Going indie: the first chapter in my story of independence

It seems like going “indie” is the cool thing to do these days. And though I’d like to think I am super cool, the truth is that a year ago I would have never considered joining an independent brokerage.

As a partner in a top-producing team nationally with the largest franchise in North America and being well-known across the country as a supporter of the big brand, no one would have even thought to recruit me. Well, almost no one.

Life happens — things change

When I attended one of the national events for the franchise this past fall, something just felt different to me. It’s hard to say what it was, exactly, but it just didn’t feel right. Maybe it was a change in perspective, or maybe I had just become jaded from some of my experiences.

My understanding of the industry has become so much deeper over the past few years through involvement with my Realtor association and MLS. I see things from a much bigger perspective than just one company.

So, why indie?

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About a month ago I made the decision to join Scott Lincicome Properties, a small local brokerage in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I could have joined another big franchise, but I wanted to be part of something where I could exercise my passion.

Scott opened his company in early 2014, and it’s already one of the top independents in our market. Being focused on a niche market and using technology to build a lifestyle brokerage, the company vision resonated with me.

As an indie, there is more control at a local level for branding, technology, culture and vision. With less bureaucracy comes flexibility and the ability to adapt quickly to the market. What more could a geeky girl want?

The big breakup

Leaving the big brand was the first hurdle. I had made my decision, and it wasn’t something that was going to change with any conversation, so my departure came in ripping-off-the-Band­-Aid style.

Sullivan's - My Favorite Baton Rouge Steak House

And Best All Around Place To Hang Out in the 225 . . .

Sullivan's is my favorite place to socialize, network, and eat in Baton Rouge.  Leonardo Verde, who runs the Baton Rouge location, is a powerful leader and connector.  He actually has his entire staff send note cards to their clients nightly.  

Every week I receive a note card in the mail from the waiter or waitress who served me that week, yes, I am pretty much there weekly with my real estate clients.  Sullivan's is the best place to take your clients for lunch or dinner.  They do a great job of creating a great environment for you and your clients.

So if you're looking for a fun place to hang out and socialize, or looking for that upscale environment to bring your clients, and want great food and service at the same time, head over to Sullivan's. 

Did you know you can use our Online Real Estate Search Engine to see all the homes for sale in Baton Rouge?

Mortgage applications up 1.6 percent from last week

Refinance activity comprised almost half of mortgage applications

Inman Inman  editorial@inman.com  InmanNews Jun 24, 2015

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for last week showed a 1.6 percent week-over-week increase in the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume.

The Refinance Index was up 2 percent week-over-week.

Mortgage update: Mortgage applications were up 1.6 percent from last week.

Other findings:

Refinance activity comprised 49.0 percent of total applications, up from 48.5 percent the previous week.

The adjustable-rate mortgage comprised 7.0 percent of total applications, which is the highest level since December 2014.

The FHA share of total applications comprised 13.9 percent, down from 14.2 percent the previous week.

The VA share of total applications comprised 10.9 percent, down from 11.5 percent the previous week.

The USDA share of total applications comprised 0.9 percent, unchanged from the previous week.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage interest rate decreased to 4.19 percent from 4.22 percent.

The average FHA 30-year fixed-rate mortgage interest rate decreased to 3.96 percent from 4.00 percent.

The average 15-year fixed-rate mortgage interest rate decreased to 3.38 percent from 3.43 percent.

The average interest rate for 5/1 ARMs decreased to 3.04 percent from 3.15 percent.

If Your REALTOR's Photo Looks Like This You Might Want To Find A New One!

It always amazes me to see some of the photos agents choose to use to brand themselves. Photos are very important. If an agent doesn't use a professional photo of themselves, then when they list your home, chances are they won't hire a professional photographer to take the very best photos of your home. View photos of our Baton Rouge listings using our interactive real estate search engine.

Here are some photos that will make you laugh . . .

Should You Use a Baton Rouge Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home?

Even though nearly 9 out of 10 homeowners ultimately enlist a real estate agent to sell their properties, let’s face it: the thought of going it alone does go through many minds. And surveys confirm the primary motivation, which is, of course, saving the agent’s fee. Pocketing that cash would add that much more to the bottom line—that’s just common sense! Isn’t it…?

What makes sense in theory doesn’t always work out that way in the actual marketplace—in fact, the probabilities actually point in the opposite direction. The verified financial analyses tell the tale—the average sales price for real estate agent-assisted sales are so much higher than “For Sale by Owner” sales that the percentages favor the real estate agent choice: July’s updated statistics listed the difference at more than $40,000.

Going it alone can be even more costly in other ways. Selling a house yourself is a time-consuming affair—particularly if you are having to organize all the processes from the ground up. Not only do you have to do all the initial legwork to create and manage the entire marketing and sales efforts, there winds up being no guarantee of a final sale. To anyone who has ended up after months and months of work with nothing to show for it, the time lost is a major source of dissatisfaction.

