How to Capitalize on Home Equity

Our market has shifted in Southern California. Here’s how you need to approach today’s market as a home seller.

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If you’re a home seller, there are two things that you need to keep your focus on: timing and strategy. The market has shifted and it should come as no surprise. I’ve been talking about this shift for the last few months and now it is finally here.

Here’s what we’re seeing right now. Home inventory is up, demand for properties is down, interest rates are rising, fewer homes are selling, and homes are taking longer to sell. In fact, 40% of the homes that are listed on the market right now will be canceled or expire. This is why timing is so essential when selling. Every day, every week, and every month that you wait to list, you’re risking a lower net profit on the sale of your property.

Now that we’ve talked about timing, let’s discuss strategy. In the last six-and-a-half years when the market was aggressively appreciating, you could use the wrong strategy and still sell your home. Even if the photos online weren’t great or the home didn’t show great, it didn’t really matter. Inventory was so low that buyers would buy anything. If your home was overpriced to start, the market would eventually catch up.

The market is very unforgiving right now.

That’s not happening anymore. The market is very unforgiving right now, which is why I want to talk about three things that could negatively affect you if you use the wrong home-selling strategy:

1. Your home is going to take much longer to sell than normal, if it even sells at all.
2. You could be potentially leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table by overpricing from the start and reducing your price over time.
3. Your home will ultimately sell for less money.

If you are considering selling your home in today’s market, I recommend that you interview at least two to three agents and really understand what each of them will do for you. You should choose the one who is going to put together the best strategy for you to sell your property in a reasonable amount of time for the maximum price.

If you have any questions for me or would like to know what our team can do to help your home sell quickly and for top dollar with minimal hassle, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Does the Way You’re Presenting Match the Price You Want to Earn?

If you’re listing your home, you must never underestimate the importance of presentation.

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Every single seller I know wants to earn top dollar, but very few sellers are willing to do what it takes to put out a product that’s worthy of that goal.

This disconnect is one of the main reasons a property might sit on the market. To avoid this, there’s one simple rule sellers must follow: Presentation is everything.

Your property shouldn’t look “lived in” when a buyer comes by for a showing. Instead, it should look like a model home. Anything less will make it very hard for you to generate the kinds of offers you want or any offers at all.

Every single room should be neat, well staged, and have a clear purpose. If you have a four-bedroom home you’re looking to sell, then you need to present it as just that: a four-bedroom home. That means if one of these bedrooms is currently acting as a storage closet while you’re preparing for your move, then it’s time to clear it out. Don’t show your home at anything less than its full potential.

It doesn’t matter how much (or how little) you’re selling your listing for; you need to showcase your home in its best light.

I recently toured a property that had an amazing loft. It would’ve been a perfect space for a living room or game room, but instead of utilizing it in an appealing way, the seller had filled it with boxes. This is a perfect example how the quality of a listing can be dragged down by a lack of presentation.

It doesn’t matter how much (or how little) you’re selling your listing for; you need to showcase your home in its best light. A low price doesn’t mean you can get away with offering low quality. The person buying your home is likely scraping together everything they’ve got. Therefore, you’ve got to do your part to make the experience worth their time—and their money.

To earn top dollar for your home, whatever that may be, you and your agent will need to develop a “vision” for your property.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Buyers: Don’t Wait for Interest Rates to Go Even Higher

If you’re a homebuyer, there are a few important points you need understand about how rising rates may impact your goals. Here’s what you need to know.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

You’ve probably heard by now that interest rates are at a seven-year high, but what does this actually mean for your real estate goals?

Interest rates have been held artificially low to stimulate the housing market for some time now, but this is no longer the case. Buyers have been complaining for six years now about how difficult it is to find a house. What they might not realize is that this lack of supply has largely been a result of the interest rates we were seeing during that time.

Now that rates have begun to steadily creep up, though, it’s no longer a matter of buyers being unable to find a home—instead, buyers are simply choosing not to look. Despite the fact that inventory has risen and overall conditions have leveled out, many buyers are letting a fear of the unknown prevent them from taking advantage of these favorable conditions.

If you’re on the fence about purchasing a property, yourself, now is the time to get in touch with a lender and become educated on your options.

Instead of focusing on list price alone, buyers must start considering where affordability is headed. Interest rates are still historically low, so locking in a rate today is a far better choice than waiting things out and hoping for the best in the future.
 
The last thing my team and I want is for a buyer to miss the opportunity to secure a home at a rate that works for their budget. If you wait too long to buy, you may have a much harder time affording a home at all.

We recently worked with a client who told our team that if they had put off their move any longer, they would’ve been unable to make it happen at all. These buyers went under contract a month ago, and if they would’ve waited until today to do so, their payment would’ve been an extra $181 per month.

So if you’re on the fence about purchasing a property, yourself, now is the time to get in touch with a lender and become educated on your options.

And, as always, if you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.