Are you listing your home for sale? If so, it is time to get ready to meet with buyers and their real estate agents. And while you surely want to sell your home as quickly as possible, you will also want to do your homework to make sure you’re selling to the right person. Let’s explore the process of buyer qualification and why it’s important to do a little digging into potential buyers of your home.

Is Your Buyer Pre-Approved For Mortgage Financing?

First, you’ll want to check with your buyer to see if they are approved for mortgage financing. The last thing you want is to agree to an offer only to have the buyer rescind it because they can’t afford your home. If the buyer is not already approved, suggest that they take that additional step before submitting their offer. Otherwise, you may end up experiencing significant delays in the closing process.

Ensure Your Buyer Has Their Earnest Money Ready

Next, you’ll want to check with your buyer to make sure that they have their earnest money ready. These funds are a deposit, typically one or two percent of the purchase price, which is held in escrow once you accept the buyer’s offer. Earnest money is a way for the buyer to prove to you that they are serious about purchasing your home. Once they have placed the deposit down, you can be confident that the buyer intends to close.

Note that the terms of your agreement should ensure that if the buyer backs out of the deal, you get to keep some or all of their earnest money. This is especially important if you’re fielding multiple offers for your home as you may lose the chance to sell if the buyer backs out.

Be Wary Of Offers That Seem Too Good To Be True

If an offer seems too good to be true, that may just be the case. Be wary of any offers that are significantly more than your asking price, or if the buyer is willing to buy your home without so much as an inspection. Rest assured that any serious buyer is going to do their due diligence to ensure they’re getting a good deal.

Buyer qualification is a bit of a process, but it’s an important step that ensures your home sale goes smoothly. When you’re ready to list your home for sale, contact your local real estate professional. We will be happy to assist you with finding the right buyer.

Filed under: Home Seller Tips by Julie Woodward
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Is it time to move on from your house, townhouse or condo? If a sale is in your near future, you will want to start looking for a professional selling agent or broker to help manage the process. Let’s take a look at our quick and easy guide to finding the best real estate agent to handle your home sale.

Check Your Social Network

The easiest place to start is your social network, as almost everyone knows a great real estate agent. Get a post up on Facebook sharing that you are about to sell your home and you’re looking for the very best agent to help you sell it. Maybe an old high school acquaintance or college friend is now in the real estate business and can help.

Ask Your Friends And Family For Referrals

If you aren’t close with a trustworthy real estate agent, the next best people to ask are your local friends and family. It is unlikely that you’re going to get a bad referral from your best friend, brother or aunt. Send out a few text messages and make a few calls to let the family know that you’re hunting for a great real estate agent. Soon enough, you’ll have some recommendations.

Check Their Designations And Specialties

You might not know this, but real estate agents have specialties and designations available to certify in. Aside from becoming a REALTOR®, your agent may be a Certified Residential Specialist, an Accredited Buyer’s Representative, a Seniors Real Estate Specialist and more.

Be Sure To Read Reviews And Talk To Past Clients

When you’ve made a short list of your final choices for a selling agent, it’s time to check on their recent work. Ask the agent for a list of houses or other properties that they’ve sold recently. If possible, you’ll also want to socialize with some of their past clients to see what the agent is like. You’ll be working closely together for at least a couple of weeks, so it’s important that you choose a real estate professional that you’re comfortable with.

Selling your home is not a painful process, but it’s one where you’ll want to have the best agent working to protect your interests. If you’re thinking about making a move, contact your local real estate professional.

Filed under: Home Seller Tips by Julie Woodward
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Are you selling your home? If so, you’re going to have to host an open house at some point. In today’s blog post we’ll explore a few staging tips that make your house feel like a model home.

Make A Solid First Impression

Start with the front of the home and give a great first impression. Have the sidewalk, driveway and walkways power washed. Ensure that the lawn, plants and landscaping are healthy and look great. Clean the windows and address any external paint issues that may have come up over the years.

The goal is to ensure that your guests think “WOW” when they drive up. Keep staging the front of your home until the neighbors are jealous.

Clean, Clean And Clean Some More

Even if you think your home is ‘clean enough’, it’s likely not. You’ve lived in your home for years, which means that your brain has learned to un-see certain aspects of it. Even if you’re sure you’ve cleaned it as much as possible, you may have missed a few spots.

Here’s a helpful exercise. Imagine that the President, Vice-President and Secretary of State are coming over for dinner. And that they’ll be touring through every room in your home to see how you live. That’s how clean your home needs to be for your open house.

