Assuming a Mortgage 101

It’s the little things that really matter sometimes. The cherry on top of a sundae, the light scent of gardenia on a warm spring breeze and a mortgage that’s assumable are each all about the details, and are sometimes overlooked by people who are in a hurry to get from Point A to Point B. But that assumable mortgage may make your home more competitive if you’re a seller or save you a bundle if you’re a buyer.

What is an Assumable Mortgage?

All mortgages are structured uniquely, such that the majority of any payment made before about halfway through the loan is interest (depending on your down payment and rate), so it would naturally follow that some people would want to shortcut this early period and get on to paying on the meat of the loan. The buyer would then take over the payments from the seller, without the loan changing terms at all. This is, in essence, how an assumable mortgage works. The buyer will also have to bring some amount of money to closing, either in the form of cash or a secondary mortgage loan, to compensate the seller for the remaining value not covered by the assumed loan.

Assumable mortgages can be of any variety, depending on the age of the loan, but the ones you’re most likely to see today are FHA, USDA or VA-type mortgages. To qualify, a buyer still has to meet all the same requirements that the seller had to meet in order to get their mortgage. This wasn’t always the case, but is today.

And although rates are still fairly low right now, in the 4.5 to 5 percent rage, over the next few years several rate increases are anticipated. That means that your mortgage terms themselves might be worth something when you go to sell your home. Provided your buyer can qualify for your loan and come up with the cash it takes to make the total meet your home’s value at the point of sale, you could find yourself with a more than full price offer, or even multiples, just by making it known that your loan is assumable and you’re ok with letting someone take advantage of this feature.

Why Would a Buyer Want an Assumption?

This is a bit of a trickier question, which will require a chart. Let’s say that your mortgage rate is 3 percent on a 30 year fixed note. You’ve had this loan for five years, but it’s time to move on to a bigger home, you had no idea you were going to have triplets when you chose this house! A buyer comes along when rates are at 4.75 percent and wants to assume your mortgage and pay you a total of $250,000 for your place. So far, so good.

This is what the picture looks like for the buyer:

Assuming the buyer’s first payment on the assumed note is number 61, they’ll immediately pay almost $500 of the principle down. If they had taken out their own note, totally ignoring the additional mortgage insurance and upfront mortgage insurance that an FHA would require, they’d only pay down about $400 at this same point (which is five years down the road, remember). They’d also pay almost $350 more in interest.

Keep in mind that the payment at 4.75 percent interest is also higher, but when the higher payment is paying less of the note off each month, there’s nothing about that that makes it a good financial move. If the buyer did manage to pay their note all the way off, they’ll find that they paid $68,552.79 more in interest alone by choosing to get a new loan.

Provided the additional funding required to secure this home wasn’t cost prohibitive, it just makes good sense for a buyer to want to assume a loan. Beyond the savings mapped out above, their closing fees will be considerably smaller, making the net gain even larger.

Of course, both buyer and seller should discuss this with your lender or financial planner to be sure that it’s the right decision for them and their financial pictures.

The Seller’s Side of the Assumption Equation

For a seller, the picture is a little different. Although it doesn’t cost you anything to start the assumption process, it can get ugly if a seller doesn’t know to protect themselves and a buyer ends up defaulting on their assumed loan. You must make certain that you’ve signed and received back a fully executed (all parties have signed it) copy of a release from liability form. Remember, the bank has to also agree to these terms.

Beyond that, it can be a good deal for you as the seller, too. You’ll get a big chunk of cash, you’ll be free of your mortgage so you can buy something a bit roomier or closer to work. Assumptions can be tricky to close, but the more that are closed in the coming years (and there are likely to be a few), the easier they’ll get because everyone will be on the same page.

Note: If you’re a veteran with a VA note that you’re trying to sell to a buyer who wants to assume, the mortgage will retain your entitlement. This is why it’s important to only sell with an assumption to another veteran. With another vet in the equation, the bank can exchange your entitlement for that of the new borrower, allowing you to buy again using a VA loan.

Assuming I Want to Assume, Who Do I Call?

