One thing was sure at the beginning of this year: interest rates were going to go up. The Fed said so. Banks said so. Pundits said so. They were all wrong. As of June 1st, interest rates were below 4% on average according to Freddie Mac. As of today (June 14th, 2017), BankRate.com has the average at 4.04% for a 30 year fixed mortgage.

So what does this mean to you? It means that if you are looking to buy than you are still getting historically low interest rates. A simple example of what this means. Say that you wanted to buy a home for $200,000 with a 30 year fixed mortgage. Here are what different interest rates would do to your payment (principal and interest only):

8.12% – $1,484

6.29% – $1,237

4.01% – $956

A change in interest rates can save you (or lose you) $100s of dollars a month or thousands of dollars a year. The Fed, banks, and pundits are all still saying interest rates should go up. Going out and utilizing these low rates is absolutely in your financial interest. If you or someone you know are interested in buying a home, selling a home, or investing in real estate; I am here to help.

~Ryan Lynch

Are you thinking about selling your home? Here are two very simple numbers to look at that are saying it is a great time to sell:

Number of Active Homes on the Market (As of 5/16/2017): 3006

Number of Homes that are Currently Under Contract (As of 5/16/2017): 3056

This is insanity!!! Right now there are more homes under contract then there are homes for sale. To put that in perspective, the average number of days that a house is under contract is 30-45 days. 30 is the norm. That means that at least half of those homes have sold in the last 30 days (1564 have sold in the last 30 days to be exact). Buyers are out and they are hungry.

Here is why you should use a Realtor: right now people are selling their homes for sale by owner because they think they will save the realtor fees. I have repeatedly talked to for sale by owners in the $150,000 to $250,000 range in the last month whose house sold for more than $20,000 less than their neighbor who used a realtor. Here is some simple math:

Realtor fees: 6%-7%
Realtor fees on a $250,000 property: $15,000 to $17,500

If you had sold using a realtor that means that you would have made at least $2,500 more than you would selling by yourself. ($20,000 minus $17,500) That is not to mention the negotiation abilities in the sale and in the inspection negotiation, let alone the protection of having someone there to guide you through the many possible landmines that can show up in a real estate deal.

Get your house on the market. Use me! You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com.

~Ryan Lynch

I have had several people come to me because they were thinking about going For Sale By Owner (FSBO) and they wanted a second opinion. They have all been very happy that they did. The reason for this is dealing with a mass market instead of a segmented market. Please allow me to explain.

Right now I coach my sellers to tell absolutely no one that they are selling their home. That seems very counter intuitive. The reason is that right now there are far more buyers out than there are houses for them to buy. Houses are getting multiple offers, and buyers that are offering above list price are still missing out on getting the deal. So if you put your house up For Sale By Owner, and one of those buyers notices your sign, there is a good chance that you are going to get your house under contract. The problem is that all of the other buyers who would have been interested in your property never get a chance to compete against this buyer. You leave money on the table.

On top of that, all of this is just step one. Negotiating the inspection addendum, dealing with all of the issues that can and will come up in this emotional time, and things that you would not believe happen in a real estate transaction, make leaving money on the table a minor issue in some instances.

My advice is to hire someone who knows what they are doing. I have already spent more on my education and training to be a realtor than I spent on four years of college. Call me. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. Let me help!

~Ryan Lynch

I have already written about how horrible Zillow is at pricing your home. Now you should know about how bad Zillow is at telling you what homes are for sale when you are buying a home. I am working with a lot of buyers right now. At least a few times a week I am asked about a house that someone saw on Zillow. Zillow is incredibly bad at telling anyone what is currently on the market. I can only think of one time in 2017 so far where a client has sent me a listing on Zillow that was actually still for sale. Many times I am sent houses that were sold in 2015. Zillow lists houses as pre-foreclosure, which means absolutely nothing. 99% of the time, these houses are not for sale.

On top of that, Zillow feeds off of local Multiple Listing Services. The only thing is that Zillow is typically 1-3 days behind the Multiple Listing Service. Right now, the houses that are the most popular and that you are most likely to want are highly unlikely to be on the market for more than 24 hours. I have already had several of my listings sold before they ever even hit Zillow in 2017.

