Royal Properties Realty - Murfreesboro Tn Real Estate Company

Home Buying – What Can You Afford

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 02:33:58 +0000

Home Buying – What Can You Afford?

First: You should take in determining what you can afford is to talk to a mortgage lender.
The best step you can take is to go through the loan process to the extent required to get a pre-qualification letter. A pre-qualification letter tells you and a seller how big of a home loan the lender will give you.
Once you have the loan in hand, that must be the amount you can afford? The answer is maybe or maybe not. The prequalification letter is based on a number of factors such as your earnings and credit. It is not based on a picture of your life, which can lead to problems.
There is nothing worse than buying a home and straining to make the monthly mortgage payments. This situation occurs when a homebuyer relies solely on the pre-qualification letter or their own wishful thinking. You may have purchased your dream home, but don’t let the payments be a nightmare.
When determining how much you can afford to expend on a home purchase, you must consider your overall financial situation. Although you may be in a decent financial situation at the moment, do you have future expenses that will put pressure on your finances?
You MUST Consider
Are you planning to have kids in the next year or so?
Have any children going to college soon?
If you own a business, is the financial outlook stable?
Are you reasonably sure your company is headed in the right direction? {Stable employment}
Do you have any concerns regarding downsizing?
If you are the sole bread winner, what would happen if you were unable to work for a few months because of health issues?
This is intended to wake you up to the possibility of over extending yourself on a mortgage. Every situation is different, so make sure you take a careful look at your life to make sure you are committing to a loan you can afford now and in the future.

If you ever have any questions or need help with any real estate needs or know someone who does please feel free to call or email me anytime. I would love to have the opportunity to be your neighbor and realtor.

I never force a seller to continue to use me as their agent if they are not comfortable with my style or methods. I will allow you to cancel our contract at anytime you are not happy with me or you just change your mind.

Are You Ready to Buy a Home?

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:15:24 +0000

Are You Ready to Buy a Home?

mbororealestate.com

Home of the no risk contracts. When you let us help you buy your new home we will allow you to cancel the contract at anytime. The number one reason buyers who are thinking of moving into a new area are hesitant to sign up with Real Estate Agent is they are afraid of the long term contract that locks them in to that agent for months. Now we’ve removed that problem. We will allow you to cancel the contract at anytime. If we are not living up to what you expect from a realtor or if for some reason you change your mind we will cancel the contract that day. Now that’s peace of mind.

This is a big step. How do you really know that you are ready?

You’ve been saving your money and have enough for a down payment and your closing costs. The down payment will need to be between 3% and 20% of the purchase price or property value. Always aim to have that 20%. If you don’t put at least 20% down, you will have to purchase private mortgage insurance, which will increase your monthly payment.

Your closing costs usually run you 3% to 7% of the purchase price. You should receive a Good Faith Estimate of these costs within three days of applying for a mortgage. Keep in mind that this is only an estimate, and not the actual costs. But it should be close. Plan to pay the 7%, and then perhaps you will have some left over. It is better to have more than you need.

You are ready when you know how much home you can afford, and you are willing to stick with this. Your monthly mortgage payment should be less than 25% of your gross monthly income. There are lenders that will tell you that you can afford much more, but don’t listen to them. Stick with what your budget says you can spend.

Remember that there are more dollars in a home than just the mortgage payment. You will need homeowners insurance, money for utilities, maintenance costs and property taxes. Owning a home is a lot of responsibility. You can’t just pick up and move at 30-days notice anymore.

Take the time to check your credit report for any errors and inaccuracies. Almost 90% of consumers will have an error on their credit at some point. These errors can cost you thousands in increased interest rates. Don’t ever go to a lender unprepared and uninformed. Know your credit score.

If you look early enough, you may have time to fix errors or build your credit back up. Plan on at least six months for this, just in case.

Be ready to hold off any other loans or credit until you close on the property. The same goes for changing your jobs. You need to hold your life “as-is” from now until the closing. No new cars, no credit cards and no new jobs. Show that you are stable.

Part of being ready is just feeling ready. If you know what homes sale for in your area, you are definitely ready. If you don’t know the above things, then take the time to figure them out. There is more to buying a home than just shopping and moving.

Please feel free to call or email me anytime.

