Selling a home in today’s market place is hard. There are thousands of homes on the market and buyers are becoming thinner by the day. Attracting potential home buyers can be difficult, especially considering how picky buyers are becoming. However, that very picky-ness may make selling your home just that little bit easier. Differentiating your [...]
One of the current trends in real estate is to ‘stage’ a home when it goes onto the market. This generally involves bringing in a professional stager who will rearrange furniture, perhaps remove older furniture items and replace them with rented furniture, change drapes, add knick-knacks and generally make the home look at its best. [...]
There is a real dilemma facing many home owners today when it comes to forced sales due to relocation. Military personnel are currently facing these problems as the prices they now sell for their homes are well below what they paid for them. If you are relocating, then selling and buying may not be your [...]
If you are about to put your home on the market, then you need to present it in the best possible light. If you are still living in the home, then life must also go on. It is the tussle between life and having a display home that can often cause a lot of friction [...]
Whether you are a home buyer or a home seller, then one of the most important questions is how much a home is really worth. One of the problems with our current society is that there is too much data around, so much that it can be quite confusing. Who do you trust, the national [...]
Home sellers often get excited when their agent calls to let them know there is a buyer interested in viewing their home. The longer the home has been on the market, the greater the chance that excitement is tinged with relief as well. Sellers often go into overdrive to ready the home for that all [...]
If you’re selling your home, then it really does pay to put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer. Taking a long hard and honest look at your home can often reveal little issues that may have a potential buyer looking elsewhere, or have them considering a lowball offer. If there are little issues [...]
If you are considering renovating your home before you sell, you need to be aware of what is acceptable and what’s not in today’s real estate market. If you are trying to boost your sales price, then forget it. There are not too many people around who are willing to pay $350,000 if the average [...]
If you have a mortgage on your home and you’re planning to sell, then plan to closely examine your mortgage contract first. You’ll be surprised at what you may find hidden. Doug Francis (on his blog) has an interesting take on FHA mortgages and some of the fine print attached to them – and it [...]
If you’re selling a home, then you’re going to want a real estate agent that is competent and well respected. I overheard a young couple discussing real estate agents recently and I was struck by the criteria they were using to select an agent for their needs. Having a web site was high on their [...]
One of the worst things a home buyer can do is rush the task. This happens a lot in today’s environment. They put their home on the market expecting it to take months to sell so they are very casual about finding their new home. Time is an important issue in today’s world as well [...]
If you want to impress prospective buyers when selling your real estate, then you should seriously consider having your home professionally ‘staged’. Staging is a little like window dressing a shop window. A professional stager will come in and make changes to the interior of your home to display it to best effect. Staging a [...]
Why is it that some real estate properties sell quickly while others languish for months with hardly an ounce of interest from buyers? We could blame a lot of factors: a real estate agent that isn’t doing their job; a price that is too high; and perhaps a poorly presented property. While these issues are [...]
If you are selling your home, then I am sure you have done the rounds looking for a real estate agent who can sell your home. Here’s an important tip – listen to that agent once you engage them. Home sellers often place their home in the hands of an agent and then leave everything [...]
If you are considering selling your home, then I am sure there are two things that are important to you – getting a good price and finding a buyer as quickly as possible. They are not exclusive – you can achieve both if you prepare yourself and your home well. Most of the preparation is [...]
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 [...]
A home appraisal is a vital part of a real estate transaction. Appraisals help sellers list their homes appropriately and assure lenders and buyers of a home’s worth. Unfortunately, real estate agents around the country are reporting unusually low home appraisals, including some homes estimated to be worth less than replacement construction costs. Many have [...]
