Possible Tax Hike Looming

1 Month Left to Sell Before Possible Tax Hike

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

Some home sellers would need a sale contract inked before the end of 2017 in order to avoid a big tax bill that would be imposed if the GOP tax reform proposals become law. Both the House and Senate bills would require sellers to have lived in their residence for a longer period of time before qualifying for the capital gains tax exclusion on the sale of a primary home. They would have to live in their house at least five years out of the last eight; right now, the requirement is two years out of the last five.

The Senate version, however, includes an exception for transactions in which a contract is written before Jan. 1, even if the closing occurs in 2018. The bill passed by the House includes no such exception. Therefore, homeowners who are currently thinking about selling have only one month left to complete a deal before proposed tax changes would take effect. Should tax reform be enacted, some homeowners who sell in 2018 may no longer qualify for the capital gains exclusion, which covers up to $250,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a married couple. As a result, the difference between your client’s tax bill pre- and post-tax reform could be huge.

https://youtu.be/jbGfwJBwslk

It won’t be known whether the House or Senate version of tax reform is adopted until the bill is finalized, which could happen in a few weeks. But sellers who haven’t lived in their house for more than five of the last eight years will want to act quickly regardless of the version that is approved.

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Drew & Christine Morgan are REALTORS/NOTARY PUBLIC in Belmont, CA. with more than 20 years of experience in helping sellers and buyers in their community. As Diamond recipients, Drew and Christine are ranked in the top 50 RE/MAX agents nationwide and the top 3 in Northern California.  They may be reached at (650) 508.1441 or emailed at info@morganhomes.com.

For all you need to know about Belmont, subscribe to this blog right here. You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Morganhomes and on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/morganhomes

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario

What a Mortgage Deduction Reduction Could Do to Home Values

That’s literally the million dollar question. Many of our colleagues think that it will not be passed as the House version did this week. Some have good points and others just wishful thinking.
Many agents have voiced an opinion  that the mortgage deduction will be indexed for the higher cost coastal states, but we feel that’s exactly the targeted group this limitation is designed to hit—so we doubt we’ll see relief their. The senate bill may uphold the million dollar cap on mortgage interest—we’ll see.
We’d be surprised if in this administration, a dramatic negative shift in policy towards homeownership would emerge, but then this administration has been anything but predictive.
If it does pass as the House version stands, we’re not as worried about future homeowners—they’ll get over it and only the ones currently looking into buying a home will even know what’s going on. But for the millions of homeowners who bought their homes counting on the tax relief as the only way they can sustain their payments—therein lies the problem.
Assuming our homes are hovering around a median home price of $1,600,000. A buyer today could write down up to $1,000,000 in mortgage interest, which would be $42,174 in interest the first year. With the new proposed plan, that deduction drops in half to $21,087—resulting in an additional tax liability of around $7,380.50 a year, and that equates to as if they purchased a home for $125,000 more than what they had bargained for. Or another way to look at it. Is home prices (not values) on the Peninsula just went up over $125,000 overnight—so much for making more affordable housing.
Most regular folks are still purchasing homes with mortgages, and most mortgages are higher than in the above example. Obviously, the higher the mortgage, the more of a disparity this system creates in the allowable deduction.
What will real home values do? Probably not much since demand still outstrips supply in today’s market (locally). But the market for vacation homes—a huge segment in San Francisco for example—could drop precipitously since there will be NO deduction for second home mortgage interest. So a silver lining exists for the rich, and they could have a great opportunity to buy into vacation homes at diminished prices—all cash of course.

Drew & Christine Morgan are REALTORS/NOTARY PUBLIC in Belmont, CA. with more than 20 years of experience in helping sellers and buyers in their community. They may be reached at (650) 508.1441 or emailed at info@morganhomes.com.

For all you need to know about Belmont, subscribe to this blog right here. You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Morganhomesand on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/morganhomes

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario.

 

Belmont Home Value’s Increase—Is There No End in Sight?