If you’re interested in talking more about assumable loans, as a buyer or a seller, just log into your HomeKeepr community. The lenders and financial planners in our little family come highly recommended by your Realtor and they know their assumptions.

The Truth about Zillow Zestimates

Do you know how much your home is worth? No, really, do you?

Homeowners and buyers across the country often answer this question by turning to a figure known as a Zestimate, produced by Zillow.com. Zillow’s intention is to create an accurate value estimate for the over 100 million homes indexed by the site. Although it won’t give you a figure that’s right on the nose, it can provide a price range to start with during your real estate negotiation.

Wait, What’s a Zestimate?

A Zestimate is Zillow’s attempt to use algorithms and publicly available data points that influence housing prices to estimate a home’s value at any given time. While this is a good idea, in concept, it’s important for buyers and sellers to realize that there’s a bit more to predicting prices than the cold, hard facts.

Often, real estate becomes a very personal and emotional buy. Two houses with the same floor plan, but different shades of brick or different trees in the front yard can have different values to the person doing the buying. That’s really what matters. Ultimately, a home is only worth what the market will bear and what a buyer will give.

The Perception Versus the Reality of Zestimates

Zestimates became popular because outside of an appraisal or comparative market analysis generated by an experienced Realtor, it can be really hard to judge whether your home is gaining or losing value. After all, no one wants to bet on a losing horse, even if they live inside that horse and it provides them with shelter from the elements and a place to make memories (must be a Trojan horse).

Unfortunately, the Zestimate has been responsible for a great deal of confusion since Zillow started using the original algorithm in 2006. Even though the algorithm has been upgraded several times since its inception, it’s not perfect. Unfortunately, people deeply enveloped in the stressful process that is buying a house sometimes become ultra focused on the numbers that Zestimates provide, treating them more as an absolute than a flexible guide.

Because most people don’t really know what goes into valuing a home, this issue of getting married to a valuation that’s not quite on the dot isn’t new. Even before Zillow, many homeowners believed that their home was worth so many dollars due to tax assessments that were often based on outdated information, collected during the initial construction of their home and updated based on average inflation.

Why Have a Zestimate, Then?

Zestimates aren’t the most accurate way to assess the value of a home because they aren’t able to pick up on the harder to quantify items that go into determining the value of a home. They can’t tell a freshly remodeled 1960’s ranch home from one that’s still got the original shag carpet, for example. They aren’t appraisals. For many homes, though, a Zestimate will get you in the ballpark.

Zestimates work best in areas of high turnover, in neighborhoods with fairly similar homes. Because a Zestimate relies on public data like tax assessments and homeowner corrections of the basics, including the number of bathrooms and bedrooms, it can make a fine starting point for the potential home buyer or seller.

Since you don’t buy and sell real estate constantly, having an overview of the neighborhood’s stats is helpful when you do–but you have to allow for wiggle room. Just because a listed house on Maple Drive has a Zestimate of $203,000 and it’s almost identical to your house next door, it doesn’t mean you won’t get more (or less) when you go to sell.

Taking Your Zestimate to the Next Level

Zestimates can give you a very general idea about the value of your home or a home you’re considering buying, but they aren’t appraisals. The only way to know what a home’s actual value is in the moment (because this can change rapidly in some markets) is to reach out to a home pro for their formal opinion.

If you’ve reached that point where you’re ready to buy or sell a home and want a highly accurate price point to start from, contact your Realtor for a comparative market analysis. Once you have a contract in hand, a professional appraiser will take it from there and give you an exact dollar figure based on hundreds of factors that are a bit too nebulous for the technology we currently have available to reliably assess.

And hey, if you need help finding an appraiser or any other home pro that can speed your real estate transaction along, just ask your HomeKeepr family for a recommendation!

Local Market Report - Portland

Real Estate Local Market Report - Tigard

Real Estate Market LOCAL Report for Lake Oswego

Housing Trends Portland Region and Portland Region Real Estate Market Updat

Housing Trends Portland Region and Portland Region Real Estate Market Updat

6 Tips for Better Concrete Painting

Concrete has been used by humans for thousands of years, with some of the oldest examples of wells and houses made with the stuff dating back to 6500 BC. Although the ingredients have been refined over time, it’s still basically the same material that those ancient people valued so highly.

