Author: Marketing Center

6 Reasons to Celebrate National Homeownership Month

Our homes are so much more than the houses we live in. For many, they’ve also become our workplaces, schools for our children, and safe harbors in which we’ve weathered the toughest moments of a global pandemic. Today, 65.6% of Americans call their homes their own, a rate that has risen to its highest point in 8 years.

June is National Homeowership Month

As National Homeownership Month gets underway this June, homeowners have every reason to celebrate. A survey by Gallup just ranked real estate as the best investment you can make for the eighth year in a row. However, unlike other investment options, the benefits of owning a home aren’t purely financial. Here are the top ways Americans are winning by owning a home.

Non-Financial Benefits:

  1. Civic Participation: Owning a home is owning a part of your neighborhood. Homeowners have a stronger connection to their neighborhoods and are more committed to volunteer work and other ways to get involved.
  2. Pride of Ownership: Owning a home is having a space that is uniquely yours. You can customize it to your personal liking and make it reflect your personality and values.
  3. A Safe Space: Owning a home gives you a sense of security and privacy – two things that have become even more valuable as we’ve tackled the challenges of the recent health crisis.
    Financial Benefits:

Financial Benefits:

  1. Forced Savings: Owning a home builds equity. Your equity grows with each payment you make toward your mortgage. This form of forced savings can be used down the road to help you accomplish your biggest financial goals.
  2. Appreciation: Owning a home is making an investment that steadily gains value, and experts project home values will continue to rise in the years to come.
  3. Stability: Owning a home means having better control over your future housing payments. Over the years, a mortgage stays relatively steady, but rent costs continue to rise.

Bottom Line

If you own your home, take time this June to celebrate the ways homeownership has added value to your life. If you hope to become a homeowner this year, connect with one of our local experts today to take the first steps toward achieving your goal. We’ve been guiding home buyers and sellers since 1961.

Source: Keeping Current Matters, June 2021. The information contained, and the opinions expressed, in this article are not intended to be construed as investment advice.

Patterson-Schwartz Agents & Teams are Among America’s Best

RealTrends, the Trusted Source in residential brokerage, and Tom Ferry International, a top coaching and training company, recently released the 2021 RealTrends + Tom Ferry America’s Best Real Estate Professionals list.

Our 2021 Patterson-Schwartz “America’s Best” Honorees

Now in its 9th year, this list consists of the top 1.5% of more than 1.4 million licensed REALTORS® nationwide in closed transaction sides and closed volume. RealTrends America’s Best Sales Professionals grew by nearly 4,000 agents and teams between 2019 to 2020. And over 4,000 additional agents and teams met the baseline criteria of 50 closed sides or $20 million in volume. In total, over 18,000 U.S. real estate sales associates from every state are featured in America’s Best.

Patterson-Schwartz is proud of our individual agents and teams who made Delaware’s list during what has been perhaps the strangest real estate year in history. This recognition is well-deserved for these tireless, resilient, and hard-working members of the PSA family.

America’s Best – Delaware Rankings 2021

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Smarter Open Houses with Spacio & Patterson-Schwartz

Patterson-Schwartz is pleased to announce paperless open house registration through the Spacio app! This new, digital process provides a smarter experience for open house visitors and Patterson-Schwartz agents. Registrant information is gathered instantly and more accurately than the manual sign-in process, while automated follow-up ensures the interest in the open house never loses its momentum.

“Spacio enables agents to efficiently and seamlessly connect with potential buyers long after the doors to the open house close. Digitally collecting visitor data also eliminates paperwork and the use of QR code technology provides a touchless aspect. The experience is better, greener, and safer for all involved.”

Justin Kierstead, Director of Marketing at Patterson-Schwartz

Maximizing the open house opportunity

While the pandemic put restrictions on traditional open house activity in 2020, the local real estate market is experiencing a return to interest in in-person tours of homes in 2021. According to the National Association of REALTORS, open houses continue to be a frequently used source in the home search process among buyers.

The partnership with Spacio allows Patterson-Schwartz agents to make the most of the open house opportunity. The app is easily accessible via web and mobile devices and integrates with many agents’ lead capture and follow-up tools.

The app’s top features also make it a great piece of technology for today’s fast-paced and safety-minded market.

Each open house event generates its unique URL or QR code, which, when shared with visitors, allows for touchless sign-in on individual devices. These URLs and QR codes can also be shared in advance and save time through pre-registration. And as soon as the open house closes, registrants receive automated follow-up information and can connect with the agent at the click of a button.

“We’re thrilled to be able to offer this app to our agents,” says Patterson-Schwartz Senior Vice President, Business Development & Corporate Strategist, and Greenville Sales Manager, Donna Greenspan. “Open houses have long been a mainstay to real estate sales, and we love introducing new technology into the experience without sacrificing the personal touch.”

