Tips to Help Your Home Sell

Selling a home is not easy, regardless of the market, or real estate conditions in the local area. Let’s face it, buyers have many options today. There are plenty of beautiful homes just like yours up for sale at any given time so you cannot afford to be casual when you decide to put your home up for sale. Luckily for you, we have gone through the trouble of compiling the top mistakes to avoid when you want to sell your home fast and at the best price possible. Below are 6 tips to help your home sell!

Selling a home is not easy, regardless of the market, or real estate conditions in the local area.

Do Not Overprice Your Home

This is by far one of the most common and detrimental mistakes home sellers make. There is nothing wrong with wanting to sell your home at a profit however, you should not overprice your home if you want to sell quickly. Price is by far the most important consideration for home buyers. As a result, the price you set should represent the true value of your home according to an expert local agent and not based on your own wishes/expectations.

It makes sense to hire a real estate agent who can help guide you through the selling process, carry out a thorough market analysis, and resolve a myriad of issues that may arise once your home is contracted. Ensuring you get the best price, based on market conditions, with consideration for any upgrades/improvements you have undertaken is what your agent will do for you. Overpricing your home is a bad idea and can discourage interested parties from making offers.

Market The Property With Purpose

Many home owners (and ultimately their agents) fail to do proper marketing. Putting a ”For Sale” sign in your yard and/or taking a few photos of your home and posting them online is not enough. If you want to sell your home fast and at the best price possible, you need to consider all marketing options at your disposal.

For instance, you need to utilize the internet fully by posting on all online real estate listing sites you can. You should also use social media, blogging, and even print media to reach as many consumers as possible. It is also important to make sure your agent takes quality photos or hires a professional photographer. The use of drones to market your home should also be considered if you have outside features you want highlighted. The majority of buyers start their search online…make them want to come visit your property!

Do Not Try To Sell Your Home On Your Own

Although there are benefits of selling your home yourself, the disadvantages can easily outweigh the advantages when you do not know what you are doing. Contrary to popular belief, selling your own home is typically not an easy task. In most states in the U.S. for instance, you automatically accept some liability when you try to sell your home yourself.

The entire process can also be tedious and time consuming not to mention the special skills required (i.e. negotiation skills) to sell real estate successfully. In a nutshell, it is better to hire a professional real estate agent if you want the best outcome possible.

The money you stand to save as a first time home seller is often not worth the hassle. In fact, you may end up incurring avoidable costs when you attempt to sell your home on your own because of factors such as poor negotiation skills, lack of real estate market knowledge, or not understanding what you need to disclose.

Tips to Help Your Home Sell

Failing To Do Repairs

This should go without saying. Your home must be in the best condition possible before you decide to sell it otherwise you will have a hard time attracting buyers who are willing to pay market value for your home. Jiggly door knobs, sagging screen doors, loose hand rails on the steps, dirty/damaged gutters, dripping faucets etc. must be fixed before you put your home up for sale.

It is better to include the cost of repairs in your asking price than consider settling for a lower offer. If you are unsure what to fix or update, get a home inspection done before you list your property. The inspector will provide a list of things buyers will most likely want resolved before purchasing your home.

Getting emotionally involved

Many home sellers also make this mistake which is totally understandable. Homes are beloved possessions. They also hold a lot of memories. Nevertheless, potential buyers may not see your home as such which is why you need to be as rational as possible if you want to sell your home fast. Potential buyers are interested in envisioning themselves in your home as opposed to sharing your personal memories and tastes.

It is important to make your home as neutral as possible (paint/furnishings) so it appeals to as many consumers as possible. This includes letting go of or removing and storing personal features (i.e. taxidermy items, mass collections, etc.). They are hard for buyers to overlook and could prevent your home from selling. You should think of your home as a commodity as opposed to an extension of who you are. It is advisable to have your agent pre-inspect your home and provide advice on what you need to change to make your home more marketable.

Home features aside, you should avoid getting offended by low offers. Most home sellers get emotional when they are offered less than what they expected. Instead of blowing off potential buyers or having other emotional responses, decline such offers politely and/or give a counter offer. You should not blame anyone for trying to get a great deal. Furthermore, you might push away a serious buyer since low offers are often part of the negotiation process. This is where cooler heads will prevail so ensure your agent is a neighborhood expert who will actively negotiating on your behalf.

Not Compromising On Minor Details

Some sellers have a hard time selling their homes because of being too rigid over minor details. It is possible for a home sale to fall apart over insignificant issues or concerns so having an open mind and being willing to give/take with buyers can make all the difference.

