Home Sellers, This Is Why You REALLY Need A Professional Real Estate Agent!

There is a well-known saying in the real estate field that goes, “in order to succeed in life, you need to be the first child, the second spouse, or the third realtor”. Like all other sayings, there’s some kind of anecdotic truth in the statement, and real estate agents who deal with listings of home sellers will attest to this.

Are you making an informed choice?

While it is perfectly natural for a home seller to expect to earn as much money as possible from the transaction, making an uninformed decision about the selling price is a huge mistake. If spot on, a higher selling price of the property means more financial opportunities. On the other hand, an overinflated price will drive away bids and, in the end, the home seller will be forced to give up the house for a significantly lesser cash.

How to price your property

A far better approach to correctly estimating the sum that your property is worth implies becoming familiar with the factors and variables that matter in real estate. You could hire an appraiser or you can come up with an educated price based on real estate market movements, similar properties and upgrades included (or that will be included in the near future). As you can see, this technique comprises of an educated opinion and, practically, you cannot talk about a hard and fast price tag for the house.

One of the common concerns of home sellers is listing their property too low. However, as any professional real estate agent will inform you, there is no such thing as listing a property with a price under the market value. In the eventuality that you will be forced to list your home at a sub-optimal price, the multitude offers you will receive will usually drive up the price higher and towards the real market value of the property. The only real problem occurs when the price listed for the property is excessively high.

A real estate agent is your beacon of light!

Given these facts to digest, inexperienced home sellers should look for an honest real estate agent who can present them the reality of the situation, be it good or bad. If you are choosing an agent solely based on the price that he thinks your house is worth, then you will be making a huge mistake and you may lose substantial amounts of cash. Contrary to the common belief, real estate agents do not select the prices of properties, but rather guide their clients into making the right choice on their own.

Nonetheless, the realtor can provide very useful advice, which will generally help clients attain a higher selling price. For instance, one classic method of getting a better offer for a house entails investing in upgrades (especially for the kitchen and bathroom) and making sure everything, all fixtures and appliances are functional. Serious buyers who are interested in the property will usually bring in a home inspector who will give a final verdict on the condition of the house and potentially required investments.

Lastly, simply by working with a professional real estate agent, you could obtain a higher bid for your property as these professionals have amazing negotiating skills who will present your case in the best possible light.

Brett Boone is trying to sell his home to an Edmond Realtor. His continuous failure made him hire a professional Edmond Real Estate Agent and he is willing to share the importance of having one through his article.

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The Benefits Of Selling Green Real Estate

There is a new trend happening in real estate and it is going green. More and more people are looking for homes that have at least been partially converted to an environmentally friendly home. Homeowners not only want to save money on utility bills but also have their eyes on the environment and how they can help save this earth for their children. This is a trend that is only going to get stronger as the years go by and anyone selling their home needs to look at the advantages of selling green real estate.

You may have noticed it yourself when you have had people in your home looking at it for a potential purchase. They may have asked you questions about your utility bills or may have paid a lot of attention to the windows and doors. These are all indications that homebuyers are looking for a little bit of green in every house.

If you are selling your home you should mention the green aspects of it. When you are showing people your home, take an extra moment to talk about the new energy-efficient windows you purchased last year or the new digital thermostat you had installed. This can make a difference when you are selling your home.

If you don’t have many green features that you can accentuate, the next best thing you can do is to physically add some green to your home. Pick up some leafy green plants and place them next to your sofa on the end tables. Purchase some beautiful leafy flowers that you can put on the night table beside your children’s bunk beds. Grab some of these leaves and arrange a few on top of the pillows on the bunk beds. This will create a green effect that will be to your advantage.

Adding plants and flowers to your home is always a good idea if you are trying to sell it anyway. It doesn’t take long for air in the house to get very stale, especially in the winter when the heat is on. Plants and flowers actually act as an air purifier in the home by adding extra oxygen to it.

Do whatever you can afford to do to green up your home for a faster sale. There are a lot of people that are thinking about the environment these days and looking for a home that has at least some green features to it. The more you can add to your home when it is up for sale the better chance you have of selling it quickly.

Countertops That Help Sell Homes

If you’re thinking about replacing your kitchen countertops than you should consider how they will affect the resale value of your house.

Certain countertops are way more desirable than others. One of the first things that a potential home buyer is going to look at when they enter the kitchen is your countertop.

