Showing posts with label Selling a Home. Show all posts

Thursday, October 11, 2012

29067 Hwy 6 Treynor, IA - Fantastic Horse Acreage on over 8 Acres!! $525,000

Call Tammy Stuart for your tour!!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Why You Should Choose a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)

Why Choose a Certified
Residential Specialist (CRS)

The Answers You Need

In the current marketplace, you need more than just a REALTOR®. You need a professional with the unique training and know-how to create opportunities, identify potential pitfalls up front, and make your home-buying or-selling experience an unqualified success.

You need a Certified Residential Specialist.

What is a Certified
Residential Specialist (CRS)?

A Certified Residential Specialist is a REALTOR® who has earned certification from the Council of Residential Specialists by completing a rigorous course of advanced training and by meeting significant experience requirements. It's this rare combination that makes a Certified Residential Specialist more than just another real estate agent. It's the ability to make a real difference in the purchase or sale of your home that places them among the best in the business. Discover the difference for yourself. And discover how enjoyable and successful a real estate relationship can be.

Benefits for Home Buyers and Sellers:

Less than 4 percent of the more than one million REALTORS® in business today hold the prestigious Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) Designation, the highest professional designation awarded to REALTORS® in the residential sales field. That's because just one in 25 has the experience, the commitment and the hours of advanced training necessary to call themselves a Certified Residential Specialist. Yet, despite all the extra expertise you get, a Certified Residential Specialist doesn't cost any more than any other REALTOR®. In fact, the skills and know-how you get with a Certified Residential Specialist may actually save you time and money.

And that's just the beginning. Here are some of the other reasons you should consider hiring a Certified Residential Specialist when you buy or sell a home.

4 Reasons to Work With the Top 4%

Experience

A hallmark of the Certified Residential Specialist isn't just the advanced training and education they receive. Just as important is the marketplace expertise they bring to the sale or purchase of your home. To earn the Certified Residential Specialist Designation, every REALTOR® must have significant experience and a number of real estate transactions. These strict requirements are your assurance that your Certified Residential Specialist is able to apply his or her education in the real world, giving you the knowledgeable, skilled service you expect.

Ethics

Ethics aren't just important in a REALTOR®. They're essential. That's why every Certified Residential Specialist is required to maintain membership in the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and to abide by its strict Code of Ethics. That means, when you work with a Certified Residential Specialist, you can rest assured you're dealing with a trained real estate expert who will treat you fairly and professionally every step of the way.

A Focus on Home Buying and Selling

Whether you're looking to buy or sell a home, you face many risks along the way - financial risks, legal risks, even the risk that a home purchase or sale will fall through. A Certified Residential Specialist is trained to minimize those risks.

With that in mind, a Certified Residential Specialist is prepared to bring you the benefits of their significant experience and variety of successful real estate transactions. That expertise, combined with advanced education in areas like finance, technology and marketing, lets you know that your Certified Residential Specialist is able to make your home purchase or sale a success in every way.

Technological Expertise

Technology is changing the face of real estate. Computers, the Internet, mobile communications - each has helped make the market more efficient, and at the same time, more daunting. More than ever, the success of your home purchase or sale depends on the ability of your REALTOR® to harness that technology and make it work for you. For that reason, the training required of your Certified Residential Specialist focuses extensively on technology and its effect on the real estate business. You can count on a Certified Residential Specialist not just to understand technology, but to use it to make your home purchase or sale a worry-free experience.

Information Provided by: Council of Residential Specialists

The Council of Residential Specialists is the largest not-for-profit affiliate of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, with its headquarters in Chicago, Ill. It is composed of over 38,000 Certified Residential Specialists (CRS) Designees and Candidates/General Members.

Why You Should Choose a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)

Why Choose a Certified
Residential Specialist (CRS)

The Answers You Need

You need a Certified Residential Specialist.

What is a Certified
Residential Specialist (CRS)?

Benefits for Home Buyers and Sellers:

And that's just the beginning. Here are some of the other reasons you should consider hiring a Certified Residential Specialist when you buy or sell a home.

4 Reasons to Work With the Top 4%

Experience

Ethics

A Focus on Home Buying and Selling

Technological Expertise

Friday, April 8, 2011

What a Government Shutdown Means for REALTORS® & their Clients

What a Government Shutdown Means for REALTORS®

(April 5, 2011)
The current continuing resolution (CR) providing funding for government operations is set to expire on April 8, 2011. If legislation providing for funding is not signed into law to extend funding after April 8, the federal government could shut down. This means many, but not all, government programs, including some that impact federal housing and mortgage programs, could grind to a halt as early as April 9, 2011. While the true impact of a shutdown is unclear until it actually begins below is a synopsis of how federal housing programs will likely operate in the event of a shutdown. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires each agency to have contingency plans in place and reportedly has instructed agencies to not provide specific information on impacted operations.

Federal Housing Administration

FHA cannot offer endorsements for any new loans in the Single Family Program and cannot make commitments in the Multi-family Program in the event of a shutdown. FHA will maintain operational activities including paying claims and collecting premiums. Management & Marketing (M&M) Contractors managing the REO portfolio can continue to operate.

VA Loan Guaranty Program

Lenders may continue to process and guaranty mortgages through the Loan Guaranty program in the event of a government shutdown.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Should the federal government shut down, the IRS cannot process federal income tax returns or issue refunds (but it can deposit tax payments). Consumers who were expecting to use their tax returns as part of the down payment for a home purchase will temporarily not have access to these refunds.

