Category Archives: Housing

Home Staging, Housing, Interesting Facts, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Realtor, Seller

Make Your Home Stand-out When Selling

When selling your home you need to highlight its strengths and focus on its features. Here’s a list of places to start:

1. Make a lasting first impression – Curb appeal is extremely important. Make sure your lawn and shrubbery are neatly trimmed. The front door should be clean and dust free. If it needs a fresh coat of paint, then paint it.

2. Don’t hesitate to decorate – Faded walls and worn woodwork won’t sell your home. A small investment in paint will do wonders.

3.  Let the sun shine in – Open drapes and curtains. Clean the windows. Home buyers are drawn to bright, cheery interiors.

4. Bathrooms are big sellers – Make bathrooms shine. Clean the sinks and toilets thoroughly. Re-caulk vanity tops and tile as needed. Make sure that you are displaying fresh neatly folded towels.

5. Wake up your bedrooms – Remove excess furniture. Use colorful sheets and bed spreads. Open the drapes and let the light in.

6. Pay close attention to the details – Loose door knobs, sticking drawers, wobbly hinges and stuck windows can all cost you the sale.

7. Call the plumber – Have those leaky faucets fixed. Make sure the drains are running free and clear. Clean those rust stains from the tub and bowls.

8. Buyers love big closets – They look even bigger when they are clean, neat and well organized. Remove as much as possible. Either give it away or place it in storage.

9. Lighten up – By day let the sun shine in. By night turn on all lighting in advance of  showings. Make sure that you replace any bulbs that are not working. Add accent lighting to wall hangings, fireplaces and other unique features of the home.

10. Leave it to the professionals – Let your REALTOR® handle the showings and negotiations. They’ve been carefully trained and will look out for your best interest.

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Home Buying, Housing, Interesting Facts, Real Estate, Real Estate Investing

Views on Housing Vary by Age Group

Younger Americans are more likely to think owning a home is attainable but not necessarily a good investment, while older Americans believe the opposite, according to a Country Financial Security Index survey.

Here’s a breakdown on the survey results:

Think owning a home is attainable for a typical middle-income family by age group –
18-29 / 49%
30-39 / 50%
40-49 / 45%
50-64 / 43%
65 and over / 36%

Think buying a home is the best investment families can make by age group –
18-29 / 37%
30-39 / 37%
40-49 / 44%
50-64 / 48%
65 and over / 51%

Source: Council of Residential Specialists

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Housing, Interesting Facts, Real Estate, Real Estate Career, Real Estate Market, Realtor, Seller

Avoid These Costly Mistakes When Selling Your Home

Here are seven things that a seller should avoid when selling their home:

1. Putting the home on the market before it’s ready – Make sure you have the home in top notch condition and free of clutter. Impressions are everything when selling, so get yours ready before putting it up for sale.

2. Over improving for the neighborhood – When making improvements to your home, be careful not to go overboard. You want to keep your home’s size and materials used similar to the other homes in your immediate area. 

3. Pricing the home based upon what the seller wants to net – Following this practice will almost always lead to failure. If a home is not priced in-line with other similar homes, then it will receive few if any showings, and will attract mostly low ball offers. After a while the home will become what is termed as “market worn”.

4. Hiring an agent based on non-business factors – Make sure that your hiring the best person for the job and not a friend or family member who’s in the business.

5. Getting emotionally involved in the sale of the home – Once you decide to sell your home you need to become emotionally unattached to the house, it’s now a commodity and it needs to be treated as such.

6. Trying to cover up problems and not disclosing them – Most states require a written seller property disclosure report that you as the seller must complete as part of the selling process. Make sure that you complete this form with great care and detail. If you don’t properly disclose an issue that you have knowledge of, then you open yourself up for possible liability at a later date.

7. Not getting everything in order before selling – Research such things as new financing, terms of your existing mortgage, market conditions and etc. By having a better understanding the process and what to expect, you can hopefully sell your home and purchase a new one with less stress and fewer hassles.

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Financing, Home Buying, Housing, Interesting Facts, Real Estate

VA Loans Post Record Year in 2013

The Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced that the number of loans it guaranteed reached a record high in 2013.

The VA guaranteed almost 630,000 mortgage loans in 2013 according to Mike Frueh, the director of the VA’s Loan Guaranty Program.

An overall tight lending environment is making VA loans more attractive to current and past service members.

VA loans do not require a downpayment. Roughly 90 percent of all VA loans for home purchases are made with no money. These loans do not require private mortgage insurance to be purchased, as with most other high loan to value mortgages.

States that have seen the largest increase in VA loans within the past year are Arizona (up 40 percent in 2013 over 2012), Ohio (30 percent) and Connecticut (30 percent).

Sources: The New York Times and REALTOR®Mag

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Home Buying, Housing, Real Estate, Realtor, Seller

Tips for Choosing the Right Real Estate Agent

Buying real estate is complex, and it’s important for you to select an agent who is competent, honest and knowledgeable, and will represent  your best interests throughout the entire process of either buying or selling a property.

Here are some key areas to look for when selecting an agent:

Experience
Ideally you want an agent who works in the business on a full time basis, and closes at least five to ten sales per year. The more closings an agent has under their belt, the better prepared they will be to help you through the many twists and turns of a real estate transaction.

