On April 2022 Lunch and Learn Event Housing, Relax Teams member Andrea Burroughs shared her knowledge and expertise on what to expect when looking for a home.

The rising rates and prices in the housing market can be discouraging but there is a solution to this.

Presentation by Andrea Burroughs

There are so many buyers who aren’t ready to enter the market these days. They’re losing confidence and also getting discouraged by the rapid rising of prices, decreased number of homes for sale, and the increased interest rates.

However, Andrea Burroughs believes that now is still the best time to buy a home and these issues shouldn’t affect your buying decisions because these won’t get any better over time, especially in today’s current situation.

You might also think that this is too risky to do because you think you don’t have the ability to afford a home right now. But you don’t have to worry as there is always a solution to this. So if you want to learn more about it and get to know professional lenders and realtors that you can work with, then, continue reading.

Andrea Burroughs is part of a powerhouse team under Matt Keana at Guaranteed Rates located in Madison, New Jersey. Each of their members usually does work at their home offices, real estate offices, or where they can find a workspace. Their team happily works with realtors to do residential mortgage lending and first and second mortgages.

 

“Real estate is not easy to do in this market most especially because it's a 12-year commitment unless you are very lucky to get a house that you can flip” - Andrea Burroughs

    

 

A solution for discouraged buyers

For this feature, she wanted to focus on looking for a solution for buyers that are discouraged from the current housing market. For the last 12 months, there are many people who lost their buying power even though the rates are still exceptionally low. She also noticed that there are many people who are well-informed about the moving rates but she thinks that there are a lot more things that they don’t know that project the market. 

  

“Even if you're looking at four and three-quarters of 5%, it's going to be higher on investment properties as always. That's the way that goes and there's a bigger risk for the bank for it.”

  

There are a lot of buyers these days that want to wait until the house prices will somewhat go down, which she believes is impossible to happen. “The only thing that's going to affect the pricing of the housing market is if inventory increases and it's not going to be enough”, she added. She also has already seen sites of places being cleared out and getting ready to put up new housing. That is why she highly encourages them to focus on finding a house while the inventory is still very low and purchase instead of focusing on the increased interest rates.

 

  

The current renting market

According to Andrea, “It is less expensive to buy than it is to rent”. So if you are someone who is renting a place for less than $1900, you can consider yourself lucky because the “average” mortgage these days is about $1500.

It cannot be denied that collecting money for rent is quite difficult so Andrea gave a solution for you. She said that Guaranteed Rate has online tools on their website that can help you overcome this problem. You can also work with Matt because he is someone who is really creative when it comes to helping people find what they can use for income. If you also have a problem where you do have not enough money to show and you just don't want to pay all the government taxes, that's where Matt also comes in. He can help you structure that and figure out how it's going to work.

Loan Officers and Realtors

In addition to that, Andrea also mentioned that she thought that the toughest job in this entire process was the loan officers because they are the ones who have to talk to the buyers about money, which can cause a lot of tension. But then she realized that it was actually the Realtors 

because they “run until they have holes in their shoes”.

 

“I can attest without hesitation that Lance and Erin have the toughest jobs of this entire process. So I commend you guys and it really does make a difference.”

 

She said that it’s best if you have a good relationship with your realtor so that you could get a win-win situation. Therefore, you should be able to connect with them effectively so that they can understand what you're looking for. 

 

Summary

Andrea was a business banker and a lender back in 2001 so she has encountered a lot of buyers in the same situation. For that reason, she mentioned all the things you can also expect in this challenging process and gave a few pieces of advice to help you decide.

• First, if you think you're going to get a steal right now, this is probably not the market for you.
• Second, if you think you can't buy because the rates are on a trend to go up, I say, you're wrong.
• Third, if you think you can't sell because you're not sure where to go, you just kind of have to manage your expectations. You're not going to sell your house for $600,000 that you bought for $300,000.
• Fourth, you have to know that people are on the move all over the place. If you're going to buy a house, do it now because Andrea assures you that it is all going to be worth it in the end.
• Lastly, when you’re going to own a home there are some tax benefits that you can get. She recommends consulting with Dennis Harabin, CPA because he's going to tell you exactly how you're going to benefit from your income tax on owning.

April 2022 Lunch and Learn Event Housing

• Volunteer For A Good Cause At Warren County Habitat for Humanity
• Here’s What To Expect In The Housing Market This 2022
• What Is Title Insurance For?
• How a Great Realtor Can Help You Find Your New Home

 

Recommended Readings:

• Important Tips To Know When Applying For A Mortgage
• The Key to Getting the House that You Want
• Helpful Advice When Selling or Buying Real Estate
• Running out of space or moving to a smaller home?
• How To Get A Mortgage