For instance, a seller may want to take a mantle with them instead of leaving it behind. Unless the mantle is really precious to you (i.e. it has been in your family for generations), you can always find another mantle. It is not worth losing a serious buyer over a detail that you can control. Also, it is often a great idea to stage your home after you have removed your belongings.

While these 6 tips to help your home sell will not guarantee a closing, following the advice will put your home in its best light, giving it every opportunity to be seen and sold.

How Does a Rent to Own Home or Lease Work?

How Does a Rent to Own Home or Lease Work?

If you’re looking at homes you may find work come across a “rent to own” home or as a seller you might be interested in this type of option but are not sure how it works or how to go about buying or selling your home in this fashion.

Rent to own homes are properties in which a buyer is permitted to rent a home for a specified amount of time with the option of purchasing that home during that timeframe. The price, along with the contract is also settled before the rental lease begins. If the buyer chooses not to buy the property, the property and any rent credits collected will go back to the seller. Unfortunately, the seller will then need to consider trying to resell the home to someone else.

Related: Simple Steps to Buying a Home

These situations were great for buyers that may not be ready financially to take on a mortgage or that are rebuilding their credit and cannot qualify for a mortgage just yet. These also work well when the housing market isn’t performing as well as it should be.  Many sellers will turn toward the rent to own option. This is a unique offering from the seller if the buyer is hard-pressed to find a home elsewhere or even a mortgage. If the seller doesn’t need to actually get rid of the home, they really don’t have a lot to lose at this point. If the buyer decides that they are not interested in buying the home at the end of the leasing. The seller will get the home back and will have received all of the monthly rental payments that the buyer had been making.

[More: How to improve your credit score in order to buy a house]

Depending on the housing market and the demand, most rental payments will cover housing expenses such as a mortgage, property taxes, insurance and maintenance. If the buyer decides to purchase the home, all of the rental payments made thus far will go towards the down payment or purchase of the home itself. The seller can either keep these funds in a separate account rolling them over to the buyer or deduct the rental payments from the cost of the home at this point.How Does a Rent to Own Home or Lease Work?

Here are some important factors to consider when choosing a rent to own property.

There has to be an original agreement on the purchase price. Both the buyer and seller need to come up with a final price that they both agree upon. The terms are final and usually cannot be changed once the lease begins.

This option also eliminates the option for other buyers. The rent to own buyer will pay an “option fee”, which is negotiable and gives the buyer the option to purchase the home at a later time. This fee also prevents the seller from renting the home or selling the property to anyone else.

Once the final price is agreed upon and fees are paid, it is at this time that the tenant occupies the home. Generally, rent to own homes have terms of about three years, which gives the buyer a substantial amount of time to get their financing in order and fulfill the terms of the agreement.

Each month, the buyer will pay the rent, which goes toward a credit to be applied towards the purchase price of the home. If the buyer decides not to sell, that credit will stay with the seller and not be returned to the buyer. If the buyer does not follow through, the stand to lose thousands of dollars by not making the purchase but, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Situations change, things come up and perhaps this is not where the buyer actually wants to live permanently. This is really no different than making a rental payment each month except that the seller will now need to either reprint the home or put the home back on the market.

There are a lot of benefits for both the buyer and the seller in a rent to own option. The buyer’s credit will often be less of a deciding factor when qualifying for the purchase and their down payment may be smaller depending on what the seller will agree to. Sellers can also benefit because they are earning monthly cash if they don’t need to sell the home right away. Another perk for the seller is not the buyer will likely take better care of the home knowing that they may eventually own it themselves.

[More: Which is better? Renting or Buying?]

There are three parts to a rent to own agreement: the rental agreement, which outlines the terms associated with the tendency, the option agreement, which identifies the period by which the buyer has time to consider purchasing the home, and the sale contract, which identifies the term of sale and purchase price.

If you’re considering a rent to own option it’s also a good idea to speak to a real estate broker or agent that specializes in not only buying and selling real estate the property management as well. We can help you facilitate the transaction, talk about the pros and cons for your situation and help you execute the terms for a rent to own option. – More: A Real Estate Agent who is also a property manager

Whether you are a buyer or seller, if you have questions on rent to own properties in Clermont, Winter Garden or Minneola or surrounding communities in Orlando Florida contact me today.

Home Prices in Orlando Dropped in August

Home Prices in Orlando Dropped in August

Prices in the core Orlando market took their expected seasonal drop last month. They dropped from a middle of the road $170,950 back in July to $165,000 in August. These prices are according to Orlando Regional Realtor Association’s report.Home Prices in Orlando Dropped in August

It’s typical for prices to drop at the end of summer, but this decline is partly being attributed to the result of large amounts of distress properties selling last month that furthered the depressing of the region’s median price.

