Mortgages Rates at their Lowest Levels

Mortgage rates hovered at their lowest levels of the year for the third straight week this week, according to a survey published by Freddie Mac. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 4.1 percent for the week according to Freddie’s survey.

One of the bigger surprises of 2014 may be that mortgage rates might end the year lower than they began, at around 4.5 percent, even as the Federal Reserve has gradually pared back its purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

Mortgage refinancing has largely subsided because even though mortgage rates are at their lowest levels of the year, they’re still higher than they were for all of 2012 and the first half of 2013, when the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to as low as 3.3 percent. 

A Happy Ending!

Do you remember the drawing my client's daughter drew of the house they were hoping to find in Davis?

The hope was to find an original Mid-Century Modern home on a great Central Davis street in close proximity to their child's schools, friends and downtown. I have good news to report, we found it! Here is the actual home they purchased... it'll be filled with people parading into their house as their daughter pictured once they get more settled. :)

It has been so much fun to see my clients formulate their ideas for improvements and give serious attention to keeping the integrity of the Mid-Century Modern bones in tack. This photo depicts what the living area looked like during the showing stage:

My clients have added a fantastic dramatic dark gray wall and painted the beams to update the look... and look at that gorgeous hardwood floor! What a difference a few tasteful decisions can make!

I'll be sure to post more updates as they send them along... after all, who doesn't love a good makeover?

Bathroom Progress

Remodeling is difficult and pricey! It's a bit of a roller coaster ride with exciting days with lots of progress and other days with no progress, no workers and miscommunications. We are very happy with how things are looking but have had some issues (isn't this always the way it seems to go with home renovations?).

We love our new Robern medicine cabinets but not the chipped glass in one of the mirrors.

We love the clean look of the shower door but not the puddle on the floor after each shower, we are trying to figure out a solution. Have you ever dealt with this problem?

We love the paint color but not the wall imperfections that were not prepped correctly. We thought a black toilet seat would make a great statement but...not so much. A white one has just been ordered. And blue painters tape "door pulls" gets old, I cannot wait for the glass knobs that I ordered!

We are almost to the finish line and I cannot wait to accessorize and truly enjoy the new space without sharing it with workmen. I'll be sure to post the final photos, with some great before shots.

 

Introducing Justin...

I mentioned in my last post that my son, Justin, has joined the real estate team! I wanted to kick off his time with a proper introduction:

What did you do before real estate and do you think your past career will be helpful as a Realtor?

Before real estate my work was always in a customer service industry and I enjoyed working with many different people and personalities. Mainly my focus was on managing restaurants and working hard everyday to understand what people needed/wanted and then I turned it into a service for them to enjoy. This was great experience to merge into a real estate career! Knowing my client's needs and wants and advocating for them while they are making the biggest purchases of their life is a great experience.

When you are not working what do you enjoy doing? What are your interests?

I think it's so important to know the community you service; experience and enjoy what's around you!  Saying that, I find myself enjoying the great restaurant scene Sacramento/Davis has to offer and always trying to experience new foods and experiences. Always on my mind is looking for a new hike or a new golf course to experience, two of my favorite hobbies. I am also a musician and hearing a new band is always exciting to me.

Why did you decide that real estate was the direction to go in?

To be able to challenge yourself everyday to strive higher. It's always a joy to go out everyday and have no idea what new people you may meet or in what way you may be able to help them achieve their goals.  Real estate is a family business, I am a third generation Realtor, I remember looking at my Grandfather's real estate books in his office and admiring my mother's business as well. Our family is full of people persons!

Are you concerned about working with your Mom?

Never. I love my mother and she is a great and what she does. I am happy to have the best mentor I could ask for!

 

What will your clients likely say about you and your skills as a Realtor?

That's tough to say at this point, but I hope that everyone will enjoy their experience with me.  I will try to help my clients turn this huge purchase into an easy going situation as best I can. I hope we can have a little fun and also succeed in our challenges.

