Realtor Tips – Page 24

Are You Buying a Family Home?

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Are you buying a family home? Great! So how do you decide what home you should buy? That depends on where you are in your life. Much like what size home you need, what kind of home will depend on the questions that you should ask yourself, and also share with your Realtor.

When you are buying a family home consider what kind of home you need. Well, where are you in life? How big is your family? Do you plan on having more kids? Are your children older and moving out for college or on their own? The answers to these questions will help you decide if you need more space or less. It might mean you need a single family home, or maybe a condo or small town home or duplex. Here are some considerations too: does one of your family members play a loud instrument? A multifamily type home may not be a good idea. Your lifestyle helps determine the type of home you need.

Do you have elderly parents? Is it possible they will move in with you? You might want to look for a home with two master bedrooms, or a home with an in-law suite. This may also determine house type too. With elderly people in the mix, will you want a home with multiple floors, or a ranch style with no steps? Would a larger condo fit the bill so you can have a life with little maintenance and enough space for your whole family?

What you need when buying a family home should be determined by where your family needs will take you in the foreseeable future. Be realistic about it. If you have high school aged children, will they be leaving to live at college? Is it likely they will be moving back home after college? Will your parents need supervised living that you will provide in your home? Don’t go into your home search with rose colored glasses on, be very realistic. Ask the hard questions and answer them honestly.

So what kind of home do you need? Work with your Realtor and find out.

Does Your Realtor Speak Your Language? Hire The Irish Realtor

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Language. It’s more than just the English, Spanish or French you speak. It’s the ability to have effective communication with those around you. Does your Realtor speak your “language?” Deb, the Irish Realtor does. She has effective communication.

Have you seen the commercial with the dad in the backyard talking about something, and asks his daughter via text something and she answers “idk” and he says “what does IDK mean?” and the neighbor behind him says “I don’t know” explaining that IDK is an acronym for I don’t know. The main character totally missed the point and says something along the lines of “well I’m not so stupid after all.” Communication is about language. Have you missed the point of another person’s answer or conversation because you IDK? Now picture yourself trying to talk with a Realtor about your most important purchase… your home. Not having good communication here would be detrimental to your whole life. Does your Realtor speak your language?

If you are a twenty or thirty something hip to the newest internet slang, constantly tweet, facebook, tumble and pin things, wouldn’t you want to do business with someone hip to that as well? Now turn it around. Your Realtor has years of experience dealing with everything real estate: title issues, the newest home updates, appraisal acronyms and the like. What happens if he or she can’t make you understand those terms? Getting to a place where all understand is paramount. Your Realtor must be someone who can communicate the real estate language to you and make sure you each understand it so you will have all the knowledge you need to buy or sell a home.

Part of that is also being able to actually reach the other. How do you communicate the best? Email? Text? Do you even check your voicemail? Does your Realtor? Make sure that each of you know and respect the communication preference of the other.

Deb, the Irish Realtor, strives to be a great communicator. She really understands the ins and outs of communication. Her lilting Irish brogue has softened over the years, but she knows that even accents as lovely as an Irish brogue can make communication misunderstandings possible. So start out on the right foot by saying to Deb, or your Realtor “you can best reach me by_” and then ask LOTS of clarifying questions as you go!

Selling Your Home In December

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Thanksgiving has come and gone and December is here. Time to sell your home. Yes, really. December is a great time of year to sell your home. Selling your home in December means fewer homes for sale, more people from out of town looking and better chances for you.

December is a great month to sell your home

People are busy, but not too busy to house hunt. If someone is in the hunt for a home, using time waiting in line Christmas shopping to look online for homes to see is probably how they multi-task. The fact that the holidays are busy will work to your advantage another way. Who has time to just look? People looking will be serious buyers. If they are going to take time out of their busy holiday schedule to look, that means they are buyers to take seriously. That means that your Realtor will show to well qualified, pre-qualified buyers who are serious. Aren’t you busy at the holidays too? No wasted time for you either.

I bet if you asked others about listing in December they told you it was nuts. “No one ever lists in December!” Exactly, that means less competition. But buyers are still looking. New listings in December are few and far between, so it gets buyers looking jazzed. Now think about them looking at your home. How does it look this time of year? Decorated and at its best. Perfect!

Sales Ready

Getting your home sales ready in December is really much easier than you think. You are already making room for decorations and a tree, probably packing a few things away for the duration. So, use the opportunity to declutter and pack. Then tastefully appoint your home with holiday cheer.

Selling your home in December works to your advantage. So decorate, and get ready to move after the New Year! New Year, new home. Sounds good, doesn’t it!

