Audrey June-Forshey, GRI, Gaithersburg, MD

This is one of the most popular questions I get when meeting with sellers when they are preparing to put their homes on the market. The answer is, it depends.

Appraisals cost between $400 to $700 in our area. Most of the time your REALTOR'S® market analysis will provide you with much of the same information as an appraisal.

When an agent comes over to talk to you about selling your home, they will most likely, have a market analysis of the current market conditions in your neighborhood and the nearby surrounding areas. They will compare what homes, similar to yours, listed for and sold for in your area. An appraiser will potentially use the same information, but will go into more depth about each property.

So, how do you decide whether or not to have an appraisal done prior to listing your home?

If you live in a typical suburban neighborhood where the homes are similar in style and square footage, you probably don't need to have the home appraised prior to listing your home. The information on your REALTOR'S® market analysis should be current and give you a very good idea of the market value of your home. If you are still not sure, maybe you should talk to a couple of different agents and see that they are all in about the same price range, that should give you a good number for your home's value.

My advice to a seller would be that you should have a professional appraisal done prior to listing your home if you have a VERY unique property. Maybe something that is on the historical register or something that was built exclusively for you by an architect and there is not another similar home in the area. If you fit into one of these categories, I would strongly suggest pre-appraising your home.

If you do decide to have your home appraised prior to listing, hear me when I say that the appraised value is one person's opinion. If you hire 3 appraisers, you will probably get 3 different values. Just because one person's opinion of value is one number, the market value might be a different story. What someone is willing to pay for the house is the market value and what your home is ultimately worth. Don't let yourself get hung up on what an appraiser says your home is worth. If it takes time for your home to sell, other homes may come on the market and go to closing which will affect the value of your home.

The other thing that is important for you, a seller with appraisal in hand, to know is the appraisal you have is for your own knowledge. If a purchaser is placing financing on your home, the purchaser and the purchaser's lender will have their own appraisal.

The bank will most likely use an appraisal from an appraiser that is on the bank's approved appraiser list. They want to make sure that the buyer is not paying too much and that they are not lending too much money for a property.

Now with all of that said, Appraisals are very controversial these days with all of the new lending laws and guidelines. We have appraisers come from out of local areas doing appraisals and it is making the sales and loan process difficult. I think it is important for sellers to understand that the buyer's appraiser, in most cases, is going to be the appraisal that will be used for financing.

Ultimately it is up to you, if it you believe your home needs to be appraised before listing, you can do that. Just make sure you listen to your professional REALTOR® to tell you how much your home will sell for!!

Original Post Here

First off let me say that I am the queen of procrastination. I am not getting on to you, but I know human nature and I am here to tell you, time is running out. I can't tell you how many research papers I did the night before they were due in school. I made my believe I did my best work "under pressure".

Well, the same for you if you are a first time home buyer and you would like to take advantage of the potential $8000 credit, time is a wasting. You need to take action and take it now!! You have, at this point, waited until the last minute. You have 80 days from today to qualify for your tax credit . Today is "the night before your project is due".

You say, "what do you mean? I have until December 1st to buy my home?" Hear me loud and clear, YOU HAVE UNTIL DECEMBER 1ST TO CLOSE AND OWN YOUR HOME, NOT WRITE YOUR OFFER!!!! There is a big difference. Closing and owning the home and having an accepted offer on a home are two different things. Hear me one more time, you must close and own the home to qualify for the credit.

Okay, so what does that mean, what's the big deal you say? That means you need to find an agent, get qualified for a mortgage and find a home by the end of November. If the average closing takes 30 to 60 days, that means you only have 20 days to find your home!!

This means that you can search for the home you want to make an offer on, negotiate your contract and get to closing by November 30th to beat the clock for December 1st!!

So let's look at some of the details involved in getting you to closing by November 30th;

• Have all of your finances in order to hand over to your loan officer to get your loan done in time
• Finding a seller that can move and close by the deadline
• Making sure all inspection items can be finalized by the deadline

• Competing with other buyers who have procrastinated who will take up time slots to close at the last minute

Here is the most important thing I would like to say to anyone who is now trying to take advantage of the tax credit, DO NOT SCHEDULE YOUR CLOSING ANY LATER THAN NOVEMBER 15TH. LET ME SAY THAT ONE MORE TIME, DO NOT SCHEDULE YOUR CLOSING ANY LATER THAN NOVEMBER 15TH IF YOU ARE TRYING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TAX CREDIT!!

