mybrokerdiana's Blog: Roseburg Real Estate

     We are now looking back on a wonderful but hot summer. If you have been using that time to look for your new home and are a first time buyer, I want to put some urgency into that search for you. Move quickly and move now on your decision to buy. Why?

   I don’t know what it has been like in other parts of the country but in Douglas County, OR. closing times have gotten a little hinky.  Thirty days used to be a normal time for escrow to close. Now it seems that the “new normal” is about sixty days. Loan processing has really become painstaking, even for people with high credit scores. I have heard jokes in the past that if you were a “warm body that could still breathe on a mirror” that’s all you needed to qualify for a loan. To qualify for a loan in…

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            In the past twenty-four hours, I have met three potential sellers who all told me the same thing. They are in love with their house and don’t want to sell it yet. One person’s spouse was transferring to a new job here in Roseburg, Oregon.  They NEEDED to move…NOW!  This couple still hadn’t talked to a Realtor in their county about listing their house! Yet here they were looking for their new home with desperation in their voices; they needed to find something quick. This sounds a little loopy, but I do understand. It’s your home after all, that loving place where kids and pets gleefully run amok.  That place where you put in lots of sweat equity to make it reflect who you are and what your style is. Oh, that bastion of memories!  OK, now snap…

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            George Washington is starting to look as gaunt as Don Knotts. Some of you younger folk may not even know who that was. (Knotts played Deputy Barney Fife on the “Andy Griffith Show.”) Yes, the one dollar bill is pretty pathetic and puny these days. It looks like George will finally get some help from Dr. Ben Bernanke---perhaps the sooner the better.  Maybe that sounds rather oxymoronic for a realtor to say, but look at our economy, four dollars for a dozen eggs, two dollars a pound for apples, etc. Not to mention gas prices…..

            For the past two months I was amazed at the elastic interest rates and how they sprang back and forth between the five percent and low six percent range on a daily basis. The wise buyer needed to make an… Read Full Post

 

Rest in peace, o’ traditional twenty per cent down payment. Your days of relevance are over in this new millennium. Most people today would think you were loopy and run for the door if you said they needed 20% down to finance a home.  There are so many buyer’s assistance programs out there that the need to have a sizable down payment to impress a financier are over. As one small example, FHA/VA loans have been the better loan of choice these past few months because their rates have been running lower than Conventional rates.  FHA/VA loans can still offer loans with minimum downs of 3% or 100% financing!             Some of that will change this summer when FHA will start adjusting their mortgage insurance premiums depending on credit score and loan to… Read Full Post

      Just one more year. That’s what I said last year about buying a new car. My car is up there in age, but it still looks great inside and out and runs well. Right now with the gas prices escalating, I think everybody is starting to FINALLY pay attention to the need to transform cars. When I research cars however, it seems there really isn’t the perfect car out there for me. 

I need: ·        Four wheel drive or AWD, I am a rural broker in Douglas County, Oregon and climb up and down lots of interesting steep hills and gravel roads with clients. It comes in handy for snow days too. ·        I need a people mover that is comfortable for all sizes. ·        Something that looks professional with lots of room for people and the sales stuff I have to… Read Full Post

 

 

Just Throw Away Your Money Forever or Buy a House               Parade Magazine had an article that caught my attention on May 4th. Written by Mike Hammer (Isn’t he that old Mickey Spillane detective hero?) it was titled, Great Reasons to Rent.   Huh? He has to be kidding, rent in a buyer’s market? I read it with eager eyes.             Since I am in an Oregon broker, I suppose I dove into this read with some cynicism, looking for holes I could punch in it. Of course I found them. But for some people, he is right. Some people are not candidates to buy a home.              His first point, Renting can save money is a little too simplistic in its reasoning. Hammer states that “You’re paying for closing fees, mortgage interest, property taxes,… Read Full Post

 

              Once a buyer or seller starts working with a Real Estate Agent as a client, they soon come to realize that agents are very handy for many things beyond selling real estate.              I found out that to really help clients, especially those from out of town, I had to have at my instant disposal, answers to just about everything a homeowner needed to know. No matter how minuscule, or far flung, I either had to know the information or how to find it for them. In other words, I needed to be a telephone directory (or web directory) on two feet. As a Roseburg, Oregon Broker, I can’t imagine that this is any different for any Realtor across the country.             What kinds of things do people need to know about?   Well, some of the… Read Full Post

 

                            Years ago, when I was a junior high school principal, people always asked me, “How can you stand working with these teenagers today?” I soon found myself becoming a public advocate for teens because the reality defied the stereotype. The fact was that five per cent or less of my school’s population were the chronic “bad kids” in the school. That meant that the overwhelming majority of teenagers were really good kids and they were getting a bad rap for the actions of a few of their peers.             Ok, you know where I am going with this. Yes, we have had some mercurial turns for the worse in the real estate market nationwide. Yes, in Douglas County, Oregon, we are in a buyer’s market with a large inventory to choose… Read Full Post