Even though concrete’s a really useful substance, it’s not particularly interesting. The endless gray of any random basement or garage is almost enough to make a person go mad. That’s probably why so many homeowners try to paint their concrete floors without considering how concrete is different from other types of building materials. Too often, they end up with the wrong materials or improper preparation, guaranteeing the coating will fail miserably.

Painting Concrete Isn’t Like Painting Your House

Concrete is a tricky substance. Unlike wood that is relatively non-porous, concrete literally breathes and wicks water constantly. This is why you’ll see older homes with miserable paint jobs on their patios, in the basement, or anywhere there’s a lot of concrete. That paint didn’t stand a chance of bonding to the concrete without a lot of help.

But your paint job will be different, that’s why you’re here! Removing old paint from a concrete slab can be a challenging job, but the end result is a glorious floor that twinkles in the sunlight. How about some tips for doing the job right?

#1. Choose concrete stain or dye. One of the main reasons that house paint peels off of concrete is because it doesn’t breathe like the concrete surface. This leads to moisture build-up below the paint, causing adherence to be lost entirely. Concrete stains and concrete dyes are different — they breathe just like the concrete. Stains are made of a blend of acrylic polymers and pigments that react chemically with the concrete surface; dyes, on the other hand, are nonreactive and color the cement when the very small particles penetrate into the surface.

#2. Epoxy garage floor paint is another option. Although it’s much more challenging to apply correctly, if you really want to “paint” the floor, an epoxy-based garage floor paint can be applied to your cleaned and prepped concrete surface. Bear in mind that epoxy takes time to dry and then has to have an additional curing period to harden properly. If you’re dealing with an interior space, you’ll also need lots of ventilation, otherwise the fumes could be your downfall.

#3. Take the time to prep the floor right. This may mean removing old paint with chemical paint remover, power washing the surface or even renting a grinder and roughing up the floor while eliminating old paint. When you’re prepping a concrete floor for painting, it should be just slightly rough, similar in texture to 120 grit sandpaper. Take your time and don’t settle for “good enough.”

#4. Always wash the bared floor thoroughly. With all that old paint gone and traces of various chemicals left behind, it’s definitely time to wash the concrete. Not only does this remove any stray material that might have been missed, you’ll ensure that no unplanned chemical reactions occur (you’re not going to blow up the house, but your paint may fail to adhere). Let it dry thoroughly, for days if possible.

#5. Test for moisture penetration. You’ve cleaned your concrete slab and you’re ready to paint! Except you’re not. You still need to check out the level of moisture penetration coming through the slab. Remember how you can’t use wall paint on concrete floors because it needs to breathe? It’s still breathing. The question now is just how much.

You can test this by covering a three foot by three foot area of the floor with heavy clear plastic sheeting. Tape it down completely and just walk away. Check in with it in a couple of days. If there’s no moisture collecting under the plastic, you’re golden. If there is, you may need to apply a masonry sealer first and retest before applying the final color (ask your paint monger what solution works best in your area).

#6. Priming is vital to success. You’ve probably painted walls and other things without applying a proper primer and it worked just fine, but we’re comparing apples to space ships here. Concrete not only is expected to take a lot harder beating than any random wall, it has all that complicated breathing going on. Skip the primer and you might as well just not do the project at all because you’ll just have to redo it in a few weeks or months.

Concrete Painting Giving You the Jitters?

It’s ok, if you’re not ready for a project like this you certainly don’t have to go it alone. Just log into your friendly HomeKeepr community and you’ll have no trouble finding a concrete contractor who can create the cement floor you’ve been dreaming about. Since they’re been recommended by your Realtor, you know they’re experienced and can be trusted. You dream up the concrete floors you want, HomeKeepr’s home pros will bring them to life.

