Thursday, October 18, 2012
Is it location or price that drives your market success? It might be both.
Now that the market is trending more towards the favor of sellers, it might be a good time to talk to your real estate professional about listing your home for sale. If you’ve wanted to downsize or even upsize or just simply want a different home than the one you have now, the best way to determine marketability is to consult with an expert. The following is a list that we provide to clients at Maximum One Realty that we believe can be very helpful in helping a seller understand what he or she can expect from the process. We refer to these as key market factors. It’s important to keep all of this information in mind both before and during the marketing of your home for sale. The time it takes to sell a home is specific to the individual …
Thursday, October 11, 2012
What to do in a multiple offer situation
It’s been another very busy week at the iDeal REP office, and we’re very grateful so many of you have trusted us with your real estate needs. We certainly aren’t the only professionals that have been busy, and that’s very evident by the continued lack of inventory on the market. What properties are available are moving quickly, most times with multiple buyers vying for the same opportunity. With that comes a sometimes frustrating development to both buyers and agents. The multiple offer situation can lead to the dreaded call for highest and best offers. Some of our clients have been confused by the concept of highest and best, although it is just what the name implies. The call for highest and best offers is when the seller has received …
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Single-family home starts also were strong, according to the latest figures.
There’s more bright news to report this week and we couldn’t be happier that the statisticians are finally reporting what we’ve been telling you for months—the market is on a definite upswing. Existing home sales were up in August year over year to 7.2 percent, the highest levels in nearly three years. That definitely falls in line with what we’ve been seeing at street level from one year ago. It’s also great to have the national media backing us up. All of the talk about a shadow inventory has been just that, a lot of talk. The banks have been warning of a massive wave of foreclosures that’s due to hit the market any day. Some say just after the presidential election in November. Some say in the early months of 2013. To quote the tag line…
Thursday, September 13, 2012
The rest will follow.
It’s often said that real estate agents wear many hats. While our main objective is to represent our client, there are many ways in which we do so. One of the more unusual tasks we sometimes take on is that of psychotherapist. The buying and selling process can be wrought with emotion and while we do strive to lighten the drama load, sometimes that requires a bit of extra finesse. We are in fact therapists in every sense of the word when a buyer or seller allows their emotions to overtake their logic. There are many reasons emotions are allowed to cloud an otherwise sane person’s judgment. Probably the most frequent example of emotional warfare we encounter is from sellers that refuse to mentally accept they are in fact selling their home…
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Don't sabotage your success—follow these tips to make sure your loan process is as smooth as possible.
A few weeks ago we discussed the loan process as it exists in the current market. The do’s and don’ts, if you will. This week we’re bringing you information direct from one of our preferred lenders, Stephanie Kyle with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Stephanie wants to help you to not sabotage your loan process. When you apply for a loan and gain approval, the lender is basing that approval on the financial and personal information you provide. You will be asked for supporting documentation for verification. If the lender finds a discrepancy, you could lose your approval. If that happens while you’re under contract, you’re also potentially jeopardizing earnest money or other financial commitments you’ve made such as a home inspection or an …
Thursday, June 28, 2012
That new home smell is luring a lot of buyers back to new construction
I've been telling you for a while about changes in the market due to lack of inventory and increasing prices. There was a report out last week that home sales were down in May from the same month in 2011. I sort of chuckled to myself and thought, "Of course home sales are down over last year. there's much less inventory than there was in 2011." Just as that statement formed in my mind I heard the news reporter make essentially the same statement. I was shocked to hear that. Finally, a member of the news media was reporting the complete story. I don't recall hearing that much truth reported since the housing bubble popped four years ago. One of the byproducts of the lower inventory is the slight surge in new construction in parts of the …
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Should the real estate agent you choose be totally familiar with the area in which you are looking? Should buyers let the sellers' agent represent them as well? See what our resident agent has to say.
I was involved in an online discussion recently regarding the state of the local market. One of the participants shared his advice and tips on home buying. While some of it was dead on, other assumptions he made were off base. I shared what I know to be true of the market and I thought it was worth sharing with a wider audience. The following is the exchange presented in a semi conversational style. “You really should have an agent who is familiar with the area in which you're looking. You don't want an agent from Dallas if you're looking in Douglasville, or an agent from East Cobb if you're looking in Paulding.” That's true to a degree. But I can assure you that even if an agent's office is located in East Cobb, I bet you dollars to …
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Here are five tips to turn your home into a 10 before a buyer arrives.
With the current market trending in favor of the seller, we’re getting a lot of questions about potential home improvements and ideas to ready homes for sale. How would your home rate to potential buyers? Now more than ever, it’s important to put your best foot forward and do everything feasible to make your property stand out from the rest. Is your home in model condition? Most buyers are looking for a move-in-ready property. They might want to change a paint color but other than that, they want a simple process. And some are willing to pay top dollar to avoid the hassle of making improvements or changes prior to moving in. But you don't have to undertake a Jacqueline Kennedy-style restoration to receive high accolades. Here are five …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Do you have the right team working for you?
We say it over and over, to all of our clients. At least twice daily, you’ll hear one of us say to a client, “Buying and selling real estate is a process, not an event.” With the current market being highly competitive, that mantra can’t be repeated enough. It’s important to remember that multiple offers are a reality in this market. Appraisals, changing lending rules and competition with other buyers can be trying and discouraging. The key is to have the right team working for you. Is your real estate professional knowledgeable about the process? How easily can he or she answer your questions? Does your real estate professional have a team of professional alliance partners that complements the level service being provided? When choosing a…
Thursday, March 29, 2012
For buyers in Georgia, the choice is yours. But why should you choose your own closing attorney?
A few weeks back during our series on “The Five Steps to Home Buying,” we discussed in Step 5 the details of the closing process. Probably the most important player at the closing is the closing attorney, sometimes referred to as the closer or title attorney. The slight variation in description is of relative importance, although for our purposes here we will refer to this person as the closing attorney. The main points of consideration are the actual function of the closing attorney and which party to the transaction is represented by the attorney. The most important point to remember is, in Georgia, the buyer always has the right to choose the closing attorney. The chosen closing attorney represents the lender in cases where a new loan …
