Real Estate Information

New Castle County DE Real Estate Market Watch for July 2015.

Information courtesy of New Castle County DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.

If you have recently begun looking for a new home to purchase, you already know that it is very competitive out there.  It is important for you to realize going in that there are many other families searching for their dream home also.  If what you think is your dream home slips through your fingers because you are outbid, don’t take it personally; take it as a sign that the particular house you were bidding on is simply not the one for you.  There are ways to be competitive however. Here are a few tips for competing in a buyer’s market. 

• The most important tip is to keep your feelings in check when making an offer on a house.  Of course you face the possibility of being out bid, but don’t let that come back to bite you with your next offer.  Be sure to keep your mind open and realize that the house for you and your family is out there and that you will find it eventually.  Try not to let your feelings get in the way and cause a bidding war.  Don’t bid higher than you can actually afford to pay or you may end up with a budget you cannot afford. 
   
• Get a pre approval from a bank or Mortgage Company  BEFORE you go out looking with a Realtor for your new home.  Since it is a buyer’s market you are going to want to do all you can to make your offer stand out above all others.  Also when you do find the home of your dreams you will be able to make an offer right away and won’t have to worry about someone bidding before you get your approval. 
   
• Be sure to have enough money set aside for a down payment on the home you want to purchase.  If your loan type does not require you to have a down payment such as a USDA loan, you need to still be sure to have enough cash set aside to cover the difference between the appraised value of the home and the price you have agreed to pay.  Sometimes the appraised value of the home can be less than the price agreed upon by you and the seller. 
   
• Try not to get into a bidding war with investors if you can help it.  You don’t want to end up with a house that needs repairs that you cannot afford because you paid too much for the house in the beginning.  If you DO bid against investors, try not to let your heart get set on that one particular house. 

Selling your home can sometimes be a daunting task; however we are going to talk about a few ideas of how to make selling your home a little bit easier.    

1. One way to make your home stand out when you put in on the market is to stage it.  By this I mean make it look like a model home by taking down your family photos and adding a few decorations to match whatever season it may be at the time.
     
2. While your Realtor is showing your house, be sure to have a few candles lit and some relaxing music playing in the back ground for the potential buyer to enjoy.   Little things such as this will help to make a buyer much more at ease and to feel at home. 
    
3. Be sure to have the yard looking nice and neat when you have a potential buyer coming to tour your home.  If you have kids and they have toys or bikes in and around the yard, be sure to put them up where they will not be seen.  Keep in mind you want the potential buyer to be able to envision themselves living in the home and if there are too many reminders of you and your family they may have a hard time doing this. 
    
4. If you really want to make your potential buyer feel at home, leave a plate of warm cookies out for the showing.  Leave a little note out offering for the people touring your home to take one or two cookies and to enjoy them.  Your Realtor may have other ideas of what types of snacks you can leave out. 
    
5. Be sure to clean from top to bottom and to put away anything that may be lying around.  Do not leave laundry lying around.  Even clean laundry laying on the floor or bed can make a home look messy and uninviting.  Remember you want your potential buyer to feel calm and at ease when touring your home and we all know that laundry usually makes us feel anything but calm and at ease. 

Hopefully these tips will get you started in the right direction for selling your home without much hassle.  A good Realtor can go a long way towards selling your home but you can do your part to help out and make sure your home stands out above all the others.  You want your buyer to remember your house and it’s my guess if you make them feel comfortable and relaxed while there, they WILL be back!

Moving to the country may sound appealing to you however there are a few things you need to think about before doing so.  Living in the country can be rewarding if you are willing to take a few things into consideration before moving there.  Getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city may be just what you are in need of.  In this blog post we are going to give you a few tips for making your move to the country a peaceful one.

