Second showing are you photo ready?

When someone sees your home it’s really a second showing for them. Say what? Yep, they have already “seen” your home online. They have walked thru all the rooms, admired your decorating style, and marveled at your gardening skills. But what if your photos aren’t “show ready”? What if your kids didn’t pick up their dirty laundry? What if your rooms really need to be painted? And what if your agent used their iPhone to take the photos (gasp)?

Welcome to 2022 - if your agent is not hiring a professional photographer to take your photos then you need to start asking some questions. But you need to do your part too - and I can help you with that.

As a service to all my sellers, I offer home staging and styling for free! My stager extraordinaire will bring accessories and work with what you have. She will guide you on decluttering and cleaning. And as a team, we will ready your home for market with your best foot forward. And don’t forget to tell the kids to pick up their dirty clothes!

Zestimate

But Zillow says my house is worth a gazillion dollars! Okay, I’m exaggerating, kind of.

Zillow uses sales data to come up with your “Zestimate” but what they can’t factor in are things like the view, traffic noise, intimate community knowledge, and changes in the local workforce like a company leaving town or coming to town. In other words, the “Zestimate” is a 50,000-foot view of your home’s value.

Having your local agent help you price your home is like looking under a microscope at the value of your home. Don’t leave these things to chance. Now is not the time to be inaccurate about pricing. Correct pricing is going to dictate whether your home sits on the market or gets multiple-over-asking offers.

CO2 Detectors

Do you have one of these bad boys installed in your home? If you don’t, I BEG you to go to the hardware store TODAY and pick one (or two, or three) up.

As a guideline, Colorado law requires carbon monoxide detectors to be installed within 15 feet of all bedrooms upon the transfer of property. But even if you are not selling your home it’s imperative that you are protected.

Carbon monoxide is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. It steals oxygen from your red blood cells and can steal the life right out of you. You essentially drown without getting wet. The weather is getting colder and folks are turning on their gas-powered heating, so please don’t take a chance. This is serious stuff. If you read just one of my posts all year, this is the one I want you to really take to heart.

Don’t get caught!

Did you know that some homeowners insurance policies only cover damages to your home within 30 days of you moving out? I found this out the hard way. We had moved out of our house and I was checking on it every other day, BUT on the one day I wasn’t there the dishwasher decided to go kaput! What ensued was the basement filling up with water and doing tons of damage.

I called my insurance company to make a claim and received the bad news; all repairs would be out of pocket! Sucker punch to the gut! So what can you do? If you move out of your primary residence make sure you check with your insurance company to find out what will be covered.

In most cases you can get “vacant home” insurance which is more money than a standard policy but much, much cheaper than dealing with a flooded basement. Please, please, please learn from my mistake and don’t make the same one yourself. BTW - second homes have different insurance policies that typically fall under different guidelines.

Please reach out if you have questions.

PRICING YOUR HOME

How do you know if you priced your home correctly? Well in this market it’s pretty easy to know.

As a general rule of thumb, if your home is not under contract in 3 weeks you have likely overshot the market. You might think, no big deal.

Here’s the thing - the longer your home sits on the market the more buyers begin to believe there is something wrong with your home OR they can lowball you. The goal should be to sell your home not just list it.

THE BUT FACTOR!

The but factor. Not the butt factor, the but factor. This is the thing buyers say when they decide not to buy your house.

I love it BUT, the master bedroom is too small.

I would make an offer BUT my payment will be too high.

I think it could work for me BUT it needs too much work.

Okay, so what’s a seller to do? Time to bring in the WOW factor.

The master bedroom is too small? With correct staging and appropriate furniture, even a small bedroom can be workable. P.S. Home styling and staging are included in my listing package

Payment is too high? Sellers can help buyers buy down their interest rate to make the home more affordable.

House needs too much work? Correct pricing for the condition is critical.

ALL ABOUT DEEP CLEANING

If you are not doing THIS as a home seller, you are missing out BIG time. And this is not some secret formula or magic bullet. It’s cleaning and decluttering.

Simple and cheap. But not very much fun. I get it - deep cleaning is not glamorous but it is sooooo important. When you clean and declutter buyers can literally start to envision themselves in your home. When your stuff is junking up a space, they shut down. I even have buyers that refuse to see homes that seem dirty or cluttered just from the photos!!

In a market like this, with limited inventory, that is a huge statement about the importance of a clean-show-ready home.

Myth vs Fact

I need 20% down to buy a house.

NOPE! Some loans are NO money down such as USDA and VA.

I don’t have a good enough credit score.

NEWS FLASH, some lenders will accept credit scores under 600.

Getting approved for a loan is HARD!

Did you know that around 75% of loan applications received are approved?

Know the facts before you decide home ownership is out of reach I’m here to help with any questions you might have.

New Normal

Don’t you just despise this phrase? It’s become so cliche. But I cannot think of a better way to describe to you what is happening in the real estate market. In 2021 I could literally list a house and expect multiple offers (over asking) within days. That was the norm. The rates were historically low and buyers were chomping at the bit. Reset. New normal.

