Either Way, You’re Still Paying a Mortgage

There are some people that have not purchased a home because they are uncomfortable taking on the obligation of a mortgage. Everyone should realize that, unless you are living with our parents rent free, you are paying a mortgage – either your mortgage or your landlord’s.
As a recent paper from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University explains:
“Households must consume housing whether they own or rent. Not even accounting for more favorable tax treatment of owning, homeowners pay debt service to pay down their own principal while households that rent pay down the principal of a landlord plus a rate of return. That’s yet another reason owning often does—as Americans intuit—end up making more financial sense than renting.”
Also, if you purchase with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, your ‘housing expense’ is locked in over the thirty years for the most part. If you rent, the one guarantee you will have is that your rent will increase over that same thirty year time period.
Whether you are looking for a primary residence for the first time or are considering a vacation home on the shore, owning might make more sense than renting since prices and interest rates are still at bargain prices.

Planning to Sell your Property

How to Protect Your Home From Burglary

How can you protect your most important investment.

Preparing Your Home To Sell

De-Personalize.
Pack up those personal photographs and family heirlooms. Buyers can’t see past personal artifacts, and you don’t want them to be
distracted. You want buyers to imagine their own photos on the walls, and they can’t do that if yours are there! You don’t want to
make any buyer ask, “I wonder what kind of people live in this home?” You want buyers to say, “I can see myself living here.”
Rearrange Bedroom Closets and Kitchen Cabinets.

Buyers will open closet and cabinet doors. Think of the message it sends if items fall out! Now imagine what a buyer believes
about you if she sees everything organized. It says you probably take good care of the rest of the house as well.
Remove/Replace Favorite Items.
If you want to take window coverings, built-in appliances or fixtures with you, remove them now. If the chandelier in the dining
room once belonged to your great grandmother, take it down. If a buyer never sees it, she won’t want it. Once you tell a buyer she
can’t have an item, she will covet it, and it could blow your deal. Pack those items and replace them, if necessary.
Rent a Storage Unit.

Almost every home shows better with less furniture. Remove pieces of furniture that block or hamper paths and walkways and
put them in storage. Since your bookcases are now empty, store them. Remove extra leaves from your dining room table to make
the room appear larger. Leave just enough furniture in each room to showcase the room’s purpose and plenty of room to move
around. You don’t want buyers scratching their heads and saying, “What is this room used for?”

Is Frisco a Great City for Home Owners To Invest

H_ _ _ Yes!

While inventory is still low, the market is extremely healthy up to 400K, with a supply and demand below 3/1. You can also see how over the last 13 months, sellers have gained $3,815 a month in Frisco on average. That’s $1500 a month better than our neighboring city of McKinney, and $500 a month better than Plano. I have attached a copy of this report that you can customize to send to your database or use as a blog subject or post on Facebook for your followers.

The data that follow comes directly from NETRIS and represents the month of December 2013.