• Realize that most homes out in the country require that you have a well.   Well water although great tasting may need a bit of work in order to get it ready to drink.  Sometimes well’s can be costly if you are moving to a rural area that has hard water.  Just be sure to keep this little fact in mind before you move out to the country and you won’t be surprised by it if you end up needing to purchase some sort of water softener. 
• Realize that your commute to work may be a bit longer if you work in the city and choose to purchase land or a home in the country.  If living in the country is important to you and your family then making the sacrifice of driving a little bit further to work may be worth it to all of you.
• Buying land or a home out in the country is also going to mean a more difficult time driving anywhere in the event of inclement weather.   You and your family may have to settle in for a few days and just enjoy one another when bad weather comes once you move out to the country.  This can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the way you look at it.  It is just good to be aware that rural roads typically do not get cleared as fast as roads in the big cities when bad weather sets in.  You may want to consider buying a four wheel drive if you purchase a home in the country so that you can more easily maneuver around the snow covered country roads.
• The cost of trash removal can get quite expensive in the country.  Many folks that live in the country take their trash to the local dump because they can save quite a bit of money that way. 
• If you are considering buying a home in the country to get away from loud neighbors, be aware that you may have to deal with gun shots and folks hunting within walking distance of your home once you move out on a bigger piece of land. 

If moving to the country sounds appealing to you and none of these items we have listed for you to think about bother you, then you are likely going to enjoy living in the peace and tranquility the country life has to offer you. 

Information courtesy of New Castle County DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.

New Castle Market Watch for June 2015

Information courtesy of New Castle County DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.

Buying a property through a short sale can be financially beneficial. But, as a real estate buyer, you need to go into the process understanding your market! That means having a knowledgeable realtor and attorney.

A homeowner is “underwater” with their mortgage when they owe more than the value of their home. The term “short sale” comes from the situation where the proceeds from a sale are less than, or “short” of, the amount of debt.

Lenders are motivated to allow a short sale when they perceive it will create more net income than a foreclosure. Sellers are motivated because it puts them in more control of timing, and causes less damage to their credit than foreclosure.

For the buyer, a short sale means a purchase price that is discounted from the normal sale price. However, the market situation with short sales is very specific to your state and your market. Here are some trends across the country…

25% of US homeowners with a mortgage are underwater. That is 10.7 million homes! That percentage is down from 28% in September 2012. It is important to note that 8.3 million of those homes are on the edge of being underwater with a LTV ratio of 90%-110%. The other 2.4 million have an average LTV ratio of 125%.

A primary factor helping that downward trend is a decline in investors’ interest in short sales. A decline in investors buying at discount means prices are moving upward. Increasing prices means increases in value, which means increases in equity for the homeowners.

However, according to RealtyTrac.com it will take years, not months, for the 125% LTV owners to recover enough equity to allow them to sell. That means the short sale opportunities for buyers will be available for a while.

As a buyer of a short sale, be aware the process takes time. All parties have many more documents to review and approve. Your due diligence will take longer. And the process leading to a closing will take longer.

Make sure you are working with a Realtor and an attorney who have experience with short sales in your market.

At least, make sure your Realtor and attorney have actual experience with short sales. Go into the process with a lot of patience.

Information provided by Wilmington De Realtor Tucker Robbins.

If you’re a homebuyer searching for real estate chances are you have found a low inventory of properties.

A low inventory of properties also tends to cause bidding wars to come back. That means homebuyers have to get more creative. Paul Bishop, VP of NAR suggests going beyond the usual market tactics to help you be the first to find homes. Simply getting pre-qualified for a mortgage is not enough anymore.

Here are some tips for creative strategies…

1. Head off the competition by finding “pocket listings.” These are listings that have been contracted for, but haven’t reached the market or been posted on the MLS. There are various reasons for this to happen, many times at the seller’s request. However, the listing broker knows the property is for sale. Tell your agent you want to know immediately of any new properties for sale.
    
2. Get real-time information. Most potential homebuyers depend on the normal flow of information from MLS sites or other sources like Realtor.com. Ask your agent about real-time MLS alerts – emails that go out immediately when a listing goes live. This avoids waiting hours or days before you know about new home for sale.
    
3. Tell your Realtor you want to be notified immediately when the inventory of properties changes – and make sure he or she knows exactly what you are looking for! That does three things for you: it forces you to be very specific about what you want; it tells your Realtor valuable information about your wants; and, it signals just how serious you are about moving on a purchase quickly.
    
4. Don’t be too quick to reject what you think are bad listings! Look past the need for paint, or bad lighting, or unflattering photos. Make sure not to superficially reject any listing that could be a treasure that is just packaged poorly.
    
5. Set your search criteria a bit higher than your actual target price. You are then looking for real estate that is over-priced so you can keep an eye on them to come down.
    
