Another Head-Spinner for Dagsboro Mortgage Interest Rates
By the end of last week, with world financial markets quavering and Wall Street chalking up the worst start for any year ever, you’d think that Dagsboro’s real estate outlook would be as worrisome as the rest of the economy’s.
Not necessarily.
For sure, there was enough to worry about. If world trade levels continue to unravel, it’s hard to see how the U.S. economy doesn’t head south—and that’s usually bad news for anyone trying to sell anything. For Dagsboro home owners planning to add their properties to this spring’s listings, seeing the stock market inaugurate the year with a full-blown correction would normally be unnerving.
Yet there were two outside factors that worked to counteract such a reaction—and at least one of them had not been widely anticipated.
The first factor is the textbook connection between financial assets (Wall Street’s stock in trade) and real goods (Dagsboro real estate is, if anything, the definition of ‘real’). It’s an inverse correlation. Not always, but often, the more insecure “securities” become, the more money tilts toward real assets: precious metals, commodities, real estate, agricultural land and oil. If for no other reason than the unanimous hand-wringing of the economic commentators, that should make holdings in property a more desirable place to park assets. At least in theory.
The second factor was the widely unforeseen one. By last Friday, Mortgage News Daily’s Matthew Graham was writing about how investors were fleeing riskier assets “seeking safer haven” in the bonds that back mortgages. The result was one that affected local mortgage interest rates—one of the key drivers of affordability for Dagsboro home buyers. “Mortgage rates surged lower,” Graham noted, “at the quickest pace of the year.”
Ever since the Federal Reserve’s decision to tiptoe into the first interest rate increase in many years, nearly everyone had predicted a slow rise in Dagsboro mortgage interest rates—one likely to continue throughout the rest of 2016. Instead, by the end of the week, commentators were reporting mortgage rates approaching 7-month lows! It really was a head-spinner: 7 months ago was long before the Fed raised that supposedly crucial Fed Funds rate. And now the commentators were casting doubt on when the next rate hike would take place…if at all…
Lest we fall into the trap of thinking we can predict what lies ahead, one distant mortgage branch manager, after being quoted as saying that the year has been “great for rates” so far, admitted “Things could change quickly in markets like this.” That’s for certain—but for the moment, Dagsboro mortgage interest rates are one strong factor that makes buying or selling a more doable prospect than would have seemed to be the case just a month ago— as well as a great reason to stop putting off that call to my office! Call/Text me Russell Stucki at (302) 228-7871, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit more listings at www.beachrealestatemarket.com.
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Dagsboro Mortgage Holders Consider Wisdom of Early Payoffs
It’s usually around this time of year when the one in charge of keeping track of your Dagsboro household’s finances either sits down to do some budget arithmetic, or (at a minimum) goes hunting for a new shoe box to hold the coming year’s tax receipts.
Both activities are simply exercises in ascertaining what is being spent (philosophers might recognize this as a Search for Enlightenment) – rather than actually doing anything about it. For those Dagsboro mortgage holders more inclined to be actively engaged in improving their budgetary bottom lines, the credit.com website recently presented a question not often heard: are there any drawbacks to prepaying your mortgage?
Normally, the idea of making extra mortgage payments is presented as an unalloyed great idea. What’s not to like? You pay off your mortgage sooner than would otherwise be the case, which has to put any Dagsboro family’s budget in better shape. Because, from the moment you make an extra payment, the balance of your mortgage is less than would otherwise be the case, each succeeding payment’s interest amount is that much smaller. Obviously, at the end of the mortgage’s term, the total amount of interest paid will have been reduced. Budgetary magic? Maybe not…but a reasonably prudent idea? You’d think so.
The point of the article is another view of that common sense idea. Paying down your mortgage more quickly “may not be the best overall strategy for your finances,” according to the article’s author, Karin Mueller. She was addressing a consumer who reported paying $6,000 extra toward his mortgage principal, but hadn’t felt fairly compensated by the amount the resulting payments showed.
The reason, according to the article, was that the reduction in the amount of principal owed was so small compared with the amount of the loan that the pennies saved in interest is fairly inconsequential. This might be valid—but in addition to those interest ‘pennies’ saved, the real savings come at the end of the loan’s term, when you are able to retire it months earlier than originally scheduled. And those ‘pennies’ do turn into dollars when you add them all up.
It is here that readers might note that there is a link in tiny type at the top of the credit.com page that says ‘Advertiser Disclosure.’ When you click it, you learn that credit.com is being compensated by some of the financial products discussed. It’s fair to surmise that some mortgage issuers might have decided it is against their interest to encourage Dagsboro mortgage holders to make extra payments. Despite the further explanation that “this relationship does not result in any preferential editorial treatment,” you wouldn’t be blamed for any slight suspicions that might be raised in that regard.
The article does rightly point out that, no matter what, you should always reserve some cash in the family bank account for emergencies—using that to make extra mortgage payments might not be such a good idea. Still, all in all, perhaps paying down your mortgage as soon as it’s financially comfortable to do so IS a good idea (just like we always thought it was)!
The family budget may show your Dagsboro mortgage payment as a minus in the cash flow category, but of course some of that money isn’t really gone—it goes toward building equity: the real estate portion of your net worth. Give me a call whenever you need help in that department! Call/Text me Russell Stucki at (302) 228-7871, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit more listings at www.beachrealestatemarket.com.
