Realtor Tips – Page 16

My #1 Suggestion For Cleaning Out Your Home For Sale

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

You hear the advice all the time, declutter and clean out your home before you put it on the market! But what do you do with all that stuff? The point of decluttering is to move it out of view and make your spaces look bigger. How can that happen if they are in your storage space?

The best idea yet is to rent a storage space or a portable storage space

The most popular one is PODS®. Another is 1-800-PACK-RAT. These companies offer varied services. Usually a customer will order a portable container which is then delivered to the location where you need it. You fill it up and lock it up, then you can do a few things. You can leave it on site. You can have them pick it up and store it. You can have them deliver it to your new home. Or all of the above. Or some of the above.

So why use that instead of a storage space?

Well, there are a few reasons. While that storage space may be cheaper, you have to pack, drive the boxes and stuff over to it, unpack the car or truck into the storage space and then repeat until you are finished moving. Then you have to do it all over again when you move into your new space.

With a portable storage space you have it brought to you

You can take the time you need to pack it up and since it’s where you are packing, you can forego the driving back and forth to the storage place and the multiple moving of boxes and stuff from one place to another. Then they send a driver to come get it and take it to a secure space where it is stored for you until you are ready to move again. Then they take it to the new space for you and leave it until you are finished unpacking.

So what does that mean for selling your home? Less clutter, no boxes stored in closets and a faster sale!

Deborah here…I really do give ALL of my clients this advice! I find that using PODS will make your entire home sale process easier and less of a pain while it is on the market!

Why You Should Use A Dedicated Buyers Agent To Look For A House

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

You’ve been deciding to buy a house and wondered whether it was a good idea to use a dedicated buyer’s agent while looking. After all, can’t the agent who listed the house help you? Well, that may not be such a good idea, and here’s why.

Dedicated buyer’s agent represents only you

The biggest reason why you need a buyer’s agent is because that agent represents you and only you. A listing agent represents the seller, and while they seem helpful when showing you the house, they don’t have your best interests at heart.

A buyer’s agent will walk you through the buying process, give you advice, schedule appointments, answer your questions about properties and negotiate and write up offers on your behalf. The best part is that you don’t pay for it. They earn their commission by splitting it with the listing agent.

Would you use the same attorney?

Here is one way to think about it. If you got sued, would you use the same attorney as the people who sued you? As in a legal situation like a lawsuit, a legal situation like the sale of a piece of real estate means you are entitled to your own representation during the buying process.

Representation in your interest

During the buying process, you get representation that is all in your interest, and it costs you nothing. Pretty sweet! So why does it cost nothing? And how can that mean the agent is on your side if you aren’t paying them? Yes, they work with the listing agent to sell the home to you. So when you purchase your home, in most places, the realtors would receive a 6% commission. 3% goes to the listing agent for listing it and 3% goes to your agent for helping you through the buying process. So while you aren’t paying them, it doesn’t matter whose property they show you, they make the same 3% commission. That’s why they stay loyal to you, not the property seller.

You won’t regret the help if you hire a buyer’s agent to find your new home.

What To Have On Hand To Make Your Open House A Success

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Your house is for sale and your Realtor scheduled an open house. You want to help them make it a huge success. You know that keeping your home neat and staged is the key to making sure your open house rocks, but you have to live in your home too. So here are some great ideas to prepare for your open house.

An open house box

One great idea is to make up an open house box. It’s just a box or basket that has the things in it you’ll need handy to get your home ready. Things like fresh towels for the bathrooms, wipes for quick cleaning surfaces and containers to put small items in from your counters.

Why do this?

Well, what if a call comes at the last minute for a showing and you don’t have any clean towels but you do have a lived in cluttered space? You’re off cleaning and doing laundry.

To use it just grab the box and fill it with your “company” linens, you know, the really nice ones you save for when company comes over. Then as you put out new clean bath towels and kitchen towels, throw the old ones in the box. Put the counter clutter in the small containers (have one marked for each room) and wipe down counters and surfaces as you go. Once the open house is over, go back and get the “company” linens and replace with clean everyday ones.

Containers and baskets

Use containers each day in your bath that make it easier to clean off the bathroom counters easily.

Use a larger basket to hold extra toilet paper, smaller ones for things like make up brushes, nail clippers, possibly a mason jar or small flower vase for toothbrushes and toothpaste. That way you can just grab and stash them in the open house box. Don’t forget a basket for the shower items, like shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

Do the same in the kitchen for things like mail, keys, etc. For mail, you can even get a decorative box with a lid. That way it could even stay on the counter for the open house.

How To Price Your Home To Sell (Instead of Sit!)

