865 Real Estate

East Tennessee Real Estate & Neighborhood Source

UNDER CONTRACT! Cute & Convenient in Clinton, TN – Only $115,000!

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UNDER CONTRACT IN 1 DAY WITH MULTIPLE OFFERS! Home for sale located at 301 Edgewood Avenue, Clinton, TN 37716. Offered at $115,000! The super convenient location is walking distance to downtown Clinton. This dollhouse features three bedrooms, one bath, hardwood floors, an updated kitchen with stainless steel appliances, and a flat, fenced backyard with two storage buildings. This would be a wonderful home for a first time home buyer as it has been well maintained, has a newer HVAC, and is also eligible for 100% financing! Be sure to watch the LIVE video tour that walks you through the home. Schedule your showing today as this super cute home is sure to sell fast!

For more information or to schedule a private showing contact Troy Stavros with CornerStone Realty Associates at 865-999-0925 directly or through the office at 888-388-DOOR xt.707.
This listing is no longer available.

How Fast Can You Save For A Downpayment? You Might Be Surprised!

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How Quickly Can You Save Your Down Payment? | MyKCM

Saving for a down payment is often the biggest hurdle for a first-time homebuyer. Depending on where you live, median income, median rents, and home prices all vary. So, we set out to find out how long it would take to save for a down payment in each state.

Using data from HUD, Census and Apartment List, we determined how long it would take, nationwide, for a first-time buyer to save enough money for a down payment on their dream home. There is a long-standing ‘rule’ that a household should not pay more than 28% of their income on their monthly housing expense.

By determining the percentage of income spent renting in each state, and the amount needed for a 10% down payment, we were able to establish how long (in years) it would take for an average resident to save enough money to buy a home of their own.

According to the data, residents in Kansas can save for a down payment the quickest, doing so in just over 1 year (1.12). Below is a map that was created using the data for each state:

How Quickly Can You Save Your Down Payment? | MyKCM

What if you only needed to save 3%?

What if you were able to take advantage of one of Freddie Mac’s or Fannie Mae’s 3%-down programs? Suddenly, saving for a down payment no longer takes 2 to 5 years, but becomes possible in less than a year in most states, as shown on the map below.

How Quickly Can You Save Your Down Payment? | MyKCM

Bottom Line

Whether you have just begun to save for a down payment or have been saving for years, you may be closer to your dream home than you think! Let’s get together to help you evaluate your ability to buy today.  Call Troy Stavros with CornerStone Realty Associates at 865-999-0925

Thinking About Buying A Home This Year? Here’s What To Keep An Eye On.

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Excited About Buying A Home This Year? Here's What to Watch | MyKCM

As we kick off the new year, many families have made resolutions to enter the housing market in 2019. Whether you are thinking of finally ditching your landlord and buying your first home or selling your starter house to move into your forever home, there are two pieces of the real estate puzzle you need to watch carefully: interest rates & inventory.

Interest Rates

Mortgage interest rates had been on the rise for much of 2018, but they made a welcome reversal at the end of the year. According to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, rates climbed to 4.94% in November before falling to 4.62% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage last week. Despite the recent drop, interest rates are projected to reach 5% in 2019.

The interest rate you secure when buying a home not only greatly impacts your monthly housing costs, but also impacts your purchasing power.

Purchasing power, simply put, is the amount of home you can afford to buy for the budget you have available to spend. As rates increase, the price of the house you can afford to buy will decrease if you plan to stay within a certain monthly housing budget.

The chart below shows the impact that rising interest rates would have if you planned to purchase a $400,000 home while keeping your principal and interest payments between $2,020-$2,050 a month.

Excited About Buying A Home This Year? Here's What to Watch | MyKCM

With each quarter of a percent increase in interest rate, the value of the home you can afford decreases by 2.5% (in this example, $10,000).

Inventory

A ‘normal’ real estate market requires there to be a 6-month supply of homes for sale in order for prices to increase only with inflation. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), listing inventory is currently at a 3.9-month supply (still well below the 6-months needed), which has put upward pressure on home prices. Home prices have increased year-over-year for the last 81 straight months.