Mike O’Donnell

615-473-5684

Tema@comcast.net

mbororealestate.com

Home of the no risk listings. The number one reason home owners who are thinking of selling are hesitant to sign up with Real Estate Agent is they are afraid of the long term contract. Now we’ve removed that problem. When you let us help you sell your house we will allow you to cancel the contract at anytime. If we are not living up to what you expect from a realtor or if for some reason you change your mind we will cancel the contract that day. Now that’s peace of mind.

The Basics of Buying a Home

admin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:39:20 +0000

The Basics of Buying a Home

mbororealestate.com

#1 Use a FULL TIME realtor , one who can and will devote whatever time is needed to help you meet your real estate needs. One who will treat you with respect and dignity no matter wht your price range is.

#2 Don’t buy if you can’t stay. If you can’t commit to remaining in one place for at least a few years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet. With the transaction costs of buying and selling a home, you may end up losing money if you sell any sooner – even in a rising market. When prices are falling, it’s an even worse proposition.

#3 Beef up your credit. Since you most likely will need to get a mortgage to buy a house, you must make sure your credit history is as clean as possible. A few months before you start house hunting, get copies of your credit report. Make sure the facts are correct, and fix any problems you discover.

#4 Only look only at home you can really afford. The rule of thumb is that you can buy housing that runs about two-and-one-half times your annual salary. But you’ll do better to use one of many calculators available online to get a better handle on how your income, debts, and expenses affect what you can afford.

#5 Carefully choose between points and rate. When picking a mortgage, you usually have the option of paying additional points — a portion of the interest that you pay at closing — in exchange for a lower interest rate. If you stay in the house for a long time — say three to five years or more — it’s usually a better deal to take the points. The lower interest rate will save you more in the long run.

#6 Get pre-approved by a bank you trust.

Getting pre-approved will you save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can’t afford and put you in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house. Not to be confused with pre-qualification, which is based on a cursory review of your finances, pre-approval from a lender is based on your actual income, debt and credit history.

#7 Do your homework before making a offer. Your offer should be based on the sales trend of similar homes in the neighborhood. So before making it, consider sales of similar homes in the last three months. If homes have recently sold at 5 percent less than the asking price, you should make a bid that’s about eight to 10 percent lower than what the seller is asking.

#8 Hire a home inspector check it out. Sure, your lender will require a home appraisal anyway. But that’s just the bank’s way of determining whether the house is worth the price you’ve agreed to pay. Separately, you should hire your own home inspector, preferably an engineer with experience in doing home surveys in the area where you are buying. His or her job will be to point out potential problems that could require costly repairs down the road.

#9 Try to put 20 percent, but you may still qualify for a loan. There are a variety of public and private lenders who, if you qualify, offer low-interest mortgages that require a down payment as small as 3 percent of the purchase price.

#10 Look in a districts with good schools. In most areas, this advice applies even if you don’t have school-age children. Reason: When it comes time to sell, you’ll learn that strong school districts are a top priority for many home buyers, thus helping to boost property values.

#11 Always buy a home under the assumption that you will resale it shortly. Things happen and you may need to sell and often do for one reason or another.

Rule #12 Never forget rules 1 thru 11

Mike O’Donnell

615-473-5684

Tema@comcast.net

mbororealestate.com

Common complaints we get about real estate agents

admin — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:55:19 +0000

Common complaints we get about real estate agents

mbororealestate.com

Hopefully none of these issues will happen to you, but you should be aware that they are common. These are the most common complaints about real estate agents:

•The buyer’s real estate agent continuously tries to get them to buy houses for much more than they told the agents that they wanted to pay. One person we know specifically told his agents $160k was the top limit. But the agents kept dragging them to homes priced at $180k. The agent might tell you “Come on, just take a look anyway, it will give you ideas for other houses”. Translation: Once I get you into this house to look around, I can get you to buy and I’ll get a bigger commission. Any agent that rushes you is just looking for a quick commission. Unfortunately, selling real estate takes a lot of patience, and if they don’t have patience, they need to choose another profession, and let the Real estate agents who do have patience take over.

•The real estate agent tells the buyer there are no houses in the area in their price range. But gee, there some for only $15,000 more. The savvy buyer then fires the agent and finds plenty of houses in the area in his price range by searching for homes on the Internet real estate classifieds.

•If you’re selling the house yourself, real estate agents start calling you stating they have a client waiting to buy the house, the agent just needs to come take a quick look before they bring them over. This is a scam, there is no buyer. The agent shows up and tries to get you to sign an exclusive contract naming them as your listing agent. The buyer calls a Real Estate Agent to hire them for buying a house. But the agent never calls back after several calls. Ever since the recession of the early 1990’s I have been repeating my brilliant observation that businesses might sell something once in a while if they would just return a phone call. I could swear that the reason we have recessions is because people don’t return phone calls.