Housing Trends Portland Region and Portland Region Real Estate Market Updat

Housing Trends Portland Region and Portland Region Real Estate Market Updat

What’s the Value of a Green Home?

Green homes are becoming a really big deal these days. Whether that means that an older home is being retrofitted with energy-saving equipment or a brand spanking new one is growing up green, it is apparently much easier to be green than we’ve been led to believe.

The Numbers Are Coming In

A long-term study of homes in the Austin-Round Rock, Texas, area found that homes built between 2008 and 2016 got a significant value boost from their efforts. Homes that held the gold standard Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification were worth, on average, eight percent more than traditionally built homes.

That might not sound like a lot, but when you consider the average new home in that market sells for $311,000, and eight percent of that is $24,888, it’s kind of a big deal. Even homes built to a more generic “green” standard saw a six percent price boost. That’s a lot of green for being green.

Elements of a LEED-Certified Green Home

So great, green houses are worth a lot more than their counterparts. What does it even mean to be “green?” This is a great question that has been asked again and again. Green homes are more than skin-deep. When you’re talking about new construction, these are homes that were designed from the ground up to be the least disruptive to the environment and very energy efficient.

These six items are necessities for any green housing certification:

* Site planning and development. Although we don’t really consider it much, we’re major disruptions to native plant and animal life, what with all of our house-building and whatnot. Site planning starts with a site that’s not located near protected spaces like wetlands. Then the house is placed on the plan with an orientation such that it can take maximum advantage of green technology like solar panels and wind turbines.
* Material origin and longevity. Your green home is made of materials that were each carefully considered and chosen for a particular reason (and not because they were the cheapest!). Factors that are taken into account include the manufacturing process, distance to transport the materials and even what the material is made of. The goal is to increase durability so you don’t have to replace anything soon and reduce overall resource consumption.
* Smart water use. Not only are green buildings designed to waste as little water as possible, with low-flow faucets, shower heads and toilets, they should even be built to help prevent runoff. Gray water is often rerouted to landscape and rainwater is collected and either sent into the ground through a trench, pit or well to prevent erosion around the house or it’s used to water landscape.
* A high level of energy efficiency. Each and every item in a green home is meant to keep the entire system as efficient as possible. This means high R-rated insulation, highly efficient HVAC systems, low energy use light bulbs and even those solar panels or wind turbines that were taken into consideration in the site plan.
* Excellent indoor air quality. Hey, it’s not all about saving money, green homes are also homes that are easier to live in. When your house vents combusting appliances properly, has minimal off-gassing from Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and plenty of ventilation to purge any fumes that may linger, you can be sure you’re breathing crystal-clear air in a greener home.
* Proper operation and maintenance. When the home is built and sold, the real challenge begins. How a homeowner maintains and runs their equipment has a huge impact on how green their home truly is. By leaving a breadcrumb trail of tools like smart thermostats, water-saving fixtures and highly efficient appliances, a green builder is doing what they can to ensure homeowners stick to the plan.

Even if you own an older home, you can bring it up to LEED standards with a great deal of effort. Adding green elements bit by bit is less of an overwhelming process, which is why so many people are green remodeling these days.

That could mean anything from installing a new HVAC system and vents that better disburse that highly efficient climate control to adding solar panels to help with electricity usage or just working on one conservation effort at a time, like water consumption. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing situation.

Greening Up My Home Is Too Overwhelming…

It’s ok, that’s why you have your HomeKeepr community! Just search the home pros your Realtor has recommended and you’ll quickly find an expert that can get started turning your home into a lean, green machine. Whether it’s a Jolly Green Giant of a job or a little sprig, you’ll find the green and LEED-certified experts you need inside.

...Housing Trends eNewsletter- LaTasha Hershey

...Housing Trends eNewsletter- LaTasha Hershey

Case-Shiller: Rising mortgage rates, home prices pull on affordability

Case-Shiller: Rising mortgage rates, home prices pull on affordability: Homebuyers are going to continue to need larger loans as home prices increase, but rising affordability issues could eventually push many potential homebuyers into renting, the latest Case-Shiller report shows. Overall, home prices jumped 6.5% in March.