home buying: It's a Tale of Two Markets - 10/07/19 09:27 AM
When people ask me these days how the market is, I tell them it depends which price range you are talking about. In the Tulsa and surrounding suburbs, the absorption rate shows that the dividing line is around $400,000.
Sub $400,000, the absorption rate is five months or less, above the price, the time it can take to sell a home is much, much longer. Above $500,000, the time it takes to sell a home in several areas is over a year.
As a buyer, it always is prudent to consider not only the question, can I afford it, but also, can … (1 comments)

home buying: Kiyosaki says Homes are a Liability - 02/01/17 11:46 AM
Robert Kiyosaki is the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad which is the best selling personal finance book of all time. He likes to point out that a home is a liability rather than an asset. 
This has always been a bit of a headscratcher for me, I know that if you listen to him or read his books, he often talks in broad strokes and it's up to you to connect the dots. The example below is from a case study of an actual home in Tulsa Oklahoma pointing out the different benefits of home ownership. Numbers will be different depending … (2 comments)

home buying: Expectations of Home Cleanliness on Closing Day - 05/28/13 02:36 AM

I have run into this a few times over the years, the gap between the expectation of cleanliness between buyer and seller is not specifically mentioned in the contract and can cause a problem.
Many times, buyers and sellers are extremely busy moving from one dwelling to another and there is a wide variance for the cleanliness of a home that a seller will leave for the buyer.  Some sellers will consider that the home needs to be in immaculate condition and other sellers will do the minimum possible in order to sell the house.  People live in their homes with … (3 comments)

home buying: Mortgage Insurance goes up April 18th - 03/29/11 06:42 AM
Here's what Mortgage Insurance is costing you now, and here's what the increase will cost.
 
Let's look at an example of a $200,000, here in Tulsa, Oklahoma you can get a nice home for this amount.
*Note that PMI costs more with conventional financing which means that you are paying a below market rate for the insurance with FHA financing which explains why FHA is currently losing billions of dollars each year.  You can avoid PMI by putting 20% down.  Check with your experienced loan professional.
Currently, PMI with 30 yr financing is 1% up front and .9% per month. … (0 comments)

home buying: Home buyers, your Mind is playing Tricks on You! - 08/23/10 10:01 AM
When you have made a decision to buy a home, it can be helpful to understand the cognitive biases, or shortcuts your mind uses when sorting information to make decisions.  Sometimes, these will lead to poor decisions, let's take a look at some to see if we can avoid some common pitfalls.
*Short term memory- The capacity for short term memory is widely regarded as 5 to 9 chunks of information (Dr. Van K. Tharp).  Beyond this number, information will be bumped out by new items.  In other words, limit the number of houses to look at in one outing to no … (2 comments)