Before we head into the winter slow season for home sales, we’ll take a quick look back at Q3 home sales for Belmont, and the larger San Mateo County.

BELMONT & SAN MATEO COUNTY

HOME SALES—

Belmont had 78 new listings in Q3 as compared to 64 last year during the same period, and increase of 18%.

San Mateo County’s inventory of new listings dropped 6% YOY

INVENTORY/SALES—

Ironically, even with more new listings the inventory dropped 21% YOY. Why? Because sales increased 17% eliminating housing inventory.

SMC’S overall inventory also dropped—31% YOY, and sales dropped by 3.4%

DAYS ON MARKET (DOM) —

The time it took to sell a home in Belmont, on average, dropped from 16 days to 14

SMC Days on market dropped from 27 to 23

MEDIAN HOME PRICE

The median home price increased 12.7% YOY for Q3 for closed homes. When we compared the size of the homes selling in the two periods, there was statistically no difference, at 1784 ft² in 2016 and 1,748 ft² in 2017—so we made no adjustment for square footage interfering with the median home price swing. Note that Belmont it an all-time median home price point this October 2017.

San Mateo COUNTY’S MEDIAN HOME PRICE ROSE 9.5% YOY IN Q3

PERCENT RECEIVED

Belmont home seller’s eked out 4.4% more for their homes over their list price than last year during the same period.

In San Mateo County that number went up to 3.7% of asking

WRAP-UP

In every category in regards to home sale activity, Belmont outperformed and outpaced San Mateo County leading speculation that the peak for Belmont home values have not yet been reached.

Drew & Christine Morgan are REALTORS/NOTARY PUBLIC in Belmont, CA. with more than 20 years of experience in helping sellers and buyers in their community. As Diamond recipients, Drew and Christine are ranked in the top 50 RE/MAX agents nationwide and the top 3 in Northern California.  They may be reached at (650) 508.1441 or emailed at info@morganhomes.com.

For all you need to know about Belmont, subscribe to this blog right here. You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Morganhomes and on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/morganhomes

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was Served at the First Thanksgiving?

If you’re like us you might remember being taught the history of Thanksgiving as early as Kindergarten. But recalling those facts some 50 years later has escaped me. That led me to refresh my fading recollections with some interesting facts about the traditional feast. So before you sit down for that annual feast we now call Thanksgiving, only to fall fast asleep from overindulging in the intoxicating tryptophan from Turkey, here’s some of the back story trivia that might just serve to divert a heated political conversation, or a festering sibling rivalry.

The first “Thanksgiving” as we call it today lasted three days, with food festivities and celebration. Today, most families are content on convening for a few football games and a meal that takes five hours to prepare and fifteen minutes to consume.

There seems to be a lot of debate even amongst scholars as to whether or not Turkey was served at the first feast. If not, then what was served at the first Thanksgiving in 1621? The answer is simple—whatever they had in abundance. After all, they were inviting their guests, the Wampanoag tribe to help celebrate their first successful harvest in the New World and they ate whatever was available.

Stories go that the local visiting tribe brought Venison to the feast, clearly abundant at that time and a major staple of the indigenous people, so it’s reasonable to assume venison was probably on the menu. As was no doubt Lobster, clams and mussels as well as other seafood items, being so close to the Atlantic Ocean. Corn would have been out of season by then so it’s unlikely that fresh corn was served, but Flint corn, AKA, dried “Indian Corn” would have most likely made the cut. Other grains and nuts such as chestnuts were most likely there, Hogs were imported to the America’s in the 16th century so one of the proteins might have been Ham as well. But scholars disagree upon whether or not Turkey would have been served. It seems likely that while not the star of the show as it is today, a wild turkey or other foul would have made it to the feast, so we’re a little unsure about the skepticism on the part of some scholar’s, other than it makes for a good headline.