Don’t let them down! Awe them with your highly functional and beautiful countertops.

The two most desirable countertops are granite and quartz. You can’t go wrong with installing either countertop in your home.

Why Countertops Sell Homes

Home buyers are looking for high quality countertops for two reasons. The most obvious reason is how beautiful they are. Granite and quartz countertops make a statement. Their bright and vibrant colors will catch the eye of even the most discriminating prospect.

Their luster will cause them to take their hands out of their pockets and run them across the surface of the stone. A highly polished stone screams out to be touched.

They’ll Make Life In The Kitchen Easier

Both countertops will make your life easier in the kitchen as well. Discriminating house hunters will know that they’ll be able to leave their cutting boards in their old apartment before moving in. They’ll be able to chop and cut their food on top of the countertop.

They are also going to like that they can put scalding hot pans on top of the countertop, right out of the oven. The next time that they cook an apple pie they can remove it from the oven and place it right on the countertop.

Do you know where they’ll be able to leave their trivets? That’s right. They can leave them sitting in their old apartment right next to their old cutting boards.

Stone Countertops Are Low Maintenance

People will also appreciate the amount of work that they’ll have to do to keep stone countertops looking like new. It’s pretty much next to none. With the quartz countertops you won’t have to do any maintenance other than keeping them clean. With granite you have to seal them once a year with a granite sealer.

When you compare quartz vs granite the maintenance is usually the only difference that you’ll find. The coloring is different too but both are fantastic. Which colors you like better are only a personal preference.

If you’re interested in discovering more about quartz vs granite, visit the authors website about quartz countertops.

Valuable Home Buying Tips for New Couples

After getting married or engaged, some couples will look at buying a new house – one in which they will begin their life together. It’s bound to be one stressful time, but these suggestions should help couples old and new be in the right frame of mind to make educated home buying decisions.

Location, location, location: This is one of the most important keys to finding the right new home. What’s the most suitable for both of you? Find a property that’s close enough to where you work, and close enough to quality schools, institutions, and other important community features. One thing you could do is study neighborhood or community online sites for more information about the area you’re interested in. Local Realtors®, for example, offers comprehensive information on local neighborhoods and features.

Maintenance: A house is not a big one-time investment. You’d have to pay it constant attention, too. Studies reveal that every house will require between 1% to 3% of its value in annual maintenance costs. So apart from planning your budget for mortgage, taxes, and utilities, plan also for home inspections, property fixes, and regular maintenance.

Keep yourselves informed: You both wouldn’t want your house to cost more in the long run that you’d expected. So get your prospective home inspected before closing the deal and making the final decision. Professional home inspections are a must – and so are professional home inspectors who have been formally trained, properly certified and re-certified, have access to technical support and reference information, and have the ability and confidence to stand by the accuracy of their findings in the inspection reports.

Be more proactive: Buying a house is not like online shopping. You can’t make do with a product shot and send it to your cart. Being proactive in the home buying process means asking the seller (and the inspector) questions, attending the actual home inspection, educating yourself about the basic systems and operations of the house, and knowing in detail the short- and long-term condition of the property.

Buying a Home? Here's How You Educate Yourself

When it comes to buying a home, knowledge is power. And we’re not just talking keeping abreast of the stock market, the housing market, mortgage rates, and other such stocks of information over which you have little control. It’s important to learn more about what you can control, too.

Professional home inspections give you a source for just that kind of information. Awareness on things that are usually reflected in an inspection report – like major systems, important shut-off valves, repairs that have to be made, minor and major defects – can spell the difference between a smart real estate investment and a potentially disastrous one.

However, too many homebuyers – not just in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, but throughout the United States – still don’t appreciate the importance of home inspections – as well as the kind of information they provide. According to Kathleen Kuhn, President and CEO of HouseMaster, the first and one of the largest home inspection organizations in North America, buyers spend months researching neighborhoods and mortgage providers, but not nearly enough time on professional home inspectors.

“A good home inspector is a critical component in the process of buying a house,” Kuhn says. “That’s because inspection reports help tremendously in forming realistic expectations of a home. How does it operate? How do you keep it safe? What needs to be maintained, and for how much and how regularly? Buyers will need that kind of information before they even move in, so it’s alarming that not a lot of people even consider looking up lists of home inspection providers and professional home inspectors.”

