Lafayette Real Estate Video Blog with Robbie Breaux Robbie Breaux

Selling your Lafayette home? Click here for a free Home Value Report Buying a home? Search all Homes for Sale Do you know how much you can afford to spend on a home? When you’re looking to balance the budget on a home payment, you need to look at four things: How much can you afford? How much is a bank willing to lend monthly? What does that translate to in sales price? How much are you comfortable spending monthly? Typically, banks will lend $6 to $7 a month for every thousand dollars you spend. On a $150,000 house, that translates to $800 to $900 a month, depending on the tax area you’re in and the monthly insurance premiums. How does the bank determine what your payment is? They’ll take your total income and divide it by the total debt that you have, like house payment, car payment, student loans, revolving debt like credit cards. On a $5,000 income, the banks would take approximately $2,000 a month in total monthly debt to be what they approve you for. Just because a bank is willing to lend you $2,000 a month for you monthly payment doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what you need to spend. You need to do what’s right for your family. List out all the debts and outgoing payments you have like food, utilities, entertainment, and others, and write it down to see what your monthly income looks like, and how much you have left coming in. If you have any other questions, please let us know via email or a phone call. We’d love to hear from you.

Selling your Lafayette home? Click here for a free Home Value ReportBuying a home? Search all Homes for Sale Today we’ve got a quick market update for you for January 2016. Last year, we eked out a .64% increase in sales compared to 2014. We did see a drop in sales at certain points throughout the year, but ended the year with an overall increase. Many of the numbers we saw this January were very comparable to the numbers we saw last January. For example, we sold 196 homes in January of 2015, and sold 195 in January of 2016.  Our average sales price has dropped a bit, and now sits at $216,000, but that’s likely due to the lower price ranges moving at a quicker pace than the rest of the market. We are also seeing an increase in new construction, and that shows in the year-over-year drop in the number of homes listed in Lafayette. As for the amount of inventory we have on the market right now, it’s sitting at about an 8.5, 9-month supply, where most of our action is coming in the $300,000 and below range.  If you have any questions for us about the market, or want to know what your home could sell for, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Selling your Lafayette home? Click here for a free Home Value ReportBuying a home? Search all Homes for Sale Home inspections are crucial for buyers and sellers. We recommend that everyone get an inspection done on their home or their potential home. This is a proactive move that can eliminate issues down the road. A home inspector is a trained professional that comes out to inspect the major systems in your home such as your electrical wiring, your furnace, and your plumbing. They will check for much more than this, and they’ll report potential problems to you. This way you can make the repairs or negotiate with the seller to have repairs made. An inspection can cost anywhere from $500 to $600, but it’s all well-worth the money.  If you need a home inspector, we have a few that we like to refer to our clients. Don’t hesitate to ask us about this!

Selling your Lafayette home? Click here for a free Home Value ReportBuying a home? Search all Homes for Sale An easy way to grasp a buyer’s interest is through gorgeous home decor. This might be drapes, paintings, or other trinkets. However, as a buyer, you need to be especially conscious of this. Stay focused on your needs. Keep an eye on room dimension, and don’t fall for the details. Avoid falling for the small details inside a home.  There’s a flipside to this, though. As a seller, you’re going to want to tap into the buyer’s perspective. This presents an awesome opportunity. Set up an attractive offer with our stager and make your home pop to get the best results when selling!  If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in Lafayette, give me a call or send me an email today! I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Selling your Lafayette home? Click here for a free Home Value ReportBuying a home? Search all Homes for Sale Today I want to talk about the next step when it comes to home photography. Here at the Robbie Breaux Team, we are always looking to push the needle when it comes to technology. That is why we have invested in offering 3D Virtual Home Tours for our clients, and they are going to be great.  Here is an example of a 3D Tour. With these tours, potential buyers have the ability to look in, around, above, and throughout the house. These tours offer many different ways to look at the home, including a dollhouse view, a blueprint view, and a first person virtual walk-through. By being able to do all of this virtually and remotely, you can increase the traffic your home gets without even having to open the door. We’ve seen some great benefits already from using this technology. Most of our sellers are getting a higher number of qualified buyers looking at their home, instead of the looky-loos that are really just browsing with no intention to buy.  If you’re interested in checking this out some more or want to see what a 3D tour could do for your home sale, give us a call or send us a quick email. We would be glad to help out!

Selling your Lafayette home? Click here for a free Home Value Report Buying a home? Search all Homes for Sale Santa Letters are back! We had such a great response from our favorite little fans last year. We're excited to announce we're doing it again this year. It's simple! Fill out the form in the body of this email. Write a letter to your son, daughter, niece, nephew, or grandkids. They will get a personalized letter on Santa's stationary straight from the North Pole! The kids love it. Fill everything out by December 15th, so your loved one will get the letter in time for the holidays. We had a bunch last year, and we want to make sure we get everybody's out there. Thanks for participating in Santa Letters! As always, if you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you! Please download the Request Form (see link below) and send it back to us at amber@robbiebreaux.com OR call us at (337) 267-4099..Download the Request Form here >>