Ode To A Bug’s Butt

Inspiration often comes from unexpected places, like a glowing firefly on a warm summer evening. This tiny insect, with its remarkable ability to light up the night, serves as a simple yet profound reminder of what’s possible. So, if God can make a bug’s butt light up, He can certainly make you a homeowner!

This message, while humorous, carries a powerful truth: with faith, determination, and the right guidance, even your biggest dreams—like owning a home—can become a reality. And if you’re ready to take that leap, Phil Baker, REALTOR®, and the Living In Pensacola Group with Coldwell Banker Realty in Pensacola, Florida, are here to guide you every step.

Finding Hope in Unlikely Places

Let’s start with the firefly. This little insect is an incredible creation, equipped with the ability to light up its surroundings. It doesn’t worry about the darkness; it simply glows with purpose. Similarly, when the journey to homeownership feels daunting, it’s essential to focus on what’s possible rather than the challenges.

Think of the homebuying process. It might seem initially overwhelming —budgeting, saving, navigating the housing market—but, like the firefly, every small step you take shines a little more light on your path. As you work toward your goal, trust that you have the right resources and people beside you, including Phil Baker, REALTOR®, whose expertise can simplify the journey and make it achievable.

Overcoming the Obstacles to Homeownership

For many, buying a home might feel out of reach. Rising home prices, saving for a down payment, and understanding the mortgage process can seem confusing. But with the right mindset and the support of the Living In Pensacola Group, you’ll find that these challenges are manageable.

1. Start with Belief

The first step is having faith in the process. Much like the firefly doesn’t question its glow, you shouldn’t doubt your ability to achieve homeownership. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or looking to upgrade, your journey starts with believing it’s possible.

1. Take Small Steps

Big dreams often feel overwhelming, but breaking them into smaller steps can make them more achievable. For example:

• Assess your financial situation.
• Set a realistic budget.
• Research the local housing market in Pensacola, Florida with expert guidance from Phil Baker, REALTOR®.

1. Lean on the Experts

Navigating the complexities of homebuying is much easier with a professional by your side. Phil Baker and the Living In Pensacola Group specialize in making the process seamless, providing local expertise and personalized advice to match you with the perfect home.

Why Pensacola, Florida, is the Perfect Place to Call Home

Known for its stunning beaches, rich history, and vibrant community, Pensacola, Florida, is more than just a destination—it’s a lifestyle. Whether you’re drawn to the charming downtown area, the top-rated schools, or the relaxed coastal vibe, Pensacola has something for everyone.

As a local expert with Coldwell Banker Realty, Phil Baker, REALTOR®, knows the ins and outs of Pensacola’s neighborhoods. From quiet suburban streets to homes near the water, he can help you find a property that fits your needs and lifestyle.

Practical Steps to Make Homeownership a Reality

Faith and determination are essential, but practical steps bring your dream home within reach. Here’s how to get started:

1. Assess Your Finances

Take a close look at your income, expenses, and credit score. Understanding where you stand financially is crucial to determining what you can afford.

1. Work with a Local Expert

With deep roots in the community, Phil Baker, REALTOR®, offers invaluable insights into the Pensacola market.

1. Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage

Before house hunting, get pre-approved with a mortgage lender to understand your buying power. This step also signals to sellers that you’re a serious buyer.

1. Explore Pensacola Neighborhoods

From waterfront properties to cozy family homes, Pensacola, Florida, offers diverse housing options. With the help of Phil Baker and Coldwell Banker Realty, you can explore neighborhoods that match your lifestyle.

The Role of Faith in Homeownership

Homeownership is more than just a financial decision—it’s a journey. Have faith in your ability to overcome challenges, confidence in the professionals guiding you, and trust that your dream is attainable.

Celebrating Small Wins

Every step forward, no matter how small, is worth celebrating. Saving your first $1,000, improving your credit score, or attending your first open house are all milestones that bring you closer to owning your dream home.

Staying the Course

There will be moments of doubt or obstacles along the way but remember the firefly. Its light isn’t constant, but it always comes back. Stay the course, trust the process, and rely on the expertise of professionals like Phil Baker, REALTOR®, to help you reach your goal.

Why Work with Phil Baker, REALTOR®

When buying a home in Pensacola, Florida, having the right team by your side can make all the difference. Here’s what sets Phil Baker apart:

• Local Expertise: With a deep understanding of the Pensacola housing market, he’ll guide you to the best opportunities.
• Personalized Service: Every buyer’s journey is unique, and Phil Baker tailors his approach to meet your specific needs.
• Trusted Partner: As part of the Living In Pensacola Group and Coldwell Banker Realty, Phil brings professionalism and integrity to every transaction.

Conclusion: From Fireflies to Homeownership

The saying, “If God can make a bug’s butt light up, He can make you a homeowner,” is both humorous and profound. It serves as a reminder to trust in what’s possible and to take inspired action toward our goals.

With faith, determination, and the guidance of Phil Baker, REALTOR®, owning a home in Pensacola, Florida, isn’t just a dream—it’s an attainable goal. Whether you are a first-time buyer or looking for your next property, let the Living In Pensacola Group help illuminate your path.

Your dream home is waiting for you. Start your journey today with Phil Baker and Coldwell Banker Realty—because if a firefly can light up the night, there are no limits to what you can achieve.

Owning a home brings joy, belonging, and countless benefits to your life. From stability and personalization to building equity and creating a lasting legacy, homeownership is a game-changer. Join the celebration and discover why having a place to call your own is a dream worth achieving! 

Here are three ways owning your home can give you a sense of accomplishment, happiness, and pride.

1️⃣ Sense of Accomplishment: Buying your own home is a major milestone that reflects your hard work and financial success. It’s a tangible symbol of your achievements and a source of immense pride.

2️⃣ Happiness at Home: Owning your space brings immense joy. It’s a canvas for self-expression, where you can create memories, customize to your heart’s content, and truly make it your sanctuary. Homeownership fuels happiness!

3️⃣ Pride of Ownership: Having a home you can call your own fills you with a deep sense of pride. It’s an investment in yourself and your future. From maintaining its beauty to watching it appreciate in value, homeownership amplifies your pride!

Celebrate the empowerment that comes with owning a home and revel in the accomplishment, happiness, and pride it brings! 🎉🏡

Call your REALTOR!

#HomeownershipMonth #DreamHome #SenseofBelonging

10 Things You Should Never Say To A Real Estate Agent

Let’s be clear on one thing: by nature, real estate agents are not fragile beings. We’ve heard it all. And for the most part, we have a great sense of humor about things. In other words, you can tell us virtually anything — in fact, you should if it’s pertinent to buying or selling your home.

It’s just that there’s a handful of things clients say that can rub us the wrong way. These things aren’t offensive, per se’, and you probably mean no harm when saying them. But we need to discuss these things. Thus, this list. Let’s file it under “edutainment” — important enough to warrant a dialogue, but light enough for you to realize it’s not the end of the world if you’ve said these things to an agent in the past.

Here they are.

1. “I want to buy a home, but I don’t want to commit to one agent.”

Loyalty is a two-way street. If you want an agent’s help, understand that he or she will spend a considerable amount of time, money, and effort shuttling you from house to house, scheduling home viewings, and previewing listings on your behalf. The tradeoff for this hard work is to sign a buyer’s agency agreement, allowing them to formally represent you as a client (versus merely a customer). There are major differences between the two. Learn more about agency relationships here.

2. “Don’t show my home unless I’m available.”

Look down. See a hole in your shoe? That’s because you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Real estate agents are busy. Therefore, if you want to maximize your home’s exposure, you’re gonna have to be flexible (i.e., as “hands off” as possible). I get it, though. You cringe at the thought of muddy shoes dragging across your beige carpet (or whatever else your concern may be). You naturally want to be present to keep an eye on things, but try to control that urge. Buyers get uncomfortable with sellers standing over them while they view a home — and that’s if you’re lucky enough to draw the buyer inside in the first place, considering all the hoops created by stipulating that other people’s schedules must align with yours.

3. “But Zillow said…”

Stop listening to Zillow. Relying on Zillow to determine your home’s value is, at best, a crapshoot. Zillow itself even encourages buyers, sellers and homeowners to conduct other research such as “getting a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a real estate agent” and “getting an appraisal from a professional appraiser.” Sure, Zillow’s Zestimates® are quick, easy, and free… but so is dating advice from your thrice-divorced Uncle Larry. The point? Just let a local real estate professional (who will actually see your home’s unique features in person) determine its fair market value.

4. “I’ll get pre-approved for a mortgage later.”

This puts you at a huge disadvantage right out of the starting block. First, an agent worth his or her salt won’t agree to invest countless hours showing homes to someone who isn’t approved for a loan. Secondly, it’s an unfair burden on the seller to bring tire-kickers into their home (which is how you’ll be perceived). Therefore, listing agents and sellers will often require a pre-approval letter alongside your offer. This letter strengthens your offer by instilling confidence in all parties that you’re financially capable of purchasing the home.

5. “I don’t want to bother my Realtor®. Can you just show me the house?”

Not just no, but heck no. To be clear, you’re more than welcome to view it, but there’s a protocol in play here. Contrary to what you think, asking your agent to see a home is not “bothering” them. It’s their job. It’s how they get paid. It’s what they love doing. If there are extenuating circumstances preventing your agent from showing you a home, let him or her call the listing agent directly. Don’t worry, you’ll get to view the home one way or another. But if you’re already represented, then going straight to the listing agent is considered is a faux pas in this industry (and a bit of a slap in the face to your agent). Just don’t do it.

6. “Real-a-tor”

The correct pronunciation is Real-tor. No need to throw that extra syllable in there.

7. “Oh, you sell real estate? You must make good money.”

Hold your horses… not necessarily. According to NAR (National Association of REALTORS®), the median gross income of REALTORS® was $42,500 in 2016, and that’s before expenses like MLS fees, marketing, insurance and everything else. Also, keep in mind that commissions are split between the brokerages representing the buyer and seller. In other words, of that X% you paid your agent to sell your home, he or she saw only a tiny fraction of that.

8. “I’m planning to sell my home by owner. I just want to know how to do it.”

We all know that time is money, but so is knowledge. It’s not always free, and it certainly can’t be passed from one brain to another through osmosis — especially not how to sell a home. So if you ask this question to an agent, don’t be offended if you don’t get the answer you were seeking. It’s not that agents want you to fail… it’s just that advising you how to sell a home isn’t as easy as, say, forwarding a recipe for chocolate pound cake. I should know. Many people tried to replicate my grandmother’s chocolate pound cake. They even had the recipe. But they all failed miserably, every time. Bottom line? If you want to benefit from experience, be willing to pay for it (especially when it comes to real estate).

9. “I’ll only sell my home to a buyer who is (insert race, gender, religion, etc. here)”

This is a big no-no, and one that’s liable to get you sued (unless, of course, you list with a real estate professional who’d certainly know better than to discriminate). Federal equal housing laws were passed in 1968 in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, and they prohibit renters and home sellers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of race, sex, religion and other factors. So in a nutshell: focus on getting your home sold, and forget about to whom.

10. “I’d love to get paid to look at pretty houses all day, every day.”

So would agents. “Looking at pretty houses” is only one of about 184 things real estate agents do for their clients.

Don’t Worry About Home Prices Dipping This Year (Unless You’re Among This 3% Of Homeowners)

It’s natural for people to be concerned that they’re buying a house when prices are at their peak, and people worry about that in almost any market. So when you start hearing news about the market shifting, and home prices coming down, you might wonder if your house is worth less than you paid for it (if you bought it in the past couple of years).

It can (and does) happen. Real estate values aren’t on a constant upward trend; they do take a dip here and there. But overall, the value of your house will appreciate over the years, despite some dips. So, unless you have to sell when prices are lower than you paid for your house, you can always just wait for the market to bounce back before selling.

The good news is that while prices have been adjusting down in some areas, they haven’t been falling drastically. In fact, home prices are only predicted to decline 4% in the coming year, as this Yahoo article states. Considering how much appreciation many homeowners gained in the past few years, that would mean many homes will still be worth more than when they were purchased.

So, for the most part, you don’t have to sweat the news that prices are coming down.

However, it can be an issue if you find yourself in a position where you’re unable to pay your mortgage and your value has dropped. According to this article from First Journal Tuesday, mortgage delinquencies have been on the rise recently. They increased from the recent bottom of 2.75% homeowners (at least 30 days behind) back in May 2022, up to 3% in November.

That’s not a huge increase, and it’s still fairly low, but if you find yourself in that percentage of people, it can be scary and concerning.

When people find themselves behind on mortgage payments, there can be a tendency to wait until it’s too late to deal with it. Just hoping things will get better and resolve themselves is not the best approach.

Here are some things you can do if you’re having trouble making your payments:

• Call and discuss your circumstances with your lender. If it’s a temporary issue and you can reasonably expect to get caught up and continue paying in a short period of time, they may be willing to work with you. They might give you a forbearance (a temporary hold on your payments) while you get back on your feet. Or they might be willing to give you a modified payment for a period of time. But if they are unwilling to help in any way, they may at least give you time to sell your house—or approve a short sale if necessary—rather than initiate the foreclosure process.
• Consider selling your house. If you’re having trouble keeping up with payments, it may make sense to sell your house and buy a lower priced one, or rent for a while. Just because you’re unable to make your payments doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t make money on the sale of your house. Speak to a local real estate agent and get a feel for how much your house is currently worth. Despite prices coming down in some areas, you might find that there is enough equity to sell and walk away with a profit, considering how much values have gone up in the past few years.

Whichever route you choose if you’re struggling to pay your mortgage, the key is to do it sooner rather than later to avoid getting too far in the hole with your lender, or before prices potentially drop further than forecasted.

The Takeaway:

While there’s a lot of news about home prices falling, the forecast of a 4% drop in the next year shouldn’t be an issue for most homeowners, even if they bought in the past couple of years.

But there is a slight uptick in the number of people who are at least 30 days behind on their mortgage payments. If you’re one of the 3% of people who are delinquent on their mortgage, make sure to discuss the issue and potential resolutions with your lender. Or, if they aren’t willing to cooperate with you, consider selling your house. You might find that you could make a profit considering how much homes have appreciated in the past few years.

Buying a Home? Make Sure to Look for These Energy-Efficient Features

The cost of owning a home is rising, in large part due to rising energy costs. For example, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the cost of heating oil could increase up to 45 percent year-over-year, alongside projected 25 percent rises in the price of natural gas, and an 11 percent increase for electricity.

With costs on the rise, it’s more important than ever for buyers to purchase energy-efficient homes.

But how, exactly, do you do that?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined the key features potential buyers should be looking for if they want their home purchase to be as energy efficient as possible, including:

• Close to work. A long commute will use a significant amount of gas, which is not only bad for your budget, but bad for the environment. If you work in an office—and an energy-efficient home purchase is important to you—make sure to look for a property that’s close to your office and offers a short commute. (Bonus points if you can bike to work!)
• Proper insulation. If you don’t want to spend a fortune on heating your home, you want to buy a property with proper insulation. And we’re not just talking about walls. Heat rises, so the majority of your heating will eventually make it to the roof. If you want to keep heating costs low, you need to make sure your ceiling and attic are properly insulated as well.
• Energy-efficient appliances. The appliances in a home play a huge part in how energy efficient (or energy inefficient) it ultimately is. So before you commit to buying a home, make sure to review the appliances—and aim for both a water heater and furnace that are at least 95 percent energy-efficient.

Signs That It’s Time to Downsize Your Kitchen Gadget Collection

The right kitchen gadgets can make cooking significantly easier and less stressful. And there are some kitchen gadgets that are, for many, non-negotiables—like a microwave or coffee machine.

But too many kitchen gadgets can be a problem; not only do they take up precious storage space, but they can make your kitchen appear cluttered—which can be a problem when you decide to sell.

So, the question is, how do you know when your collection of kitchen gadgets has crossed the line into “too many” territory?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined clear indicators that it’s time to downsize your kitchen gadget collection, including:

• You have gadgets you don’t use. Many people buy kitchen gadgets they think they will use or should use (like a juicer or air fryer)—but then they just end up collecting dust on their kitchen counter. If you have gadgets you never use taking up space in your kitchen, it’s time to get rid of them.
• You have gadgets you can’t identify. Having kitchen gadgets you don’t use is a major waste of space. But having kitchen gadgets you can’t even identify? That’s even worse. If you’re in the dark about what a gadget is, what it does, or when you’d use it, it doesn’t belong in your kitchen.
• You have mini-versions of your favorite gadgets. Mini appliances have become more popular in recent years. But if you have a full-sized version of a kitchen gadget (like a waffle maker or blender), you don’t need a mini-version.

Home Selling Rules Are No Longer Relevant

The market is changing. While bidding wars, sky-high prices, and homes flying off the market were a reality just a few months ago, rising mortgage rates, changing economic conditions, and increasing inventory have caused a serious shift in some areas.

And if you’re selling your home, it’s important to operate under the conditions of the market the way it is now, not the way it was last year or a few months ago.

So what, exactly, does that look like?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined some of the widely believed rules about selling a home in today’s market that are no longer true (and that you’ll definitely want to consider breaking!), including:

• Pricing your home as high as you’d like. There was a time when sellers could virtually put any price tag on their home and it would sell, often for even higher than their asking price. But those days are over, and if you want to successfully sell your home in today’s market, you need to price your home conservatively and in line with its current market value.
• Don’t worry about offering concessions. At the height of the buying frenzy, buyers were bending over backwards for sellers, and that meant sellers could forgo any concessions. But now that the market has cooled, if you want to sell your home—and sell it quickly—offering concessions to buyers (like helping them “buy down” their mortgage rate or cover closing costs) isn’t out of the question.
• Home staging isn’t necessary. There was a time when just about any home would sell, regardless of how it looked. But now that buyers are more selective, you’ll want to do everything you can to make your home marketable and appealing—and that includes investing in professional staging.