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Dagsboro Home Loan Game Theory Could Get Complicated
“Dagsborohome loan game theory” sounded like an intriguing topic when the phrase first occurred to me. I thought it would mean figuring out whether a mortgage would constitute a financial move that made sense. But the more I studied “game theory,” the more complicated it got. And maybe not as theoretical as I’d thought...
As far as the terms themselves are concerned, a Dagsboro“Home Loan” is exactly what it says it is: a mortgage on your Dagsborohome. “Game theory” is more obscure. For openers, “game theory” sounds like a lot more fun that it really is. It’s like the bore who wants to tell you exactly why some joke is funny—the explanation isn’t at all humorous. ‘Game theory’ isn’t about playing anything. It’s about mathematics.
Professor R.B. Myerson is the authority who tells us that game theory is the study of decision-making. It’s a dissection of “mathematical models of conflict and cooperation.” That’s a pretty good thumbnail description of the board games kids play. If you remember playing Monopoly as a child, you may also remember how mad you’d get if the other players cooperated too much. Sometimes they’d trade properties with each other so that one was able to build hotels on the dark blue properties. That meant that when you landed on Boardwalk, you went broke. Professor Myerson was right: that was a study in cooperation that would make anyone feel conflict.
But the Professor’s definition also says that game theory deals with the actions of “intelligent rational decision-makers.” In home loan game theory, when the process of filling out forms and gathering backup materials goes on and on, it can seem to stretch beyond anything that’s rational. But once you do get a Dagsborohome loan, the decision-making does seem both intelligent and rational.
“Dagsborohome loan game theory,” then, would be the study of strategic decision-making by the person who wants to obtain a home loan and the bank personnel who give the okay. Originally, game theory only dealt with zero-sum games—the ones where if someone gains something, the other one loses. It has since expanded to include all sorts of “win-win” scenarios, but at least one world-renowned investor has a different game theory about home loans. Warren Buffett is quoted as saying:
“You can take a 30-year mortgage and if it turns out your interest rate’s too high, next week you refinance lower. And if it turns out it’s too low, the other guy’s stuck with it for 30 years.”
Come to think of it, that’s exactly what has been happening ever since mortgage rates started coming down! Which is why I’m pretty sure that particular home loan game theory isn’t so theoretical at all.
Also not theoretical: given today’s mortgage interest rates, if you are thinking about looking into local real estate possibilities, giving me a call is a good next move! Call/Text me Russell Stucki at (302) 228-7871, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit more listings at www.beachrealestatemarket.com.
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A Dagsboro Virtual Tour Can Attract Buyer Interest
For many homes that will be listed for sale in Dagsboro, virtual tours will be part of their prospective buyers’ experience. It’s increasingly common that in addition to the eye-catching still photographs that enhance the online listing, some form of clickable virtual tour is there, as well.
Most frequently found are virtual tours that are actually still shots that can be displayed sequentially—this kind of virtual tour could more specifically called a ‘virtual slide show,’ because the viewer is in control of the speed at which the photos appear. When a one-click ‘play’ symbol is onscreen which triggers automatic playback (frequently with musical accompaniment or even narration), it really does produce an experience that’s like an actual tour. And further enhancements can be added, like pans across (and zooms into or out of) the still shots, creating the feeling of movement. When music or narration are added, the result can be quite effective.
Another Dagsboro virtual tour is more ambitiously produced: the shots in it consist of some (or all) motion sequences that are created with a video rather than still camera. When the camera is set into motion—as when it moves down a path or through a doorway, it can convey the feeling of actually ‘being there’ more effectively than stills. For the viewer, there is a subtle difference between what is experienced when viewing a computer-created sweep (“pan”) across a still image of a room versus a video camera actually panning across the same scene. In the video, there is more of something like a 3-D experience because the objects in the room shift in relation to one another. Not a lot…but just enough!
So which is the most effective form for a Dagsboro virtual tour? The answer is…not what you might expect. The format, whether stills, moving stills, or video is really not what makes the greatest difference. It’s vastly more important that in any format, what’s being shown is almost all that matters—or as they say in Hollywood, it’s lights! camera! action!
· Lights—blotchy lighting with areas of impenetrably deep shadows may be fine for film noir productions, but for your virtual tour of your area home, it’s a negative. A skilled photographer or videographer will see that most areas are cheerfully, brightly exposed.
· Camera—most (if not all) your images will work best when a very wide angle lens is used. It gives the impression of spaciousness.
· Action—in both video and slideshow modes, the speed at which images move should be slow enough that viewers don’t find it dizzying, yet fast enough that the pace of the ‘production’ isn’t annoyingly pokey (like this current virtual tour, which zips right along in a progression that makes sense—like an actual tour).
An Dagsboro virtual tour can provide a genuine boost to your home’s selling campaign when it is attractively produced—and accurate (thus avoiding showings to prospects for whom the property is clearly unsuited). It’s only one of the many tools which can be called into service to draw the interest of the qualified prospective buyers you need to reach. Call me if you’d like to discuss what’s happening in today’s market! Call/Text me Russell Stucki at (302) 228-7871, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit more listings at www.beachrealestatemarket.com
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