Be Careful Pricing Your Home
Be Careful Pricing Your Home
The pricing of a home can be one of the single most important aspects of a home sale. The price tag that you put on your home has the power to attract or repel buyers quite easily. The last thing you want to hear is the phrase “X dollars, for that place? Seriously?” Homes that are incorrectly priced have a tendency to not sell, quickly or at all for that matter.This is because they have priced their target market out of the bidding. What you are trying to achieve here is what is known as “fair market value.” Fair market value means that your home for sale is priced reasonably, for quick sale and that the asking price should draw buyers in.
The pricing of a home is usually seen to by a realtor for a variety of reasons. Primarily, they have access to the MLS database, a vast repository of listed homes and information on listed and sold homes in every area across the country. This allows them to make comparisons of your home against similar homes in your area based on things like rooms, bathrooms, yards, location and amenities. If your home gets priced too high for the neighborhood, then the sale could be problematic. if buyers can’t look at your listing and think; “Wow! What a deal!” The sale may take a bit longer than you expected.
This is why correct pricing is so important. One good idea is to have the pricing on your home done several times over to ensure that the price you have is right. If you have numerous realtors do a CMA on your home and they come back with vastly different prices then take the time to sit down with each and ask why they priced your home in the way they did. Perhaps their answers will give you some better insight into the sale of your home. In the best-case scenario you will be able to price your home around the top of it’s price group, thereby attracting a wide array of prospective buyers, including bargain shoppers from higher price groups. Don’t discount any buyers no matter what, they could be the ones that make the nice offer!
As a top Sarasota Realtor, Jim Hirschman is ready to help you get the most for your investment in <a href="http://www.sarasotalandandhomes.com" target="_blank">Sarasota real estate</a>, whether you're buying or selling a home. <a href="http://www.sarasotalandandhomes.com/contact.php" target="_blank">Contact Jim</a> today for more information on Sarasota real estate.</a>
Home Fixes That Buyers LOVE
If you are selling your home then here are a few things that you are likely planning on doing to improve your home’s appeal and selling value. Well, one thing that you should keep in mind is that not all fixes will improve the asking price that you can request. What you should be thinking about is the kind of improvements that will really mean something to the average buyer. For instance not all buyers will be impressed by the addition of a covered carport or your painting of the walls. Things like the walls will be expected. But what if you could figure out some things that would make people sit up and take notice of the home and actually appreciate the changes you have made?
Some of the biggest concerns that people have when purchasing a home are those of safety. They worry about the critical systems of the home and whether or not they are working properly, especially in older homes. If your home has been around for a while then why not consider upgrading the home’s essential systems like plumbing or electrical? Electrical consumption has risen drastically over the last 10 years and many older home’s electrical systems don’t cope well with today’s energy draining appliances and technology. Years ago most homes had 1 TV, maybe 2 and the kitchen and laundry appliances. Today’s average family has 2 or 3 TV’s and at least one computer plus larger capacity washer/dryers and a host of other electrical appliances. Many older home’s systems have difficulty coping with this increased drain on power. This can cause power systems to short and electrical fires can happen. Upgrading this vital system is a great selling point.
The same holds true for the plumbing system but for a different reason. The stress on this system should be relatively the same that it has always been. However, the years of moisture and use can cause pipes to degrade and when this happens, so do leaks. Leaky pipes can cause any number of problems in the home including water damage and mold. Along these same lines, a new roof is a huge selling point. If you install a new roof with a warranty then that is a fix that you should be able to bank some extra profit on. Keep in mind the safety concerns of the average buyer, in fact these are the same concerns that you should have yourself when buying your new home.
John Mejia is a real estate agent specializing in <a href="http://www.themejiagroup.com">Birmingham real estate</a>. If you are looking for a new home in Alabama, <a href="http://www.themejiagroup.com/contact.php">contact John</a> today or visit the Mejia Group online at www.themejiagroup.com.
Clean and De-Clutter Room By Room
There is a certain aspect of home selling that has become ever more important as buyers become more and more choosy about the homes that they view and purchase. Home staging, the process of cleaning and improving the visual impact of a home has become a bit of a rage across the country. Now, more than ever we are seeing home staging services cropping up and doing wonders for the home selling industry. However, home stagers can come at a hefty price. That being said, the service they provide is impressive and does help the home to show better, the question is; can you do it yourself?
Well, there are certain aspects that can easily be done by any home owner. However, there are a few that cannot. What you can do is take care of the initial steps yourself as they are not difficult and only take a bit of time and effort. The first step of this process is always the cleaning and de-cluttering of your home. Cleaning is self-explanatory. Clean your home from top to bottom, every room, every corner, every closet. Surfaces should shine like they never have before. Try to think about your home being featured in a home magazine, how would you want it to look? That is essentially what is going to happen, the only difference being is that your home will be appearing online where it is available to seen by far more than the average readership of any magazine.
Clutter is the number one enemy of good home shows. Buyers do not want to see piles of your stuff lying around. This kind of thing gets in the way of buyers getting a feel for the home. It does help them get a feel for who you are, but that is not what you want them to buy! Your home should be an entity unto itself without the encumbrance of your property getting in the way of a buyers viewing experience. Each room in your home likely has a few things that could get in the way of a proper showing. When preparing your home for viewing it is good to pursue a minimalist concept but not to the point of making the rooms look sparse or cold. It is a delicate balance that can be difficult to achieve but don’t let that get in the way of taking the project on yourself!
Sanjog Gopal is a CPA & REALTOR specializing in the <a href="http://www.azresidence.com/search-mls.php">Arizona real estate</a> market. My background as a CPA ensures that I am ideally suited to provide elite service in all aspects of home purchases and sales. For more information <a href="http://www.azresidence.com/contact.php">contact me</a> anytime or visit me on the web at www.azresidence.com.
