Are you thinking of putting a “For Sale By Owner” sign in front of your Bennington, Vermont home? Most “FSBO” sellers feel they will save money by eliminating the agent’s fee in the transaction. However, the National Association of Realtors reports that in 2006 homes sold with the help of a real estate professional actually sold for an average of 32% more than FSBOs – far more than the agent’s commission. Sellers who went solo also said they had a harder time preparing the home for sale, handling the paperwork and making a timely sale.

Call Troy Richardson today for an agent who manages all your real estate needs!

Banks are backing away from short sales, forcing sellers to pay extra at closing or demanding a promissory note for the amount due. One-third of borrowers owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, according First American CoreLogic.

When their situations were really tough, most banks preferred short sales because they were their best opportunity to get the most money back. But with an improving economy, and because the losses on many of these properties have already been written off the books, banks are increasingly reluctant to negotiate a short sale.

Today, banks demand 9.5 weeks to respond to a short-sale request, compared to 4.5 weeks a year ago, according to research firm Campbell Communications. Their reluctance is frequently stymieing sales and frustrating real estate practitioners.

“It drives me up a wall,” says Robert G. Hertzog of Summit Home Consultants in Phoenix. “[The bank is] holding my client hostage.”

The above is from: Source: BusinessWeek, Christopher Palmeri (10/09/2009)

If you think that you might have to enter into a short sale situation in the Bennington VT real estate market, call Bonnie Cutler at RE/MAX Maple Leaf Realty in order to discuss your options. Bonnie is the most experienced in short sales in our office.

More than 80 percent of new single-family homes have at least two bathrooms, which occupy an average of 300 square feet of floor space, or 12 percent of the total area, according to a study by the National Association of Home Builders.
(more…)

Young people just starting to invest and buying their first homes are potentially the winners in this recession.

First-time homebuyers, most between the ages of 25 and 45, accounted for about 45 percent of home sales from January through July 2009, according to the National Association of REALTORS®
(more…)

A “buyers’ market” is just what it implies – a market in which buyers have the advantage and exploit it. It’s not a market that rewards foot-dragging, hesitation or indecision.

Unfortunately, all the factors that created the buyers’ market we have today have been reported so negatively and rampantly by various media outlets that buyers are themselves too spooked to even enter the fray. Strangely, people were buying like crazy during the previous sellers’ market, when the advantage was actually all to the sellers.

That’s when buyers didn’t fear paying too much, and now that prices are so low and inventories so high, suddenly buyers DO fear paying too much! However, it’s impossible to purposefully time the market to buy at the bottom and sell at the top.

Once the market begins to settle and subsequently improve (and it will), the amazing buying opportunities we’ve been seeing will begin to disappear. With decreased buying activity now, pent up demand for homes will explode when the market recovers, and buyers will once again be competing for the best homes.

Don’t rely on luck in the marketplace – rely on planning. Make a careful decision with a predictable outcome. Has the market dropped enough, right now, to make such a purchase? Absolutely! Forget about the top and the bottom and enter your “safe zone” with confidence.

Bennington VT, Selling, Buying

Anybody who will be selling a property in the spring should get a jump on curb appeal by working now on beautifying the lawn.

Here are some key tasks that will lead to a green and healthy yard in the next selling season:
(more…)

Real furnishings, actual home photos, Patent-Pending process and unmatched realism distinguish the Virtually Staging Properties (SM) approach.

ATLANTA, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ — When Atlanta Realtor and professional home stager Krisztina Bell took her substantial experience from staging hundreds of vacant homes and went “virtual,” she became a leader in what has quickly grown to be a national trend in a tough real estate market. Virtually Staging Properties(SM)( )(http://www.virtuallystagingproperties.com), the business Krisztina and her husband, Jay, founded has been featured for its work in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, Real Estate Business and California Realtor, as home owners and real estate professionals turn to the new process of virtual staging as one the most cost-effective measures to help sell vacant homes. This new technique generates strong buyer traffic, at a fraction of the cost of traditional home staging, long recognized as one of the most effective means of marketing a property.
(more…)

After all your preparations and marketing efforts, what do you do when you get that first offer?  Don’t jump for joy or wallow in disappointment until you’ve read all the terms.  Price is just the beginning, and other contingencies will ultimately affect your bottom line.  Troy Richardson can help you navigate that offer, and make sense of the various terms that comprise a good, or an ok, offer.

In reviewing the offer, pay attention to seller concessions, which can range from asking you to pay closing costs to including an allowance for roof repairs.  Buyers may also request inclusion of certain articles of personal property not physically attached to the home.  This might include the refrigerator or pieces of furniture.  You can decline or accept the terms, but it’s best to establish in your listing those items included and excluded in the sale.

Mortgage and appraisal contingencies indicate that the buyer will seek financing at a certain rate and terms, and that the appraisal must satisfy the lender.  Make sure that all of the terms are realistic, and that there is a reasonable time limit for the buyers to secure their financing.

These and other terms in the offer impact how much you net from your sale, regardless of what actual buying price is stated.  It’s possible that a “full price” offer could result in thousands less than a lower offer with fewer contingencies, so please consult with a representative before listing and before accepting or rejecting any offers.
 
Bennington VT, Selling

Do you wonder if you should start looking for homes before you list your current piece of Bennington, Vermont real estate? Here’s why it is a good idea to list before looking:

• If you sign a contract on a new home, you will be more anxious to sell your current piece of real estate – and will possibly accept less money for a quick sale.

• You may need the equity from the sale of your current home to close on a new one and your offer will be contingent on the sale of your current home.

Bennington VT, Buying, Selling

There is a special mindset associated with “staging” your home to sell in a soft market.  Staging refers simply to the act of improving your home’s appearance in order to appeal to the widest segment of potential buyers.  The approach you must adopt is to see your home with an objective eye.

Stop looking at your home as your “home,” and start visualizing it as the “product” it becomes when it enters the market.  Both a real estate agent and a professional home stager can help to market your product successfully by highlighting positive features and downplaying less attractive aspects.

Since you may have a strong emotional attachment to your home, you may not fully appreciate hearing about a better way to show your offering, but try to recognize that the way you decorate to SELL may be quite different from the way you decorate to dwell.  The appearance of a space often trumps its functionality when impressing buyers. 

Your goal is to sell quickly at a fair price.  A survey by a large national real estate brokerage showed that staged homes sell in half the time, and another survey of REALTORS® showed that a $500 “staging” investment recouped 343% of that cost.  So be prepared to swallow a little pride, move some furniture, and field better offers on the road to your successful sale.

Troy Richardson can refer you to a local Bennington VT staging professional.
 
Bennington VT, Selling