Selling Your Home

5 Ways Decluttering Helps You Sell or Rent Your Home

Decluttering Home

If you’re planning to sell or rent your home, a thorough decluttering session is recommended. You want your home in the best shape possible for potential buyers or renters that will drop by to see it, and decluttering is an important step for achieving that goal. Here’s why making your home neat and tidy helps you sell or rent it in no time:

1. It allows people to imagine the home as their own

Potential buyers or renters visiting your home must...

5 Reasons You Need a Real Estate Professional

5 Reasons You Need a Real Estate Professional

Many people wonder if they need a realtor when buying and selling a home. Listings are available online for buyers, and sellers can post their home on websites like Zillow and avoid paying a commission. While this may seem tempting, it can also be a mistake. Here are a few compelling reasons why hiring a realtor gives you an advantage over DIY:

1. More Education and Experience

The number one advantage of hiring a real estate agent is simple: they’ve been in the business for a long time. Realtors know the ins and outs of negotiations, inspections, fair market pricing for your area, and more. If you’re listing on your own, you may not know if you’re setting a fair market value price – and if your negotiations will lead to an advantageous sale. A realtor is available to answer your questions, help you pick a price that works for your needs and the market, and navigate the negotiation and offer process....

How to Sell Your Home in the Off Season

How to Sell Your Home in the Off Season

There’s a common notion in realty that sellers should not list after Labor Day, due to a slow-moving market. While it’s true peak season for home buying is spring through mid-fall, selling in the holiday season is possible with the right approach. There are fewer buyers, but those who are searching are often highly motivated. Here’s what you need to know about listing and selling your home this holiday season.

1. Embrace the Season.

The right staging can help your home look more attractive and take it off the market faster. Since you’re listing during the holidays, why not deck the halls? Set out a few of your strategic holiday decorations and light an evergreen-scented candle before showings. Keep in mind, however, that large decorations can crowd your home and make it look smaller, and general winter-themed decorations are best, since religious themes might offend some potential buyers.

2. Curb Appeal...

What to Look for in a Professional Moving Service

What to Look for in a Professional Moving Service

What will you do if your home sells right away? Today’s real estate market is hot, and buyers who list with the right realtor often find they quickly receive offers. You might even end up with a cash buyer who wants to close in just a few weeks. It’s a good idea to have a plan for what you’ll do when you receive a contract.

Hiring a moving company is one way to ensure what’s next goes as efficiently as possible. You need to be informed before you hire: Get references, watch out for extra fees, avoid a blank moving contract, and take inventory before you begin packing. Here are some suggestions to help you in hiring the best movers at the best price.

Hire a Local Company

If your move is local, look for a moving company you can visit to meet staff members and to examine their equipment. Avoid companies that work strictly online. Check to see if the company is active in their local community, a sign...

6 Steps to Getting Multiple Offers

6 Steps to Getting Multiple Offers 

In today’s recovering housing market, a well-priced property can lure multiple bidders and initiate a bidding war between potential buyers. If there are multiple bidders, your house seems more desirable and attracts more interest. Buyers don’t want to risk losing an opportunity, so they are motivated to put their best offer on the table.

The seller is in an extremely fortunate place in such circumstances; however, it can also be confusing. While buyers don’t want to lose the home of their dreams, sellers face multiple options of how to proceed to maximize their profit from the sale.

Here are some strategies that can help create the ideal conditions to attract several buyers.

Price to Sell

If your house is overpriced, buyer interest will decrease. To drive up interest, thereby attracting multiple offers, your house needs the right price...

How Do Rising Interest Rates Affect the Housing Market?

How Do Rising Interest Rates Affect the Housing Market?

When interest rates fall, property values often increase. When they go up, it costs more to borrow, so buyers have less to spend on their monthly payment. The Federal Reserve recently raised interest rates by a quarter of a point and says there are more hikes in the future. Some experts think it will have a negative effect on the housing market. Others think it may improve home sales. Here are the views from both sides to help you make your own decision.

Higher Rates Could Drive Sales and Increase New Loans

Many economists feel higher interest rates are good for real estate and will boost sales over the next year. Here are some of the reasons why.

Rate change affects consumer psychology. People who have been thinking about buying a home, but hesitant to commit, have another reason to get off the fence. Many of them will scramble to find a home before rates go up again.

Rate hikes change lending...

How to Sell Fast and Make the Most on Your Home

It’s a great time to sell, with buyers often paying at or even above asking price. If you’ve decided to put your home on the market, you want it to sell quickly and make as much as you can. Attract buyers and get top dollar by making the right first impression. Here are some home staging and listing strategies to prepare your home for sale and make sure it shows at its best.

Price it right. Negotiations are part of the home buying and selling process, and the initial price point can heavily influence how this process moves forward. Many sellers decide to “aim high” and ask for even more than top dollar. They hear how quickly homes are selling and think they can always come down. However, listing at the wrong price point can result in your property sitting on the market for an extended period of...

Selling in the Winter Attracts Serious Buyers

Selling in the Winter Attracts Serious Buyers

A recent study of more than 7 million home sales over the past four years revealed that the season in which a home is listed may be able to shed some light on the likelihood that the home will sell for more than asking price, as well as how quickly the sale will close.

It’s no surprise that listing a home for sale during the spring saw the largest return, as the spring is traditionally the busiest month for real estate. What is surprising, though, is that listing during the winter came in second!

“Among spring listings, 18.7 percent of homes fetched above asking, with winter listings...