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

When you listed your home for sale you wanted it to sell, not sit. So you trusted your Realtor to price your home to sell. Here is what your Realtor did to make sure of it.

The first thing that your Realtor does is meet with you

He or she will talk with you, even before touring your home, to find out what your motivation to sell could be. Why is this important? Well, because it could make a difference in how high or low within the range of market value to price your home. For instance if you need to sell quickly because you have to move due to a job relocation, pricing it lower will help it sell quickly. Or let’s say you want to sell to up or downsize. You know you’ll need the most you can get out of your home. Pricing it on the high side of the market rate will help with that. Motivation is very important in pricing to sell.

Next thing that your Realtor will do is check comps

Comps, or comparison listings, will show a Realtor what prices similar properties in the same area sold for and give him or her an idea of how to price your property. It doesn’t mean what your neighbor 2 doors down sold their home for, but what a home sold for that has similar features to yours. Your neighbor may have a bigger or smaller lot, better or worse upgrades or more or less living square footage than your home has. Comps are very important for pricing your home.

Now your Realtor will take your home into consideration

They will assess the condition of your home. They will take into consideration the upgrades, square footage, lot size and cleanliness of your home. They will also look at the location of your home. What is nearby? Proximity of shopping, entertainment and other amenities make a difference. How are the schools? Excellent school systems are a feature that many families, or families to be, are looking for. On the other hand being close to airports, railroad tracks, highways or in higher crime areas will lower the value.

When you want to sell, not sit, make sure your Realtor prices your home right!

The Worst Home Improvements For Selling Your Home

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

You’re thinking about selling your home but you know it needs some upgrading. You have a lot of ideas but you aren’t sure which will bring you the best return on your investment. Here are five things you shouldn’t do.

Pools

Pools sound like a good idea, especially in Florida, but they cost a lot to install, between an average of $20,000 to $60,000 or more. It will add value, but only about 6 to 11% for an in-ground pool doesn’t make the price tag worth it. An out of ground pool adds zero to value, so again, not worth it.

Garage as living space

If you have a garage and think that making it into extra living space, think again. Adding space onto a garage can cost up to $60,000 and only brings about a 60 percent return on investment. That’s not bad, but the problem becomes how the buyers will view it. If they don’t need the extra space won’t like it and if you make the garage itself into something like a man cave or family room may mean that those who would want a garage instead will look elsewhere.

Sun room or home office

Think making your deck into a sun room would be a good idea? Don’t! A sun room will actually drop your home’s value. The home improvement itself will actually lose 54% of it’s value. Keep the deck. Don’t think about adding an outdoor kitchen to that deck or patio area either. A barbecue is always a good addition, all the other additions aren’t and don’t add much, if any, value. If you have a bedroom set up as a home office, make it back into a bedroom for sale showings. If you think adding a separate space designated specifically as a home office think again. You can spend up to $30,000 constructing it and may only get about half of your investment back when you’re ready to sell.
Don’t make these costly errors.

The Top 4 Ways Your Real Estate Sale Can Go Sideways

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Your Realtor brings you an offer on your home and you think “Hooray! It’s SOLD!” and then it happens… the sale goes sideways. There are a few ways that it can happen and also ways you can either fix it or be proactive to keep it from happening in the first place.

Problem 1:

Your buyer can’t get a mortgage for the purchase. Having financing go awry happens. One way to avoid it is to reject offers from prospective buyers who are not pre-qualified.

Pre-qualified buyers have already started the mortgage process and are less likely to have issues being turned down before settlement. It can happen, for example, if they take out a large loan before settlement, but a buyer savvy enough to get pre-qualified is probably smart enough to not make those kinds of mistakes.

Problem 2:

The bank won’t appraise your home’s value high enough to support the mortgage requested. While this problem may seem to be out of your control, there are things you can do to avoid it. Have your home appraised prior to putting it on the market. Don’t ask a Realtor, ask a bank.

You can get a much better idea of what they will value it for, and can price our home accordingly. If a bidding war gets the price higher than the appraisal will support, ask that the eventual buyer put a large enough down payment to cover the “extra”.

Problem 3:

The home inspection turns up a lot of problems. There are two distinct things you can do if this happens. First, have a home inspection done prior to putting your home on the market. That way you know what issues are there and can fix them ahead of time.

If they turn up at contract, you can offer to contribute to the fix, or if they are minor issues, offer to fix them yourself prior to settlement.

Problem 4:

Buyers back out better known as buyer’s remorse. This one is a hard one to predict. It can happen for many reasons: They might have decided the price was too high, or found their monthly payments were going to be too high. They may have found that repairs were going to be too expensive.

You may be able to counter offer a lower price, or offer to help with closing costs.

these Realtor Tips presented by Deborah Ward, Clearwater Realtor