Appeal To Your Target Buyers

Do you know what age range your expected open house guests are in? Are they first-time home buyers, young families or single professionals? If at all possible, try to stage your home to appeal to your guests. If they are younger, then you can stage the basement more as a media or entertainment room. If they have children, that might become storage and a play area. You get the idea.

Lighten Things Up A Bit

Regardless of what time of day you host an open house, you’ll want there to be a lot of light. Open up all the drapes and blinds to let in as much natural light as possible. If you have to use artificial light, invest in high-quality LED bulbs. There are models that can produce light that is close to sunlight in quality. The more light you have, the better your spotless home will look.

The More (Room), The Merrier

Finally, do your best to open up your space. Remove all clutter and store it. Arrange your furniture to maximize the walking areas. But try not to overdo it. You want your staged home to feel livable — and not like a series of large, empty caves.

There you have it — five great staging tips that will boost your next open house. Remember, the fastest way to sell your home is with the help of an experienced real estate agent. Contact us to learn more about open houses, staging and closing a quick sale!

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Are you ready to sell your home? Whether you’re just starting to make your plans or you’re ready to list now, you likely want to know how you can get top dollar. It’s going to take more than just throwing up a high price on the listing and waiting for a buyer to show up with a check. With that in mind, here are three secrets to ensuring that when you sell your house or condo, you get the best possible price.

Great Staging Is Critical To Your Success

The first secret is that you’ll really need to consider how you want to stage the outside and inside of your home. Staging your home is your best way to make a positive impression on potential buyers. Think about the difference in perception it makes arriving to view a beautiful, spotless and well-lit home compared with one that looks dirty or messy. Invest the time and money in staging your home and it will increase the value in the buyer’s eyes.

Let A Professional Take Care Of The Heavy Lifting

It probably comes as no surprise that buyers who engage the assistance of a professional real estate agent end up selling for more than those who try to go it alone. A great selling agent will have their eyes and ears tuned to the local real estate market and will have insight into current selling trends. They can also research other recent home sales in your local community and can share which price is likely to attract the most offers. When it comes time to field offers, your agent will be able to help you understand how much you can counter-offer without scaring off the buyer.

Be Willing To Negotiate With The Right Buyer

Finally, to ensure you get the most you can out of your sale you’ll need to remain open to negotiating with potential buyers. You may find that a great buyer needs some extra time to close their financing. Or that they’re willing to bump up their asking price in exchange for you making some easy renovations before turning the keys over to them. The more you’re willing to be flexible with your pricing and terms, the better your chances of securing a buyer that will give you a fair price for your home.

If you’re thinking about selling your home, contact your professional real estate agent. We’re happy to share our insight and experience to help you with the selling process.

Filed under: Home Seller Tips by Julie Woodward
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When it comes to staging your home to sell, it can sometimes seem like there are so many things to do that it’s hard to know what will make a real difference. Since staging is such an important aspect of successfully selling your home, here are the three golden rules for how you can make it work for you!

Don’t Forego The Front

Homeowners often spend so much time inside of their home that it’s the first thing they think about when it comes to staging, but the first thing a potential buyer is going to notice is the exterior so it’s very important to keep this in mind. Ensure that the grass is cut and any stray plants or weeds are trimmed or pulled. If you’ve left out any old, ugly furniture or the kids toys are strewn about the lawn, you’ll want to clean these up so the house is polished and enticing right from the start.

Make It Match With Your Décor

There are no certainties that the design aesthetic you have is going to appeal to your potential buyers, but they will notice if your home is completely out of touch with its accents. If you’ve got a comfy, family style place, make sure you deck it out in durable but well-maintained duds that will complement the buyer you’re trying to capture. On the other hand, if you’ve got sleek hardwood floors and a stylish accent wall, you should be able to get away with a modern decorative style that can only enhance your home’s natural charms.

Keep A Handle On The Accessories

It’s certainly true that a personal style that gives off the sense that you really live in your home will draw in the offers, but you’ll want to keep some of it at bay so your decorating is not distracting the viewers. Instead of going for big, over-the-top pieces, stick to a style that’s neat and tidy with some quaint accents that will play it up. A few brightly cultured coffee table books or a quirky light fixture can go a long way in adding interest to your living space!

It may seem like a lot is required to properly stage a home, but by using these golden rules you should be well on your way to a successful sale. If you’re currently in the process of selling your home and have questions about entering the real estate market, you may want to contact your local real estate professional for more information.

