March 8, 2023 Mortgage rates have moved quickly from ~6% to ~7% over the past 30 days: Mortgage Rates Head Back Over 7% After Powell Testimony 30 Yr. Fixed: 7.03% (+0.04% ▲) | 15 Yr. Fixed: 6.48% (+0.03% ▲) | https://t.co/hpyoRNAipg — Mortgage News Daily (@mortgagenewsmnd) March 7, 2023 As would make sense, new mortgage applications are down a staggering 42.3% year over year. Continue Reading
Buyer 101
Top Reasons to “Shop Small” for your Real Estate Agent
Real estate agents and brokerages come in all shapes and sizes from individual proprietors, small neighborhood brokers, to larger multi-office local brokerages, to national big box franchises. At Abode Real Estate, we are a top-performing, locally-owned, neighborhood boutique brokerage, and although we are biased, we believe that enables us to deliver the best quality and price, we believe Continue Reading
Top 5 Tips for First Time Home Buyers
Thinking of buying your first home? Below are our top five tips for first time home buyers to help prepare you for success while navigating the Denver metro area’s competitive real estate market. Partner with an established agent. A seasoned real estate agent can help you navigate the process, enable you a better chance to win in a competitive situation, and save you Continue Reading
House Hacking 101
House Hacking has become a popular term lately in the Real Estate Investing Community and also another community known as FIRE, Financial Independence and Early Retirement. In fact, as it comes to FIRE, developing and utilizing hacks for just about everything is a must and is one of the key tenets to reaching FIRE. This post will focus on the hacking aspect of Real Estate, and in Continue Reading
Can You Time the Market?
Can you Time the Market? A common question heard on so many news outlets, websites, etc. is if a buyer can time the Real Estate market, like you might when you are buying a stock. Some people say "No" you cannot time the market. They claim that you buy when the time is right for you, and it's a long term investment. They say timing doesn't matter, not to think about it. Continue Reading
First Time Homebuyer FAQ
We have a special Video Blog today from Caroline and lender partner Michelle Oddo at Nova Homeloans. It can be daunting for a first time homebuyer to know where to start in the process of buying a property. Caroline covers some of the most common questions in this video blog including: How to get started? What is the first step? Do I need 20% down for a mortgage? Continue Reading
No, Your Home Doesn’t Make a Good Rental
No, You're Home Doesn't Make a Good Rental Property Real Estate in Denver and in Colorado is booming, and it's been that way for a while now, probably going on 7-8 years. Many people who have bought homes during the past 7-8 years who have seen their home go up in value (on paper) may be thinking to themselves, well, maybe I should buy another home and rent out my current Continue Reading
Making Offers Without Touring Homes
Blind Offering According to a new study by Redfin, nearly 33% of Denver homebuyers who purchased their homes during the time period of the study (Nov+Dec 2017) made "Blind Offers" without seeing or touring the home. With all due respect, I'm calling Bullsh*t on this one. First off, 33% is literally 1 in every 3 buyers in their survey of over 1,500 respondents, and Redfin puts the Continue Reading
Is Buying A Home a Good Investment?
Real Estate is a fantastic investment, but you may be surprised to hear a realtor say that your home, i.e. your primary residence typically does not make for a good investment. What do I mean by that? Well, first let's define investment. investment: the outlay of money usually for income or profit. Real estate makes for a great investment when it is an income-producing Continue Reading
Minimalism and Home Ownership
Have you ever listened to the podcast The Minimalists? I am a huge fan of the Minimalists and their views on most things. Minimalism is really just a state of mind and can be applied to so many facets of one's life. It doesn't have to encompass living like a monk with zero possessions, or not driving a car, or only eating a vegan diet, it can mean many different things to Continue Reading
Leverage and Real Estate
Leverage is a very powerful concept and tool in Real Estate, and makes Real property one of the best, if not best, places to invest your money. The concept of leverage is relatively simple: You use other peoples' money to control an asset that appreciates in value. You bring some equity to the purchase (20% is the magic number) and then the bank brings the remaining 80%. Continue Reading
Struggling for that Down Payment?
Millennials are not buying homes at anywhere near the rate of previous generations, at the same point in their lives (i.e. Millennials in their 20's vs Boomers in their 20's, or even Gen X in their 20's for instance). Some of this might be changing preferences. Renting is easy and it gives you total flexibility. Move to a different neighborhood or city every year if you Continue Reading
Understanding Mortgage Estimates
The first step in buying a home is contacting a mortgage professional, who will ask you to fill out a mortgage application. This is the initial step and all that is required for a pre-qualification. For instance, you will provide information about your job, your other debt obligations like automobiles and student loans, and the lender will pull a hard credit check. From there Continue Reading
Is It Better to Rent or Buy?
Should you Buy or Rent right now in Denver? Say you are like a lot of people, millennial or young urbanite, living in Denver, and you’ve been paying through the nose for a rental for a few years, and you want your own little slice of the Mile High. Well, you’ve probably asked yourself this question: Is it more cost effective to buy or rent right now in Denver? As rents Continue Reading