The inventory of homes for sale in the real estate market had been on a steady decline and experienced year-over-year drops for 36 straight months (from July 2015 to May 2018), but we are starting to see a shift in inventory over the last six months.

The chart below shows the change in housing supply over the last 12 months compared to the previous 12 months. As you can see, since June, inventory levels have started to increase as compared to the same time last year.

Excited About Buying A Home This Year? Here's What to Watch | MyKCM

This is a trend to watch as we move further into the new year. If we continue to see an increase in homes for sale, we could start moving further away from a seller’s market and closer to a normal market.

Bottom Line

If you are planning to enter the housing market, either as a buyer or a seller, let’s get together to discuss the changes in mortgage interest rates and inventory and what they could mean for you.

$15,000 for First Time Home Buyers in Knoxville, TN!

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$15,000 for FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS in Knoxville!! WATCH AND LEARN. Interested in a link to search in the specific Knoxville zip codes where this program is available? Shoot me your email and I’ll be happy to set you up! Troy Stavros, Gables & Gates, REALTORS 865-777-9191

How To Get The Best Deal When Buying A Home In Knoxville

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best deal on buying a knoxville homeA recent article on the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch website discussed housing affordability and how home buyers can get the best deal when buying a new home.  The article’s summary of the national market conditions showed that home prices will continue trending higher this year, but not as fast as 2013.  Mortgage rates are also expected to rise, but estimates say they will do so gradually.  Because of these two factors, home’s will be somewhat less affordable.

It is with these facts in mind that I echo these 6 pieces of advice for getting a better deal when buying a home in Knoxville.

  1. The sooner you buy the better.  Simple logic tells us that if both Knoxville home prices and mortgage interest rates are rising, then it’s better to buy sooner rather than later to take advantage of lower prices and lower interest rates.
  2. Find yourself an expert and work with them.  The last thing I want to do is bash other real estate agents, but just like in all professions, not everyone is created equal.  Find an agent who is intimately familiar with the area where you want to buy your next home, who is on top of market trends, and who has proven themselves as a good negotiator.
  3. Know the local home market.  Continuing off the advice in #2, a good agent will be able to look at a home’s price and tell you if it’s priced above, below, or at market value.  This is key in knowing not only what to offer, but how fast you need to offer.  Homes in the current Knoxville home market that are priced below market value are selling very fast, so if you delay in making an offer, chances are pretty good you will lose out to another interested party.  If your agent isn’t armed with the information to educate you, then you may lose out on a home you love.
  4. Get your financing in order.  As a Knoxville home buyer or a buyer anywhere for that matter, it is super important to understand how much house you can afford.  This dollar amount may or may not be what the mortgage broker says you can qualify for.  Think seriously about how much you are comfortable paying a month (they key term there is comfortable, don’t stretch yourself too thin).  Having a ceiling price can really help when you start getting emotional during negotiations and are tempted to offer more than you should.
  5. Make yourself attractive to sellers.  First and foremost a seller wants to know that you can afford to buy their home, so getting pre-approved by a lender and including a pre-approval letter with your offer is key.  Also keeping the number of contingencies in your offer to a minimum is important.  Oftentimes the highest price isn’t the most important thing to a seller.  When wearing my listing agent hat, I tell me sellers to take into account which offer has the highest probability of closing, as well as which has an attractive offer price. If an offer can’t close, it doesn’t matter how good the offer price is.
  6. Expand your geographic search area.  Depending on where you are looking for your home, sometimes you can get more for your money if you expand your search area a bit.  I’m not talking about moving to a different county (although that is an option), but a subtle zipcode change can make a big difference in pricing.  If you are trying to stay within a certain school district, there may be different pockets within that search area which may offer more house for the money.  Being flexible on location can not only save you money, but can open up additional options and perhaps get you a better overall home.

I’d love to sit down and talk to you about the Knoxville home market.  Contact me, Troy Stavros to discuss your goals in buying a home in Knoxville.

CLICK HERE to read the complete source article at MarketWatch.com.