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To potential homebuyers, a bedroom is more than just a place to lay your head at night. It’s a place to relax, retreat, and recover, a place where the demands of the busy world are locked out. And with a properly staged bedroom, you can tap into potential buyers’ desire for relaxation and make your home their number one pick.

So how can you stage your bedroom in a way that buyers will love? Here are three strategies you can use to make your bedroom look like a modern oasis – without spending a fortune.

Position The Bed In The Right Place

One easy-to-change yet often overlooked detail in staging the perfect bedroom is the location of the bed. The bed is the focal point of the room, so position it accordingly. If your bedroom has French doors or a large window, positioning your bed directly opposite that amenity will create balance.

Ideally, your bed should have space to walk around it on both sides. If that’s not possible, place it against the longest wall in the room.

Use Neutral Colors And Ample Lighting To Boost Appeal

As a highly personal and intimate space, the bedroom is one area of the home where potential buyers are likely to try to imagine themselves in the space. If your bedroom incorporates loud colors, unique patterns, or poor lighting, it’ll be harder for potential buyers to envision themselves there. What you want is a neutral color and lighting scheme.

Take out any dark curtains and heavy drapes, as they can make the room seem dirty. Swap out your bed sheets with white duvets and covers, and use some solid-colored throw pillows for contrast. Add a lamp to give the room a cozy feel.

Remove Everything That Screams “You”

The point of staging a home is to help potential buyers see themselves living in it – if you can get buyers to picture themselves actually living in your home, they’ll form an emotional connection to it and will be more likely not just to buy, but to bid at or above asking price.

But in order to help buyers see themselves living in your home, you have to make it look as if you were never there. That means the family photographs, books on the nightstand, and exercise equipment has to go.

Home staging is a highly effective way to make your home sell faster – and for more money. And although it may seem like quite the undertaking, an experience real estate agent can make it a breeze. Contact your trusted real estate professional today to learn more about home staging.

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If you’re considering selling your home in the near future, you may be tempted to simply cut out the middleman and opt for an FSBO sale. However, selling a home is a major undertaking, and most “For Sale By Owner” home sales run into obstacles.

So why is an FSBO sale such a problem for most homeowners? Here are three reasons why you’ll want an agent to represent you instead of going it alone.

An FSBO Puts You At Risk Of A Lawsuit

Selling a home involves mountains of paperwork, and in order to make the transfer of ownership legal and above board, there is a large amount of minutiae that need to be considered. For instance, as a seller, you are legally obligated to disclose certain facts about the property: Some jurisdictions require you to disclose whether a death occurred in the home, for example, or if the home is located in a historical district.

Even one seemingly minor mistake could open you up to legal action. An experienced real estate agent already knows everything that needs to be disclosed, and although agents can make mistakes, they have errors and omissions insurance to protect them. Most homeowners don’t have that protection in place.

Buyers’ Agents May Discourage Buyers From Viewing Your Home

When it comes to FSBO deals, most buyers’ agents anticipate the deal being a challenge at best. Buyers’ agents typically only show FSBO properties in one of two cases: Either the price is extremely low or there aren’t any other homes available.

But according to Atlanta real estate agent Bruce Ailion, most experienced agents have had an FSBO transaction go poorly at some point and are now wary of them. Without a real estate agent to represent you, sellers’ agents will be hesitant to deal with you – and you won’t get as many offers on your home as you’d like.

You’ll Need To Discern Qualified Buyers From Dreamers

One thing that most homeowners don’t know is that not everyone who views your home is actively interested in buying it in the near future. Showing your home may mean taking time off work or away from activities you care about, and if the prospect doesn’t end up buying, you’ve wasted your time.

A real estate agent knows what questions to ask in order to weed out the merely curious and find motivated buyers, so you’ll sell your home much faster.

FSBO sales don’t always end in disaster, but they’re considerably difficult to do well. An experienced real estate agent can help you sell your home faster and for more money than you can on your own. Contact your local real estate professional today to learn more.

Filed under: Home Seller Tips by Julie Woodward
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It can be easy to forget, but the first thing people will see when they come to your home is the outside, so it’s important to have a well-maintained and picturesque property that represents the inside of your home positively. If you’re looking for a few ways to boost your outdoor space, here are a few tips to help with curb appeal.

Plant A Flower Bed

Whether you decide on a tiny plot or a much larger space, a splash of flowers is great for adding a warm, homey atmosphere to your front yard. This can easily be done by going to your local nursery, picking out some easy-to-maintain perennials and watching the blooms begin to appear.

