Realtor Tips – Page 19

5 Fun Florida Decorating Ideas

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Whether you live in Florida or not, enjoying that Florida feeling in your home every day is possible. Decorating to bring in the sun, surf and beach can make you feel relaxed without having to travel to get it. Here are some ideas for you.

Small touches

If you want to start small think about adding small touches. Things like shells here and there, wooden plaques with beachy sayings such as “A good day at the beach ends with sand in your toes and sunburn on your nose” or “The beach is my happy place” or Memories made at the beach stay in our hearts forever.”

Other touches could include glass holders with sand, shells and candles and photo frames decorated with shells, starfish etc. The option are endless. Not sure what to get? Visit a beachfront shop on your next vacation for ideas or opportunity to get some things.

If you wanted to go a few steps further try changing colors

A sunny, bright color palette for your home will make it feel like a home at the beach. Use of aqua accents in items like pillows, throw blankets and rugs will bring the feeling of the sea inside.

Color Series Seaglass - A Shade Of Teal — source… A Shade of Teal

Then add pops of bright yellow or orange to remind you of bright sunny days. Or paint a room in shades of these colors. Want to take an ever bigger chance? Then think of the bright colors of South Beach or Key West: turquoise, fuschia, orange… again, either add them in pops of color to your existing color scheme or paint those colors.

You could also incorporate architectural details into your home

Adding whitewashed shiplap for a Gulf coast feel, adding a beach themed sunroom can make your home feel open, airy and like a vacation. Add louvered doors to doorways and painting them in aqua or one of the other beach themed colors adds that kind of flair as well.

There are tons of ideas online and you can be as sparing or over the top as you want. Remember, it’s your beach home, so decorate to make your home yours.

In A Clearwater Real Estate Transaction Who Pays For What?

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

In a Clearwater real estate transaction (sale), who pays what?

The real estate closing, the end of a real estate transaction, is an exciting and confusing time. Closing costs are a concern whether you are a buyer or a seller of real estate.

Buyers and sellers each have certain closing costs they are responsible for, although who pays what in a real estate transaction is negotiable. If you’re trying to get an idea of what you will be on the hook for, here are the general guidelines.

Closing Costs For Buyers

If you’re buying a home, you will pay more than just the purchase price of the home. Buyers are responsible for several fees as follows:

fees charged for obtaining a mortgage
inspection fees for pest inspections and home inspections
homeowner’s insurance which typically has to be prepaid for a year at closing
title insurance (either owners title insurance, mortgagee title insurance or both)
title search fees
transfer taxes
title insurance and escrow fees
document stamps (a tax paid to record the documents with the county or state)
condo or HOA estoppel fees
Intangible Tax on Mortgage
survey fees
appraisal fees
attorney or title company fees

Most buyers either bring money they’ve saved, or they roll those costs into the mortgage loan.

Closing Cost the Seller Pays

Sellers, you’re not off the hook. You have fees as well. Starting with fees or penalties to pay off your mortgage:

real estate commission
any repairs (if an FHA or VA inspection requires it)
all or part of transfer taxes and escrow fees
attorney’s fees where applicable

Of course, the balance of your mortgage will also be due as well. All of these fees are usually paid from the proceeds of the sale, so you won’t have to bring cash with you, but it will eat into how much you walk away with.

Clearwater Real Estate Transaction

A Clearwater real estate transaction is probably the biggest transaction that people will have in their life. Knowing what closing costs will be when you are buying or selling real estate is essential to a good outcome.

Clearwater Referral Real Estate Agent – Deb Ward, the Irish Realtor

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Any good Realtor will tell you that a lot of their business comes not from people who drop in the office or call on a whim, but through referrals. Referrals come from a lot of sources, past clients, current clients, and also from other Realtors and agents. In fact, referrals should be the biggest part of your new listings. If you’re looking in Clearwater for a good example of how to get those referrals, Deb Ward the Irish Realtor, is a great example.

So how do you go about getting other Realtors and agents to refer you to others for listings? Be the best! Deb is a great example of how to be the best and get those Realtor and agent referrals.

Deb has a thriving business in sunny Clearwater, Florida

She is the lead listing Realtor at Deb Ward & Associates, a Keller Williams Realty affiliate. That’s one way to start getting Realtor or agent referrals, be affiliated with a nationally recognized firm. It gives you an automatic referral source from affiliated agents from other areas who may have clients moving to Clearwater.

Deb is also a great example because she specializes in the great water front homes and communities in the Clearwater area. Being specialized and knowing your area well will give other agents or Realtors the confidence they need to refer people to you. Deb’s years of experience helping people to buy and sell is well known. She is well known for helping buyers find their dream waterfront home or sellers help in selling for the best price quickly.

Deb is also a relocation specialist

When it comes to helping out of town buyers or sellers, no one is better than Deb. There are a lot of ins and outs to helping out of town buyers and sellers, from what specialized documents could be necessary to helping them move. Again, being a specialized Realtor will help you get the referrals you need.

Find out more The Deb Ward Team 727-410-0336!

Survival Tips For House Hunting With Kids | Buying A House

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

House hunting is exciting, exhausting and stressful… and that’s only for the adults. Throw in a few small children and it can be almost too much. So how do you manage to hunt for your next home with the kids? Here are some survival tips for all the parents out there.

