As anyone who has purchased a home can tell you, buying a house is an expensive proposition. From saving for a down payment to setting aside money for closing costs and everything else associated with a home purchase, your bank account is undoubtedly feeling strained. If you find yourself in this situation and you’ve already been approved for a loan, seller concessions may help when it comes to alleviating the final cost.

These concessions can either be a set dollar amount or percentage of the purchase price that a seller agrees to contribute to the buyer to help the closing go smoothly and keep the sale from lingering while the buyer tries to find the extra money.

It’s always a good idea to talk with your real estate agent about your desire for a seller concession before making an offer on a home. Your agent can then put these concessions in the sales contract so that you don’t catch the seller by surprise when asking for concessions later on.

In some cases, your mortgage lender can include your need for a seller concession in their pre-approval letter, although this could scare people off from accepting your offer.

A conventional loan contract generally allows sellers to offer assistance with the buyer’s closing costs up to three percent of the total price of the property. The FHA allows up to six percent of the price and VA allows up to four percent.

The good news for sellers is that they’ll be able to deduct some of their concession money from their taxes. For example, discount points and real estate taxes most often will be tax deductible.

For buyers, it’s important to remember that you must use all the money offered by the seller, as anything not applied toward closing costs will be credited back to the seller. To keep this from happening, the money can be applied to home owner’s insurance, taxes or even dues for an HOA. The remaining concession can also be used to buy down the interest rate, lowering one’s payment and saving thousands of dollars over the life of a loan.

Seller concessions are beneficial to both parties in the transaction as they help when it comes to closing a sale quicker while giving the buyer some funds to buy things for their new home. When used properly, seller concessions can be the difference between closing a home sale and losing one.

To learn more about seller concessions, contact our office today.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

With all the tasks that go into preparing a home for a showing, many sellers often overlook the effect that light has on creating an inviting atmosphere for prospective buyers. In fact, even if you have natural light streaming in through the windows, it’s also a good idea to take advantage of the various light sources within the home.

As any real estate agent will tell you, a home looks more inviting when the lights are on. Not only do lights prevent harsh shadows from the sun and brighten dim areas, they also add dimension to rooms and bring out all the best features that you’ve worked so hard to clean and get ready for the showing.

In addition to brightening up a space, lighting experts reveal that lights can play tricks with the mind, helping to enhance the physical size of a room or hide any shortcomings. For example, if a room is on the smaller side, you can “push” one wall open by washing it with light. If a room is on the narrower side, illuminate the wide sides of the room to give it size.

When it comes to lighting, there are three areas that must be considered. General lighting, which provides the majority of light to a room; accent lighting, which highlights and draws attention to certain aspects of the home; and task lighting, which helps light a specific area to help complete a particular task.

For example, high-hats or recessed down-lights are a great choice for ceilings. For bedrooms, additional lighting can be added to the space by incorporating floor lamps or table lamps. Bathrooms should have vanity lights next to the mirror and the kitchen should have strong task lighting, with down-lights shining on countertops and the sink.

You should also include decorative lights in the living room, dining room and any other rooms with something to highlight. Chandeliers make a great light source, especially if they have bright light emanating from them.

If you’re in the process of getting your house ready for sale, be sure to purchase new light bulbs for all lamps and lighting fixtures. Go with higher wattages and crisp white light, and stay away from any tints. You may also want to think about removing (and saving) florescent LED lights and installing brighter bulbs.

The same is true with exterior lights. Flip them on before prospective buyers show up so that they can see everything your house and yard has to offer.

When it comes to lighting, it’s important to remember that strong lighting can make a home memorable and desirable.

To learn more about incorporating light into your space, contact our office today.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

For home sellers across the board, there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing your house sit on the market day after day, week after week or even month after month. If your home has been languishing on the market, it may be time to up the ante. Instead of simply lowering your asking price, the following tips may just give your home the edge it needs to stand above the competition.

1. Try holding an open house on a weeknight. While house hunters typically set aside time on the weekend to house hunt, there will always be people who can’t make those Saturday and Sunday appointments. Holding an open house on a weeknight is a great way to attract this crowd. With less competition for weeknight open houses, prospective buyers will be able to spend more time imagining themselves living in your home.

2. Paint and depersonalize. If your house is full of rooms that feature bold colors and lots of “interesting” furniture, it may be time to go more neutral and basic. Hire a professional stager to furnish the home so that it appeals to a wider range of buyers. By changing up the house a little and posting new pictures online, you’ll bring in more potential buyers.

3. View your home through the eyes of a buyer. Take your iPhone—or any other video app you may have—and record yourself walking through each room of your house, taking on the role of a potential buyer. Make sure to go in every room, check out every closet and pay attention to appliances and fixtures. After, watch the tape and take an objective approach to what looks good and what doesn’t. Often times we are blinded by our love for our own home and can’t see the forest for the trees. This simple exercise is an easy way to put yourself in a potential buyer’s shoes.

4. Upgrade the kitchen or bathroom. You might not want to put any more money into a house that you hope to be out of in a month’s time, but sometimes, spending money in one of these areas will pay off in the long run. Make these rooms memorable and people will want to buy. Even if you don’t get your full investment back, if it helps you sell your home, it’s a win.

5. Review comparables. Sit down with your agent review the details regarding homes that have sold within the last three months and see if anything has changed. What may have been a fair price when you put your house up for sale, may seem overvalued now. If your price is out of line with the neighborhood comps, be ready to adjust.

For more tips on gaining a competitive edge in today’s market, contact our office today.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Determining a listing price is one of the most important items you’ll have to tackle when it comes to getting your home sold without it languishing on the market. While coming up with a price that isn’t too high—or too low—may seem daunting, looking at comps can help when it comes to making an educated decision.

What a lot of people who put their house on the market don’t realize, is that when you look at comps, you need to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. That means that even though you may be neighbors, the four-bedroom, three-bathroom home with a pool and finished basement isn’t comparable to your three-bedroom, one-bathroom house with an unfinished basement. In fact, a house six blocks away may be a better comp if it is a similar age and size with a similar number of rooms.

Your agent has the tools to present you with the best comps in your area, and once they do, you can decide on the best price together. They get their information from the MLS database, looking at all the properties in a given area that have been listed “for sale,” are pending or have already sold.

A number of factors go into a comp to justify a listing price, including being located in the same neighborhood and school district. Additional factors include the street, similar housing features and size. If two houses are similar in these areas, then a comp can be used to provide a current estimated value of your home.

When it comes to working with comps, the best one would be from a home that’s the same age, on the same street, with the same number of rooms and one that closed in the last 90 days. However, it’s important to keep in mind that things don’t always work out this way, and comps are sometimes taken from “close” properties or sales from further back. Both can be detrimental when it comes to establishing a true value.

When presented with the comps, take some time to look at what features are common among all of them so that you can begin to get an idea as to what people in your area are looking for in a home. Are houses with Energy Star appliances selling? Maybe updated bathrooms are big. Perhaps those with gardens are going strong. Reviewing the comps can provide a lot of insight about sales in your neighborhood.

Your agent will most likely have seen many of these houses up close if they work regularly in the neighborhood and their expertise will provide them with an understanding in regard to what works best and sells fastest. Listen to their advice.

In the end, it’s important to keep in mind that if a house on your block sold for $400,000 last week and another close by sold for close to the same amount a month earlier, that doesn’t mean that your house will automatically be valued the same.

For more information about comps, contact our office today.

Published with permission from RISMedia.