If you’re in a situation where your monthly mortgage payments are putting stress on your finances, you have a number of choices. The most obvious is to sell your home and to buy into a cheaper property. However, that isn’t a practical solution for most people. You could try to refinance your home, however, you [...]
Motivation is an important factor when determining a list price for selling your home. It becomes an even more important factor when deciding whether or not to accept an offer from a buyer. What do I mean by motivation? The reason behind your sale in the first place. If you have put your home on [...]
Home sellers often complain that their real estate agent is busy showing prospective buyers other homes and not theirs. This can be a common situation, however, it is wrong to blame your real estate agent for this situation. There are a number of possible reasons for this to occur. Some of these reasons include: Buyers [...]
Real estate has become a fairly volatile market in recent years with different areas subject to violent activity when it comes to demand and price. A lot of this has to do with a certain herd mentality that overcomes buyers. It can be a real trap to be caught in and the result can be [...]
If you are selling your home and you are aware of certain issues with your home, should you disclose them? This question becomes even more important if a buyers home inspection misses them. Does the fact you know about these issues make you liable at a later date, especially if someone is injured or killed [...]
Almost every home has an issue of some description and, in most cases, these issues can be ‘hidden’, or at least are not evident under normal circumstances. When selling a home, these issues can return to bite you hard. Don’t try to hide them as this can be construed as being deceitful. Just as importantly, [...]
As we get close to spring, people’s attention start to focus on future plans. The end of the school year often sees a surge in home movements with most families looking to be settled before school resumes in September. This can be a difficult time for many families as they rely on the sale of [...]
You need to have a game plane whether you are buying or selling homes or commercial real estate. For buyers, that game plan will change every time you view a property. However, you can still set parameters outside of which you can’t or shouldn’t go. One of those parameters is price. For a seller, you [...]
There is a growing trend for home sellers to bypass real estate agents and listing their home for sale themselves. There is also a growing trend for buyers to look at do-it-yourself listing sites first when researching available properties. If you are looking to sell your home, which approach is the most effective? Real estate [...]
Negotiating to buy a home can be a frustrating experience. You put together what you feel is a very fair offer and yet the seller immediately rejects it. This leaves you wondering why it was so readily rejected. There are many reasons why a seller may reject an offer, and it can sometimes help if [...]
When you have a house to sell you want it to look its best, not only on the inside but outside as well. This is called “curb appeal.” When potential buyers pull up to the curb in front of your home, you want the home to appeal to them as much as possible. Here are [...]
When you buy a home in Maryland, you will need an appraisal. An appraisal is, simply, an “opinion of value” by a professional appraiser who visits the home and inspects the size, condition, quality, and function of the home. The appraiser will generate a detailed report and will generally use comparisons to the sale prices [...]
When it comes time to sell your home, you might want to market your home yourself, and even if you get a real estate agent, there are things you can do to help the process along yourself and perhaps expedite the sale. Listing Your Property: Always lead your listing with the best features of your [...]
What exactly does it mean to “stage” your home when you are trying to sell? Home staging is the act of preparing a home (and the contents of the home) for sale, with a special emphasis on presentation and appearance. It’s important to realize that preparing a home for sale and staging a home is [...]
In addition to considering the best time of the month to close on a house, it’s a good idea to consider the time of year. Around holiday time, people’s minds are family, time off, gifts, and baking. But, are their minds on buying and selling real estate ? And, should you keep your house on the market, or [...]
Don’t think that aesthetics don’t matter when you are trying to sell your home. Often home sellers believe the new owners will want to do the painting and fixing up themselves to personalize their new home. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Buyers want houses that are move-in ready! Today’s house buyers are [...]
Buyers and the market set the price when it comes right down to the nitty gritty of selling a house. There are no rules of what appreciates or depreciates. Some sellers get the idea in their head that their house should sell for, say, $200,000 because they bought it a few years ago for $175,000. [...]
You’ve repaired, de-cluttered, deep cleaned and polished your Maryland home for sale until it shines. But how do you keep it that way when you and your family have to live in it every day? Here are 5 tips to keep your Maryland home for sale and ready to show (without driving yourself crazy): Keep [...]
Selling your home is easier than you may think, although it does require more effort than just putting a “For Sale” sign in the yard. Proper planning and preparation for the sale, choosing a sales agent, determining the price and marketing your home should all be carefully taken into consideration. House hunters look at dozens [...]
Should you sell your home? Or perhaps you should rent or complete a major renovation to get the home you want. There are reasons to sell your home just as there are reasons for finding alternatives to selling. View what’s best for you before starting down this road. Selling There are many reasons people sell their [...]
Buying or selling a new home always involves a lot of cleaning: packing up and going through clothing and items amassed through the years. And then there’s the housework-type cleaning. For some reason, that can be some of the hardest work to get motivated for. The reason for this is unclear, but whatever the reason, [...]
Real estate agents probably have one huge beef when it comes to home owners putting their properties on the market – their unrealistic expectations when it comes to selling prices. If the home owner can’t at least value their home for what they paid for it, it is the real estate agent’s, or the appraiser’s [...]
There seems to be a trend over the last few years of buyers, and builders, downsizing. If you are one of those considering a move to a small property, there are a few things you need to be aware of first. The most important is the market in general. We often quote the phrase, ‘it’s [...]
Whether you are a seller or buyer, your real estate agent is there to act on your behalf and to help you achieve the best possible outcome. This doesn’t always mean the best possible price since there are other variables that need to be taken into consideration. These include how quickly it takes to sell [...]
In some states like Virginia, Maryland and D.C., dual agency is permitted so long as there is a full disclosure to all parties. For the real estate agent, it is a bonus since they then receive both the selling and buying commissions once the sale has been completed. For buyers and sellers, does it mean [...]
That was a mouthful – but to clarify, they are all aspect of real estate and part of a new government program. As of Monday this week (April 5) the Federal Government’s HAFA program came into effect. It’s another attempt to relieve home owners of the threat of foreclosure and to allow them a reasonable [...]
The world of business can be a strange place sometimes and one of the strangest of them all is that of real estate and the real estate agents that operate in that area. Over the years we have seen agents who appear to have only one interest – their own. As any sensible person would [...]
Welcome to The Real Estate Briefings Blog. Our goal is to help you find the right home if you are a home buyer and to sell your home to the right buyer if you are a seller. On this blog we’ll discuss different real estate strategies and topics of interest to anyone who has any [...]