Top 5 Ways Homeowners Shoot Themselves in the Foot When Selling Their Homes

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Home selling. It can be a chore. Sometimes the problem isn’t the market, the agent or the buyers. Sometimes the problem is you, the homeowner. Most don’t try and be a problem, but there are several things that homeowners do, or don’t do, that basically shoot themselves in the foot when selling their homes.

When selling your home, your asking price is too high. If you don’t price at market value, you won’t sell, period. The days of getting well over asking are behind us, and while some markets are seeing it creep back, overpriced homes won’t sell.

Deferred maintenance is another issue. Leaving annoying little things for the buyer to do is obvious. It means buyers will go find another seller who is a little more considerate. Make sure you complete projects and do inexpensive fixes like new paint and caulking the bath or kitchen. That includes damage from old, but fixed problems too.

If there are big things to fix, don’t expect top dollar for your home. So if you want top dollar, make the fixes. By big we mean serious systematic issues (heat, plumbing or electrical), roof, holes in the walls, or foundation issues. If you don’t want to, or can’t make them, make sure you price the home accordingly.

As homeowners selling their homes if they refuse to stage their homes they can’t expect the best price or for people to see past their things and clutter.

Buyers won’t be able to picture themselves in your home because it looks like YOUR home. As your realtor probably told you, box up your stuff and get it out. Make your home look bigger and less messy. If you did stage it, keep it that way. Do not expect that staged or not, you can leave a mess and have people look past it.

Don’t be a difficult seller. Your realtor will be ok with working around some scheduling things, but be open and able to show your home almost at any time. Requiring 24 hours notice to show the home is another bugaboo. People don’t want to be put off. If they have the time to see your home now, they might not be able to the next day. Be a flexible homeowner and be willing to bend when selling your home.

Home Seller Tips – What Are Home Sale Contingencies

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

If you’ve ever bought or sold a home, you have an idea of what a home sale contingency is, but if you haven’t they are probably a mystery. So what are home sale contingencies?

A home sale contingency is a clause in a real estate contract. The contingency is a condition that is placed on the contract. Completion of the contract is dependent, or contingent, upon the conditions being completed. If they aren’t completed, or something goes awry, the settlement, and the sale of the home doesn’t take place.

There are two types of home sale contingencies pertaining to the seller: sale and settlement contingencies; and settlement contingencies. A sale and settlement contingency is a condition that the buyer sells his or her existing home. It’s used when the buyer hasn’t received or accepted an offer to purchase their current home, and allows the seller to continue to list their home, in case the contract contingency falls through. Part of the contingency clause says that if the seller receives another offer, the buyer can either agree to purchase without the contingency or back out of the contract and allow the seller to take the other offer.

A settlement contingency is used when the buyer already has a contract on their property and a settlement date is scheduled. Since a sale isn’t final until settlement, this protects the buyer if their settlement falls through. This contingency also prohibits the seller from accepting other offers on their property for a period of time.

Other kinds of contingencies protect the buyers. These deal with having inspections done. They provide the buyer’s an out if the home inspection or other inspections like well and septic or pest inspections are not good. They usually specify an amount that the seller may be responsible to pay to fix problems, and each side has the out if the problems are more expensive than the contingency provides for.

So how can a seller not get burned on a sale and settlement or settlement contingency? First, make sure the buyer has a home and it is listed for sale. Next, make sure it is listed at the best market price, and see how long it’s been listed. In other words, do your homework on their listing like you did for your own.

Home Buyer: How Much Home Do You Need?

October 27, 2021 By Deborah Ward

Home Buyer: How much home do you need? It’s a question that you have to ask yourself when you decide that you want to buy a new home. If you are selling and buying a new one, do you need to upsize or downsize? If you’re a first time home buyer, it will determine what you are looking for. It’s one of the first questions that your Realtor will ask you. So, how do you decide?

So how do you decide how much home you need? Ask yourself some questions. First, what size is your family? Are you a couple first starting out? Do you plan on having a child or more children? Do you want each child to have their own bedroom or will they share?

Next question: what is your budget? That will certainly determine the type and size of home you can look at. Regardless of family size, if you have a small budget, you can’t afford a huge house in great shape.

What square footage will it take to fit your lifestyle? Do you need a lot of storage? Do you have hobbies that will require a lot of square footage? So how much home do you need?

One thing to keep in mind is the difference between what you want and what you need. Asking yourself these questions can help you determine the difference. Of course we all want the biggest and best, but budgets can make that difficult or even impossible. However, there are ways to get what you need and make it into what you want. Discussing all these things with your Realtor will help him or her narrow the search down to exactly what you need, can afford and make it into your dream home.

So home buyer, how much home do you need? Only you can answer that but with a Realtor’s help you can make a good decision.

The Deb Ward Team