The Savvy Synopsis

Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or have been out of the loop lately when it comes to buying or selling a home, you may be wondering about a few of these homebuyer trends. Are they really true or just a rumor? We ask Angie to share what she has seen lately and what she hasn’t when it comes to buying and selling a home.  

As a realtor, Angie has seen just about everything. On today’s episode of the Savvy Realtor podcast, we play a game of “I see it or I don’t” to talk through typical scenarios and dilemmas when it comes to homebuying to find out how prevalent they may actually be.

Will a bad credit score prevent someone from buying a home? Or is that a hurdle that a potential homebuyer can overcome? (Hint: Finding a lender to give you some of that information may help prepare yourself for what your options may be.) 

When it comes to homebuying preference, are split-level homes making a comeback? What about brand-new homes, are those better than an older home? Then as far as location, are people aiming more toward downtown or starting to look more for smaller towns with a commute? All of that may come down to personal preference, but Angie weighs in on what’s becoming a more popular decision.

Are those home value estimates online to be trusted? Remember that looking online at a third-party website about the estimated value of your home is based on a computer algorithm. It doesn’t factor in the updates or style, just the square footage, age, and relative area. Sometimes it’s close, sometimes above, and sometimes under that rate but a real estate professional is the best way to find out what the rate should be and help you get what it’s worth.

What about those investor companies that buy and sell homes--is that too good to be true? Or how about selling your home by owner? What is going to give you the best value when buying or selling your home?

Listen to the full episode or click on the timestamps below to find out which of these are seen in today’s real estate market in the Triangle:

0:38 - See it or don’t: A bad credit score keeps someone from buying a home.

3:01 - See it or don’t: Split-level homes are making a comeback.  

3:52 - See it or don’t: My home is worth more than online estimates.

6:31 - See it or don’t: I want a brand-new home.

7:21 - See it or don’t: Would rather live in a small town outside of the city and commute.

8:19 - See it or don’t: Selling my home to an investor company is too good to be true.

10:08 - See it or don’t: Going to save on commissions and sell my house on my own.

Get In Touch:

• Find out the value of your home! Click Here!
• Get answers questions on home inspections. Click Here!

Subscribe:

Apple Podcasts  -  Google Podcasts  -  Spotify  -  Stitcher

The Host:

Angie Cole - Contact - Call: 919-538-6477

Show Transcription:

Note: This is an automated transcription. Please forgive the robots as they tend to make some (a lot of) mistakes...

Speaker 1: (00:02)
It's time for the savvy real tour podcast. I'm Walter Storholt alongside Angie Cole, the owner and broker in charge of acole Realty serving you throughout the triangle, teaching you about the ins and outs when it comes to buying or selling a home. You can find the team online by going to eight Cole realty.com that's a C O L E realty.com or by calling (919) 578-3128 that's (919) 578-3128 and now it's time for one of the top real tours in the triangle. Angie Cole and the savvy real tour podcast. Andrew, we're going to play a game of I see it or I don't. I'll throw out some real estate scenarios at you. You let us know if you've seen these things pretty frequently, if they're common or nah, not really. You don't see these things very often at all. Here's the first scenario. Scenario number one, a bad credit score is keeping me from buying a house, Angie, because I can't qualify for reasonable interest rates. How often does that truly a barrier for folks?

Speaker 2: (01:03)
It is. Um, I, I know we had a seller who was ready to make an offer on a home and after we connected her with one of our preferred lenders, you know, very quickly he said, Oh no, she stopped kind of paying her her credit card bill, um, several months ago and her credit is now shot. And so it's not necessarily because of the bad credit you get, you can't get a reasonable interest rate, but without good enough credit you just can't even qualify. So yes, bad credit can also affect the interest rate that you receive. But if your credit's bad enough, you won't even be able to get the financing you need. Um, it has, you know, there's minimum requirements for your credit score in order to get that approval.

Speaker 1: (01:41)
So it's not all just about the interest rates. Sometimes just about qualifying in the first place. There's sort of two levels there. Right,

Speaker 2: (01:47)
exactly. So it doesn't mean, you know, Hey, I can have any credit score, but maybe just my interest rate will be high or it doesn't work that way. There is a bare minimum for different loan programs. Every loan programs a little bit different. But you know, I would say once you're below 600 it's definitely touch and go. Some people can not get qualified if they're below a 600 and remember the credit scores when it comes to lending is a little bit different. So a lender looks at your middle score, it's not an average of your three scores is just your middle score. So, so you have a 300 a 700 and 800 they take the 700 score. Okay. I wouldn't imagine they're usually that far off from one another. Right? Yeah, strongly great. But um, just remember too though, if you had, right, but you know, maybe you have like a a five 99, you know, a six 15 and then a 700 they would take the six 15. Right. Um, yeah

Speaker 1: (02:42)
I bet that's a common misnomer cause I, if, if I were guessing, I would say it would be an average of the three, not just the middle one. So that can definitely happen.

