When you put your home up for sale, one of the best ways to determine the asking price is to look at comparable sales. There’s rarely a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, so a pricing decision often relies on comparisons to several recent sales in the area. Here are five criteria to look for in a sales comparison.

Location

Homes in the same neighborhood typically follow the same market trends. Comparing your home to another in the same neighborhood is a good start, but comparing it to homes on the same street or block is even better.

Date of sale

It varies by location, but housing markets can see a ton of fluctuation in a short time period. It‘s best to use the most recent sales data available.

Home build

Look for homes with similar architectural styles, numbers of bathrooms and bedrooms, square footage, and other basics.

Features and upgrades

Remodeled bathrooms and kitchens can raise a home’s price, and so can less flashy upgrades like a new roof or HVAC system. Be sure to look for similar bells and whistles.

Sale types

Homes that are sold as short sales or foreclosures are often in distress or sold at a lower price than they’d receive from a more typical sale. These homes are not as useful for comparisons.

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If your getting ready to sell, you may be thinking I can list For Sale By Owner and save a few $$. While the cost of not having to pay an agent their commission out of the sale price of your home is certainly a consideration, there are a couple of things that are less obvious and sort of the “catch 22” here. Let’s discuss these 3 “catches”.

Marketing

How will you market your home listed FSBO? Do you have industry connections in many areas and across many brokers like a Real Estate agent does? An agent who is well connected in their market is important to the success of the sale of your home as this is how other agents learn about your listing. Another huge deal is the agent has a reputation that buyers may recognize and trust in the industry, thus making them a first place to look for interested buyers. In fact, statically homes listed FSBO on average, sit on the market longer than those listed by an agent. This is because of all the marketing your agent has the connections to be able to do that would be out of reach for an owner. Such as newspaper ads, easily findable websites and more.

Time

Selling and networking your home will be the main job for the agent you hire. In this day and age, we are all busy. Hiring an agent who selling your home is their job will be beneficial to your home sale. Buyers need constant contact. This, is the job of a good agent.

Price

It’s a proven fact that homes listed by owner sell for less than with a realtor. Who wants to leave money on the table? Especially when if you list with an agent, you can get more for your home!

Want to know more about the benefits of listing with a realtor? Give us a call at <phone number>.

The post Why FSBO is Not Your Best Option appeared first on Cedar Ridge Real Estate.

No doubt, one of the scariest parts of the home buying process is the Mortgage Pre-approval process. In this day in age, with such a fast moving <Insert Area> Real Estate Market, being pre-approved, prior to even looking at homes is important for many reasons.

With the market moving quickly, being pre-approved can be your saving grace in landing your dream home and may mean the difference between someone else instead of you purchasing your perfect house. Another reason to get pre-approval prior to house hunting is because motivated sellers will be more willing to let your agent show your home. Many people don’t think of what a seller has to put up with when their home is on the market, such as keeping the house tidy for showings and fielding many phone calls from agents wanting to visit. Not a terrible task by any means, but more and more with our busy lives, it’s not uncommon for sellers to ask agents to only bring qualified buyers to visit.

The process of pre-approval can be daunting though. Deciding which programs you may qualify for, or which interest rates and offers are the best to take can be nerve racking. That’s why you should always work with a Loan Officer who is as experienced in the home buying process as we are. Someone with years of experience working with clients similar to you who are buying homes similar to the one you are looking for.

We recommend <Insert Loan Officer Name> at <Insert Office>. <He/She> Brings an exceptional track record of  helping over <# of closings> close on their dream home in not only a timely manner but with the best loan possible for them! Check out their website at <Website>.

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