Trim The Hedges

It’s entirely possible that you have a few trees or shrubs in your yard that have gotten a little bit unruly, but a little time with the snippers for some shaping and the look of your yard will be automatically improved! If you have any shrubs or small trees that have seen better days, you may want to remove and replace.

A Fresh Coat Of Paint

It’s quite common to hear how much a layer of paint can improve things but this is especially true when it comes to your front door. While a tired and dull looking door can reflect poorly on the house within, a new coat of paint will add instant shimmer to your exterior.

Keep It Tidy

Whether you have kids who love to play in the yard or you’ve been doing a little lawn maintenance, leaving out toys or shovels and wheelbarrows can really take a lot away from your property’s look. While you may only be planning on keeping these items out for the short term, a quick pick up at the end of each day makes a marked difference.

Make A Stone Pathway

It may not be something you need, but a whimsical walkway with flattened stones can add a nice touch to your property and make it stand out. If you’re feeling ambitious, you may even want to add a bench or a birdbath to make for a unique escape for your family.

There are a lot of simple fixes you can utilize that will instantly boost the look of your home’s exterior. If you’re fixing up the outside of your home in the hopes of putting your property on the market, contact your trusted local real estate professional for more information.

Filed under: Home Seller Tips by Julie Woodward
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One of the most common questions homeowners have before listing their home for sale relates to the selling price. Understanding the value of the home is about far more than just comparing the square footage of the space with other homes that have recently sold in the area. While there are many factors that will play a part in a selling price, location is an important factor for several different reasons.

Neighboring Properties

The properties that are located next to the home for sale are critical to the property value. For example, a home that is located next to a park or a beautifully maintained home may have more appeal than a home located next to a strip center or a gas station. Even with homes that are located just a block or two apart, this difference in adjacent properties can have a dramatic impact on properties values.

Safety Concerns

When a home is located in an unsafe area or an area that is riddled with crime, safety concerns can lower property values. Many home buyers will review crime statistics about a location before making a buying decision, and high crime areas are far less appealing to buyers. Properties are ultimately only worth what someone will pay for them, and buyers may overwhelming opt to purchase homes in safer locations unless the sales price is lowered.

Vehicular and Pedestrian Traffic

There are some advantages to being in an area with heavy vehicular or pedestrian traffic, such as if you live in an urban area and are searching for a property that offers this lifestyle. When a home is located in heavily trafficked areas in a suburban or rural location where a quieter way of life is desired, these can be drawbacks that impact the selling price. If one home is located on a busy street corner and another similar home is located a few blocks away removed from traffic, the home with a more desirable location will typically have a higher selling price.

Desirability is often directly related to property location, and homes in more desirable locations will therefore have a higher selling price than those in an undesirable location. For those who are thinking about selling a property soon and who want to learn more about its value, a consultation with your trusted real estate agent can provide you with helpful information.

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Today’s home buyers are savvier about their buying options than ever before. They are able to research prices, browse listings, and investigate other important factors before even making the first call to a real estate agent. So professional photography and video can make the difference between your home getting a second look or getting skipped. In today’s blog post we’ll explore how professionally-shot aerial photos and videos can help you get your home sold that much quicker.

Buyers Love Having a Birds-Eye View

It’s increasingly likely that buyers will look for aerial photography to help them make their buying decisions. Just like professional ground-level photos of the home and property, and like the video tour that really gives that first-hand feel, aerial shots are something buyers like when evaluating properties.

People enjoy looking at aerial content because it gives them a new perspective. That helps them feel good about their choice to pursue a property. Plus, they take you seriously when you take marketing your property seriously using quality material.

Quality Material Makes Your Property Look Good

Professionals create quality products. They have the skills, tools, and professional eye to make your property and its best features look amazing. Quality marketing materials can even shorten sale time and raise the final list price, too.

Aerial footage is especially effective when topography, land features, and amenities are best displayed from above. Professional aerial shots can really enhance the overall impression of your property.

Professionals Are Certified

The use of unmanned aerial systems – what we commonly call “drones” – is becoming more frequent in the production of commercial photos and videos. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues.

Current Federal Aviation Administration regulation requires that UAS equipment be certified and operated by a certificated pilot when used for commercial purposes. This means that you can’t just buy a drone and take pictures to sell your house. You can’t pay your real estate agent to take them either, unless they also meet the FAA regulations. Hiring a certified operator can save you fines or even legal trouble down the road.

When you’re ready to take marketing your home to the next level, contact a reputable real estate agency to get started. Professionally shot aerial photos and videos can really make the difference for a prospective buyer when they make the list of “must-see” listings.

Filed under: Home Seller Tips by Julie Woodward
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