Tips for Sellers
Put My Property On The Market Now – Are You Kidding Me?
Monday, December 05, 2011
When you look at your holiday calendar you may find you are overloaded with seasonal obligations such as shopping, entertaining, charity work, decorating the house, and much, much more. If you are also trying to sell your home, you are under extra pressure to keep your home in “showing” condition. And that’s probably the last thing you need before the holiday spirit is broken!
Therefore. it is understandable why you may be tempted to take your home off the market during the holidays. Better to just pack it in and start fresh in January, right? Maybe not! We believe that taking your home off the market during the Holiday Season is a mistake.
For many in the real estate industry, the holidays are one of the best-selling periods. Why? Because most people take off from work during this time of year and many find this to be a great time to look for a new home!
Before you take your home off the market, consider the following points:
Although buyer activity may appear to slow down, the buyers who are actively looking during the holidays are that much more serious.
Many buyers deliberately choose to shop for a home after the busy spring and summer rush. They know that it will be easier to look, and that negotiations will be less stressful. They may not have children, or they may have grown children, so moving to accommodate the school year isn’t a consideration. Finding the right home at the right price, however, is.
Relocating families often don’t have a choice in when they can leave for their new destination. Although 68 percent of transferring families have children, many families have to transfer during the middle of the school year. These families are that much more motivated to get their families settled in before either before the January semester begins, or to arrange for the move during spring break in March. If you sign a contract by New Year’s Eve, the timing couldn’t be more perfect!
During the Holidays, our culture focuses on family and the home. Allowing buyers to view your home during this most hospitable of seasons lets them better picture their own family life in the attractive environment you have created. Afterall, when is your home ever more beautiful and inviting? You have cleaned and decorated, and your home looks like a picture postcard. If the results are good enough for family and friends, they will surely be good enough to impress buyers!
Finally, with reduced inventories and motivated buyers, you could very easily have ‘good luck’!. You may find you have more showings than you would if your marketed your home during a busier time of the year!
- Scott Askew
Posted in: Tips for Sellers
Ten Rules To Follow When Selling A Home
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Selling a home in today’s market requires a knowledgeable professional, a REALTOR, leading the way. Gone are the days when you made up an asking price, threw a sign in the front yard, and watched as Buyers fought over the right to be the next owner. Today, you must price the property correctly and present it in an inviting manner. Then, and only then, might you attractive someone willing to buy.
The following are ten rules to follow if you want to be successful selling your property:
1) Hire a REALTOR (there is a definite difference between a REALTOR and a real estate licensee) who is knowledgeable of your community.
2) Look at your property as if you were seeing it for the first time. Go outside and look at the landscaping, condition of the roof, paint, door and walkway. If it is not drop-dead gorgeous, get to work. The first impression will impact future buyers and will oftentimes influence if they will actually enter the property.
3) Clean out the clutter. We collect as much stuff as our space allows. But when it comes time to sell, open spaces look best.
4) Fix all deferred maintenance items and brighten rooms with fresh, neutral colored paint. Make improvements that improve the “showability” of your property.
5) Depersonalize your property. An abundance of family pictures can distract buyers. Remember, you want them focus, and to picture themselves moving in, not on your memorabilia.
6) Have your REALTOR research and determine fair market value. Throw your preconceived ideas out the window and look at your property through the eyes of someone wanting to buy. While it is okay to challenge the value your REALTOR comes up with, in the long run, it is best to trust their educated, unbiased, opinion.
7) Prepare yourself for offers that do not match your asking price and have a plan on how flexible you can be.
8) Get pre-approved for your next purchase so when a Buyer does come and you’re faced with a decision to take the offer and move out within 30 - 40 days, or lose the Buyer, you are in a better position to immediately go out and locate your next home.
9) Do one last clean out and clean up. Go through your home one last time and determine what else you can remove and comfortably live, then have the windows cleaned, open the curtains and display fresh flowers. Also, scent is a very powerful sense. Candles, baked cookies or bread, and brewed coffee will enhance the buyer’s experience. A bright, open, fresh, house is a welcoming home!
10) Be ready willing and able to have your home shown at any time. Regardless if you are given a ‘courtesy call’ or not, if someone knocks on your door while it is daylight, be ready to show! A hard home to show is a hard home to sell!