Use a sitter or Grandma

Survival Tips For House Hunting With Kids First, if you can leave the kids at home with a sitter or drop them at grandma’s house, do it. Think about it, your six year old heads in one direction, the four year old in the other, all while the two year old goes directly for the most dangerous thing in each room.

And you’re going to be able to concentrate on the home you are touring? Hardly! So if you can, leave them home. If you want them to see where they might be living, then do a second look through of your narrowed down choices.

If you have to bring the kids, be prepared!

Pack snacks, drinks and their favorite toy. If you have an iPad or tablet with some games, bring that. Then keep the house hunting moving. If you walk into a home that just doesn’t appeal to you from the git-go, tell the Realtor immediately so you can move on.

The other consideration is safety. You never know what may be behind a door, handrail-less stairs or sunken tubs or rooms that kids could hurt themselves with or in. Set basic rules with the kids that they keep their hands to themselves, don’t open doors, hold parental hands and that misbehavior will NOT be tolerated should be reviewed before each house showing.

Also, follow in your own car so you don’t have to move car seats or worry about kids spilling the aforesaid drinks or snacks in the Realtor’s vehicle. The upside? You can discuss the properties without the listening ear of the Realtor!

Older kids can also be helpful in the house hunting

Have them do some of the footwork about the area on the internet, and when at homes have them take pictures or keep a checklist. Younger kids can feel included if you let them have input about what they want in their new house. Their own bedroom? A playroom? Big backyard? BUT, don’t let them think they have the last word. As parents and the people paying for the home, you are in charge. They may want that huge house you saw with the inground pool, but you know it’s out of your budget. Be the parent!

Tips For Pricing Your Home When You Live On A Busy Street

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Smart sellers know that pricing your home correctly is one of the most important decisions when selling. It’s not an exact science and can be tricky. Nothing is trickier than pricing a home that sits on a busy street.

Given the choice between the exact same home with the exact same amenities, acreage and price; the only difference being one is on a busy street and one is not, buyers will take the not busy street hands down. And why not? Less noise, less danger from traffic and less worries about all of that. But you bought your home on that same busy street…why? What was it about your home that drew you in and enticed you to buy? Think about those things when you start to prepare your home to sell.

One thing is price. The reality is that you will need to hit the right price on the head right away. No overpricing to give you room to move that price. For homes on busy streets that probably means a lower price than comparables on less busy streets. Seriously, the typical difference between those exact same homes above is anywhere from 5 or 5 percent to 15 or 16 percent. That was probably the case when you purchased it as well. A bargain – something you couldn’t afford in another location but in your price range at the location it sits.

So what do you do to make sure it sells? Think about making the inside a quiet retreat. If you haven’t already done so, install new windows to dull any noise. Triple pane or noise reducing windows will do the trick. Make sure the weather stripping and caulk around the windows and doors facing the busy street are in good shape.

Always emphasize the plusses, even more so than with a home in a different location. Making sure the listing has all of the new updates front and center is a big help. Have your Realtor put an extra on the sign highlighting that it is fantastic inside to entice buyers to look. Add or spruce up your landscaping. First, trees or shrubs along the road can block sound and give some added privacy. If you can fence the front, that will block out sound too, although it will keep that gorgeous landscaping from view. That fencing will also make the worries about privacy and safety go away.

Most importantly, don’t bring up noise, loudness or anything like that. Loud or busy are words that will change with perspective. For someone who lived near an airport, a little traffic noise will be negligible! Should the subject come up, however, point out the things you’ve done to mitigate the noise or share your experience with how great it was living there.

Buy the House of Your Dreams and Avoid Being “House Poor”

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Buying the house of your dreams doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be house poor. You’ve heard the term before “house poor,” but do you know that you can avoid being house poor? Here’s how to avoid it.

Be Firm With Price Points

Negotiating to buy a home can become a situation where what you want can overshadow what you can really afford. You fall in love with the house of your dreams and bending on the outer limits of your set budget can easily happen. One way to avoid that is to firmly set those budgetary price points before you start looking. Be firm with your realtor that going above them is not an option. That will keep you from finding that perfect house that is just above your range and you are scrambling to figure out how to make it work.

Know What You Can Spend- Rely On Yourself

Next, don’t rely on a bank or realtor to tell you what you should spend on a home. Remember all those people who did and are now underwater or were foreclosed because they believed lenders or Realtors assurances that their calculations were right, they really could afford it? Don’t become one of them.

Get pre-qualified for a mortgage and then look below that pre-qualification number. Just because you can qualify to get a $300,000 mortgage doesn’t mean you should get a $300,000 home. Figure out the monthly payments on that pre-qualification amount and make sure that it is a number that you can afford… if nothing comes up or goes wrong. Leave yourself enough space in your income to debt so that you can save for those inevitable emergencies.

Do Your Homework

One way to be sure is to do your homework. A good way to estimate what you really can afford is to take your annual household salary and multiply it by 2.5 in order to get a figure for the price you can afford. Then take that amount and figure out what the real estate taxes and homeowners insurance would be and add those amounts to the monthly mortgage amount. Now, does it fit into your budget? If it’s too close to your last penny each month, you need to look for a less expensive home and avoid being “house poor”.