Rancho Santa Fe Real Estate News / Buyer – Seller Tips

Rancho Santa Fe Fixed or Adjustable?

The fixed rate mortgages offer Rancho Santa Fe real estate buyers peace of mind with predictable monthly payments. Taxes may go up but the principle and interest will remain fixed throughout the life of the loan. When interest rates were rising rapidly in the late 1970s, lenders came up with ARMs or Adjustable Rate Mortgages. With an ARM, the borrower assumes the risk of rising interest rates. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Rancho Santa Fe Home Buying Pitfalls

Buying your Rancho Santa Fe home whether you are a first time buyer or an ‘Old Pro’ involves legal, financial and emotional considerations. The more you know about the most common buyer mistakes in Rancho Santa Fe, the more likely you are to avoid them.

Make sure that when you put in an offer on any Rancho Santa Fe home that you have spent time narrowing down just what you are looking for. When the sellers accept your offer, you are involved in a binding contract that could cost you your deposit and other damages should you decide to back out. The opposite scenario, waiting for the 100 % perfect home can be an exercise in futility. With the thousands of variables available in housing, including location, style, size, amenities and condition, perfection is almost always an unreasonable goal.

Guidelines for Buying Rancho Santa Fe

Let’s say everything is a GO! You have found the perfect Rancho Santa Fe home. You know you can afford it and it is actually priced below what you expected to pay. What a bargain! Yes there are bargains to be found in Rancho Santa Fe. At this point it is fine to put in an offer on the property but only with a well-planned contingency. Of course, it the home is going to be financed, the lender will want a Home Inspection before agreeing to lend money on the property. However, you need to protect yourself by making an offer SUBJECT TO a clean bill of health from the Home Inspector of your choice. This kind of a contingency gives you an out if the inspector finds a problem with the roof, or foundation or other structural problem that was not apparent to the seller or to your agent. This does not mean you will not buy the house but you will have a good reason to renegotiate the price with the seller.

Rancho Santa Fe Real Estate Title Insurance

Buying a new home is the single largest financial investment for most families but there are risks. What if the seller doesn’t really own the home? What if there are mortgages, judgements or liens against the property? What if the property taxes have not been paid for several years? Rancho Santa Fe real estate Title insurance protects you against these types of risks and against the risks of human error. It is your basic home ownership protection.

Rancho Santa Fe Title insurance protects you against future losses arising out of events that have happened in the past. Unlike other types of insurance, title insurance is paid when the policy is issued and is good for the life of the policy. The premium required is based on the amount of the sale or the mortgage.

When Rancho Santa Fe Does Not Sell

Let’s say a home is in excellent condition but simply messy. The cat box needs changing, the dog dish is a mess, the dishes haven’t been put into the dishwasher and the beds are not made. Should these conditions affect the price of the Rancho Santa Fe? No, but they do. Take two identical houses next door to each other and priced the same. The sparkling clean house will sell much faster than the messy house and the messy house will more than likely sell for a lower figure. This is true of Rancho Santa Fe as well as real estate nationwide.

When a home does not sell, the owners tend to think that the REALTOR didn’t do a good enough job of promoting the property. There is a difference among agents and brokers and some will promote a property more than others. However, the main and most important method of promoting Rancho Santa Fe for sale is listing it in the local MLS.

Rancho Santa Fe SALES

When you are thinking of buying Rancho Santa Fe, it may make sense to get a clear picture of the Rancho Santa Fe market before you get too far into your search. It is important to know the current market’s strengths and weaknesses so that you can make wise real estate decisions accordingly.