Time to work with you
You want an agent that will spend the time with you that will be needed. If an agent seems too busy, maybe you should look for one that’s less busy.

Location
Generally you will be better served if you pick an agent that has sold a number of properties within your neighborhood. They will be most familiar with the property values and issues unique to your neighborhood. Additionally they will often have a pool of prospective buyers that are interested in the area.

Help you protect yourself
You want to pick an agent that will help you to make smart decisions. This agent should be well-versed enough to advise you on a number of issues, such as, financing, negotiations, inspections, closing and etc. 

Someone you feel comfortable with
The working relationship between you and your agent will be one that will usually last several months from beginning to end, so make sure you feel comfortable with who you choose. 

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Fort Loudon, Home Buying, Housing, Interesting Facts, Lakefront, Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Seller, Tellico, Watts Bar

Real Estate Search Links for Monroe & Rhea

These links will give you access to the most current property listings from the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors MLS system. The information is updated on a daily basis, so check back often.

Monroe County
http://idx.diversesolutions.com/link/308224 

Rhea County
http://idx.diversesolutions.com/link/308238

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Home Buying, Housing, Interesting Facts, Real Estate, Realtor

Here’s How Most Buyers Find a Real Estate Agent

Most buyers find their real estate agent in one of the following ways (listed from most common to least common):

1. Referred by a friend, relative or neighbor

2. Website

3. Used agent previously

4. Saw contact info on a For Sale or Open House sign

5. Meet agent at an open house

6. Referred by another agent

7. Personal contact by agent

8. Employer or relocation company referral

9. Office walk-in

10. Internet search engine

Source: National Association of Realtors®

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Housing, Interesting Facts, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Realtor, Seller

Most For Sale By Owners Lack Success

Selling a home For Sale By Owner (FSBO) is not an easy task, that’s why most FSBO’s end up hiring a REALTOR®. Nationally the success rate of FSBO’s is very low. Over 80% of all FSBO’s end up hiring a REALTOR® to get their home sold in the end.

Why is it so hard to sell without a REALTOR®?

1. Determining the right listing price – Pricing a property correctly is probably the most important step when placing your home up for sale. If your home is not priced right, then you stand a slim chance of selling in a competitive market. A REALTOR® will have access to the sales data, plus their experience to best advise you on a proper listing price.

2. Buyer’s want your commission savings – One of the things most sellers don’t understand when deciding to go the FSBO route, is that many buyers know you are marketing you own home in order to save the commission, and they want a part of that savings. Many of the buyers will take 5% right off the top regardless of whether the home is priced well or not.

3. Availability for showings – It’s hard for many homeowners to be available to show their home at the time buyers want to look. Buyers can come at all hours of the day and night. Most serious buyers are looking at a number of homes within a given time period and are not willing to rearrange their schedule to accommodate an unworkable seller. One advantage of having a REALTOR® is they can take care of all showings, thus freeing you up to keep your life as normal as possible during the selling process.

4. Showing to unqualified buyers – It’s a waste of your time and the buyers if they are unable to obtain the financing needed to complete the purchase. If a REALTOR® is involved, in most cases only pre-qualified buyers will be looking at your home.

5. Negotiations & inspections – This is an area where an inexperienced seller can put their self at great risk. When your dealing directly with the buyer you can be put of the spot with answering questions and making decisions without thinking them over carefully. You might unknowingly commit to something without understanding all of the cost and time considerations. Negotiating buyer inspections on your home can be tricky as well. These are areas were a REALTOR® will look out for your best interest.

While it’s not impossible to sell your home on your own, you can see there are many pitfalls along the way if your not experienced. By hiring a REALTOR® studies have shown that you will usually sell your home for a higher price, and you will have someone on your side to make the process much easier.

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Home Staging, Housing, Interesting Facts, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Seller

Tips to Ready Your Home for the Market

Before you decide to list your home take a look at these areas to see if changes are warranted:

1. Curb appeal – This is your first chance to make a good first impression with a buyer. Stand in the street and take a hard look at your home’s exterior. Are the shrubs overgrown, is the lawn neatly trimmed,
should you add some flowers, do you need a new mailbox and etc. You want to have landscaping that’s welcoming, looks great and will keep the buyer interested.

2. Exterior – Walk around the outside of your home and make an assessment of the condition of its exterior. Do you find some damaged trim, do you need to paint, are the window screens in good order, do you find areas that need to be caulked and etc. If the buyer finds the outside of your home to be in good repair, then you’ve set the stage for a more favorable showing on the inside..

3. Kitchens – They can often make or break a sale. You want the buyer to walk-in and fall in love with your kitchen. Take an objective look at your kitchen; could it use some improvements? It could be as simple as a fresh coat of paint, or all the way up to a full blown renovation.

4. Baths –  A nice bath rates high on a buyers list. It much like the kitchen in that you can simply improve it with a fresh coat of paint or do a full renovation. Many small improvements on a bath can have a great impact, such as, new lighting, new towel bars, a new sink and the like.

5. Decorating – You may love the color schemes in your house, but many buyers may not. You want to have your house decorated so that it appeals to the masses, not a select few. Generally neutral color tones work best.
 
6. Pets – Pets bring unwanted issues when trying to sell. If at all possible try to find a good temporary home for your pet while your house is on the market. If that’s not possible, at a minimum remove your pet from the home when it’s being shown.

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