However, if you are retired or for any other reason aren’t worried about devoting the needed time to the effort, attempting to sell your home without a Baton Rouge real estate agent could be a reasonable option for you…if the next two considerations don’t apply—

a)     Sometimes the most valuable asset a local real estate agent conveys is timely, accurate knowledge of the market. Having an asking price that’s too high or low can have a devastating effects on your bottom line. If it’s too high, the property can languish on the market for far too long, losing value and appeal to ensuing waves of prospective buyers. If it’s too low—lower than what would have attracted qualified buyers—you just lost the single reason you chose to do all the work yourself! If you don’t feel confident about your knowledge of market trends and recent movement, working with an active Baton Rouge real estate agent is clearly the prudent choice. 

b)    Buyers frequently choose to protect their interests by being represented by a buyers’ agent, in which case the seller is responsible for paying the buyers’ agent a fee. If you are planning to sell the house yourself, make sure you feel comfortable working with the buyer or buyer’s agent and handling negotiations yourself. This requires having working knowledge of real estate contracts and real estate laws (and everything else involved in the sale of a home). If you aren’t inclined to master 50+ pages of paperwork, it’s a pretty good reason why a real estate agent is probably for you!

If you are getting serious about selling your own home this fall, you needn’t have decided to use a Baton Rouge real estate agent to give me a call. Whatever your ultimate choice, I guarantee you will benefit from my no-pressure, obligation-free consultation!  Click here to learn what we do to get homes sold!

4 common myths about millennial buyers

With so much information floating around about the newest generation of homebuyers, it's easy to get dissuaded

 by Casey Wright   Jun 17, 2015

My favorite topic to write and speak about these days is millennial buyers. Over the past year, I have obsessively consumed any article, study or data point relating to millennials in the housing market.

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I’ve noticed that much of what is written about this generation has less to do with hard facts and more to do with subjective assumptions about how this generation should act. Here are four myths that pop up over and over again, along with the fact-based realities.

Myth 1: Millennials prefer tech-savvy Realtors

On an intuitive level, this seems like it must be true, but it simply isn’t. According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2014 Generational Survey, millennials rank an agent’s use of technology as less important than any generation. To a millennial, using social media is not unique or interesting — it’s just a baseline expectation of a human being in 2015.

If you want to connect with a millennial, stop worrying about Instagram and start being more transparent about the market. Millennials rank trustworthiness higher than any other Realtor trait, including area expertise and experience.

Myth 2: Millennials have too much student debt to buy a home

Yes, millennials have a historic amount of student loan debt. However, in most cases, that’s the only debt they have (see next myth). More importantly, millennials are involved in multigenerational financing than any previous generation.

In other words, millennials often receive help from their parents. As a result, millennials now account for 32 percent of buyers — more than any generation.

Myth 3: Millennials will make and save less money than their parents

Politicians and social commentators like to throw this phrase around all the time. Sometimes, they’ll even back it up with statistics, such as “According to a recent poll, this is the first generation of young adults that expects to make less than their parents.”

However, what people expect to happen is not necessarily what ends up happening. Just ask anyone who bought a home in 2006, expecting prices to increase.

Here’s the reality: Millennials own more home equity, stock equity and liquid cash than their generational counterparts did at this point in their lives. In other words, a 25-year-old in 2015 is statistically more wealthy (even when adjusting for inflation) than a 25-year-old in 1975, 1985, 1995 or 2005.

They are also less likely to hold credit card debt and more likely to hold an advanced college degree — both associated with future wealth creation.

Finally, this generation is waiting longer to marry and have children — two decisions that have historically led to more wealth creation. No one has a crystal ball, but the smart money is on millennials acquiring more wealth than any previous U.S. generation.

Myth 4: Millennials are difficult clients

A common misperception is that a generation obsessed with selfies must necessarily be selfish. The reality is that millennials are much more collaborative customers than any previous generation. They self-report as more satisfied with their Realtor’s service and more likely to refer business to their Realtors than clients in other generations.

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Although there’s a wealth of information floating around the “interwebs” about millennials and how to capture their business, it simply isn’t all accurate. So, don’t let it scare you away from their business. Don’t judge a millennial by their birth date — get in there and figure out what their individual needs and desires are and work to make them happen.

** Read the article from it's source, Inman here.

Casey Wright is the founder and CEO of Wright Brothers Inc., a Web development company dedicated to the residential real estate industry. You reach Casey on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Email Casey Wright.

A “Magic Number” for Baton Rouge House Flipping?

ABC’s Nightline recently aired an interesting segment about house flipping, which included a magic number that’s probably never been seen before. Baton Rouge house flippers would have been glued to their TVs if they’d stayed up late enough to catch Nightline, because if authentically magical, it’s a good number to know.