Potatoes first arrived in the Colonies in 1621 but the first permanent potato patches in North America weren’t established until 1719, so mashed, boiled, roasted or otherwise potatoes no doubt missed the festivities.

What about Pumpkin Pie? Probably not. Though winter squash no doubt was in attendance. Since sugarcane wasn’t imported until around until 1619, and the colonists couldn’t make it grow, it’s doubtful a pie was constructed though it is possible that a sweetened squash of some sort may have been served using molasses or maple syrup.

All this makes one ponder then why do we have all of these so common accoutrements surrounding this famous feast? As it turns out, the author of the poem, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Sara Josepha Hale, had quite a bit to do with it. Inspired by President Washington’s proclamation in 1789 as November 26th to be the First Thanksgiving Holiday, she lobbied aggressively for years from 1827-1863 to get a day of Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday, when finally Abraham Lincoln got wind of her plea and used it to his advantage to inspire the country going through a civil war. In October of 1863 Lincoln pronounced that a day of Thanksgiving shall be celebrated on the final Thursday in the month of November. Why the last Thursday? Sara went on to write, “The last Thursday in November has these advantages — harvests of all kinds are gathered in — summer travelers have returned to their homes — the diseases that, during summer and early autumn, often afflict some portions of our country, have ceased, and all are prepared to enjoy a day of Thanksgiving.”

But it was Sara’s writings chronicling what should be including in the feast that jump started what today many Americans serve at the table including mashed potatoes, Turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie.

What about the green beans? You can thank Campbell’s Soup Company for that one. They lobbied hard their recipe to push the sales of their mushroom soup.

But the last Thursday didn’t stick forever. President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 changed it to one week earlier to allow for an additional week of shopping before Christmas and his timing wasn’t a coincidence—the country was in a middle of a depression.

Finally, in 1941 FDR moved it to the 4th Thursday in November where it has remained until today.

And our final bit of trivia that we’ll leave you with before you enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday…

Why is a Turkey called a Turkey?

A popular theory arises from turkeys coming to England from the Americas via merchant ships from the Middle East where they were domesticated successfully. Again the importers lent the name to the bird: because these merchants were called “Turkey merchants” as much of the area was part of the Ottoman Empire. Hence the name “Turkey birds” or, soon thereafter, “turkeys”.

 

 

 

Waterdog Tavern in Belmont-What’s in a Name?

Waterdog Tavern

We were delighted as were many Belmont residents with the opening of a new restaurant, Waterdog Tavern in the Carlmont Village Shopping Centre last year. This past Spring, they opened the spacious outdoor area for sociable dining in a “dog friendly” environment, and we now visit frequently with our dog, Wyatt.

If you see us outside with this friendly little guy, stop by to say hello!

One of the questions we often hear: Where did they get the name Waterdog Tavern?

Since Belmont is our home, and we’re quite familiar about our local history, we knew at once where they got the clever name. We asked the owners, Toby and Anne, who often get asked the same question, to weigh in for our readers about the backstory of why they picked the name they did. Enjoy!

Toby McMillan (Owner):

Our family moved to Belmont from Sacramento in 2006. Not long afterwards Anne & I were strolling through Carlmont Village for the first time, when we came upon the outdoor area where the old Carlmont Nursery used to display their huge selection of Japanese Maples. We both remarked how beautiful the space was, and hoped that someday the adjacent restaurant (Hola!) might make arrangements to serve food & beer in the outdoor space – a few picnic tables would be great. I remarked, not very seriously at the time, that if it were ever possible to get both of those spaces, we should jump on the chance.

Fast forward to the Fall of 2015. After seriously searching for a couple of years for the right space to open a new restaurant that had outdoor seating and great parking, Carlmont Nursery and Hola! decided to close their doors within a month of each other. We pinched ourselves that two spaces had become available simultaneously and set out to create a casual, comfortable, warm, inviting restaurant, where the community and those traveling by The Village could gather to enjoy great food & drinks – The Tavern concept was born. Now…what to name it?

