Avoid These Mortgage Mistakes During Your House Hunt

If you're looking to buy a house, you'll want to avoid these four mistakes when it comes to your financing.

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When you're shopping for a home, there are four mortgage mistakes you should try to avoid: 1. Thinking the advertised you see is the rate you'll get: The advertised rate will be that company's lowest possible rate. In reality, many things go into determining the rate you'll get, like your credit score.

2. Not comparing lenders: There are plenty of ways to compare lenders and their rates these days. You also want to compare their closing costs, especially in an area like Clarksville where you might ask the seller to pay some closing costs.

3. Waiting for a better rate: If you wait for rates to drop in an active market like ours with prices going up, you might end up paying more for the house itself, even if the rate goes down. In many cases, it could actually cost you more money if you wait.

4. Choosing the wrong type of loan: For example, many people think that since we're in a VA market, they should automatically choose a VA loan. However, it all depends on what else you plan to do with the the financing. One big thing to consider in this situation is how much money you're putting down.

Waiting for a lower interest rate could mean paying more for the house itself.

We can provide more details and advice on any of these points if you have any other questions. Just give us a call or send us an email. We're happy to help!

How Much Do You Need for a Down Payment?

How much money do you need to put down when you purchase a home? Contrary to popular belief, you don’t necessarily need to have 20% down.

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How much money do you need for your down payment? Clarksville is a military town, so many of our residents are eligible for VA loans and can get a house for no money down. If you do not qualify for a VA loan, there are still many loan programs that can get you into a house for less than 20% down. Depending on your credit score, you can get a conventional loan with 5% down. If you qualify for an FHA loan, then you only need 3% down.

Depending on your credit score, you can get a conventional loan for 5%.

We also have local programs where the seller can pay most of the closing costs for you and you won’t have too much of a down payment. 

If you have any questions about your down payment or if you want to know more about buying a home, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

The Latest Stats From Our Hot Clarksville Market

Here are some of the latest stats from our Clarksville market and how we stand compared to where we were at this time last year.

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We have a hot market here in Clarksville, and today I have the stats to prove it. To give you an update on where we stand, I’ve compared the latest market figures to the same figures from March of last year. In March 2016, we had about 1,400 houses on the market for sale. Right now, we have about 1,100 houses on the market for sale. At this time last year, our number of year-to-date home sales was 827. This year, we’ve closed 834 houses so far. That’s not much difference, but it shows that we had a great market last year as well. Our average list price increased 6.4% from $164,000 in March 2016 to $174,600 in March 2017. Our average sales price increased 6.81% from $161,500 in March 2016 to $172,500 in March 2017. In that same time frame, our average days on market dropped from 101 to 91. As you can see, prices are going up in Clarksville, so it’s a great time to put your home on the market.

The market’s been busy since January, and it continues that way.

Something else we’ve started tracking lately is the most active price ranges, and right now the most active price range is between $140,000 and $180,000. There are 207 houses on the market within this price range, and about 25% of those houses have been sold already. 

The next hottest range is $180,000 to $240,000, which represents about 24% of the market. The third hottest range is the $100,000 to $140,000 area. You might not think it, but you can get a nice house for $100,000 in Clarksville. 

If you have any questions about our market or you’re looking to buy or sell a home, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you.