Is it time to Buy, Sell or Refinance? (Answers upside down at the end)

Posted by brad.fanton on June 21st, 2008

If you live in Arizona and not under a rock (no pun intended of course), you are most likely fully aware that the real estate market is hurting.  Sales are down, prices are down, gas prices are up and people are wondering if “driving until you qualify” makes any sense anymore.

What does this mean for you?

Well it depends on what you are thinking about – buying a new house, selling your house or refinancing your current loan.

Buying a New House

If you are thinking about buying a new home, now is a great time unless you are trying to find the absolute bottom of the market – then NEVER will be a great time because no one can ever tell you for sure when the exact bottom of the market is until after it has happened.

If you are thinking about waiting for the market to “bottom” out you risk the chance of  missing your opportunity to buy a great home at a great price and get a fixed rate mortgage with a great interest rate.

Why act now and not wait?  A few simple reasons include:

  1. When the market shifts back to the “normal” mode you won’t be getting lenders, homeowners or builders giving you thousands of dollars of their money to get you to move in.
  2. If you are looking to buy a foreclosed/bank owned home then you will miss out on them paying for all your closing costs, down payment and selling you the house at a 15-30% discount of the appraised value.  Bank-owned inventory is still growing – which means they are highly motivated to get rid of the houses quickly.
  3. If you are looking to buy a property from a homeowner still occupying the property you will probably never find a time to get them to concede more money to you for the purchase of their property.  Lots of sellers + not many buyers = Big $ Savings for buyers.

Selling Your Current House

I will only say one thing about trying to sell your home right now…

“The only reason you should try to sell your home right now is because you HAVE to and it is your only option.”

If you bought your home 5-10 years ago and you haven’t refinanced all the equity out of the property, now is not the right time to start thinking about all of the money that you could pocket by selling your house.

Hold onto your home unless selling is your only option because you CAN’T as an individual compete with the HUGE discounts and upgrades that builders are giving and you can’t compete with the huge price cuts that the lenders that own the foreclosed home are willing to give because they have so many of them on their books.

So don’t cost you and your family thousands and thousands of dollars by selling your home now.

Unless you have to, of course.

Refinancing Your Current Loan

If the interest rate on your current loan is higher than 6.5% (30 year fixed) or a 6% (15 year fixed) then it may make sense for you to you consider refinancing your loan.  Interest rates are still very, very low and you still have a great chance to say yourself money — both on a monthly basis as well as over the long haul.

The only downside to refinancing in today’s market is that there are not as many programs available to choose from as there were a couple of years ago — so be ready to provide more documentation and have less loan products to choose from.

Is it time to Buy, Sell or Refinance?



June 21, 2008 | Filed Under Arizona Home Financing Options, Buying a New Home in Arizona, Refinancing in Arizona 

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