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Tammy Vertrees

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For Sale by Owner vs. Using a Realtor

10-11-08
Tammy Vertrees
For Sale by Owner vs. Using a Realtor

Multiple Listing Service
Your listing contract should specify whether or not the house will be listed with the local MLS (multiple listing service). It is definitely in your interest to have the house listed. This is because your sales force is automatically multiplied by however many agents are members of the local MLS. If your house is not listed, then you only have one agent working for you instead of many.

This is where selling "by owner" generally fails.

Owners see that an agent puts a sign in the yard, prepares brochures, holds open houses, advertises in the paper and on the internet and they think this is how houses are sold. It is easy to understand why owners believe that, but it just isn't so.

Listing agents do those things for three main reasons. First, because the owners expect them to. Second, because it shows other sellers how much they do to market a home and it gets more listings. Third, because it brings in clients who want to buy "some" house - though it probably will not be yours.

Practically no one buys the house in the ad or a home they visit during an open house. Think about your own experiences when you bought the house you are now selling. How did you find it? Probably through your agent, who found it in the Multiple Listing Service.

The MLS is a huge network and practically every local agent is a member -- and those agents have clients looking to buy a home. That network is what sells your house.

For a professional, experienced agent that practices honesty & integrity, give me a call for a free consultation: 530-872-5428. I love helping my buyers & sellers with their Real Estate goals!
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When Your Selling Price is too High, Beware!

10-11-08
Tammy Vertrees
 
What Happens Behind the Scenes
If you start out with too high a price on your home, you may have just added to your stress level -- and selling a home is stressful enough. There will be a lot of "behind the scenes" action taking place that you don’t know about.

Contrary to popular opinion, the listing agent does not usually attempt to sell your home directly to a homebuyer. That would be inefficient.

Listing agents market and promote your home to the hordes of other local agents who do work with homebuyers, dramatically increasing your personal sales force. During the first couple of weeks your home should be a flurry of activity with buyer’s agents coming to preview your home so they can sell it to their clients.

If the price is right.

If you and your agent have overpriced, fewer agents will preview your home. After all, they are Realtors, and it is their job to know local market conditions and home values. If your house is dramatically above market, why waste time? Their time is better spent previewing homes that are priced realistically.

Dropping Your Price...Too Late

If you start out with a high sales price, then drop it later -- your house is "old news." You will never be able to recapture that flurry of initial activity you would have had with a realistic price. Your house could take longer to sell.

Even if you do successfully sell at an above market price to an uninformed buyer, your buyer will need a mortgage. The mortgage lender requires an appraisal. If comparable sales for the last six months and current market conditions do not support your sales price, the house won’t appraise. Your deal falls apart. Of course, you can always attempt to renegotiate the price, but only if the buyer is willing to listen.

Your house could go "back on the market."

Once your home has fallen out of escrow or sits on the market awhile, it is harder to get a good offer. Potential buyers will think you might be getting desperate, so they will make lower offers. By overpricing your home in the beginning, you could actually end up settling for a lower price than you would have normally received.

For a professional, experienced agent that practices honesty & integrity, give me a call for a free consultation: 530-872-5428. I love helping my buyers & sellers with their Real Estate goals!



www.TammyVertrees.com

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.


Paradise, CA (95969) Weather Forecast
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Want to Start Off With a High Sales Price?

10-11-08
Tammy Vertrees
When Your Selling Price is too High, Beware!

Meeting With Realtors
So you’ve decided to sell your home and have a fairly good idea of what you think it is worth. Being a sensible home seller, you schedule appointments with three local listing agents who’ve been hanging stuff on your front doorknob for years. Each Realtor comes prepared with a "Competitive Market Analysis" on fancy paper and they each recommend a specific sales price.

Amazingly, a couple of the Realtors have come up with prices that are lower than you expected. Although they back up their recommendations with recent sales data of similar homes, you remain convinced your house is worth more.

When you interview the third agent’s figures, they are much more in line with your own anticipated value, or maybe even higher. Suddenly, you are a happy and excited home seller, already counting the money.

A Sales Practice Called "Buying a Listing"
If you’re like many people, you pick Realtor number three. This is an agent who seems willing to listen to your input and work with you. This is an agent that cares about putting the most money in your pocket. This is an agent that is willing to start out at your price and if you need to drop the price later, you can do that easily, right?

After all, everyone else does it!

The truth is that you may have just met an agent engaging in a questionable sales practice called "buying a listing." He "bought" the listing by suggesting you might be able to get a higher sales price than the other agents recommended. Most likely, he is quite doubtful that your home will actually sell at that price. The intention from the beginning is to eventually talk you into lowering the price.

Why do some agents "buy" listings this way?

There are basically two reasons. A well-meaning and hard working agent can feel pressure from a homeowner who has an inflated perception of his home’s value. On the other hand, there are some agents who engage in this sales practice routinely.

For a professional, experienced agent that practices honesty & integrity, give me a call for a free consultation: 530-872-5428. I love helping my buyers & sellers with their Real Estate goals!



www.TammyVertrees.com

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.


Paradise, CA (95969) Weather Forecast
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Things Not to Do Before Purchasing a Home

10-08-08
Tammy Vertrees
Things Not to Do Before Purchasing a Home

No Major Purchase of Any Kind
Do not make any major purchase that would create debt of any kind. This includes furniture, appliances, electronic equipment, jewelry, vacations, expensive weddings…

…and automobiles, of course.

Don’t Move Money Around
When a lender reviews your loan package for approval, one of the things they are concerned about is the source of funds for your down payment and closing costs. Most likely, you will be asked to provide statements for the last two or three months on any of your liquid assets. This includes checking accounts, savings accounts, money market funds, certificates of deposit, stock statements, mutual funds, and even your company 401K and retirement accounts.

If you have been moving money between accounts during that time, there may be large deposits and withdrawals in some of them.

The mortgage underwriter (the person who actually approves your loan) will probably require a complete paper trail of all the withdrawals and deposits. You may be required to produce cancelled checks, deposit receipts, and other seemingly inconsequential data, which could get quite tedious.

Perhaps you become exasperated at your lender, but they are only doing their job correctly. To ensure quality control and eliminate potential fraud, it is a requirement on most loans to completely document the source of all funds. Moving your money around, even if you are consolidating your funds to make it "easier," could make it more difficult for the lender to properly document.

So leave your money where it is until you talk to a loan officer.

Oh…don’t change banks, either.



www.TammyVertrees.com

The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
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Use Your IRA Funds to Buy Real Estate Now

10-08-08
Tammy Vertrees
Use Your IRA Funds to Buy Real Estate Now

(ARA) - It sounds almost too good to be true: IRA holders can use their retirement funds to purchase real estate before the age of retirement without incurring distribution taxes or penalties. And they can realize their real-estate investment profits tax-deferred in their retirement account.

But it is true, and growing numbers of savvy investors are taking advantage of the opportunity to build their portfolios while saving aggressively for their retirement years.

For a professional, experienced agent, give me a call for a free consultation: 530-872-5428. I love helping my buyers & sellers with their Real Estate goals!



www.TammyVertrees.com

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
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