About Us

Celebrating 60 years of service, Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate is Delaware’s largest independent REALTOR® with nine offices and over 450 full-time Sales Associates. We offer a full range of services that include residential home sales, purchase and rental, relocation services, and property management. We invite you to connect with us when you’re ready to partner with a local real estate expert.

PSA is among the nation’s Top 1,000 Power Brokers for 2021

RISMedia recently released the full Top 1,000 Power Broker Report for 2021. Now in its 33rd year, the report is real estate’s longest-running ranking of the industry’s most successful brokerages by sales volume and transactions.

This year’s rankings reflect the industry’s unwavering attitude to persevere and tackle challenges head-on, even amid uncertainty. As we sifted through the impact the of 2020 coronavirus pandemic here at home, Patterson-Schwartz focused on new ways to do business and remained steadfast in helping our clients buy and sell real estate.

According to the 2021 report, Patterson-Schwartz ranked #224 by volume with $1.4B+ sales in 2020, up 15.7% from 2019. By transactions, Patterson-Schwartz ranked #193 with 4,345 transactions in 2020, up 4.5% from 2019. Patterson-Schwartz appeared in the top 25% nationally for both categories. As a locally owned and operated brokerage listed among national brands, we are incredibly proud of the PSA family’s resilience, hard work, growth, and achievements that made our Power Broker status possible.

Click here to view the full report.

Locally Grown, Nationally Recognized

Headquartered in the town of Hockessin, Delaware, Patterson-Schwartz has been lighting the way home for 60 years. We are Delaware’s largest independent REALTOR® with nine offices and over 450 full-time Sales Associates. We offer a full range of services including residential home sales, purchase and rental; relocation services, and property management. We invite you to connect with us when you’re ready to partner with a local real estate expert.

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5 Tips for Making a Successful Offer

Today’s real estate market clearly has high home buyer interest and low housing inventory. With so many buyers competing for a limited number of houses for sale, it’s more important than ever to know the ins and outs of making a confident and competitive offer. Here are five keys to success for this important stage in the home buying process.

1. Listen to Your Real Estate Advisor

An article from Freddie Mac offers guidance on making an offer on a home today. Right off the bat, it points out how emotional this can be for buyers and why your trusted agent can help you stay focused on the most important things:

“Remember to let your home buying team guide you on your journey, not your emotions. Their support and expertise will keep you from compromising on your must-haves and future financial stability.”

Your real estate professional should be your primary source for answers to the questions you have when you’re ready to make an offer.

2. Understand Your Finances

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Bottom Line

Today’s competitive landscape makes it more important than ever to make a strong offer on a home. Connect with one of our local experts to make sure you rise to the top along the way. We’ve been guiding home buyers and sellers since 1961.

Source: “Things to Consider When Buying a Home” Spring 2021 Edition, courtesy of Keeping Current Matters

2020 Patterson-Schwartz Realty Alliance Sales Award Honorees

Real Estate transactions during 2020 were certainly a bit of an adventure but, despite the shutdowns and restrictions, Patterson-Schwartz was able to adapt, thrive, and ultimately assist more clients with their homeownership needs in 2020 than in the previous year.  This accomplishment would not have been possible without the hard work and perseverance of our family of sales associates.

Realty Alliance Sales Award plaques were distributed to Patterson-Schwartz honorees in early March 2021

The Realty Alliance is a network of North America’s elite real estate firms, and each year they identify the leading residential sales professionals for their exceptional performance.

The Patterson-Schwartz agents and teams recognized for their efforts in 2020 make up the top 15% of our sales associates in the individual categories of Units and Total Dollar Volume. The qualifying amounts were 18 Units, and/or a Total Dollar Volume of $5,500,000.

A Commitment to Exceptional Service

The 2020 Realty Alliance Sales Awards are well-deserved, especially considering the year’s uncertain outlook and business challenges. We are thrilled to congratulate the 75+ Patterson-Schwartz agents and teams for being recognized at a national level for their outstanding efforts and accomplishments. These honorees exemplify our company’s dedication to providing superior guidance and service while offering exceptional knowledge of market conditions and a commitment to represent clients honestly and professionally.

2020 Realty Alliance Sales Award recipients, listed by sales office:

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Why Low Inventory is a Win for Sellers

Real estate continues to be called the ‘bright spot’ in the current economy, but there’s one thing that may hold the housing market back from achieving its full potential this year: the lack of homes for sale.

Buyers are actively searching for and purchasing homes, looking to capitalize on today’s historically low interest rates, but there just aren’t enough houses for sale to meet that growing need. Nadia Evangelou, Senior Economist & Director of Forecasting for the National Association of Realtors(NAR), explains:

“These ultra-low mortgage rates make homebuying more attractive, boosting activity to the highest level since 2006…Nevertheless, inventory continues to fall, widening the gap between housing demand and supply.”

