How We’re Addressing Affordability In Real Estate
How original, a real estate professional screaming about the importance of homeownership from the rooftops. I know, it’s cliché, but at least it’s something I’m passionate about. I saw an article published on Yahoo Finance yesterday, written by Dalton Brewster, that discusses the dramatically changing real estate landscape and what that means for generations that would normally be purchasing homes. I’m looking at you, fellow Millennials. Dalton covers how much more difficult it is to purchase a home compared to how it was decades ago (true), and how higher inflation and lower wages have been crippling to aspiring homeowners (also true). Not to mention the generation suffocating under the massive pile of student debt (sadly true). Another emerging trend is the investment in single family residential homes that’s sucking up a lot of formally available inventory, further driving up the price. It’s really not a fun time to be a home buyer right now.
Dalton also covers the hidden costs of homeownership and how it also adds a burden to aspiring homeowners; property taxes, HOA fees, insurance fees, maintenance, etc.
This I can help you with. Very easily in fact. In 2020 I joined My friend and colleague, Krishna Malyala to reposition his startup called TLCengine. Our goal was to combine real estate brokerage services with game-changing technology to deliver price transparency to, well, you. I can’t increase your pay. I can’t cancel your student loan debt (call your representatives), and I can’t stop investors from scooping up your dream home and renting it back to you, but I can help show you affordable homes and where to find them. That’s My job as a REALTOR® after all.
TLCengine is the magic that powers MikeDelRose.com using AI and predictive analytics. What we do is connect the listing data from homes on the MLS, bring in big data in terms of real time interest rates, energy costs, insurance rates, commuting costs, etc. and add in your very own financial profile. We plug in this data into a big ‘ol calculator on the back end and spit out with a good degree of accuracy what it would cost you to own the listing you’re looking at online, all in. We even show you the maximum offer price you could make based on your own debt-to-income ratios the banks are going to look at when giving you a loan. Cool tool, right?
Krishna and I joined forces not to solve just today’s issues, however. While coming from very different backgrounds and generations, we both understand what it means to be a homeowner and how it can impact your long-term finances. An investment in a single family home now can equate to generational wealth in the future. In this country’s history, we have seen what happens when groups of people were denied the opportunity to purchase homes, and how it has impacted their futures. A different problem that deserves attention. Difficulties of purchasing aside in this market, our goal is to put more Americans in homes, and we find it disturbing that more and more of us are turning (read: forced) toward renting.
As we continue to move jobs more frequently and look for amenities that don’t typically accompany the small suburban home, white picket fence to boot, we may be foregoing the opportunity to build long-term wealth. We won’t be able to solve all of the issues facing home buyers, especially alone, but we are committed to helping as many people as we can through cost transparency.