What this means to you is that working with me gets you one very important advantage over Zillow: a professional who knows what they are doing and knows what is going on in the market. Frankly, do you think Zillow cares about what is happening in Central Iowa? This is only one very basic part of what I do. A very simple solution to this is that I can set you up with your own website that is tied directly to the Multiple Listing Service. Most of the time I work as a profiler for my clients, where I look through every listing that matches their criteria and only show them the ones that really match their criteria, because a computer can only do so much. Some clients just want an uninterrupted feed, and I can do that too. On top of that they get my experience with negotiations, pricing, and simply being a 3rd party who can help them stay safe instead of impulsive.

On top of all of that, the services of a realtor for a buyer ARE FREE!!!

Here are your options:

Zillow will give you houses that are not even for sale for free.

Ryan will give you direct access to houses the second they hit the market, all of his experience and training, and I am pretty fun to be out and about looking at houses with if I do say so myself (for free!).

That choice should be obvious! You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I would love to help you and anyone you know. I love this work and I love helping people. Let me help you.

~Ryan Lynch

I am seeing a few things now that I think can really inform people who are not in real estate every day. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you are thinking about buying or selling in 2017.

For Sellers:

1. I am going into listing after listing looking at huge Seller’s Markets. It is a Seller’s Market when there is less than 4 months of inventory in the market. (Here is an explanation of market inventory.) As of March 20th, the market inventory for the entire Des Moines Area Assocation of Realtors is at an average of 2.1 months. I was at a listing presentation this morning where they had 0.87 months of inventory.

2. There are a lot of buyers out there! For a simple explanation of that, as of today (March 22nd, 2017) there are 2,908 active houses for sale in the Multiple Listing Service. There are currently 2,348 houses pending. This means that there is almost 81% as many houses under contract to sell as there are houses for sale. To put that in perspective, the average house is only pending for 30-45 days.

What this means for sellers is that right now there is a lot of pent up demand for houses, and very little competition when you actually put your house on the market. Getting a professional who can make sure that you are hitting the market priced well and ready to sell means that you will.

For Buyers:

1. Looking at point number two up there, things are moving incredibly quick. The average days on market for those 2,348 houses that are pending is 55. The average for 2016 was 102. (My average was 40.)

2. Also looking at point number two up there, that means that between active and pending houses for sale there is currently 5,256. Historically normal market levels are around 5,000. We have normal market sales. We broke records for houses sold in 2016. There is a lot of inventory out there, it is just moving very quickly.

3. Interest rates are going up. I am not saying this to scare you. Even if interest rates were to raise a full 1% this year (very doubtful) we are still at historically low interest rates. That said, every 0.25% interest rate bump means that you can now afford less house.

What this means for buyers is that you have to be ready and able to move quickly. If you are not directly plugged into the market with reliable data (I am constantly getting buyers asking me about houses on Zillow that sold two years ago.) you are going to miss a lot of good houses. My last listing sold before it even hit Zillow, Trulia, and the like. And it took a whole two days to sell. You need help to make sure you are seeing what is available, and that you are in the best position to make the best offer when you find what you are looking for.

Right now the market is incredibly on. I want to help you take full advantage of that fact. You can reach me at RyanLynch@KW.com or 515.639.0047. Let me know how I can help!

~Ryan Lynch

Here is a great, little-known tip. If you have mortgage insurance, you are paying to protect the bank. Mortgage insurance on a loan does absolutely nothing for you as the consumer, except make it easier for you to get a mortgage since it gives the bank less risk. If you have been in your house for at least three years, and you have mortgage insurance, call your bank and ask them to reassess how much you are paying for mortgage insurance. Depending on where you are with the value of your home and the amount of your mortgage, you should easily be able to get your mortgage insurance payment reduced.

It is important to note that you have to have had your mortgage for at least three years. The day that you hit three years though, you should make this call.

Why is this so great now? Because on average housing values have gone up 5% each year for the last three years. So without even taking into account compounding, there is a good chance that your mortgage is 15% less than your current home value. That means that if you put 5% down, you might even be able to get rid of mortgage insurance all together. 5% down plus 15% growth gets you the 80% loan to value that means you no longer need mortgage insurance. Even if you are only at 90% loan to value and previously you were at 97%, your payment will go down.

Don’t pay for something that gives you nothing. Reduce your mortgage with a phone call. (There could be a cost incurred from this if they want to do a new appraisal. The cost savings will kick in after a few months of your reduced payment.)

If you, or someone you know is looking to buy a home, sell a home, or invest in real estate, I would love to help. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. Have a great week!

~Ryan Lynch