mikegagnon603

[mikegagnon603]

The 3D Printed house…closer then you might think...

Gilford NH 03246 - Wow! This might be the craziest of the craziest Real Estate innovations I have read about in the last couple of years (I say this at the risk of sounding like my Father who has been in the Real Estate Business for over 30 years pines for the days of the 500 page MLS books with news print and low resolution black and white photos, and one page purchase and sales agreements - but I digress) this is going to tip the Real Estate, and the building world on its ear…

A 3D printed house…

I have a family friend that attends the Boston Architectural College he was telling me about all  the cool things that they are doing with 3D printers, including printing out furniture and housewares and he said that eventually we will be printing out entire homes. Sure I thought and soon we will have flying cars and steak grown in a lab.

But then in the January issue of Realtor Magazine there is this article about the future of the 3D printed house, and it looks like we are just a few years away. This is going to change everything.

Imagine picking a model online, picking your floor plan and elevation, you home site and then a flat bed truck drops off a massive 3D printer, loads of building media (quick drying concrete) and hitting print. To make a change all you need to do is add or subtract a few lines of code, impossible angles and designs are going to be common place, low income housing is going to become cost effective.

GAME CHANGED

How do you think that 3D printing will change the Real Estate Market? Would you build this way?

What to sell your house? Find out what it maybe worth here:

http://nhlakesregion.smarthomeprice.com

Want to see all of the Lakes Region home innovatory? Check out:

www.jg-realty.com

And as always if you or anyone you know is thinking about buying or selling Real Estate I would be honored if you shared my contact info with them:

mike.gagnon@jg-realty.com

Thank You!

Mike

[mikegagnon603]

Songs about Home or as I so cleverly titled the play list - “songs to buy a house to…”

GILFORD NH 03246 - Ok I will come right out and say it - I am stretching here, a Real Estate blog post about Music to buy a house to is a pretty thin premise (but it gave me an excuse to build a thematic Spotify play list, and hey that’s not a huge waste of time now is it?) But stick with me here, music is a big part of my life. It can help me to travel in time, just put on Dave Mathew Band Under the Table and Dreaming, and I am a college freshman again on a spring day throwing a frisbee on the quad.

But I digress…

Music can put you in the perfect mindset for what ever journey you are about to embark on, be it the metal that cranks as you get pumped to attempt a personal best dead lift, or the road trip mix that is your companion as you drive into the sun set.

So I thought to myself what would be the perfect “songs to buy a house to…” play list. It is amazing how many songs have the title home, but most of them belong on this list. So here it is…Drum Roll Please (see what I did there, a music reference…clever) my curated list of the ultimate “Songs to buy a house to…”

Home Sweet Home - Motley Crue (I know a little on the nose but wait it gets worse) Our House  - Madness  (see?) Homward Bound - Simon and Garfunkel (I do love this one…) Home - Phillip Phillips (First of the “Home” titled songs) Take Me Home - Phil Collins (Ok this song is just plan awesome) Take Me Home, Country Road - John Denver (Is particularly appropriate in our area…) Can’t Find My Way Home - Blind Faith (this one is actually on my all time top 10 list) Who Says you can’t go home? Bon Jovi (This one really grows on you! ) Pink Houses - John Mellencamp (What ever happened to the Cougar?) Home - Michael Buble - (“Home”titled song #2) Home - Edward Sharpe - (This might me my favorite “Home” Song)

Here is a link to my Spotify and to this Playlist -

https://play.spotify.com/user/126945324/playlist/4wa1MbszfRTwNVWX8mqEeR

What Have I missed?

What is you favorite “Home” Song?

http://nhlakesregion.smarthomeprice.com/

Now if listening to this playlist has you motivated to move (here’s the pitch…) and you want to know what your current home is worth check out our new home pricing tool here:

http://www.jg-realty.com

And if you just want to day dream and browse the current innovatory check out our killer new website:  

Thanks Friends!

[mikegagnon603]

Life Happens.

It’s that simple.

