Let’s have a little heart-to-heart about homebuying advice—specifically, the kind that might come from your dad, your uncle, or that one coworker who bought a house in 1993 and hasn’t stopped talking about it since.

• Prices often continue to rise
• Interest rates fluctuate (and sometimes go up)
• You miss out on building equity now

• Student loans
• Car payments
• Modest credit card balances

• 3% to 5% down through conventional loans
• 0% down if you qualify for a VA or USDA loan
• Down payment assistance if you meet income or first-time buyer guidelines

The post 3 Real Estate Myths Your Dad Probably Swears By (And Why They Don’t Work Anymore) appeared first on Christie Mitsumura Blue Seas Team.

The real estate market can feel like a whirlwind, especially if you’re trying to time your home purchase just right. You’ve likely heard that spring is the best time to buy a home—right? While it’s true that many people list their homes during the warmer months, waiting for spring may actually cost you thousands more.
Let me share with you a little-known strategy that could save you a significant amount of money. In fact, I used this hack myself and managed to save $15,000 on my home purchase.

Don’t Fall Into This Trap!
The common mistake most homebuyers make is waiting until spring or summer to start their house hunt. The logic is that more homes will be on the market, which is true. But here’s the downside: everyone else has the same idea. By waiting until the traditional “peak” season, you’re setting yourself up for more competition, higher prices, and potentially losing out on your dream home because multiple offers are driving up the cost.
That’s the trap you don’t want to fall into. If you hold off until spring, you’re more likely to spend more than you need to, simply because the demand during this time is so much higher.

The Smart Move: Start Your Home Search in the Off-Season
Here’s the off-season hack that saved me $15,000: I started my home search in the fall. To be specific, the best time to begin looking for a home is between fall and early February.
Why? Here’s the kicker—while there may be fewer homes listed for sale during these months, there’s also less competition. And with fewer buyers to compete with, sellers are more motivated to negotiate, offering better deals on their homes. In fact, sellers who list their homes during the fall or winter often need to sell quickly due to job relocations, family changes, or the pressure of getting into a new home before the holiday season. This urgency works to your advantage as a buyer.
You might be thinking, “But if there are fewer homes available, won’t that limit my options?” While it’s true that the selection might not be as wide, the homes that are listed are often priced more reasonably, and you’ll have more leverage to negotiate. Plus, with fewer bidding wars, you won’t have to go over the asking price just to compete with other buyers.

The Proof Is in the Numbers
Let’s take a look at the facts. This year alone, home prices jumped by $15,000 from January to June. That’s a huge increase in just six months! And this isn’t just a one-time occurrence. Historically, we see this same pattern year after year: prices rise during the spring and summer months as competition heats up, while they tend to stabilize or even decrease during the cooler months.
For example, if you had purchased a home in January instead of waiting until June, you could have saved an average of $15,000 simply because there were fewer buyers in the market. The trend is clear—waiting for spring could cost you.

What About Interest Rates?
If you’re concerned about mortgage interest rates, you’re not alone. However, current trends show that interest rates are actually stabilizing and even trending downward. If this continues, we could see an even bigger surge in home prices between winter and spring as more buyers flood the market to take advantage of lower rates.
The combination of falling interest rates and rising home prices creates a perfect storm of competition in the spring, leading to higher overall costs for buyers.

Take Action Now
If you’re serious about buying a home, the smartest thing you can do is start your search now. By getting into the market during the off-season, you’ll not only face less competition, but you’ll also be able to negotiate a better price with more motivated sellers. And with interest rates trending down, you could lock in a great deal before the inevitable price surge in the spring.
Don’t wait until everyone else is trying to buy a home—be proactive and start your search between fall and early February. It worked for me, and it could work for you too.

Final Thoughts
Buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make, and timing is everything. By avoiding the crowded spring market and starting your home search in the off-season, you could save yourself thousands of dollars—just like I did.
So, why wait? Now is the perfect time to find your new home and save money in the process. Happy house hunting!