Flood Insurance

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed that the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will not be impacted by a government shutdown.

Rural Housing Programs

For the US Department of Agriculture programs, essential personnel working during a shutdown do not include field office staff who typically issue conditional commitments, loan note guarantees, and modification approvals. Thus, lender will not receive approvals during the shutdown. If the lender has already received a conditional commitment from the Rural Development office, then the lender may proceed to close those loans during the shutdown. A conditional commitment, which is good for 90 days, is given to a lender once a USDA Underwriter approves the loan. If a commitment was already issued, the funds were already set aside and the lender may close the loan at its leisure. If Rural Development has not issued a conditional commitment, the lender must wait until funding legislation is enacted before closing a loan.

Government Sponsored Enterprises

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will continue operating normally, as will their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Treasury

No official word as of yet, but the Making Home Affordable program, including HAMP and HAFA, may not be affected as the program is funded through the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act which is mandatory spending not discretionary.

Background Information on Government Shutdown

HJ Res. 48 extends the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (Public Law 112-6) to April 8, 2011. If another continuing resolution (CR) or budget is not signed into law, the federal government could shut down on April 9, 2011. This requires the furlough of non-emergency personnel and the curtailment of federal agency activities. Federal contractors cannot be paid. Programs funded by annual appropriations are directly impacted though programs funded by laws other than appropriations (such as Social Security) may also be impacted. The last government shutdown occurred during fiscal year (FY) 1996 and lasted 21 days, from December 16, 1995 through January 6, 1996.

The Anti-Deficiency Act is the primary law preventing government activity when no budget or CR is enacted. The act, found in 31 U.S.C., prohibits:

Making or authorizing an expenditure from, or creating or authorizing an obligation under, any appropriation or fund in excess of the amount available in the appropriation or fund unless authorized by law.
Involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have been appropriated, unless otherwise allowed by law.
Accepting voluntary services for the United States, or employing personal services not authorized by law, except in cases of emergency involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.
Making obligations or expenditures in excess of an apportionment or reapportionment, or in excess of the amount permitted by agency regulations

Basically, the government may not make payments or commitments unless there is enough money in the bank. According to the US Office of Personnel Management, an agency must shut down activities not excepted by the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) when it no longer has the funds to operate. OPM recommends that agencies:

communicate with employees and representatives about a potential shutdown;
prepare draft furlough notices;
determine which positions are excepted from the furlough according to OMB guidance.

Federal agencies have been required to complete contingency plans since 1980. OMB has three different bulletins that agencies may reference in the development of their shutdown plans. Plans must include, among other things, estimated time to complete a shutdown and the number of employees to be excepted. The President, Members of Congress, presidential appointees, certain legislative branch employees, and federal excepted employees are not subject to the furlough.

Sources

House Resolution 3082, “An Act making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.”
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3082eas2/pdf/BILLS-111hr3082eas2.pdf
Antideficiency Act Background. US Government Accountability Office.
http://gao.gov/ada/antideficiency.htm
Guidance and Information on Furloughs. US Office of Personnel Management.
http://www.opm.gov/furlough/furlough.asp

*Information Provided by the National Association of REALTORS

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Real estate: It's time to buy again

From Fortune Finance

Posted by Shawn Tully, senior editor-at-large

March 28, 2011 5:00 am

Forget stocks. Don't bet on gold. After four years of plunging home prices, the most attractive asset class in America is housing.

A home under construction in Austin. The number of new homes in the pipeline nationwide is quite low.

From his wide-rimmed cowboy hat to his roper boots, Mike Castleman fits moviedom's image of the lanky Texas rancher. On a recent March evening, Castleman is feeding cattle biscuits to his two pet longhorn steers, Big Buddy and Little Buddy, on his 460-acre Bar Ten Creek Ranch in Dripping Springs, a hamlet outside Austin in the Texas Hill Country. The spread is a medley of meandering streams, craggy cliffs, and centuries-old oaks. But even in this pastoral setting, his mind keeps returning to a subject he knows as well as any expert around: the housing market. "I'm a dirt-road economist who sees what's happening on the ground, and in 35 years I've never seen a shortage of new construction like the one I'm seeing today," declares Castleman, 70, now offering a biscuit to his miniature donkey Thumper. "The talking heads who are down on real estate will hate to hear this, but America needs to build a lot more houses. And in most markets the price of new homes is fixin' to rise, not fall."

Castleman is in a unique position to know. As the founder and CEO of a company called Metrostudy, he's spent more than three decades tracking real-time data on the country's inventory of new homes. Each quarter he dispatches 500 inspectors to literally drive through 45,000 subdivisions from Baltimore to Sacramento. The inspectors examine 5 million finished lots, one at a time, and record whether they contain a house that's under construction, one that's finished and for sale, or a home that's sold. Metrostudy covers 19 states, or around 65% of the U.S. housing market, including all the ones hardest hit by the crash: Florida, California, Arizona, and Nevada. The company's client list includes virtually every major homebuilder and bank -- from Pulte (PHM) and KB Home (KBH) to Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC).
The key figures that Metrostudy collects, and that those clients prize, are the number of homes that are vacant and for sale in each city, and the number of months it takes to sell all of them. Together those figures measure inventory -- the key metric in determining whether a market has a surplus or a shortage of new housing.