The amount of foreclosures has been increasing as well as auctions of foreclosed properties. Orlando foreclosures have increased by a third of the amount they were this time last year. They have increased more than 20 percent from July.

Last month year over year prices in the core Orlando market increased 26 percent for short sales, 9 percent for foreclosures and only 5.5 percent for normal sales. Overall home prices were up 6.4 percent year over year. This is only a fraction of the year over year increases that Orlando buyers and sellers realized last year, which was 24 percent.

2,449 houses sold last month, which is down from both a month ago as well as a year ago.

Homes are currently spending an average of 68 days on the market.

There is concern that the future holds a potential of becoming a buyers market as inventory increases.

Under contract homes last month, consisted of 34 percent shorts sales, 42 percent normal properties and 24 percent bank owned properties.

Want to know more about the Orlando and Clermont real estate market? Please check out the following articles:

– Winter Garden Village Has a New Owner

– Curb Appeal Check List to Sell That House!

– What to Do When Your Offer is Rejected on a Home in Clermont

 

 

Winter Garden Village has a New Owner

Winter Garden Village has a New Owner

Do you live the Winter Garden area of Florida? Well then you probably shop at Winter Garden Village, West Orange County’s 161 acre signature retail development. You also may be interested to know that this retail development of Winter Garden Village now has a new owner. It’s the largest retail transaction so far for 2014 close to the tune of $251 million worth of retail investment sales in Central Florida.Winter Garden Village has a New Owner

The new owner is DDR Corp. DDR Winter Garden LLC, which is an entity related to the Beachwood, Ohio based real estate investment trust (NYSE: DDR), spent $196 million to buy the 1.1 million square foot Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves from Cole MT Winter Garden FL LLC and Spirit MT Winter Garden FL LLC on the 19th of July as indicated by Orange County records.

Available space for lease is being marketed on the website of DDR. Since this is the biggest retail transaction so far this year, it’s a good indicator that investors are willing to spend the big bucks on Central Florida real estate such as Winter Garden, Minneola and Clermont areas near Orlando.

In addition to this, the new owner could put more capital towards improving and/or developing the property. It’s also notable that this transaction has occurred just five years after the seller, a subsidiary of Phoenix based Cole Real Estate Investment, bought the open air lifestyle center for $180.4 million from a developer known as The Sembler Co.

For more information on Orlando and surrounding areas, please check out the following links:

– What to do When Your Offer is Rejected on a Home in Clermont

– Inspections to Have on a Lake Front Home in Clermont

– The Inspection and Walk Through – What to Look For

Curb Appeal Checklist to Sell that House!

Curb Appeal Checklist to Sell that House in Clermont Florida

Curb Appeal Checklist to Sell that House!It can never be over stated that curb appeal is so very important when it comes to selling your Orlando home. The majority of potential buyers will NEVER even come to your property if it’s online pictures are lacking curb appeal OR if they do happen to drive by your property, they’ll just keep on driving without a second thought of even getting out of the car if your curb appeal doesn’t do its job to lure them in and take a look around.

You must inspect the outside ground. Remove any building materials, scrap wood, discarded household items and things that simply DO NOT belong from the property. Make sure everything that is seen from the street “curb appeal” is indeed appealing. When it comes to buying homes, buyers do judge a book by its cover. Store garbage cans in the garage or otherwise out of site.

Curb Appeal Check List:

  • -Check the home from the roof line down.
  • -Is the roof free and clear from debris and moss?
  • -Are the gutters clear and hung neatly? No dry rot?
  • -Are the windows clean and free from obstructions (such as overgrown bushes or trees)?
  • -Are bushes, trees and shrubs nicely pruned?Garden
  • -Inspect the condition of the paint or siding for chips etc.
  • -Is it time to power wash the siding?
  • -Is touch up paint needed?
  • -Is the front door in good condition?
  • -Do flower beds need any attention?
  • -Are plants neatly pruned?
  • -Is the bed free and clear of weeds and cat refuse?
  • -Is the bed properly mulched?
  • -Are flowers in bloom?
  • -Keep the lawn neatly groomed.
  • -Is the lawn free from weeds?
  • -Is the lawn, sidewalks and driveway free from grass clippings?
  • -Is the lawn neatly edged?

SEE ALSO:

– How to Stage Your Empty Saw Mill Lakes Home in Clermont

– How to Stage Your Lake Front Property in Clermont

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