Category Archives: selling

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, selling, tips, wifi

Face it! We are up to our eyeballs in the digital age.

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Face it! We are up to our eyeballs in the digital age, and your house needs to be become part of the adventure. Everyone is looking for “Hey Google” this, “Alexa” that “Cortana” help, or “Siri” that. This trend is one that will not go away. It is here to stay.

google nest mini 2
google nest mini 2

Many older homes are not fully wired for internet or any other digital gadget that the world of communication is throwing our way. Sure, some of them come with the alarm system, wired smoke alarm, or internet accessibility in every room, but for today’s buyer that may no longer be enough.

 

Rewiring the home properly for internet could be an expensive and time-consuming undertaking and the price will vary depending on how large your home is, such as a two story and the type of foundation. That is why many of the internet providers just string your internet/TV service wire on the outside of the house and not through the walls, ceiling, or crawlspace/basement. It would be better to have someone do it properly for you prior to scheduling your cable and/or internet service.

We chose to have our house rewired properly. If the cable provider wants to make any cable upgrades, they must come down the wall like all the others. We only have one main entry point from the outside of the house and on the inside the wiring will remain the same. That means if the interior wiring also needs upgraded, the installers will have to make a trip into the attic.

Smart OutletAlso, changing out some of your electrical outlets for outlets with USB charging connectors is a low-cost way to add to your device charging stations.

 

Another reasonably priced gadget to install is the keyless entry door locks. These upgrades are convenient and will also prevent you from being locked out of you home. The lower priced units do not have wify access, but the more expensive one do. When you would like to open your house remotely you would have to get the internet enabled keyless entry units and the price will vary depending on the brand and features you are looking for.

keyless entry lock
keyless entry lock

In this day and age you have all kinds of toys you can add to your home that are Wi-Fi enabled and fun to play with. Lights, heating/cooling, ceiling fans, vacuum cleaners, appliances, faucets. They sky is the limit.

 

The bottom line is you might have to be prepared that today’s buyer is at least looking for some smart-home tech that is included in the deal: smart thermostats, smart smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, smart home security cameras, and smart locks.

buying, commitment, education, planning, selling, tips

Buying a home in a changed environment

Our world has changed at lightning speed, and that goes also for the real estate world as well. What you need to consider is that many sellers, since the time that covid-19 began, are a little reluctant and very nervous to let buyers into their home. Some of them have gone so far as to pull their home off the market and wait until a later time to sell their home. 

Due to this, may sellers have decided to do virtual showings. This will reduce the amount of physical buyer visits to a home, and a seller will feel more comfortable in keeping or putting their home on the market for buyers to enjoy. 

I totally understand there are buyers who are still would like to see the home in person. Nothing beats the “scratch and sniff” test. When a seller agrees to show a home to a buyer through an in-person-visit a buyer needs to be prepared for some possible restrictions the seller puts on the buyer and their agent. 

Some sellers have asked to show the home only to adults over the age of 18, or only buyers who have been given a fully approved pre-approval letter and they have viewed the seller’s disclosure statement. Buyers also have been asked to take their shoes off during a showing, to wear booties over their feet or shoes, to wear gloves during the showing, and to sanitize their hands prior to entering the home. Also be prepared that the sellers asked the REALTOR for you not to open any drawers, touch light switches, or doorknobs.  

In our high-tech world, many sellers have installed interior and exterior cameras to be certain a buyer and their agent do what they have instructed them to do. 

Any buyer who does gets upset about the seller restrictions needs to understand that you don’t know the seller’s current situation and the sellers also had been instructed to thoroughly clean and disinfect their home and any high touch surface before a buyer enters their home.  

commitment, Inspiration, recycle, selling, tips

Why do you have a garage when you cannot park your vehicles in it?

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Why do you have a garage when you cannot park your vehicles in it? That is the question I am asking myself every time I am looking at some of the garages when I drive through neighborhoods. Some of them are so packed full that the garage door only can be opened very, very, very slowly. Otherwise the boxes still fall out into the driveway. I have a neighbor like that.

We all like to keep mementos and precious things, but then you have so much stuff that fills your garage from front to back and top to bottom that you have too much. It is time clean house.

Continue reading Why do you have a garage when you cannot park your vehicles in it? →

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, selling, Short sale, Team work, tips

“Do Not Know” Residential Real Estate Sellers Disclosure

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Just the other day I ran across a sellers disclosure from a property that was listed for sale. The seller had just marked one line through all the items that needed to be disclosed as “Do Not Know” and in a small memo box indicated that the seller never lived in the property. Continue reading “Do Not Know” Residential Real Estate Sellers Disclosure →

buying, commitment, Communication, Inspiration, selling, Team work, tips

Settles Report for 9/1/2014 to 9/8/2014

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Last week we did not publish the Settles Report. We questioned some of the reported numbers that where subsequently corrected, but too late for us to publish the report during that week.

Continue reading Settles Report for 9/1/2014 to 9/8/2014 →

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, selling, Team work, tips

Things to consider when you and your REALTOR holds an open house

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openThe house is listed. It is online with the MLS and various other websites. The sign and informational box is in the yard. You are planning for your open house. Continue reading Things to consider when you and your REALTOR holds an open house →

buying, commitment, Communication, education, green, Inspiration, organizing, planning, recycle, selling, Team work, tips

Is a Condo for me, or not?

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House4_403_604Urban renewal is becoming more and more popular. Most of the people moving back in to the urban areas are baby boomers and executives with some free time on their hands. For this reason most of them are choosing to live in a condo. The trend of turning former apartments or an old factory in to condos has helped to turn around some of the urban areas. You can find great homes for reasonable pricing or a top notch location for a higher end price.