- Scott Askew
Posted in: Tips for Sellers
Reasons to use a full service Broker like Fourteen West, REALTORS
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
1) Fourteen West, REALTORS assumes the risk of the sale whereas a “discount broker” places the risk on the Seller. How? Fourteen West takes a listing and expends significant time, effort, and money, marketing the property, showing the property, coordinating the sales efforts, and is compensated only if the sale closes. A discount broker, on the other hand, receives a fee upfront and therefore is not incented to provide any level of service. The Seller assumes more responsibility on showings, answering questions, and coordinating the events that take place before, during and after the property goes under contract.
2) Fourteen West will advise an owner on the correct price range to place their property based upon sales data and actual inspections of sold and active listings. Pricing a property properly is very important in the process of successful selling! Discount brokers typically will let the owner set the price, or will assist the owner to the extent a computer program will allow.
3) Fourteen West will assist an owner in staging their property to better showcase good features and minimize the impact any ‘negatives’ may pose. Owners are not always able to disengage themselves enough to notice flaws because they are emotionally tied to the property. We offer objectivity. Discount brokers will not bother… nor do they care.
4) Fourteen West will promote the property via multiple internet sites, flyers, both Atlanta area MLSs, caravans, personal contacts within the REALTOR community, etc. Owners do not have that capability and discount brokers are not going to bother.
5) Fourteen West will follow-up on showings and retrieve feedback whenever possible. Many heads are better than one…feedback is an important component in staying competitive with other properties on the market that are competing for the limited buyer ‘pool’. Owners do not have the time, and discount brokers are not incented to do this.
6) Fourteen West assists in the negotiations of an offer. An owner sometimes get’s emotional and/or scared; oftentimes resulting in leaving ‘money on the table’, or running off a good, potential buyer due to their hard-line tactics. A discount broker seldom gets involved in this part of the process.
7) Fourteen West will coordinate the activities necessary after a property goes under contract, and before the closing. An owner is blind to this part of the transaction and the discount broker, again, does not care.
- Scott Askew
Posted in: Tips for Sellers
Years after Loan Default, Homeowners May Still Owe
Friday, March 26, 2010
Homeowners defaulting on mortgages today may be surprised to learn years from now that they still owe thousands of dollars - and a collection agency is coming after them to get it.
“How is that possible?” you ask. Because lenders have been quietly selling second mortgages and home equity lines left unpaid after foreclosures and short sales. The buyers: collection agencies!
But what makes matters even scarier… these agencies can wait however long the term of the loan is to sue (15 years, 30 years, etc. whatever the term is) plus an additional 6 years after that.
Once obtained, a judgment is good for 7 years and can be renewed twice for up to a total of 21 years. So, if you have 20 years left on a second mortgage, the holder of that note could, theoretically, sue you on it 26 years from now (20 plus 6) in the year 2036. The judgment would then be good for up to 21 years from then, which brings us to the year 2057. (I would be 101 years old by then…)
Now, I don’t know that anyone would wait around that long to do this, but they could per current laws.
People who only had a first mortgage on the house in which they lived generally have little to worry about. But borrowers who defaulted not only on their first mortgage but also on a home equity loan or second mortgage are in peril. So, unless something changes, this may cause an ominous, looming echo of today’s real estate meltdown for decades.
This is a lucrative business and investors are coming out of the woodwork. Real estate insiders and financial players are calling it “scratch and dent.”
Owners are generally, but not always, on the hook for the second loans left over from a foreclosure or short sale. Most investor mortgages, too, leave the borrower liable for potential unpaid debt. In many short sales, experienced short sale specialists who have a mortgage license or attorneys can negotiate away debt obligations for the second mortgage. But many inexperienced borrowers don’t know that, and sign final-hour agreements giving lenders the right to pursue them later.
As you may have heard, currently it is a Federal crime for non-mortgage licensees to negotiate with Lenders. So, it is in an agent’s best interest to refer them to a real estate attorney or a mortgage mitigation specialist for advice and to negotiate with the Seller’s mortgage holders. And let the agent do what we do best - sell homes.
Finally - Government forces have moved to limit potential damage to millions now struggling with home loans. A new short sale program aims to prevent banks that hold second-lien loans from pursuing collections from homeowners after the short sale. It goes into effect April 5, 2010 and works this way: Sellers will receive notice that their servicer has steered part of the sales proceeds to secondary lien holders “in exchange for release and full satisfaction of their liens.” However, this release would apply only to short sales done through the administration’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program. Lenders could not seek court judgments to collect from these borrowers in the event of foreclosure or short sales.
- Scott Askew
Posted in: Intown Atlanta Real Estate News