Things To Consider About Selling Your Home

Hold or Sell..

Should I stay or should I go?

Here are a couple of things to consider if you are thinking about selling your home.

  1. If you’ve bought your home within the past 12 months you might not have enough equity in your home to end up ahead.

  2. If you’ve not lived in your home for at least 2 years you might be subject to prorated capital gains even if it was your primary home.

  3. If you’ve had a significant life change (divorce or death of a loved one) most experts would say not to make any changes to your living situation for at least 6 months if possible.

  4. If the market is trending downward (not the case in today’s market) and you can stay put it might be a good idea to do so.

    If none of the above apply to you and your home no longer fits your needs give me a call, I’d love to help.

What Would You Do?

In January of 2016 the Powerball jackpot got up to $1.59 billon. That’s 12 zeros….

If you are anything like me you might daydream about what you would do with your winnings.

Pay off all of your family members homes.

Go on vacation - like all the time.

Donate to your favorite charities.

Pay it forward and bless complete strangers. Buy an island or a yacht.

And then you hear about the curses of winning the lottery. How good fortune turns to ruin.

But when I really started thinking about it there is only one thing I would really want that the lottery could give me, because truth be told, I love my life and I am blessed.

If money were no object, we would home school our kids and we would travel as much as possible. And the rest? I would give it away to help as many people as I could.

By train, plane and automobile. There is so much of the world I still want to explore.

If you won the Powerball what would you do

"Real Estater"

I was called a “real estater” the other day.

Not Realtor, not real estate agent, a real estater.

And it reminded me that there are still so many people who don’t fully understand what I do. I mean lots of people think all I do is open doors and go out to lunch with my clients!

Whether I am working with a buyer or seller my hope is that I am brining years of experience and connections to the table.

  • Recommending pre-listing repairs for the biggest bang for your buck.

  • Connecting you with experts in their fields for pre-purchase inspections.

  • Coordinating with the title company to resolve unreleased liens.

  • Brainstorming with the lender when we have an issue on the appraisal.

  • Inside knowledge on things like well depth/quality or feisty HOA’s.

  • Negotiating on your behalf when inspections items come up.

  • Accurate pricing for the maximum return on investment in the shortest amount of time.

  • Getting you the winning offer when you are competing against many other buyers.

  • And sometimes being a shoulder to cry on, real estate can put you through the ringer.

With gratitude.

Become Wealthy

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%.

Add Simplicity To Your Life

Here are three things you can do in 15 minutes each to add simplicity and joy to your life.

  1. Clean out your purse or wallet. Get rid of old receipts, gum wrappers and anything you don’t use.

  2. Go through your closet and find all the things you never wear and donate them.

  3. Contact www.catalogchoice.org to remove your name from mailing lists that you no longer wish to receive.

    And one more for good measure.

  4. Make a list of 10 of your go-to dinner meals and tape it to your fridge.

Looking Back

My teenage years are still very vivid.

I can literally conjure up the feelings I had as a teenager, those of angst, overall frustration with my parental units, longing for someone to understand me and that horrible feeling of never being good enough.

This is a photo from junior prom..

When I look at this 17 year old girl I think she is pretty, that she looks nice, that I might like to be her friend.

Unfortunately I didn’t think those things about myself at the time.

I let the world and my peers tell me I was less than. I was self conscious, afraid and constantly intimidated.

The grownups around me all had the same message; none of this matters and someday you will look back on your high school years and it won’t effect you at all.

.In my head I would be rolling my eyes and trying to hold back the tears.

Here’s the thing.

They were 100% correct!

Those kids that were mean to me, I don’t ever think about them. Those awkward moments I had as a very tall teenager, not even on my radar.

Those times I thought I would never be accepted for who I was…. quite the opposite in my life today.

I so wish I could go back to that teenage girl and tell her “you are smart, you are kind, you are so beautiful and someday the world will see what I see”.

With gratitude.

Check These Things

5 things to always check out when buying a home

  1. The roof. Two things here. What’s the condition of the roof and how many layers of shingles. If there are already two layers of shingles you will have to tear off all layers and re-roof. If there is just one layer you can probably re-roof over it.