Today Castleman is witnessing an extraordinary reversal of the new-home glut that helped sink prices just a few years ago. In the 41 cities Metrostudy covers, a total of 78,000 houses are now either vacant and for sale, or under construction. That's less than one-fourth of the 343,000 units in those two categories at the peak of the frenzy in mid-2006, and well below the level of a decade ago. "If we had anything like normal levels of buying, those houses would sell in 2½ months," says Castleman. "We'd see an incredible shortage. And that's where we're heading."

If all the noise you're hearing about housing has you totally confused, join the crowd. One day you'll read that owning a home has never been more affordable. The next day you'll see news that housing starts have plunged to nearly their lowest level in half a century, as headlines announced in March. After four years of falling prices and surging foreclosures, it's hard to know what to think. Even Robert Shiller and Karl Case can't agree. The two economists, who together created the widely followed S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indices, are right now offering sharply contrasting views of housing's future. Shiller recently warned that the chances were high for a further double-digit drop in U.S. home prices. But in an interview with Fortune, Case took a far brighter view: "The lack of new home building is a huge help that a lot of people are ignoring," says Case. "People think I'm crazy to be optimistic, but housing is looking like the little engine that could."

To see where real estate is truly headed, it's critical to keep your eye firmly on the fundamentals that, over time, always determine the course of prices and construction. During the last decade's historic run-up in prices, Fortune repeatedly warned that things were moving too fast. In a cover story titled "Is the Housing Boom Over?," this writer's analysis found that the basic forces that govern the market -- the cost of owning vs. renting and the level of new construction -- were in bubble territory. Eventually reality set in, and prices plummeted. Our current view focuses on those same fundamentals -- only now they're pointing in the opposite direction.

So let's state it simply and forcibly: Housing is back.

Two basic factors are laying the foundation for dramatic recovery in residential real estate. The first is the historic drop in new construction that so amazes Castleman. The second is a steep decline in prices, on the order of 30% nationwide since 2006, and as much as 55% in the hardest-hit markets. The story of this downturn has been an astonishing flight from the traditional American approach of buying new houses to an embrace of renting. But the new affordability will gradually lure Americans back to buying homes. And the return of the homeowner will start raising prices in many markets this year.

Drumming up sales

Of course, home prices are low and home construction is weak for a reason: incredibly low demand. For our scenario to play out, America will need a decent economy, with job creation and consumer confidence continuing to claw their way back to normal.

One big fear is that today's tight credit standards will chill the market. But we're really returning to the standards that prevailed before the craze, and those requirements didn't stop prices and homebuilding from rising in a good economy. "The credit standards are now at about historical levels, excluding the bubble period," says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. "We saw prices rising with fundamentals in those periods, and it will happen again."

To see why, let's examine the remarkable shift in home affordability. A new study by Deutsche Bank measures affordability in two ways: first, the share of income Americans are paying to own a home. And second, the cost of owning vs. renting. On the first metric, the analysis finds that homeowners now pay just 9.8% of their income in after-tax mortgage, tax, and insurance payments. That's down from 17.2% at the bubble's peak in 2007, and by far the lowest number in the Deutsche Bank database, going back to 1999. The second measure, the cost of owning compared with renting, should also inspire potential buyers. In 28 out of 54 major markets, it's now cheaper to pay a mortgage and other major costs than to rent the same house. What's most compelling is that in all of the distressed markets, owning now wins by a wide margin -- a stunning reversal from four years ago. It now costs 34% less than renting in Atlanta. In Miami the average rent is now $1,031 a month, vs. the $856 it costs to carry a ranch house or stucco cottage as an owner. (For more, see The top 10 cities for home buyers)

Not all markets will bounce back equally, of course. Housing resembles the weather: The exact conditions are different in every city. But in general the big U.S. markets fall into two different climate zones right now. We'll call them the "nondistressed markets" and the "foreclosure markets." A more detailed look shows why the forecast for both is favorable.

Nondistressed markets: Ready for launch
No cities went untouched by the collapse in prices over the past few years. But markets such as Northern Virginia, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, San Diego, the San Francisco suburbs, and virtually all of Texas held up reasonably well. In those areas prices spiked far less than in bubble cities -- the foreclosure markets we'll get to shortly -- chiefly because they didn't get nearly as many speculators who thought they could flip the homes or rent them to snowbirds.

The nondistressed markets will be able to get prices rising and construction growing far faster than the harder-hit areas for a simple reason: Although some of these markets are still suffering from foreclosures, they don't need to work through the big overhang haunting a Las Vegas or a Phoenix. The number of new homes for sale or in the pipeline is extraordinarily low in nondistressed markets. San Diego is typical. It has just 921 freestanding homes for sale or under construction, compared with 4,425 in late 2005. The challenge for these cities is to generate enough demand to reduce inventories of existing, or resale, homes. In the entire country the resale supply stands at 3.5 million houses and condos. That's a fairly high number, since it would take more than eight months to sell those properties; seven months or below is the threshold for a strong market.
But in the nondistressed cities, the existing home inventory is lower, closer to seven months on average. So a modest increase in demand will translate into strong gains in both prices and new construction. That should happen quickly, because most of those markets -- including Silicon Valley, Northern Virginia, and Texas -- are now showing good job growth.

Zandi of Moody's Analytics expects that prices will rise three to four points faster than inflation for the next few years in virtually all of the nondistressed markets. His view is that prices will increase in line with rents, which are now growing briskly because apartments are in short supply. Those higher rents will encourage buyers to cross the street from an apartment to a home of their own.

