A Few Tips for Winterizing Your Vacant Property

There are a few tips and tricks you need to remember if you want to keep your vacant property well-maintained this winter.

If you’re worried about your vacant property this winter, here are a few things you can do to put your mind at ease.

First, keep the heat on and make sure it’s at a minimum of 55 to 60 degrees. If you use oil or propane, make sure you have enough to get through the wintertime. We had some issues with people late last year who discovered at the last minute that their property had no oil and were stuck trying to get some on New Year’s Eve. You can use kerosene or diesel fuel to work through and clean your system, and it will run off of those things as well.

If your property is going to be vacant for a while, you may want to turn the water off. There are many home inspectors who will do that for you, so if you need a good contact for that, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

"If your property is going to be vacant for a while, you may want to turn the water off."

If you’re worried about break-ins or having your copper pipes or HVAC system stolen and you want to periodically check on the property, you should consider installing a wireless alarm system. You could also ask a neighbor to check on the property once in a while and give them a spare key. Our office also offers a service for our clients where we check in on their properties once a week for them.

If you have any more questions about maintaining your vacant property during the winter or you have any other real estate needs, feel free to call or email us. We’d be glad to help you.

Should You List This Holiday Season?

Should you list your home during the holiday season? The answer isn’t as simple as “yes” or “no.”

Over the years, many clients have asked us whether it’s a good idea to sell during the holiday season. Well, it depends on your personal circumstances.

"Whether or not you should list during the holidays depends on your circumstances."

If there is nothing pushing you to sell, we generally suggest pulling your listing off the market by the middle of November. Then, you can relist it in a couple of months.

During that time off the market, you can even do some pre-marketing to help boost your listing’s success before it even hits the market.

This isn’t to say that selling over the holidays is impossible. There are plenty of homes selling at this time of year. If you need to get your property sold as soon as possible, you can absolutely list during the holidays.

In fact, decreased inventory during the holiday season can benefit your listing due to lowered competition.

If you are planning to list, though, I recommend having the photos for your listing taken in the spring or summer. That way, holiday decorations don’t date your photos and make it seem stale if your property takes a little while to move off of the market.

Exterior photos of your home should be taken while landscaping is still lush and green.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

What Do You Need to Know About Short Sales?

There are a significant number of short sales still happening in our market, so here’s a brief overview of how short sales work.

With the recent change we’ve seen in our market, homes values have increased, and as a result, we’ve also seen fewer short sales happening. There are still a significant number of people who are underwater at this time, though, so I want to answer a few questions you may have about short sales.

First, what does the bank do with all of the seller’s information? They gather that information to make sure that when they’re combing through your bank statements, income, and finances, everything is accurate.

For the private investors that put up the money for these short sales—say they put up $500,000, the home sells for $400,000, and they net $360,000 or $365,000 to satisfy that mortgage—where are they going to get back that $140,000 or $135,000 difference?

Many times, they get these funds back through mortgage insurance, but they have to see how those clauses were written originally. That’s why there is a lot of behind-the-scenes investigation during a short sale. Usually there are several investors, so it could be somebody that’s servicing the loan for—say— Wells Fargo. There might also be several different companies that are serviced by them. They’re gathering that information and taking it back to the investors and combing through what insurance premiums they have to offset those losses.

"There is a lot of behind-the-scenes investigation during a short sale."

After that, it’s a question of what those investors are willing to take. Sometimes they ask the seller to pay a portion of that loss. One of the other major factors to consider is tax deficiencies—maybe you lost $50,000 and now you have to claim that as income.

Sometimes it’s not just agents giving you that information, which is why it might be helpful to talk to a real estate attorney or an accountant who’s familiar with short sales. There are several people involved in the process who can help you.

If you have any more questions about short sales or need a referral for a good accountant or real estate attorney, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’d be glad to help you.

How Can Renovations Affect Your Home Value?

It may seem like a good idea to renovate certain aspects of your home before you sell, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a full return.

Today I want to talk to you about which improvements you can make that will maximize your home’s value.

A lot of people think that if they put in a new kitchen for $25,000, they’ll get a full $25,000 in return. That’s not always the case.

I spoke with an appraiser at a meet-and-greet this morning about whether or not a good guideline existed to gauge home value. He said that when they looked at comparable sales, he looked at other homes in the area both with and without recent renovations (like new kitchens), and compare the prices.

So in a lot of cases, you shouldn’t expect to see a dollar-for-dollar return on something like a new $25,000 kitchen, especially if it’s a custom kitchen in a higher-end home—you may only see a 50% to 60% return on that.

Be careful when you’re doing these upgrades to sell your home. Contact a professional to come out, look at your home, and do a comparable sale analysis. Have homes in the area had similar updates? If so, were they full remodels or just partial ones, where you only replaced certain features like vanities or light fixtures?

When we meet with our stager to come through the property, they’ll make recommendations such as changing the marble countertops to quartz, switching your faucets or light fixtures. Don’t be a Harry Homeowner and try to make these changes yourself without professional help unless you’re experienced—lousy renovations can seriously damage the value of your home.

"Lousy renovations can seriously damage the value of your home."

Make sure you know what you’re spending, and whether or not that will help you sell the home, and get a return on your investment. For example, some people want to get a new roof installed when the roof is 15 years old, and there are still five years of life left in it—here, you shouldn’t expect to get the $8,000 to $10,000 that you spent on it as a return. It’s not worth investing the money in. If there was water damage or missing shingles, that would be a different story.