We had come up with different names for other concepts, but they were all location specific and would not work with what we had planned for this restaurant. As Belmont residents, we wanted the name to reflect the surroundings and the casualness of the concept. One day I was talking to a friend, and they mentioned they had taken their dog for a walk at Waterdog Lake, and a light bulb went on: Waterdog Tavern! Waterdog Lake is not only a long time Belmont landmark, but is known by folks up & down the Peninsula. To add to that, we had already begun tossing around the idea of making the Beer Garden dog friendly, and with so many local residents walking their dogs at Waterdog Lake on a regular basis it seemed a perfect fit.

Now with that being said, we are aware that the name of Waterdog Lake has nothing to do with dogs, but was coined because the lake (officially named Notre Dame Lake) used to teem with salamanders, and ‘waterdog’ is a salamander nickname. Anne has fond childhood memories of spotting waterdogs in her Grandma’s fountain in Belmont. Having made the decision to make the Beer Garden dog-friendly, we came up with our ‘Shaking Dog’ logo as a bit of a play on words. A recognition of all of the waterdogs that we all know and love, including our Australian Shepard, Buddy… We mean no disrespect to salamanders and have enjoyed sharing our story with guests!

 

1918 Hillman Avenue, Belmont

1918 Hillman, BelmontCOMING SOON TO AN MLS NEAR YOU!

1918 Hillman Avenue, Belmont

Check out this Coming Soon Trailer…

  • Three bedrooms on the main level, including an Owner’s ensuite
  • Two updated full baths upstairs
  • Updated kitchen with new stainless appliances including Frigidaire® side-by-side refrigerator, 5-burner gas stove, microwave and Bosch® dishwasher,
  • Large open living room with wood burning fireplace, hardwood floors and access to the view deck
  • Centerpiece wood burning fireplace on the upper level
  • New engineered hardwood flooring upstairs
  • Fourth bedroom, kitchen, full bath, and 2nd fireplace downstairs
  • Lower level Great Room has so much space—and potential for countless uses including a possible legal income producing ADU
  • Sliding door leads to outdoor covered patio and gentle sloping rear yard
  • Approximate ~2,135 sq. ft. (per appraisal)
  • Substantial ~6,000 sq. ft. lot (per county records)
  • Two-car attached garage—laundry inside
  • Conveniently close to San Francisco International Airport, Half Moon Bay and Coastal towns, major commute arteries, nearby parks and plenty of excellent shopping and dining options
  • Reports available to qualified parties

Situated on a ridge above the Belmont Country Club Area in Central Belmont awaits this recently refurbished home stylistically offering an open layout and capturing the allure of casual elegance. This bi-level design floorplan offers a multitude of living and entertaining options.

Enter the front porch and the owner is immediately alerted to your presence with the Ring® 1080p HD video alter doorbell with night vision. Ever forgotten your keys? With  the Schlage keyless door lock system, you can even remotely unlock the front door!

The entire main floor is thoughtfully laid out with a great room hosting a dining area adjacent the all new kitchen and eat-at bar. On this level, you will find three bedrooms, including the Owner’s ensuite, two additional bedrooms, and another full remodeled bath. The main rooms are illuminated with large windows, skylights, and a sliding door that expands the usable space to the outdoors. A capacious covered entertainment deck is ideal for you and your guests to feast on views encompassing the Belmont agrarian landscape, punctuated by vistas of glowing sunsets.

Casual hardwood flooring flows gracefully throughout much of this level with a wood-burning fireplace as the centerpiece.

The kitchen is deeply functional and yet stays true to a place for casual meals and conversations. New Frigidaire Professional® stainless appliances include a side-by-side refrigerator, built-in microwave, five-burner stainless gas stove as well as a Bosch dishwasher is at your disposal for creating impressive meals and cleaning up. Rich sheik cabinetry augments the kitchen area and crushed quartz counters adorn the surfaces. A deep roll out pantry and corner caddy makes sense of the spacious area, while the natural illumination from the kitchen’s skylight helps save on electric bills.

