Hiring a Realtor, Getting Appraisals & More
---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- Better Judgements eZine Terria Judge, Realtor CRS, ABR, GRI, Broker Associate Better Judgements is a newsletter on home matters, from Terria Judge, your Garden City, KS real estate agent! Contact Terria Judge at 620-271-2129! Terria Judge Coldwell Banker, The Real Estate Shoppe, Inc. John P. Judge, Broker 1135 College Dr. Suite E Garden City, KS 67846 1-877-275-7497 x 223 620-275-7421 x 223 http://terriajudge.com http://gardencityksrealestate.com http://gardencityrentals.com Terria@TerriaJudge.com Subscription Management at end of newsletter. Thanks for your subscription to Better Judgements, the newsletter from your Garden City Kansas Realtor, Terria Judge. ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- In this Issue ============= 1. Article: 10 Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring a Realtor 2. Featured & New Listings 3. Article: How To Avoid New Home Surprises 4. Article: Why Do I Need a Real Estate Appraisal? ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- 10 Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring a Realtor by Ronnie Bredahl When it comes to selling a home, there is no doubt that choosing the right real estate agent is key to your success. Without the right agent you run the risk of not getting enough, leaving it on the market for too long, and the entire selling process becomes more difficult. To get the most of the sale you need an agent that will really work for you. Unfortunately not all agents are equal. In fact, in the real estate game, you will find such a variation of individuals that it can become difficult to know where to start. To help you, we have developed this guide. Here are ten questions to ask before you sign anything. 1. How much experience do you have? There is a reason you want to ask about experience rather than time in the industry. Some real estate agents work part time. The knowledge you want to gain here is how active he/she is in the market. An agent that has many listings, and a good history of sales, will more actively work towards making a sale. If it's their full time job they don't eat unless they sell houses! 2. Do you have a written marketing plan that you will use when selling my home? A good real estate agent will have a plan to market their listings. This plan should include a good mix of both traditional advertising methods, and online methods. It should also include an idea of how they will let other agents know about your home. 3. What online methods of marketing do you use? This question is an important one. In the modern world over 80% of all home buyers begin their research online. If an agent isn't familiar with the internet, and the methods of marketing a home online, then you run the risk of your house not getting as much attention. Online marketing should include a site for their firm, a personal website (or blog), as well as MLS services and other sites that get homes noticed in your area. Another question to ask is: how many referrals an agent gets from the internet? The answer to this question will help you gauge how successful the firm (or the agent) is at getting noticed online. 4. Can I view your personal website/blog? An agent that has kept up with the times will have their own website. More than that they will keep the site updated regularly and use it as a marketing tool. Blogging is another popular choice amongst the tech-savvy agent. 5. How and when can we contact you? Finding a good real estate agent is one thing, being able to get in touch with them is another. Asking this question lets you know how they make themselves available to you. Do they have an email address for questions? Can they be contacted on the weekends? What you are trying to avoid here is the agent that gets the listing and then disappears. 6. Do you have a list of references to call? When you ask for references, you have an easy way to learn about the agent's relationship with their past clients. A good real estate agent will have a list of people he has worked with, and who were satisfied with his/her work. 7. How long do you expect it will take to sell my home? This question depends slightly on market trends in the area, but an active agent will have an answer. They will be able to tell you how long similar listings have stayed on the market. 8. What happens if I am not happy with your work? This is an important question to ask. If three months passes and you haven't heard from the agent, do you have a way out? It isn't uncommon for people to be stuck in a listing because they failed to ask this question. 9. Can you suggest ways to prepare my home for the market? An agent who really knows their stuff will be able to recommend ways for you to get the most for your home. Re-arranging furniture, reducing clutter, or minor renovations, can all help with both selling and getting more for your home. An active real estate agent will know this, and will know what trends tend sell faster. 10. What percentage of your listings/sales comes from referrals? If your agent has been in business for a while, they most likely get lots of business from the recommendations of others. The best real estate agents may get the better portion of their business from referrals. About the Author Austin Referral Realty is a team of Austin Realtors representing home buyers and home sellers in Austin Texas. Search Austin Homes listed through the Austin MLS. FEATURED & NEW LISTINGS ======================== http://terriajudge.com/garden-city-ks-real-estate/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- How To Avoid New Home Surprises by Steve Gillman It's funny but no fun to buy a new home and then discover that snakes are regular visitors in the living room. And you don't want to move into a house with a leaky roof or a wet basement. Or discover that you picked the worst neighborhood in town - after you buy. To avoid surprises like these when buying a new home, you have to learn about the town, the neighborhood and the house. Here are some ways to do that - before you make that offer. Your New Town An online search by city and state (Fresno California) will usually lead you to an official city site, or a chamber of commerce website. These sites can provide a lot of useful information, but they are "selling" the city. For the good and the bad, find a local newspaper online as well. See what's going on in town, and check the classified advertising section to get an idea about