According to NAR, right now unsold inventory sits at a 2.5-month supply at the current sales pace. To have a balanced market where there are enough homes for sale to meet buyer demand, the market needs 6 months of inventory. Today, we’re nowhere near that number. If this trend continues, it will get even harder to find homes to purchase, and that may slow down potential buyers. Danielle Hale, Chief Economist for realtor.com, notes:

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Source: “Things to Consider When Selling Your House” Winter 2021 edition, courtesy of Keeping Current Matters

This Old House

Contributing blogger Charlie Schwartz, II, shares real estate insight steeped in family tradition in the January 2021 Schwartz Report

My father was fond of dispensing real estate bromides in the form of little parables that more often than not had snappy punch lines.   They often left the receiver scratching their head trying to winnow out what he was intending.  For example, take these two which are particularly appropriate to today’s inventory starved seller’s market:  “You can’t sell fruit from an empty wagon”; or, “You wouldn’t go to Happy Harry’s if Happy Harry didn’t have anything on the shelf.”  By which he meant to charge us with the need to urge more sellers to put their homes on the market NOW! For a buyer’s market when prices were too high and showing activity stagnant, there was this one: “Too much weight stops the freight.” That generates images of a little steam engine struggling to pull a heavy load up an impossible incline much like a seller trying to get more for his property than the current market will bear.

To a buyer, most appropriately to a first time buyer, there’s this gem:  “Never buy a home on a road with a line down the middle of it.” This gets at the three most important things about residential real estate, location, location and location. Highway departments put lines on roads with significant traffic counts, don’t they? So stay away from them. Here’s one that will need some explaining. It gets to the subject at hand:  “Never buy a home that is older than you are.” This seems like the most improbable dictate of them all. It might be difficult to follow especially in our three state market area where many homes date well into the last century and beyond.

photo scanned from “Houses, The Illustrated Guide to Construction, Design and Systems” by Henry Harrison

Here he was advising that you not take on more of a fixer upper than your age, finances, temperament and or experience will allow. A historic home, one full of “character”, which may have been the former residence of some important family, might just be a project that you take on at your peril, a bridge too far. The illustration above is one of 56 that appear in the first reference book that I bought after starting in the business. Houses, The Illustrated Guide to Construction, Design and Systems by Henry Harrison was published in conjunction with the National Association of Realtors in 1973 and many sections, particularly those dealing with classic home architecture, are still valid today. Want to know the difference between a Cape Cod Colonial and a Cape Ann Colonial or a Dutch Colonial and a Salt Box Colonial; it’s in there. You will find a Swiss Chalet and a Spanish Villa as well.

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Content by Charlie Schwartz, II ©2021. Visit charlieschwartz.com for more Schwartz Report content.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait Until Spring to Buy a Home

The housing market recovery has been nothing short of remarkable. Many experts agree the turnaround from the nation’s economic pause is playing out extremely well for real estate, so it’s framing up to be an ideal time to buy a home for those who are ready to make a purchase. Here’s a dive into some of the biggest wins for home buyers this season.

1. Mortgage Rates Are Low

In 2020, mortgage rates hit all-time lows more than a dozen times, falling below 3% for the first time ever. Continued low rates have set buyers up for significant long-term gains. realtor.com notes: “Given this means homes could cost potentially tens of thousands less over the lifetime of the loan.”Essentially, it’s less expensive to borrow money for a home loan today, a huge opportunity for buyers to capitalize on right now, before rates start to rise.

2. Buying Is More Affordable Than Renting

This trend toward low mortgage rates has made the typical monthly payment (including principal and interest) less expensive for buyers. According to realtor.com:“Over the past year, many counties have seen the difference between the cost to purchase a home compared to the cost to rent a home improve toward favoring buying a home.”Buying a home versus renting one may be a game-changer, as it amplifies long-term savings for homeowners. When paying a mortgage, as opposed to paying rent, that money is reinvested back in your favor. Instead of contributing to your landlord’s savings, you’re contributing to your own net worth. This is a term called equity, and it is one of the biggest financial benefits of owning a home.

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Source: “Things to Consider When Buying a Home” Winter 2021 edition, courtesy of Keeping Current Matters

PSA Turkey Drive

Jennifer Jamieson of PSA Greenville

We are so thankful for our office admins who not only keep our day-to-day running smoothly but help spearhead many of our fundraising efforts. Hats off to Jennifer Jamieson in the Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate Greenville Center for coordinating our PSA “Fill the Freezer” Turkey Drive benefitting the Sunday Breakfast Mission. This 2 day collection effort resulted in donations of 28 turkeys and over $25 from the PSA family.

The Sunday Breakfast Mission, a local charity based out of Wilmington, Delaware, provides care and support to many homeless, hurting, and hungry men, women, and children. Active fundraising provides shelter, meals, clinics, and many more services for these individuals.

Learn how you can help SBM this holiday season by visiting their website.