Realtor Tips – Page 14

5 Affordable Things You Can Do To Update Your Home For Sale

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Improving and updating your home doesn’t have to be expensive. Not improving and updating your home can mean less money in your pocket come time to sell. You can do many things yourself, but if you find serious problems being cheap on the repairs can not only cost your more down the line, but could be downright dangerous. So keep this in mind. Hiring an inspector to help you find any issues may be a good idea.

1. One easy way to spruce up your home is to paint. These days even high quality paint can be found for less than $50/gallon. Since you’re sprucing up to sell, choose a more neutral palette. You don’t have to go eggshell white the whole house, but don’t do too dark or bright when choosing colors. Light blues are calming. Butter yellows are brightening, but not overwhelming. For small rooms use lighter colors since darker shades make rooms look smaller.

2. Have carpets deep cleaned. If they are just too old or beat up, replace them or put down new flooring. If you don’t want to spend the extra money on hard wood floors, there are a lot of alternatives that look so much like hardwoods that people may be fooled.

3. If you have a yard, do some clean up and landscaping. New shrubbery and some colorful flowers make a dull house look better. If you don’t have much yard, plant a deck garden or put some herbs in a pot in your kitchen windowsill. Part of all of this outside sprucing up is also making your front door welcoming and up to date. If your door looks a bit out of whack with the rest of the house, put a new one up that complements your home.

4. Bathroom updates are also a great idea, but they can get expensive. Look at your overall budget and decide what you can do to spruce up those rooms too. Sometimes just adding some paint, new towels or shower curtains can add a more modern feeling to these super important rooms.

5. Last but not least, make sure you take a honest look at your kitchen. This is the “heart of the home” and if yours is looking tired and cluttered, you will not get those high priced offers you are looking for! Can you paint some cabinets or get some new laminate countertops? Simply putting things away can sometimes make your kitchen seem bigger. Make sure you scrub it until it gleams from floor to ceiling!

If you are looking at listing your home in the Tampa Bay area, please feel free to give us a call and I will be happy to schedule a walk-through of your home with “real estate eyes!” I can let you know all the things you could do to update your home affordably!

What Are The Most Important Factors (To You) When Buying A Home?

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

There are a lot of things to think about when buying a home, but before you even start looking the most important question is what are the most important factors to you when you are looking for a home to buy? It will help make your home search more specific to you and your wants and needs.

So how do you start?

Look at your current living space and start a list. Write down what you like about it and what you don’t. Is the space too small? Find out the square footage of living space and then you know you your starting point for bigger. Are there enough bedrooms? If not, how many more or less do you need?

If your current home or apartment has a great functioning kitchen, write down what you use the most. If not, go to a home center and look at kitchen options to see what would work for you and what won’t. Just because it’s the “in” thing doesn’t mean it will be something you like or would use.

Think about what is surrounding your current home

Is there a big lot or no lot at all? What about how close you are to the water? Is waterfront property important or do you mind a short walk, bike ride or car ride? Is there shopping close by? What about fitness centers? Schools?

All of these things are key factors for someone, but are they for you? Your answers to these will determine neighborhoods to visit and find a home or neighborhoods to avoid.

HOA’s

Also keep things in mind like home owner’s associations! If they are important to you to keep the integrity and value of your home, look for homes in one. If they are too much of a restriction for your lifestyle, or too much more of a fee to add to your budget, look for homes that don’t have a home owner’s association.

Know what you want so you can set expectations and narrow your home search.

Should You Live In An HOA Controlled Development?

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

If you are looking for a new home in Florida you will be finding that many are in communities that have homeowners associations (HOAs). You’ve heard many things about them, but aren’t sure if it is something that will be good for you. So let’s look at the pros and cons of owning a home in a HOA.

Standard of community appearance

One major thing an HOA does for all the homeowners in the community is uphold a standard of community appearance. The bylaws and rules of the HOA will outline what those standards may be. Typical rules include the upkeep of your lawn and landscaping, house exterior upkeep and paint colors, improvements to your home, and what kinds of vehicles can be parked outside your home such as boats or RV’s.

In some situations HOAs also provide maintenance and services such as trash removal and lawn care are handled by the association, leaving less work for the homeowner. Typically, common areas are maintained by the association, which can include pools, tennis courts and gyms, community centers and walking trails.

The HOA will also act as manager if there are problems like dogs barking, loud music or other disputes. HOAs also charge monthly fees to cover the services and maintenance.

Pros

Knowing all these things can tell you pros and cons. Pros are that your homes value will stay higher because your neighbors can’t let their properties become overgrown, paint them some wild color and keep 14 dead cars and a boat on their property. It also can mean less work due to the maintenance and enjoying amenities without having to put the work into caring for them. It can also help you stay friends with your neighbors even if you have complaints about them.

Cons

The cons are a bit more difficult to see, but are there. The most obvious one is that monthly fee. It’s not optional. If you fail to pay it the HOA can place a lien on your home and ultimately you may lose your home. Others are a bit harder to suss out, but have to do with your personality. If you are more of a free spirit who likes to do things your own way the rules of an HOA can be rather restrictive. If you are the kind of homeowner who feels that your property is YOURS and no one can tell you what to do with it, an HOA may not be for you either.

