Common Real Estate Myths in the Maryland Market

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Today I have Amy Wolff of Direct Mortgage Loans with me. We’ll be talking about some common myths that you might hear when you’re trying to buy a home.

1. Myth: You need 20% down to buy a home. You don’t have to put 20% down, and some loan programs don’t even require a down payment. Each loan program will have different requirements.
2. Myth: You need an amazing credit score to get approved. You don’t need an 800 credit score to get a loan. As long as you’re in the 580-600 range, you should be eligible for a few different loans.
3. Myth: Your income determines how much you can borrow. Someone who makes $100k per year but has a lot of expenses on car loans or other monthly fees may not be approved for as much as someone who makes $50k but doesn’t have all those outstanding debts.
4. Myth: Pre-qualification and pre-approval are the same. This is completely false, and you will need a pre-approval if you want sellers to even entertain your offer. Pre-qualifications don’t really cut it anymore. A pre-approval is much deeper and more trustworthy.

5. Myth: All agents are the same. Not all agents are created equal, and not all of them treat their business the same. Our team has some of the top agents in the market and we continue to excel every single day.
6. Myth: The seller pays all the closing costs. This is different for every single transaction, and it all comes down to what happens in the negotiations.
7. Myth: It's cheaper to rent than to buy. This is absolutely false. For most mortgages, you will pay less monthly than you would if you were still renting. It might be time to stop paying off someone else’s mortgage and start investing in your own future.
8. Myth: The asking price is the selling price. You can ask a buyer to pay $200,000 for your home, but that doesn’t mean that someone will pay that amount for your home. This rarely happens, and often times you will get a little more or a little less than that. The selling price is almost always different from the original asking price.

These are some common misconceptions that buyers have about the real estate market. It’s important to understand the truth in order to set the correct expectations when you dive into a real estate sale.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me, interest rates are incredibly low and 2016 will be a fantastic year to buy a home!

How we helped Lisa Bosnjak by making her feel like our top priority.

"The Jay Day Team first sold out our home and then we used them to purchase our next home. When we first contacted Jay Day, our home had been on the market for 14 months and we weren't having any luck. We heard an ad for Jay Day on the radio and got in touch with them because we were very interested in their marketing plan. We took our home off the market and met with Christina a few times and discussed her marketing plan. Once we put our home back on the market we had tons and tons of traffic through the house, so clearly the marketing plan worked. We even got an offer, so it was very successful!

After having such a great experience with Christina, we went with her again when we were buying. We went over expectations of what we were looking for and she found a whole bunch of listings online for us to look at. She took us to a whole bunch of houses but we found a house on the second trip out with her. She took us through buying it and was really flexible with us and our timeline, so now we're in our new house!

Communication was above and beyond. It didn't matter what day of the week it was or what time it was, she would always get in touch with us. Even if she called back to say she's at her daughter's ice skating competition or she was driving somewhere, she would let us know exactly when she was going to be available. Every question was always answered whether it was an email, text, or a phone call. I have no idea how many clients they have, but we felt like we were the top priority. Everyone always paid attention to us, knew who we were, responded to our questions in a timely fashion, and their marketing program really worked. I have no idea how much effort it took for them to do it all, but it really worked!"

      Lisa Bosnjak, Home Buyer and Seller

How we helped Angela Denisiuk by being upfront and professional.

"We worked with Christina and she was amazing. She showed up to the first appointment, she was prepared, she had already looked at the comps in the neighborhood, she told us what she needed from us, she walked through the house, and she was very upfront and professional. It was great.

We were only clients for somewhere around six weeks. The house went on the market on a Thursday. We had a fully executed contract within 10 days and we closed three weeks after that. Christina got us $5,000 above what the house appraised at and she was there for us every step of the way. She was the reason the contract went so quickly and we were able to be completely done with the process in literally six weeks. We met with her and moved out of our house all within six weeks!"
      Angela Denisiuk, Home Seller

How we helped David Lattimore by working in a tight schedule.

"Long story short, Christina sold our house in a pretty quick time frame. She was really efficient and helpful, sort of pushy with certain things. At the end of the day we were able to find middle ground that helped us get the outcome that we needed. Having our house sell at a specific price and have it sell within a specific time frame because we were having a place built. We needed everything to line up and it very closely did. I don't think we could have asked for it to work out better than it did to be honest. Our builder was facing major delays because of issues that they did not plan for. Our house sold pretty quickly. Christina was able to negotiate a lease back for our place so we could stay there an extra two weeks. She also worked with our builder to figure out different things they could be doing to better our living situation. Just all around she was extremely helpful, mainly with the lease back but also in terms of setting appointments and working around our schedule. We had a tight schedule for when we could do showings and she was aggressive with how much she wanted to show the house. It all worked out pretty well I'd say."
      David Lattimore, Home Seller

How we helped Nancy Winfield by keeping her up to date on the sale.

"The process was quicker than I thought it would be. It is a hard time to sell your place. I had sold and moved and was just waiting to get my home sold. I was very satisfied with it, they handled it very well. They worked hard for me because my husband was very ill at the time, in fact he passed away before the place sold. Christina always called and kept me up to date on how things were going and kept moving things along. I appreciated that. She was always in touch so I didn't have to keep calling to see what was going on and that was very helpful to me."
      Nancy Winfield, Home Seller