Why? Because there are so many details involved with your loan and what and underwriter wants in a file these days it may delay your closing. You may need a week for a seller to make a last minute mandatory underwriter repair and you will need the time, with a major holiday in the middle of your closing, to make it by the deadline. The underwriter may ask for documentation from you for your loan package, there are many things that can go haywire at the last minute and you need a time cushion to get to closing on time. Just think how many other people are going to try to close at the last minute. The banks and title lawyers are going to be swamped trying to get everything done by the deadline.

You still have time but you will need to act now. Call your real estate agent and loan officer to get started right away. Remember, it is the proverbial "night before your project is due

When I meet with sellers these days the discussion of renting their home has become a popular topic. Maybe they are in a situation where they cannot sell and clear enough money to justify selling the home, but they are in a situation where they can keep their current home and still move on to their next home. sell.

In order to do this there are some financial requirements your next lender will require of you in order to qualify for your next mortgage, please consult with a competent mortgage professional to make sure you qualify and help you make sound decisions about your mortgage situation.

In the event you decide to become a landlord because it makes financial sense for you some of the things you will want to consider are ;

1. Get a good accountant. They will be a Godsend at the end of the year for the items that will now become tax deductible to you. Things like capital improvements, depreciation, writing repairs off etc. When you have these types of things to consider as a landlord, you don't always have to get even steven rent to mortgage payment. For me personally, I lose a little on one property but it comes out in the wash at the end of the year and I have a great tenant, which is worth it's weight in gold to me.

2. You will need to emotionally detach yourself from the property. You notice I called it a "property"? It is not your home so much anymore, think of it as an investment. I will tell you that you will need a strong stomach to be a landlord. One reason is that most people will not love your property as much as you do and you may have to deal with a tenant that doesn't pay the rent on time and you may have to juggle the payments sometimes.

3. Make sure that each person interested fills out an application that lets you verify their employment and their credit. You will want to make sure that your potential client has a steady job and that they make the income that they say they do. There are a couple of ways that I verify this as an agent. The first thing I will do is ask for a copy of identification and two copies of pay check stubs. That way you can see that they get paid about the same amount every couple of weeks. If the potential tenant wants you to verify their employment with a phone call to a supervisor, make sure you call the main company phone number and ask for the human resources department to verify their income and employment. You will want to make sure they don't have you calling their friend. Get something in writing from the HR department verifying the information.

4. Pull Credit. When you have pulled credit on the potential tenant, you will want to review their credit. If you do not know how to read a report, contact the person who pulled the report and ask them to explain it to you. Optimately you will want to have someone with a score near or above 700. That is the number I look for. This will show that they tenant has a good track record of paying their bills in a timely fashion. It is really the only gage that shows how timely they pay their bills. It is not a guarantee, but it is probably your best gage of how timely you will be paid.

5. The last item I make sure that EVERY landlord in Montgomery County Maryland knows about is the fact that you must have a license to be a landlord. It costs $95 a year and you have got to have it. The county says so, and it is part of a standard Montgomery County lease. If you, as a landlord, have a dispute with your tenant - I am even talking about whether or not the rent has been paid or not - and you do not have a license you may not be able to make a claim on the back rent. You will need to consult an attorney, but I personally know someone that lost thousands of dollars by simply not having their county license to be a landlord. If you need an application Click here for one now.

These are basic tips to get you started as a landlord. Remember the people living in your house are people and have feelings. I find that by treating my tenants with respect, fixing things immediately if they are broken they in turn take better care of my property and treat me with the same respect in turn.

If this information seems like too much for you to deal with, you can always hire a professional property management company to manage the property for you. They will most likely charge you a monthly fee, but will be the person that screens the applicants, fields the calls in the middle of the night when the A/C breaks for you so you don't have to deal with these items.

If you would like information on property management companies feel free to contact me and I can put you in touch with a professional management company.

Seems I have been green longer than I care to admit.  Ever since I was a kid, like 40, there I said it, years ago.  My mom is from Germany and they have always recycled and reused as part of their culture for years before we showed up. 