And it would seem that American life happens in 13 year increments (at least according to the national home builders association) . That is to say on average Americans move every 13 years.

The major reasons for a move are major life changes (get it, Life Happens, boy am I clever) we all know what those are right?

No?

Ok: things like birth, employment change, college, changes in health, retirement, marriage and divorce, death you get the point. So it seems that all this American drama manifests itself every 13 years.

I know that this is a rather reductionist view but a fact is a fact.

“Yea ok, so what Mike?” you ask  -

“Fair question” I reply.

My point is this, where are you in that 13 year cycle? How long have you been in your current abode?

Are you starting to feel the 13 year itch? Do you find yourself browsing real estate websites? Do you have a “New House” Pinterest Board? Are you cruising neighborhoods looking for new For Sale signs?

If so what things can you do now to help when the time comes to sell or to move?

Have you started the Declutter process (there is a The Minimalist podcast that talks about this)? Are there maintenance projects you have been putting off? Upgrades you have been meaning to get to but just have not had the time to tackle?

If you are even considering The Move talk to a local Real Estate expert ( Shameless plug I want you to call me and so here is a link to my home pricing tool ), ask them to take a look and make suggestions about what you can do to help your place sell faster, for more money and with the lease amount of hassles.

If you really want to go down that path I also suggest finding a home inspector to come and take a look before you put the house on the market, if you are local to the Lakes Region on NH I would be happy to give you the names of some great inspectors.

So where are going?

[mikegagnon603]

Friends check out this sweet spot!

[mikegagnon603]

This place is s-w-e-e-t! 

[mikegagnon603]

Hello Tumblr - 

Long time on talk, so here is a video...check it out and let us know what you think!

[mikegagnon603]

Door bell? We don’t need no stinking doorbell...

Humor me for a moment, I have something to say.

Growing up in the Lakes Region of NH, you become accustom to some kind-of strange notions.

Like you own the Lake and that everyone else is just visiting. Or that Gunstock is your home mountain and your title to it is absolute. Or that bikers are not all that scary.

But I digress.

Growing up on the shores of the Lake and in the shadow of the mountain, it is hard to imagine any other kind of life.

But you try.

Then you go out and live that other kind of life, but if you are very lucky you get back.

It’s funny no matter how far you roam or where you eventually plant your flag, home will always be just a few blocks from the lake and a couple of miles to the mountain.

We live a kind of charmed life here. Sometimes it is easy to forget.

What we give up in shopping and in trendy bars and restaurants we more then make up for in fresh air, clean water and friends and family.

I was reading the other day that political operatives that were canvassing the area made a kind of crazy discovery. The majority of homes don’t have a door bell?!

What can we extrapolate from this observation? Could it be that we are just so backwoods that the doorbell tech has yet to reach us? Come on...

No what these people came to understand is that we don’t need door bells. If your a friend or family member, just come on in, no need to announce your self...and if you are a stranger...go away.

And here I reach the crux of my though, my father moved to the Lakes Region over 45 years ago.

He likes to tell me the story of his first five years, you see there was an old salty farmer who lived just down the street, every morning my Dad would see him in his field and my dad would wave. For five years there was absolutely no response, to the point where my dad wondered if the old buck was blind. Then on the sixth year, the slightest of nods one morning, a small victory but one that he cherished none the less.

My job as a Real Estate agent gives me a strange insight to this phenomenon, it can take a long time for a new arrival to feel as if they are part of the community. I don’t know if this is a New England thing?

But as we move into the new year it is a resolution of mine that I am sharing and asking my friends to adopt, let’s make an effort to be welcoming to the people that are choosing our home to make theirs. (Maybe just a year before you give them a nod...)

[mikegagnon603]

Best Day of 2015

It’s funny how sometimes the best days are also the most unexpected. We go through our life with a schedule and obligations, so many demands on our time that it can be harrowing and exhausting. Not to mention the guilt that can come from missing an event or party.

So in reflecting on 2015 the question came to mind, “what was your best day?”