Kuhn adds that home inspections would take only a few hours – depending on the size of the property – so buyers need not balk at the idea of going through it. “Besides,” notes Kuhn, “home inspections can serve as very useful backstage tours of how homes work.” She says that “many of our clients – say, in Chicago and the nearby suburbs – felt empowered by what they learned from the home inspection. It put them in the right frame of mind to make informed decisions about buying a home.”

For more information on home inspections, home ownership, and home maintenance, visit HouseMaster.com.

Valuable Negotiation Tips for Homebuyers

You’re looking to build your dream house – and you have just identified some homes for sale that are a perfect fit for you – except they’re slightly out of budget. While price negotiations are usually part of real estate deals, not every homebuyer out there knows how to negotiate properly, or approach this part of the house sale process the right way, thus missing out on a chance to get the best deal out of their respective dream homes.

That’s why we came up with this list of valuable negotiation tips:

• You can’t leverage the home inspectors’ report if you don’t choose your home inspector carefully. Buyers often assume that they can use the home inspection report to negotiate a better deal – but that’s only true if these reports are done by professional, qualified, credible, and trustworthy home inspectors. So choose them carefully. Untrained inspectors will make it harder for the seller to trust whatever findings they come up with. When deciding on a home inspection company, remember to verify things like trainings, certifications, local licenses, and even education programs. In Chicago Metropolitan Area, as well as in Chicago-Joliet-Naperville Metropolitan Statistical Area, HouseMaster stands as one of the largest (and most experienced) organizations for professional home inspections.

• Be present at the actual inspection. Attending the home inspection will certainly make for a more well-informed homebuyer, but that’s only one of the many reasons why it’s helpful to be present at the inspection. Apart from a basic walk-through, home inspectors will also usually provide easy-to-understand demonstrations of how the house operates, where the important shut-off valves are, and where defects and damages have been seen. Attend the second home inspection, too, if you can: this is when you can verify whether the repairs that the inspector recommended in the first report have actually been made – or at least noted for negotiation purposes.

• Know what’s important. The home inspection report will contain lots of details, big and small, but make sure you focus your efforts on what is actually important. Look at major elements. Sidewalk cracks and wallpaper peeling aren’t pleasing to the eyes, but there might be other defects in the house that will cost more than 500 bucks to repair. Pay attention to that, because they’re the elements that are likely to be negotiable.

• Avoid souring a deal. It’s important to be realistic and professional about price negotiations – don’t exploit too ruthlessly. Instead of negotiating $2 for every $1 of actual repair expense, provide and present cost estimates. This will make your requests much more substantial, and your negotiations much more friendly.
• Ask about warranties. It never hurts to consider a home warranty, especially if the seller has some major systems in the house that are a bit out of date. Start with a period of one year. Who knows? The seller might even consider paying for coverage, as this reduces the risk of swallowing heavy replacement costs.

The key to price negotiations is educating yourself about the condition of the house you’re buying. Home inspections will certainly help you prepare. The above tips, meanwhile, will help you engage with the seller in more realistic negotiations.

For more information on home inspections, home buying, and home maintenance, visit HouseMaster.com.

Home Inspections: Why Good Things Come to Those Who Don’t Always Wait

Good things come to those who wait.

Apparently, in the housing market, this doesn’t necessarily hold true.

With the number of homes for sale now at an all-time high, combined with the effects of a worldwide economic downturn, people are seeing a decline in home prices – the first in nearly a decade. Many buyers are holding out, hoping to get better deals than what the market is currently offering. However, according to Kathleen Kuhn, President and CEO of HouseMaster (one of the largest home inspection organizations in North America), waiting isn’t necessarily the smartest move – it might actually be better to buy now.

“These days, there are a few savvy buyers finding ways to negotiate good deals,” Kuhn says. “They understand that the listing price isn’t necessarily the seller’s bottom line. How are they negotiating? Well, these buyers are leveraging the reports of professional home inspectors to get the best price out of the properties they’re interested in.”

Here’s how it works. After the bidding and signing of contracts, a home inspection is performed. This generally includes an evaluation of electrical systems, plumbing, heating and cooling systems, structural elements, and other home operations. Home inspectors then document and report on all areas of concerns, and in cases where they find a defect or a potentially problematic system, the home buyer can use these as leverage in order to negotiate a better deal.

