Happy New Year! We hope 2018 is your best year yet.
Happy New Year! We want to take a minute to thank our wonderful friends, clients, and family members who worked with us or helped us this past year.
Thank you so much for your trust in us here at Diamond Residential Mortgage- Libertyville. Jan has been serving mortgage clients for over 20 years now, and we are just very thankful for all of your support.
We hope you have a wonderful and fabulous 2018. Make it your best year yet!
Make 2018 your best year yet!
If you have any real estate or mortgage questions, remember, you can always give us a call. We would be happy to help you!
The Fed’s announcement to cut back its balance sheet means the longer you wait to buy or sell a home, the harder it might be for you.
The Federal Reserve just announced a move that will have a big impact on both home buyers and sellers.
At the latest Fed meeting on September 20th, Fed Chair Janet Yellen announced that the Fed would start to cut back its balance sheet. While that might sound boring compared to the usual announcements of Fed rate hikes, it's actually a very big deal.
You see, when the financial crisis hit 10 years ago, the Fed needed to take emergency measures, so it injected a huge amount of money into the economy. The Fed did this by buying up various financial assets totaling $3.5 trillion, an enormous sum that made up almost 25% of the entire U.S. economy at the time.
This money helped stabilize various markets and get the economy back on track. However, the Fed is confident that the economy is now doing well enough for it to slowly start taking some of that money back. And that's exactly what this announcement was all about.
As you can imagine, this is going to have a massive impact throughout the economy, including on real estate. According to experts, it will inevitably put upward pressure on consumer borrowing costs, such as mortgage rates, which have stayed fairly low in spite of the Fed's actions so far.
In other words, if you are thinking of buying a home, the Fed's most recent move will eventually make it more expensive for you to do so because you will be paying more in interest. If you are looking to sell your home, this might mean there will be fewer interested buyers, which might drive prices down and might make it harder to sell.
Now, this won't happen immediately, because the Fed's balance sheet rollback will be gradual. As a matter of fact, the Fed is only reducing its balance sheet by a mere $10 billion a month to start with.
But make no mistake, while the Fed's moves will take time to bear fruit, they will drive up interest rates, particularly as the Fed ramps this process up in the coming months.
That's why if you've been thinking of getting into the real estate market, now is such a crucial time.
If you have any questions, whether about buying or selling your home, or about the details of the Fed's announcement and what they mean for you, give me a call. I'm here to help.
Real estate investing is on the rise. Here are five different ways you can get involved.
Investing in real estate is no longer restricted to the super wealthy. According to a recent survey, real estate investors now make up 15% of the population. That translates to almost 50 million individuals who invest in at least one property other than their primary residence. In fact, 89% of U.S. investors are interested in putting their money in real estate because of benefits such as cash flow, tax incentives, leverage, and value appreciation that come with investing in multiple properties.
Real estate investing is on the rise. Here are five different ways you can get involved.
Are you curious about investing in real estate? If so, here are five different ways you can get started: 1. Buy and rent This is probably the most traditional way to invest in real estate. It simply involves buying a property and renting it out. Now is a good time for this kind of investing because rental rates are on the rise (8% since last year) but the downside of this investing approach is the time and effort needed to manage and maintain your investment. 2. Buy and sell Also known as home flipping, this involves buying a property and reselling it soon after for a profit. Home flipping has offered a record-breaking 49% return in 2016. 3. Real estate investment groups Real estate investment groups are organizations that buy a set of properties and then sell them to individual investors.The main benefit of this approach is that you typically do not need to act as the landlord because the investment group handles property management for you (for a fee of course). 4. Crowdfunding sites Recently, there's been an explosion of sites such as Prosper and Lending Club, which allow individuals to invest in various real estate development projects. Through crowdfunding sites, you can be a part of a large-scale property investment while investing only a moderate amount of money. On the other hand, crowdfunding sites act as a middleman and charge fees which can eat into your profits. 5. REITs Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are like mutual funds for real estate.They typically pay high dividends. However, they also do not offer all of the typical benefits of investing in real estate, such as increased leverage and tax benefits. Each of these investing approaches offers a tradeoff between possible profits, risks, and costs. The one constant is that you can minimize your risks with due diligence and by consulting with an experienced real estate professional. If you have any questions for us or you’re interested in investing in real estate yourself, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.