Surprise, surprise, the best day of 2015 came not from a party that we were scheduled to attend or a concert or event that we bought tickets for, but from a spontaneous bike ride on the 4th of July.

Living in the Lakes Region (or as it will from here on be known The LR...)  we all know that the 4th of July is kind of a big deal. The parties, the fireworks, the friends and family, the crowds, the traffic, the rouge pyrotechnic displays, it can be a bit much.

So this past 4th both Amber and I were felling rung out. We had been invited to a party on the Lake that sounded like a total blast (excuse the weak pun) But it required driving through Meredith...on the 4th...with two kids...so...

We begged off ( at least I hope that we let the host know we would not be making it...). And looking down the barrel of no plans on the 4th we decided to put the kids on the bikes and peddle down the W.O.W trail to O Steak and Seafood.

Let me set the scene, a balmy July night, the kind of night where the sun hangs in the sky and refuses nights advances. All purple and pink and orange and even after the sun finally gives in the night still feels light.

We sat on the patio over-looking Lake Opechee, ate burgers and watched the world go by.

No time pressure, no particular place to go. Bliss.

But wait there is more, as we would soon discover the town was absolutely abandoned, everyone was some place else at the moment and the roads were empty.

We rode to the Happy Cow and talked to some strangers, (of course as it often turns out in The LR we had a number of mutual friends...but that’s another story) ordered ice cream and sat on a picnic bench, marveling in the night and in each other.

It is in these small moments that things crystalize and we become aware of our place in the world. Watching Max and Olivia, electrified by the night and the ice cream, run and climb and shout and laugh a feeling that all is ok washed over me.

Riding home on the empty streets with fireworks going off all around, the smoke haloing the street lights, the sulfur smell of gun powder, was surreal.  

It is an afternoon and evening that will long live in my memory and a moment in time I will visit when life’s pressures squeeze and twist.

So why am I saying this, as the new year marches on, I encourage all of you to find your own small moment, do something unexpected, and let yourself feel if only for a fleeting moment that everything is OK.

[mikegagnon603]

We are buying a house...and by the way we want the Kitchen Table, the Bedroom Set, the Area Rugs, that Photo of your Grandmother and the Good China...Pssst you are not at a Yard Sale....

Hello Friends! Things are rocking, the Real Estate Market is heating up and we are seeing some fantastic activity. The change from a buyers market to a sellers market is in the air, but is not actually there...yet.

We are in a murky market here and are starting to see multiple offers so it is time to get something off the table ... when you are negotiating a purchase leave the personal property out!

There. I should stop this blog post right now.

“But Mike...I really like that kitchen table....”

I know friend, and you have probably heard from your cousin that when she bought her house she got the Table, the row boat, the four wheeler and the lawn tractor.

While this maybe true, it presents a whole load of potential potholes.

First that personal property that you are buying may stop working, (I know - thank you Captain Obvious...) but you are going to be moving into a new house and all the stress that comes with moving does not need to be exacerbated (my $0.50 word for the day...ex·ac·er·bate iɡˈzasərˌbāt/ verb - make [a problem, bad situation, or negative feeling] worse.)) by finding out that the lawn mower is not working...

Second the lender. As my friend Jenn McCall with Merrimack Mortgage pointed out “ If it is significant enough to include in the P&S, it is likely that the buyer’s lender will also view it a significant. Inclusion of personal property (“sales concessions”) may affect the maximum amount that can be borrowed.” That is to say personal property should not appear on the purchase contract, and if it is not on the purchase contract it needs to be noted on an addendum or separate bill of sale.

The third and final reason to avoid the personal property it changes the character of the negotiation. The seller is trying to sell their house, condo, apartment building, it is not a garage sale. Once you start asking for more then the kitchen sink your stock as a buyer slips, and as such you weaken your position relative to other offers (remember when I said we are starting to see multiple offers?) Do you want to miss out on that killer loft condo because you asked for the BBQ Grill?

