Getting the Right Price for Your Home

One of the most important things when you put your house on the market is getting the right price. Many things are to be considered even before deciding if your house is worth a certain amount. It is difficult to accept a certain value especially if you think, as an owner, that value is too low. Here’s some information that you will need to get a idea of the real estate market:

Check on current market trends of real estate

Here, “current” means within the last three months. Not because a house that is the same as yours sold at a high price a year ago, it would also mean you can still sell for that value. Houses decrease in value very quickly and market values also change dependently on a multitude of factors. Be sure to consult a full-service real estate professional to determine the right and accurate value of your home. They would usually show you a current list of the prices of houses similar to your home and that would give you an accurate view of the market trends.

Be clear on Regional Appreciation

Not because the real estate market has fallen in the last two to three years, can you just accept a lower price for your home. Markets all over the country have differences in the increase or decrease of market values for houses. With this in mind, you should check on the surrounding areas around your home to understand the changes. This is especially true if your house has been bought a few years ago. It is best to consult professionals on the realistic gains and loss of the value of your house in the last few years.

First impressions last

When you have set a price for your home, any available buyer would like to see that whatever you are offering is up to what you want for the asking price. A good thing to do is to prep up your home even before you list it. Start by working on the outside by simply mowing the lawn, trimming trees and cleaning up the yard. You can repaint exterior walls and brighten up the interior by minimizing clutter and working on light neutral colors.

Make your own Full Inspection

Even if it has been your home for many years, it is still possible that repairs will be needed for certain parts. A house that requires too many repairs might not come out as marketable real estate. Repair any problems that can be dealt with immediately like simple plumbing problems, gutter repairs or worn out paint. Make a report of things that would be harder to repair so that you can be clear to your prospective buyers. Better yet, get a pre home inspection and repair items prior to listing.

You can give a copy of the home inspection to any prospective buyers along with a copy of the completed repairs.

Work on “Seller’s Contributions”

Working with professional real estate agent can help you obtain buyers without lowering your house’s value. Special arrangements can be made to add “sweet deals” to your house sale.

These are just a few things to consider for getting the right price for your house. Always make sure that you consult a professional on the real estate market just to make sure that you get your investment’s worth. In the end, the only thing you need to worry about is how to invest what you’ve earned into something better.

DIY or RTW: Should You Build or Buy Your Arizona Home?

You have two options if you are looking for a home to call your own: you can either build a home from the ground-up or buy a home as-is.

Each has its own unique ups and downs, and you have to set your priorities straight in order to make the most of the situation. Here are a couple of factors to help you make the final decision:

Building: The Pros and Cons

o Match the house to your needs. This is one of the first and foremost reasons homeowners want to build their own homes. You can basically design a home to fit your wants and needs, especially if you are looking for something that most homes do not normally possess.

o Increased value of a home. A house that is freshly-built is always more valuable than one that has been standing for a few years already. You can effectively make a business out of building and selling houses, especially if you are well-acquainted with the local real estate market.

• Search for reliable construction services. Having your house built means entrusting the job to engineers and construction workers. This can be a hassle on your part, especially if you are not that familiar with the reputations of construction companies and regular construction expenses.

• Heavy expenses. Building a home from scratch is a very expensive ordeal; initially requiring a very big capital from your end. You will have to pull out a bigger mortgage than when buying a home, so you will have to be very careful in balancing your budget.

Buying: The Pros and Cons

o Fewer expenses. Older homes tend to cost less on the get-go, meaning you will need less money to actually purchase a house that has already been built for some time. This makes buying a home much more preferable option if you do not have a lot of capital at your disposal.

o Instant access. Once you buy a home, the only thing you need to worry about is moving in. Waiting for the construction teams to finish and removing the smell of fresh paint is a lot less likely when you simply move into a house that has already been built.

• Maintenance costs. Homes that have been built for quite some time have a tendency to deteriorate. This is especially true if the house has been built more than a decade ago, and hazards like chewed-up wires, rotten boards or pest infestations are expensive issues to correct.