The segment was part of a series called “Realty Check.” This one was about new strategies in the “ever-competitive world of flipping.” The show started with some background about how expensive house flipping can be if it’s done in a hurry and on the cheap. Just slapping a coat of paint on the walls can result in an investment that languishes on the market, often until the asking price is reduced to an unprofitable level. The narrator stated that in the past, house flipping was often approached with the idea that the sooner a renovation could be completed, the better: “Get in, get out, move on.” We were shown how TV series like Flip It to Win It, Flipping Vegas, Rehab Addict, and Flip or Flop turned rehab projects into races against the clock: exciting drama for TV, maybe, but not necessarily a profitable real estate investment strategy in today’s market.

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 Nightline interviewed one new house flipping Phenom with 28 successful house flips to her credit. She says that “I call reality TV unrealistic.” She considers that the goal should be to produce a quality result—a house that’s “the best in the neighborhood.” That may take months rather than weeks, particularly if you want to avoid blowing your budget. Time, plus meticulous attention to detail, good taste—and a magic number.

It’s the magic number that has to interest anyone contemplating some Baton Rouge house flipping of their own. It comes from an expert: RealtyTrac’s VP Daren Blomquist, who posited that the data reveal that “the more you put into a property, the more return you get.” Even if it takes half a year. But the amount you should budget only “Up until this magic number which is 23%.”

The magic number? It’s 23%. The goal is to make the final product the best in the neighborhood, so that a buyer coming into the neighborhood sees it as “their first choice.”

That’s a pretty tall order around here.  The Greater Baton Rouge area has some fairly steep competition for best in the neighborhood. And six months between buying a property and being able to put it back on the market could seem like an awfully leisurely use of investment capital.

Without judging whether it’s truly magic or not, there is that 23% number. What was never explained was whether the magic number was meant to be 23% of the asking price, 23% of the purchased price, 23% of purchase plus rehab costs…or 23% of something else. Still—it’s nice to know there is a magic number.

If you have been thinking of undertaking some house flipping in Baton Rouge, or even readying your own property for the market as-is (23% of $0 is $0); the New Year should be a great time to get going. Give me a call!

Baton Rouge First Time Home Buyer Rates Drop to Near 30-Year Low

As the end of 2014 approached, the National Association of Realtors® was able to come up with some general observations on the makeup of the current market—facts that anyone expecting to deal with Baton Rouge home buyers in the coming year should find useful. With consumer attitudes showing improvement across the board, you might have expected that all segments of the home buying public would have shown increased activity. Not so.

According to the NAR’s annual survey—the big one that they’ve been conducting since 1981—the percentage of first time home buyers sank to a nearly 30-year low. It dropped 5% in just one year. Throughout the 40+ years of the survey, first time home buyers have usually made up about four of every ten home sales…but in 2014, that rate fell to 33%. 1987 was the only other year with a comparably weak rate.

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We don’t tally separate statistics on Baton Rouge’s first time home buyers, but there’s no reason to suspect our buyer profiles wouldn’t reflect the same trend. But there’s some good news, too. Help may on the way.

The reasons first-timers have been having a hard time was addressed by Dr. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. He points to obstacles Baton Rouge’s first-time homebuyers are likely to face—many of them connected with the rising difficulty young people have in saving for a down payment. Rising rents plus student debt and auto loan payments combine with stagnant wage levels to cramp savings growth. Added to that, the cost of mortgage insurance for Federal Housing Authority-insured loans have been rising. In 2010, 56% of first time home buyers used affordable FHA loans to purchase their home; by 2014, that number had dwindled to 35%.

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Dr. Yun’s analysis is borne out by a separate RealtyTrac analysis of housing affordability and down payments. This, too, was a wide-ranging survey, examining affordability in 500 counties across all states. It found that for buyers with no additional debt, housing is affordable in 90% of markets —regardless of whether a 3% or a 20% down payment was contemplated. But for buyers with additional debt (like Dr. Yun’s student loans and car payments), housing is affordable in only 48% of real estate markets. Many who find themselves in that category are first-time home buyers. No wonder their activity is down.



That sounds like daunting news for many aspiring Baton Rouge first time home buyers, but some good news is waiting in the wings. RealtyTrac footnoted a big one. According to data collected by Down Payment Resource, there more 2,300 separate programs are out there to assist buyers with down payments and closing costs. Finding which ones a Baton Rouge first time home buyer might be eligible for is easy: DPR offers online help. Add in recent good news on the economy (job growth in particular) and government efforts to loosen mortgage loan requirements by lowering down payments, and it looks likely that 2015 will find more first timers crossing the threshold to their first home. I hope it is the wave of the future—and I’m standing by to help make it happen!

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