Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you will ever make in your life. We've assembled a group of top real estate agents from around the country to share their insights into the real estate industry. Here you will find information on picking the right agent, things to discuss when making an offer, step by step process to buying or selling your home and more.
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Finding the home is the fun part. Once the home is selected, preparing yourself for the negotiations, victories and disappointments is the tough part. When you're entering this process, it's important you remember a few tips.
Whether you are a home buyer or a seller, there are many opportunities for a home sale to get tripped up...if not thrown off a cliff. Unless you are in one of the few places in the country not troubled by the multi-year drop in home values, a buyer and seller could agree to a purchase price and yet the house doesn't "appraise out". This means that the appraised value doesn't equal or exceed the contract price....so the buyer can't get a loan with the down payment he was expecting. What does this mean, and what can be done about it?
There are a number of ways to avoid becoming a victim. Many properties are listed with real estate professionals and show up on the large MLS-feed websites such as realtor.com, real estate brokerage websites, and many agent websites. You can usually work with a real estate professional and often times the agent’s fee is paid by the owner of the property. If you decide to work with an owner directly, always try to meet in-person at a public place and never, never, never wire money to an unknown party.
Once upon a time, in a nearby land, not so long ago, you could purchase a house with nearly no money down. In this fantasy land there existed home loans with perks like 103% loan to value, or 80/20 split loans. The lenders were throwing money around, and property values were on the rise. We all know where that got the real estate market and the economy. Today? It is a rather different story.
Your real estate agent may present to you all sorts of whiz-bang ways to market your home for sale. The Internet, for example, is a fantastic way to get your home in front of potential buyers. There are QR codes, those goofy looking bar codes that are popping up on real estate for sale signs. Number to text to get more information. Virtual tours. Video.
Communication is a two-way street, though. It's important to be honest if you're looking to buy or sell a home. I promise you that it will save everyone involved a lot of grief.
Americans love their pets. About 75 million dogs and 85 million cats live in the 65% of our households. Lots of people shopping for a house already have pets or say they want pets -- but they also say they don't want to live with the smells, dirt and damage caused by another family's pet.
I met with potential short sale sellers this week. The couple purchased their home with a VA, no money down mortgage several years ago and then refinanced the mortgage in 2009 adding thousands of dollars to the existing note. While they were able to lower their interest rate, it would take years to recover the cost of the refinance.
Last Month while I was waiting to get a flight back from speaking at a conference in Florida, I got an photo message on my phone from my husband. A nearby home was fully engulfed in flames, I couldn’t believe it. The house suffered over $250,000 in damages. Everyone assumed it was the aluminum wiring, the cause is yet to be determined.
Bad neighbors are no laughing matter. Whether you're living minutes from a land fill, within close proximity of a registered sex offender or living beside the neighbor with an eye-sore-of-a-yard, your home values can be reduced by as much as 15% when you find yourself amidst 'bad' neighbors.