• ‘Get-what-you-see.’ You will basically buy a home because of what it has to offer, but you won’t necessarily get what you really want or need. You will need to adjust to the house you buy, especially if money is tight and you cannot afford to make major modifications in the near future.

Keep these tips in mind, and you will be able to make the right choice between building a house from the ground up or simply buying one that has already been built!

Understanding the New Normal in Real Estate - Are you the ‘New Normal’?

The ‘new normal’ in real estate is a term that is steadily gaining prominence in the business world. It might sound like a revelational term, but ‘new normal’ essentially boils down to a customer that is much harder to please than before and maybe you are one of them?

Minimalist
The first quality that defines the new normal is minimalism. Most real estate buyers are looking not for the luxurious offerings like bathtubs or Jacuzzis, but are instead looking for the basic essentials in a home. They are looking to cut out nonessential additions in a home in a bid to lower the overall expenses, especially since the economy has taken a serious bite out of their savings. It will then be a lot easier to sell your home if you present it as a basic home with essential needs all bundled in one package.

Pragmatic
Another quality of the new normal customer is the desire to look for homes with useful amenities. This balances out their minimalist tendencies, which is why cheap, bare-bone homes will not work for new normal customers. They want to keep things cheap and minimal, but they also do not want to do away with the basic necessities in a house as well. This means that you need to define the basic needs of a potential buyer instead of just stripping away all the extras in a bid to lower the value of the home.

Incentive-oriented
Making the best bang-for-buck deal is another important quality of new normal customers, which is why bonuses and other incentives work well with these types of customers. Tax cuts, extra furniture and appliances, easier payment terms and other extra bonuses will go a long way in convincing a new normal customer to purchase a home. Work with your real estate agent to present a potential buyer with extra bonuses to sweeten the deal.

Skeptical
New normal customers take great pains to learn more about what they are buying, and this gives them a somewhat skeptical approach in deals. You will have to spend more time providing records, documents and other items to prove the worth of your home. It may be a headache on your part, but providing these small extras is definitely worth gaining the trust of a potential buyer.

Buying a Home in the Present Economy

If you are looking to purchase real estate, then you had better act fast – the market demand for real estate is slowly returning to what it once was a few years ago. You can expect the prices of real estate to start increasing as people start to gain more money and increase their spending.
The problem here is securing the necessary capital and credit in order to actually buy a house while things are still cheap. Not everybody can fork over five, six or even seven digits out just like that, but there are a few things you can do to increase your working capital:

Liquidation of assets
The first thing you can do to earn more money is to sell your unnecessary possessions, and auctions or garage sales are a great way to do just that. Old cell phones, computers, clothing, jewelry, antiques or any item worth selling can be put up for sale. You can list these items down in online such as craiglists or you can just put up a garage sale for a week or two to get rid of the smaller items. You can even post advertisements in your local paper to help increase sales. If you have pricier items like antique jewelry, you must look for a specialist to appraise the items. This will give you a good idea of how much the item is really worth out in the market.

Trade-in programs
Another way you can earn some extra money is to trade your current property or properties for that piece of house or land you are eyeing. This is especially useful for people who already have property but are looking for more profitable long-term investments. The rationale here is to take advantage of deflated prices to acquire more desirable or lucrative properties. This is especially true for high-value properties that have been foreclosed; thus making them cheaper than what they are really worth. Just be careful with the properties you purchase, though. Speculative investment in real estate will reward you well, but only when you take the time and effort to learn more about the properties you are looking at. Hire a real estate professional that is a specialist in trading properties. Don’t try it yourself.

Fixed-rate mortgage loans
One other option you have at your disposal is a mortgage loan with fixed interest rates. These types of loans usually have higher rates than other loans, especially when you compare them to variable loans in today’s economy. The plus side here, however, is that the payments you make will never fluctuate in the long run – even if the price of the property jumps up ten-fold. This is unlike the variable loans, which can suddenly and abruptly increase as the property’s value increases. This is one of the most reliable ways to pay for property over years or decades, making it a great option if you have a relatively stable and predictable income.

These are three of the more useful methods of securing capital for you to buy property in this economy, so keep them in mind when you’re looking at a great piece of land to call your own!