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The Price of Procrastination

Everyone Wants a Lower Price, But What About the Impact of Interest Rates? Does waiting really prove to be benefical? Here is some food for thought

When shopping for a home, the natural tendency of any buyer is to want to pay the lowest price possible. It's important to keep in mind, however, that the sales price is not the only factor that determines what your monthly payment will be. In fact, the impact of higher interest rates can easily nullify any benefit of waiting for a lower price. 

  Why Should I Rush to Buy? 

While you may have heard discussions in the media about the decline of property values in many markets, the rate of decline appears to be stabilizing.  

That being said, it would not be unreasonable for you to want to hold out for an additional decline of 10%, hoping to capture the best possible price. However, as property values have declined in many areas to 2003 levels or lower, waiting longer to pull the trigger could be a mistake. Many markets are reporting that lower property values have been bringing out investors and the result has been multiple offers on many properties. Properties priced correctly are not declining and, in fact, are creating a lot of interest.

 Interest Rate Complacency 

The problem is that many home buyers have been lulled into a sense of complacency because of extremely low interest rates. Since the Federal Reserve initiated its program of buying mortgage-backed securities, which control the rates people pay for their home loans, rates had been range bound, bouncing between 4.50% to 5.00% for a 30-year fixed-rate loan. 

But do not be confused by this. These rates are artificially low! Historically, interest rates have been above 6.00%. And any rate obtained below this number is a great deal, especially on homes with price tags from 2003!    

Markets are Unforgiving 

The last two weeks of May showed just how unforgiving the markets can be for people who choose to procrastinate. In just five days, interest rates from many lenders increased anywhere from .50% to 1.00% as fixed-income investors demanded more for their money.

 For anyone who was waiting for prices to drop even more, a 1.00% increase in your interest rate would bring a higher monthly principal and interest payment on a home, even if the price of that same home had fallen an additional 10% in value.

 If you're waiting for home prices to fall even lower, be aware that while holding out for a lower price may help you win the battle, you could lose the war in terms of monthly payments and overall affordability. With the Federal Reserve scheduled to end its buying of mortgage-backed securities this year, rates only stand to go higher for those that wait. In fact, interest rates are already on the rise and could go higher from here.

Submitted to us by

Troy Mlenar

Landmarq lending

troy@landmarqlending.com

!!!!!!!!!!!! Check out the photos here

http://www.postlets.com/repb/2332416

Until your good name is besmirched. Homes for Heroes in the past has taken people leveraging our brand as flattery. We often ask if they would like to continue to use our good name by joining forces with us, and if they do not want to we are okay with that decision also. But recently something came up that does need to be addressed. We will let the Morris Daily Herald explain it.

Illinois allegation hurts ‘real' Heroes

Minneapolis, Minn-When Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan took enforcement action against the Minooka, Ill.-based Homes for Heroes Inc., says Brad Oosterhuis, it was not a reflection on the "real" Home for Heroes.

"Our organization has been serving heroes continuously since 2002, and we have a serious concern that the publication of the charge against the Homes for Heroes company in Illinois could seriously tarnish our good name," said Oosterhuis, executive director of Home for Heroes, in a recent e-mail.

Since the founding of Homes for Heroes, a press release from the Minnesota-based organization notes, many organizations have tried to duplicate the Homes for Heroes model and have illegally used the trademarked name. The widespread recognition of the Homes for Heroes name across the nation has caused many groups to attempt to leverage this successful brand to their advantage.

"While Homes for Heroes encourages all companies to support our heroes, it is illegal for them to use the Homes for Heroes trademarked name," said Ruth Johnson, president of Homes for Heroes. "It is especially disturbing when these organizations are providing false claims and tarnishing the good name and work that Homes for Heroes is doing."

In an effort to advance its cause and protect its name, Home for Heroes, which is now in its seventh year of operation, recently created the Homes for Heroes Foundation.

Due to its highly recognized name and brand nationally, the press release notes, Homes for Heroes became inundated with calls that were predominantly from severely wounded military personnel asking for assistance.

"These requests went far beyond the scope of our business model and ability to help," Johnson said. The shareholders of Homes for Heroes saw a need for a charitable organization that would have a similar vision to its own. After much thought and the desire to help, they formed the Homes for Heroes Foundation.

The foundation will endeavor to provide or coordinate financial assistance to the heroes of our nation, such as military, police officers, firefighters and first responders who are in need.

