Is getting a good education reason enough to move to Sandy, Utah?
There are many reasons for buying a new home but when you are a parent, a major consideration is your children and their education. Before you begin your search for homes for sale in Utah, you should find out as much information as possible about Davis, Salt Lake, Alpine, Granite, Murray, Canyons, Jordan, Wasatch, Box Elder and Park City school districts.
Sandy is in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah, located in the Wasatch Mountains 13 miles south of Salt Lake City. It has a population just under 100,000. Sandy is Utah’s 5th largest city and education is the responsibility of the Canyons School District. Government census figures show that Sandy, like the rest of Utah, has a much higher than US average of high school graduates achieving 94%, against 81% national average, and it is all achieved economically because the student expenditure per head is ~$3100 compared to a national average of ~$5700. If you’re going to be looking for homes for sale in Sandy, it’s also good to know that post high school, the number of graduates also exceeds the national averages and this is probably driven by the close proximity of University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College and many private collegiate level schools.
There are 28 schools in the Canyon District; 18 elementary, 6 middle and 4 high schools. If you are looking for luxury real estate you’ll most likely find the best selection in zip code 84092 or 84093. If you want more economical Sandy real estate look around zip code 84094 where house prices are pretty typical of Salt Lake Valley and there’s a good choice of all levels of schools.
Education isn’t the only reason to look for houses for sale in Sandy. Like most of the Salt Lake Valley, the recent recession hasn’t hit quite as hard as in other parts of the US and unemployment, for example, is ~4% compared to the national ~10%. With the valley continuing to attract large employers and billion dollar corporations due to the low cost of living, it is comforting to know that should you invest in Sandy real estate with a family home, not only do your children have the opportunity of a high standard of schooling but that there will be employment available after graduation.
Sandy is a city in a beautiful location in the mountains, which offer plenty of recreational activities all year round including the excellent winter sports, plenty of shopping malls, restaurants from various cultures and ample fine dining as well as casual. With the bright lights and attractions of downtown Salt Lake City but a few miles away, there’s no reason not to begin looking for houses for sale in Sandy without delay. If you’re looking for a cosy family dwelling with easy freeway access or luxury real estate with elevated valley views, there’ll be the perfect property just waiting for your realtor to find it.
LINDA SECRIST – LINDA SECRIST & ASSOCIATES – WHATEVER THEY TOUCH TURNS TO SOLD!
Are you a home seller in agony because your home has festered on the Salt Lake City market week after week with few to no showings? Here are six culprits that may be keeping buyers away from purchasing your home.
Optimistic home sellers love to parrot the old adage, "There's a buyer for every home." But they often leave off the qualifier: "at the buyer's price."
The fact is that buyers, not sellers, ultimately determine the market value of a home. You can ask for the moon and set your listing price well above comparable properties in your neighborhood, but at some point it will be up to you, the seller, to accept what the buyer thinks your home is worth. Overpricing is the most common reason homes don't sell. When you ask an unrealistic price, it sets in motion a process that often works against you. Here's why:
Most real estate agents, and their qualified buyers, will see your new listing within 30 days. If it is overpriced by as little as 5%, it will be duly noted and interest in your property will diminish, especially if you show no intention of coming off your asking price. You likely already priced out buyers who might have qualified for financing at a more reasonable price. Even if you manage to find an emotional buyer at your inflated asking price, the property may not appraise at that figure and the financing will fall apart.
Your real estate agent may have approved or even suggested the inflated asking price to secure your listing. Conversely, other agents often use overpriced properties like yours to help sell their own listings.
Is your Draper home priced at $369,000, but should be listed for $300,000? If so, you are trying to compete against homes that are really worth close to $400,000 and your home will NOT compete well. You want to compete with other homes similar to yours.
If your home remains on the market for too long, agents and buyers may begin to wonder if there are other, more serious, reasons why it isn't selling. It becomes shopworn, the same as a new shirt hanging in the store week after week. People are aware that it has been on the market a long time and agents stop showing it. Even if you finally reduce your price, the initial excitement for your Sandy home, Holladay estate, Salt Lake City Luxury home will have waned. Pricing your home right, in the beginning, is the most crucial step to selling your home.
Your South Jordan home is competing against shiny new houses in those pristine subdivisions out in the Herriman suburbs with their attractive prices, incentives and community amenities.
Face it: Even the best old house needs a little makeover if it hopes to attract a qualified buyer.
The good news is most of the work will be cosmetic and relatively inexpensive: a new coat of paint, a new front door or a few attractive window boxes, a thorough cleaning of floors and carpets. Voila! The place may look good enough to reconsider.
A good real estate agent can advise you on where your time and money are best spent.
Price and condition are two things that the seller can do something about. Paint is probably a seller's best friend because it makes things smell fresh and look fresh. If it's time to paint, it's time to paint. It offers the best return on investment.
Nothing has a greater effect on your home's value than its location. Your humble abode might be worth a king's ransom were it located on Walker Lane, Cottonwood Lane or the Harvard/Yale area in Sugarhouse. It might even jump thousands in value just two streets over in the next (and far superior) school district.
