Five questions to ask before hiring a real estate agent

Want to sell your property quickly? Looking for your dream house? Are you hoping to get the best deal possible during the complex process of buying or selling a home? With so much money – and often, emotion – at stake, going it alone is generally not the best way to reach your goals. The secret for getting exactly what you want: Work with a savvy real estate agent.

A qualified real estate agent will streamline the process, help you save money and serve as a liaison with your best interests in mind. But how do you find the right real estate agent? Hundreds or even thousands of real estate professionals may work in your area, but finding the best one for your unique situation doesn’t have to be time-consuming.

Remember, you’re hiring this individual for his or her expertise and services. Your agent will get a designated percentage of the sale of the house. Depending on negotiations, this cost may be covered by the seller, buyer or split by both. You want someone who will work hard for you, but also someone you are comfortable with because you may be spending a lot of time together.

To find the best real estate agent for you, ask these five critical questions:

1. How many buyers or sellers have you helped in the last year in the area?

An active agent is more likely to be up-to-date on the market, and local and state laws. Furthermore, active agents with experience in your neighborhood, or the neighborhood where you’d like to move, are better positioned to help you because they can provide unique insight that other less-knowledgeable agents cannot.

2. Do you have advanced training?

Any licensed real estate agent can help you buy or sell a home. But an agent who has advanced specialty training is better qualified to assist you. For example, an agent who is an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR), has enhanced training focusing specifically on buyers. An agent who is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) has special training to deal with short sales and foreclosures. RE/MAX agents on average have more certifications and extra training to better serve buyers and sellers.

3. What services do you offer?

While the majority of people shop for homes online first, having someone on your side through the search and sale process can save time and money. A buyer’s agent should help you schedule showings, assist with negotiating the price of the new home, guide you through the paperwork, be there at the closing table, and provide insight through any contingencies during the process.

For sellers, an agent should help set the price of the home, based on a competitive market analysis (CMA). Ask the agent how he or she will market your home (websites, videos, direct mail). Also inquire about assistance with staging and hosting open houses. Then, when the offers come in, the agent can help you with the decision on which one to accept.

4. Who else will be working with me?

The person you hire should do most of the work, but you may work with a support team, too. Additional team members may include mortgage brokers, home inspectors or contractors. If you’d like more information about what it’s like to work with an agent, don’t be shy about asking for references. You’ll get real insight into what it’s like to work with that particular professional.

5. How often will I hear from you?

No matter if you’re selling or buying, ask how often you’ll hear from the agent and make sure that this aligns with your expectations. For buyers: Do you just want to hear when there’s a new home that may interest you? Do you want regular check-in calls too? For sellers: Do you want to hear from your agent only after a buyer has toured your home, or do you want to be kept in the loop on a weekly basis?

Buying or selling a home is a complex process most people do only a few times in their lives. Hiring the right real estate agent from a reputable company like RE/MAX can give you an edge so you get the best deal possible while meeting all your goals.

You can learn more about the home buying and selling process and find an experienced agent in your neighborhood by visiting www.homewardboundpro.com

6 Ways to Sell Your Home This Fall

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Fall is second only to spring as the busiest time of the year for home sales -- and Idaho Realtor Gail Hartnett sees this autumn as an especially good time to have your property on the market.

"Inventory is low, so if you have your house on the market and is priced well, it's going to sell," says Hartnett, a National Association of Realtors regional vice president and an agent with Keller Williams Realty Boise.

Home sales in Idaho and many other U.S. locales are rebounding this fall as low prices, improved consumer confidence and rock-bottom mortgage rates bring buyers out. At the same time, many would-be sellers are either too discouraged to put homes on the market or are waiting for prices to rise, creating a shortage of available homes in much of the country.

Add in the fact that many people travel to their hometowns for Thanksgiving, football games and the like and Hartnett believes it's a bad idea to keep your property off of the market this fall.
"People who've been thinking of moving back home will look at some houses when they come for a visit, and finding the perfect place will push them into action," she says. "But if your place isn't on the market, they won't see it."

Houses that boast green grass and lush gardens in the spring, though, look a lot less inviting during the fall.

Here are six things Hartnett recommends all would-be sellers do this autumn to adjust for that and get a home moving:

Give your home a cozy smell
Fall brings back childhood memories of hayrides and Thanksgiving dinners for many, and Hartnett recommends maximizing your place's "homey" feeling this time of year.
The Realtor always has spiced cider, fresh-baked cookies or other warm and friendly fare cooking up in during showings and open houses at properties she's listing.