Knowing yourself is important, so weigh those pros and cons and see how it fits.

The Top 5 Kitchen Renovations That Will Help You Sell Your House Faster

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Ever wonder what the top kitchen renovations are to get the highest possible price for your home when you are selling it?

You’ve had a Realtor come through your home and give you some feedback so you can list to sell your house. The suggestion to do a kitchen renovation was not surprising. But do you have to gut the kitchen and start fresh or can you just do a few fast fixes? Well, kitchens sell houses, so updating yours will help. Here are a few suggestions to make your kitchen look fresh and updated and get you top dollar.

Update countertops

Ripping out your entire kitchen may not be in your budget. A total kitchen gut can cost upwards of $25,000.00. However, there are some less expensive things you can do that will make your kitchen look fabulous. Let’s start with countertops. Get rid of your old laminate counters. They look dated, grungy and people hate them. Popular choices today are granite or quartz. Buyers are looking for it, so do it if you want to sell your house.

What about the sink?

While you are replacing the kitchen counters, think about your sink. Enamel and steel aren’t the only choices anymore. You can change size, shape and what it is made out of. Think about doing an under mount. Or a double sink if you have the space, but don’t take too much counter space or make the kitchen look smaller by adding a double sink.

Cabinets

Your cabinets may be really nice, but if they are missing hardware or need a really good cleaning, they will look dated. At the very least take some wood cleaner and clean off the built up grease and grime and replace the hardware. A better idea is to reface or repaint the cabinets. It’s much less expensive than a total replacement.

Appliances and lighting

Do your appliances match? Do they work? If not, think about replacing them. Yes, it’s an expense, but nothing makes a kitchen look worse than old, mismatched appliances. To sell your house you need to update as much as you can. Don’t forget lighting! If there are spaces where you wish there was more light, add it. Under mount lights under cabinets are easy to add and give a lot of light. Look at changing other lighting fixtures as well.

Make your kitchen shine and your house will sell!

3 Ways To Totally Mess Up Your Real Estate Closing!

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

The offer was made, accepted and your dream home is now under contract. All that’s left is closing. Nothing can go wrong, right? Wrong! There are a few ways that you can totally mess up your real estate closing. Here are the biggies.

NO BIG PURCHASES!

First, and most important, NO BIG PURCHASES! Your lender will be double checking your accounts, finances, and so on up until the day of settlement. If you do something to drastically change your credit score or debt to income ratio, bank balances and so on, they will revoke their loan approval.

So no furniture purchases. No new credit cards. No new cars. Nothing that will upset that mortgage financing. That includes trying to hide money gifts to help with that purchase.

You must disclose any gifts of money to your lender early in the process because they need to review due to legal regulations evaluating gifts.

Don’t procrastinate with paperwork

When your lender, the closing company or attorney or Realtor ask for paperwork, get it to them on time. Not providing needed paperwork to your lender may mean they revoke approval of the loan. They will need tax records, pay stubs and other documentation proving your ability to repay their loan. The closing company will need inspection reports and so on. Not sending them will delay the closing. Don’t procrastinate.

Don’t change jobs

Another no-no is changing jobs mid process. Having a stable employment history is something that lenders want to see. If you are having trouble holding a job, you are a risk to them. That also includes switching positions from a salaried to a commission/bonus position with your current employer. Lenders look for a two year history in a current position and if the method of payment, I.e. from W-2 to 1099 you no longer have any income history in that position.

There are others, but these three will be a definite problem and will probably derail, and definitely delay your closing. Be smart and that new home will be yours…on time!

How Real Estate Agents Determine How To Price Your Home

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Have you ever wondered how a Realtor determines the value of the homes we list? While the process may differ from Realtor to Realtor, we all use the same basics. It’s no big secret, so here are the basics.

A lot of experienced Realtors often have a “gut” feeling about what a home is worth, but we always back it up with the facts. One thing they use is a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA).

This is a pretty comprehensive report that takes a lot of things into consideration. First, a CMA will look at homes that are similar in size, features and amenities and that have sold recently.

That first part will give a starting range. Next, we look at home that are currently for sale.

While not as concrete as an actual sale, it can help narrow the range a bit by seeing what features and amenities are fetching a higher asking. In the same vein they also look at homes that failed to sell.

If a home that is very similar to the one we are pricing failed to sell, we can look to see why and avoid the same fate. Looking at all of these factors, along with anything special or unique about the property, such as it being waterfront property or having a lot of acreage will give the Realtor a tighter range.

Now we consider market factors. This is a big part of the equation. The market basically means are there more sellers than buyers, making it a buyers market, or more buyers than sellers, making it a sellers market.

Other things factor in, such as is there a lot of new construction in close proximity? What is nearby, as in shopping, dining and entertainment, and schools? How is the economy in the area; healthy and growing or downward and dying?

Using all of this, we then take the owner into consideration. Not only what the owner expects to sell for, but also how they will help or hinder the sale. Will they keep the home in showing condition or leave messes? Will they restrict showings and so on. The Realtor may lower their estimation based on the CMA and market factors a bit to compensate for an inflexible seller.

See, easy peasy… ok maybe not, if you want help pricing your Tampa Bay home, give us a call today! 727-410-0336