Location rules in real estate. Period.
If your home's location is less than desirable, your options are somewhat limited. A good real estate agent will do her best to help you accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative of your circumstances, say by using foliage to screen off offensive adjoining properties or dampen traffic noise but, the best way to compensate for a poor location is to reduce your asking price or offer attractive incentives such as seller financing or a lease option.
Yes, they exist: Real estate agents who mislead, misfire and misbehave.
Their bad advice can cost you plenty in time and money, not to mention the sheer hassle of keeping the place show-ready 24/7.
The not-so-great agent will allow you to overprice your home ("Here's what I can get for you if you list with me!"), not market it properly, fail to screen for qualified buyers, not answer their phones promptly, be unresponsive to interest from other agents (if they sell their own listing, they don't have to split the commission) and keep you totally in the dark throughout the process by offering little to no feedback.
What's more, if your agent is abrasive, arrogant or otherwise difficult to work with, other agents may not want the hassle of showing any of their listings to prospective buyers.
The "non-existent" agent is someone you've paid a flat fee to simply place your home on the Wasatch Front Multiple Listing Service. This is ALL you're getting. No advertising, no marketing of any kind, no professional advice or guidance, no representation of any kind should you receive an offer. This situation could also be a big deterrant to most good realtors, as it typically means double the work for the selling agent to deal with "non-existent" listing agents. Paying a smaller flat listing fee may sound like a great idea at first, but when your over-priced home has sat on the MLS for months (in this buyers market) with little to no exposure, you've simply wasted time, energy and money. Let a good realtor work hard for you and, in the end, will help draw a better sales price because of their expertise.
Bottom line - invest in a good and reputable Salt Lake City Realtor. It doesn't cost any more to use the best!
We've all heard the terms "buyer's market" and "seller's market." In real estate, market conditions are affected by any number of external forces, some of them predictable (the weather, sort of), some of them unpredictable (the local economy, interest rates, public optimism or pessimism).
In a "hot" or seller's market, homes go fast. Inventory (homes on the market) may be low, meaning less competition for you. Chances are better that you will get your asking price in a hot market; in fact, it is not uncommon to even be offered more than your listing price.
But in a "flat," "cold," "slow" or buyer's market, sales slow to a trickle, inventories grow and buyers can find bargains, especially when they know the seller is motivated (i.e., paying on two mortgages). Or, when there are a plethora of short sales and foreclosures surrounding your area.
If you're trying to sell in a flat market, you're not only competing against all that vacant new construction, but distressed homes and against rentals as well. In this case, be prepared to settle for less than top dollar, or wait to sell until the pendulum swings once again in your favor.
Gone are the days when an agent could simply place your listing with the Wasatch Front multiple listing service, hold a halfhearted open house and wait for another agent to bring forth a buyer. Today's top performers launch a multi-level marketing plan that includes open houses, listing fliers, home tours, local real estate publications and top internet marketing.
Computers and the Internet have changed the face of real estate. According to the National Association of Realtors, today more than one-third of all home buyers use the Internet for house hunting. The best Utah real estate agents are computer-savvy. They have your listing in full color tours available on innumerable top-ranking websites and communicate frequently via e-mail, a particular boon when working with out-of-town buyers.
Suffice it to say that if your real estate agent isn't listing your home online through the company Web site as well as with the local MLS and multiple other top ranked websites, you may not be getting the exposure necessary to find a buyer.
There are those who just put the listing on the MLS and pray it will sell and those that put a lot of effort into marketing their listings. Unfortunately, with this weird system of compensation we have, they all get paid the same, whether they know nothing or have many years of experience. Again, it doesn't cost any more to use the best!
LINDA SECRIST - LINDA SECRIST & ASSOCIATES - WHATEVER THEY TOUCH TURNS TO SOLD!
Finding your dream home in Salt Lake City, Sandy, Draper, Holladay, South Jordan, West Jordan, Park City, Bountiful, Murray or Alpine can be an exciting endeavor. If you are just moving to a new location and are unsure of where to begin looking, it might also be a bit overwhelming. Here are a few tips on how to make your home buying in Utah a bit less daunting:
Start With Location
The first step to picking the right home is the location. Once you know what neighborhoods you feel fit your family best, you can start to narrow down the specifics characteristics of homes you may want to buy.
Neighborhood Checklist:
If you find a neighborhood or an area that meet these personal requirements of yours, you’re on the right track. Next you’ll want to get the statistics from your Realtor on home prices in the area. Are homes selling close to asking price? Is there a lot of inventory? Is the neighborhood full of foreclosures and short sales?
If the neighborhood you want to purchase has negative features like foreclosures, poorly maintained homes, or lots of stale inventory... do more research on these areas. You don’t want to purchase a home that will decline in value because of a declining neighborhood, unless the prices have already declined to near or the same as the foreclosure sales. Then the neighborhood could be a great value.
Even though the neighborhood might be perfect for your needs, negative features could drastically affect your pocket book over the next couple years as we slowly recover from the recession. Consider each home individually, as some distressed properties can be your best value, if you're willing to do the work and usual maintenance.