In Northern Virginia, Chris Bratz, an engineer, and his wife, Amy DiElsi, a publicist, are planning to leave their rental apartment and become homeowners for the first time. The main reason? Buying has simply become a far better deal than renting. "The market got completely inflated, then it crashed, so prices are coming back to where they should be," says Chris. As the couple have watched prices fall, they have also watched the rent on their apartment spiral upward, reaching $2,700 a month. They calculate that they should be able to purchase a townhouse for between $400,000 and $500,000 and pay less per month for a mortgage.

The nondistressed markets will also lead the way in construction. Zandi predicts that for the nation as a whole, single-family housing "starts" -- measured when a builder pours a foundation for a new home -- will rise from 470,000 in 2010 to as much as 700,000 this year. A large portion of that activity will happen in nondistressed markets where a tightening supply of resale houses will start making new homes look like a good deal. "Our main competition is from resales," says Jeff Mezger, CEO of KB Home. "The prices of those homes have stayed so low, because of low demand, that it's hampered the ability of builders to sell new houses."

But many would-be buyers simply prefer a brand-new house. Eventually they'll move from renters to buyers, and the trend will accelerate now that prices are no longer dropping. In Minneapolis, Yuan Qu and her husband, Xiang Chen, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, just moved from a two-bedroom rental to a new light-blue four-bedroom ranch with a chocolate-colored roof on a spacious corner lot. They paid $400,000, a bargain price compared with a few years ago. The couple, both in their early thirties, moved to Minnesota from China six years ago. "We wanted to buy a house, and we've been waiting and waiting and waiting," says Qu. "The prices went down for so long, we finally thought they couldn't keep falling." For Qu the only choice was new construction. "We're not very handy people," she admits.

Foreclosure markets: The outlook is brightening

A home off the market in Mesa, Ariz.

The true disaster areas for housing since the bubble burst have been Sunbelt cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Miami -- places that boasted great job and population growth in the mid-2000s, only to suffer a housing crash that swamped them with empty homes and condos and crushed their economies. But people always want to live in those sunny locales, and their job markets are starting to recover, albeit slowly. In foreclosure markets the inventory problem is far greater because it includes not just traditional resale homes but millions of distressed properties. Fortunately those houses are now such a screaming deal that investors, including lots of mom-and-pop buyers, are purchasing them at a rapid pace. To be sure, some foreclosure markets won't rebound for years because they're both vastly overbuilt and far from big job centers; a prime example is California's Inland Empire, a real estate disaster zone 80 miles east of Los Angeles.
But the outlook is brightening for Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, and parts of Northern California. A big positive is the tiny supply of new homes entering the market. Phoenix, for example, has a total of just 8,100 new homes that are either for sale or under construction, down from 53,000 in mid-2006. The big test in these cities is absorbing the steady stream of distressed properties. The foreclosures put downward pressure on the market far out of proportion to their numbers because of markdown pricing. "We had levels of inventory even higher than this in 1990 and 1991," says MIT economist William Wheaton. "But they were traditional listings, not foreclosures, so they didn't create the big discounts you get with foreclosures."

Wheaton reckons that we'll see a flow of around 1 million foreclosures a year, at a fairly even pace, from now through 2013. That figure is frequently cited as evidence that the market is doomed for years in most foreclosure markets. Not so. The reason is that the vast bulk of those units, probably over 600,000, according to Gleb Nechayev, an economist with real estate firm CB Richard Ellis (CBG), are being converted to rentals either by investors or their current owners. Those properties are finding plenty of renters, since the rental market is still extremely strong across the country. Remember, the millions who lost their homes to foreclosure still need somewhere to live.

A typical investor is Alex Barbalat, a Russian immigrant who's purchased seven homes east of San Francisco in the towns of Bay Point, Antioch, and Pittsburg. His average purchase price is around $100,000 for homes that once sold for between $300,000 and $500,000. But he has no trouble finding renters, since his tenants can commute to jobs in San Francisco on the BART transit system. Barbalat is pocketing rental yields on the prices he paid of around 12%, and he's in no hurry to sell. "I'm holding them until prices drastically rise," he says.

Investment funds are also entering the game. Dotan Y. Melech looks for bargains in Las Vegas for UnitedAMS, a firm he co-founded that manages apartments and other real estate investments. The firm has raised more than $20 million from outside investors to purchase distressed properties. So far, Melech has bought around 300 houses and plans to purchase another 200 this year. He has no trouble renting the houses he buys, since, he estimates, occupancy rates in Las Vegas are touching 95%. The "cap rate," or return on investment after all expenses, is between 8% and 10% -- twice the rate on 10-year Treasuries. Melech rents to people who lost their homes but are reliable renters. "A lot of people can't be buyers because their credit got hurt," he says.

Even with investors jumping in, buying activity in foreclosure markets hasn't yet increased enough to bring inventories down. It will soon. Zandi thinks prices will fall a couple of percentage points lower in the distressed markets in the short run. "But that will be overshooting," he says. "It's like an elastic band. If prices do drop this year, they will need to bounce back because they'll be far too low compared with rents and replacement cost." Renters will come off the sidelines to purchase homes in the years ahead, precisely the opposite trend of the past few years.

