Article by Ask Tara @ Trulia
by By Tara-Nicholle Nelson | Broker in San Francisco, CA
Tara reviews the following five real estate rules of thumb to determine fact or fiction:
- Rule of Thumb #1: Location, location, location.
- Rule of Thumb #2: It costs more to buy than to rent your home.
- Rule of Thumb #3: List it high, to give yourself bargaining room.
- Rule of Thumb #4: Always offer 10% below the asking price.
- Rule of Thumb #5: Listing your home as a FSBO will save you some dough.
Tips to get your stale (property) listing sold, article by Ginger Wilcox head of industry training at Truila. Here are (5) line items detailed:
1) Offer incentives or alternative financing options
2) Make it accessible
3) Expose it- everywhere!
4) Refresh your photos
5) Put some zing in your marketing copy
For full details on these line items to potentially improve the sale of your property, click on this link.
“We all know buyers care about beds, baths, square feet and location, location, location. But inside the minds of American homebuyers lurk a handful of surprising housing-related hot buttons which inspire offers and get homes sold.” article by Tara-Nicholle Nelson
1. Your Neighborhood Trader Joe’s.
2. Staging Your Patio/Deck/Backyard/Front Porch.
3. Tossing the Curtains.
4. Shelves, nooks and crannies.
5. How close your neighborhood stores are to the street.
for full details of Tara’s article click this link
Written by
Alex Veiga
Associated Press
Full details: more details, click here:
LOS ANGELES — Homebuilders are eager to rack up sales this spring, and many are offering incentives and even some price reductions.
So how best to find a good deal on a new home?
While homeowners looking to sell their property might balk at an offer that is too low and pull their home off the market, homebuilders have money invested in land and construction costs and can’t afford to just sit on the homes they build.
With a little research, anyone considering purchasing a new construction home can improve their chances of negotiating a better deal, said Michael Corbett, real estate expert and author of “Before You Buy! The Homebuyer’s Handbook for Today’s Market.”
When considering an already-built home, Corbett suggested buyers find out how long ago the home was built and how many residents are living in the development.
“The bigger the inventory, the more leverage you’re going to have,” he said. “The longer it has been on the market, the more leverage.”
Another essential step is to check the price at which comparable homes in the development sold, but ignore transactions that are more than 60 days old.
It also is important not to put too much stock in the price of other, similar homes in the development that have yet to sell — an argument one might hear from a builder’s sales representative.
“A house is only worth what it’s going to sell for, so don’t be bamboozled by a higher price on the properties that are sitting there,” Corbett said.
To structure an initial offer on a new construction home, one must weigh the recent comparable home prices, how many homes are left to be sold in the development and how long the home has been unsold.
But definitely make an offer that is below the asking price, Corbett said.
“Some buyers are timid; they don’t want to insult anyone,” he said. “In today’s market, go in a little bit lower. Unless you do, you’re never going to hit the middle ground you want to hit.”
It’s hard to say how much lower, but Corbett offered an example:
If the house is listed at $400,000, try going in at $375,000.
However, if recent comparable sales at the development have gone for $350,000, for example, then the buyer should make an offer at that level or below.
And if the development has 30 empty houses, that’s a good indicator the bid should go even lower.
“You really negotiate three times,” Corbett said. “When you make the offer, a counteroffer and after the inspection.”
very useful tips and check list when preparing a house for sale
Dian Hymer details how ‘Due-diligence hiccups can sour deal quickly’. Dain stresses that you do not want to wait to the last minute researching the issues of a property, or to fix a problem. The read the full article:
The part of the article that I enjoyed:
HOUSE HUNTING TIP: ‘Buying and selling homes is not convenient. It usually happens when you’re overloaded with other commitments, not when you’re bored out of your mind, waiting for something to happen.’
