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Coming Home to a Sound Investment

While renting can be useful for some financial situations, owning a home provides great benefits to you and, ultimately, your financial well-being.

1. Control your space. Use a spare bedroom for your own home office. Create a workout area in the garage. You own the home, you make the rules.

2. Pride of Ownership. When you own something you tend to take better care of it. A home is no different. Cutting your lawn, creating a garden, or just making improvements on the weekends becomes a thing of joy.

3. Stability. When you purchase a home with a fixed interest rate mortgage, you don't have to worry about surprises in your monthly payment. Month after month, you know what your payments are going to be. Renters don't have that luxury. At the end of…

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Buying Versus Renting a Home

For many people and for many reasons, buying a home is better than renting a home.

In many communities, the inventory of houses to rent is limited, whereas there's likely to be a large variety of houses on the market at many prices. If specific location matters, buying a house is the better way to choose the ideal location than renting a house.

Lifestyle is another major consideration. Owners can modify a house to suit their needs. A popular modification is making a house habitable by someone with disabilities. A renter would not be able to modify a house and a landlord is unlikely to change a house to suit a tenant. If a house needs updating, with new energy-efficient appliances, homeowners will update kitchen and laundry appliance, or put in a new…

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Being “Open” for Open Houses

While it may take some work to prepare for your open house, allowing interested buyers into their potential future home will make them feel at ease instantly and visualize this home as their own as they walk through and picture their belongings there.

Remember to declutter every area to accent the spaciousness of the home and it's square footage. This will make the buyer even more interested when they see all the advantages of the space available and show the home at its best.

Photos & Clutter

Keeping personal photos or other momentos out of sight will make the home more attractive to a potential buyer. This means they can picture their own belongings in these spaces.

Ambiance

One of the most important factors when having an open house is…

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2012 Ending on a High Note

2012 is coming to an end. What happened in the Salt Lake County housing market over the past 12 months?

• Home prices are 4% higher than last year
• The median home price is up 11% from last year. (2011 - $185,000, 2012 - $205,000)
• It was the first year since 2007 that home prices have consistently gone up
• The number of homes sold is up 18 percent from last year
• Housing inventory dropped to 4.2 months (down from 7.2 months)
• Homes typically have taken 61 days to sell (down from 78 days last year)
• Homes sell for 96% of list price, (up from 91% last year).

If the world doesn't end this month where are the best places to buy/sell a home?

Check out the Hot Spots:

#1 - Sandy 84092     Price: $200K - $250K
Chance of…

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Daybreak Halloween House

I was strollin’ around in Daybreak the other day and found a fun Halloween House!

I especially liked this sign advertising the home as a “Dead & Breakfast”.

We all know that Daybreak is an active community and loaded with parks and biking trails. Apparently it even attracts the active un-dead.

Check out this wrap around porch! Apparently I’m not the only one who likes the extra lounging room!

This fun Halloween house is on Top View, so bring the kids by I’m sure they’ll love it!

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Buyer's or Seller's Market?

I am constantly asked, "Is it a Buyer's market? or a Seller's market?"

We are in a unique situation right now so I can honestly answer, BOTH!

Some areas are in high demand and have low inventory. That is the definition of a Seller's market. An article in the LA Times explains how low supply is causing "fierce competition" in high demand areas. This is great news for sellers. If you have a home in the right place, and list for the right price, you could have a bidding war on your property. With higher competition, sellers can get top dollar for their home. Based on recent statistics these Hot Spots are a "seller's market".
 
Hot Spots to Sell (sellers market)
 
#1 - Saratoga Springs (84045)  $350K - $400K
Your chance of selling?     Homes for Sale
 
#2 - Salt Lake…

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FHFA Raises Fees for Lenders

Friday before a 3-day weekend. The perfect time to announce bad news.  

Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac are going to raise guarantee fees, which they charge to lenders, an average of 10 basis points. To give you some persepctive, basis points for lenders averaged 26 points in 2010, and 28 in 2011. The 10 point increase represents more than a 25% jump in guarantee fees. This large increase WILL affect your mortage rate.

Do you remember the 1992 film "Newsies"? It tells the story of a group of paperboys who went on strike because the newspapers were charging them more to deliver their papers. This point increase is similar; the lenders are being charged more fees for FHA loans. The difference is you definitely will not be singing…

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Which Utah Cities Are in the National Top 100?

CNN Money recently published a list of the top 100 cities across the United States. The list focuses on cities with populations from 50,000 - 300,000. The cities are ranked based on economic strength, quality of health care, crime rate, quality of schools, and available activities. Utah came away with 4 cities in the top 100: South Jordan (18), Sandy (51), Orem (55), and St. George (62).

South Jordan

The highest ranked Utah city on the list comes in at #18. CNNMoney points out fast growth, the Daybreak community, a low crime rate, healthy job market, a wealth of outdoor activities, and the lowest divorce rate (4.6%) of any other city on the list, as reasons that South Jordan is a great city to live in. The only negative comment from the study was…

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National Studies say: Move to Utah

According to a recent Gallup poll Utah is poised to be the best state in the U.S. to live in. This prestigous rank is based on our performance in 13 areas including: standard of living, economic confidence index, job creation, how easy it is to find clean/safe water, smoking rate, and supervisors who treat employees like a partner not a boss.

In another report the Wall Street Journal reported that most states are slashing money for service. However, Utah is not part of this national trend. Utah's solid workforce and below-average unemployment rate has helped Utah stay strong. The average personal income is on the rise which is another positive sign for Utah's future.

A third story on CNN Money listed 4 of Utah's cities in the top 100 of the nation.…

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The Rise of the House of Loeffler!

You may have heard of the famous house of Usher. Well move over Mr. Poe, there's another house in town! This year's Utah Parade of Homes highlights a beautiful mansion built for Usher's co-manager David Loeffler!

The home was built by the custom home builders at Lane Myers construction. The design was inspired by traditional French architecture. It is situated in the mountains of Draper providing majestic views over the valley.

You can see from the floorplan that the design is extremely spacious! This home comes loaded with everything a Utah Family needs: 8 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, 'numerous' fireplaces, and 4 master suites! You won't want to miss the grand staircase entry, theater room, and ballroom! What is the total size of this home? 20,222…

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