ing for 20 percent over market is a mistake. “We still have appraisals on the other end of the deal, and it still has to be based on comparable sales.” The fall and winter lull may not happen. Homebuyers generally try to relocate in the late spring and summer months before school begins, but central Oklahoma’s conditions may keep ripe options on the vine for a while. Interest rates are still low and not likely to skyrocket, Pryor says. “I wouldn’t hesitate to tell someone to put their home on the market in September.” If it’s a great offer, don’t blow it. It’s tempting in a seller’s market with multiple bidders to wait for more lucrative proposals. But if you’re getting a price that you wanted from the beginning, it’s better to take it, Pryor said. Go for it. Simon Shingleton, an agent who handles million-dollarplus homes for Keller Williams Realty Elite, offers a few tips for modern marketing: Consider a dedicated website for your listing, full-motion video with touches like burning fireplaces to spur buyers’ imaginations and release all your marketing tools – from yard signs to mailings aimed at qualified buyers – all at once. “When you prime it so that everyone has a fair shot to get in on day one, you can really kind of create a little bit of a buzz and the urgency that we need to get in,” he said.
FINANCING THE DREAM
F
ear not. The hype that post-recession, stringent mortgage loan rules will stymie you from buying your dream home is greatly overstated. So says Jason Stier, mortgage sales manager for First Fidelity Bank. “If things are presented properly and expectations are managed in the beginning, getting loans done in 30 days or less is not an issue,” he says. “Even on the quirky ones, if all those quirks are addressed up front and expectations are managed, you should have no issues getting those loans through in a timely manner.” One highly recognizable benefit of the Great Recession reforms is that home loan seekers are seeing fewer offers of “no money down” or “no credit history needed.” Interest-only and low-doc/nodoc loans no longer flood the market. “Those things, to a degree, are pretty much gone,” Stier said. They’ve been replaced by vanilla loan options with stable track records of success. Beyond conventional, government-backed loans from private lenders, metro cities and counties offer programs to help citizens become homeowners. Norman, Oklahoma City, Edmond and others offer down-payment assistance backed by federal lending programs. For anyone looking to buy, especially in a hot market, pre-qualifying for a loan is step one, Stier says. About 30 percent of prospective buyers don’t bother with it – to their great disadvantage, he adds. For homeowners with average means, renovation loans usually involve refinancing their home’s mortgage to factor in the residence’s value after improvements. If you’re “buying ugly” with plans to renovate, the FHA offers a 203(k) rehabilitation loan that lets qualified
buyers purchase a residence in need of repairs and include the renovation costs in a single mortgage. The housing agency also promotes an Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) program for financing highefficiency upgrades as part of refurbishing. Another option is a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC), which avoids closing costs and other expenses involved with refinancing. Then there are home equity loans, refinancing with cash out and more. Contact banks, credit unions and brokers for more along those lines.
STAND IN THE PLACE WHERE YOU LIVE In a seller’s market with limited options, homeowners
are transforming the all-too-familiar into fabulous. And if you love where you’re living, maybe all you need to do is rev up the neighborhood vibe.
M
ichael and Mary Matlock have a lot invested in their neighborhood, Kickingbird Estates. They dipped their hearts in first. Michael was 15 years old and Mary one year younger when they shared their first kiss on Nighthawk Court, near the creek. She lived in the neighborhood. Michael had traveled all the way from his parents’ home in south OKC to Edmond. That night, Mary was smitten. “Tonight we had our first kiss. Someday, I am going to marry that boy,” she wrote in her diary. Their long-distance infatuation ended that fall, but they kept in touch from time to time. Seven years later, they started dating again. In the spring of 2003, Michael proposed – right there on Nighthawk Court. In 2007, Olivia Ji-Anna Matlock met her parents for the first time. With Mary’s memories of Kickingbird as a pretty great place to grow up, the Matlock family next chose their first home: a singlestory ranch-style in Kickingbird Estates. More things had changed, though, than their budget for diapers. The neighborhood was built mostly in the 1970s as an upscale development on 160 acres near Bryant and Danforth. The home designs and layouts of around 2,500 to 4,600 square feet are as individual as their owners. Blue pools reflect swaying ripples of midday sun on the walls of most homes. Commuting home from work, Michael noticed small changes. The neighborhood’s common areas thickened with higher grass. Entrances and community gardens designed to welcome with flowers and neatly trimmed landscaping were neglected. Individual homeowners were becoming more lax about their own upkeep, too. “It was in bad shape,” said Mary, now 33. Kickingbird had weathered a recession, but by 2010, Michael, Mary and other homeowners had seen enough to show up at a homeowners’ association meeting. “We watched things deteriorate, and we really wanted to go to the SEPTEMBER 2013 // SLICE 39