•A potential buyer emails an agent about hiring them, but the agent never responds back, even after several emails.

•The listing Real Estate Agent used too much poetic license and embellished the description of the house. In one case one of our visitors reported the listing described “hardwood floors”, but it was cheap plastic imitation wood, only in one room.

•Agents didn’t show disclosure forms buyers stating who they were working for.

•The buyer’s real estate agent starts to grow impatient and complains if the buyer has not made an offer by the 3rd house. Most experts recommend that you visit at least 10 houses before you make a decision.
Questions to ask a prospective real estate agent

•Ask if they are licensed and if it’s up to date. I actually thought this one up on my own! A no brainer.

•First of all, ask if they are part time or full time, because you want a full time agent to assure you get the most attention. Look at it this way: if they only work part time, your house is only marketed part time.

•Ask them what type of training they take to stay current, and ask them how good are they at using the Internet, and what type of training they have for marketing homes on the web. Since many consumers now use the Internet to locate homes, you better have an Internet savvy real estate agent. In many cases, people reported back to us that they were more savvy at finding homes to look at than their agent. There are several highly trafficked home classifieds web sites. They better know how to get your house listed on them.

•Ask them if they’ll take a lower commission. If you’re selling a $150,000 home, every percent point less that you can negotiate down on their commission saves you $1500. Not bad for a few minutes worth of work.

•Ask them if they are a broker or an agent. Brokers are more experienced, and it’s more difficult to become a broker, so they are more resourceful.

•Home buyers and home sellers should both ask their agent if they will get them a printout of all the recent selling prices AND the original listing prices of homes in their area, showing what the owners paid for them, how much they sold for, and full details on the homes. Selling price is useful, but knowing what they listed for and how much the sellers dropped in price is a great gauge of the real estate market in your area.

•For sellers, ask the agent how they plan to market and sell your house. Get it all in writing, absolutely no verbal promises. You want them to blitz the market and get your house into the premium listings and the free listings, and all the online web sites. You want your house to be found. You want no surprises or excuses later on. Pin them down and get their battle plan in writing now. This is a major source of miscommunications and resentment when the seller is expecting several things to be done, and all the agent does is list it in the MLS.

•Ask if they are willing to offer more commission to the buyer’s agent. There are
many savvy buyers agents just looking for houses whose selling agent pays that extra 1/2% or more. This incentive can help sell the house quickly if needed.

•Ask if they will accept a contract for 90 days or less. Many agents will force you into exclusive contracts for 6 months to a year or more. But what if your agent sucks? Then your house sits there for a year not being marketed, while you keep paying mortgage payments. I don’t think so. We tell them to stay out of long term leases. A lease is a contract, if you get a bad car, you’re stuck. The same strategy applies to real estate agents. A 60 day contract is the max that you want, and ask for all their disclosure forms to study first, BEFORE YOU SIGN! Just tell the agent that they won’t need more than 60-90 days if they are really as good as their flapping gums are making them appear.
Do NOT sign a long term contract, and DO NOT pay money up front.

Real estate agents get paid by commission when they sell the house. If they do not sell the house, they don’t deserve any commission, so there’s no need whatsoever to pay in advance or any other time for a job not done. No commission when there is a deposit, only when there is a closing, no exceptions! No Excuses!
If you ever have any questions or need help with any real estate needs or know someone who does please feel free to call or email me anytime. I would love to have the opportunity to be your neighbor and realtor.

Please feel free to call or email me anytime.
Mike O’Donnell
615-473-5684
Tema@comcast.net

mbororealestate.com

How to Pick the Right Real Estate Agent.

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:08:36 +0000

How to Pick the Right Real Estate Agent.

mbororealestate.com

“Real Estate Agent” Is Just Another Word For “Salesman”
Their only mission is to sell, sell, sell to YOU. Don’t ever let on that you are in a desperate situation, or that you need to sell a house fast to pay for emergency bills, or that you are in a desperate crunch to buy this house now, because you are being transferred into town this week. It’s simply none of their business and as far as they are concerned, you are not in a rush to buy a house.