Consider the example of Michael Dynda, a retired Air Force avionics technician who now works for a government contractor in Las Vegas. Dynda, 49, is a first-time buyer who put off purchasing for years, in part because prices were falling so rapidly in Las Vegas, with no bottom in sight. But last year the combination of bargain prices and low mortgage rates became too good to resist. He ended up purchasing a 2,300-square-foot stucco home for $240,000, or about half what it would have fetched in 2007. Dynda got a 4.38% home loan, and pays the same amount on his mortgage as on the rent on the house he left to become a homeowner. "The timing was about as good as it could get," says Dynda.

Mike Castleman's company tracks the inventory of new homes in 19 states across the country. He sees supply getting tight. "Home prices are fixin' to rise," he says.

Back on the ranch, Mike Castleman is lounging in his creek-front mansion, built from "a hundred tons of fine central Texas limestone." As he shows off his collection of custom-made guitars, including one crafted to resemble the skin of a rattlesnake, the homespun housing guru once again returns to his favorite topic.
Castleman claims that this recovery will look like all the others: It will bring a severe shortage of housing. He invokes the livestock business to explain. "It takes three years between the time a bull mates with a cow and when you get a calf ready for market," he says. "That's how it is in housing too. We'll get a big surge in demand and the drywall companies will take a long time to ramp up, and it will take years to get new lots approved. Buyers will show up looking for a house in a subdivision, and all the houses will be sold. The builders will tell them it will take six months to deliver a house." But those folks, says Castleman, will be set on buying a place. "And they'll want it so bad they'll bid the prices up!" In other words: Beat the crowd.

It's a Great Time to Buy a House
Mike Castleman, the Texan with the best realtime view of housing in the U.S., tells editor-atlarge Shawn Tully that the naysayers are about to get a big surprise: rising prices for new homes.

--Reporter associates: Anne VanderMey and Christopher Tkaczyk

Friday, February 25, 2011

7 Steps to House-Selling Success - Step 7: Moving

Step 7: Moving

7 Steps to House-Selling Success
Even the smallest home contains a lot of furniture, clothes, kitchen equipment, pictures and other items. For a short move, it may be worthwhile to transport small goods by yourself, but larger items will likely require a professional mover.

Our moving center provides calculators as well as information on moving options, storage, truck rentals and related topics. This information, plus assistance and advice from your REALTOR®, can ease the moving process.

How do you plan a move?
The time to plan your move begins once you've decided to sell your home. Some of the activities required to sell the home can actually help with the moving process. For example, cleaning out closets, basements and attics means there will be less to do once the home is under contract.

Your planning will be guided by a number of things:

•Are you moving a long distance? If yes, you'll likely require an interstate mover and the use of a large van.

•Moving internationally. Contact the embassy in Washington, D.C., for information. Be aware that items which may be entirely common in the United States can be prohibited in foreign countries. Ask about customs protocols, duties and taxes.

•Moving locally? If yes, will you move yourself? You'll need to consider packing boxes, peanuts, blankets or padding and a van rental.

•Planning is key. Stock up on boxes, packing materials, tape and markers. Always mark boxes so that movers will know where goods should be placed.

Who should you use?
The decision of who to use can begin with a visit to REALTOR.com's® moving center and discussions with the REALTOR® who is marketing your home.

There are a number of factors to consider. Money is one issue: You'll want to spend as little as possible, but choosing only on the basis of cost can be a mistake. Movers must have the right equipment, training and experience to do a good job. A mover, no matter how large or small, should be able to provide recent references for home sellers with a similar volume of goods to transport.

Get mover estimates in writing. Be aware that it's possible to get discounts through membership organizations and, sometimes, on the basis of your profession: Clergy, for example, sometimes qualify for a discount.
Always confirm mover credentials. Movers should be licensed and bonded as required in your state, and employees should have workman's comp insurance.

Get a checklist.
Moving is a big job and checklists can make it more organized and easier. Here are some of the major items to consider:

•Money. If you're moving more than a few miles then you should have enough cash or credit to cover travel, food, transportation and lodging.

•Medicine. Keep medicines and related prescriptions in a place where they will be available during the move.
•Number boxes so that all items can be counted on arrival. Make a list of boxes by number and indicate their contents.

•If moving with children, make sure that each has a favorite toy or toys, blankets, games, music and other goods.

•Moving historic, breakable or valued items? Such goods routinely require special handling and packaging.

•Have address books readily available in case you need help.

•If you have a laptop computer with a modem, make it accessible during your trip to pick up business and personal e-mail.

*Information provided by the National Association of REALTORS - Copyright © by Move, Inc.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

7 Steps to House-Selling Success - Step 6: Closing

Step 6: Closing

7 Steps to House-Selling Success
It might seem as though once a sale agreement has been signed that the selling process is complete. Not only is it not over yet, but some of the most complex aspects of a real estate transaction now begin.

A sale agreement sets not only a purchase price for the home, but also a series of terms and conditions. For instance:

•Contracts routinely depend on the ability of a buyer to obtain financing, which is why most sellers prefer buyers with preapproval letters from lenders.

•A growing percentage of transactions involve a home inspection, or a physical review of the home by a trained and independent observer.

•Lenders will establish numerous conditions before granting a loan. They will want a title exam, title insurance to protect against title errors, termite inspections, surveys and an appraisal to assure that the home has sufficient value to secure the loan.

The REALTOR® typically arranges required inspections and helps the owner prepare for closing.

When should you close?
With automation now available, closings can occur within a week in some areas -- at least in theory. In practice, it takes time to arrange financing, conduct inspections, obtain appraisals, locate replacement housing, contact movers, pack and actually move.

