Maximizing Your Price In Northern Nevada

Maximizing Your Price in Northern Nevada

It’s Spring in Northern Nevada and you’ve decided to sell. What do you do to get the most out of your property? Start by putting your Buyer’s hat on and look at your home from a Buyer’s perspective. As you analyze your home consider the following three categories for the deficiencies: 1. Selling Condition, 2. Market Condition, 3. Enhanced Value.

Selling Condition means you’ve met or adjusted to have the home in minimum Selling Condition. If you have a multi-patched roof your home is lacking here. Other items to fix just to achieve Selling Condition can be the removal of debris on your lot, broken window seals, plumbing leaks, etc. If you are selling short don’t worry about it, the Buyer and lender will adjust the sales price for these deficiencies without cost to you.

Market Condition is simpler, mostly involving cleaning and decluttering. You’ve naturally got many personal touches around the house, it is, after all, your home. The Buyers aren’t coming to judge your lifestyle, they want to see how theirs will work in your home. Take down the family pictures and box the knicknacks, you’re moving anyway. Empty your overstuffed closet or they may think its smaller than it really is. Its Spring, you can pack up your winter clothes. Likewise, if your kitchen drawers are stuffed with used-once-a-year gadgets they’ll think the kitchen is too small. Declutter.

Clean well. Nobody wants to live in a dirty house even if their lifestyle is such that it will be dirty soon after they move in. They want to live in their own dirt. Remember to clean the outside, too. That is your first impression and you want it to count the first time. Should you stage your home professionally? Good stagers do wonders and can yield great results, but they come with a price. Is your price point such that you can absorb their cost and profit from it?

Getting your home to Selling or Market Condition will add value, but there are times when you can Enhance Value. This can get tricky. Are you better off putting in new carpet or giving an allowance? Should you give an allowance or reduce the price? When you consider any change, or addition to sell your home question whether it will get you a higher sales price. If not, don’t do it. Your home will sell by its features, location, character and … price. Price sells more than anything else in this market. If you put money in a remodel be sure to figure what it will return. There can be a great return, but if you are trading dollars, don’t do it. Your agent can help you with your analysis.

Our Advice: You can spend months or longer getting your home perfect, but what is perfect to the Buyer? We’ve seen lovely homes in great shape that the Buyer is going to “gut”, do a major remodel on. Keep your eye on your objective. What are you going to do after you sell? If you are buying elsewhere will you lose a buying opportunity while you take the time to try to get a little more out of the home you are leaving? Selling? Ready…Fire…Aim! Get it ready and get it sold!

An increase in either rates or prices can affect your next purchase and offset any gain you may have worked for.
When it comes to choosing professionals to assist you with your real estate needs … Experience is Priceless! Lisa Wetzel & Jim Valentine, CDPE, SFR, RE/MAX Realty Affiliates, 775-781-5472. carsonvalleyland@hotmail.com, www.carsonvalleyland.com
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Lisa Wetzel and Jim Valentine are the authors of this blog. Lisa, Jim and Jessie are experts in Carson Valley , Carson City and the tri-county area of Douglas County , Carson City and Lyon County. Call our team anytime at 775-781-5472 or 775-781-3704. To Search for Homes go to: Carson Valley Listing Book or visit our website at www.CarsonValleyLand.net or www.CarsonValleyLand.com

Real Estate Deadlines Are Approaching Fast

Deadlines Are Approaching Fast

Timing is everything in life, and it is absolutely essential for successful real estate transactions. Some things you have no control over, but there are many aspects of the real estate transaction that you can control. There are several deadlines or events approaching that may have a significant effect on the success of your transaction.

If you are a First Time Home Buyer, or replacing your primary residence, and looking for the Tax Credit, the deadline for being in contract is about a month away. You must have a signed contract by April 30th. To qualify for the Credit, you must close your escrow by June 30th. These are important dates – especially if you are shopping for a Short Sale property as those can take time to position for closing.

Some lenders are doing a very responsible and responsive job processing their Short Sale requests. Some lenders, however, take forever. The risk is too great for you to wait to close with “forever” lenders if you are counting on the Tax Credit. Caution – look at your transaction in its entirety without getting too wrapped up in the Tax Credit. If you are buying the property $20,000 under today’s market, that is better than buying something at market and getting an $8,000 Tax Credit. You might want to hold on to your deal even if you realize that there is a good chance you will be closing after June 30th.