Before you buy a condo you should do some research into the condo rules and regulations? Each community will have their own fees and rules. You should familiarize yourself with each of these to understand what rights and responsibilities you as the condo owner will have.

Find out who is enforcing the Condo rules and regulations? Is it a homeowner association? A management company?

Most of the time condo owners are responsible for everything on the interior and the association is taking care of everything on the outside of the building. In some cases you may have an assigned parking space in an underground parking garage. When the condo is on a lake you may have a boat dock you can lease.

Some of the condominium associations might charge you an additional fee that helps them to offset any exterior repairs they might encounter and that fee is most of the time part of the condominium fee you have to pay, in addition to your mortgage and insurance payment.

Some other things to consider is that when your condo is on the 38th floor, are you willing to run down 38 flight of stairs in emergency? You may also have other restrictions due to the building or condo associations rulings.

The nice part with a condo is that you are only responsible for the interior of your condo and the condo association is responsible for the exterior of the condo. You don’t have to worry about cutting the grass, fixing a roof leak or making any other exterior repair. The downfall is that the exterior maintenance upkeep is only as good as the condo community management company.

Either way, like with everything, there are positive and negative things you need to consider when choosing a condo to purchase. When you have any additional questions about condos feel free to contact the Settles Team.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, selling, Short sale, Team work, tips

Easy “no cost” seller ideas to use to sell your home when you are in trouble.

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When you are faced with being forced to sell your home and you do not have the money to invest in repairing it, you may then have to sell it “AS-IS”.

Here are several things you can do to give your home the best chance to sell quickly even if it needs repairs.

Think of what you can do and not what you can’t do……

None of these ideas cost you money and it is possible they may make you some money! (OK one maybe will but only if you have no other option)

In the sellers disclosure identify what needs to be repaired. Better to disclose than to hope the buyer will not see the areas that need attention.

  1. Start clearing out and start selling items you do not need. Look in every nook and cranny.
  2. Remove all your personal pictures and notes from the walls, desks, tables and refrigerators. Buyers are not interested who is in the house they want to know about the house.
  3. Vacuum the carpets all over the house, under the bed, under the couch, and the chairs.
  4. Deep clean all of the bathrooms, and the Kitchen. Do not forget behind the stove and under the refrigerator. People will pull the shower curtain to see how clean the shower is.
  5. Take a damp sponge and clean off all the finger smudges of the walls by the light switches and other places you can find. Don’t scrub hard be very gentle.
  6. Clean out overstuffed closets. Put the excess in to storage or sell it.
  7. Organize your kitchen. Get rid of the junk drawer (we all have one).
  8. Clean off the kitchen counter top. If you keep it cluttered, you are telling the buyer that you do not have enough storage room for your items.
  9. Clean out the garage. If you have to sell some of the stuff you have then do so!! Otherwise put it into storage. Do not use the garage as storage unless you are planning on telling the buyers that the house is too small and does not have enough storage.
  10. Clean up the yard!!!
  11. Mow the yard and keep it trimmed!!!
  12. Ask friends or family members if they have some plants you could plant in your yard when you have none.
  13. Clean your windows and open the curtains to let light in!!!

All these ideas, except for putting some of your items into storage, will cost you no extra money you would not be spending anyway. What you will be spending mostly is your effort to get it done.

The faster you can sell your home, the faster you can get back on track, and the faster you might be able to get in to a new home. The longer it takes, the larger the shortfall will be. In this case time is money!!!!

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, selling, Short sale, Team work, tips

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LISTING CONTRACTS THAT ARE AVAILABLE TO SELLERS

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Every seller has the right to sell their home without the help of a brokerage firm and that is called a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) listing. You as an owner make the decision of accepting or rejecting an offer from a buyer represented by a real estate professional. Many times, before the buyers real estate representative will present an offer to the FSBO owner, they ask the FSBO owner to sign a commission payment agreement that guarantees the broker a commission at the time of closing. This in many states is also called an OPEN LISTING.

Man's Hands Signing DocumentThere are many types of listing agreements that can be used in the sale of residential real estate.

Another form of contract is the EXCLUSIVE AGENCY LISTING. The huge difference between this and the EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO SELL is that when the agent or cooperating agents brings a buyer to the transaction the seller would have to pay for the commission. When the seller brings the buyer to the transaction the seller does not owe the agents a commission at time of closing. Many real estate professionals are reluctant to work on EXCLUSIVE AGENCY LISTINGS due to the lack of control.

An EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO SELL listing is used close 95% of the time when it comes to listing residential real estate for sale. With this type of listing contract, no matter who brings a willing and able buyer to the transaction, the agent will earn a commission. In most markets when the buyer is brought by a cooperating agent the commission is split equally between the cooperating brokers. The length of time a listing contract runs is negotiable. It can be as short as 30 days and as long as 6 months. It just depends on your local market.

Another form of listing is the NET LISINTG. In many states the net listing might not be legal. Many times with the NET LISTING, the seller tells the real estate professional what their net price is for the home and the agent adds their commission to the net price later when they have a buyer. There might be a conflict when this situation when the agent has an offer that is much higher net than what the seller requested. In this case the seller might feel cheated. On the other hand, when the net is much lower than the seller anticipated the agent might not earn a commission and is reluctant to present the offer. In my state, Indiana, in order for a NET LISTING to be legal, the maximum amount of commission must be stated in the listing contract and has to be disclosed up front and agreed to by the seller.

When you have any questions feel free to contact the Settles Team.