If you’re shopping for a home and haven’t found what you’re looking for, don’t settle for something you won’t love in 5, 10, or 15 years. If you’re still not satisfied with the homes you’re viewing, be honest with your real estate agent and find something that suits you.
On the other hand, when you’re looking at a home, it may be helpful to see past the paint color, walls, and décor the current owners have. Imagine yourself in the home; imagine your family and your belongings filling the house for years to come. It’s important not to settle for a home that you won’t totally love, but it’s equally beneficial to imagine your family in the home instead of just looking at the bare walls and getting frustrated. Talk with your real estate agent and discuss your expectations. They may be able to recommend a different neighborhood, or a different style of home then what you originally said you were interested in. Be open about your expectations, while not limiting yourself to the homes you’ve been currently viewing and you will surely find your perfect home.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? This is an important question to consider when you are purchasing a home. By thinking about how far along you can plan into your future you can determine the price you can afford, and the location you would like to reside in.
When you think about the future also think about a few specific questions. Do you see yourself living in the same house? Do you think you will have a growing family? Do you see yourself investing in improving your home? When you ask yourself these questions, you are setting yourself up for greater success in your home. Talk with your real estate agent about all these (and other) questions. Purchasing a home is typically a long-term commitment, so if you don’t see yourself living in a location for more than 1-2 years or aren’t sure if you will have a family in the next five years, it may be best to hold off on purchasing a home. This doesn’t mean you have to have answers to all of life’s questions. However, the more prepared you are, and the better you can see your future, the more successful your home buying experience will be.
There is more to selling a home than putting a “For Sale” sign in your yard. Among other things, your home must be clean and free of clutter, and all repairs must be up to date. Painting your house to sell is another necessity that must be made priority. Choose colors that are neutral and non-offensive. Steer clear of banana yellow and fire engine red and stick with calming beige instead. After all, you are trying to sell your home, not the paint!
When you’re painting your home in order to sell it, it is imperative that it looks neat and tidy, without visible mistakes and sloppy craftsmanship. A messy paint job will surely distract potential buyers viewing your home, as all they will see is further work that needs to be done on the home. Therefore, if you have never painted a home it may be best to hire experienced, professional help. Having a neatly painted home is a worthy investment as you embark on the journey to sell your home.
My mortgage guy tells me it’s a great time to get a refinance done for your house if you would like to reduce your interest rate or need to get money out for repairs, kid’s schools, etc. You will need to be prepared to qualify with a full documented loan as there are no longer loans that are no documents or stated income loans. This will affect those who have their own businesses more than anyone else as the income can be reduced tremendously by write-offs on taxes.
You will also want to make sure you improve your interest rate by at least a point if you are strictly doing a rate/term refinance and that you intend to occupy the property for at least another five years. This should allow enough time to go by so you can make up the additional cost of a refinance. The longer you stay in the property the more you will save in interest over time.
If you don’t know whether it makes sense or not, contact a lender and ask them to walk you through the numbers. It is certainly worth talking to somebody to make sure if it’s right for you or not.
There is nothing wrong with picking the colors of your choosing to live in your home. In fact, when it comes to things that are inexpensive to do, paint is one of the cheapest ways to change the décor in a room and we all want to put our signature on a room or two where we live. However, when you get ready to sell a home, one of the things you can do is go back to those rooms that may be a little crazy and paint them with a neutral color. That teen that has his entire room painted black may be the reason your house is not selling!
It is hard at times to step back and look at your home critically to assess what it is that may keep people from making that all important offer. If you don’t have a clue, it may be time to call in a Professional Stager or Interior Designer that can give you some direction. This also holds true with the yard as well and you might just need an hour of consult time to get the information you need to get your home up to snuff and get it sold. Don’t be afraid to ask for help; that’s what I am here for.