While instant closings are not practical, neither are closings too far in the future. The problem with closings much past 60 days is that loan rates are difficult to lock in. If mortgage rates go up, it's possible that the buyer will no longer be able to afford the home and thus the deal may fall through.

The result of these considerations is that most homes close 30 to 45 days after a sale agreement has been signed.

What happens?
Closing -- or "settlement" or "escrow" as it is known in some areas -- is essentially a meeting where the closing agent (the party who conducts settlement) takes in money from the buyers, pays out money to the owner and makes sure that the purchaser's title is properly recorded in local records along with any mortgage liens.

The closing agent reviews the sale agreement to determine what payments and credits the owner should receive and what amounts are due from the buyer. The closing agent also assures that certain transaction costs are paid (taxes and title searches).

Closing is also the time when "adjustments" will be made. For instance, suppose you've pre-paid taxes four months in advance. In this case, the closing agent will compensate you for the prepayment at closing by having the buyer pay you additional money.

It could also work in reverse. If you are behind on property taxes, the closing agent will reduce the money due to you at settlement by the amount of the unpaid taxes.

How do you prepare to sell?
It's important to look at the sale agreement and review your obligations. For instance, if you have agreed to paint a room or replace the dishwasher, such work must be completed before closing. Your REALTOR® can discuss your agreement and the steps which must be taken to complete the transaction.
The closing agent will handle both the settlement papers and related documents.

*Information provided by the National Association of REALTORS - Copyright © by Move, Inc.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

7 Steps to House-Selling Success - Step 5: Sell it

Step 5: Sell it

7 Steps to House-Selling Success
There is no question that selling a home is an important event. A home sale represents transition, movement and change. Big money is involved. Households move from the known and comfortable to the unknown and a period of adjustment. There may be job changes, new schools, distance from old friends and the possibility of new ones.

No less important, a home sale by itself can be complex. There will be people looking at your house, documents to sign and issues to be negotiated.

Because a home sale involves an array of both personal and business concerns, it's important to get it done right. You need to carefully prepare your home, understand the market and see what alternatives are realistically available. The old motto "be prepared" is a good guide in such circumstances.

What's an acceptable offer?
The goal of every seller is to have a line of buyers outside the front door, each clutching higher and higher offers. And while this has been known to happen, in most markets there is some balance between the number of buyers and sellers. A number of factors determine whether a buyer's offer is acceptable. They include:

•Is the offer at or near the asking price? Is the offer above the asking price?

•Has the buyer accepted the asking price or something close? Has the buyer then buried thousands of dollars in discounts and seller costs within tiny clauses and contract additions?

•What is the alternative to the buyer's offer? If a home has not attracted an offer in months, then sellers need to determine if a better deal is possible -- recognizing that each month costs are being incurred for mortgage payments, taxes and insurance.

•Does the owner have enough time to wait for other offers?

•What if no other offers are received?

•What if several offers are received? Do you choose the high offer from the purchaser with questionable finances who may not be able to close, or a somewhat lesser offer from a buyer with preapproved financing?
In each case, owners -- with assistance from REALTORS® -- will need to carefully review offers, consider marketplace options and then determine whether an offer is acceptable.

What is a counter-offer?
When a home is made available for sale the owner is essentially making an offer to buyers: For a given number of dollars and other terms you can acquire this home. Buyers, in turn, can respond with several options:

•Not interested.

•Yes, we'll buy on the owner's terms.

•We're interested and here's our counter-offer.

A counter-offer is nothing more than a new offer. And just as the buyer had three options in response to the owner's original price and terms, the seller can now choose one of three reactions: accept the offer, decline the offer or make a fresh counter-offer.

Offers and counter-offers reflect the back-and-forth activity of the marketplace. It's an efficient and practical process -- but also one that may contain tricky clauses and hidden costs. The REALTOR® who lists your home can explain the local bargaining process in detail and assist in the actual negotiations.

How do you negotiate?
It's sometimes argued that negotiation must produce one "winner" and one "loser." Others suggest that a "win/win" situation is possible where each side gets something of value.
Real estate bargaining typically involves compromises by both sides. It's not war; it's not winner-take-all; and it's not the time to take personally any comments made by purchasers.

Instead, negotiating should be seen as a natural business process; buyers should be treated with respect; and owners should never lose sight of either their best interests or their baseline transaction requirements. These are the standards unique to each owner, which must be met before the home can be sold.

*Information provided by the National Association of REALTORS - Copyright © by Move, Inc.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

7 Steps to House-Selling Success - Step 4: Market it

Step 4: Market it

7 Steps to House-Selling Success
If you bought a car, you could purchase a given model with selected features from any dealer. Since the car comes from one assembly plant, it's going to be the same whether purchased from dealer Smith or dealer Jones.

Homes are different. Each is unique, the marketplace is always in flux, interest rates constantly change and new buyers search for homes each day. With such fluidity, it requires REALTORS^® to craft marketing plans specifically for individual homes and market conditions.

Selling can entail a variety of marketing strategies. Once listed, it's likely that the home will be quickly entered into the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and placed on REALTOR.com^®. REALTORS^® routinely market by mail with new-listing announcements and regular newsletters. Open houses, broker access to the home via the use of a lock box and networking with both local and out-of-town brokers are also common.
Much of a broker's work will be quiet and unseen -- yet important. The quiet telephone calls, the work with contacts, the follow-ups with open-house visitors, conversations with ad respondents, the web postings and other outreach efforts are all part of the process required to sell homes.