  2. The septic system or sewer line. It is possible to have a septic issue and not know it, especially if you are buying a home that has been used as a second home.

  3. Latent moisture. Looks like an old leak, and it might be. But there still could be mold behind the wall.

  4. Water quality and quantity. Will you have enough water and is your water drinkable? Not as much of an issue when you have city water but if you are on a well its important to understand quality and quantity.

  5. Radon levels. Radon is an invisible gas that the EPA reports can cause cancer. Its has been around since the beginning of time. Some homes have very high radon levels and while it might not be a concern to you, you will have to address it when you go to sell your home.

If you have questions, hit me up!

Knowing The Right Lender

First time buyer credits are a thing of the past. Sadly, your lender doesn’t care if you are a first time buyer or buying your 10th home.

But it’s not all bad news

If you are a teacher or first responder there are some special loan programs available to you.

Also if you a Veteran of the US Military, you likely qualify for a VA loan.

And many buyers qualify for down payment assistance and down payment grants.

A great lender will be able to figure out what programs are best for you. Please for the love of all that is good in the world, DO NOT, call one of the lenders with the fancy commercials.

You know who I am talking about. They work on volume not on repeat business. They spend millions of dollars on advertising to sell you one loan..

A local lender, recommended by your real estate agent, cares about your experience because they hope you might recommend your friends and neighbors down the road.

A MUST In Homes

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 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.

With gratitude.

Valuing Transparency and Honesty

I lost a potential listing the other day. They decided to go with someone else which is totally okay. You can’t win them all, right?!

In this market it’s incredibly hard to price property. A few homes are going for over asking and often with multiple offers and some homes are sitting, and sitting.

Sometimes I feel like an agent turned fortune teller, trying to predict the future for my clients.

I am a data freak. In other words, I rely on the data to guide me. So when you ask me to list your home, I am coming prepared with the facts.

What are homes selling for?

How long are they on the market?

What are the sold comps telling me about value?

What’s the available inventory?

What’s the appropriate listing price for the current market conditions?

At the end of the day, I told these sellers a list price they didn’t like.

I want all my clients, both buyers and sellers, to feel heard, not pressured and above all respected. But part of my job is delivering professional advice.

I can promise you I won’t blow smoke.

I will tell you the straight facts.

I value transparency and being honest.

I will give you my honest opinion on price but ultimately the the list price is up to you and I will likely support it even if its over what I think is appropriate.

And I will advocate for you every step of the way.

With gratitude.

Guide To Real Estate

Are you a first time buyer, first time seller, downsizing or upsizing?

I’ve got a guide for that. With step by step and in-depth explanations.

After over 2 decades in real estate I have discovered that people who fall into these categories have many of the same pain points.

First time home buyers experience fear of the unknown.

First time sellers are unfamiliar with the process.

Both up-sizers and down-sizers have concerns about logistics.

Do you fall into any of these categories?

I would love to share my knowledge with you. Please comment below or send me a private message.

Tomorrow Is Not A Guarantee

Take time to stop and smell the roses or in this case the peonies.

By now you have probably learned to accept there are certain things that you cannot change. As much as you want them to be different some things remain unaffected by our will and desire.

And if you are able to embrace this fact, space is made for being present.

Lingering no longer seems lazy.

Savoring now seems luxuriant.

And listening becomes easier.

In the mountains our summers are so sweet, and so short. So I really like to smell the flowers. Like a whole nose full of scent.

Because tomorrow is not a guarantee.

Groucho Marx said it perfectly. “Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

With gratitude.

You Can't Hide Things From Your Buyer!

The sellers property disclosure, your friendly form.

Did you know the number 1 complaint with the division of real estate is non-disclosure by sellers/?

What does this mean in plain English. “We bought a house from Mr and Mrs Seller and they never told us about the roof leak, the cracked foundation, the flood in the basement, fill in the blank.”

So how do sellers avoid this unpleasant situation?

There is this handy form we use in real estate called the Sellers Property Disclosure. This form is your opportunity to air all your homes dirty laundry.

Sometimes I have sellers balk at this form, they feel reluctant to fill it out.

But think of this form as your get out of jail free card.

The save your bacon form.