The expansive lower level is ideal for having some separation in living spaces with its own enormous family room, fireplace, kitchen and private patio. Enjoy access to the immense rear lot with gentle slopes and create your own backyard retreat. Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) is a single-ply reflective roofing membrane made from polyprophylene and ethylene-propylene rubber polymerized together.

Located near Central Belmont, this picturesque location, known for its warm microclimate, is also popular because of the close proximity to major travel arteries—Highway 101, 280; and Caltrain. San Francisco International Airport is conveniently nearby. Belmont is ideally located on the Peninsula between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

Belmont Home Price Increases Slow to a Crawl

In each of our Newsletters we bring you the recent Belmont home sales for the previous month. This time we thought we’d stack up the months of August to the same time last year, so the variance from the previous year is obvious.

The first thing that jumps out at us is that there were 33% fewer sales overall.  If we take out the one off-market sale in 2016, the time it took for the homes to sell really didn’t change. Homes are still selling briskly at about 10-14 days on the market—which really is more dependent upon which day the seller elects to hear offers.

There were two homes which underwent a price reduction before selling, and one home that sold for under the seller’s asking price in 2017, and none in 2016. Still, the amount the seller’s received stayed at around 108% of the seller’s asking price.

Since the size of homes which sold in both years was statistically unchanged, the median price difference YOY is very reliable. It shows that homes in Belmont rose on average almost 10% YOY with the median home price rising a modest 5.13 %. Are we near the top of the market? These almost nominal increases would suggest so, though to a buyer, in real dollars, the medium price home in Belmont just went up $75,000.

[CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A FULL SIZE RENDERING]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drew & Christine Morgan are REALTORS/NOTARY PUBLIC in Belmont, CA. with more than 20 years of experience in helping sellers and buyers in their community. As Diamond recipients, Drew and Christine are ranked in the top 50 RE/MAX agents nationwide and the top 3 in Northern California.  They may be reached at (650) 508.1441 or emailed at info@morganhomes.com.

For all you need to know about Belmont, subscribe to this blog right here. You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Morganhomes and on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/morganhomes

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario.

Bay Area Home Values Eclipse Historical Records

Case Shiller Report for June 2017

The Case-Shiller Report was released June 27th, the last Tuesday of the month, which tracks home sales in 20 metropolitan cities around the country, called MSA’s, of Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

Our MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) in the Bay Area consist of five counties—Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costsa. It’s important to note that while home values might be headed upward at a dramatic pace in the counties of San Francisco and San Mateo, they might be lagging in Alameda and Contra Costa, thus diluting the upward trend in one county vs. the whole MSA. This has been the case in our area since the housing recovery began in earnest in 2012.

The same goes for the 20 city composite index, which takes 20 metropolitan cities in the country and tracks them as an average trend.

While the 10 and 20 city composite indices shows that the housing market has not yet eclipsed the all-time high recorded around March of 2006, in the Bay Area, we have.

This graph which we built utilized the data from Case-Shiller for our SFMSA and illustrates that we have reached a new all-time high for home values. However, it’s important to note that the delta between the trend line and the peak where we are today, illustrating where the straight-line home values should be, is far less than in the peak of 2006, where we see a much great deviance off the trend line values. In fact, the peak of 2006 was 58% higher above the trend line than it is today.

One might infer from this that we are not as overvalued as it might appear at first glance.

This give some credence to the synopsis for the Standard and Poor’s Case-Schiller analysis and discussion.

Case-Shiller Analysis by Standard & Poor’s— ANALYSIS

Great View of San Francisco

“As home prices continue rising faster than inflation, two questions are being asked: why? And, could this be a bubble?” says David M. Blitzer Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Since demand is exceeding supply and financing is available, there is nothing right now to keep prices from going up. The increase in real, or inflation-adjusted, home prices in the last three years shows that demand is rising. At the same time, the supply of homes for sale has barely kept pace with demand and the inventory of new or existing homes for sale shrunk down to only a four- month supply. Adding to price pressures, mortgage rates remain close to 4% and affordability is not a significant issue.