Speaker 2: (02:51)
I think most they would think that it's going to be the average or maybe they'll take my best score. No, unfortunately not as the middle score. In an ideal world. Yeah. That'd one. Just take your best

Speaker 1: (03:00)
one. Yeah, exactly. All right. Here's another scenario for you. Um, Hey Angie split-level homes are making a comeback.

Speaker 2: (03:07)
Yeah. Right? Yeah. 100% is, especially in just in our, in the Raleigh area, we have quite a few split levels, um, in more older established neighborhoods. You know, those, a lot of those were built what in the 70s? Eighties. Yeah. I'm seeing a lot of them though, where they're being flipped and so, you know, someone's coming in and they just, you know, they get the kitchen, you know, they just kind of redo the flooring. So of course it still has the same design and layout, but they're just giving them uplift and making them cutesy and new and you know, reenlisting them. So, you know, some people love them, others don't. But I, I see them presale sale all the time.

Speaker 1: (03:47)
Yeah. Okay. Well, very cool. So everything that makes it come back split levels, it's their turn. Another scenario for ya, we're playing, I see it or I don't. Does Angie see these scenarios or not really here in the area? Uh, I think my home is worth a lot more than online estimates. Angie, because everyone around me is getting into a bidding war.

Speaker 2: (04:07)
Do you have people express that phone to you? Oh yes. Oh yes. You know the, the well known area to look as always on Zillow and it's called the Zestimate. Right. But you need to remember that whenever you're looking online at that so-called Zestimate. Also other third party websites like realtor.com Trulia, you know Redfin, they all have a, an estimate. They might just have different names for them, you know, but those are just algorithms. Okay. It's a computer base algorithm and remember that the computer has absolutely no idea of the condition of that overall home. It's upgrades, you know, its style, the cleanliness of it. If there's a major highway in the backyard of the home, you know, it's just strictly going off of square footage, age, you know. And then where are they sold and within the same kind of area. So it's really tough to focus on that online value for your home because there's no way to confirm that that's accurate in any way. Now, sometimes I've seen that it's been close. Sometimes I've seen, we've been above and sometimes we've been under. So in order to get an idea of truly what your home is worth, you definitely need to make sure they get a real estate professional to share comparables with you.

Speaker 1: (05:19)
Yeah, I think it's a really good one to, uh, always remember a, is to find out that a in-person view of your home and don't just rely on those online estimates before you get too excited about, you know, what your price is going to be or before you get offended. Kind of in that scenario like, Hey, why is mine such that when everybody else is getting into bidding Wars around? Yeah,

Speaker 2: (05:40)
yeah. I've, I've had been the, the whoo like praises to Angie because she came in with a much higher number versus what they expected for it to be, you know, based online. So remember when we're sharing comparables with you, we are looking at, you know, similar square footage, similar age, similar style. We look in the past year of closed sales, um, within the area of your home. And then from there, you know, I look on paper is far as where the numbers lie, but then I dig deeper and I go through the pictures. I go through the remarks, I look to CFO, well this home had a brand new roof and a brand new HVAC also completely renovated while this other one. Everything's original, you know, so I am digging deeper and not just looking at more of the algorithms like the online sites do, you know, we dig deeper and further than that to make sure that we are pricing your home correctly.

Speaker 1: (06:30)
Yeah, that's a great point Angie. Another one here. A scenario, I want a brand new home. Even when only five years old, I'd consider way too dated.

Speaker 2: (06:38)
That could go either way. You know, I, I see it sometimes. Other times I don't, you know, I would say what most buyers focus on would be if things have been updated or improved. So, you know, oftentimes we hear, well I'm completely fine with an older home as long as I know that the HVAC, the water heater, those have been updated recently or maybe the kitchen, they've added granite and stainless steel appliances. So I would say that I, you know, see that one all the time. Some people know, Hey, I must have a brand new home. But I feel like most buyers are pretty open to age as long as the home has been updated and well-maintained.

