With all kinds of pressure of mortgage rates and housing prices, it would seem all potential home buyers could use a little luck of the Irish in pursuit of their next home. Since I don’t have access to a Leprechaun or the Blarney Stone, we are going to have to manufacture some luck of our own.

Nobody likes higher prices, and nobody wants to see higher mortgage rates. Unfortunately, there is no avoiding the fact that these are things we must deal with and if we don’t, what are to options? We could not buy a house, but that means paying higher rents as rental increases are significant across the country; or continue to live in our current house, one we would rather not live because it doesn’t function as we need it to.

The choice is to bite the bullet and move forward. Mostly because the houses are continuing to rise in price, and there is no sign that the mortgage rate market is going to settle down any time soon!

So, we do math!

• What do higher prices really mean to each specific client?
• How much are home prices in your area rising?
• With higher prices, how much more do we need to finance?
• At higher rates, how much more is the payment?
• What will that cost look like in one month, two months, or more?

Once we are under contract on a home and the rate on the loan is locked, the costs and the payments stop rising, and property appreciation now belongs to the buyer going forward, and we have frozen our P&I payments into the future. While nobody can guarantee property values will continue to rise, and mortgage rates may not push higher; recent history tells us that stopping higher prices and higher rates as quickly as possible is a good thing!

Remember, people are seeing higher prices everywhere! Isn’t it nice to stop the rise in something? So, get your people prepared to be as good as they can be. Have your fully documented preapproval, make the best offer they can first, accept the fact that there is no way to get yesterdays prices or yesterdays rates, but todays prices and rates will be yesterday’s tomorrow!

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"Oh, yes, Ray, they will definitely come,” said Terence Mann (played by Janes Earl Jones) to Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) in the 1989 movie ‘Field of Dreams’ (yes, folks that was 30+ years ago). Ray was debating whether building this baseball diamond was worth sacrificing his precious cornfields. “Yes, Ray, they (meaning baseball fans) will hand over their $20 without even knowing what they will be getting.” Mann continues, because “besball” (as Mann pronounced it) is America’s game. The “they” is later adjusted to “he” as in “If you build, he will come” meaning Ray’s father, John Kinsella, will come. And, of course, he does. However, we’re not sure the 2022 MLB fans will see baseball this year. Stay tuned!

‘Field of Dreams’ was made for me. My dad, Jim, Sr. and I played “catch” (“have a catch” as Ray said it) many times in our family’s front yard. My ambition as a kid was to be a major league baseball player. It was my field of a dream. There were many in my age group (11-12) who had dreams as there are today. As MLB labor negotiations dragged on as I wrote this, I was reminded that dreams don’t always come true.

While I can’t excuse Shoeless Joe Jackson of the Chicago White Sox for accepting $5,000 contained in a “confidential” envelope and then taking so long to own up to it, I am of the belief that Jackson played to win that 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. The debate goes on.

But how about this MLB 2022 debate? It’s certainly not about $5,000! However, the issue is always the same – $$$$$ – with a lot more zeros tacked on these days. Today’s major league players make a lot more money than Jackson and his 7 White Sox teammates (forever known as the Black Sox Scandal) did. With meetings continuing between MLB management and the MLBPA (the 40 players on each of the 32 MLB teams) for some 99 days of the lockout–neither side seems to be much closer to an agreement.

I am not privy to the terms/issues on that table. However, one of them is the “international rule” whereby a T*E*A*M is able to sign (under the table a 12-year-old from, let’s say, the Dominican Republic and then promises to sign him when he reaches the legal age of 16. The argument to eliminate this practice continues. Some say it will be harmful to the young foreign players.

Breaking News; MLB lockout is Over! A full 162-game schedule is “on” for 2022!