home prices too. Detailed statistics on almost every town and city in the U.S. can be found at city-data.com. Click on a state, then find the city you want on the list (it covers towns of 6,000 people or more). You'll find more statistics than you can possibly use, ranging from population, average income, crime statistics, maps, photos and much more. Visit weatherbase.com for climate information on almost every city in the U.S. Click on a state, choose the city you want, and see how many inches of rain or snow they get each year, how hot or cold it gets, etc. You'll also find a link to the current weather forecast for the town. Call somebody from the Chamber of Commerce or a local real estate agent. Their phone numbers can be found online at realtor.com or at a Chamber Of Commerce website. Make a list of questions, and ask about stores, libraries, jobs, crime and anything else that is important to you. We asked many people in many towns, "Do you own a snow shovel?" before choosing to move to Tucson, Arizona. Your New Neighborhood Once you have a local realtor or city official on the phone, ask about the various neighborhoods in town. If they hesitate to label areas as "good" or "bad,", ask more specific questions, like where older parts of town are, and where the most rental units are. If you listen well and read between the lines you should learn something about where you might want to buy a house. Visit the town before buying a house, of course, and visit a good local bar. Residents there will tell you which employers are about to move in or out of the town, how fast or slow homes are selling, whether there are criminal gangs, and more. But verify what they tell you, since people do sometimes exaggerate a bit. For best results, choose a bar with customers who are most like you (income level, interests, etc.), to get the information most relevant to your needs. Drive around town. It will help you get a good feel for where you might want to live. Stop to ask questions when you see people out in their yards, and take notes. Your New Home Realtor.com has a lot of information on the homes they list. You can search for other real estate listing sites. They won't mention things like whether a house is in an area with scorpions or street flooding, but answers to these questions can also be found on the internet. Google the name of the town and "forum," and if there is one, sign up (they're usually free). Read the posts, and ask about the specific area you are thinking of moving to. People usually respond, as they did when we visited a community forum and discovered that a good cat will take care of scorpions. When you have a good idea of the problems which might be associated with a certain neighborhood, you know what to ask when you start looking at houses. Carry a home inspection checklist with you when you do look at homes, and work your way through it. Pass on your notes to the professional inspector once you decide to buy a house. When you're sure you like a home, walk around the area. Find a person or two out in their yards, and talk to them for a few minutes. Ask about noisy neighbors, recent crime and other things that will help you decide if this neighborhood is the right one for you. Do this and take the precautions above and your new home shouldn't have too many unpleasant surprises for you. About the Author Copyright Steve Gillman. To see a photo of the house we bought for $17,500, get a free ebook on how to buy Cheap Homes, and a free real estate investing course, visit: http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- Why Do I Need a Real Estate Appraisal? by Ronnie Bredahl When it comes to buying real estate there are a few added expenses involved. One of those expenses, that people often question, is the appraisal. At a cost of about $400 some would rather save their money, and they wonder why they are forced to fork out the cash to an appraiser. After all, if they are willing to buy the house, then why do they need to find out what it's worth? The real estate professionals obviously think it is valued correctly. The reality is that, no matter what type of property you are buying, you need an appraisal. There are a few simple reasons for this. First of all, if you are mortgaging the property, the lender will require it. A financial institution doesn't want to loan you $200,000 for a house that is worth half of that. For this reason they do require an appraisal. The appraisal gives a lender an unbiased professional opinion as to the property's value. The next reason you need an appraisal follows along the same lines as the reason you get an inspection done. You don't want to buy a home only to find out 2 months later that it isn't worth what you paid. A home is the largest investment most people make in their lifetime. It is important to take the steps to protect yourself. There are also other reasons that you may need an appraisal with your purchase. It can reduce your tax burden, in some cases the IRS requires it, and it also gives you a tool for negotiation. If the assessed value is lower than the asking price, you suddenly have a reason for making a much lower offer. This same idea can help you to contest high property taxes. There are also issues that may arise in the case of a lawsuit, if a proper appraisal wasn't done. Whenever you take part in a real estate transaction, you should hire a professional appraiser who is licensed in your state. The appraiser will come in, look over the property, compare it to other properties in the area, and give you a professional, unbiased, opinion of what the property is worth. The simple fact is that if you are thinking buying a property the small cost of an appraisal far outweighs the implications of not having one. It is quite possible that $400 will save you that cost many times over. Your real estate agent may have a good idea of what the home is worth, but they only look at the cosmetics of the home. They rarely see below the surface where problems that may really affect the value are. The appraiser's value is based on all factors, even the ones that can't be seen. About the Author Austin Referral Realty is a team of Austin Realtors representing home buyers and home sellers in Austin Texas. Search Austin Homes listed through the Austin MLS. ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- This newsletter is compiled and published by Mitone Griffith, http://bigad.org
Message Added: April 8th, 2008 at 10:46 am
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