“The question is not if home prices can climb without any limit; they can’t. Rather, will home price gains gently slow or will they crash and take the economy down with them? For the moment, conditions appear favorable for avoiding a crash. Housing starts are trending higher and rising prices may encourage some homeowners to sell. Moreover, mortgage default rates are low and household debt levels are manageable. Total mortgage debt outstanding is $14.4 trillion, about $400 billion below the record set in 2008. Any increase in mortgage interest rates would dampen demand. Household finances should be able to weather a fairly large price drop.”

Drew & Christine Morgan are REALTORS/NOTARY PUBLIC in Belmont, CA. with more than 20 years of experience in helping sellers and buyers in their community. As Diamond recipients, Drew and Christine are ranked in the top 50 RE/MAX agents nationwide and the top 3 in Northern California.  They may be reached at (650) 508.1441 or emailed at info@morganhomes.com.

For all you need to know about Belmont, subscribe to this blog right here. You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Morganhomes and on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/morganhomes

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario

 

 

Farm House Restaurant Soon to Open in Belmont!

We’re excited about the upcoming opening of the Farm House at 1301 Sixth Street in Belmont, which many of you may recall was the location of the old Belli Deli.Farm House Restaurant

The place sat empty for the last several years but we recently stopped by to check out what’s going on since there’s a new sign out front.

The chef, Josh, was doing some work on the refrigeration, (they picked a good day since we’ve been in a mini-heat wave).

We get a lot of techies in Belmont since were so close to the action, and Josh is no different. He was a chef for Google before landing a spot as head chef for the new Farm House restaurant.

Josh is an affable guy who seems genuinely interested in doing some simple good food.

What’s in store? We’ll let the owner Katie weigh in on the details, but Josh hinted that the menu will be down to earth farm staples like rotisserie chicken. They’ll also be open for dinner soon which is always welcome news for Belmont foodies. Josh said they’ll probably keep the menu simple at first and grow it along with the business. It appears to be more of a real restaurant than it’s predecessor with a full kitchen and sit-down dining inside an out.

Watch for them to open sometime in July, if all things go as planned.

We welcome the new Farm House and wish them the best in their new endeavor!

Five Mistakes Buyers Often Make When Shopping for a Home

[WE REPOSTED MUCH OF THE MATERIAL BELOW—BUT ADEED SOME CLARIFYING COMMENTS AS WELL AS CONTRIBUTED OUR OPINION TO MAKE THE MESSAGE MORE SPECIFIC TO OUR MARKET]

You’ve seen every house on the market and you’ve finally found the spot you can’t wait to call home. In fact, you’ve mentally decorated it and planned your new life, down to the barbecues and block parties you’ll have with your awesome new neighbors. Sweet!

Don’t get ahead of your skis.

As you know, you still have one giant hurdle to overcome: You’ve got to make the offer that wins the house. And in a highly competitive housing market, that can be easier said than done. Don’t blow your chances with any of these common home offer mistakes.

  1. Dragging your feet

If you found the ideal property, the worst thing you can do is wait to make an offer. Of course, you’re allowed to have some feelings of uncertainty—after all, this is likely the biggest financial decision you’ve made in your life. But the longer you vacillate, the greater the chances you’ll set yourself up for failure.

Related Articles

“Time kills deals,” says Andrew Sandholm of BOND New York Properties, in New York City. “Dragging your feet means you could wind up paying more in a bidding war situation or missing out on the property all together.”

Not only should you be emotionally ready to pounce, but be logistically ready as well. That means pulling together all your paperwork—bank statements, pre-approval letter, and any documents supporting proof of funds—while you’re house hunting.