Meanwhile, with the busy spring housing market well under way, Homes for Heroes affiliates will continue to "give back" by providing significant savings to its local heroes, particularly military personnel, police officers, firefighters, teachers, health care workers and others who serve our country and communities everyday.

If you would like more information about the Homes for Heroes, please call Ruth Johnson at (866) 443-7637 or log onto www.homesforheroes.com or www.homesforheroesfoundation.org.

In her enforcement action against the Minooka-based company using the Homes for Heroes name, Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleged the company and its owner, Patrick Gleason of Minooka, conducted a fraudulent charitable solicitation campaign and engaged in deceptive practices by falsely representing the local Homes for Heroes is "a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization."

Gleason has gone on record calling the IAG's action "absurd."

"This is absurd," he said. We filed for our corporation and status a long time ago. The IRS asked us to put it on good paper, not wallpaper. It was done, it was all signed and sent in again. So, they're trying to smear our names with improprieties ..."

I saw an article the other day about how a town changed the name of a street because the street name was causing problems for the residents. Deliveries were not being made, and there were numerous indecent exposures going on at all times of day. No, don't worry, we at Homes for Heroes have not run into any problems. So that must have you asking yourselves, how could a street name cause that much grief? Is it a new road? Nope. That would be too easy. Such as "Ruby Tuesday Dr." named after one of the Rolling Stones songs. But in that case the major issues would be sign stealing or a mob of people waiting to take a picture next to the sign.

Something I should clarify. This street inhabits a portion of ground in an English speaking country. We have all seen the web photos of some tourist in front of a non-english speaking country sign that is funny if taken in English. This instance does not fit that category. The street sign is in plain english. So again, you should be either very frustrated and yelling, just get to it, or preferably, you should be asking yourself what in tarnations would cause the residents of a street to petition the city council to have the street renamed, wiping out hundreds of years of history?

Well you could live on Butt Hole Road. Yup. Delivery services don't believe the address so they just throw your packages to the undeliverable pile. Order a pizza for delivery, you get hung up on when they ask for your address. Some mornings as you head to your car, you might find several people mooning for a shot next to the notorious sign. Mmm, and just after breakfast. Think of the kids that get in trouble with their teacher. "Young Master Tom, can you tell me your address?" "Why yes, Miss Turing. It is 14 Butt Hole Road." "To the office with you, I'll not have any of that language in my classroom!!"

It might seem charming at first.....

Butt Hole Road is now Archer Way. I keep trying to come up with something equally sinister for Archer Way as Butt Hole but I get squat. I suppose some would think living on Butt Hole Road is better than living in Crapstone, England or in Penistone (pronounced PENNUS tun). But any of those on an employment application could put you right into the circular file. Titty Ho, England however, might get a second glance, depending on which gender is reviewing your resume. I did some research into Butt Hole Road and first found something on Webster.com. It provides the following definition for the word butt.

butt
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Anglo-French but, bout, from Old Occitan
bota, from Late Latin buttis
Date:
14th century
1: a large cask especially for wine, beer, or water 2: any of various
units of liquid capacity ; especially : a measure equal to 108 imperial
gallons (491 liters)

So could that be the simple answer? The road served as a watering hole for the village of Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England all those centuries ago? A little more digging and I find something equally as plausible. Around the same time in the 1300's a butt was also an embankment to catch arrows and "missles" as they flew at you. A road traveling through this embankment could very easily have been called the butt hole. The word Butt was not associated with our portable seat cushion until well after the road was named. An old 14th century battle manual also mentions that when learning to shoot your bow and arrow you should start by "shooting at the butt". Once you can hit the target you can then move to harder targets in the field. They also give hints on how to shoot the arrows from between your legs. I apologize for those last several sentences were really hard to get through without conjuring up all sorts of puns.

So modern mans use of the English language has changed over history and when you are looking to purchase a home there are two major things you need to take away from this article.

Most important is to get a hold of Homes for Heroes. They will save you a good amount of money when purchasing as well as selling a home.

And almost as equally important, is pay attention to the address. You may love the house, as I am sure all the inhabitants of Butt Hole Road did, but they found out with much frustration that living on historic Butt Hole Road is a lonely place. And you will be proud of how I refrained from the several hundred puns I could have used.

I am running out of space. My boss has limited me to 15 inches of text, not including pictures. But I did want to tell you about a story I heard today regarding the valiant and brave Marines of 2/5 in Afghanistan. I guess it will