Best Return on Investment Home Projects

This has been a great season in the real estate business; I've had the honor of working with some great first-time home buyers and my son Justin has joined my real estate team! We'll talk about Justin more another day (you really should have a proper introduction to him :)) but today we are going to focus on things that buyers, like these first-time buyers, can do to improve their house but get the biggest bang for their buck.

A great resource for home buyers is Remodeling magazine's Cost vs. Value report. Before deciding on home renovations make sure you check out how much you'll recoup from  your investment. The five smartest improvements you can make to your space (if you are in the Sacramento area) are based on the return on investment (ROI):

If you replacing your entry door with a new steel door you will actually make money off of this investment... 113% of your cost is predicted to be recouped. Consider replacing your current door with one that's more energy-efficient like THIS ONE from Home Depot (it's $550!).

A wood deck addition has an ROI of 109%. I'd believe this based off the amount of satisfaction buyers get when seeing a well presented outdoor living space, especially in an area like Sacramento where buyers are able to be outside enjoying the space for more of the year than they are in many other parts of the country. For example, in Syracuse, NY area where I'm originally from the ROI on a wood deck is only 80%.

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You'll recover 102% of the cost you put into a basement remodel or a attic bedroom. Why do you think this is? It's because this remodel (if the spaces were unfinished before) is actually adding square footage to your home. Unfinished areas, like attics and basements, are not considered when calculating the livable square footage to your property.

via (where you can see 18 amazing attic remodels!)

Embarking on a minor, and well done, kitchen remodel with net you a profit with 104% ROI. This data is considering around $20,000 put into the remodel (read: don't splurge on Viking appliances if you want 104% back! :)) This couple from the blog Bower Power bought a foreclosure and switched out the appliances, back splash, lighting and painted their cabinets and it made such a difference in attaining their light and bright kitchen (did you know it's easier to sell a house with white cabinets because they are almost universally appealing?).

Before: 

After:

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Replacing your windows with either wood or vinyl replacements will allow a 100 - 102% return with this investment.

I hope this list helped you narrow down some priorities or dreams for renovating or improving your home in the coming years!

Master Bath Update

Last time we left off with the story of our master bath update you saw the truck hauling away the entire contents of our 1970s bathroom. The destruction has ended and thankfully now the fun part of putting the room back together has begun. All of the choices and decisions made long ago are becoming a reality. Its a small bathroom (and our only full bath...gotta love a 1940's home) so it took a bit of head scratching to make it work but I feel confident it will be a very well-designed upgrade from the original that will certainly add value to our home.

Our two must haves were a double sink and a bit more privacy for the toilet area. You can tell from the photo above that the toilet is tucked away and below we currently have the hookups for our double sink; it's so nice that we can see visible progress towards the bathroom that has been in our mind for months.

We wanted a black and white bathroom but a "tweaked" version of the classic style. The only things that we decided to keep from the previous bathroom were the tub, door and window. It's been great to see the "old" tub get new life with fantastic looking subway tile.

The white subway tile contrasts gorgeously with the black slate floor.

What has been your favorite makeover project in your house? Has there been anything that you've done that's made a real difference with how you live?

Bathroom Reno: Part One

We have been planning and looking forward to a bath remodel since the day we moved into our tudor. Not only was the bath tired but it had a late 1970's, possibly early 1980's vibe to it; on top of that we also suspected that there some moisture and dry rot issues. 

We are working with David Hill Construction for this project. We asked that they start the project while we were back East visiting family and they were game. It was a wise choice since the demo is messy business!

While the bathroom was being disassembled they found very faulty wiring and lots of dry rot, like we suspected... it's a good thing we took this reno down to the studs!

The wiring has been corrected and they are putting the bath back together.  It was so much fun making all of the selections for the bath with the help of my friend and designer Laura Nathan, she has amazing talent! After we brainstormed our dream bathroom I collected estimates on the cost of the project and then did some re-selecting of materials to bring costs in line for what we had budgeted.

This is the last view of our 1970s bathroom and I couldn't be more excited to see it carted away!