"We take some big old pots and dump cider in them, then warm it up and the whole house smells good," Hartnett says. "It's just a warm, homey smell that makes people feel good when they enter."
She places cider and cookies ready for serving in a strategically out-of-the-way place visitors reach only after touring the house. That way Hartnett has a chance to "pitch" the house to buyers while they snack.

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Real estate investors are optimistic about housing market

By Justin Pierce

Despite some shifts in the housing market that make it more difficult to earn money investing in residential real estate, a large majority of people in that field plan to buy as many or more properties in the next 12 months to rent out or sell for profit.

That’s one of the findings of a study released last month that attempted to measure the impact people involved in income or speculative real estate are having on the housing market .

The survey — sponsored by BiggerPockets.com, the nation’s leading social Web site for real estate investors, and Memphis Invest, one of the largest providers of single-family rentals — shows that 65 percent of investors plan to buy a lot more homes during the next 12 months.
Still, from my experience in the Washington area, business conditions are changing with rising home prices, stiffening competition and shrinking margins. Anyone seeking to get into real estate investing should proceed with caution and not expect to earn the same money that has been made in the past few years.

The report points out that investors played a fairly substantial role in the housing recovery. The housing crisis pushed nearly 4 million foreclosures onto the open market, devastating home values. This and the coinciding financial crisis squashed homebuyers’ confidence and their ability to buy. At that time, real estate investors began buying up the foreclosures when few other people could enter the market. They bought up so many properties that they established single-family rentals as a $100 billion business. In fact, the report says that single-family rentals now outnumber apartment units.
They are also renovating the homes they buy and spending an average of $7,500 per home. That totals more than $9.2 billion every year in construction-related spending, according to the report. This is critical business for an industry that was hit hard by the recession.

In 2008, Congress approved the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to provide funds to municipalities and not-for-profit organizations to repair damage to foreclosed homes. Up to this point, they have spent a total of $7 billion of tax payer money.

Real estate investors are doing more than this every year with their own money or money that they borrow. Surprisingly, the report finds that only one in four real estate investors are cash buyers. In fact, slightly more than half make down payments and finance the rest of the purchase amount. If you read my last post, you’ll see just how much most real estate investors pay for financing.
This strikes at one of the prevailing myths about real estate investors. Very few have cash for their projects. I can also tell you that most real estate investors are more afraid of you, the retail buyer, than you are of them. Real estate investors have to pay higher interest rates than owner occupants and they have many more additional costs. Back in 2006, real estate investors would come in and buy properties at market value and then gamble that they would make their profit within a year on appreciation alone. I can tell you that most all of those investors are out of business now or they’ve learned very painful lessons.

Some 3 percent of American adults or 7 million people are active real estate investors, according to the report. These people are actively looking to buy more property and about half of them make more than five purchases each year. This is a diverse group of people. About 76 percent are under the age 55. They are more likely to live in the South or West of the country and about two-thirds of them make less than $75,000 per year.

Even more interesting, the report tells us that this group of active investors does not plan to slow down despite rising home prices and increased competition. About 65 percent of the active investors plan to buy as many or more properties in the next 12 months as they did in the past 12 months. This is big news considering that fact that real estate investors accounted for as much as 25.3 percent of all home purchases as of May 2012. This indicates that investors have confidence that the housing recovery will continue and their robust activity will help ensure it.

Keep in mind that this is a national survey. The Washington area doesn’t exactly fall in line with national trends. But real estate investors are very optimistic creatures. When the report says 65 percent of investors plan to buy more property in the next 12 months, I believe it. But the key word is plan. I’ve never met an investor who plans to do less this year than last year.

The real estate market in this area has been on a steady climb for a while. New waves of foreclosures have provided targets and opportunities for investors over the past few years. But as illustrated by data from RealEstate Business Intelligence and MRIS, inventories are down and prices are up. Prices in some areas are up to 90 percent of where they were at the peak. Investors will be pressured to pay way more than they’d like for fixer upper homes and many of them will get in trouble if they’re not careful. Nothing throws cold water on investors like a bad deal.

I would expect investor activity to stay fairly strong in this area but I think demand for rentals will slow a bit as home prices increase. I also think rehabbers and home flippers will face stiff competition and less opportunity. I’m already seeing that in my business. I’m getting tighter on my budgets and spending more time and money to find viable projects. If interest rates stay low and prices continue to rise, investors will likely move to land development, commercial real estate or possibly other markets. At some point, we might also see investors become sellers as we did in the late 1990s and beyond as they liquidated holdings they’d accumulated in the down market 20 years ago.