HAFA is coming. On April 5th the new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program will go into effect. HAFA provides incentives to both the lender and Seller in connection with a Short Sale or Deed in Lieu used to avoid foreclosure on a loan eligible for modification under the HAMP program. For example, Sellers will be given $1,500 relocation assistance. Under HAFA, if a Homeowner is found to be either ineligible for mortgage modification under HAMP, or been ruled unable to sustain payments under a trial plan, the lender must offer a short sale in writing to the homeowner within 30 days of either of the above occurring. HAFA will expedite Short Sales for those loans that qualify. Under HAFA, the lender must make a decision to accept the qualified Short Sale within ten days of receipt of a written offer.

If you are considering a USDA 100% Guarantee loan be advised that once the existing money pool is disbursed there is uncertainty as to when additional funding will be available. If you need/want that loan program to buy your home we highly suggest that you act fast in buying your home and getting your loan process underway.

Our advice: If you are buying or selling real estate today it is important that you pay attention to real estate news daily. Things change and your real estate success could be directly affected by a new program, the expiration of an old program, etc. Interest rates are rumored to be going up. Knowing that you can decide if you want to buy now … or wait. Your agent is working hard to stay current with events and trends and how they affect you so be sure to keep in close and frequent contact with your agent. Call your agent – ask if anything new has happened since you last talked that affects your situation.

If you are a Seller be assured that Buyers are buying right now. A Buyer? These are the good old days! Who thought we would ever see prices like this again? Don’t time the market drop … that’s like catching a falling knife. Buy the home you want at these great prices and interest rates and enjoy it. There is so much opportunity out there – embrace it. Do it before something changes for that is the only thing you can definitely count on … change itself. When it comes to choosing professionals to assist you with your real estate needs… Experience is Priceless! Lisa Wetzel & Jim Valentine, CDPE, SFR, RE/MAX Realty Affiliates, 775-781-5472. carsonvalleyland@hotmail.com, www.carsonvalleyland.com

Short Sale Update … Are They Working … Worth It?

The Short Sale has gone from something that few practitioners had ever heard of to a commonly used real estate term. When they first became popular they were nearly impossible to implement. Lenders were so hard to work with that most Short Sale efforts were for naught. Things have changed considerably to a point where they are feasible though not for the faint of heart.

The Seller must provide substantial information to prove need including a Hardship Letter, Financial Statement, bank statements, paycheck stubs, tax returns, etc. The Lender wants to know what changed the borrower’s repayment ability, and if there are other assets that could be used to repay, i.e.- cash, stock holdings, other real property assets. This takes work, but is required and worth it.

We’ve learned a lot in the past eighteen months about doing Short Sales. It used to be frustrating when the lender would say that we weren’t authorized to talk to them even though we had submitted the correct paperwork. It was frustrating when they said they had not received our FAX transmission of the documents. This was common, and done repeatedly – we would send each package, all 60-plus pages, three times. It didn’t matter who the lender was, this is what the agent encountered. We now know that they are taught how to get agents off the phone as quickly as possible and those were two of their best techniques. With this knowledge we know to stay the course on the phone, ask for a supervisor and ultimately they will find everything to be in order and we can proceed with the business that needs to be done. It is one way that agents have achieved a higher level of success in implementing Short Sales.

There are scavengers hovering over distressed property owners so be careful who you agree to work with and what services you agree to pay for. There are those that are trying to tie your property up with an option at a low price while they try to flip it in a double escrow. No, it isn’t legal, but it is a predatory practice that is presently occurring. Other services are being offered with the understanding that the lender will pay for them. The problem is that the lender won’t pay for them and the already cash-strapped Seller has to pay. Yet another scammer offered to tell the Seller how to cure her loan that was in default for $5,000. She paid – the advice, “Pay your loan current.” True story.

Our advice: Sellers can realize great benefits and Buyers can get a very good price with a Short Sale transaction if you stick it out and allow it to work. Make sure the Listing agent is Short Sale savvy. Short Sales have become an area of special expertise just like dealing with industrial properties or ranch properties. Realtors aren’t to work outside of their area of knowledge and we believe the Short Sale has become an area that the inexperienced shouldn’t indulge without a mentor. Allow enough time, and be patient. There are significant steps to each SS transaction that you want to look for to assure progress: a. The package was received. b. The BPO was received, c. A negotiator has been assigned. d. A decision to accept or Counter is reached. Short Sales are closing much to the benefit of Buyers, Sellers and Lenders.

The latest lender technique we’ve encountered – telling us the Mortgage Insurance company requires them to get a specific minimum amount on their loan. The problem it’s a second and there is no PMI. The first won’t pay more and they will be wiped out if they don’t take the payment the first authorized. They continue to play these games to get more money. When it comes to choosing professionals to assist you with your real estate needs … Experience is Priceless! Lisa Wetzel & Jim Valentine, RE/MAX Realty Affiliates, 775-781-5472. carsonvalleyland@hotmail.com, www.carsonvalleyland.com