From our family to yours Happy New Year 2012! As we reflect on 2011 the word that comes to mind is gratitude. We are grateful for you! Our family, friends, and customers alike, all who have enriched our lives. We want to thank all of the families who trusted in us and we were able to help meet their real estate needs. We look forward to the future to continued success and we thank you for being a part of our family. We hope you have a great 2012!
Getting your home sold quickly is important for many different reasons. One of the reasons why you want to sell your home quickly is because it will generally sell for much more money when it first goes on the market than it will months later. Obviously, the longer a home sits on the market, the more buyers start to assume something's wrong with it. These eight tips will help you get your home in tip top shape so that buyers will want to make an offer quickly.
First, make sure to clear out the clutter. Buyers need to picture themselves in your home with their own things. When you have all of your personal possessions lying around, it's hard for some buyers to imagine themselves living in the home. Since you're moving anyway, go ahead and start packing things up so that you can clear out spaces. When you have clear spaces, such as rooms and countertops, it gives the appearance of a larger home.
Next, make sure to clean your house from top to bottom. It really needs to be spotless. Consider hiring professionals to come through and do a massive cleanup. You want to clean the windows, scrub the front door and even wash the light switches.
Next, it's important to get your house in tip top shape. If you have a long “honey do” list, go ahead and get a jump on doing those items. We all have a long list of home maintenance items that need to be done, but it's especially important when you have your home up for sale.
The fourth step is to clean up your garden, trim your shrubs and mow your lawn. Remember that first impressions are lasting impressions. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so make sure that the exterior of your home looks as good as the interior.
Our fifth step is that you don't want to forget all those storage spaces that you have in your home either. Clean out your garage, attic and other storage areas so that people can really see how much space they will have to store their own things.
On number six, you want to make sure that you hire the right agent for the job. Always choose someone who can show you a proven track record. It's vitally important to have an experienced agent who knows how to navigate today's unique marketplace.
Our seventh tip is to identify your future buyer. Look at the reasons why you chose your home and realize that other buyers will likely choose your home for the same reasons. This lets you know the need to make special efforts to highlight those areas when you're selling your home.
Finally, it's important that you don't get greedy when trying to sell a property. Let me tell you a quick story. I once had a home for sale and got the sellers a great offer quickly. They were concerned that the home was selling too fast and might be underpriced, so they didn't take the offer. Now, let's fast-forward to this current real estate market that's not doing so well. The house is still on the market for sale, but now it's worth 20% less than it was back then.
We would love to assist you with your next home purchase or home sale, so please give us a call today!
Yes, we’ve all heard of the nightmarish stories where lenders are asking for anything from a DNA sample to a receipt for the cash you got from the tooth fairy last time you checked. So with all this “jumping through hoops of fire” it’s no wonder that many prospective homebuyers are very wary of what the market holds for them. If you do a Google search on the current market conditions, you will find that mortgage-lending practices have tightened considerably lately, almost to the point where even those people with pristine credit are having a hard time accessing funds to purchase a property.
Interesting catch-22, huh? On the one hand, there is a plethora of homes on the market, just waiting to be snagged by the perfect buyer – and at unbelievably and historic interest rates, while the flip side of the story is it seems that getting any money these days is next to impossible.
But is that really the case?
We’re here to tell you that there is plenty of money available out there. In fact, there are so many options that we don’t have enough space to list all the details. For a snapshot of some of the options you have when you go to visit your loan officer or Realtor, here is some useful information:
FHA Financing
One of the most popular financing choices today, the FHA program has several features that are very attractive to many borrowers these days. The minimum down payment required is only 3.5% and any or all of it can be funds received as gifts from friends, family or coworkers (as long as the giver has no vested interest in the sale of the property). There are other loans in the FHA program that allow for buyers to repair and/or renovate the home being purchased, even including rental expense while rolling in the mortgage payments into the loan. Seller concessions are also allowed with FHA loans.
Conventional Loans
So many prospective homebuyers hold on to the conventional wisdom that putting down at least 20% is the best way to buy a home. And for those people, there is always the straight conventional loan available. Not only does this eliminate the need for PMI (private mortgage insurance) tacked on to each monthly payment, but it also provides instant equity in the home.
USDA-Guaranteed Financing
The single best feature of loans that are guaranteed by the USDA home loan program is that up to 100% of the loan amount can be financed. In fact, borrowers can borrow 102% and roll into their mortgage the lending fee as well. To learn more about this program, visit the official site here.
Jumbo Loans for Jumbo Purchases
There is a ceiling for how much a purchase must be after which Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will not guarantee it. For borrowers that want to purchase a larger home or borrow beyond the limits set by Fannie or Freddie, jumbo loan financing is an option. Though there is an increased credit risk to the lender, slightly higher interest rates compensates for it.
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Additional programs are out there for Veterans, first-time buyers and businesses as well. During the consultation with your Realtor, the perfect fit can be figured out and you can be on your way to owning a property!
Keep in mind – that there are still some very strict guidelines in place that must be adhered to and the home buying process is nothing like it used to be. You must be able to prove sustainable income (of at least 2 years at one job in most cases), demonstrate credit-worthiness, have all financial data (bank statements and tax returns) line up and also have a reasonable debt-to-income ratio.
Before embarking on the journey to buying a new home, one of the best things you can do is to consult with a trusted, reputable and experi
Now, four years after our property inventory levels were at a really crazy high, we can honestly say that things are looking good for the Naples area in terms of real estate. With great pleasure we would like to share with you how the numbers are looking. And as you can see from my video, we are all smiles about it.
Inventory Down Fifty-Four Percent in Four Years
When there were about 13,000 homes on the market just a few years ago we had no idea how long it would take to bounce back and get into a somewhat more reasonable level of inventory. However, who knew that in four short years we would see such a drastic improvement? Today we have just 6,000 homes on the market. Many markets are taking far longer to recover from the harsh impact of America’s real estate bubble bursting but thankfully we are seeing better times ahead on the horizon.
Each Year Keeps Getting Better
Sales at the moment are at about 6,500 for the year – a figure that very happily for us means we are already up 5% over the previous year’s figures. Factor in that last year’s figures were better than the year before that and you can clearly see the upward trend we are enjoying here in Naples.
Home Values Appreciation May Be On the Horizon
Given all these great trends we have been seeing, we hope to see some appreciation beginning to take place on our properties. When that happens, we will finally be on the road to a fantastic recovery.
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If you want to get in on the action and seize the fantastic buying opportunities out there while you can – give us a call or visit us at www.thesaadteam.com so we can go over your preferences, options and anything else you would like to discuss.
Do you have a home you would like to sell so that you can get into something bigger and better while there is still inventory out there to choose from? Let us guide you through the tools and techniques we have to sell your home effectively while getting a great price in the process.