The post The Off-Season Homebuying Hack That Saved Me $15,000 appeared first on Christie Mitsumura Blue Seas Team.

Enter, MasonMac’s Lock & Shop loan program.  With our Lock & Shop product, home buyers can lock in their interest rate for an extended period of time prior to identifying a property.  This is a great benefit to buyers because they can take the time to find the right home without the pressure of a rising rate environment weighing on the decision making process.

So buyers are protected from volatile rate increased while shopping for a home, but what if rates improve while they look for a home?  Wouldn’t the locked rate then be a bad thing?  MasonMac has you covered!  Our Lock & Shop product features a 1 time float down option, so if the market improves, our customers are able to take advantage by choosing to exercise the float down option within 30 days of their settlement to take advantage of the improved market.

With the float down function, MasonMac customers get the benefit of both protection from rising rates and the ability to take advantage of an improving market, offering some peace of mind to what can be an otherwise stressful home buying process.

When considering buying a home, we think you’ll love the options we present – with long term locks, this Lock & Shop program, and our Buyer’s Advantage process, we put our customers in the best place for a stress-free house hunting and home buying process.  Add to that our highly experienced team of loan officers ready to assist with in depth product knowledge and armed with the technology to streamline the loan process, and home buyers are in the best of hands when working with the team at MasonMac!

The post Mason Mac’s Lock & Shop Loan Program appeared first on Christie Mitsumura Blue Seas Team.

For mortgage rates

There’s a common misconception that the Fed raising rates with a Fed rate hike leads to higher mortgage rates, but it’s important to understand what drives mortgage rates.  The price of mortgage backed securities (MBS) are the only thing that directly move mortgage rates, and MBS often see an improvement (improving rates, aka bringing them down) when there’s a Fed rate hike.  Today was no exception.  The reason for this is that the Fed rate hike is a measure implemented to slow down the economy and to fight inflation.  High inflation is a major cause of increasing mortgage rates (and is one of a few reasons we’ve seen mortgage rates go up so much in 2022!), so the Fed’s actions should theoretically reduce inflation, helping mortgage bonds, and thus lowering mortgage rates.

In fact, since the Fed’s last rate hike in June, mortgage bonds have improved substantially, and mortgage rates have come down from their highs.

For other debts

Some debts are directly impacted by a Fed rate hike.  Home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), for example, are often tied to the prime rate, which moves in step with the Fed funds rate.  Because the prime rate goes up and down with each Fed rate hike, HELOC rates will move as well, and for that reason, rates on HELOCs will immediately go higher on the Fed announcement.  Other debts tied to the prime rate will do the same.  For this reason, consumers can expect their credit card payments to increase as most credit cards have their interest rates tied to prime.

For the broader economy

Fed rate hikes historically precede periods of recession.  The Fed’s action reduces inflation, but it also makes borrowing costs of financial institutions more expensive.  This tends to slow down borrowing and spending, which in turn slows down the economy.  In today’s marketplace the Fed has made it clear that fighting inflation is their #1 objecting, and the broader economy, while of concern, is being focused on less than reigning in stubborn, persistent inflation that was once thought to be “transitory”.

The Fed rate hike has many implications, but it’s very important to know that the Fed is NOT raising mortgage rates, and in fact, their actions typically lead to lower rates.  That’s important to understand today, because with mortgage rates spiking in early 2022, we’ve seen an increase in inventory on the market as many buyers have been forced to the sidelines.  Interest rates coming down could present a great opportunity for many buyers who now have less competition in the market and more inventory to choose from.  The Fed has also made it clear that their expectation is for more rate hikes throughout 2022 and beyond, so if the markets behave as expected, we may see some great opportunities with lower rates in the mortgage space in the months ahead.

The post The Lastest Fed Hike appeared first on Christie Mitsumura Blue Seas Team.