It’s official, according to the Greater Nashville Association of REALTORS®, March is the sixth consecutive month home sales have risen in the Nashville area. March alone increased over 21% with the first quarter up over 11% from this time last year. Not only is this good news but that fact that the medium residential priced home has remained steady as well is great news for our area. It is believed that most sales are a result of the tax credit that actually ends the end of June but the contract has to be written by the end of April. This should lead sale to continue upward through the rest of spring and beginning of summer.
Right now the median residential price for a single-family home for March 2010 was $159,250 and for a condominium $137,450. This compares with last year’s median residential and condominium prices of $158,000 and $155,704, respectively. You can see while single-family home prices have increased slightly, condo prices have fallen a bit. Since inventory is still high and interest rates low, it is still a great time to purchase a home. If you can get a house under contract by the end of April and meet the criteria for the tax credit, there is still time to qualify.
But don’t want to spend $35,000 to $40,000 adding on? Well there may be another way. A friend of mine had a large upstairs area that was not being utilized for much other than a passing lane. When his two sons started to bicker he knew it was time to get a larger house with an extra bedroom so they could have their own space. Trouble was they loved their home, their neighborhood and the school system and really didn’t want to move.
What they did was ingenious. They walled off a part of the space upstairs that no one used and put in a door and created another bedroom for the boys at a cost below $500 and that included the paint. What this means for you is there are ways you can expand your home if you will just look around for space that is not being utilized or space that is just large and open and can be used for an office or additional bedroom. BTW an additional bedroom can bring additional dollars to the value and sale of a home. It is dependent on the area but you can always check with your Realtor and find out what that number might be.
I have been in contact with several buyers over the last few weeks that have complained to me that they can’t find a house worth buying. After visiting with both couples I quickly realized that they are bargain hunting in very specific areas of town that don’t have a lot of bargains! One of the biggest misconceptions in real estate is that what you hear on the news, even local news, is how it is in every neighborhood and that is just not how real estate works; it’s neighborhood by neighborhood.
You can have a neighborhood that is loosing its value right next to one that is actually gaining in value. If you are not aware of that fact, you may thing you can waltz into the rising neighborhood and purchase a house at a bargain as if you were shopping in the adjacent neighborhood and you won’t find a house that’s worth buying at the price you are willing to pay because they aren’t there.
Believe it or not, there are neighborhoods just like that in and around the Nashville, TN area including Hendersonville, Goodlettsville and Franklin. If you are out there trying to figure it our on your own; good luck. If you are smart, you will engage a Realtor who can help you find the gems or level with you that you are looking for them in the wrong places!
When people first start looking for a home they invariably start out looking for the perfect house. They sometimes define the house by what they have seen on TV, which can be misleading. Your perfect house may not be in your income range. With this said, you might have to readjust the size, type or style of the house to fall into your price range.
This is just one reason it is very important to talk with a mortgage loan officer before you start your search. No one likes to be disappointed, but this is exactly what will happen if you start looking at homes above what you can afford. Being realistic is the first step to finding the perfect house for your situation right now. Making sure you have a good experience the first time can lend itself to you having a larger home that may fit into your life’s vision of what type of home you want to live in later. Don’t lower your dreams; just take the right steps towards them.
When the economy goes down the toilet, everyone scrambles to save as much money as possible and one of the things that homeowners do is get rid of any type of insect treatments, including termite treatments. I would use extreme caution if this is one of the things you are thinking about terminating because once you place your house on the market, if it has termite damage, it could cost you the sale of the home.
Recently, I showed houses to a couple who were interested in putting a contract down on a house before they discovered an entire interior wall eaten up with termites, which had the immediate affect of them changing their minds. This particular house was valued by local taxes in the 200’s and ended up selling to an investor in the 60,000 range. Ouch! The owner of that house took a big hit due to the damage done by these little creatures that could have been avoided with proper treatment. Unfortunately, I am seeing way too many homes with preventable termite damage and it is affecting the sales price. The take away is simple; protect the value of your home by keeping the termites at bay with annual inspections and treatments if necessary.
