Blog

Your home is under contract, what’s next?

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    Great news, you’ve put a home under contract and you’re excited to move in one day soon.  There’s a lot that has to happen before you can take occupancy: home inspection, appraisal, financing paperwork, contingencies and other dates to be met. Here’s what you can expect to happen over the coming weeks. Due Diligence Now that the home is yours to negotiate exclusively with the seller, you have a due diligence period that allows you to...

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Top deal breakers for a home under contract and how to fix them

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    Selling your home, while exciting, can also be extremely stressful. Even the best of real estate agents have to deal with complicated issues that arise with a home sale. In fact, you’ll find that even when seller and buyer get along great and the sales process is humming along smoothly that challenges can crop up requiring lots of negotiations and may delay the transaction weeks before you can close on the transaction.  Conversely, some deals are complicated...

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Top deal breakers for a home under contract and how to fix them

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    Selling your home, while exciting, can also be extremely stressful. Even the best of real estate agents have to deal with complicated issues that arise with a home sale. In fact, you’ll find that even when seller and buyer get along great and the sales process is humming along smoothly that challenges can crop up requiring lots of negotiations and may delay the transaction weeks before you can close on the transaction.  Conversely, some deals are complicated...

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Marketing Strategies: Luxury homes vs average priced homes

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    As you can imagine, driving up demand for a luxury home takes a uniquely different approach than does selling a regular home.   From the word, go, you need a strong, clear and focused strategy that details how it will position your luxury home above the ordinary, illustrating and marketing its unique features in proper manner to perfect buyer at the perfect price. There are some very different ideas, thoughts and strategies around marketing a luxury home, which in...

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What happens when you overprice your home?

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    When the real estate market favors sellers, it’s almost like there’s a feeding frenzy among buyers trying to secure listings that seem to get snapped up within hours of being put on the market.   Such demand drives the prices of homes up rapidly, which only feeds into the perception that the good times will last forever.   Unfortunately, trees don’t grow to the sky and there will always be a top of the market. What this means is that even...

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How to handle a multiple offer situation

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    Over the last five years, properly priced homes have been fetching multiple offers on a consistent basis.    It is, without a doubt, a seller’s market.   But as exciting as having a bidding war on your property is, it can also provide for some confusion and even anxiety in figuring out what to do with all those offers.   Your natural instinct might be to choose the one that lets walk away with the most amount of money, but there are many...

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Why you should wait to buy that car until after your home purchase?

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    Getting preapproved for a mortgage is a major step in buying a home. When done properly, it’s like having cash in your hands so you can negotiate effectively with a seller to buy a home.   It’s easily one of the most important things you can do in order to buy the home of your dreams.   But its name gives you a hint as to how fragile this financing instrument can be.   You see, it’s a “pre” approval, which means you’re...

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What is the Interest write off deduction?

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        Tax deductible interest is a borrowing expense that a taxpayer can claim on a federal or state tax return to reduce taxable income.    Mortgage interest for both first and second (home equity) mortgages, mortgage interest for investment properties are among the list of deductions you can take on your taxes.   This is another reason why owning a home is more favorable than renting. In addition to building equity in a home that you...

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Owning vs. Renting

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      Making the decision to own a home versus renting one is no small decision. Not only does it affect your expendable cash, but it also has a huge impact on your lifestyle and how much money you’re able to save over time.   Sometimes, the goal to achieve the “American Dream” of owning a home clouds some people’s vision for the future and they buy a home when they should really be renting one.   Similarly, there are people who...

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Property tax assessment too high...what you can do about it?

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    An increase in home values is great because it increases the equity in your home without you having to invest more money in making it happen. Unfortunately, as the price of your home increases, so does the perceived value of your home in the eyes of your local tax assessor. When that happens, your taxes also go up. The bad news is that your tax rate - the annual percentage of your home’s value that you pay - is fixed by the state and/or municipality in which you...

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