You cannot guarantee impartiality
To play it safe, never tell anyone but yourself how high you are willing to go. By law the seller’s real estate agent has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller, and they WILL tell the seller everything you say, so pretend you are under police interrogation. The first thing the agent will do is ask you how high you are willing to go on the house. Don’t fall for this trick. Just give them the price you want to pay for the house and if they ask how high you are willing to go, tell them that’s it. If the seller does not agree there is no deal and you’re taking your money elsewhere. If you are a home buyer, don’t think your real estate agent is “going in to do battle on your behalf” with the seller’s agent.

How to Choosing A Good Real Estate Agent
But if you know you have a great Real Estate Agent who will tenaciously hunt down houses matching your criteria, it can save you a lot of time. There are good and bad real estate agents, as in other businesses. I’m sure I’ll get a lot of hate emails from paranoid real estate people for this, but I’m going to point out some specific examples that I have come across that testify to the degree of greed there is in the real estate industry. We are not trying to portray all agents as bad.

Some real estate agents make home buyers pay a fee up front that does not even guarantee them a real buyer’s agent. The fee is just a guarantee for the agent that the buyer is now committed to buying a house through them.

There are some very good real estate agents. Choose a successful Real Estate Agent
The better agents have success selling homes in the neighborhood you are looking in. Often you’ll find the same 2 or 3 agents closing deals like crazy in a neighborhood. Part timers and unsuccessful agents may have few if any homes listed. I really have a hard time recommending someone who does this as a part time second job. I just do not see how you can get the attention you deserve from a part timer.

Where to look for Real estate agents
You want a real estate agent who is professional, aggressive, and maybe wins the monthly sales awards in their office. Ask the real estate agent to show you all the state required disclosure forms so you know ahead of time all your rights. You don’t want any surprises later on.

Choose a Real Estate Agent that has the right personality
Your relationship with your Real Estate Agent can turn sour from bad communication. The Real Estate Agent may grow impatient that you are not making any offers on homes that match your list of criteria. They might start to complain that you are not serious about buying and that you are just wasting your time. You might start to complain that all they care about is selling the first house they take you to. These are communications problems that can be avoided if proper communication is disclosed up front. If you know you are an impatient shopper, or that you have to look at a dozen homes before you make your mind up, let the real estate agent know. Some are more patient than others. Make sure they have an accurate list house criteria you are looking for, and don’t spring any surprises on them after you have seen 10 houses. Give them a written list of all your house buying criteria. Make sure your real estate agent knows every last detail of what type of house you are looking for.

Many Real estate agents will not show you new construction homes
A lot of builders refuse to deal with real estate agents because they don’t want to pay them a commission. The builder feels their homes will sell themselves and they don’t need to pay any Real Estate Agent commissions. Because of this, many Real estate agents won’t tell you about new construction homes, even if they fit your criteria list and price range.

Please feel free to call or email me anytime.

Mike O’Donnell

615-473-5684

Tema@comcast.net

mbororealestate.com

How Can I sell this House in This Market?

admin — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:54:11 +0000

How Can I sell this House in This Market?

mbororealestate.com

There are measures you can take to improve your chances of success. Here are some tips on how to sell your home in a difficult market:

Price your home right the first time. To low and it will sell fast but you lost $$$. To high and you have to lower it and make people wonder “what’s wrong with this house?

Make it look like you want to sell it. Go thought it and look at everything with a critical eye.

Pick the right broker. Look for local agents who are listing, marketing and selling in your community even if the market is slow. Ask several of them to make a “listing presentation” to discuss your home’s value, justify their numbers and explain how they would market your property. Once you decide on a broker, you have three types of listing options. In an open listing, you reserve the right to sell the home yourself and not pay a commission, but you also allow one or more brokers to offer the property. With an exclusive-agency listing, you have one broker but reserve the right to sell the property yourself. An exclusive-right-to-sell listing gives only one broker the right to represent you during the listing term and guarantees the broker a commission. Most Multiple Listing Services will post exclusive-agency and exclusive-right-to-sell listings.

Understand the real marketplace. To negotiate effectively, you need to know up-to-the-minute sale prices — not just what your neighbor’s house sold for last year — and the deal-making behind them. For example, two homes may each have sold for $400,000, but if one owner gave a 3% credit for deck repair and a new furnace, that’s a $12,000 reduction. Your agent should be knowledgeable about the details of sales in your area and be nimble enough to revise the marketing plan for your home to reflect changing conditions.

