Posted by Annalisa Burgos | April 16, 2009
Selling a home is a challenging job racked with potential pitfalls. Those of us who’ve experienced those pitfalls know the misery. Well people, misery loves company!
FrontDoor.com wants to hear your stories about surviving a home selling nightmare! Did your home sit on the MLS for three months without one offer? Did your real estate agent list your home too high and you had to reduce the price every week? Did the professional stager charge you an arm and a leg for some new paint and candles? Did the appraisal come back lower than your sale price? Did the home inspection reveal thousands of dollars in necessary repairs and your buyer threatened to bail?
We want to hear about it! Email your home selling nightmares to egray@scrippsnetworks.com. We could feature you on FrontDoor.com’s new Pricing Your Home Guide, due out in May!
Everyone wants to get the most money out of their home when they sell, but you can’t always get what you want. If you really have to sell now, do the research so you can price your home based on fair market value and market trends. Be realistic. You may have to do a lot of compromising to get your home sold.
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | April 2, 2009
As they say, April showers bring May flowers. And in real estate, it seems like all the elements are in place for a perfect storm heading into the prime Spring season.
News headlines are proclaiming “falling home prices” and “interest rates at record lows.” Throw in record levels of foreclosures on the market, and you’ve got a trifecta for a Spring homebuying spree.
We already started to see the trend in February, when the National Association of Realtors’ reported a 5.1 percent jump in existing home sales, citing a surge in distressed home sales. And with the latest S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index showing home prices in 20 major cities down 19 percent from a year earlier, this trend is likely to continue.
Speaking of home prices, what are today’s sellers supposed to do when trying to price their homes? Yes, they’re supposed to be using comps to determine fair market value. But if you’re competing with foreclosures, short sales and just desperate (er, motivated) sellers, it screws up the whole paradigm. Not sure if you can really call all this “fair.” Unfortunately, that’s the reality of selling in this market. So if you have no choice but to sell now, buck up, get realistic, research what’s happening in your market and try these tips on how to price your home to sell, courtesy of FrontDoor Insider and San Diego Realtor Kris Berg. And real estate guru Barbara Corcoran shares her top 4 must-do tips, including one on pricing your home.
Home values aren’t what they used to be. But the ways to determine home value won’t change. Sellers, get back to the basics and check out FrontDoor’s Home Seller’s Guide, specifically steps 7 and 8.
And buyers, we’ve got tips for you too. FrontDoor’s Top 10 for April features our Top 10 Bargain Markets for Homebuyers. And check out steps 9-10 of FrontDoor’s First Time Homebuyer’s Guide. Just because prices and interest rates are falling doesn’t mean everything is an automatic bargain. You’ve still got to do your due diligence.
Happy house hunting and selling!
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | March 24, 2009
It looks like it’ll be a promising Spring for real estate. Buyers are back in the market, drawn to falling home prices, low interest rates, potential bargains in the form of foreclosed homes and short sales, and incentives like the $8,000 first time buyer tax credit. In fact, first-time buyers bought half of the homes sold in February, says the National Association of Realtors.
Of the existing homes sold in February, distressed sales — which involve a foreclosure property or a homeowner doing a short sale — accounted for 40 percent to 45 percent, pushing overall activity up 5.1 percent but dragging median home price down more than 15 percent, according to NAR. Sales are still down 5 percent year-over-year.
Distressed homes typically sell for 20 percent below normal market price, so it’s not surprising to see first-timers drawn to these properties, especially if they are move-in ready or require minimal repairs.
If you’re one of the many bargain hunters out there, check out FrontDoor’s Foreclosure Guide for tips and advice on buying a distressed property. Did you know foreclosure homes sold at auction are typically sold “as-is” and require a 10 percent to 20 percent cash deposit upfront?
The bad news is that sellers are competing with these heavily discounted properties. So even if you have a well-maintained property, you may have a hard time selling it, even if it’s priced reasonably.
Market value is just that — value dictated by the market, i.e. what a buyer is willing to pay for your home. It’s not what you paid for your home. It’s not what you paid for your home and all the wonderful home improvements you made.
The reality is that if your home is competiting against foreclosures and short sales, finding a buyer may end up coming down to price.
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