Sellers who anticipate losing money if they sell their home may wonder why they should spend a dime fixing the place up for sale. Isn’t this throwing good money after bad? Even sellers with plenty of equity in their homes often figure the way to get the most out of the sale is to cut sale costs to a minimum.attitude is directly contrary to the notion that the way to make the most money on the sale of a home is by pricing the property appropriately for the market, and by making cost-effective improvements that will result in a higher sale price in a shorter time.

Today, many housing markets have plenty of homes for sale and far too few buyers. For years, buyers competed with one another in order to buy a house. Now, sellers are being forced to compete with other sellers in order to get their home sold.

Consider the competitive nature of the market when deciding if you’re going to improve your home before selling it, and how much you’ll invest. Keep in mind that the point of fixing up a home to sell is to MAXIMIZE your return from the sale. Don’t waste money on improvements that have little or no value to buyers.

Ask your real estate agent or a staging decorator to walk through your home with you for the purpose of determining what fix-up projects you should ideally complete before marketing the property. 

Imagine there are five homes listed for sale in an area, all similarly priced, but not all in the same condition. Three houses have old, worn carpet covering most of the floors; one has linoleum over the floor; and the fifth has pristine, recently refinished hardwood floors. Most buyers will gravitate to the home with the beautiful hardwood floors.

The best houses in the best condition and offered for the best price usually sell quickly. A fast sale is important to some sellers in this market. The sooner your home is sold, the sooner you stop paying mortgage payments, property taxes and various maintenance costs.

DON’T FORGET TO CONSULT YOUR REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL!

This article can be found at:  Inmannews

Well, yesterday for about 1 hour, rates were so good that you could hardly believe your eyes!!  You could get an FHA rate with no points for around 5.5%.  Then, before you could even get someone on the phone to lock a rate, the rates went up, up, up with an average total of 4 price changes for every bank during the day (and some banks just refusing to lock for the rest of the day)!  Every time you wanted to lock, you received notification that the rates had risen again and you had to wait for the new rates.  It was enough to make the loan specialists like me crawl under a rock!!!  The fun didn’t end there either, today the ride continued with further rate hikes and in the end, rates were worse than they were a few weeks ago. 

The reason for the recap is this.  Many of my clients would like to know how to tell, from the stock market updates, what rates are doing.  One VERY GENERAL rule of thumb is, if the stock market is having an especially good day, there is a good chance that the rates are having a bad day and vice versa.  Many factors contribute to this including the bond market and how money is moved back and forth.  However, the general rule is that the mortgage rates and stocks have an inverse relationship.  SO, is hope lost?

Of course not, 76% of all traders are still predicting another Fed rate cut and the rates are still incredibly good.  Those looking to purchase or refinance a home still have the chance to make their money go farther.  Also, part of the stimulus package agreed upon by our Washington leaders today includes raising the allowable loan limit for FHA loans and allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase loans that, until now, have been considered too large or “Jumbo”. 

So, all in all there was a lot of mixed news this week.  As always, stay tuned for more and we will try to keep you informed!