How Will TILA-RESPA Changes Affect You?

There are many great Houston area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 832-428-6453 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Starting on October 3rd of this year, the real estate market will be seeing some big changes. Why is this?

It's because of changes coming to the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID), and this will affect everyone involved in real estate, from consumers to Realtors to lenders. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule amending regulations to the "The Truth in Lending Act" as well as "The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act."

So, what does this mean for you? The TILA-RESPA rule consolidates four disclosures for closed and credit transactions secured by real property into two different forms.

One of these forms is a loan estimate that must be delivered or placed in the mail no later than the 3rd business day after receiving the consumer's application. A closing disclosure must be provided to the consumer at least three business days prior to consummation.

These new disclosures must be provided by a creditor or mortgage banker that receives an application from a consumer for a closed-end credit transaction. However, creditors will still be required to use the current Good Faith Estimate, HUD 1 and Truth in Lending forms for applications received prior to August 1, 2015. After that date, these forms will no longer be used.

The TILA-RESPA rule includes some new restrictions on certain activity prior to consumers receiving the loan estimate. These restrictions took effect on August 1, 2015 regardless of whether an application was received on that date. These restrictions include imposing fees on a consumer before the consumer has received the loan estimate, or requiring submission of documents verifying information related to the consumer's application before providing the loan estimate.

What does this mean to you and the entire closing process? Well, it's going to get longer. At a minimum, it will take 45 days to close. The other important thing to take away is to stay in close contact with your agent and your lender.

There's a lot of changes up ahead, and I'm sure you have some questions. Please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help you.

What Do You Need to Know About Houston Real Estate?

There are many great Houston area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 832-428-6453 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

We've seen strong sales here in Houston with the exception of May. We're finding ourselves right where we thought we would be in August.

One notable occurrence in our market is the overall lack of inventory that we're seeing. This means that sellers have a chance to profit off of a home sale because demand is high and supply is low.

We're also heading more towards a normal market, and we expect sales to decline by nearly 10% as we head into the slower fall market. We do expect prices to increase by 4-5%, so now is a good time to buy to gain some equity.

We still expect interest rates to increase, because it's difficult to imagine them getting any lower. We think they'll probably increase by a point by next fall. Homes are extremely affordable with current rates, so please don't hesitate to purchase if you have been thinking of doing so.

If you have any further questions about the market in Houston, or if you would like an update that is geared specifically for your neighborhood, please don't hesitate to contact me.

How to Organize Your Home Before a Showing

There are many great Houston area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (713) 341-1763 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

I recently found a good video on HGTV that I thought would be helpful to you if you're preparing to sell your home. It's essential that when you show your home to buyers, it's clean, organized, and decluttered. You'll want to empty out your closets, or at the very least, get them organized.

One thing you can do to get organized is put up shoe hangers in your doors, and store everyday items inside them such as cleaning supplies, utensils, or anything else that you can fit in them.

Another way to cut down on clutter is to use labels, or pick up storage bins to keep items like cords or wires in.

A tip for organizing your closet is to divide your clothes into four different sections: hang, sell, donate, keep, and fold. Once you have something marked out for every category, you can then organize your closet in any way you see fit. Here's an extra tip: you can use belt hangers to hang your necklaces and other jewelry.

I just thought this video would be useful for organizing your home, whether you're selling or if you just want to tidy up a bit.

If you need any assistance with staging, decluttering, or selling, please don't hesitate to contact me!