We never wasted anything, brown grocery bags, they were our trash bag, when they changed to the plastic kind, ditto. If we ever got food in those plastic containers, we reused them to save leftovers.  We always found at least a second use for everything.  Thanks Mom, who knew you were so cool??

We had those grocery bags that you took to the grocery store way back when.  However, when I went to the grocery store we would never use them back then, they weren't so cool.  None of my friends did it , you know what I am talking about.  Now it is the THE thing.

Fast forward to today, I am the recycle police in my office.  Actually, I am pretty obnoxious about it and making sure others follow the green rules as well.  Living in Montgomery County Maryland, it is pretty easy to recycle.  They provide residents with recycle bins for paper and plastic and we have free pick up once a week. 

I was showing a condo in a high rise in Bethesda and there was a representative from the county speaking to the building manager.  He was telling, actually insisting, the manager that they need to have the paper recycle bin next to the mailbox area in the lobby so the residence could automatically throw away their junk mail/paper right there in the lobby. 

If you are a business in Montgomery County, MD it is mandatory that you have recycle bins for paper and plastic.  I swear I will pull regular paper I find in the trash can and put it in the bin.  My assistant thinks I am a nut.  Too bad, I have my convictions.

I was looking for a marketing idea for a "Pop by".  If you are a Buffini student you will know what a pop by is. For those of you who are not, a pop by is when you have an item of value to drop off to your past client.  One day I had an "Aha Moment" for a great pop by idea and it was a very green one that I thought I would share with you.

I was in Whole Foodsand they had the reusable grocery bags.  You know the ones I wouldn't be caught dead with when I was younger?  Well there they were, .99cents each.  I bought 150 of them for my pop bys. 

So what I did was group the bags in twos and made a postcard that said the bags were from me. I tied them together with a ribbon with the note that said they were a way to pay it forward to our Mother Earth.  Then drove around to my past clients homes and dropped them off.  Some of my folks were home and it was fun to see them too.

I will tell you that I got the most calls and emails from those bags.  I still need to do another run to more of my clients and will because I had such a great response from the bags.

The good news is that you spend some green and everyone is happy to help Mother Earth breath a little easier.

I was asked by the Montgomery County Maryland Women's Council of REALTORS® to give a presentation about what I have learned about social networking in the last couple of years. I was honored to be asked and so I went last Wednesday to see the members of WCR

I put my presentation together, keeping it simple for myself and for the members to not be overwhelmed by the massive amount of information that goes along with social networking. I thought Blogs, Social Networks and Micro-blogging would be the a good place to start. I am far from being and über geek or any kind of expert, but I have taken many classes over the last year, and still do now, to learn about this ever evolving way of doing business.

I put my presentation together, simple and what I hoped would be clear for the members to understand. My RE/MAX broker was great and loaned me the projector for my presentation. I got there, set everything up, had my cup of coffee, waited for the meeting to be called to order and wouldn't you know the bulb burns out in the projector!! Never a good thing for a presentation, let alone my nerves. Trying to fix it, to no avail, we decide to just us my laptop, turn down the lights and press on.

My main focus of the presentation was what Social Networking was, why we should care about it, and how can someone get started.

My suggestions for the group, that have worked for me personally were:

• ActiveRain because it is a real estate community
• RealEstatetomato because of the extensive training
• Facebook because we all need friends and exposure
• Twitter is easy and part of my social network

I told the members that social networking was the future of real estate marketing not only for Listing and selling homes, but also for branding ourselves in our community.

I think several understood what I was saying and asked me several questions. I told them I was not a technical person but would find out the answers for the things I did not know. I think one of the biggest things I had going for me was that I am not a technical computer person, I am a REALTOR® who can explain this type of information in a way that non technical people can understand. We speak the same language of marketing homes not html.

I had a great time with the members and was flattered to be asked. Funny though, I think if I am involved with these groups, I think I am pretty mainstream, but I found that it is not popular as I thought. I hope the members found my information helpful and will become active in social networking.

I hope that the members will take some time to explore these networks that I have shared with them. I think they will be amazed at the support that they will receive from others who are already active in Social networking, there is nothing to be intimidated about, jump in! I hope the members of WCR will try to join one network at a time, slowly learning how to be a participant in the paradigm shift of our industry.

Besides, I got new followers on Twitter :)