Experienced REALTORS^® base their marketing efforts on previous transactions and ongoing research. For instance, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), most people begin their home-buying process on the Internet. NAR numbers also show that most households move within 10 miles of their current location while 20 percent move at least 50 miles.

How to market your home.
If you look at a typical transaction you can see that there are five general areas where REALTORS^® can assist in the home-selling process.

•Preparation: Before being placed on the market, homes must be in "show" condition. REALTORS^® can explain what repairs and upgrades are required for individual homes which are most likely to produce the best results.

•Pricing: Brokers do more than price homes for sale, they also construct sale terms designed to speed the selling process. It may be, for example, that a home priced at $150,000 with a 2 percent seller credit to the buyer at closing will be far more attractive to purchasers than a home priced at $147,000. Why? That 2 percent credit is worth $3,000 to the purchaser at closing -- the time when buyers are most likely strapped for cash.

•Marketing: REALTORS^® will execute strategies and programs to get the home sold. Typically this includes placement on the local MLS and Realtor.com as well as related marketing, advertising and networking.

•Negotiation: REALTORS^® assist owners in the bargaining process, offering advice and counsel as offers are received and by working closely with legal counsel, tax specialists and inspectors as required.

•Closing: Once a contract for the purchase of a home has been accepted, a series of inspections and checks are typically required to satisfy buyers and lenders. REALTORS^® can help owners complete the transaction process by assisting with the many requirements found in a typical sale agreement.

How to hold an open house.
There are no universal marketing standards for real estate because marketplaces are localized. For instance, open houses may be common in some communities but rarely used in others.

In the case of an open house, a REALTOR^® typically advertises that the home will be open for a given period (2-5 p.m. on Sunday). During the open period, the REALTOR^® hosts the home while the owners leave for a few hours.

At the open house, the REALTOR^® will provide literature, maintain a visitor log and answer questions. By interacting with visitors, the REALTOR^® will seek feedback regarding the home and opportunities to follow up with prospective purchasers.

How do you show your home online?
The Internet is an important factor in real estate marketing and will likely become more important in the future.
The Internet has two important roles in the real estate selling process. First, it is a "place" to view real estate. Realtor.com, for example, lists about millions of homes, the largest group of homes online or off. Individual REALTORS^® also maintain thousands of localized sites while professional groups and, likewise, industry organizations, have an online presence.

Online real estate information includes not only home listings, but numerous additional features and benefits. For instance, Homestore^® offers neighborhood information, school data, recent home sale prices, video tours, model forms, real estate news and consumer information.

Equally important, the Internet offers new communication media. E-mail and instant messaging give REALTORS^® and consumers more opportunities to keep in touch. As the Internet evolves, more technologies and techniques will be introduced to make transactions easier and more efficient.

*Information provided by the National Association of REALTORS - Copyright ^© by Move, Inc.

Monday, February 21, 2011

7 Steps to House-Selling Success - Step 3: Set the Price

Step 3: Set the Price

7 Steps to House-Selling Success
Every reasonable owner wants the best possible price and terms for his or her home. Several factors, including market conditions and interest rates, will determine how much you can get for your home. The idea is to get the maximum price and the best terms during the window of time when your home is being marketed.
In other words, home selling is part science, part marketing, part negotiation and part art. Unlike math where 2 + 2 always equals 4, in real estate there is no certain conclusion. All transactions are different, and because of this, you should do as much as possible to prepare your home for sale and engage the REALTOR® you feel is best able to sell your home.

What is your home worth?
All homes have a price, and sometimes more than one. There's the price owners would like to get, the value buyers would like to offer and a point of agreement which can result in a sale.
In considering home values, several factors are important:

•The value of your home relates to local sale prices. The same home, located elsewhere, would likely have a different value.

•Sale prices are a product of supply and demand. If you live in a community with an expanding job base, a growing population and a limited housing supply, it's likely that prices will rise. Alternatively, it's important to be realistic. If the local community is losing jobs and people are moving out, then you'll likely have a buyer's market.

•Owner needs can impact sale values. If owner Smith "must" sell quickly, he will have less leverage in the marketplace. Buyers may think that Smith is willing to trade a quick closing for a lower price -- and they may be right. If Smith has no incentive to sell quickly, he may have more marketplace strength.

•Sale prices are not based on what owners "need." When an owner says, "I must sell for $300,000 because I need $100,000 in cash to buy my next home," buyers will quickly ask if $300,000 is a reasonable price for the property. If similar homes in the same community are selling for $250,000, the seller will not be successful.

•Sale prices are NOT the whole deal. Which would you rather have: A sale price of $200,000, or a sale price of $205,000 but where you agree to make a "seller contribution" of $5,000 to offset the buyer's closing costs, pay a $2,000 allowance for roof repairs, fund two mortgage points, re-paint the entire house and leave the washer and dryer?

How much is too much?
Because all transactions are unique there is flexibility in the marketplace. The amount of flexibility depends on local conditions.