While there is a case to be made for helping the seller out by taking bulky and hard to move items off their hands, there is a time and a place to do it.  My suggestion is after the home inspection has happened and any repairs have been accepted, ask the selling agent if the seller is planning on selling any of the furnishings. Make a listing of things you maybe interested in and share it with the seller’s agent. In this way you don’t weaken your position, keep personal property off the purchase and sales agreement and if it stops working you have not financed it for 30 years....

Thanks a Million for Reading!

Mike Gagnon

[mikegagnon603]

The...If you had to buy one game

LAKES REGION NH - Choice. Choice can be one of the hardest things to deal with when it comes time to buy a home.

I know that sounds silly...”Mike...come on! More to choose from can’t be a bad thing!”

Hold the phone friends, more is not always better. Let me give you a quick example from my life. My family recently made the decision to CUT THE CORD. So we no longer have cable, what we have instead is access to pretty much every movie and TV show ever made. (plus, oh, Billions of hours of YouTube videos...).

So in the rare free time that I get to watch TV (and if my wife asks you, I said I don’t have any...) I sit down fire up the old ROKU and stare down the barrel of infinity. Pretty hard to make a choice when I have no idea where to start... (mostly I wind up watching Everybody Love’s Raymond or Seinfeld...don’t ask me why, I have no bloody idea...)

But I digress. As you start your search for a home you too will be staring down the infinite. Choices will be every where. So I would like to share a simple strategy that I think will help to clarify you choice.

After you look at two houses ask yourself If I had to pick one of these two properties which would I buy? Throw that house that you would not buy out! Rip up the listing sheet! (My Cousin Chris Smith a Real Estate Broker in Scottsdale AZ who taught me this game would fold the loser in half...he is a total type A!)  

Now when you look at number three play the same game... if you had to pick between the new property and the winner of one and two which would you pick?

You get the idea! By the end of the day a winner will emerge! You will have a pretty good idea of which property to make an offer on.

Cutting through the clutter and zeroing in on exactly what you want is a big part of the Real Estate agents job, but we are not mind readers (I mean if we were mind readers we would probably all be in Vegas making a killing playing cards or better yet on the stage!)  so tactics like the “If you had to buy one game”  can help us help you!

Here is to you finding your perfect place...

Thanks a Million for Reading!

Mike Gagnon

[mikegagnon603]

Closing Pains...or...Fighting the Hydra

(LAKES REGION NH) - Well it is that time of year and the phones are ringing, houses are selling and tempers are redlining. Friends a Real Estate transaction is a Hydra, and just when you think you have one problem solved another one raises it’s monstrous head.

If you go in knowing that issues (ok ugly, hairy, slimy problem) are going to pop up and that you have a team (and I mean a team:the  lender and their team, Buyers agent and their team, sellers agent and their team, inspectors, contractors, appraisers, management companies...) working on your side to make your move happen you are way ahead of the game!

I know this all sounds a little self serving and perhaps it is, but in the middle of the stress of making a huge investment, packing and moving, signing stacks and stacks of paperwork, changing cable and power and utilities, registering cars, getting kids enrolled in new schools, figuring out what box the pasta pot is in so you can make dinner, a mole hill can look like Mt. Everest.

“So Mike what are you trying to say...?”

From our experience it is clear that things always work themselves out. So I am going to use a sports analogy here.

The purchase and sales is like the contract of a superstar baseball player, and while management may negotiate hard, once the contract is accepted by all parties, everybody is on the same team and has the same goal.

In this case our teams goal is getting you into your new house (or out of your old house), once the purchase and sales and inspections have been satisfied we all (buyer and seller) are on the same team and we all want to make sure the sale happens.

The little glitches (oh like a change in the closing time and or location...) that happen are just part of the game, which is won when we all pull together.

I am not suggesting that it’s all peace and love, there are always going to be challenges but digging your heels in to “make a point” is counter productive and while it feels good in the short term (and believe me when I say there are times when all I want to do is dig my heels in for a client...) in the long term it does nothing to help the team.

There is nothing better then waking up in your new house looking up at the ceiling of your new bedroom and realizing this is YOUR place! 