Sweeten the deal. Sellers are reportedly offering some unusual sales incentives — plasma TVs, cars, boat slips, vacations and golf carts — but cash may still be king. For example, some sellers have agreed to pay condo maintenance fees for the buyer. Other ideas include covering moving expenses or a month’s mortgage payment.

Be flexible on the deposit. To “bind” a deal, the buyer should put down a deposit (separate from the down payment), which varies widely depending on the local market. You’d like the biggest deposit you can get, but in a slow market you may have to settle for less.

Monitor and update your listing. If it’s April, you don’t want the photo of your house on the Multiple Listing Service displaying a snowman on the lawn. An out-of-season picture is a dead giveaway that your home has been on the market for awhile. And with many buyers doing their first “look-see” on the Internet, the quality of the photos is paramount too.

Please feel free to call or email me anytime.

Mike O’Donnell

615-473-5684

Tema@comcast.net

mbororealestate.com

Real Estate Agent in Murfreesboro explains, Selling Your Home In Middle TN Realtor News

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 22:58:09 +0000

Selling Your Home

mbororealestate.com

The first thing you need to do is find a competent Realtor. There are national statistics that show that homes that sell with Realtors sell for 13% more than homes without. Make sure that your Realtor works full time and is up to date on the current market conditions.

2010Selling Your Home

mbororealestate.com

Then once you hire a Realtor listen to them. If they are a full time competent agent they know the best way to sell your home. They will know what price it should bring and in what condition it needs to be to bring the price.

In a slow market many homes sell for below market price. If you are at the high end of the market, you will continually chase the market down and will not sell at top dollar. The longer you chase the market down the less you will receive for your home. Most buyers do not look at homes that are out of their price range. Don’t expect to overprice your home and have buyers make an offer. When they see your price way above the market they will make an offer on one that is realistically priced knowing the seller will be more reasonable to deal with.

Once you have your home priced to sell, make sure the home itself is ready. First impressions are extremely important. Curb appeal is an absolute must. Make sure that the home is clean and inviting from the outside. Trim up and clean the yard. If you have a stucco home that has collected dust, take the house and spray it off so that it is clean again. If the home is in need of a paint job, have it painted. In most cases you will get more for the home then the paint job costs. If the home shows pride in ownership on the outside a prospective buyer will assume that the inside was just as equally cared for.

The inside should be clean and tidy. If your rooms are crowded with large furniture, removed a piece or two to make the room appear larger. Avoid clutter in any of the rooms especially the kitchen. The number one selling room in a home is the kitchen. Should the prospective buyer not care for the kitchen, they will move on. The kitchen is the most expensive room to remodel. Wash the windows. Most Realtors open the windows and let light in to make the home brighter. Dirty windows leave a bad impression. If the home has different colors in each room, you may wish to consider painting them all one neutral color. Even though painting is inexpensive and fairly easy, most buyers to not want to take the time to paint before moving into a home. They want a home clean and ready to move into. Most Realtors will be happy to point out where you need to change things to make the home more appealing. Don’t be afraid to ask your Realtor questions.

Offer incentives to the buyer. Incentives to buyers work much better than incentives to Realtors. A Realtor cannot sell a home that a buyer is not interested in because there is a bonus to the Realtor. However, it is easier to sell a home when there are incentives to the buyer for choosing your home. Incentives can be for carpet, window coverings, appliances or even closing costs.

The best advise to anyone selling a home in a slow market is to find a competent Realtor and then listen to them.

Please feel free to call or email me anytime.

Mike O’Donnell

615-473-5684

Tema@comcast.net

mbororealestate.com

Get the Most out of Your Home in a Buyer’s Market. Part 2

admin — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:12:58 +0000

Get the Most out of Your Home in a Buyer’s Market. Part 2

mbororealestate.com

Remember! You are the boss!
Can you fire your agent. Never use one you cannot fire if you are not happy with them. Perhaps it is time for you to coldly calculate a strategy that is in your best interest! You are in a tough market. You have already lost valuable time and money. Your best MOVE at this juncture, it could be argued, is to change the whole shebang.
Everyone will see the signs coming down and going up, the potential buyers will see the same – but will sense a REAL CHANGE – deserving of a serious look! Such is not the case when you simply hang a “reduced” rider-sign below the same-old-sign. Change the BROKER and the SIGN and the PRICE all at once – with an all NEW LISTING. This will often be more effective than just “reducing the price!”
Did you or your Realtor establish an asking price based on recent actual sales prices (not listing prices) of “like” homes in your neighborhood?
You decide – YES – the home is priced right. The agent is worthy, s/he seems to be hard-working on your behalf, but there is NO ACTION! Let’s re-examine the Curb Appeal factor…