.Homes that are priced correctly are getting one (maybe two) offers within 60-90 days of listing. That seems like a really long time to be listed but let me tell you. When I first started in real estate in 2004 I had some homes listed for YEARS! Literally years. So while it might seem like the bottom has fallen out of the market it really hasn’t. We are all just adjusting to the new normal.

Real estate markets ebb and flow. We wouldn’t ever expect it to stay static. And buyers remember the interest rate on rent is 100%. Was last year a better time to buy a house? Maybe - the rates were lower. BUT, buyers waived home inspections, paid over asking, covered appraisal gaps, etc. And you can’t beat yourself up over something that you can’t change. I’m encouraging both my buyer and seller clients to not wait. Don’t wait for rates to change, don’t wait for prices to come up or down, and don’t wait on what the economy is going to do.

.This is YOUR time. Do what you need to do because I don’t have a crystal ball and cannot advise you on the future with any kind of certainty. Even the so-called “experts” are just guessing. Get micro on your life, not macro. Make sound decisions that are impactful for you and your future. Cut out the noise and DO YOU!

With gratitude.

Buying vs Renting

Buying vs Renting in today’s market. Which is better?

There are pros and cons to both. But here’s a couple of key points.

  • When you own your landlord can’t raise your rent.

  • When you own your landlord can’t put your rental on the market.

  • When you own you are building equity and wealth for YOU.

  • When you rent and the sewer line fails is not your problem.

  • When you rent you are not in a “committed relationship” with your home.

  • When you rent you are paying a 100% interest rate. Say what? Yes, your rent is 0% to the principal and 100% to your landlord.

Homeownership doesn’t have to be out of reach, no matter what you tell yourself. I have great strategies and resources for first-time buyers to overcome the fear of buying a home.

Let's Talk About Negotiating Inspection

I’m going to tell you a little secret: Negotiating inspection items can be a bit tricky.

Shows like Million Dollar Listing have not helped either. I cannot tell you how many times the agent on TV says, “We will just get the seller at inspection”. Yeah, it doesn’t work that way. The purpose of the inspection is to reveal items that cannot be seen with the naked eye or issues that only a thorough home inspection would find. In other words, the giant carpet stain you saw during the showing is not something that should end up on your list of inspection requests. For the best results stick to health and safety issues.

And remember, it doesn’t hurt to ask for the things that are important to you. The seller cannot “ditch” you because you sent over a list of inspection requests. All they can do is say no. If you have kept your list to major items that “any reasonable buyer” would find objectionable the seller is probably going to agree with you. One of my biggest roles in a real estate transaction is helping you through this process whether you are the buyer or the seller.

WHAT IF YOU GOT THE ANSWER KEY BEFORE THE TEST?

There is a lot of mystery surrounding how appraisals work in a real estate transaction. Many people think the appraiser has to come up with a price out of nowhere. But here’s a little secret - the appraiser sees a copy of the real estate contract and knows the price the buyer and seller have negotiated.

Does it seem like the appraiser is getting the answer key before the test?

In this video, I will explain why it’s done this way and the important role the appraiser plays in a real estate transaction.

Real estate is actually quite simple.

A home is worth what a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to sell for. Of course, there are other factors in play but at the end of the day, that is the matrix.

And therefore, the market itself dictates the pace and value of a property. As we move into a more balanced market this is becoming more and more apparent.

And what history tells us over time is that real estate is one of the safest and most profitable investments.

Do you want to know more about buying or selling? Reach out to me with your questions, I am here to help!

5 Things That Will Make You Wealthy, + 1

5 things that will make you wealthy by Dave Ramsey one more from me.

1.Have a written budget. You have to have a written game plan with money or you’re going to lose.

2. Get out of debt. When you don’t have any payments, do you know what you’ve got? MONEY!

3. Live on less than you make. In the house of the wise are choice food and oil, but a fool devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20

4. Save and invest. 100% of people who don’t save money don’t have any money saved.

5. Be generous. Follow the 7 Baby Steps and you can be outrageously generous!

And 6. , Buy a home! Long term renting will not create wealth (actually it will but for your landlord). It can be scary but its one of the BEST investments you can make for yourself. And you don’t have to have 20% down - that is an old wives’ tale. And remember the interest rate on rent is 100%.

Agent On The Sign

“I just called the agent on the sign.”

I hear this all the time. Buyers end up with the agent on the sign because they didn’t know they had a choice.

Here’s the deal.

You should interview and hire an agent to help you buy your home just as a seller interviews and hires an agent to help them sell their home. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the “agent on the sign”. I just believe you owe it to yourself to make a CHOICE about the matter versus someone you ended up with by CHANCE.


NO-NO's When Buying A House

OOPS!! Big no-no’s when buying a house:

  1. Not getting pre-approved. In this market, sellers won’t even consider your offer without a lender's letter

  2. Maxing out your budget. If things in your life go sideways you need to be able to handle unexpected expenses and maxing out your mortgage is a no-no

  3. Skipping the fine print. Do you have a prepayment penalty or a variable rate on your mortgage? It’s important to know beforehand the terms and conditions of your loan

  4. Making decisions from the heart instead of the head. This one is soooo hard. But try and take the emotion out of the equation.

  5. Not factoring in other expenses.

  6. Not protecting your credit score before closing. This is not the time to take out a loan for a new car or furniture for your new home.