Date Archives: June 2019

Our REALTORS® strive to help everyone they meet make informed decisions about buying and selling a home. No matter if you choose to use our team in the long run, you deserve to have all the facts that will help you achieve the results you want.

One of the most important things a seller can understand is the value of professional advice when it's time to list a home. "For Sale By Owner" may seem fast and convenient, but most sellers who try to do things all on their own will find themselves frustrated – and never reach their goals.

A REALTOR® provides benefits you won't want to pass up. They include:

1. Better Final Sale Price
   Research has shown that professional help with your listing can translate to tens of thousands of dollars for your final sale. A REALTOR® supports your financial goals by ensuring your home is priced attractively, yet maximizes value. When you sell on your own, you are leaving money on the table and sacrificing your valuable time, too.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — and you'd better believe that beauty is very important to homebuyers, especially when it comes to curb appeal. Curb appeal is one of the most important features of your home. How your exterior appears to everyone — not just buyers, but neighbors and visitors too — immediately creates an impression. As you prepare to sell your home, our real estate agents want to help you maximize your curb appeal. Let's take a look at some curb appeal trends that are sprouting up this summer.

• Improve Your Landscaping
  Let's start with your yard. Whether it's large or small, the space that separates the sidewalk from your foundation has plenty of room for improvement. Think beyond a well-manicured lawn and consider landscaping or hardscaping. Simple installations of flower gardens, bushes or even colorful potted plants spruce up the scene. You can also get a little more extensive by installing retaining walls around gardens or property lines and creating stone walkways or gravel pathways that lead from your driveway to your backyard or the side door of your garage.
  
  

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Our real estate agents have gotten plenty of questions lately about selling homes that are already empty. It's true: Selling a vacant home may present unusual challenges for the owner.

A vacant home can be more difficult to stage for your future buyers – and it's also tougher to keep it safe from thieves and vandals. Still, showing a vacant home might be unavoidable if your plans include moving before you have closed on the sale.

By taking a few extra steps, you can keep your property protected:

1. Inform Local Law Enforcement
   Your local police are your best allies when it comes to keeping a vacant property safe. When you inform the police department about your plans, it means officers can be extra alert for anything unusual that happens around the neighborhood. Even a brief check-in by officers may be enough to persuade a would-be thief to choose a different target.

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If you're a first-time homebuyer, chances are you're getting ready to enter into one of the biggest transactions of your life. Along the way, you'll experience peaks of extreme excitement and valleys of anxiety and uncertainty.

Our REALTORS® work with first-time homebuyers all the time. To help ensure your transaction goes smoothly, they've created this list of nine things all first-time homebuyers need to know. 

1. Start Saving for Your Down Payment Today
   While putting 20 percent down used to be the common practice, some lenders now allow you to put down as little as 3 percent of the purchase price. However, taking this option will increase your monthly payment and the amount you pay over the lifetime of the loan.  No matter what amount you've decided to put down, it will take some time to save up what you need. If you're going to put down 5 percent on a $200,000 home, that still means you'll need to come to the table with at least $10,000.

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