all costs involved – from your down payment to closing costs.

The best way to understand what you’ll need at the closing table is to work with a team of trusted real estate professionals. An agent can help connect you with a lender, and together we can provide you with answers to the questions you might have.

Bottom Line

In today’s real estate market, it’s more important than ever to make sure your budget includes any fees and payments due at closing. Work with us to be sure you have the knowledge you need to be confident going into the homebuying process.

 

Article source: https://www.keepingcurrentmatters.com/2022/03/15/dont-get-caught-off-guard-by-closing-costs/.

Filed Under: Buyers, Finance, First Time Home Buyers, Loans, Luxury Buyers, Millennials, Move-Up Buyers, Real Estate Tips Tagged With: Colorado Real Estate, Finance, First Time Home Buyers, For Buyers, Millennials, Move-Up Buyers, Real Estate Tips

Alternatives to Buyer Love Letters

March 11, 2022 By Claire Garlick Leave a Comment

Source: RISMedia

Ah the love letter… in today’s raging hot market, with extremely low inventory and bidding wars becoming the new normal, it’s become almost a necessity for prospective buyers to include a love letter in their offer package to sellers. These love letters are written to essentially attract the sellers’ attention and explain the many reasons why they should pick you as the buyer.

However, as love letters become more popular there are also more warning signs being thrown up. The National Association of REALTORS® warns that sending love letters could open real estate professionals and their clients up to fair housing violations. In fact, last year, Oregon was the first state to ban buyer love letters.

There are, however, alternatives you can consider in order to get a leg up on the competition:

Money

Adding things to a love letter like photos of you and/or your pets is a novel approach, but that’ll likely have a negligible effect on the seller. At the end of the day, money talks. The best alternative to a love letter is cash. Be sure to always make the highest offer that you are personally comfortable with, not the number that you think will be highest.

An alternative to this is the all-cash offer. Of course, making an all-cash offer is not possible for most buyers, and if another buyer can offer all cash, then they’ll likely be the buyers who end up purchasing that particular property. However, there are other avenues that you can take, including companies like Ribbon, Knock and FlyHomes that can lend you money to make an all–cash offer.

Waive Contingencies

In the current competitive market that’s already full of contingencies, a great alternative to sending a love letter to the sellers is to waive one or two of these contingencies and reduce the burden on them.

Removing the financing contingency and/or the appraisal contingency can do a lot more to make your offer more attractive compared to sending a love letter. During the height of the pandemic, many buyers even waived inspection contingencies, although this is never recommended and should only be considered by experienced homeowners.

Tighten the Terms

Another excellent way for you to increase your chances of winning an offer is to tighten your terms. If it’s possible to reduce the timeline from when we submit the offer package to closing, your offer will be much more enticing to sellers. Some tactics for doing this is to shorten the length of the escrow period, as well as getting the loan pre-underwritten so that you can remove the financing contingency completely.

Use an Escalation Clause

Seller’s agents are usually tight-lipped when it comes to the exact number of offers and the highest offer their clients have received. An underused tactic that we can use to make your offer package more enticing to sellers is an escalation clause. This clause states the offer, but adds that you will beat any higher offers that are presented by the amount you specify.

This clause is incredibly useful because it gives you the opportunity to present the highest offer. However, you should cap your escalation clause at the highest sum you are willing and able to pay.

Build Rapport

Lastly, this step falls on us as the real estate professionals. Building rapport with the seller’s agent is critical when it comes to increasing your chances of nailing that offer. Naturally, the longer agents are in the industry, the more connections and relationships they make with other agents. But there are new agents entering the industry every day and we need to be able to build rapport with other professionals in a short period of time. This is a vital skill for any agent.

Although love letters are endearing and can have a very real impact on a seller’s decision when choosing an offer, the suggestions listed above are more actionable steps that we can take to ease the stressful home-buying process. Let us know if this information has been helpful, as well as if you have any questions on the best way to go about submitting an offer on the home you hope to purchase! We would love to help you!

 

Article source: http://blog.rismedia.com/2022/alternatives-love-letters/.

Filed Under: Buyers, First Time Home Buyers, Millennials, Move-Up Buyers, Real Estate Tips Tagged With: Colorado Real Estate, First Time Home Buyers, For Buyers, lux, Millennials, Move-Up Buyers, Real Estate Tips

The Perks of Owning More Than One Home

March 4, 2022 By Claire Garlick Leave a Comment

Source: Keeping Current Matters

Many things have changed over the past couple of years, and real estate is no exception. One impact is an increased desire to own more than one home. According to the recent Luxury Market Report from Luxury Home Marketing:

As trends such as remote working and flexi-hours took hold in 2021, so too did the flexibility of relocating as well as the growth of second homeownership.

This may be because the pandemic has altered how we think about our homes. Where we live has become, more than ever, our safe space and our getaway. And with the rise in remote work, more people are reconsidering where they want to live and buying second homes to give them greater flexibility. If you fall in that category, here are just a few of the perks you’ll enjoy, and how owning a second home may be a great decision for your lifestyle and your future.

Enjoy a Change in Scenery (or Weather)

When you have two homes, you can alternate between them as the weather changes or as you crave different scenery. Do you want to live in an area with a particular season? Would alternating between a resort and a suburban setting be ideal? With two homes, you have those options. Being able to move between homes based on which location best suits you at the time gives you added flexibility and variety that can help increase your happiness.

Build Your Wealth Faster

You may have heard that home equity is skyrocketing, thanks to ongoing home price appreciation. CoreLogic reports that the average homeowner gained $56,700 in equity over the last year. With home prices projected to continue rising, if you purchase a second home, you could benefit from rising equity on both properties to build your wealth (and your net worth) even faster.

Be Closer to Loved Ones

The pandemic has also reignited the importance of being near our loved ones. One option worth exploring is whether you want your second home to be near the people who matter most in your life. This makes it easier to see your loved ones but still gives you your own dedicated, private space so you can be nearby for major life events or longer visits.

Lock in Your Expenses

Buying a second home today and locking in your mortgage rate may be a good option if you’re looking to stabilize your housing costs for the long haul. If you’re approaching retirement or are looking to use your second home as your permanent residence in the future, buying that house now with today’s rate and price may be a good financial decision. That way, no matter what happens with rates and prices in years ahead, your monthly payment is locked in for the next 15-30 years.

Bottom Line

Having multiple homes has considerable benefits. If owning a second home is something you’re interested in, set up a time to talk with us. We can help you explore your options, discuss the benefits, and take the next step to start your home search.

 

Article source: https://www.keepingcurrentmatters.com/2022/02/22/the-perks-of-owning-more-than-one-home/.

Filed Under: Buyers, Luxury Buyers, Move-Up Buyers Tagged With: Colorado Real Estate, For Buyers, Luxury Market, Move-Up Buyers

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Welcome and thank you for visiting our Blessings Realty website! We are Monument-based real estate experts providing information about the Monument and Northern Colorado Springs, CO real estate market.

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