6. Look out for would-be sellers. Tell your Realtor to check property listings that expired weeks or months ago. Get him to contact the sellers to see if they are considering coming back on the market. They may jump at someone like you who is ready to buy!

Develop a strong relationship with your Realtor, get pre-qualified for a mortgage, make sure your credit is clean, and then let your agent know that you are ready to move quickly when the right property comes along. Read here for more general buying tips.

Information courtesy of New Castle County DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.

Curious about your home's current value? Get an instant market valuation here!

I am often asked, “Should sellers fix up their home before selling?” First, let’s talk about the stuff any Realtor is going to tell you so you have context for the rest.

It is easier to sell a house that is attractive to buyers and shows as being well-maintained. That is a matter of doing a little fix-up, but mostly clean-up. Make sure pipes aren’t leaking, for instance. That is relatively easy and not expensive. If your home really needs painting consider doing that. These are not high priced issues. Below we are talking about the expensive items.

If your house has structural defects or other problems that are expensive to fix you have more challenging decisions to make. First, remember that every house has defects! That is simply the nature of a complex structure. Second, savvy buyers know to expect defects so don’t try to hide them. Don’t kid yourself that if a problem can’t be seen easily it won’t be found out.

Most buyers assume there are some problems with any house. If they make an offer that you accept they will pay for a professional home inspector who knows real estate. Good buyer inspectors are very thorough. They are being paid by the buyer and are looking out for the buyer’s interests, not yours. It is not unusual for an inspection report to be in excess of twenty pages…in small type! Being honest with yourself about defects will prepare you better when you are faced with that inspection report.

So, the question becomes “Do I fix the problems before going on the market, or do I make it clear that I am selling “as-is” and discount the price accordingly?” The obvious follow-up question is “If I spend the money before selling, will I get that money back in the final sale price?” The general answer is that it depends on the nature of the defect and magnitude of the likely cost of repair.

Potential buyers are most likely to overestimate the cost if they have to make the repair and under-estimate the cost if the seller is paying. Cost versus value then becomes a negotiation to establishing a final purchase/sale price. If the cost of repair is major, such as a septic system, it makes the most sense to repair it before selling.

The best way to go about making these decisions is to pay a professional home inspector in your real estate market to make an inspection on your behalf as the seller. Their report will give you a thorough list of issues you might be faced with. It will also give you the tool to get estimates from contractors to make the repairs. Then you have a sound basis for making decisions.

An added benefit to having your own inspection on hand is that you have a professional document that you can use when negotiating with a buyer. Be practical and be prepared with your own inspection.

Information courtesy of Wilmington Realtor Tucker Robbins.

If you have recently taken your house off the market and have decided to wait until a better time for you and your family to sell, you have come to the right place.  Here are a few ideas on how to make your house more enjoyable while you stay there.  If you are like most people, once you decide to put your house on the market you naturally start to go ahead and distance yourself from your current home.   This doesn’t have to be the case.  If you take your house off of the market for a while, you are going to want to enjoy the time you have left in your home and there are several ways in which you can do that.  

• Deep clean your home. This may not sound like fun and perhaps it may not be but it will be helpful for your mood while having to live there.  It is also a good idea to deep clean before you sell so that your prospective buyers will notice how clean everything is.  Start with the dirtiest room and move your way to the cleanest. 
• Change your paint colors.  If you have lived in your home for a long time, it is likely that you are tired of the colors that you stare at day in and day out.   Brighten your home up by adding a splash of light color such as a pretty pastel.  You don’t have to change the color in every room, just sprucing up the bathroom will likely make a huge difference. 
• Change your furniture around  and also the pictures on the wall.  You may be surprised at just how much of a difference this little bit of change can make towards helping you to be content in your home.  Again, you don’t have to rearrange every room, why not start out with the living room. 
• Bring some fresh flowers home after a long day at work and set them on the kitchen table.  I know for a fact that fresh flowers will put most any woman into a better frame of mind. 
• You could purchase a few things that you want to use in your new home and go ahead and use them in your current home while you are waiting to list your house back on the market.  A large piece of art should do the trick! 

Hopefully this blog has given you a few ideas of how to make the interim time of being between listings more enjoyable.  Remember also that anything you do to make your home nicer for yourself while you wait to sell it, will also make it nicer for the potential buyers that will be coming to look at your home. 

Information provided by Wilmington DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.