Speaker 1: (07:15)
Yeah. So it's, it's more, it needs to feel new. Not necessarily be new. I 100%. Yeah. Okay. Uh, how about this one? I'd rather live in a smaller town outside the main city and commute to work or are you seeing the trend the other direction?

Speaker 2: (07:29)
I'm actually seeing that trend a lot. Um, I'm seeing a lot more people being open to move in a little bit more to, you know, smaller town feels, you know, rural areas in order to get more bang for the buck so-called, you know, when you move out a little bit further away from the city, the downtown areas, you typically can get a larger home, a newer home, more land for the same price that you would get a home with no land at all, you know, a much older home, a smaller home within the city. So I do tend to find that people are open to driving a little bit more, um, a longer commute to get to work, you know, in order to get the home that they prefer.

Speaker 1: (08:06)
Yeah, that's a, I think that's one that's probably gonna continue to go that direction. We've talked about before, like, uh, with the, you know, cars, self driving cars would lend itself to that trend continuing and that sort of thing. So very interesting. Selling my house to open door isn't too good to be true.

Speaker 2: (08:23)
Um, and I might be reading this wrong. They're saying

Speaker 1: (08:26)
it is, it is not too good to be true.

Speaker 2: (08:28)
It is not too. Okay. It's kind of like a double negative here, right? Cause I was like, okay, how am I responding to this? Um,

Speaker 1: (08:34)
isn't, ain't not.

Speaker 2: (08:36)
I know, I know it was throwing me off there. I've seen some seller sell their home to open door or maybe to Zillow and get a pretty good value for their home. Most of the time though, I see the opposite. You know, you have to remember that whenever these companies come in, they are investors and their job and their goal is to make money. Right? And so in order to make money, that means that they will be offering you a lower than market value price. They then can really hammer you down whenever it's during the due diligence period and they're looking or doing their inspections on the home, they start nickeling and diamond they are. And so the end result almost always, you will net a lot more selling with a real estate agent doing more of a standard real estate sale versus selling to one of these investor companies like open door.

Speaker 1: (09:25)
Yeah. So it's, it's more the uh, eh, the exception more than the rule that it's going to kind of be this, you know, all it's cracked up to be sort of

Speaker 2: (09:33)
right. Right now do I, do I hear people saying that, you know, isn't it too good to be true, you know? Well, I hear people say both ways, but a lot of times it can be a surprise once they get through the process that they finally realize, Oh, maybe I should have considered doing, you know, a listing, you know, with a real estate agent versus, you know, trying to kind of shortcut it, I guess the process. And because a lot of times they feel like maybe the process will be easier if I just sell it to open door. I don't have to worry about showings, but you know, is it worth leaving 10 to $15,000 on the table? You know, maybe for some it is, but I don't think for most.

Speaker 1: (10:07)
Yeah, that's a great point. All right. Last but not least, the Angie, I see it or I don't. If you're just joining us, that's the game we're playing here on the savvy real tour. I'm throwing out scenarios about real estate, seeing what Angie thinks about these. Does she see them often? What about somebody that comes into you and says, I'm going to save a lot on commissions and sell my house on my own. Cause it can't be that hard. Right?

Speaker 2: (10:27)
Oh I see this, I do. But I oftentimes see these exact same people that come back, you know, few months later and say, I should've listened to you. I should have just listed with you in the first place because this was the worst experience ever trying to do a for sale by owner. You know, remember that when you're doing a for sale by owner, you're missing so many different marketing avenues, which marketing, you know, the most amount of marketing is going to drive you the most traffic to your home, which will get you an offer a lot quicker and get you a higher price point. So, although yes, you might not be paying on as many commissions, but in the long run, I bet you you will get a much lower price point. So typically it either evens out or the real estate professional will make you a lot more money. Almost always a for sale by owner route is not the right way to go, just because of all the, you know, nuances that come with selling a home, understanding the process and just not getting yourself the most exposure. To get yourself top dollar,

Speaker 1: (11:23)
you've been listening to the savvy real tour podcast. I'm Walter store Holt alongside Angie Cole. She's the owner and broker in charge of Aiko Realty here in the triangle. And if you have questions for Angie, we invite you to go online to a Cole realty.com listen to past podcast episodes on the website, read the blog and all the great information, including the option to find a home right there on the website. That's a Cole realty.com and you can also call Angie with your questions. (919) 578-3128