What Type Of Home Do You Want?
There are many types of homes out there which include single family, condos & town homes, and multi family properties. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of each:
Single Family: Advantages of owning a Utah single family home is you own the property out right. You can also choose how close you want your neighbors. A disadvantage would be the maintenance. All repairs would have to be completed and paid for by you.
Town Home: Advantages of owning Utah town homes is less exterior maintenance as your home is attached to one or more homes. Town homes usually have community amenities, and you can usually get more house for the money. Disadvantages include the proximity of neighbors, home owner association fees, and a small parcel of land.
Multi Family Properties: Advantages of Utah multi family properties include paying less in mortgage payments by renting out part of the home, help with maintenance if you get a descent renter, and can later become an investment property. Disadvantages are dealing with renters, property damage caused by unsavory renters, and the noise of sharing a home with someone else.
Define Needs And Wants Than Compromise
Now that you have an idea of the neighborhood you want, the type of home you’re comfortable living in, it’s time to determine what your needs and wants are. You also have to realize what a need is and what a want is. Most home buyers will have to compromise their wants in order to meet all their needs.
For example:
Some Needs Include –
Some Wants Include –
Once you identify your absolute must haves (your needs), you can narrow down the homes that have the most of your wants. Your list should be getting smaller. Then you can determine your wants to limit the list further, if the list of available Utah homes for sale is still too large.
Check Price And Condition
With your smaller list in hand, which homes are priced the best and in the best condition? These two options should be your last consideration before buying your Salt Lake City home, Sandy home, Draper home, Holladay Luxury Estate, Park City Ski home, Bountiful home or South Jordan ranch. The reason they should be last is, the price of a home doesn’t really matter until you know you can live in it and be happy.
The condition doesn’t matter until you know the home meets your needs. You can determine the best priced homes via the amount of square footage, the location, and the year the home was built. Newer homes will be more expensive, but may require less work.
Older homes may require more work, but you can get more house for your money. The only way to determine proper condition is to view the homes in person.
This should be your last step, and once you’re at the condition stage of your property search, you know you’re ready to go look at homes in person. You now have the tools to wade through excess inventory and if you follow these steps, you can make the Utah home buying process less stressful.
When the average Utah home seller sits down to interview real estate agents, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement over choosing a sales price. General consensus is, more money means more financial opportunities for the homeowner. Perhaps it means the seller can afford to buy a more expensive home, help pay for a child's college education or take that greatly overdue vacation. Unfortunately, uninformed sellers often choose the Salt Lake City listing agent who suggests the highest list price, which is the worst mistake a seller can make.
The truth is it doesn't really matter how much money you think your home is worth. Frankly, it doesn't even matter what your agent thinks or ten other agents just like her. The person whose opinion matters is the buyer who makes an offer. Pricing homes is the most critical step of listing your home and is considered part art and part science. It involves comparing similar properties, making adjustments for the differences among them, tracking market movements and taking stock of present inventory, all in an attempt to come up with a range of value, an educated opinion. This method is the same way an appraiser evaluates a home. No two appraisals are ever the same; however, they are generally close to each other. In other words, there is no hard and fast price tag to slap on your home. It's only an educated guess and the market will dictate the price.
A home will sell at a price a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to accept. If a home is priced too low, priced under the competition, the seller should receive multiple offers to drive up the price to market value. So there is little danger in pricing a home too low. The danger lies in pricing it too high and selecting your agent solely on opinion of value.
A past client had originally chosen to list her Holladay luxury home with the first realtor off the Internet because, as she said, "He looked like such a nice guy." He over priced her home at $1,150,000. This listing expired 90 days later and not even one showing resulted within those 90 days. The client then relisted with a second agent for $1,025,000. Many months passed, along with increment price drops to $899,000. She had a few lookie-loos, but no serious buyers.
By the time she came around to us, through referrals, the seller had grown weary and exhausted. It was now nearly 12 months later. Together, we priced the home at $729,000. It immediately sold for all cash. The sad part is the comparable sales in the neighborhood fully justified a price of $825,000, but the home had been on the market for too long at the wrong price, and now the market had softened.
The question is how much money have those expired listings cost the sellers? The financial loss often exceeds the extra mortgage payments paid and goes beyond the uncompensated hassle factor of trying to keep a home spotless during showings. It affects the value that a buyer ultimately chooses to pay because it's not a fresh listing anymore. It's now stale, dated, a market-worn home that was overpriced for too long. Don't let it happen to you. Don't be that seller of an expired listing. Price it RIGHT with the RIGHT realtor the first time!
Linda Secrist - Lisa Herron-McKinney - Brett Butler - Linda Secrist & Associates - Whatever they touch turns to sold
www.lindasecrist.com
www.newutahrealestate.com
www.saltlakehomedirectory.com
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Linda Secrist is the premiere, top award winning agent in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. Linda specializes in luxury home sales and has consistently ranked in the top 1% of Realtors nationwide!
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