Thanks a Million For Reading!

Mike Gagnon

[mikegagnon603]

Awesome New Listing and another in our world famous 30 second home tour series!!!!

[mikegagnon603]

PMI (Private Mortage Insurance) is a dirty word...*

Whooa...people really seem to hate Private Mortgage Insurance! I can see why, In fact I am not a fan either (hate is a strong word but I really, really, really don’t like it...). But alas it is necessary because with out it, loans would be few are far between.

You see PMI (I know PMI makes my skin crawl when I read it too...) is an insurance policy that protects lenders from the risk of default and foreclosures. ( and lets face it the past eight years have seen plenty of both...)

Lenders minimize their risk by requiring this insurance for borrowers who can not or will not put a minimum of 20% down when applying for a conventional loan, and with out - they don’t make the loan. (Please note that FHA, VA and other government programs have similar fees but carry a government guarantee so do not require “PMI”).

“OK Mike I kinda get it but...how much does it cost?”

Good question and thanks so much for asking!

Like most things in our modern world there is not an easy answer - Cost is dependent on several factors like:

Loan to Value

Your Credit Score

The Type of Loan

Wether you will Occupy the property

The type of Transaction

What it boils down to it RISK, the heaver the risk, the heaver the insurance premium.

“OK so how does this get paid?”

A-ha the million dollar question (or $200.00 question depending on risk...see what I did there?)

PMI can be paid several different ways but here are the three most common:

Borrower Paid PMI (see PMI is getting easier to read...) with this method you make a set premium payment every month as part of your total mortgage payment (the PITI payment - Principal, Interest, Taxes and drum roll please...Insurance)  Typically, borrowers will continue to make these payments until the PMI falls away (once the loan balance is scheduled to reach 78% of the original value of the home) OR (and this is a big OR) when it is canceled by request because you equity in the home has reached 20% (Good for you!) of the purchase price or appraised value, such as in the case of a principal reduction being made. 

Borrower Paid PMI is a good option if you have sizable down payment and will gain 20% equity within a short time. Also please note this is for a conventional loan, government backed loans are a different story...ask your lender!

Single Premium PMI - With this type of PMI, the total cost of the insurance is paid in a single lump sum in full at closing OR financed into the mortgage. This eliminate the need for the dreaded monthly PMI payment. For borrowers with higher credit scores, this type of PMI can result in lower monthly payment then the Borrower Paid PMI.

This option works well if you are receiving closing cost assistance from the seller, as the cost of the premium can typically be covered by the seller.

Lender Paid PMI  - With this option the cost of the PMI is included in the mortgage interest rate for the life of the loan (in essence you are financing the single premium for the life of the loan)  Even though the interest rate maybe higher then other types of loans, the result is often a lower monthly mortgage payment.

This can be a good option for borrowers who don’t anticipate remaining in the home long enough to reach the point where the Borrower Paid PMI premium would fall away, which is often 8 - 11 years for those that put very little down at closing.

So what is the take-away from all of this information? Well first PMI is necessary for lenders to manage risk and make loans, with out it there would be far fewer loans made. Second there are some options as to how PMI is paid and third and perhaps the most important a good relationship with a knowledgeable lender will payoff in a big way when it comes to navigating this process!

* In the interest of full disclosure (and because she called me on it!) the research for this post came from Jennifer McCall with Merrimack Mortgage, thanks Jen! She is one of those fantastic Mortgage Officers that not only lends great advice but solid counsel that is not driven by her bottom line...call her if you have mortgage questions or need a loan! Jennifer McCall 603.520.1269

Thanks for Reading

Mike Gagnon

[mikegagnon603]

Great information this morning at The Lakes Region Real Estate Round Table! Tons of ideas and resources for future blog posts! Watch out!

[mikegagnon603]

Hello All! Here is one our world Famous (Well at least in our minds) 30 Second Tours...The building now on the market used to house WLNH and a number of other radio stations...check it out! What kind of a business could you envision here?

[mikegagnon603]

The Spring Market is here!