Rancho Santa Fe Homes Search

Qualifying the Buyer for your Rancho Santa Fe Property

Either you or your agent will want to weed out potential buyers who cannot afford to purchase your Rancho Santa Fe home. Items to investigate include the buyer’s debt and credit history, current income and employment, the availability of cash for a down payment, the time the buyer needs before closing on the home and the buyer’s level of interest in your home as compared to other properties.

Rancho Santa Fe Homebuyers Quandry

When you find the home you want to buy you may make an offer contingent upon the sale of your existing Rancho Santa Fe. In a Seller’s Market, offers with such contingencies are not well received because the seller must remove his home from the market while you sell yours. However there are times when this kind of offer is successful, even in the Rancho Santa Fe market. A backup strategy might be to put in your offer with a very long escrow giving yourself time to sell your home. Very few sellers will accept these kinds of contingencies or long escrows if your house is not already on the market.

Buying Rancho Santa Fe Real Estate...Will it Pay?

A frequent question from prospective homebuyers relates to building home equity. Rancho Santa Fe buyers like to estimate how much a home may increase in value based upon past appreciation. One of the many advantages of home ownership is that appreciation is based on the home’s market value rather than on the actual dollar amount invested or the down payment so that a $100,000.00 home that appreciates 5% is now worth $105,000.00. This is one way of building your Rancho Santa Fe home equity but there is more you can do.

Buying Rancho Santa Fe Real Estate...Will it Pay?

With a typical 30-year loan, most of your monthly payment goes toward interest payments with only small amounts going to the principle in the early years. Only half the principle is repaid in the first 23 years of the loan. You can build equity in your Rancho Santa Fe faster by choosing a 15-year loan instead of a 30-year loan.

As a Rancho Santa Fe real estate owner you have the right to pay more towards the principle loan amount each month. Let’s say your monthly payment is $700.00 a month and $100.00 a month is being applied to the principle. If you choose to pay $900.00 instead of $700.00, the $200.00 overage will be applied entirely to the principle. Thus, instead of gaining $1,200.00 a year in home equity, you gain $3,600.00. Investing in Rancho Santa Fe can be a very good idea.

Green Remodeling Your Rancho Santa Fe

Reduced material waste and resource conservation. When remodeling your Rancho Santa Fe, there is often a large amount of construction waste: 136 million tons of waste annually, or about 20% of the waste in landfills, according to the EPA.

If you are planning to remodel your Rancho Santa Fe anyway, going green offers money-saving advantages. In addition to increasing the value of your home, you will cut monthly operating costs, reduce waste and improve overall health.

When Rancho Santa Fe Does Not Sell

Here is where your agent’s expertise and diligence comes into play. A top agent will consider what similar Rancho Santa Fe have sold for within the last 3 to 6 months and compare those homes condition, features and location with your home. If there are no comparable sales in the area, which is often the case with custom or one-of-a-kind properties, the agent may suggest that you obtain a formal appraisal.

A homeowner who must sell and sell quickly needs to price their Rancho Santa Fe at or slightly below market to ensure a quick sale. A different homeowner may want to sell but has time and wants to get the top market price. These homeowners will often price the home slightly above current market prices and expect interested buyers to offer a lower amount to start the negotiation.