  1. Offering your max pre-approved amount

Today’s sellers are often besieged by multiple suitors, and the successful buyer will be one who’s prepared for a bidding war. The best way to arm yourself for battle is to make sure you’ve got a strong financial arsenal. That means getting pre-approved (do this now, if you haven’t already) to show a seller you’re financially prepared to buy a home—their home.

When you make an offer, beware of submitting a price on your pre=approval that exactly matches the amount you were pre-approved for, says Chuck Silverston, principal at Unlimited Sotheby’s International Realty in Brookline, MA.

You want to show financial strength. It’s better to have an approval for the highest loan amount you are qualified for—the difference, will be your down payment.

An exact pre-approval could make a listing agent nervous because not only does the buyer not have any room to increase their offer if they are not the highest, they may look stretched on paper if the home doesn’t appraise.

  1. Using an obscure lender

Also consider using a well-known local mortgage lender or bank. But before you do, be sure and speak with us. Many agents are leery of certain lenders. You’ll want to make sure your lender has as strong a reputation as that of your agent for closing transactions. Choosing an out-of-area lender could worsen the likelihood of your offer being accepted.

  1. Having unnecessary contingencies. We wrote an in-depth article about just how much having a contingency in your offer could cost you. If a buyer is nervous enough to want to back out of a deal on a contingency, that is sufficient reason for a seller to be nervous as well. By adding a contingency to their offer, the buyer is shifting the risk of an unknown to the seller, instead of absorbing it themselves. Better to pay for your own additional inspection if you need one prior to delivering your offer, so it’s not contingent upon it. If the contingency is for the appraisal, understand that you are liable for only 80% of the difference. Want to make your offer really stand out? Increase the down payment from 20% to 25% and the seller will feel much more comfortable—especially in a bidding frenzy where the home is selling for far over the asking price. Why? Because it will have to appraise for far less.

If you want the full explanation, read this article we did on how to calculate an appraisal value for you home.

  1. Letting outsiders sway your offer

When you’re buying a home, you probably want a second opinion. And what you’ll probably get is more like a third, fourth, fifth and so on. We get it. But beware of letting these people—who mean well but probably haven’t seen the many, many other homes you’ve seen—influence your offer.

The trusted adviser does what they think is best and tries to protect the buyer and usually slams the home. Unfortunately, they don’t have the education in seeing the other 10 homes you’ve seen, or understand today’s market. This is especially true if there’s a generational gap. Your parents, as well meaning as they may be, no doubt haven’t kept up on the values. If you hired a professional REALTOR to help you, it’s really best to listen to their advice first, and bounce your thoughts off of your other confidants as a secondary avenue.

  1. Not selling yourself

Wait, isn’t it the seller who, you know, does the selling? It might not sound quite fair, but in a seller’s market, you want to make sure you—the buyer—look as good to the seller as that picture-perfect house looks to you, Silverston says.

And it’s not just about looking good on paper. In fact, Silverston says, the offer process begins the moment the buyer steps through the door at the open house or showing.

“In today’s highly competitive environment, the listing agent is trying to determine which buyer will be the easiest to deal with,” he says.

That’s why buyers should avoid pointing out defects, asking a lot of nitpicky questions, or even insulting the owner’s taste by discussing changes they want to make.

“Basically buyers who act less than enthusiastic will see themselves at a competitive disadvantage when sellers are comparing multiple offers,” he says.

And, don’t forget to help seal the deal with a love letter—a personal touch could be enough to boost you to the top in the seller’s mind.

Drew & Christine Morgan are REALTORS/NOTARY PUBLIC in Belmont, CA. with more than 20 years of experience in helping sellers and buyers in their community. As Diamond recipients, Drew and Christine are ranked in the top 50 RE/MAX agents nationwide and the top 3 in Northern California  They may be reached at (650) 508.1441 or emailed at info@morganhomes.com.

For all you need to know about Belmont, subscribe to this blog right here. You can also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Morganhomesand on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/morganhomes

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario