Wasatch Front Real Estate Video Blog with Spencer Janke

Will this Change Make You Eligible for Your Dream Home?

The Wasatch Front real estate market is diverse with both buyers and sellers alike seeking a variety of different properties. As a prospective seller, you can find out the market value of your property with a free home value report right here, or if you're looking to purchase in the Wasatch Front area click here for full MLS access. Always feel free to reach out to us for any questions regarding the current market conditions, or the value of your property at 801-882-7427.

Today, we have big news for all you homeowners!

FHA recently announced that they're lowering their insurance premium from 1.35% to .83%! This is HUGE news for both buyers and sellers on the Wasatch Front.

This news is big for Utah for a number of reasons, but mainly because of affordable housing. A lot of buyers are looking for homes under $250,000. However, a lot of them have issues getting together a down payment.

If they are able to get a 3.5% down payment, they can get an FHA loan. The problem is mortgage insurance. The fact that the amount you have to pay for it has decreased means FHA loans have become even more affordable.

Lower monthly payments for mortgage insurance will allow buyers to buy more home - the savings will come to about $80 a month for those buyers. What does this mean for you? Well, its means more people are now eligible to buy your home. This is huge news for sellers and buyers across the area, as it will likely result in an increase in market activity.

If you have questions about these lower insurance premiums, or would like real estate assistance of any kind, don't hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email. I would love to hear from you!

When Does the Spring Selling Season Begin on the Wasatch Front?

Now that the holidays are over and the new year has begun, we're starting to get a lot of questions about the spring market. The question we get most often is, "When does the spring selling market start for Utah?" Today, we'll try to answer that for you.

Utah is a little bit different than other states because of our winter season. However, contrary to what many people believe, our market starts heating up in February. This means if you want to get the most for your home, you want to get it on the market somewhere between February and May!

Our spring market is extremely hot, but our largest closing month is May. A lot of buyers are starting to look for homes right now and through the next couple months. Our advice is to start looking now if you're a buyer, and start getting your home ready for the market if you're a seller! The next three months is the best time to get the most value for your home!

The spring market is fantastic because you'll have a lot of options to choose from. People are getting back from the holidays and are anxious to put their homes on the market. However, beware that prices are on the rise! Over the last six months we've seen a 10% uptick in prices, so you need to have a strategy when searching for affordable housing.

If you have any questions about the spring market, or would like real estate assistance of any kind, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to hear from you!

How we helped Nate find a good return on investment using our Utah market experience

"Jake is a great Realtor! He’s very familiar with the Utah market, and was focused on finding a good home that would also have a great return on investment. He was with us the whole time, explaining things and negotiating for us—he would meet up with us any time! It was quite a pleasant experience. "

How we helped Krystin find a home by always being available

"Communication with Spencer was really, really great! Even if he was busy when I first contacted him, he would always follow up with me right away. There weren't a lot of houses on the market at that time, so he would find us houses that hadn't even been put on the market yet. If he wasn't available, he’d put us in touch with someone on his team and they would come down right away to show us a place. Even if it was a Sunday, Spencer made sure we were able to see the houses we wanted to see. It was a great experience!"

How we helped Tom with his real estate transactions by going above and beyond

"Jake is a fantastic agent, and we’ve worked with each other a lot over the years. He was always attentive and explained everything really well. He and Spencer both have always been great and had my back. He was quick to supply suggestions to help the process. He has always gone above and beyond."

How we helped Sean get a great deal by negotiating with the buyer

"Katrina was excellent. In just a short amount of time, we were able to find a home that had great value and great equity. Katrina got me a really good deal! Initially, the sellers thought they could take some appliances with them, but Katrina followed up and made sure they understood the contract. She really went above and beyond to make sure that those items stayed in the house for us!"

How we helped Heidie sell her home by taking initiative

"The first time we worked with Katrina, our house went under contract in three days! She’s an energetic person and a hard worker. She made sure to contact other Realtors even before our house was for sale, so we had multiple offers on the house as soon as it was on the market. She made sure that everything went smoothly, and kept us updated throughout. She definitely goes above and beyond in terms of communicating with us. It was a pretty amazing experience!"

How we helped Chris sell his home using seamless teamwork

"They did a great job, and my home sold quickly! I actually got my asking price for it, and the whole process was seamless. Victor happened to be gone one day, and another person from their team just picked right up where he left off. They work well together as a team! Just through the whole process, we didn't miss a beat. "

This New Loan Program May Be Your Ticket to the Home of Your Dreams!

Some interesting news just came out a few days ago we felt we should share.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have recently announced a new 3% down payment conventional loan. This is fantastic news, as the FHA lowered loan limits to $300,000 in Salt Lake County just last year.

With this new 3% down loan program, loan limits go up to $417,000! This is great news for home buyers out there looking for a fantastic program with a lower down payment. It's also good news for sellers, as more buyers are eligible to purchase your home.

This new program opens a lot of doors for a lot of people, so we thought we should share it with you!

If you have any questions about market conditions in the Wasatch Front area, or would like us to cover a particular topic in a future video, please give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to hear from you!

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Why work with us?

When not selling real estate, Spencer can be found either climbing Mt. Blanc in France or enjoying the fresh Utah Snow at any ski resort with his wife. He graduated from the University of Utah with a dual degree in Economics and Communications. Spencer is a salesman through and through, he enjoys the prospecting part of the job and feels the more peopel he can talk to, the faster a home will sell. Spencer prides himself in his ability to communicate with the client and work through any problem that could arise during a transaction. Over the past 8 years he has earned many awards for being one of the top salesmen in the Salt Lake area. His passion is evident from the moment you meet him. If you need to talk to an agent at 11:00 on a Saturday night to ask a question, Spencer is your guy!

Utah Cribs
6430 South 3000 East Suite 600
Cottonwood heights, Utah 84121
801-671-7877
Spencer@UtahCribs.com

Click to hear recent
testimonials from happy clients

Heather "Spencer was was a good Realtor to work with. He was easy to get a hold of, flexible, and willing to go out and search for houses whenever was convenient for us. In one case we got a baby sitter last minute and I sent him a text asking if he was available to go out and search for houses and he said he was available and quickly set up all the appointments."

Heather "Spencer was recommended to us by a Mortgage Broker. He was very knowledgeable about the market as well as the area. You can tell he has been in a lot of houses so he was able to make comparisons between properties. He was always very easy to schedule home tours with and was flexible with my schedule."

Matt "My experience working with Spencer was great. The other agent in our transaction was kind of tough to work with and Spencer did an excellent job of communicating with someone who was difficult to communicate with. I felt like he really fought for the things that we needed."

Lauren "We had a great time working with Spencer. He was incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. I really appreciated that he spent hours with us each time we went out to look at houses. His effort helped us find a great house."

Jeremy "We got our house sold in a pretty timely fashion. Spencer put a lot of effort into defusing negotiations with the buyer on our behalf which made things easy on us. He also spent extra time into marketing the property which helped it sell faster. We were very satisfied with our results"

Scott -"He was terrific, he found us a home and made the process very smooth. We were in California and he was here in Utah. He came out and found everything and made sure everything was in order for us to move in. Between my trips back and forth he even sent someone over to mow the lawn so that everything would be looking its best"

Nick -"Our experience was great. Spencer was able to help us out in multiple transactions. He was even willing to help us move from the house that we sold and help us hire an architect for a remodel!"

Nick -"Our results were exceptional. We looked at a home over the weekend without Peter and found a home that we really liked. We contacted him to see if we could put an offer on the house and he responded the same day. We were so appreciated that he was willing to take the time out of his weekend to help us!"

Cathy - "We’ve worked with Spencer twice now and both times we’ve had very positive results. Spencer is an exceptional real estate agent because he has a real passion for what he does. He’s extremely intuitive and he knows how to be aggressive without being offensive. He responded quickly to any questions or concerns that we had and answered our phone calls, texts, and emails within hours of us trying to contact him. He’s just very trustworthy, reliable, and fun to work with!"

Dan - "Our results were exceptional. I have worked with quite a few properties in the last 10 years and my agents had been fairly decent but Jake really goes above and beyond. Everything was exceptional from the marketing campaigns, his thoroughness, keeping us informed of what was going on, and just presenting the property better than anyone else! He was always available and tells you the why behind what you’re doing, which I really liked."

Mark - "We had good results when we worked with Spencer. The first thing he did was sit us down and ask us what we wanted and where we wanted to live. Being that it was our first home, we didn’t know a whole lot about the process so it was really great that he had knowledge of the whole area. We told him what we liked and he helped us realize that we could go in different areas. He went above and beyond and was in constant contact with us. He did a lot of research to find the perfect home for us! "

Marthes - "We had positive results with Spencer and he’d really make sure to get things done. He managed to pull miracles to get the home closed. There were 3 or 4 obstacles that had my wife and I thinking that it was gone but Spencer wouldn’t give up. He always wanted to try again and he managed to pull it through "

Ryan - "I had gone through about 4 other real estate agents before I got to Spencer and working with him was a success! He’s just super professional. I was nervous getting out there and looking at houses but he made it comfortable to actually get out there and do it. He’s a really good real estate agent especially compared to the other’s I’ve dealt with. He found the right places and helped us realize that we were making a financial decision instead of an emotional one. "

Tom - "Jake is a fantastic agent, and we’ve worked with each other a lot over the years. He was always attentive and explained everything really well. He and Spencer both have always been great and had my back. He was quick to supply suggestions to help the process. He has always gone above and beyond."

Sean - "Katrina was excellent. In just a short amount of time, we were able to find a home that had great value and great equity. Katrina got me a really good deal! Initially, the sellers thought they could take some appliances with them, but Katrina followed up and made sure they understood the contract. She really went above and beyond to make sure that those items stayed in the house for us!"

Nate - "Jake is a great Realtor! He’s very familiar with the Utah market, and was focused on finding a good home that would also have a great return on investment. He was with us the whole time, explaining things and negotiating for us—he would meet up with us any time! It was quite a pleasant experience."

Krystin - "Communication with Jake was really, really great! Even if he was busy when I first contacted him, he would always follow up with me right away. There weren't a lot of houses on the market at that time, so he would find us houses that hadn't even been put on the market yet. If he wasn't available, he’d put us in touch with someone on his team and they would come down right away to show us a place. Even if it was a Sunday, Jake made sure we were able to see the houses we wanted to see. It was a great experience!"

Chris - "They did a great job, and my home sold quickly! I actually got my asking price for it, and the whole process was seamless. Victor happened to be gone one day, and another person from their team just picked right up where he left off. They work well together as a team! Just through the whole process, we didn't miss a beat. "

Heidie - "The first time we worked with Katrina, our house went under contract in three days! She’s an energetic person and a hard worker. She made sure to contact other Realtors even before our house was for sale, so we had multiple offers on the house as soon as it was on the market. She made sure that everything went smoothly, and kept us updated throughout. She definitely goes above and beyond in terms of communicating with us. It was a pretty amazing experience! "

Ron - "He got the house sold a lot sooner than we thought it would. He stays on top of things. He also did a great job working through the little repairs the buyer wanted. He even offered to take care of a few of them himself to make sure the deal went through. He’s always willing to help out, and he’s always willing to give us the time we need to make sure that we’re on top of his list of things to do."

Doug -"They were able to get us the type of house that we wanted. We had a bit of trouble with some of the appraisals that came in, and they were able to get about $4,000 of the price. My wife was the one who looked around at most of the houses. She asked to see this one house, and Spencer told her that she’d already seen it. She wasn’t sure, so he took her over anyway. Once they got there, she remembered it. That’s actually the house we wound up buying, so I’m really glad that Spencer was willing to go back!"

Irene -"They sold our house! They communicated regularly, and helped with the negotiations. I think the communication was really good!"

Bryson -"They sold our condo for $5,000 more than we listed it! Then they helped us find a house, and they were very helpful throughout. Spencer Janke educated us on market trends. He was very knowledgeable. Peter was good at making sure that we were able to see a house whenever we wanted. If he couldn’t make it, he would send someone from the team to help us. It seemed like they made it a point to help us whenever we needed it!"

Kerry -"We were looking for a home, and Jake narrowed it down to what we wanted. We looked at a number of homes. He gave us good feedback, and we ended up purchasing a home. He was very good about following up with us. We were out of town, so he sent us listings that fit our criteria. When we were in town, he made himself available to show us homes. He was very good about understanding what we needed and what we wanted, and he lined up homes that fit that criteria!"

LeGrand -"Oh, it was fantastic! They were very responsive and sent updates often. When we found properties we were interested in; they were able to get us in there and see them quickly. Their knowledge of the market was very helpful; they were great negotiators as well. I always felt; like, I was getting a good deal and that they knew what they were doing."

Josh -"Both Jake and Mike were always accessible. They went out of their way to be open to anything that we talked about, showing me as many properties as I wanted to see. They always had creative ideas, because we were looking for a remodel. They always had creative ideas of what we could do with the properties."

Cathy -"Spencer has a real passion for his work in real estate and it is just a joy to work with him. He's helped us find two homes here in Utah. First, we were transferring from Atlanta. My husband got a job here in Utah, quite a change from Atlanta. We were just impressed by Spencer's knowledge of the area and his willingness to really work with us to find what would work for our family. Five years after that we moved again and he helped us again find the right place...very positive experience. We found a home that we really loved and a lot of other people were interested in the home. He just acted really quickly, he was able to meet me over at the house the very morning that I called him and set things up to expedite the process...just really good timing. He just went above and beyond in his willingness to act very quickly on that process for us."

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