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Online Reports
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To enhance your buying and selling experience, it’s our job as real estate professionals to provide you with as much valuable information as possible. It is essential that the buyer or seller be aware of all aspects of the real estate market before making a major decision. Whether it be through newsletters, checklists or news articles, we are here to make this process stress-free and rewarding. Please access our free reports today!
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Selling A Home In A Slump
Despite recent trends suggesting the real estate market has hit an all time low there are still plenty of people buying homes. This suggests that no matter what trends show there will always be people interested in a sale. Even when trends suggest foreclosures are at an all-time high people will continue to buy real estate.
How can you improve your odds of selling a home when trends suggest you may have a hard time?
When the trends suggest the market is your worst enemy, you have to figure out how to turn your luck around. There are several steps you can take to make luck work for you and not against you. Here are some suggestions that will help you sell your home in a tough economy: (1) First, make sure your home is always available for showing, no matter your situation. This will improve the odds you will sell your home. (2) Make sure your home is clean all the time, even if you are not naturally a clean person. (3) Have a professional real estate agent or broker come and stage your home so it presents in the best possible light. This will improve your odds of putting your best face forward and impressing potential home buyers.
(4) If you have pets, make sure they are contained, clean and that all pet odors are removed from the home, unless you plan to sell only to other pet owners. Even then make sure your pet materials are meticulously clean and your yard free of pet debris and waste. If you leave the home for a showing take your pets with you or have them restrained so they do not scare off prospects. (5) Set a competitive price if you want people to show your house and if you plan to sell your home in a tight market. You probably won’t get top dollar but you can get a fair asking price even if trends suggest the housing market is plummeting. Remember there are still people that have money and have an interest in plunking it down on a new house and worthy investment.
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Setting Priorities In Home Shopping
After you have the decision to purchase a home, the next step is to find a home to purchase, and it can be very difficult to make a final decision about a home. If you first do your homework defining your wants and needs for a home, you’ll find that home shopping can be a lot easier and a lot more fun.
One of the best things you can do for your home shopping endeavors is to be pre-approved for a mortgage loan. Make sure that you don’t confuse pre-approval with pre-qualification. When you are pre-qualified for a mortgage loan, the lender simply uses your income and monthly bills to give you an estimate of how much you will be eligible for. Pre-approval, on the other hand, goes a step further, incorporating job verification and credit check to estimate the amount of your loan. Getting pre-approved for a mortgage makes home shopping easier because you now have a figure that you can work with.
Determine your needs and wants in a home. Your list should make a clear distinction between what you need versus what you want in a home. Needs are those you much have in a house to be happy, like square footage, the number of bedrooms, and physical accommodations. On the other hand, wants are those that you would like to have in a house like specific color of carpeting, Jacuzzi tub, and marble flooring.
Make sure you also list out features that you do not want a home to have. This, too, will help in the home shopping process by giving you a way to rule out certain homes.
Come up with a process for evaluating homes. It is a good practice to weed out homes throughout the home shopping process. We suggest at any given time you should only be considering three homes, one of which you would immediately purchase based on what you already know.
Developing a process for evaluating homes and equipping yourself with all the necessary information makes for a successful home shopping experience.
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Saving For A Home Down Payment
How can you save enough money to buy a home? Historically, Americans have trouble saving money for their financial futures, including for a new home. With our unstable economy, some homebuyers struggle to find a down payment.
While the preferred down payment for a home varies, it is typically between 10-20%, as it will reduce the total monthly payment amount on the property. There are other programs, such as FHA, that works well for first time homebuyers, which require a minimal down payment.
Here are some tips to help you save for your property’s down payment:
Try saving your tax refund. If you are accustomed to receiving a refund, put it in a savings account instead of spending it.
Will your parents give you a down payment? The law allows each parent to give a gift of a specific amount without any tax consequences or ask them for an unsecured loan, where you give them a better interest rate than they can get from the bank.
A good way to make savings accounts grow is to save the same amount each month. Could you take on a part-time second job or ask your boss for a raise? Spend an evening jotting down every accomplishment over the past year; times you have somehow increased the company’s bottom line. Take this to your boss and point out your value.
You might be able to tap into your retirement funds, as some allow you borrow from them, in order to buy a home, without penalty.
If you have served in the armed forces, it is always a good idea to check out government programs, as you may meet the criteria for a loan sponsored by the Veterans Administration.
The government is also running a number of assistance programs for down payments, tailored around the first time homebuyer.
Owning your own home is the American dream. Start planning and saving today!
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Do You Really Need A Buyer's Real Estate Agent?
Are you purchasing a home soon? Most people are generally familiar with the role of a real estate agent in the home buying process. However, not too many people are sure how they would fare if they were to proceed to purchase a home without one.
The first question you need to have answered is whether or not you can purchase a home without a buyer’s real estate agent. The answer is YES, you can purchase a home without the assistance of a buyer’s real estate agent. There are no laws that say you must have the assistance of a real estate professional, whether it’s an agent or an attorney.
If you decide that you want to purchase your home without a buyer’s real estate agent, you won’t have very many homes to choose from. The houses that you will have available to you are those houses that are being sold for sale by owner (FSBO) – without a real estate agent. Only a small percentage of homes that are on the market are for sale by owner homes.
You also have the option of checking listed homes through newspaper and home magazine advertisements, but you might end up shooting yourself in the foot with this method. The seller will still have real estate agent representation and you will have none. There is no real estate professional looking out for your best interests in the transaction.
There are many benefits of using a buyer’s real estate agent. For instance, you have a much larger selection of houses to choose from, buyer’s real estate agent has the ability to find every home that’s listed with a real estate agency, and the real estate agents have more experience in finding houses and negotiating the offer.
Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to use a buyer’s real estate agent comes down to your preference and comfort with going through a real estate transaction. While it can be done, it may end up being a much more stressful process.
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Stage Your Home For a Quick Sale
Selling your house can be a time consuming process. In order to sell your house in the shortest time, pre-stage your home. Staging simply is a means of the current owner to rearrange the furniture and furnishings to make the house look more appealing to the prospective buyer.
Sellers really need to stage the house before inviting visitors. Not doing that would mean leaving on display things, which might be family favorites and treasured moments, but might simply come across as junk or clutter to the buyer. These days, it is a common practice for real estate agents to recommend or hire stagers as part of a comprehensive marketing plan.
The goal is to look at the house and its belongings from the buyer's perspective in order to help the buyer see him or herself. If you cannot hire a home stager, just follow these simple tips to do the job yourself:
First, cut the clutter from your house. Try and look at the furniture and decorations from a new/neutral point of view. Stow away things that you don't need. Keep your bookcases, neat, well dusted and slightly ornamented. Clean out the closets properly, putting away off-seasonal clothes.
While emphasizing more on keeping things clean, don't forget to concentrate on the lighting. Make sure to keep the rooms well lit, using a few ambient lights, and staying away from fluorescent or harsh lights. Make the foyer, bright and cheerful, as this will create the first impression in the buyer's mind. Replace the lamps of dimly lit rooms with bulbs of higher wattage.
Replace personal items with prints and generalized photos to avoid distractions. Paint the house in neutral colors like tans, sages, and beige. Use similar colors with contrasting colored accessories like rugs, candles and pillows. Add finishing touches like soft music, fresh flowers during a show. Spending a little time and energy on the above can make a big difference!
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