Contrary to what some buyers or real estate sellers may think, this is no small matter. Research conducted by HouseMaster has shown that an astounding 40% of resale homes have defects that would cost about $500 to $1000 to repair.

Kuhn explains: “If the property is as the buyer expected, then it’s easy to push through the deal with confidence. If there’s something wrong, a roofing problem or something of the sort, they can discuss this with the seller and have it addressed, possibly even negotiate a lower price for the house. That’s why home inspections are so important; they can alert the buyers before they make the final decision.”

With home inspections, homebuyers holding out to wait for lower prices can do something more proactive to negotiate better deals. Indeed, while it’s good to wait for opportunities, it’s even better to just make them happen.

For more information on the home inspection process, home maintenance, and home ownership, visit housemaster.com.

Illinois Home Inspector

Whenever you intend to purchase a new home, folk always say that you will need to have it checked. But what if you’re purchasing a just created home? Do you need a home inspection for that?
A common myth being circulated today is the idea that newly created houses don’t want to be checked by an Illinois home inspector.

You’ve got to understand that time saw the way home building corporations are structured. After WWII, the building contractors employed a big number of the total workforce on a housing tract. Today, it is no longer like that. This is as they’re actually hiring sub-contractors to do the job for them. You can count up the number of folks in their payroll with one hand.

their best could not always be in your best, so while they have still got their size and past reputation to fall back on, you, on the other hand, are absolutely at the beck and call of the people swinging the hammers, pulling the wire, and the supervision in control. How does one cope with something similar to that? Where are you able to get the comfort you want that your home purchase is a good deal?

The answer, of course, lies in your Illinois home inspector.

Your Illinois home inspector is your advocate. Your employed set of eyes, the Illinois home inspector provides you with un-biased 3rd party info on all the visible components that weren’t installed correctly and is going to be defective.

Every house was new at one time. But simply because it is new doesn’t mean that there are not any faults present which a layman’s eyes may miss. He will be able to help in indicating the obvious facets of your house’s exterior that requires work or repairs.

While checking, it’s best if you go with your Illinois home inspector also. He’s pro and he knows something about construction. So if you have got any questions about your newly created home, ask away. He may not have all the answers but he can offer you a general view of how things are right now, and from there, you can ascertain where you stand in your house purchase.

Tinley Park Home Inspector

If you have got a pal who also latterly got a home, then probabilities are he has had his home checked by a Tinley Park home inspector.
You can ask him if there’s any one he will suggest or if he knows the organisation or company to which his Tinley Park home inspector belongs.

If not, you may try asking your property broker, but be careful when you turn to this because occasionally, when a Tinley Park home inspector works closely with one agent particularly, it may be that your own interest may not always be in his mind. At any rate, you have another choice. One of the benefits of the web is that you will find all kinds of info about just about anything in there. You can start searching for a Tinley Park home inspector by checking internet sites controlled by CREIA ( www.creia.com ) and ASHI ( www.ashi.com ). These 2 sites basically include tips for clients, Tinley Park home inspector standards and practices and catalogues of members. It may be good if you hire a Tinley Park home inspector, who is an affiliate of a credible association because their membership often incorporates a stiff set of rules that guarantee professionalism in everything that they do.

For one, some organisations need their Tinley Park home inspector to pass a test. After that, they would need to meet continuing education needs. And then, there are the standards of practice and code of ethics that they have to follow. All of this can help make sure that you are getting your money’s worth when you hire a Tinley Park home inspector to look at your home. What you want to Know About Tinley Park Home Inspectors Most inspections take at least 3 hours for an average-sized house. The pricetag relies upon the scale of the potential home.

Prepare yourself to spend at least $250 to $350. But if the house you are intending to buy is large, then you could have to spend a touch more than that. Tinley Park home inspectors aren’t needed to do more than what their job comprises, which is to make an objective and independent visible appraisal of all its major elements. So figuring out the simple way to shut off the electricity, water and gas, and the way to service smoke detectors won’t be part of their job, but you can ask them questions applying to these. It is always suggested that you, the house buyer, are present while the Tinley Park home inspector is making his rounds of the property. He’ll be looking thru all parts of the house, even going as far as going thru crawl spaces, poking the cills and windows, and going up the loft. That much he’s authorized. But if he starts worrying or moving any private things that come with the house, be forewarned : he’s not permitted to do that.