Are You Using Monopoly Money In Your Business? Posted By : Kalinda Rose Stevenson
In the Great Depression, the Monopoly game first appeared in the marketplace. Many children around the world first learn about money and business in this game.
How Meaningful are Real Estate Appraisals?
Real estate appraisals are totally subjective and often are not an accurate way to determine the value of a property in some markets. Since the recent sharp decline of property values and the new loan guidelines by lenders, not even the most professional appraiser can any longer say with absolute certainty what a property is worth. Real estate appraisers can and will give a subjective value for what a property should be worth, but even these numbers are open to scrutiny.
Because of infrequent sales, the offering prices of homes in some areas of the country are sinking faster than homes are selling. So anyone looking at comparable sales is seeing sales from months before that traded well above what a similar home can be bought for currently. This phenomenon occurs when home sellers become desperate to sell and believe that only the price of the home matters to a buyer. Unfortunately, for other homeowners, this panic to sell brings down values throughout the neighborhood.
An appraiser will readily admit that his price estimate or appraised value of a home is an educated, but always subjective guess. In the final analysis, his strongest parameter for pricing a single family residence is a comparable sale in the same neighborhood. Unfortunately, these comparable sales can be skewed by a number of factors including distressed sales, seller concessions at closing that are not part of the public record, transfers for estate or tax purposes, realtor commissions included in the sales price, long periods between sales, and property exchanges that use a factious market value as a basis for the transfer.
I know an individual who recently sold his home for $405,000, which was well above fair market value of $340,000 for his neighborhood. At closing he paid a $24,300 realtor’s commission, gave the buyer a $15,000 seller’s concession at closing, included his new furniture which he just paid $16,700, and paid closing costs for the buyer of $5,800. His net on this transaction was $343,200. However, an appraiser will see $405,000 on the public record and if he used this value to determine the cost per square foot as a guideline, his appraisal would be too high for the next property. The appraiser will see that the property was sold through a realtor , but he will not know about the seller concession or furniture which overvalue the sale by $31,700. Similar homes in this area were listed at the same time for $310,000 to $330,000 but hadn’t sold, so how much value should be placed in the $405,000 sale?
I recently received a call from an excited investor about a seller who was asking $200,000 for her property which, according to ten comparable sales, was worth $280,000. The investor had used a mile radius and six months previous sales as his parameters. By simply adjusting the comparables to a mile radius and two months back, the comparables showed $212,000 as a fair market value. What a difference a mile and a few months make to the expected sales price or value of theproperty. Had the investor jumped at the “opportunity” to purchase the property below market value, he certainly would have suffered a loss when you include carrying, sales, and repair costs.
In summary, in this market, the way for an investor or homeowner to get the best estimate of what a property is worth is to start with the moststringent guidelines, specifically, one month previous sales and only those within mile of the subject property. Next the seller or buyer should look out mile and back three months at actual sales to get comparable values. Most importantly, it is now imperative that buyers and sellers look at open listings on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) or on Realtor.com and carefully check the sale by owner offerings in the neighborhood. Armed with this information, a buyer or seller can get a significantly better idea of FMV, even if it is not what he expects.
Dave Dinkel has over 30 years experience in real estate investing which has given him a unique perspective into the workings of the real estate market. He has developed a CD entitled "How to Sell Your Home in as Little as 72 Hours", available at no cost for a limited time by going to <a href="http://www.fsbotlc.com">www.fsboTLC.com</a> and he shares even more techniques and secrets in his homeowner's home study course at <a href="http://www.fsboautopilot.com">www.FSBOautopilot.com</a>
Summer Is Selling Time!
Well Summer is finally here and with it has come the high season for home sales. Summer is really the best time of the year for selling a home as every aspect of the home and yard can be properly showcased and shown off. Of course this may not apply to a condo in Vail which is best shown in the snow, but for the rest of the country, Summer is where it’s at. There are a number of things that any home seller can do to make their home such more attractive to buyers during the summer months. Let’s start by doing a bit of a checklist for the home and yard.
Curb Appeal - This is one of the most important things that you can see to before the sale of a home. First impressions are everything in real estate and if your home does not impress buyers from their first glance then something must be changed and quickly! Your home presents a package to buyers and much of that package is the visual impact of the home and yard. It is extremely difficult to sell and ugly home unless you find one of those golden home investors who is looking for a fixer-upper. Many people will make a decision when first seeing a home and place the home into a “possible” or a “no-way” category. No need to mention which side of that equation you need to be on.
Staging - Staging is much more than cleaning and organizing things in the home. It is more about creating a marketable and attractive product that will appeal to buyers on many levels. Cleanliness, organization, artistic value, color and space are all important elements to this situation. Home staging has become a huge business in this country and you should have little trouble finding a professional stager to work some magic on your home. It is really amazing what a good home stager can accomplish. You may not even recognize your own home!
Comfort - When showing a home the idea is to get people to stay as long as possible and explore every aspect of the home. In summer keeping the air conditioning on is a good idea. If you don’t have one then go pick one up! You could even organize snacks and refreshments for your viewers. Buyers will appreciate the little things. They will notice when sellers go that extra mile to make them comfortable when looking at their home.
Matt Barker is a real estate professional specializing in <a href="http://www.saint-paul-real-estate.com">Saint Paul real estate</a>. Matt's dedication to excellence in the world of real estate is what makes Barker & Hedges the premier real estate team in Saint Paul. <a href="http://www.saint-paul-real-estate.com/contact.php">Contact Matt</a> for more information today.