Sometimes investing improvement funds in your house to make it more salable is a “PUSH.” Upgrading a kitchen; making over a master bathroom might be a push – or – might make you a profit in a seller’s-market: a hot market where there is limited inventory and excited, motivated buyers constantly streaming through your house.
In 2009-2010, however, it is not a SELLER’s Market: this is a BUYER’s Market. There are simply too many properties for sale. Kitchens and baths are inside – and may never be seen. We may need to invest in the outside: the packaging – the curb appeal.
Devil’s Advocate: “Okay, If we invest $10,000 in curb appeal and we recover $10,000 – why should we bother?” Simple~! If you recover your investment dollars AND the house is SOLD virtually immediately after your investment instead of remaining unsold for months or years – you will have made a wise choice! Better yet, is the scenario where you make a tidy profit on your curb appeal investment AND sell the house right away!
In 1987 homes were not moving in our locale. My wife and I invested $17,000 to do a six-week curb-appeal makeover of our 1/2 acre home in the hills of Corona, CA and it sold the first week following the improvements. We deemed that money well spent.
Pretend you are the Buyer – looking at your home.
A large percentage of home buyers decide whether or not to look inside a house or take it seriously based on its curb appeal—the view they see when they drive by or arrive for a showing. You can help make sure they want to come inside your house by spending some time working on the its exterior appearance.
Have you ever heard of “Can’t see the Forest for the Trees” It’s difficult to look at our own house in the same way that potential home buyers do, because when we become accustomed to the way something looks, we don’t see its faults. In Real Estate School, it is drummed into your head that a SELLER is selling a HOUSE ~ a BUYER is buying a HOME…
Decide right now to stop thinking of the property as a home. When you are selling – the word “home” is the wrong mindset. The property must once again be just a “house”—a commodity you want to sell for the highest dollar possible.
You bought a house before – right? Where is that final decision made – eh? I’ll tell you! After you’ve made the appointment, toured the interior – you probably make your decision sitting in your car – in front of the property that day or even days later. You might not even be aware of the deciding process, but it is very simple…
“That home looks like ME…”
“My friends and extended family would approve of this home…”
Do you have time for a short story? I have some wonderful friends who decided to buy a 3rd home – an investment property. They are not new to buying investment homes. They have owned several… He is a longtime, successful contractor. She was a former Realtor! They are notnewbies.
Buying a house is similar to buying a car or even a fancy-schmancy handbag. PACKAGING SELLS~! When we like the “look” we are likely to want to own IT ~ we will want to buy IT…
Above all, don’t be discouraged by the fact that the 2009-2010 market is not in your favor. Remember that homes sell in all markets. And when you take steps to improve your competitive position, you also improve your chances of being rewarded with a quicker sale and a higher offer.

Please feel free to call or email me anytime.
Mike O’Donnell
615-473-5684
Tema@comcast.net
mbororealestate.com

Real Estate Agent in M’boro explains, How to get the Most out of Your Home in a Buyers Market. Realtor News

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:35:30 +0000

Real Estate Agent in M’boro explains, How to get the Most out of Your Home in a Buyers Market. Realtor News

