Exclusivity Is Important

Let's imagine for a minute that you're looking for a new home...a brand new home. Now let's say you want this new home to be in Utah, but you don't live here yet. Besides getting on a plane or driving out to look at the homes, how could a prospective buyer get a guided visual tour of the homes they're interested in?

One way of course is the Internet. The growth of Internet real estate shoppers has grown significantly over the past few years. USA Today wrote last year -

the breadth of information now available on the Internet is shifting the balance of power in the real estate industry, giving home buyers and sellers more control over the deal than ever before and fueling competition among agents.

But if a builder's site doesn't show up on a search for "new homes in utah," the prospective buyer may never see it.

Even better than photos of new homes, is a video that gives a more realistic perspective of what the home looks like. That's one role our Homes Today Utah Edition show provides. Each week we not only show the latest new homes available on ABC4, but we put those segments on our website so anybody can see them at any time.

An important thing to note is the builders we showcase can only be seen on Homes Today. We know there are other home shows out there, but they don't have what we have. For example, we have exclusive footage of DAI homes Stillwater development in Saratoga Springs. If you were searching for homes in Saratoga Springs, you might run across DAI's website, but if you want the video tour, you'll only find it at Homes Today.

Exclusivity and unique content are important to us. We know there are plenty of demands on our viewer's time and we want to provide educational, informative and entertaining content on our show, our website and our blog.

Lending Landscape - September 27, 2007

The mortgage markets have settled down a bit since last weeks rate cut by the Federal Reserve Board. While short term rates did go down, the bond markets turned long term rates for 15 and 30 year fixed mortgages up. This was reflected in today's interest rate report -

The government-sponsored loan buyer said the rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan averaged 6.42 percent for the week ended Sept. 27, up from 6.34 percent last week.

Last year at this time, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 6.31 percent.

In its latest report, Freddie Mac said rates on 15-year fixed-rate loans averaged 6.09 percent in the latest week, up from 5.98 percent last week. A year ago, the 15-year rate averaged 5.98 percent.

As the markets have settled, the 10 year bond which is most closely tied to establishing long term mortgage rates has come down. Expect to see these rates adjust down in the coming week. Meanwhile, short term rates for adjustable rate mortgage have come down from last week, but are still higher than last year.

Lending Landscape Thursday

Welcome to Homes Today's latest feature - Lending Landscape. There's a lot of media attention being paid towards home financing recently. Unfortunately, the mortgage and financial markets move so quickly, it's impossible to remain current on our TV program since we film in advance.

The Homes Today blog is the perfect solution!

Thursday's tend to be the day previous mortgage rates, unemployment and other home building statistics are announced on Wall Street. By Thursday afternoon, a pretty clear picture usually develops.

Of course, weeks like the one we just had were pretty full of action. The Federal Reserve decided to cut short term interest rates for the first time in four years and Congress voted to change FHA rules to enable first time home buyers more options when it comes to buying a home.

Over the months to come, we'll cover the mortgage lending landscape as well as answer frequently asked questions about financing new homes. Of course, if anything major develops before Thursday, we'll let you know in a special update. Feel free to leave a comment if you have a particular question you want answered.

Juniper Point at Rosecrest Opens New Clubhouse

Residents of Juniper Point at Rosecrest, a master planned community on the West Bench in Herriman, Utah can now enjoy the new clubhouse.

According to the press release from the developer, The Sorenson Group, the clubhouse features -

a dynamic, modern design and offers 1,500-sq. ft. of indoor space, a social gathering room, outdoor pool, hot tub and a tennis and basketball court. “This beautiful new clubhouse will be a great asset to homeowners who appreciate top-notch amenities, but who don’t have time to look after them,” said Donald E. Wallace, president of The Sorenson Group.

Juniper Point is on the west side of Rosecrest and features a magnificent view of Juniper Canyon. Residents enjoy the community trail system which feeds into the Juniper Canyon trails. 46 acres of open space provide plenty of room for activities like running, cycling and horse riding.

Location Counts in Media Too

When it comes to real estate, the old adage is location, location, location. Getting into the best location helps with resale, personal safety and overall enjoyment of the home.

The same concept applies to television programming as well. The location in this instance is the channel and the time slot.

Arrested Development is one of my favorite television shows that unfortunately is no longer on. This was a show Fox claimed was trying to find an audience, while at the same time it received critical acclaim. By the time it was cancelled, the show had changed time slots and days several times. According to Wikipedia -

Fox aired the final four episodes of the third season in a block as a two-hour series finale on February 10, 2006, opposite the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

No wonder this show couldn't find an audience...it didn't have a consistent location. One of the things we're pleased with at Homes Today - Utah Edition is our partnership with KTVX. For over three years Jill Jessen has worked with ABC4 bringing consistent programming through Homes Today and its predecessor. Our relationship with KTVX is also good because our shows rarely get pre-empted as networks can sometimes do.

When it comes to Utah's premiere destination homes show, we've got the location, location, location at ABC4 Sundays at 8:30, 4:30 and 11:30.

Hamlet Homes Offers Great New Home Promotion

Hamlet Homes is offering an amazing promotion on new inventory homes in Crofter's Cove and Daybreak.

Home buyers that use Hamlet's preferred lender can get four months of no mortgage payments with a purchase of one of their existing, ready to move in, homes in Clearfield or West Jordan.

While the Salt Lake homes market is starting to slow down, bulging home inventories and low interest rates make it very attractive for new home buyers.

Hamlet's inventory homes start in the low $200s with 1700 plus finished square footage and go up.

For additional information on the 19 homes that qualify for this special offer, visit Hamlet Home's website.