The keep you out of hot water form.

You can’t hide things from the new buyer!.

Just picture this. New buyer moves in and who should saunter over, but Karen from across the street.

“Oh welcome to the neighborhood! I was just saying to my husband that I didn’t think anyone would buy this home with the moldy attic and all.”

Your neighbors know everything! And if something is wrong with your house the buyers are going to find out eventually.

It’s best to be as thorough and accurate as possible with the disclosure. It will protect you in the long run and keep you out of trouble.

Yes, you might have to make some repairs, but I can promise you it will be a lot cheaper than a lawsuit and attorney fees.

When in doubt, DISCLOSE!

Our Cracks and Brokenness

My grandmother loved to make cracked marbles.

She would heat them carefully in a pot on the stove at just the right temperature. Too hot and they would be destroyed, not enough heat and they would be unchanged.

She took something ordinary and common and turned them into tiny gems. They turned from regular marbles to sparkling, complex and beautiful treasures.

Elizabeth found the stash of marbles that my grandmother gave me and is now following in her footsteps by making jewelry out of them.

It’s interesting to me that life is a little like those cracked marbles.

That the beauty and uniqueness is revealed in change.

And that sometimes, it’s in our cracks and brokenness that we discover the most about ourselves.

My One Thing

What’s your “One Thing”?

Okay, a little background here. By “One Thing” I mean the thing you get up for in the morning and go to work.

The thing that drives you.

The thing that is always front and center.

The thing that you don’t make compromises for.

I dug deep a few years ago to figure out my “One Thing”. Specifically the One Thing that drove my ambition and drive at work.

On the surface it was providing for my family and helping my clients with their real estate goals and dreams.

But I knew there had to be something else, something deeper. So I took an even deeper dive, and finally found what motivated my One Thing.

It’s very personal and raw, but it was so worth the personal journey to discover this about myself. So I would encourage you to take some time with this question. It only took me 13 years in the business to figure out!

With gratitude/

Earnest Money

Show me the money!

Let’s talk about earnest money. When a buyer makes an offer on a property, earnest money is tendered shortly there after.

If everything goes as planned, the earnest money is applied towards the purchase price at closing.

However, sometimes the wheels fall off the bus! Sometimes a buyer might decide to cancel their contract, typically this is because of inspection items.

If this happens, and the buyer cancels before their specified deadlines, their earnest money is 100% refundable.

So, when might the earnest money be non-refundable? Only if a buyer passes their loan approval deadline and cannot or will not close.

This is very rare and in 700+ transactions have only had a handful of buyers end up losing their earnest money.

Questions Please leave them in the comments or DM me.

Tuff Shed Budget

Do you have custom home taste on a Tuff Shed budget?

Well you aren’t alone and here are a couple helpful tips to overcome this pesky situation.

  1. Homeownership is a stepping stone process. With each home purchase you will likely be getting more of what you want. Consider readjusting your expectations and recognize you might not yet own your dream home.

  2. Lots can be done with cosmetic repairs. That run down home down in your neighborhood might not yet look like a gem but with some elbow grease and money you can turn out a diamond in the rough.

  3. Be strategic about buying by watching the market with a trusted real estate agent. Is the market rapidly accelerating? Purchasing a smaller home or condo in a rising market and then quickly selling while the market is still rising can produce quick equity that can allow you to leap frog to your next home sooner than later.

The advice of a trusted and knowledgeable real estate agent is important to maximize these strategies. Reach out with questions.

Let's Talk About Mortgage Insurance

If you’ve bought a house in the past 2-5 years and didn’t put 20% down we need to talk

It’s time to kick that private mortgage insurance payment you’ve been making to the curb!

Some lenders require you pay the insurance for a set amount of time and others will require a new appraisal to remove the insurance.

Here’s how I can help.

I have a formulated plan of attack that helps to rid you of that extra monthly cost.

I can also offer you a complimentary market analysis of your property so we know if you are in the ball park of saying good bye to mortgage insurance forever.

Please reach out if I can help or if you have any questions.

Real Estate Agents on Signs

“I just called the agent on the sign.”

I hear this all the time.

Buyers that 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.

With gratitude.