Why Now Is A Great Time For The Seattle First Time Home Buyer To Purchase A Home
If you have ever wondered if now is a good time to buy for the Seattle First Time Home Buyer? The answer is a resounding YES!
A lot of the first time home buyers I meet with ask me the question should I wait until the market bottoms out or should I buy now, and the answer I give them is to buy now.
My reasoning for this answer is because of several factors which I will discuss in this article.
First off I need to say that nobody knows when the bottom will hit and if you wait too long you will end up in a sellers market just like we had in the middle of the current decade. There was a lack of inventory and every single house that was being sold had several offers on the table and the seller had total control of what they wanted to do.
The second factor is the inventory we have and the deals that can be made today. I have a very close personal friend that is a Realtor and in the market for a home as well. She is always on the multiple listing site looking at home partly out of her passion but mostly because she is looking for the deal of the day.
I have been out with her and seen some of the short sales and bank owned properties that are in pretty good shape and with a little minor work such as paint, carpets and a few other things you could have purchased a home under market value and have an instant equity position of up to $100,000 or more.
The other part of these deal properties is that you can get into them for as little as $100 down and have the seller or bank pay all or most of your closing costs. I have had 3 clients in the past 2 months that did this very thing. They are now proud home owners with equity in the neighborhood of $50,000 plus.
The third reason is that with the government money out there to buy these homes how can you go wrong? The Seattle First Time Home Buyer can get the $8,000 Tax Credit along with an MCC ( Mortgage Credit Certificate ) an additional Tax Credit every single year that you own the home.
The MCC is about 20% of the intereste you pay each year on the mortgage loan for your home. If you paid $12,000 in interest you would get $2,400 right off the top of your taxes just like the Tax Credit. You would also still get the remaining $9,600 in interest deducted from your itemized deductions. In essence you would get a double Tax Credit and if you are in the home for 10 years (the national average) you would save over $24,000. Now imagine what could you do with $24,000?
The other benfit of buying now is the record / historic low interest rates. This means that you can buy more house for your money since the payments on the mortgage loan would be less therefore qualifying you for more home.
Also don’t forget the MCC because you get the $2,400 right off the top of your taxes the lenders will give you that back into your income. Again adding to your purchasing power by increasing your income equally. For example if you added just $100 a month to your income you would qualify for an additional $10,000 in purchase price.
I have several other reasons, tools, programs and ideas on how to help the Seattle First Time Home Buyer and again now is one of the best times to buy a home in our lifetime. We will never see the perfect storm as we have today.
If you want more information on any of these ideas or programs please feel free to contact me.