For example, suppose you're selling a townhouse. Suppose also that there have been five recent sales of the model you own and that sale values have ranged between $200,000 and $210,000. You now have an idea of how your home might be priced. In a strong market perhaps you can ask for $210,000 or a little more. If the market has slowed, $210,000 may be a reasonable asking price, but perhaps more than the final sale price.
Here's another scenario. Imagine that you live in a community of Victorian-style homes, most of which were built in the 1920s. All the homes are different in terms of size, condition, modernization, style and features. In such a neighborhood, an average sale price is just a statistic without much practical meaning. On a single block one home may sell for $400,000 while another is priced at more than $1 million. The average price may be outrageously high for one home and staggeringly low for another.

Who can help?
Experienced REALTORS® are active in the local marketplace and can provide assistance with pricing, marketing, negotiation and closing.

Because experienced REALTORS® have handled many transactions, they're familiar with the terms and conditions that went into individual sales, not just published sale prices which may not reflect various premiums, discounts and adjustments.

* Information provided by the National Association of REALTORS - Copyright © by Move, Inc.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

7 Steps to House-Selling Success - Step 2: Get a REALTOR®

Step 2: Get a REALTOR®

Saturday, February 19, 2011

7 Steps to House-Selling Success - Step 1: Plan and Prepare to Sell Your House

Step 1: Plan and Prepare to Sell Your House

7 Steps to House-Selling Success
Million of existing homes are sold each year, and while each transaction is different every owner wants the same thing -- the best possible deal with the least amount of hassle and aggravation.

Unfortunately, home selling has become a more complex business than it used to be. New seller disclosure statements, longer and more mysterious form agreements, and a range of environmental concerns have all emerged in the past decade.

More importantly, the home-selling process has changed. Buyer brokerage -- where REALTORS® represent homebuyers -- is now common nationwide, and good buyer-brokers want the best for their clients.
The result is that while hundreds of thousands of existing homes may be sold each week, the process is not as easy for sellers as it was five or 10 years ago. Surviving in today's real estate world requires experience and training in such fields as real estate marketing, financing, negotiation and closing -- the very expertise available from local REALTORS®.

Are you ready?
The home-selling process typically starts several months before a property is made available for sale. It's necessary to look at a home through the eyes of a prospective buyer and determine what needs to be cleaned, painted, repaired and tossed out.

Ask yourself: If you were buying this home what would you want to see? The goal is to show a home which looks good, maximizes space and attracts as many buyers -- and as much demand -- as possible.
While part of the "getting ready" phase relates to repairs, painting and other home improvements, this is also a good time to ask why you really want to sell.

Selling a home is an important matter and there should be a good reason to sell -- perhaps a job change to a new community or the need for more space. Your reason for selling can impact the negotiating process so it's important to discuss your needs and wants in private with the REALTOR® who lists your home.

When should you sell?
The marketplace tends to be more active in the summer because parents want to enroll children in classes at the beginning of the school year (usually August). The summer is also typically when most homes are likely to be available.

Generally speaking, markets tend to have some balance between buyers and sellers year-round. In a given community, for example, there may be fewer buyers in late December, but there are also likely to be fewer homes available for purchase. So, home prices tend to rise or fall because of general demand patterns rather than the time of the year.

Owners are encouraged to sell when the property is ready for sale, there is a need or desire to sell, and the services of a local REALTOR® have been retained.

How do you improve your home's value?
The general rule in real estate is that buyers seek the least expensive home in the best neighborhood they can afford. In terms of improvements, this means you want a home that fits in the neighborhood but is not over-improved. For example, if most homes in your neighborhood have three bedrooms, two baths and 2,500 sq. ft. of finished space, a property with five bedrooms, more baths and far more space would likely be priced much higher and likely be more difficult to sell.

Improvements should be made so that the property shows well, is consistent with the neighborhood and does not involve capital investments, the cost of which cannot be recovered from the sale. Furthermore, improvements should reflect community preferences.

Cosmetic improvements - paint, wallpaper and landscaping - help a home "show" better and often are good investments. Mechanical repairs - to ensure that all systems and appliances are in good working condition - are required to get a top price.

Ideally, you want to be sure that your property is competitive with other homes available in the community. REALTORS®, who see numerous homes, can provide suggestions that are consistent with your marketplace.

*Information provided by the National Association of REALTORS - Copyright © by Move, Inc.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Why Choose a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)

You need a Certified Residential Specialist.

What is a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)?

Benefits for Home Buyers and Sellers:

4 Reasons to Work With the Top 4%

Experience

Ethics

A Focus on Home Buying and Selling

Technological Expertise

Why Choose a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)

You need a Certified Residential Specialist.

What is a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS)?

Benefits for Home Buyers and Sellers:

4 Reasons to Work With the Top 4%

Experience

Ethics

A Focus on Home Buying and Selling

Technological Expertise

Friday, April 8, 2011

What a Government Shutdown Means for REALTORS®

Federal Housing Administration

VA Loan Guaranty Program

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Flood Insurance

Rural Housing Programs

Government Sponsored Enterprises

Treasury

Background Information on Government Shutdown

Sources

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Real estate: It's time to buy again

Friday, February 25, 2011

Step 7: Moving

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Step 6: Closing

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Step 5: Sell it

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Step 4: Market it

Monday, February 21, 2011

Step 3: Set the Price

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Step 2: Get a REALTOR®

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Step 1: Plan and Prepare to Sell Your House

Monday, February 7, 2011

Seven Costly Mistakes Sellers Make

Why Choose a Certified
Residential Specialist (CRS)

What is a Certified
Residential Specialist (CRS)?

Why Choose a Certified
Residential Specialist (CRS)

What is a Certified
Residential Specialist (CRS)?