Top Tricks for Enjoying a Smooth Home Closing

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The process of purchasing a home involves a vast number of steps that finally culminate on closing day. Closing, also known as settlement, is a meeting between the home sellers, buyers, and any agents and representatives in order to sign documents that transfer property ownership. It is also the time to pay closing costs and escrow payments. As the very last requirement before your dream home is finally yours, closing day should be handled with the utmost attention-to-detail to ensure that everything runs smoothly. These tips will help you enjoy a simple and stress-free closing on your new home. Read more

Important Home Ownership Tax Implications You Don’t Want to Ignore

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Is there a word in the English language that inspires more stress than “taxes”? Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean that taxes need to overwhelm you! If you are selling your home, chances are you won’t even need to consider paying taxes on your profit. But if you are one of the few who do, these tricks will help you maximize the amount of money you keep in your pocket.

You’ll Know You’re Exempt From Paying Taxes If… Read more

A Simple Guide to Buying Your First Home

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Owning your very own home is an integral piece of the American Dream, a goal that people young and old alike strive to achieve. However, despite its excitement, the actual process of buying a home can feel rather daunting. Terms like credit score, preapproval, down payment, and mortgage might leave you with a sense of being overwhelmed, but it doesn’t have to be that way. This simple guide will walk you through the basic steps of buying your first home so you know what to expect. Read more

The Nightmare Situation that Proves You Need Title Insurance

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Title insurance may not be as widely understood as health insurance or car insurance, but it is equally as important for homeowners to secure. Far too many homeowners have found themselves navigating tricky and potentially disastrous situations that only title insurance can resolve.

Title Insurance: Protection For Your Purchase

Unlike health insurance that requires a monthly fee in order to maintain coverage for potential future problems, title insurance involves a single charge, usually around $1,000, to ensure the legitimacy of your home before you buy. A title company will complete thorough research to ensure that the title to your future property can rightfully become yours and that no conflicts exist that would prevent the sale from going through. Common problems that occur include unpaid taxes, judgements, and ownership disputes that place the title of the home into question. Assuming the title company finds that the title is valid, you will receive a legal document stating the validity of the title you are purchasing. This document protects you from any financial loss in the future if an unrealized title conflict arises. Read more

Simple Ways to Boost the Value of Your Home

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Whether you have owned your home for two, five, or 20 years, you want to earn as much on its sale as you possibly can. Many elements like the climate of your local real estate market and amount of remaining mortgage debt will impact how much you profit from the sale of your home, but there are many simple strategies you can adopt to boost the value of your home before putting it on the market.

Whip Out the Paint

Paint is one of the most cost efficient ways to improve the appearance of your home. A freshly painted room has the ability to completely transform a potential buyer’s perspective of the quality of your home, and that positive perspective can translate to a rather large sum of money! Considering that a gallon of paint only costs $20 to $30, it’s well worth the investment. Stick to neutral colors that will appeal to a wide range of people, and don’t forget to touch up the baseboards and crown molding as well. Read more

3 Reasons We’ll See a Strong Housing Market in 2017

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After the Great Recession hit in 2008, many people wondered if they would ever be able to recover. Now, nearly ten years later, the housing market is looking stronger than it has in a long time. While buyers suffered in 2016 from a sharp rise in home prices, experts expect price growth to decline in 2017. Such a decline would be a welcome relief for potential home buyers who aren’t looking to spend a fortune on their dream home. Read more

2017 Anticipated to Deliver Strong Housing Market

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Buying a home of your own is one of the largest accomplishments of your life, and if you’re looking to buy a house right now you’ve probably been saving money for years to make that dream come true. Luckily for you, experts predict that 2017 will be a great year for home buyers.

Positive Trends

For 31 months straight, the National Association of REALTORS® has announced that the Pending Home Sales Index posed above its benchmark value of 100. Since a home is considered pending once it is under contract between a buyer and a seller but not yet sold, a high number of pending homes indicates positive growth for the future. In fact, 80 percent of pending homes close within two months of the contract being established. Read more

What is the Best Way to Negotiate Your Home’s Sale?

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Selling your home is a huge decision, especially if you’ve spent many years paying your mortgage in order to use the proceeds from the sale as your nest egg, retirement, or next down payment. You don’t want to undercut yourself, but you also don’t want to be too greedy and lose a reasonable sale offer. Here is how you should handle negotiations.

Price Isn’t The Only Consideration

First of all, the price set to your home isn’t the only detail to consider. The purchase contract and other terms and conditions might make it too difficult, even if the price is fair. For example, some contingencies leave so many loopholes that the deal collapses, like contingencies that link the escrow closing date to the buyer’s sale of their current home. Read more

Tips and Tricks for Selling Your Home During the Holiday Season

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house-christmasThe holiday season, for all of its cheer and goodwill, is incredibly overwhelming and stressful for most people. If you are trying to also sell your home during the holidays, you are probably feeling an extra burden of stress that threatens to dampen your spirit, but don’t worry! There are plenty of great ideas to help you harness the best elements of the holidays to help your home sell quickly.

Use Holiday Decor

Though you’ve probably heard that “less is more” when staging your home for walk-throughs, a few subtly placed holiday decoration pieces can help, not hurt. Simple additions such as an evergreen wreath, pinecone-scented candle, and candy cane centerpiece will help the potential buyers walking through your house feel more comfortable. The more comfortable they feel, the easier it will be to imagine themselves living there, and the more likely the sale will become. Read more

The Secrets of Closing for Buyers and Sellers

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housing-marketOwning a home is a major landmark in any person’s life, but it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite number of tasks required to make that ownership a reality. Even after you sign a contract, get approved for a mortgage, and hire your movers, there’s still closing day to contend with. Though closing day might seem like a formality to exchange keys and sign on the dotted line, it can actually turn into a disaster without the right preparation. As a buyer or a seller, use these tips to ensure your closing goes smoothly. Read more