Spend your money in the right places; that’s where contacting a professional will come in handy. Making improvements on a home that you’re going to live in for awhile is fine, and you can spend a little more on those changes, but it’s a good idea to stay away from trendy renovations. Trends come and go, and there’s no guarantee you will be doing your home a favor.

There will be a different analysis for some who bought their home 10 years ago versus someone who bought 20 years ago, just based on what they may have to do to get the home ready to sell as far as upgrades go. So just know where you’re at, and again, contact a professional to help.

If you want an accurate assessment of your house, give us a call. We’d be glad to walk through the home, give you suggestions, show how you compare to other homes, and give you a good value.

Be Careful of Zillow's Zestimates

Whether you're buying or selling a home, you've probably come across Zillow and their Zestimate tool. Allow me to explain why you should tread lightly with the Zestimate and your home's value.

We have a lot of clients who get worked up over Zillow and their Zestimates. However, these Zestimates—Zillow's home value estimation tool—are wildly inaccurate sometimes. In fact, the Zillow CEO actually sold his house in 2016 for 40% less than what his site's Zestimate said it was worth. 

Zillow hasn't walked through your property and they don't know about any upgrades you've done, and they can't factor in location. Your home's upgrades compared to features of other homes that have recently sold are crucial in determining its value. Zillow aggregates and average of area home values rather than doing a fine-tuned valuation of your property.

"Many sellers price their home inaccurately because of a Zestimate."

This is especially true with the market moving at as fast of a pace as it is right now. Many sellers think they can do it all on their own, but we see them end up pricing their home inaccurately thanks to a Zestimate. 

Similarly, when buying a home, you want a real estate agent to help you compare properties to determine values of the homes you're looking at since Zestimates can be so far off. Zillow is the top website for real estate searches right now, but you need to work with an agent to see how homes you're interested in compare.

If you have any questions about Zillow when buying or selling a home or you'd like to know what your home is really worth, give us a call or send us an email. We'd be glad to help.

Baltimore Real Estate Agent: How to Buy and Sell a Home Simultaneously

One fear that many home sellers have before accepting offers on their home is that after the buyer signs the contract, they won’t be able to find a place to live. Is it possible to buy a new home while selling your current one? Though this is not an overly common situation in our area, it does happen. In the event that you’re unable to find a home after going under contract on your current one, a good real estate agent will be able to find you a home you love or negotiate to get you more time. To find out how we help our clients do this, watch this short video.

Some of our clients worry about being able to find a new home after selling their current one. We don’t often see issues with this today, but there are certainly instances of this in more of the hot pockets of Baltimore and Harford County.

If your home does sell really quickly, generally we can negotiate a home-of-choice contingency for you to be able to find a home, and sometimes we can get that extended, if need be.

We are often able to negotiate rent-backs and extensions with buyers.

For example, recently, one of our clients was not able to find a home that they liked within that 30-day time frame, so we were able to negotiate another 30 days, plus a rent-back period. This was a win-win for both these sellers and the buyer who purchased their home, since the buyer knew that they would still be able to buy the house and the sellers were given an additional 60 days after settlement to move out. This gave these sellers a 120-day period to find a house.

A good real estate agent will be able to help you through this process so that you don’t have to worry about ending up homeless after your home sale.

If you have any other questions about buying and selling a house simultaneously, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We’d be happy to help you!

How Do the New TRID Guidelines Affect You?

There are many great Baltimore area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (410) 638-9555 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today, I want to touch on some big changes coming to the industry that were supposed to begin August 1.

 The new lending guidelines, or TRID, have been pushed back to October 3. Some forms are merging to be more consumer-friendly, and there is one form that is altogether new. These guidelines were put forward by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in order to make the closing process easier.

There will be a transition period once TRID goes into effect in October. The biggest changes are on the banking side, as there will be a lot more disclosure that will be done up front as you're going through the lending process. This will make it a bit easier on you, as you will not have a bunch of forms put in front of you that you might not understand.

These changes are all based on loan applications submitted after October 3. If you put a contract on a house after October 3, you'll have to abide by these new regulations, whereas if you write a contract application in late September, you will abide by current regulations. Once the changes go into effect you will have to get your documents to the settlement company at least three days prior to settlement, so there will no longer be last-minute document exchanges.

If you would like more information about these changes, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, give us a call or shoot us a quick email. We would love to hear from you!

The Difference that Proper Staging Makes

There are many great Baltimore area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (410) 638-9555 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions. 

Welcome back everyone! Sorry we've been AWOL as of late, it's been a real busy summer for us. We settled 48 homes last month and have been keyed in on the hot market. Now is the time of the year where things cool down a little bit; vacations are ending, kids are going back to school, and less people are active in the market.

What we want to share with you today is some before and after pictures of homes that we have taken over and professionally staged. You will immediately notice the stark contrast  between the appearance of these homes before and after they went through our own personalized staging process. Little things like de-cluttering, painting neutral colors, and getting rid of personal items and pictures can go a long way in getting your home sold.

We want to demonstrate how we are different from your average agent. We treat your home the same way we treat ours when we sell them. One big step is getting professional photography and staging done for your home - it makes such a difference in the buyer's perception of your home that it's hard to put a value on it. We can't emphasize enough just how much of a difference it makes.

If you have any questions about how we can do this for your home, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to help.