This market should continue to be strong but I would advise investors to begin reassessing their business models. I would also recommend extreme caution to those looking to begin a real estate investing career. You are probably not going to make money in the next few years in the same manner it was made in the last few years.

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How To Spot A Home That Might Sell Below Its Real Estate Value

Want to increase your chances of buying a home below current real estate value? Just look for a seller who didn’t listen to his agent.

The best real estate agents encourage their sellers to do whatever it takes to get the home in its absolute best condition before going to market. The better the home shows, the more likely the seller will get top dollar.

Sometimes, this could be as simple as removing personal items or decluttering. Other times, an agent will suggest bigger fixes, such as painting, replacing carpet or upgrading countertops or cabinets. Savvy sellers listen to their agents, make the changes suggested and go to market in top form. That’s not always how it plays out, however.

For any number of reasons, many sellers protest suggested fixes. Either they don’t want to be inconvenienced, don’t believe the fixes will matter or don’t have the financial resources to make it happen. Inevitably, this means the buyer will get a discount on that property.

How to spot a home that might sell below its value
Is there a home for sale in a good neighborhood and in the desired school district that seems to be well-priced but for some reason isn’t selling? This is the home you want to investigate, because chances are the seller didn’t listen to his agent. Specifically, here are some tell-tale signs to look for.

Big furniture or a lot of furniture
Most people don’t buy furniture to use when staging their home. Often a seller may have a lot of furniture in one room, which makes the room look small to potential buyers. Real estate agents and professional home stagers know this all too well. For example, stagers always suggest a small loveseat over a full-blown couch or sectional sofa. Also, in the bedrooms, king beds often take up too much space. So a stager will often push the seller to swap it out for a queen or full-sized bed.
When you enter a house that seems crowded with furniture, imagine the rooms with fewer or smaller pieces. Be aware that plenty of potential buyers won’t get past the sense that the rooms are too small, and they’re likely to move on to a home that feels bigger. In turn, this could give you room to negotiate a good deal with the seller.

Dark rooms
There was a home in West Hartford, CT on a great block, but the interior was dark. Three large French doors in the living room led to a deck, but the doors were stained black, and the carpet was brown. On top of that, the window coverings were big, heavy and overtook the room.
The house sat on the market for months, even though the price wasn’t far off the real estate market value. Here’s why: Every buyer walked in and out because the house was so dark. After the home had been on the market for three months, a smart buyer made an offer $40,000 below asking and ended up getting it.
Before the buyer moved in, he removed the window coverings, stripped the stain on the doors and painted them white, pulled up the old carpet and had the floors stained to a lighter oak. Right away, the dark room became light, bright and welcoming. The buyer’s total cost: $9,000, which instantly added $31,000 to his equity.

Grandma or Bambi staring down from the walls
Buyers are looking to see themselves — and not the current owners — in a home. Too often, however, the seller hasn’t “depersonalized” his home enough, or at all. Even though the listing agent may have told the seller to clear the house of his possessions, the seller may be proud of his accomplishments and resist.
And so potential buyers are treated to walls decorated with diplomas, family photos, awards and trophies. Moose and deer heads hanging on walls are surefire deal killers, especially when the hunting rifle used to kill Bambi is proudly displayed, too. At best, buyers tend to see such highly personal stuff as clutter that takes the focus away from the home. They’re turned off by it all, and they walk away.
They might also be walking away from a great deal. Are the bones of the home good? Does it have the floor plan you like? Are the kitchens and baths in acceptable condition? Is it in the area where you want to live? If you say “yes” to all of these, hang around a little longer. Imagine the home without the seller’s junk. Picture yourself living there, without Bambi.

A good home that doesn’t show well = a great opportunity
Ultimately, sellers who don’t listen to their agents or stagers inadvertently give savvy buyers a discount. For you to see that potential, try to understand as much as you can about why the seller is selling. Look for sellers who have ignored their agent’s advice. While conventional wisdom says that a buyer would be turned off by a home that shows poorly, go against this. Imagine the potential. And then, once the home is yours, make those small changes the seller should have made. Right away, you’ll have a little bit (maybe even a lot) of equity, thanks to the seller.


Read more: http://www.zillow.com/blog/2012-10-22/how-to-buy-a-home-below-current-real-estate-value/#ixzz2ADulUmkK

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SELLING in a Buyer's Market: Don't Panic; Prepare!