mbororealestate.com

Get the Most out of Your Home in a Buyer’s Market.
When you’re trying to selling a home in a Buyer’s Market, lots of inventory very few buyers, one of the first things you should consider is improving its curb appeal. Is your House “For Sale” sitting there with nary a looker – attracting no serious offers? It is likely your Realtor has suggested lowering the asking price significantly. The most honest Realtor is less interested in your financial math than their own. If the home does not sell the Realtor is not paid: no commission.
The key to a smooth sale is to make sure you get a good realtor who really knows the market and is willing to work with you. One who will not be happy unless you are happy.
If you’re like many people, you pick agents 4 or 5. You warm up to agents who seem willing to listen to your input and work with you on your concept of house value. They say the right things. They seem genuinely interested in you and want to make you the most money possible. These agents are willing to start out at your price and if you need to drop the price later, you can do that if it becomes necessary —right?
Many agents rationalize this practice. “After all, everyone else does it!”
The best case: you are a willing participant – an enabler. The worst case: your new agent is knowingly engaging in a questionable sales practice called: buying a listing. He (she) bought the listing by suggesting you might be able to get a higher sales price than the other agents recommended. It is very likely the agent is quite doubtful that your home will ever actually sell at that high price. In many cases it is the agent’s intention from the beginning to eventually talk you into lowering the price. The agent can close a lot of deals this way. Get ahead less than honestly. “What the heck – I got a listing,” rationalizes the agent. Face it, in many cases, the listing was bought. The big commission check is 1,000% closer with a listing contract than without one – they could never leave the office and collect SOME commission by someone else’s efforts…
Are you offended by this? Consider your situation – YOU – the Seller. You likely passed over the better agent(s) and you are paying for it. Paying in lost opportunity. Perhaps riding the dismal market to lower lows. Depressed. Inconvenienced. Your wallet is shrinking too. Every day the house is sitting UNSOLD, the mortgage, insurance and property taxes can be calculated down to a very real DAILY COST!
Why do some agents “buy” listings this way?
Some good agents, who would otherwise recommend a lower price, might have felt pressure from homeowners who came to the table with an inflated perception of their home’s value. On the other hand, there are some agents who engage in this sales practice routinely. They have a cold, calculated pattern of this behavior. If you can dump them for one of the honest, up-front, agents you might have blown-off originally – it might be a wise move.

Please feel free to call or email me anytime.
Mike O’Donnell
615-473-5684
Tema@comcast.net
mbororealestate.com

Murfreesboro Realtor explains, The Fastest Way to Sell Your Home Part 2. In TN for Buyers & Sellers

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:23:01 +0000

Murfreesboro Realtor explains, The Fastest Way to Sell Your Home Part 2. In TN for Buyers & Sellers

mbororealestate.com

It should be obvious that if you want to sell a home, it must be freshly painted. A can of paint is a cheap thing and looks so nice when applied to walls. Why people would try to sell a home without a fresh coat of paint astounds me. In this tough market, reach for the paintbrush or else.

There are some clever painting tricks that we employed when we painted this small condo. One of the complaints we heard again and again is that the place was too small. Ours was a lovely location, a beautiful apartment. but just a tad too small. So we had to make it bigger. How? Easy! Paint and mirrors.

To make a room look bigger just paint a wall. But it must be the right wall, and the right color for the effect to work. In a nutshell – if you stand in the doorway of the room you would like to make bigger the wall farthest from you should be painted a darker color than the rest of the room. Since I always paint a home I am selling in off-white, I make the far wall beige. This gives it the illusion of distance.
Another trick is mirrors. They will help you sell your home for a few reasons. They create an illusion of open space and they reflect more light about the room than a wall. The buyers can always take down the mirrors and throw them in the trash – they will have done their job.

You just know what you must do with carpets when you want to sell. Replace them. Yes, you are moving out; no, you will never get to walk on them. They must be new to sell a home.

100 Watt Light Bulbs. This is no joke. Bright homes look cleaner and cheerier. People will come in and say, ‘Wow, it’s nice and bright. Good light in here.” not realizing that you have thrown away all of those nice expensive energy-saving bulbs and replaced them all with profligate energy wasting 100 watt light bulbs.

Especially when you have an open house, and even if it is the brightest day of the year – at 12:00 in the afternoon in the summer and the sun is blazing. TURN ON ALL THE LIGHTS AND LEAVE THEM ON! When you have an open house, make sure you do this. I heard people say “Wow, nice and bright” when they looked at my place – just as my realtor friend said they would. I don’t know why I was so surprised.

Don’t overlook the yard! So you are not a gardener and you don’t have a green thumb, don’t ignore the yard if you want to sell. For most yards, even years of neglect can be fixed relatively easily and inexpensively. You do not need to buy expensive shrubs – nice grass will be enough in most cases. Fix any brown spots and buy a couple of carloads of flowers. Nobody has even NOT sold a house because there were too many flowers growing on the property.

Get rid of the swing set. Yes, it’s true that the buyers might have kids that would enjoy it, but swing sets never increase the sale price of a home. Unless yours is a brand spanking new one and you plan on leaving it AND it looks wonderful, get rid of it. The buyers would want to buy a new one for their kids if they have them and swing sets are an eyesore for most others.

Please feel free to call or email me anytime.

Mike O’Donnell

615-473-5684

Tema@comcast.net

mbororealestate.com