New guidelines for short sales
The U.S. Treasury Department announced new guidelines last week designed to make short sales go more smoothly. To qualify under these new guidelines:
- The property must be the home owner’s principal residence
- The home owner must be delinquent on their loan or close to defaulting
- The loan must have been made before Jan. 1, 2009, and be for less than $729,750
- The borrowers’ total payment must exceed 31 percent of their before-tax income.
Why list on Realtor.com?
Why should you list on Realtor.com? The answer is simple… Each month, Realtor.com attracts more than 13.7 million visits per month* from consumers interested in buying a home. No other real estate site even comes close to that number.
The most comprehensive national collection of homes for sale, Realtor.com is the most powerful site of its kind!
- Number 1 in page views
- Number 1 in time spent searching and your
- Number 1 online sales tool (for agents)
Nearly 14 million people don’t visit a Web site by accident. It takes a great deal of work, as Realtor.com is increasing awareness and driving traffic with its public awareness campaigns.
NAR launches beta HouseLogic.com
The folks at NAR (National Association of REALTORS) just launched the beta version of their new consumer facing website HouseLogic.com
What is HouseLogic.com?
HouseLogic is a free source of information and tools—from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®—that can help you make smart and timely decisions about your home.
Tips for creating a home video tour
If you are thinking of creating a video tour of your home, watch this video from Realtor.com for excellent tips and ideas to create a stunning video.
We now offer the ability to post your video on Realtor.com for a small fee.
How to claim your home on Zillow
This video will show you how to easily claim and edit your home facts on Zillow.com!
Get Your Finances in Order: To-Do's
Before starting your search for the perfect home, it’s a good idea to get your finances in order. In most cases, the process of buying a home involves applying for a mortgage, and you’ll need to have all your ducks in line to get approved.
1. Develop a household budget. Instead of creating a budget of what you’d like to spend, use receipts to create a budget that reflects your actual spending habits over the last several months. This approach will factor in unexpected expenses, such as car repairs, as well as predictable costs such as rent, utility bills, and groceries.
2. Reduce your debt. Lenders generally look for a total debt load of no more than 36 percent of income. This figure includes your mortgage, which typically ranges between 25 and 28 percent of your net household income. So you need to get monthly payments on the rest of your installment debt — car loans, student loans, and revolving balances on credit cards — down to between 8 and 10 percent of your net monthly income.
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Why you should own instead of rent
You’ve probably seen lots of financial arguments about why you should own your own home rather than rent. This includes budgeting (no rent increases) and the tax savings you’ll most likely have. Now I’m going to give you some reasons you probably haven’t heard.
Freedom to pursue other goals in life once the major goal of home ownership is achieved
Strange as it sounds, many of my first-time buyers have told me that once they bought the house, other things in their life started to fall into place. It’s as if not owning took so much of their mental energy that other goals were not worked on until that big goal was reached. So buy a home and get on with your life!
Marketing: What Works Best?
The 2 primary factors that determine if and when your home will sell are Exposure and Price. Exposure that counts is exposure that reaches buyers who are the most willing, ready, and able to buy. Setting the right price is crucial because under-pricing is like giving money away, and over-pricing is just a waste of time because nobody buys over-priced homes.
The best possible exposure is MLS and websites that display MLS listings. This is where the vast majority of buyers are looking for homes, and where the buyers are the most ready, willing, and able to buy. MLS and public MLS websites ARE the real estate market. FSBO websites tend to attract investors looking for a steal and buyers looking for owner financing.
Improvements: How much value?
Which home improvements give the best payback? If you’re thinking about remodeling your kitchen, or finishing your basement, you probably want to get your investment back when you sell your home. But when it comes to payback value of home improvements, some are definitely more profitable than others.
As a general rule, kitchen and bathroom projects usually get a nice return on investment, typically 90% or more. Things like adding rooms or finishing basements tend to pay back the least. Finishing a basement usually returns less than 50%, so it’s not a project likely to show profit at selling time.
Trouble Selling? Sweeten the Deal
If you’re having trouble landing a buyer for your home, maybe you need better bait. Crafty home sellers know incentives are the prize at the bottom of the box. By offering buyers something a little different, they can improve their chances of selling their homes quickly and for the price they want.
Here are just a few of the ways home sellers can sweeten the deal with extras.
Cover the buyer’s closing costs
Many buyers, preoccupied with saving enough cash for their down payment, overlook their closing costs which, at between 3 and 6 percent of the sale price, can amount to several thousand dollars extra. Offering to pay them on behalf of potential buyers may be just the push they need to close the deal.